﻿What do you think monsters look like? Not the ones in the stories you were told once
upon a time, but real, human monsters? When someone pictures criminals, many find it easy
to imagine rugged and masculine individuals who reek of trouble. Real-life monsters, though,
can take on any look and be anyone. Joel Rifkin struggled growing up in
every way imaginable, failing in societal standards constantly well into adulthood.
Once a young social outcast, Rifkin is known now as New York's most prolific serial killer. How
could he kill 17 women in a 4-year span and only be caught in a non-related police encounter?
This is the story of Joel Rifkin and his monstrous crimes.
Born in 1959, Rifkin was a product of a young unwed couple. Aside from the shame placed on them
by their peers, the couple couldn't afford the infant, and he was ultimately put up for adoption.
He would be adopted at 3 weeks old, finding a home with an upper-middle-class couple in Long Island,
New York. A few years after his adoption, his parents would adopt
a little girl, giving Rifkin a sister. Rifkin was socially inept from a young age,
becoming an easy target for bullies as soon as he began attending school.
Awkward physically, Rifkin also suffered from learning disabilities and a stutter. In a 1960s
world, young Joel didn't stand a chance against his peers. The abuse and isolation he experienced
drove him further inside himself, leading to constant thoughts of taboo and dark acts.
His teenage years held no peace either. He was interested in photography and worked as
hard as he could on the yearbooks. His classmates still abused him,
rejecting him harmfully numerous times over his years of education.
The constant assault of his peers had his grades dropping, which embarrassed Rifkin's father.
When he was away from his peers, he would continue to be berated at home.
When he graduated, he tried to further his education. He first attempted at the local
community college but failed to commit the effort needed. From the community college,
he would try the state university. Somewhere before this, his parents gave him a vehicle.
At the state university, Rifkin was in a brief relationship, but it ultimately led nowhere.
It ended by the time Rifkin moved back home after two years of university education.
While he tried once more at the community, Rifkin gave up on higher education by 1984.
During his years of higher education, Rifkin also picked up a pastime.
He was hoping his new activity would bring some sense of validation to his otherwise failed life.
With the money from the sporadic jobs he would hold, he began soliciting prostitutes.
Rifkin continued to struggle through life, his lack of drive and commitment nearly impossible to
keep a long-time job. This would further translate into the rest of his life, shown in the number of
times he moved away from his parents, only to shortly return due to his lack of ability.
He continued to solicit prostitutes through his 20s,
being swindled or robbed of his money by the woman or her pimp at least a dozen times.
It was in Rifkin's late 20s when life took an even darker turn.
In 1987, a month after Rifkin's 28th birthday, his father committed suicide.
The older man had been suffering from prostate cancer, along with emphysema.
The pain became too much, and Rifkin's father took an abundance of medications to overdose.
Rifkin would continue living with his widowed mother after his father's feather,
surely having the failures of his life magnified by the sudden grief he was struck with.
During the time following the loss of his father, Rifkin focused heavily on violence
and prostitutes. It could be speculated Rifkin concentrated on the things he could control.
Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 Frenzy resonated deeply with Rifkin,
the main character's use of strangulation tempting in the worst of ways.
Rifkin would make the decision to kill on a night in March of 1989. He turned 30 about two months
beforehand and was still living with his mother. The matriarch was away on a trip on the night
he chose to commit his heinous deed. He cruised Manhattan's East village until he found a victim.
He didn't learn the victim's name during the drive back to his home,
his disgusting plan already fully planted in his head. They would return to the house and commence
a transaction for her services. When it was over, Rifkin grabbed an old howitzer shell he had
displayed and bludgeoned the woman, using blunt force and strangulation to rob her of her life.
Despite the violence of the act, Rifkin was sated for the moment. He took a moment to
clean up his surroundings as well as himself before he took a nap. The corpse he created
was no concern for him in those moments. When he woke once more, he carried the body into the
basement to place it atop the washer and dryer. Then, he grabbed his tool: an X-Acto knife.
With a horrific sense of focus, Rifkin concentrated on dismembering his victim.
He boiled it down to being a biology class, and he carved each limb from the body. The severed
parts of the body would end up in different containers for disposal. Legs and arms were
packaged in garbage bags (but only after the fingerprints were cut from the victim)
while her head would be placed in an empty paint can. Before he would put the head in the can,
though, he took the time to pull each of the teeth from the victim to further foil identification.
When he was ready to dispose of the evidence, Rifkin drove to New Jersey. The different parts
would be placed in separate locations by the murderer before returning home to New York. With
his first kill and his need for control at ease for now, he continued on living life as usual.
Even when the head of his victim was found, he stayed effectively calm.
Dubbed "Susie," this victim still has no name at the time of this video.
For the next year and a half, Rifkin didn't feel the need to kill. He continued soliciting
prostitutes, making attention stray from him, particularly in that community. It was in the
second half of 1990 that Rifkin's mother went out of town again. He brought another street
worker home and bashed her in the head with a table leg after their exchange, finishing the
gruesome act with strangling. He would carry the body downstairs as he had done over a year prior.
As he worked on disposing of the body, he prioritized doing better than he had
before. He purchased cement to weigh down the buckets he chose to place the body parts into.
