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[uneasy music]
[overlapping voices]

[foreboding music]

- I heard joel rifkin's name
on the radio.

- A 34-year-old new york man
will be in court this morning.

Joel rifkin has told police
he's a serial killer.

- I remember gasping that
that was my college friend.

He looked so harmless.
I had to have answers.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- There were plenty of kids
in the hall who were scary,

But joel was not.

- I was trying to figure out
how the joel that I knew

Became a deadly killer.

- He's riding around all night
looking for girls,

And then he's butchering
the bodies next door?

- And no one knew.

- So he was invisible,
certainly, to law enforcement.

- As a youngster,
he'd be accosted, assaulted.

- Where does that go
psychologically?

- I never got to say goodbye
to my friend

Or to even understand
what happened to her.

- He felt no guilt,
no remorse, no pain.

- He was a monster.

♪ ♪

[suspenseful synth music]

♪ ♪

- New york city in the late
'80s and the early '90s,

Crime was rampant.

- Policeman was shot dead
in his patrol car.

- There were
more than 2,000 murders a year.

- This has reached
epidemic proportions.

- It is a crack epidemic
which police say is causing

An increase in murder
and other violent crime.

- Parents--they were terrified

To have their children
move there.

Back then,
I was a police officer,

And it was frightening for me,
so I can't even imagine

What it must have been like
for the populace back then.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- It was a quiet night.

There was really no one
on the road.

It was approximately
3:15 in the morning.

We observed a pickup truck
in the center lane.

As we got closer, we realized
there was no license plate.

We turned on the lights
to initiate a car stop.

The pickup truck
did not pull over.

We pulled up alongside of him.

He just kind of slowly
looked over,

Just had a very blank look
on his face.

Possibly he was intoxicated,

So I pointed to him to pull
over to the side of the road.

We thought he was pulling up
onto the shoulder,

At which time, he exited
the southern state parkway.

He just wasn't stopping,
and at that point,

I called in that
we were in pursuit.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

He was getting faster
and faster,

Up to 90 miles an hour.

We started getting
into tighter, windier roads.

We stayed right behind him.

There's clearly
something he's hiding.

He was debating
which way to turn.

At the last minute,
he decided to go left.

He drove up onto the sidewalk
and struck a light pole...

[glass shattering]

Knocking down the pole,
and the pursuit was over.

I approached
white male subject

With his hands up.

I opened the door,

Grabbed him out,
and put the cuffs on him.

I asked him his name,
his address, date of birth.

He said his name
was joel rifkin,

And that's when
I noticed the smell.

As we looked into
the back of the truck,

There was a blue tarp.

The decision was made
to pull back the tarp,

And we could see the head
and shoulder of a female

Deceased for several days.

- That was the first time
joel rifkin raised

To the level
of anyone's attention.

He wasn't on our radar.
Prior to this,

He was invisible,
certainly to law enforcement.

My job at the scene
is to take control

And supervise
the investigation.

I directed
that they take him back

To the state police
headquarters in farmingdale.

Our goal was to lock him in
to the victim we had,

And rifkin was cooperative.

He couldn't deny that he had
the body in the vehicle.

And that's when
they started to ask--

- "well, has this ever
happened before?"

And joel rifkin answered,
"well, what if it did?"

- Is it more than 10,
less than 20?

He kind of leaned back
in the chair and said,

"one or 100,
what's the difference?"

I knew what serial murderers
were.

I certainly never thought
I was gonna meet one.

- This is just getting
crazier and crazier.

What is going on here?
Who is joel rifkin?

[desolate music]

[radio tuning]

- Two troopers
on uniformed night patrol

Stopped a pickup truck

That contained the body
of a female victim.

- I was driving out
to long island

When I heard joel rifkin's name
on the radio.

- There was an arrest
of joel rifkin.

- I remembered gasping.

I immediately realized that
that was my college friend.

We were both
journalism students

At the state university
of new york at brockport.

I had received
my very first paid assignment

For a boxing magazine
featuring a local fighter.

The journalism department
recommended joel rifkin

As the wonder kid
of the photography department.

We drove the 30 miles
or so to the fight.

I remember thinking, "you know,

This guy is really unique.
He's really cool."

There were a lot
of commonalities.

We were both long island kids.

This assignment
for the boxing match

Was on a Friday night.

Joel wound up getting
some phenomenal shots.

We saw each other
a couple of times after that,

But the semester
was soon over.

When I went back
for the spring semester,

I had hoped to see him.

I asked around.

I found out
that joel dropped out.

When I heard about his arrest,
I was dismayed

Because that differed so much
from the joel that I knew.

This guy
had so much potential.

I had just assumed that he was
out there conquering the world

While I was just a cop.

I had lots of questions.

I wanted to know everything
there was to know.

I fired off a letter to joel
at attica prison,

And I said, "I was taken aback
by what you did.

I'd love to learn more
about your motivations."

I was curious

If he had that secret life
when I knew him,

How long he'd been conducting
that secret life.

How did it all go wrong?

Did it go wrong
before I even met him?

When joel rifkin
responded to me,

He told me
that he remembered me.

We had some
pretty friendly letters,

And then 7 years
after he was arrested,

I went up to see him.

- He was very kind of
disarmingly friendly,

Very open, honest and candid.

What drove a guy that I once
considered a friend to murder?

And how could joel have gotten
away with this for so long?

Anything I asked him,
nothing was off limits.

- As a cop,
sometimes you can sense

That people are relishing

Telling you
about their antics,

But joel was so unemotional
about this

And so matter of fact.

There was this complete
disconnect from reality.

[ominous music]

- I spoke to my college friend
joel rifkin

At attica prison in 1999

Because I just couldn't
reconcile the fact

That the joel rifkin I knew
became this invisible killer.

