The Gilgo Beach Serial Killer
Over the weekend a reader sent me some links and a quick message to Google the Gilgo Beach serial killer. The reader also offered a name as to who they thought was the killer. Gilgo Beach is on Long Island and back in 2010 a prostitute went missing and when a search was conducted for her, four bodies showed up and the next year, four more turned up, all in the same vicinity. All the women that have been identified have been identified as women who made their living as escort or adult entertainers. A total of ten bodies have been found so far including a toddler and an Asian male.
In the past month, one of the family members of a victim has tried to get money raised to increase the reward offered for the arrest of the killer.
Here is where things get very interesting. There have not been any killings or bodies found in quite some time and people have been speculating that the killer may be in prison or dead. It is amazing to me that there can be a serial killing of town people but it barely makes a blip news wise outside the east coast. What if the serial killer decides to move to another beach community in another part of the country? I would kind of like to know that. I do think its very strange that there was body after body and they suddenly stopped.
Holy shit. Those poor people.
ReplyDeleteI need to get my mind out of the gutter. After reading about Travolta and fisting slings, I thought it was the DILDO Beach killer. The all do kind of go together.
ReplyDeleteThat is why prostitutes are so easy to prey on, because it generally doesn't make much of a ripple in the news. Case in point: Green River killer.
ReplyDeleteGeez - where have you been? This has been all over CNN, Foxnews & MSNBC. I've even seen a special on it on either A&E or that Investigative channel. My husband worked at Jones Beach in college and summers (he was a teacher years ago in NYC) and we've been following this.
ReplyDeletePS: Well, that's not the only reason why. But you get my point. (Another reason is that hookers are less likely to have relatives who raise a stink in the community, sometimes because they just don't know; other times because they don't care.)
ReplyDeleteIt's Long Island, right? I've read a about this several times in the last few years. They think it's a cop I believe. Anyway, sad for the victims.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to say Green River Killer.
ReplyDeleteWe had a string of them in Milwaukee recently. They found the SOB but I remember reading the newspaper, wondering when they were going to finally say it was a serial killer.
It's also not uncharacteristic for SKs to go dormant for a period of time. I took a class called Psychopaths and Serial Killers in college - it was AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteJealous. I just took a Beattles class. Yours would have been way more interesting. (only took it b/c I loved the prof and needed random credits to pass.)
DeleteSo you don't want to reveal who the reader thought might be the killer which is totally fine but did you research to see if that possible killer had actually been arrested or died around the time the killings stopped? If you're going to mention it then at least give us some follow up otherwise it just feels incomplete. Also, I know it didn't make huge headlines but it was covered enough by national media outlets that I remember reading it when I was working in LA. I'm bicoastal but I remember where I first learned about this case and I was definitely in L.A. People's attention spans are just really short and they tend to know and remember more about reality stars than they do real news, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteIn WA. state the Green River Killer managed to stay ahead of the law for years.
ReplyDeleteThis person could be in jail on a lesser offense, dead,or moved on, if they have no leads or suspects a person killing randomly can get away with it for a long time.
It doesn't look like it should apply here, but in some cases jurisdictional issues keep law enforcement from realizing they have a serial killer.
Let's hope this person is is dead.
I would urge people again to read Gavin DeBeckers' *Gift of Fear.*
Well you know, if they found MY body-dumping site & made it public I think I'd find a new spot to dump my bodies too.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'.
And Amber - that class sounds pretty killer (excuse me!), I took one on drugs & behavior and it was pretty awesome too.
This is the same killer they think did the 4/5 Atlantic city prostitute killings, leaving them behind seedy motels on the bay right?
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ReplyDeleteI have heard about this as well and live on the west coast. I didn't know a toddler was involved. How is the toddler connected? :(
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ReplyDeleteg. nomeyy can you please tell us more?
ReplyDeleteHunter & Diana - it was so great. For our final project we were given a person's case file and had to profile them. Drugs & Behavior would be super fascinating! I loved any abnormal psychology classes (it should be clear by now that I was a psych major lol). Though, I'm curious about what a Beatles course would cover? Listen to music, study lyrics, and watch films for a class? I'm in!