He would dispose of her, and her disappearance would go unnoticed until Rifkin's confession
when he was captured years later. His second murder boosted his desire
for violence, making his psychopathy impossible to satisfy, or at least impossible to satisfy
for long. Murder was easy for him, especially when he targeted other societal outcasts.
Rifkin's third murder would come less than a year later, on July 13, 1991. During the
in-between months, he would start his own landscaping business, which like everything
else in his life, would fail. He rented a storage space that would assist him in his crime spree.
His third victim was another societal outcast who was ill with drug addiction.
Like his two prior victims, he drove her home with him. When she fell asleep, he would bash her with
the same table leg he had on his previous victim. The thought of dismembering another body didn't
appeal to Rifkin, leading to a different disposal method.
He wrapped the corpse in plastic, folded it into a box, and disposed of it into the Hudson River. Her
corpse would be found hours later, but she would remain unidentified until Rifkin's confession.
Less than two months after his atrocious crimes against the woman,
he would pick up a depressed 22-year-old with an addiction. During his later confession,
he recounted spending over $150 on her drugs before purchasing a cheap motel. She reportedly
"complained" before and during their sexual exchange, concerned only about her next fix.
Rifkin claims he asked the young woman if she wanted to die, to which she responded in
affirmation. Rifkin strangled his victim with ease, having no fight from the young outcast.
He purchased a trunk to stuff her corpse into, enabling him to transport the body without being
seen. He was inspired by a scene from the aforementioned Frenzy by Alfred Hitchcock.
This victim's corpse would be dumped at a rest stop in a different district, where she
would t be found for another month. She would remain unidentified until Rifkin's confession.
In the same month, Rifkin would pick up a woman he had been with before. He had not picked her up,
intending to kill her, keeping his darker acts confined to women he hadn't socialized
with before. However, she was also his second pickup in a short amount of time. He would fail
to perform and lash out in his shame. He strangled her and disposed of the corpse in the East River.
She would be buried with her identity due to her ex-husband confirming her identity.
The murders would keep coming, but New York police had more significant priorities than
their shamed population. As Rifkin continued his murder spree, he also kept living his life.
There was even an incident in which Rifkin talked his way out of police suspicion when accused of
illegal dumping. This accusation came when he was caught after disposing of his sixth victim.
Not getting caught added a sick sense of pride that would drive his bloodlust further.
This sixth victim came a few days before Christmas, a seventh coming the day after
the joyous holiday. Getting away with so much made Rifkin feel invincible.
He would commit murder twice more within the month following Christmas of 1991,
making his victim tally grow to nine. Rifkin attempted college again in the spring of 1992,
but it would be ditched in favor of his darker fascinations.
It was Mother's Day weekend of 1992 when he took his 10th victim. Rifkin felt so in control;
he picked the woman up in broad daylight. Memorial Day would bring an 11th victim, a 12th coming
during the summer months, and a 13th in October. His last victim of 1992 was his 14fh victim.
He recounts her fighting back viciously, clawing at Rifkin's face and neck. The crime was committed
in November and Rifkin walked away from the encounter with physical wounds. This trace
of evidence slowed the speed of Rifkin's attacks, embarrassed into dormancy for over three months.
During the last days of February 1993, he would take a 15th victim; April 2 brought a 16th. The
murders were piling on fast, with the bodies of the victims being found sporadically during the
prior two years. There was no suspicion on Rifkin whatsoever and he may have continued his reign
of terror if it wasn't for one summer day. Early in the morning of June 24, 1993, Rifkin
would kill again, taking the life of his 17th and final victim. Killing her before the sun rose,
he would put her corpse in the trunk of his mom's car, buying tarp and rope along the drive back
home, wrapping the corpse before he returned. Upon his arrival, his mother demanded her car
keys. She was gone with the car before Rifkin had time to remove the corpse.
For an agonizing half-hour, Rifkin would wait for his mother to return, relieved when he learned she
was none the wiser. He moved the corpse soon after to a wheelbarrow and allowed himself to relax.
He got a bit too relaxed, working on his truck for a few hot summer days before he chose to
dispose of the body. It was the morning of June 28, 1993, when the corpse was finally in transit.
He put the decomposing corpse into the trunk and began to journey north.
On his ride, police noted the lack of a rear license plate. When approaching to pull the man
over, Rifkin led police on a high-speed chase that ended with Rifkin wrecking into a pole.
He didn't do himself any favors, fully confessing to the crime he
committed that led to a corpse in his trunk. Not only that crime,
but the 16 beforehand as well. He even drew maps to lead police to previously undiscovered corpses.
Previously nameless Jane Does were reunited once more with their identity thanks to
Rifkin's confessions and the acquisition of evidence from his kept "trophies."
The justice system in the trials would take a while to fully go through.
The defense caused as many delays in the court dates as they could to build their case.
By the end of it all, he was sentenced to 203 years in prison with no possibility of parole.
He remains in prison to this day and will die in prison. He has a pet project that
focuses on rehabilitating prostitutes, including less than conventional methods
of psychological use of fear. Joel Rifkin is a monster through
and through. Share your thoughts down below, and remember to subscribe for more.