When joel talked
about his childhood,

I expected him to get
a little more emotional,

But he was pretty
much matter of fact.

What I found most interesting
was, unlike most people

That have a desire
to harm others,

There was no bed-wetting.

There was no purposeful harm
of animals.

There was no fire-starting.

So he really is unique.

His behaviors did not reflect
any of the normal patterns

Of such a nefarious criminal.

He talked about him
and his sister being adopted

From a jewish agency
in new york,

And I remember him saying,
you know,

Sort of self-deprecatingly

That the dream came true
for his parents

When they adopted a boy
and a girl.

- Joel's family settled
in east meadow, long island.

- It was joel and his sister,
and his parents, ben and jean.

East meadow was

A quintessential
middle class place to grow up.

- It wasn't just looked upon
as a middle class home.

It was looked upon

As the future of which
dreams were made.

It was their piece
of the american pie.

- They were our neighbors.
We were in the same class.

I used to walk
to school with him.

- Joel was just a regular kid
who was extra quiet,

Really polite, nice, sweet,

The kind of guy
who's in his own world,

Doing his own thing.

- Joel came to my bar mitzvah,

But at the same time,
he's different.

He didn't really fit
with anyone.

- For joel, living
in east meadow,

What he perceived to be
his inferiorities

Took center stage.

It was not
a blissful existence for him.

- While we might have been
throwing the ball,

He was looking at the sidewalk

With a magnifying glass
at a bug or something.

I do remember joel
being called turtle.

He had always seemed like
he was kind of a little slower

And a step behind.

- It became readily apparent

That he couldn't play sports.

- Joel would be probably
the last person to be picked,

And I know that
that frustrated his father.

- His father had been
an athlete in college,

So joel didn't quite meet up
to his level

Of what the father
wanted his son to be.

- That caused
a tremendous amount

Of frustration for joel

And kind of retarded
his development

As far as, you know,
feeling good about himself.

It went into his schoolwork
as well.

Joel had a very high iq--

128 was the exact number--

But he didn't concentrate well

Unless something
really interested him.

His father, who was scholarly,

Would sit at the kitchen table
with him

And pore over the homework.

- That was the first person
to interview rifkin in prison,

And he said he was tortured
by the fact

That he couldn't live up
to his father's expectations.

- The mother embraced him
and pulled him

To her favorite hobbies:
Photography and horticulture.

- He did a lot of photography,

And he was actually
very good at it,

But at the same time,
something is amiss.

- Joel described to me
the bullying that he endured.

He would walk home from school.
He'd be accosted, assaulted.

On one occasion,
he had underwear

Stuffed in his mouth.

There'd be all sorts
of physical assaults,

Mocking, name calling.

- He wasn't harming anyone.
He wasn't combative.

There were plenty of kids
in the hall

Who were scary,
but joel was not.

Some kids get picked on,
they go home, they cry.

Their parents take care of it.

He just took it.

- He experienced that
all his life.

I'm sure that that experience
shaped his psyche

Because acceptance
by one's peers

Is the be-all and end-all
to a child's psyche.

It must have built up
impotent rage

When you feel such anger

But you really can't do
anything about it.

You're not strong enough.
You don't have enough allies,

And I imagine that joel rifkin
built up this reservoir of rage

With no place to put it.

- Joel said that he dreaded
going to school every day,

So he devised
this complex plan.

In the morning,
he would time it

So he would get to school

Seconds before the bell rang

So nobody would have
the opportunity to harass him.

- He would take
this circuitous route

Through the woods to his home,

Where he would secure himself
in his room

For the rest of the night.

- How did this behavior help
joel get away with what he did?

He seemed very ordinary.

He used this process
to his advantage.

He became a master
of not only being stealth,

But being stealth
in plain sight.

Joel is like the invisible man,

Which contributed greatly
to his success as a murderer

As well as his longevity
as a murderer.

But how did joel transition
from social outcast to killer?

[ominous music]

- I first began interviewing
joel rifkin in the late '90s

'cause I wanted to know,
how did joel learn

To never raise any suspicions?

As a cop, I've interviewed
lots of people

That did
really horrible things,

But this guy was
my college friend.

I never thought,
"ah, I should have saw that.

I should have noticed that."

He told me in high school
his life became hell.

He felt as if the only people
that noticed him

Were the people
that wanted to harm him.

- Where does that
go psychologically?

I'm sure you try
to do something

To spare yourself
further humiliation,

Emotional pain.

- Joel went to great pains
in his private life

To make people not see him

And to be invisible
while being in plain sight.

Joel told me when he was
going through puberty,

He first started to have
psychosexual fantasies.

There was an alfred hitchcock
movie called "frenzy."

Joel remembers being
sexually fascinated

With this scene

Where a woman
gets strangled with a tie.

- Fantasies are not
a blueprint.

They don't determine your life
unless they do.

In his particular case,

His preoccupation
with strangulation

Did determine his life
and his fate and his destiny.

- He was masturbating
to thoughts

Of having sex with women

And ultimately killing them,

But he could just push it down
at that point in his life.

He wanted to date.

He just wasn't terribly
successful with women.

Prostitutes not only provide
that kind of sexual release,

But there's this illusion

Of going out on a date
with someone

Or making this connection.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- To his credit, joel's father
never gave up on him,

And he offered to send joel,

Who by then was
in his late 20s,

Back to college,
and if he got two as,

He would pay for a curriculum.

He took a biology class
and a botany class,

Which ultimately led to him

Starting his own
landscaping business.

- Joel felt that he was just

Gonna disappoint him
one more time,

But he got the two as.

Joel excitedly
went to the hospital

And thought his father
would be very proud of him,

But his father
never got the news.

- His father's death really
kind of blew the doors

Off of joel's emotional state.