ReplyDeleteWhat nunurbiz and Del Riser said. I grew up right in the area where many of the green river killer's earliest victims were found, in a remote part of southeast King county where there is a lot of thick woods, windy roads and a whole bevy of creepy remoteness. How do I say this w/out sounding sick/twisted myself: it is an ideal place to dump bodies where the evidence can decompose undisturbed for months or even years before the police put together some kind of legitimate lead/suspect list. That is exactly what happened for a good ten years before Reichert zeroed in on the actual killer (who was basically hiding in plain sight).
ReplyDeletePersonal opinion is that prostitutes and/or escorts are easy prey for serial killers, because on some level the predator knows the victim is already off the grid, via lifestyle and social connections. Harder to pin down the last whereabouts of such women if the related witnesses are pimps, cab drivers, tricks, etc.
I'd say two years is better than average in piecing together some kind of pattern.
Sad for the victims' families/hopeful they find the guy.
Ugh, please don't bring up Gary Ridgeway. That's far too close to home (a buddy of mine hails from Auburn) and my dad knew Bundy (socially). The horrible, horrible truth about Green River is that Ridgeway was/is borderline retarded, still managed to get two women to marry him and dodged PNW LEO's out of sheer dumb luck for years. And Reichert is still (nominally) my congressman even though he's just slightly less retarded than Ridgeway.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, sometimes the anonymous fatalism of NYC trends out to the island. You have to go way upstate before you get to a New York that cares if you turn up dead in the morning.
Some friends were travelling around Europe and they said it was on the network news in a few countries.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, fresh dead bodies weren't showing up, they were all pretty much just bones when they were found. Some had been dead over ten years, so it's not like the serial killer suddenly stopped. Second, the person whose name is floating around killed himself back in December and it's just a rumor that he was a person of interest. What a horrible thing to have pinned on you if you're innocent.
ReplyDeleteWhat Comma Chaser said: you can take three steps off a major freeway up here, dump a body and it may not be found for years. It's the most beautiful land upon this sometimes sorry planet, but we have some sick white trash fucks up here. I'm just surprised that a relative of mine, known to work the Sea-Tac strip clubs back in the day, didn't end up in Green River.
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ReplyDeleteLook up Altemio Sanchez from Buffalo....scumbag..raped and killed women on a bike path. The day after one of the murders, he went to a reunion party with his wife, like all was ok. They finally nabbed his sorry a** when they took a fork that he ate with (good ol' DNA). He's now serving 75 years.
ReplyDeleteThe Zodiac Killer (shiver) was dormant for like a decade I think before he started killing again. They think he only stopped cause he died of old age or something. Bastard.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, this dude is nasty. We were talking about legalizing prostitution on another post yesterday- this is another good reminder that when we legalize something we make it part of society and less off the grid. Thus, perhaps some sicko would be less prone to pick on the weak or voiceless, like prostitutes if we legalized this profession.
Isn't prostitution unionized in Amsterdam as well as legalized? We should have that here for sure. Same thing with marijuana.
ReplyDeleteFellow Washingtonian here! Glad to see some peeps from my home state on the site.
ReplyDeleteAmber - yeah the class was hilarious & very educational. Lots of us would contribute by saying, "well I wouldn't know from experience but a friend told me..."
Good stuff.
I live quite close to where the bodies were dumped.
ReplyDeleteSpeculation is that the baby was a prostitute's child who came along with her on a "date." It happens.
Also, the police believe that the woman in 2010 who was last seen running out of a house actually drowned in the salt marsh, and while searching for her, the police found all these other bodies.
It's a desolate area--there's pretty much nothing but beach and scrub there and practically no one is there during the winter.
http://www.newsday.com/news/breaking/cops-1-killer-to-blame-in-gilgo-murders-1.3354904
ReplyDeletePhotos give you an idea of how desolate the area is - police were searching with helicopters 5 feet off the ground because it was so thick with brush. Also a list of the victims - both identified and not.
@hunter, fellow Washingtonian here, I used to get really peeved when I heard it said *If you want to be a serial killer, move to WA. they don't catch them there.*
ReplyDeleteBack in the day I realized that me and a huge group of friends were at Lake Samammish State Park the day Bundy took one of his first girls. We always wondered if we would have helped a good looking guy with his arm in a cast ....Creepy.
