"You Think of People as Things": Joel Rifkin on the Gilgo Beach Discoveries, CBS 2 New York, 2011
Weeks after four bodies were found near Gilgo Beach in December 2010, Joel Rifkin told CBS 2's Mary Calvi how he had seen his victims and gave his view of the unknown killer.
- Subject
- Joel Rifkin
- Recorded
- about 2011
- Runtime
- 3:32
Content warning: A convicted killer of women describes how he regarded his victims and how he disposed of their bodies (dismemberment, oil drums); no other graphic detail.
The Interview
In January 2011 CBS 2 New York broadcast a report by Mary Calvi built around a prison interview with Joel Rifkin, the Long Island man who confessed in 1993 to killing 17 women. The report was prompted by the discovery, the month before, of the remains of four women near Ocean Parkway at Gilgo Beach, Long Island, and set it beside the four women found dead near Atlantic City in 2006. Calvi asked Rifkin about his own crimes and for his view of the unknown killer. His own words take up well under a minute of the three-and-a-half-minute report; the rest is Calvi's narration, short clips from the two scenes, and an anchor's introduction and closing line. CBS New York re-uploaded the report in July 2023, the day after Rex Heuermann was arrested in the Gilgo Beach case.
Historical Context
Rifkin killed women in the New York area, many of them sex workers, between 1989 and 1993. On June 28, 1993, state troopers tried to stop his pickup truck on Long Island's Southern State Parkway because it had no rear license plate; after a chase they found the body of Tiffany Bresciani in the back. He confessed to 17 killings and was convicted of nine murders between 1994 and 1996, receiving sentences totalling 203 years to life. He has been held at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.
In December 2010 the remains of four women were found near Ocean Parkway at Gilgo Beach, the start of what became the Gilgo Beach investigation. The four women found near Atlantic City in November 2006 remained unsolved at the time of this report.
Circumstances of the Interview
Calvi interviewed Rifkin in prison at Dannemora while the Gilgo Beach discoveries were still new. The report puts the two unsolved groups of four beside Rifkin's own history and asks whether "crimes of the past" offer a clue. The interview itself is longer than what is shown; the report uses short excerpts.
What the Interview Covers
Rifkin says, "You think of people as things," and describes calling his victims "drug-addicted, disease-carrying vermin" as "the lie I told myself". He says he disposed of bodies in "little sets of three", some dismembered and some in oil drums, in water and on land. He gives his opinion that water makes a crime harder to investigate and that a killer who left four victims in one place is probably comfortable with the area, and, asked whether the killer or killers would kill again, appears to say he has no doubt they would. Asked about the women he killed and their families, he says, "You lie to yourself. You deny that there's a family." Asked why, he says he does not know and compares it with people trying to quit smoking; asked whether he would have killed again had he not been caught, he says there probably would have been others.
What Makes the Recording Significant
The report records a convicted Long Island serial killer giving his view of the Gilgo Beach case within weeks of the first discoveries, more than twelve years before anyone was charged. Alongside it he speaks briefly, in his own words, about how he thought of his victims and their families.
Archival Importance
This 2011 report fills the gap between them and is the one that ties Rifkin's case to the Gilgo Beach investigation, which the station itself chose to re-release when Heuermann was arrested.
Important Caveats
Everything Rifkin says about the Gilgo Beach and Atlantic City killers is his opinion and speculation; he had no knowledge of either case. His account of how he disposed of bodies is his own claim. The report contains factual errors, kept in the transcript as spoken: the narration says his rampage ended in 1990 (he was arrested in June 1993), that he had been in prison for 16 years (about 17 and a half by January 2011), and gives his victims as 17 (the number he confessed to; he was convicted of nine murders). The closing line says he was stopped because his front license plate was missing; the New York State Police say it was the rear plate that was missing. This is a short, edited news report, not the full interview.
Anchor: CBS 2's Mary Calvi takes us inside the mind of a killer.
Joel Rifkin: Certain things are very hard to stop.
Mary Calvi: An addiction to murder. Joel Rifkin terrorized the city over a four-year span, killing one woman after another with his bare hands.
Joel Rifkin: You think of people as things.
Mary Calvi: And now a new killer may be following in his murderous footsteps.
Unidentified Speaker: There's like a whole little graveyard going on down there.
Mary Calvi: The beach off Ocean Parkway on Long Island, the final resting place of four women, found murdered.
Unidentified Speaker: We could have a serial killer.
Mary Calvi: It happened last month. It is a scene eerily similar to a case four years ago just outside Atlantic City.
Unidentified Speaker: There's a madman out here.
Mary Calvi: There, just a mile from the beach, in a drainage ditch, four women are found dead, strangled. Four women in Atlantic City. Four women on Long Island. Four years apart, all unsolved. Could crimes of the past offer a clue? The year was 1990, the year the murderous rampage of notorious Long Island serial killer Joel Rifkin came to an end.
Unidentified Speaker: A brutal, savage, murderous attack.
Mary Calvi: In maximum security prison for 16 years now, Joel Rifkin spoke with me in detail about his killing spree and the two unsolved now. Rifkin's victims totaled 17. All of them prostitutes.
Joel Rifkin: Drug-addicted, disease-carrying vermin is the lie I told myself.
Mary Calvi: Unlike the groups of four discovered on Long Island and in Atlantic City, Joel Rifkin told me he disposed of his bodies in threes.
Joel Rifkin: There were many clusters, uh, little, you know, sets of three. Uh, three were dismembered, three were in oil drums, uh, somewhere in water, somewhere on land. It's like my own little, uh, nightmare scenarios.
Mary Calvi: Rifkin painstakingly covered up his crimes in threes. He researched past crimes for details.
Joel Rifkin: The water is harder to investigate than land because it washes everything.
Mary Calvi: The killer in Atlantic City may have known that as well. The victims were discovered face down in several inches of water. Key evidence washed away. Rifkin adds that's no coincidence.
Joel Rifkin: Since it's four in one place, he's probably comfortable with the area.
Mary Calvi: When I asked if he thought the killer or killers in these latest cases would commit murder again:
Joel Rifkin: [unclear: "I don't have any doubts." / "Yeah ... doubts."]
Mary Calvi: What about the women that you killed? Was there a thought about lives that you took? Families that you ruined?
Joel Rifkin: Uh, you lie to yourself. You deny that there's a family. You deny that there's parents and possibly kids.
Mary Calvi: Throughout his trial and his incarceration, Joel Rifkin still cannot explain one thing: why.
Joel Rifkin: I don't know. I don't know. Why do people try to quit smoking for their entire lives?
Mary Calvi: Would you have killed again if you weren't caught?
Joel Rifkin: As much as [unclear: "they say and wanted" / "they say wanted"] to stop, [unclear: "it" / "there"] probably would have been others.
Mary Calvi: The courts sentenced Joel Rifkin to more than 200 years in prison, making any chance of parole impossible. Mary Calvi, CBS 2 News.
Anchor: Joel Rifkin was finally stopped by the police on a traffic stop when a Long Island officer noticed his front license plate was missing. [03:30 to 03:32: no speech in either machine source; clip ends.] ---