- The desire to please
his father kind of always been

At the core
of his emotional life,

But with his father gone,
that burden lifted.

[dramatic music]

His mother was preoccupied
with her life

As she was getting older.
It gave him the freedom to act

On his worst impulses
and fantasies.

[dark electronic music]

- He lived for the nighttime.

Driving through manhattan,
through queens,

And he would frequent
all of the strolls.

- It became an addiction.

Joel, who really was in charge
of nothing in his real life,

Between his father
and the bullying,

He felt while he was
having sex with prostitutes,

He was in charge.

- He did hate himself
and the addiction,

But when he met these women,
he projected--

He took all that bad feeling
about himself

And gave it to them.

He could look at them as lower
and look at them

As somebody you don't respect
and you don't have esteem for.

- When I would talk
to my folks,

Invariably my parents
would say,

"well, joel doesn't seem
to be holding a job.

"we're afraid
that he's going to cause jean

To be out on the street,"

So my parents hired him
to, like, trim the trees.

He clearly had
a different agenda.

He's riding around all night
looking for girls,

So how is he gonna have energy
to cut the trees?

In the end, we would see
his tools out in the rain.

- In early 1989, about 2 years
after his father's suicide,

Joel decided to make

His murderous fantasies
a reality.

- Joel saw a woman named susie
who he had been with before

On the lower east side.

In his mind, he's gonna go
on a date with her.

She agrees to go with joel
30 miles or so

To the long island home

That he shares
with his mother,

Where he can spend more time

Than just a usual encounter
on the street.

His mother was away.

They wind up having sex
on the couch.

She falls asleep.

He's annoyed that she's not
paying him more attention.

At some point, she wakes up.
She immediately wants drugs.

Joel, at this point,
is exasperated with her,

And he impulsively just starts
hitting her on the head.

[dramatic musical crescendo]

- As a cop,
sometimes you can sense

That people are relishing

Telling you about their antics,

But joel was so unemotional
about this

And so matter of fact.

There was
this complete disconnect

From reality.

- I didn't want him to think
anything he was telling me

Shocked me,

So I was trying to maintain
my own sort of monotone.

- He was so dispassionate
about it.

Didn't seem to faze him
in the least.

He didn't seem to be getting
any pleasure

From telling me this,

And he didn't seem to mind

What my opinion would be
of him.

- He threw
some of her body parts

Into one of the rivers
in manhattan,

And he took the head,

And he discarded that
in new jersey at a golf course.

- The first kill
is always significant.

Being comfortable
with murdering someone

Is a massive
psychological leap,

And now you've crossed
that rubicon

From fantasy to reality.

[tense music]

- There was nothing
to hold him back.

♪ ♪

- A golfer was at the the
hopewell valley country club.

He had hooked his ball
into the woods

And discovered a human head.

- Joel is convinced
at that point

That he was gonna get caught.

[ominous music]

- After joel rifkin committed
this first murder

And disposed of the body,

The head of this victim,

Poor susie,
was found pretty quickly.

- It was a cold, overcast day.

It was shortly
after a major rainstorm.

A golfer was at the
hopewell valley country club.

He was on the seventh hole.

He had hooked his ball
into the woods.

He went into retrieve his ball
and discovered a human head.

- I arrived
in the golf course.

It drops down
maybe 10 to 15 feet

To, like, a small creek,

And there
you can see a severed head.

- New york at that time,
in the '80s,

Had a tremendous amount of
unidentified deceased persons,

But it was quite the shock
because we've only had

A few homicides in hopewell
over the last 3 or 4 decades.

All the teeth were removed,

With the exception
of four teeth.

- The jaw was pretty much gone.

- It was clearly a female

By the hair and the eyes
and the facial features.

- We did an intensive search
of the area.

We were hoping to find
additional body parts

Or some physical evidence.
We found nothing.

- We really had
no other evidence to go on

Other than the physical head.

Not having a name means

We can't even pursue
dental records.

It then became a question

On whether the homicide
occurred in hopewell,

Or was just this
an alternate crime scene?

- Not long after dumping,
susie's head was discovered,

And joel heard a report
about this on the radio.

He remembers thinking,

"I went through
all these efforts,"

To cut the body up into
as many parts as he could

And discard them in different
places to stay invisible.

He was convinced at that point
that he was gonna get caught.

- About a month after we found
the severed head,

We received a call
from jefferson township

In morris county, new jersey.

It was opening day
of trout season.

That's when fishermen
found two legs in a creek

Right off of an interstate.
They looked like female legs.

- Dna was taken from her head
and the legs,

And they were confirmed
to be a match.

- But still, we were unable
to identify her.

[ominous music]

- The guys that commit
serial murders--you know,

They're essentially
living in their heads.

For a moment, you are god
because you have the ability

To let someone live or die.

- Even when you let someone
live and don't kill them

But thought about it,
there's a high there, too.

You made a godlike decision.

You knew, having killed
other people,

That you could've
easily killed that person.

- One thing that joel was able
to appreciate

After susie's head was found

Was the fact
that she was never identified,

So his efforts at concealment
actually worked.

- He experienced
with this murder

The greatest success
of his life.

He fulfilled lifelong fantasy.

He did it.
He got away with it.

He got pleasure from it.

It was a thunderous success
in his mind.

- Those desires
were reactivated.

It's time
to go out and try this again.

- He did not strike again
until the fall of 1990.

Like victim number one,

She's picked up
on the lower east side.

They have sex
in his childhood bed,

And in the morning,
she promises more sex

For more drugs,

But he's unable
to get her money.

She's complaining,
and impulsively,

He picks up a table leg

That's laying
around the house,

And he just starts
bashing her over the head

With the table leg.

This time, he used
a little different mo.

He went out
and bought cement and tarps.

