SERIAL KILLER SECRETS
A MONSTER IN THE SHADOWS RUTHLESSLY HUNTED FOR VICTIMS
To this day, Joel Rifkin remains New York’s most prolific serial killer, but many experts agree that he did not fit the typical profile. This is perhaps why he was able to go undetected and continue his murderous spree for so many years. Unpacking the story of his descent into apredator is something that even now, Rifkin – described by law enforcement as “a narcissist with no regard for human life” –finds impossible to do.
Born to unmarried college students, he was three weeks old when he was adopted by structural engineer Bernard Rifkin and his wife Jeanne in January 1959. Afew years later, the couple also adopted adaughter, Jan. Growing up in East Meadow, an affluent suburb in Long Island, New York, Rifkin enjoyed an idyllic and loving early childhood. However, when he began school, he was bullied. He had an unusual, hunched posture that resulted in him being given the nickname “The Turtle”. Academically, he struggled with dyslexia, which his mother would later say contributed to him feeling like an outsider. Still, he managed to maintain a close relationship with her, with the two of them bonding over their shared love of gardening and poetry.
EARLY LIFE
Throughout his childhood, Rifkin was dogged by depression. With few friends, he’d become increasingly isolated and retreated into his own fantasy world. He became particularly obsessed with the Hitchcock film Frenzy, about aserial killer in London who raped, strangled and murdered women. While still living with his mother and sister in Long Island, Rifkin had begun soliciting sex workers. Rather than afleeting teenage obsession, his preoccupation with pornography only grew and soon he was spending all his spare time renting films and cruising the streets. His academic career was disappointing and he dropped out of avariety of college courses. He left for the last time in 1984, after years of erratic attendance.
In February 1987, Rifkin’s father took his own life. He had never shied away from letting his son know that he found his lack of academic prowess disappointing, but Rifkin still loved his dad deeply, and his death sent him into adeep depression. It was while he was in the depths of his grief, Rifkin was arrested after soliciting sex from an undercover policewoman in August 1987. Undeterred by his brush with the law, he continued to solicit sex workers and while he was routinely robbed and beaten by pimps, his obsession with the women remained constant. In 1988, after years of floundering, moving in and out of his parent’s home, he enrolled in ahorticulture course and began working as afreelance landscaper. But while it appeared that he could begin some semblance of aregular working life, Rifkin’s true nature was about to reveal itself.
FIRST KILL
I
