Calvin Jackson is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in New York for the deaths of nine women. He was convicted of 18 counts of murder, according to the New York State Board of Parole, and the board's Appeals Unit has summed up his crimes as the robbing and strangling of nine different women over a period of 17 months, all of them in the same hotel. He was born in 1948, according to the parole archive kept by Fordham University School of Law, which lists him as a Black man.
In March 2019, April 2021, October 2022 and February 2025 the board refused to release him, and each time he appealed. In 2019 it cited the nature of the crimes, the number of victims, the suffering of their families and official opposition to his release. In February 2025, when he was held at Green Haven Correctional Facility, the board denied him again and set his next appearance two years off. The Appeals Unit upheld that decision, and the ruling was mailed on October 1, 2025.
The board's decisions describe the crimes briefly and in general terms. The Appeals Unit's findings on the 2019 hearing said he killed nine women by suffocation or strangulation. Its findings on the 2021 hearing added that the women were robbed and that the killings took place over 17 months, all in the same hotel.
The 2019 findings said the board had weighed "the nature of the instant offense against nine victims that terrorized a neighborhood." The board also took into account "the pain and suffering Appellant caused the victims and their families" and what it called "official opposition to release." The file before the board that year included an official statement from the district attorney's office.
The decisions do not name the women, the hotel or the neighborhood, and they do not give the years in which the women died. They say nothing about how the deaths came to be treated as killings, how he was identified or arrested, or what happened at his trial.
The parole decisions give his convictions as 18 counts of murder and his sentence as 25 years to life. The Fordham archive records the same aggregate term, a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of life, and lists his controlling conviction as "Murder (degreeless, before 9/1974)." The decisions do not explain why the deaths of nine women produced 18 murder counts.
The 2019 findings also refer to "his criminal history with a prior State term," an earlier state prison sentence. The decisions do not say what that earlier conviction was for.
In his 2019 appeal he argued that the denial of parole amounted to an unauthorized new sentence. The Appeals Unit rejected the claim. "The appellant has not in any manner been resentenced," it wrote.
The parole records give a partial picture of his years inside. By 2019 he had earned his GED and completed the program the decision calls "the new SOP," and the board considered his disciplinary record along with his "advanced age" and his "statements of regret." His release plan that year was to go to a shelter or to the Fortune Society.
By 2025 the list of programs had grown. The board's decision that year noted his work in ART, vocational training, transitional services, the SOP, a Braille program and AVP, as well as his GED. His release plans then rested on the support of the Parole Preparation Project and the Osborne Association, and his parole packet included letters of assurance from reentry providers, letters of support, a lengthy advocacy letter and a letter of apology.
He was held at Sullivan Correctional Facility at the time of the 2019 and 2021 decisions, and at Green Haven Correctional Facility at the time of the 2022 and 2025 decisions.
In March 2019 the board denied release and ordered him held for 24 months, the longest period it may set before the next hearing. Represented by the lawyer Patti Leibowitz, he appealed on September 23, 2019. He argued that the board had leaned too heavily on the crimes and had not properly weighed his programs and remorse, that it had ignored his COMPAS risk assessment, that the denial was in effect a new sentence, that the outcome had been decided in advance and that the 24-month hold was excessive.
The Appeals Unit found against him on every point. It said the board had considered the required factors, including the crimes, his history, his prison record, his age, his regret and his release plans, and that it was entitled to give the crimes more weight than the rest. The COMPAS assessment, it said, was one consideration among many and could not dictate the result. "There is no evidence the Board's decision was predetermined," it wrote. Commissioners Davis, Segarra and Cruse affirmed the denial, and the decision was mailed on February 4, 2020.
In April 2021 the board denied release again, this time with an 18-month hold. His appeal, filed by the lawyer Gail Rubenfeld on October 14, 2021, argued that the decision was arbitrary, that it gave too little detail, that it had been decided in advance and that the hold was too long.
The Appeals Unit found that the decision was detailed enough to tell him why he had been turned down and that nothing showed it had been decided in advance on the basis of the crimes alone. It recommended that the denial stand, and the decision affirming it was mailed on December 23, 2021.
He went before the board again in October 2022, at Green Haven. The board denied release and set another 24-month hold. This time his appeal succeeded in part. His parole packet, dated October 20, 2022, had reached the prison on October 21, according to his delivery receipt, and his interview was scheduled for the week of October 24. The Appeals Unit found that the packet had not been before the board when it decided and that there had been little time to get it there. It recommended that the decision be vacated and the case sent back for a new interview, and it advised him to send future packets to the prison earlier.
He also complained that the board had not asked his defense lawyer for a letter. The Appeals Unit found that a request had been mailed to the lawyer's address on file on August 22, 2022, and that no letter had come back, though it noted that the lawyer could still send one. It rejected his other arguments. The result of the new interview has not been reported.
In February 2025 the board denied release and ordered a 24-month hold. Through the lawyer Nicola Morrow, he appealed on June 27, 2025. He argued that the board had put too much weight on the severity of the crimes, that its decision lacked detail, that it was biased, and that it had relied on the mistaken belief that he had not written his own apology letter.
The apology letter had come up at the interview. He told the board that he had written the letter, addressed to the victims' families and to the parole board, but that he did not know whether the Parole Preparation Project had edited it. In its decision the board acknowledged the group's role in preparing his packet and expressed "disappointment in the limited material actually written by the Appellant."
The Appeals Unit found that the board had been entitled to place weight on what it called the brutal nature of the crimes against multiple victims, that the decision was detailed enough, and that he had offered no proof of bias. On the apology letter it concluded that "the Board made no error." Commissioners Donna Henken, Daniel O'Donnell and Charles Davis affirmed the denial, and the decision was mailed on October 1, 2025.
The parole decisions leave much of the case unexplained. They do not name the nine women or say who they were. They give no dates for the killings, no account of the investigation or the arrest, and no details of the trial, the verdict or any appeal of the convictions. They also do not reconcile the 18 counts with the nine deaths.
1948: Calvin Jackson is born, according to the Fordham Law parole archive.
Date not reported: he serves an earlier state prison term, according to the Board of Parole.
Over a 17-month period: nine women are killed in the same hotel; he is later convicted of 18 counts of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life.
March 2019: the Board of Parole denies release, with a 24-month hold; he is held at Sullivan Correctional Facility.
September 23, 2019: he appeals, represented by Patti Leibowitz.
February 4, 2020: the decision affirming the 2019 denial is mailed.
April 2021: the board denies release, with an 18-month hold.
October 14, 2021: he appeals, represented by Gail Rubenfeld.
December 23, 2021: the decision affirming the 2021 denial is mailed.
August 22, 2022: the board mails a request for a letter to his defense lawyer; none arrives.
October 2022: the board denies release at Green Haven Correctional Facility, with a 24-month hold; on appeal the decision is vacated and a new interview ordered because his parole packet had not reached the board.
February 2025: the board denies release, with a 24-month hold.
June 27, 2025: he appeals, represented by Nicola Morrow.
October 1, 2025: the decision affirming the February 2025 denial is mailed.