- He threw the concrete
into a river,

Which we know sinks
to the bottom,

Never to be found.

That was probably because he
was determined never to repeat

What he thought was
the big mistake

Of his first murder.

He was improving
his technique, so to speak.

- He was able to once again
get away with that one,

And after one more victim,

Starts what he describes
as his acceleration period,

Where, in the space of, like,
1 or 1 1/2 months,

He kills four women
in rapid succession.

[dramatic musical sting]

- Joel's desire and ability
to be invisible,

Developed so successfully
at a young age,

Contributed greatly
to his murderous life.

The way he looked, as well
as the way he acted

And the ways he purposefully
projected himself

Made him
look completely harmless

To the women
that got into his car.

♪ ♪

He looked
like he could blend in

In any crowd.

The police that he encountered
never would've taken him

For being a danger to anybody.

- And since he was able
to get away with killing

His first couple victims,
rifkin was very confident.

- If joel rifkin was
feeling emboldened,

Would this lead to his arrest?

[ominous music]

[suspenseful music]

- Joel rifkin had a right
to feel confident

Of his first murders.

Only the first murder of susie
was a body part found,

But even after
they found this head,

It was impossible
for them to identify it.

- We contacted frank bender
in philadelphia,

A well-known reconstruction
individual in law enforcement,

Contracted him to do
a reconstruction of the head.

We knew she was
a white female,

Probably in her late teens

Or early 20s,
up to 30 years old.

She had a mole
on her left chin.

She had an old scar
over her left eye.

- They did a full rendition
of what they believed

This person
would've looked like.

The head was completely intact.

♪ ♪

- It was put on the news.
It was put in the newspaper.

It was sent to law enforcement.

[suspenseful music]

They received thousands
of missing-persons leads,

And none of them panned out.

It was just kept
as a cold case, unidentified.

The person who did it
was still out there.

- Initially, joel perpetrated
these crimes at home.

He felt comfortable there
when his mother would go away,

But in 1991, he seems ready
to get out of his comfort zone.

He kills in a public place,

A local motel on long island.

The next murders
are all committed in his car.

Joel had learned
to be invisible at a young age.

- Because of this, he just got
better at killing, you know?

He was really
a killing machine.

[tense music]

- Victim number six
he killed in his car

And then drove
to an industrial area

Up around northern manhattan.

He drives off the road
a little bit,

Treks through
a little wooded area,

Dumps the body
into a waterway,

And when he's walking
back to his car...

[electronic music]

He sees cops
coming towards him.

He hears their radios.
He sees the flashlight.

- He summoned up
from his long background

Of knowing how
to avoid conflict

A clever, clever lie.

- He immediately picks up
something from the ground,

An auto part,
and before the cops

Have an opportunity
to say anything,

He says,
"I'm not auto-stripping.

I'm just scavenging."

- Rifkin stayed really cool
and really calm.

He had his wits about him

And could literally be dumping
a victim into the river

And simply talk his way out.

That reflects the psychopathic
dimensions of who he was.

The average person
would most likely flip out.

- The police gave him
a warning,

So he was able to get away
with that one

And dodge that bullet.

Victim number six to this day
has not been identified.

Had those cops maybe looked
a little further,

They would've found that body,

And things would've
turned out different

For many of the women.

Instead, joel felt
on top of the world.

He outsmarted the police,
and that incident made him

Feel much more confident
of not getting caught.

Joel was very aware
not only of his ability

To be unnoticed by others,

But also by the work

That he had put
into cultivating that ability,

And he seems to relish
in that anonymity.

♪ ♪

His choice in women also
helped joel stay anonymous.

Most of the women that he would
look at fell victim to drugs,

Like so many other people
in that era,

And wound up on the streets.

- Quite often, nobody knows
their real names.

They have no ties
to the community.

They're easy targets.

- Quite a few of the victims

Had not even
been reported missing.

Lorraine orvieto
was different.

- Lorraine was my first cousin.

She went missing
when she was 28.

- Her family spent
a lot of time,

You know, trying to find her.
She was a missing person.

- My aunt wrote letters,
made a million phone calls

To hospitals and morgues
all over long island,

Looking at pictures,
even looking at a body,

And they came up with nothing.

It was very surreal

To just have a family member
completely disappear.

Lorraine was like a sister
to me growing up.

She was always very loving,
very generous.

She just had so much vigor,
so much life.

She wanted to be
an accountant.

I think she knew very clearly
what she wanted in her life.

Unfortunately,
some things got in the way.

I remember lorraine's
frustration at struggling

To pass the cpa exam.

She tried twice, but she
couldn't pass this test.

She was really deflated.

At the same point, she had been
admitted to the hospital.

Lorraine needed a blood
transfusion for a surgery.

She had to remove
a very large fibroid,

And they had just started
checking the blood in 1985,

When she had her transfusion.

She did develop hiv,

Which eventually became
full-blown aids.

I remember going to
the hospital

To visit lorraine.

She became too unstable
to keep it together,

And that just led
to shady characters and drugs

And eventually going missing.

- Joel meets lorraine orvieto,

Picks her up in bay shore,
long island,

A once-affluent town.

- With lorraine orvieto,
it was a circumstantial thing.

He solicited this girl,

And in the process
of receiving sex from her,

He did what he was already
in the habit of doing.

It's just habitual.

- After taking her life,
he used a different mo.

Lorraine orvieto is the first
of several victims

That he places
in a 50-gallon drum.

- And that led
to a very long year

Of having no idea
what happened to her.

[sighs]

- You have to wonder if joel
ever took

The lives of his victims

Or their loved ones
into consideration.

Even though lorraine orvieto
was reported missing,

Her body was not
immediately discovered,

So joel became so confident

That he started to get

These feelings
of invincibility

That he couldn't be caught.
Will anyone ever take notice?

