(gate buzzing)
(intense music)
- I'm now in a little cage,
and it's, how did I get here?
How did they end up dead?
What happened?
And I'm trying to make sense out of it.
I'm still trying to make sense out of it.
It didn't start out this way.
- I've always been interested in Joel Rifkin's story
because I find it so unusual compared
to what you would think
the life of a serial killer was like.
I think a lot of people, myself included,
think that to become a serial killer,
you need to be abused.
But he wasn't abused.
He came from what would be considered a good home.
He grew up in East Meadow, New York,
which is a suburb in Long Island.
His mother gave me home movies of Rifkin growing up as a kid
and it's filled with birthday parties,
visits to the park and playing with kids.
So he seemed to have a very normal and loving childhood.
His parents worked hard to give him all the things he needed
in life to succeed,
and yet he still became a serial killer.
And so after he was arrested,
anyone that knew Rifkin was completely surprised
by the fact that this mild-mannered kid
that had grown up in East Meadow was a serial killer
that was living amongst them.
- I've seen reports about it and read articles about it.
It's just not the Joel I could ever imagine.
He was kind of quiet, reserved,
but to me, very friendly.
He wasn't a scary person at all.
He wasn't threatening to anybody or anything.
- The person I knew was not an evil person.
He was just a soft-spoken, easygoing, polite guy who,
if a neighbor came home, if it was an older woman,
he would offer to help carry her packages.
There was literally nothing about this man
that would've led me to believe
that he would've ever done what he did.
I think that's what made it a shock
to everybody who knew him.
That it was almost like a Jekyll and Hyde thing.
The last time that I was ever with him was in '84.
Literally, the next time I heard his name
was that night on CNN, nine years later.
(camera flashes) - There was an arrest
of Joel Rifkin for murder.
- I remember this like it was yesterday.
I hear the name, Joel Rifkin,
and a chill goes up my back.
And on the screen,
law enforcement is bringing him in to a police station.
(tense music)
And then I'm like, "Oh my god, it's him."
- It was not just shocking, which it clearly was,
but it was really sad.
I don't think Joel was just a maniacal type person
that was destined to murder people.
I just think, you know, something happened,
clicked in his mind.
- He's been asked why he's done it
and every time I ever hear him asked that,
he kind of dodges the question.
He kinda says, "I really don't know."
And I can tell you this.
I'm certain that he does know.
But he just doesn't want to tell.
(dramatic music)
- You don't wanna say there is a profile of a serial killer,
but Rifkin checked a lotta the boxes that we find commonly.
Most serial killers certainly have a degree
of psychopathy, narcissism.
When you look at Rifkin's crimes,
I think the psychopathy,
you can see the total disregard for human life,
for the value of these women.
These were just objects to him
to meet his needs.
The narcissism, I think, is there too
because he thinks he's smarter than everyone
by doing this and getting away with this.
But with these serial killers,
we really don't know where this desire to engage
in this extremely violent,
pathological behavior comes from.
We know it's multi-determined.
There can be environmental influences,
contextual influences, there can be genetic predispositions.
I talk about the nature-nurture tango.
It's a dance between the two,
and we don't really know how it all comes together.
But it becomes this combustible combination of these things
that results in Rifkin.
(tense music)
An analogy that I use a lot in trying to explain this,
so you make a cake, all right?
And you mix up the batter
and you put the cake in the oven and you get it out,
and you realize, I didn't put any sugar in the cake.
How am I gonna-
Am I gonna massage that in the cake now?
Am I gonna be able to rub that sugar in that?
No, no, you're not.
Or you pour motor oil in the batter.
How am I gonna get the motor oil out of the cake?
Well, you're not.
And it's the same with these guys.
They either are missing something they need
or they have something they don't need.
And right now, we don't know how to make it right.
(dramatic music)