[ominous music]

- Lorraine orvieto was
joel rifkin's seventh victim.

About 7 months later,
her body was discovered,

But at that time,
it was never identified.

- Joel was emboldened
by the fact

That he had gotten away
with this for this long.

Joel was getting
a little more careless.

He picks up iris sanchez

On the lower east side
during the day,

Which was unusual for joel
up until this point,

Strangles her during sex.

After he killed her,

He drove her
out near kennedy airport.

- He picked this woman up
during the day.

He killed her during the day,

And he dumped
her body carelessly

Under a mattress
during the day.

I asked if there was
any specific trigger

As to why the ones
that were killed were,

And he said it was
the ripe opportunity

Where there was very little
chance of getting caught,

But that didn't seem
to matter anymore.

He killed her and just wanted
to get rid of the body

And did so
in the most expeditious manner.

- This just fed,
added to his sense of power,

Potency, success,

And the amazing thing was,
as brazen as he was getting,

This was completely
under the radar.

No one knew.

- In the early '90s,
I wasn't living

At my parents' house anymore,

But I was visiting them,
you know, all the time,

And I'd see joel outside
and be like,

"hey, man. How's it going?
What are you up to?"

I had no idea
what was going on.

[dark music]

- At this point, I was already
with my band,

The new york ska-jazz ensemble.

I had, like, a local gig.

I was walking with my horn

Just somewhere down
in the village near the club,

And I see joel in a car.

Oh, there's a girl with him,
so in my mind, I'm thinking,

"haven't really seen him
with too many girls."

I'm not going to interrupt,
and I'm just going to be like,

You know, "hey, bro.
How you doing?

Oh, yeah. Just did a show.
All right. See you soon."

After it all went down,
it occurred to me

That the woman I saw
in the car

Might have be one of
those women he strangled.

That's a tough one
to wrap your head around.

- On the one hand, joel rifkin
despised these women

Because they represented
to him

Exactly what he thought
about himself,

But I think a guy
that's not successful socially

Is very responsive
to somebody who's nice to him,

So it was a very unique
experience to him,

And he would form
little micro relationships.

[brooding music]

♪ ♪

- I played quarterback
for myers park high school.

Catherine was the head
cheerleader on the squad

That was
our cross-town rivals,

So we had the quarterback
of one high school

Dating the cheerleader
of the cross-town rival,

So it kind of bred
a little bit of notoriety

For us as a couple.

Her family was well off.
Her father was a dentist.

Catherine had this tremendous,
charismatic energy about her

And a tremendous confidence.

- Catherine broke up with me
in high school,

So I would see her
on national television.

Catherine was sort of the top
of the pyramid type of girl.

I heard through the grapevine,
through some friends,

That she moved to new york--

And completely lost touch
with catherine.

And then I met her again.

I went
to the methodist church.

I looked up there,

And there she stood,
catherine williams.

When everyone was quiet,
she just turned around.

She looked right at me.
Bang.

I knew at that moment
that I was going to marry her.

I knew it.
I knew it. I knew it.

At that moment,
she knew it too, and she goes,

"well, I know of a justice
of the peace down the road.

Let's go tomorrow."

We got married
without anybody knowing.

We began to have parties
that were filled with drugs,

Dangerous parties.

I can't imagine, in the 1980s,
you hadn't done any cocaine.

Very quickly, that just spun
way out of control.

It got really frightening,

And I just said,
"we're gonna die.

"you need to go back home
to your family,

And I need to go back
to my family."

She finally decided

That she wanted
to go back to new york.

She had a support system
up there,

And so I put her on a plane.
She, you know, took off.

That was the period of time

Where we just both kind of let
the dust settle.

But I was still married
to catherine.

I was in love with catherine.

After several months,
she said,

"well, I'm coming back
to get you.

Don't move.
I'm coming."

So three days, nothing.

Five days, nothing.
Seven days, nothing.

- The incident
with catherine williams

I thought was
particularly curious

Because joel had said

That he had been with her
numerous times in the past.

- Catherine was known for
walking around with a suitcase

In which she carried
so many of her possessions,

Including pictures
of her football player husband.

- As a cheerleader
and a homecoming queen,

Mary catherine was the symbol
and the reality of the girl

Not only
that he could never get,

But the girl
who chose the bullies,

So she was a symbol
of everything that he hated,

That he was envious of.

- The fact that she was married
to a standout football player,

She might have mentioned

That she was getting
the money to go back

And bring him to new york.
That could've set joel off.

- When she was in that car
with him

Was the very time frame
I was waiting for her to come,

And that was the moment
that she died.

- Rifkin continued killing,
and he got away with it.

[ominous music]

- Mary catherine was rifkin's
13th victim.

Joel was quite confident that
she would never be discovered

Because he had been
successful before.

Other bodies were found
but never identified,

And no one was looking
for joel rifkin.

- We just didn't have
the technology we have now.

Law enforcement
is much more efficient now.

- Rifkin was so clever
in where he picked them up,

How he picked them up,
and where he killed them

And how he disposed of them
that it was

Virtually impossible
for law enforcement

To put this together.

He's dumping these bodies

In nine or ten
different jurisdictions.

- There was absolutely
no reason why joel rifkin

Should've been
on any of our radar,

But leah evans stands out
because she exemplifies

Just how brazen
and careless joel was getting.

- Leah was sweet to the point
of really not having

A malignant bone in her body.

- Leah evans went
to sarah lawrence college

And seemed to be on track,
at least after college,

To having a very bright future.

- It was a very distinctly
privileged school,

And leah didn't come
from that kind of wealth,

So she felt, I think,

Somewhat alienated
from the culture there.

Leah's drug use started
during her college years.

It was the '80s.

There were drugs
kind of everywhere,

And that's when I discovered
leah really had a disease.

She would be gone
for days on end.

We all knew that
this addiction was spiraling.

It was terrifying
to the people who loved her.

[brooding music]

♪ ♪

I have a beautiful memory
of leah

Arriving at my apartment.

We were just 23, and she had
her beautiful son, julian,

And she was so proud

And asked me
to be his godmother.

She just was not present
any more in her body.

The ravages
of heroin addiction

Are really profound.

She became homeless.

No one ever saw her again.

[spacey music]

- It is impossible for me
to digest the scene.

In this case, leah said no.

It seems to have triggered
something in him

That made him feel
she should die.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Joel rifkin dug
a very shallow grave

Out in the eastern end
of long island.

- Some people who were out
looking, you know,

For flowers or something,

And they saw the hand
sticking up out of the ground,

And that's how
that body was found.

- Soon thereafter, the body was
the first one to be identified.

- Leah's hand eerily sticking
out of the shallow grave

Was extremely sloppy.

- His cloak of invisibility
was slipping.

That's a very serious error
for somebody

Who was so meticulous
to have committed.

- It was light out, and there
were going to be commuters,

People going to work,

Figuring, "I can't dispose
her body right here,"

So he put newspapers
all over the body

So that if anybody
did look inside,

They wouldn't see the body.

- So he wound up taking her

Back to his house
in long island

Where he lived with his mom
and his sister.

- His mother greeted
him angrily.

She needed the car
because she had an errand

She had to run right away.

He doesn't panic, and he says,
"okay, mom,"

Hands over the keys
to the mother,

Who goes out and runs
her errand for an hour or so,

And his mother brings the car
back unknowing

That there's a body
in the trunk,

At which point joel
moves the body into the garage,

Where it lays for a couple
of days in the stifling heat.

- Rifkin then spent the rest
of the weekend with the body

Decaying in his garage,
working on two trucks,

Changing an engine
from one into another.

- He doesn't move her out
until Sunday night

Into Monday morning.

It's, like, 96 hours where
he's held onto this victim,

So the odor was overpowering.

- Rifkin waited
until it was nighttime.

Nobody was watching.

He took the body, put it
in one of the pickup trucks.

Rifkin then drove
on to the state parkway,

Where the state police
try to pull rifkin over.

- Joel rifkin made
a fatal mistake.

Instead of pulling over,
he accelerated.

- He lost it.
There was panic.

He didn't behave rationally.

There's no way that he could've
outrun the state trooper

In a beat-up truck.

- Ultimately he was exposed,
became visible.

- Joel rifkin had asked me
why he was being stopped,

And I said,

"because you didn't have
a license plate on your car."

And he always responded,
"it's always a ¢25 part."

If there was a license plate,

Would there have been
another reason to stop him?

I don't know.

- As he was being interviewed,
I was on the other side,

Listening to the discussion

With a nassau county
homicide detective,

And he looks at me.
He's like, "hey, kid.

Let me tell you something.
This guy has done this before."

- Everyone in that room
was wondering,

How many more victims
did this guy have?

Then he asked for, you know,
a pen and a piece of paper.

He wrote down the victims
in reverse chronological order

Starting with 17.

- Went from a simple car stop
to a dead body

To "what if there's more?"
to now there's 17.

- Rifkin's bedroom was

A crime scene technician's
nightmare.

Once we opened that door,

We knew we found
the rosetta stone.

- There was clothing, jewelry.

[ominous music]

[dramatic music]

- Joel rifkin was caught
with a dead body

In the back of his car.

And then rifkin told
the police

About 16 other women
that he had killed.

- We wanted to prove what joel
was telling us was true.

He told us
about the leah evans case,

But that was also
in the newspaper,

So he could've read that.

- At which time
he starts giving details

On all 17 of these homicides,
what they look like,

What he did with the body,
just off the top of his head.

- There was a certain part

Of his confession
that was bragging.

You know, joel had been
picked on for years

And not looked at as somebody
that had any talent,

And I think
this was his opportunity

To tell people that,
"you're wrong.

"I'm really smart.
I'm capable,

And look at what I did."

- The braggadocio sets in
and him saying,

"I've fooled you
by my invisibility.

"now you caught me.
Want to see visibility?

Want to see accountability?
Here it is."

- He gave such details

That when the police
went to the scene,

It was exactly how he said.

- We went out
to kennedy airport,

And we found the victim
that was under a mattress,

So that was when
we pretty much believed

Everything he said.

- And then I applied
for a search warrant

From the judge to search
his house for evidence.

- They were looking
for everything and anything

They could find that would,
one, help identify the victims

And anything else related
to these crimes.

They had very little to show
for what he was admitting to.

- Rifkin's bedroom was

A crime scene
technician's nightmare.

Once we opened that door,

We knew we found
the rosetta stone.

- It was almost like digging
for treasure.

There was driver's license
of some of the victims.

- So now we had
pretty clear corroboration

Once we matched those ids

To the people
he claimed to have killed.

- There was clothing, jewelry.

- There was an earring
that we matched

To a victim
from upstate new york

That had
already been recovered.

- There was also articles
on arthur shawcross,

The serial killer from
rochester area of new york,

And he had a book
on the green river killer,

Almost how-to guides for him.

- All his life, joel rifkin
was a background guy,

An invisible man.

- Deep down, I think he
actually did crave

A certain degree of notoriety

That prolific serial killers
had attained in the press.

- I felt bad for his family.

Police were, like,
staking out the house.

You only heard about these kind
of things on television,

In the newspaper.
You know, this didn't happen

Next door, let alone
quaint old east meadow.

His mother, who was clearly
distraught now and alone,

She seemed to love him,
her son.

He said she's the only one
that showed him true love

After it all went down.

- But mrs. Rifkin was not
that accessible to reporters

Or to anybody
that questioned her.

She didn't want
to talk about it.

- There's
a pretty extensive search.

I know it continued
into the next day.

The murders that he had
committed in his house,

Rifkin apparently did
a really good job

Of cleaning up.

Obviously he didn't want
his family to see.

Must have been a bloody mess

Where he dismembered
some of his victims,

But there was no evidence
of that in the house.

- The contents
of joel rifkin's room

Were removed and brought
to farmingdale.

- We collected
over 8,000 pieces of evidence.

What we had to do in this case
in the beginning

Was a crime scene search,

Recovering the bodies
that hadn't been found yet

And linking them to the bodies
that had been found.

- They were very methodical
and organized and objective,

And they were able to
corroborate 13 or 14 of them.

- It became
such a major investigation,

All sorts of news coverage.

- Joel rifkin has told police
he's a serial killer.

The man told police

He killed 17 prostitutes
over the last several years.

- Turn on the tv one night,
and I saw that joel rifkin

Had been arrested,
and they listed his victims,

And my best friend,
leah evans, was among them.

I just don't have words
to describe what I felt.

Sorry.

- I remember being shocked
at the cover of "newsday,"

Biggest long island newspaper,
and the main story,

Which was about
long island serial killer,

And there's my family.

There's my name
on the cover of "newsday."

When they searched his room,
they found lorraine's license.

That's how we found out
exactly what happened to her.

- I'm reading
the "nashville banner."

My eye gets caught
about this article on this guy

That the new york police

Had pulled over
in a pickup truck,

And I'm just thinking,

"that's
the weirdest thing ever."

A day or two later,
I get a phone call,

"this is detective
or inspector.

Are you married
to catherine williams?"

I said, "yes, I am,"
and he said,

"well, have you ever heard
of joel rifkin?"

He goes, "well, we found

Catherine's credit cards
in his home."

- There's a whole culture
that depicts women

As just these erotic beings
for the taking,

And it's easy, then,
to devalue them

And for someone
like joel rifkin to think,

"who cares?
No one cares

If I kill this person."

- The tragedy of this
and everything that rifkin did

Was that
these are 17 different people,

17 different human beings
with different backgrounds,

Different families,
different hopes and dreams,

And I had to get them justice.

We would try the case
over the victim

That we found him with first.
It was the strongest.

We had caught him
with the body,

But surely somebody
who killed 17 people,

And I'm the first one
to try the case.

There was a decent amount
of pressure.

[ominous music]

- When joel rifkin was caught
with the body,

He didn't know her name.

We recovered beads
from a necklace

That she had on
when he abducted her,

And we found those beads
in his bedroom,

In his mom's car.

- She also had some tattoos
on her body,

And we put them in a newspaper.

- And we found a witness
in the city who knew her

And was able
to identify those beads.

- So we were able to identify
her as tiffany bresciani.

She came from a good family.
She was educated.

- Tiffany bresciani
was a 23-year-old woman

From metairie, louisiana,

Came to new york
to be an actress,

Didn't have the easiest go
of it,

Fell into a downward spiral.

- So by the time
of joel rifkin's trial,

They had found
14 of his victims

And identified all of them

Except
for the first one, susie.

- Because the rifkin case
in nassau

Was going to be
the first trial,

I was the first one up.

- Are we ready to proceed?

- You are joel rifkin?

- Yes, sir.

- We present the evidence
with respect to bresciani only.

- Pain and the suffering that
he caused to tiffany bresciani

Has to be taken
into account by this court.

- Joel rifkin was asserting
the insanity defense,

Claiming that he was
legally insane at the time

He killed tiffany bresciani.

He didn't have much
of an option, rifkin.

He's caught red-handed.
He confessed to it.

- You look at all the evidence
in the case, his background,

His upbringing

And what he did with respect
to tiffany bresciani.

He can best be described
as a killing machine.

- Joe rifkin was
the most prolific serial killer

In new york state history.

He had killed more people
than any other single person.

It would certainly make it
much more difficult

To get convictions
on his 16 other cases

If rifkin was found insane
at the first trial.

This creates
a lot of pressure for me.

- The hope of rifkin's lawyer
was, a jury would look at this

And say, "17 women?
This guy has got to be nuts."

- I was hired by
joel rifkin's defense counsel

To look at the issue
of competency.

The situation with rifkin

Is that he's extremely
personality disordered.

At the end,
he was falling apart,

And that's what led me to think
about whether or not

He was really fully competent
to waive his rights

And not have a lawyer
in the room

When he spilled the beans

And just confessed
to all these murders.

- The problem for that is
the confession is so detailed

And methodical

That what normal person
is going to believe him,

That he didn't understand
what he's talking about

When he was so organized
in describing years' worth

Of killing,
you know, over a dozen women?

One of the really weird things

He had told some of
the psychiatrists were that,

After he had killed
most of these women,

Rifkin took the money back
from them

That he had initially
given them

To perform the sex act.

The jury was very persuaded by
that little piece of evidence

That this guy knew exactly
what he was doing.

We were able to establish
beyond a reasonable doubt

That he was guilty
of killing tiffany bresciani.

We were able to disprove
that he was insane

At the time he did this,

And ultimately, rifkin was
sentenced to 28 years to life.

Never saw any human connection
from rifkin

About what he had did
to 17 human beings.

He is a sexual
sadistic murderer.

- Even after joel rifkin
was convicted,

The last chapter wasn't written

Because, after 24 years, susie,
his first victim--

Her head had been dumped
on the golf course--

Had not been identified.

- When he confessed,
joel rifkin clearly explained

That the head that was found
in hopewell township

Was his first victim

And that he only knew
her as susie.

That was the extent of what he
explained during his interview,

So we had what was called

An unidentified
deceased person.

- In hopewell township,

It was the only unsolved
homicide that we had on file,

The only unsolved homicide
I had in my career.

She had a mother somewhere.
She had a father somewhere.

She may even
have had children,

So it became
almost personal with me.

I continued to work the case

Until the time
I retired in 2005.

- I was a patrol officer

And then
subsequently a patrol sergeant.

Over the years,
I always joked with the bosses

That if I ever got
the opportunity,

I was going to solve this case.

I was told by my then-boss
at the time

That I wasn't a detective.

Eventually, I got my shot.

- What caused this?
Why?

How could this have happened?

I saw him through this period.

He wasn't invisible.
He was there.

[ominous music]

- We were always confident
from 1993 on

That the head that was found

At the hopewell valley
country club

Was absolutely
joel rifkin's first victim.

We just didn't have a name

That was associated
with that victim.

When I became lieutenant
in 2012,

I had the opportunity
to look into it.

Susie was picked up

On the lower east side
9th precinct area.

I said, "why don't we just
go up there and see

"if there's, like,
an old-school detective

"up there
who can look through some files

"and maybe give
some names of girls

That were arrested
multiple times in that area?"

One detective kept looking
in the old computer system.

He gave us a list of 19 names.
When I walked out of there,

I thought it was a complete
waste of time, but it wasn't.

One of the names on the list
that was provided

Was susan spencer.

The date of birth was right
for our victim.

The eye color matched.

I thought I was
on the right path.

The name susan spencer
led us down a path

That didn't lead anywhere.

However,
on this criminal history

Was numerous alias names,
numerous alias date of births,

Numerous
social security numbers,

So we decided to run
every single date of birth,

Every single name,

And we located
a missing-persons report

That was filed
in new york city in 1995.

If someone's reporting someone
in 1995

But our head was found
in 1989,

There could be no correlation.

However, I decided
not to discard it.

The name on the missing person
was heidi balch.

Heidi balch was reported
missing by her aunt

Who lived in new york.

My chief,
as I'm explaining to it,

He just goes like this
and points,

"get to new york
and go find the aunt."

Aunt looked at the picture,
said,

"yeah, that's my niece,
heidi balch."

I said, "well, you know,
when she got arrested here"--

It was a picture from 1986--

"she used the name
susan spencer,"

And I'll never forget
this moment

Because she grabs my arm
like a little old lady would

And just said,

"oh, she went by susie
for the longest time."

Literally the hair on the back
of my neck stood up.

We solved this.

The head belongs
to heidi balch.

I called my chief.
He's like,

"do you know what today is?"
I go, "it's March 5th."

He goes,
"yeah, it's March 5th, 2013.

We found the head
March 5th, 1989."

It was 24 years to the day that
we actually solved the case.

- When I spoke
to the other patrolmen,

That's what I always told them,

"don't give up until
you've solved the case."

Having bill springer solve it,
I was overjoyed.

I worked hard on it.

It meant a lot to me,
and it was closure.

I believe that justice
is finally served,

May have taken nearly 30 years,
but we did it.

- The joel rifkin I remember
was just a regular kid

Who was really polite,

Nice, sweet,
never thought he was creepy.

How could he do
these horrible things?

- You're trying to contemplate,
like, what caused this?

Why?
How could this have happened?

I saw him through this period.

He wasn't invisible.
He was there.

This is something
that disturbs me.

He looks like
the guy next door.

He was the guy next door.

He did not look

Like a serial killer
from my point of view.

In every high school,

There's a kid
that's the last to get picked.

In every high school, there's
a kid that doesn't get girls,

But they don't go ahead
and murder 17 women.

There is evil there.

- I never got to say goodbye
to my friend.

I did not have the opportunity
then to attend her funeral

Or to be part of any of
the honoring of her,

Laying her to rest,
or finding closure myself.

- When you think of somebody
you love,

You think about the person
at their finest.

Lorraine, you know,
had big goals, big plans.

It's just so sad.
It's just not fair.

- Catherine was
a fearless person.

She would stare in the face
of just horrendous danger

And just felt like
she could conquer the world.

I will always remember her
primarily as a courageous soul

That will always continue
to impact my decisions

Regardless of what comes.

- It is unthinkable

That someone
that I loved so fiercely,

Who had such
a beautiful life ahead

And who was a mother
to two young children

Would be taken in that way
and disposed of in that way.

That's the message I want
to give to joel rifkin.

Leah was not a throwaway.

None of them are throwaways,
none of them.

- I think what you learn
from a person like joel is,

Childhood trauma
needs to be examined.

If not for the people that
bullied him and abused him,

He was pretty much invisible,

And I think that created issues
with his identity.

That anonymity helped joel,
the serial killer,

But hurt his psyche,

And this was his way
of lashing out.

- He never once expressed anger
towards women in general

Or even prostitutes in general.

Instead, most of that anger
was directed at himself

And the fact that he couldn't
break his addiction

To the women on the streets.

Had he gotten some help
maybe about the bullying,

Maybe some counseling
about his sexual urges,

You know, maybe this
wouldn't have happened,

And maybe, you know,

A lot of these lives
would've been saved.

- Joel and I had
a rapport instantly.

We had it in 1979
the first time we met,

And that rapport was picked up
the minute we were reconnected

In that
prison visitation room,

But the joel that I
interviewed differed so much

From the joel that I knew
in college.

He felt no guilt,
no remorse, no pain.

You still have thoughts
of killing people?

- It's like
the alcoholic says.

They're in recovery.

You put a beer in their hands,
that they can relapse.

It's not guaranteed,
but there's a possibly.

Where I am right now today,

I know
this is the best place for me.