@danielle yes, I think they were saying for a while this person was the same as the Atlantic City killer. I think there were four prostitutes in that one, all from the same seedy motel, all in the marsh by the railroad tracks, all laid facing East. I'm not sure if it was proven it was the same person, but that was a theory.
ReplyDeleteCreepy. Also, creepy? that crime scene was across the street from my last job.
I've never heard of this case before. Someone said some remains were old, is that the case? Adding some links to credible news sources would only help the validity of these posts.
ReplyDeleteI'll just add, in addition to prostitutes being easy targets because they are off the grid and likely don't have family looking for them, quite often their disappearances go unreported and/or the cops don't care. Take a look at Western Canada and the number of aboriginal women who have turned up dead and they're pretty much all unsolved cases.
Bundy was just that horrible combination of sociopathy and homicidal brilliance. "Everyone knew Ted," to have heard my dad tell it, back in the day. He was a rising star as a GOP youth organizer in Seattle...and was slaughtering young women out by Sammamish or the U-District at the same time.
ReplyDeleteYou know what? As a third-generation Washingtonian, I don't cop to either of those sick fucks. We got our own problems--a close relative was once a mental health officer in a rural WA county--but Bundy and Ridgeway don't really go on our tab. They were twisted before they moved here.
This story blew over pretty quickly on the east coast also. I am in NYC. I think nobody really cares becuase they were all prostitutes. If it was wholsome young girls then people would be running down the streets with torches looking for the killer demanding answers from the police.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the serial killer stopped. I think he just moved on to a new dumping ground since his last one was uncovered.
Very, very, scary stuff.
Another Washingtonian -- just checkin' in.
ReplyDeletetimebob - totally disagree - the story had been followed pretty closely by NY media print and tv. Just because you don't care doesn't mean other people don't whether the victims were "wholesome" or sex workers.
ReplyDeleteNone of the bodies were recent murders. Some of them were discovered partly at Gilgo and other body parts at other beaches on LI. The guy rumored to have committed suicide because of this case was the owner of a nursery. Many of the remains were found in burlap bags - not that common. But that's only a rumor. And they didn't just stop. They are still finding body parts out there - none recent tho.
No solid info - the other rumor (earlier) is that it was someone involved with law enforcement. Nobody knows for sure.
Anita, I think Robert Pickton would disagree with you there.
ReplyDeleteHe's in jail for all those unsolved murders.
I lived most of my life on Long Island and only moved a couple of years ago. I often would drive on Ocean Parkway to relax before the work week would begin - it was a really nice quiet drive (other than in the Summer) from Jones Beach in Nassau County to Robert Moses State Park.
ReplyDeleteIt's really easy to see why this area was picked to drop bodies. It's just the barrier beaches with a few areas of homes. None of these areas are towns - more like a very small community - very isolated.
@Dementia thanks for assuming I don't care. You're a real doll.
ReplyDeleteI am saying I don't see a lot of print or tv coverage on it anymore. Yes when it first happend but then when it was revealed all the women were craigslist prostitutes it seemed to blow over rather quickly. What am I missing here?
The killer probably used a disposable cell phone to contact these girls.
ReplyDeleteI also saw this on an A&E or 48Hrs special. The creepiest part was one girl who disappeared and her younger sister STILL gets taunting phone calls from the guy who says he killed her (on the dead sister's cell phone). The cops can't trace the call?!
ReplyDeleteI saw the story on the girl they found in the salt marsh recently on ID's "Disappeared" so the story is still out there and the show repeats a lot so at least it's getting media coverage.
ReplyDeleteEase up on NYC folks; bad people are everywhere. The glib "insights" into whether people in NYC care are way off the mark. Of course, using NYC as a scapegoat for whatever ails seems to be popular these days.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely fell in love with Long Island, but it is provincial out East. You would think being so close to NYC it would be louder & busier, I don't know. We were staying in Ronkonkoma of all places, and one day I decided that Montauk looked cool on the map, and was gonna drive out there....but it starts getting CREEPY-quiet as you head East, and I chickened out. I just cannot communicate how surprisingly creepy that area can be.
ReplyDeleteI'm jealous of y'all who live there: NYC + Ocean + trees = paradise. To me.
To you PNW folks, I am reminded how they never found Kyron Horman. Too many trees, and he was so little.
I saw a lot of news coverage for this, too, and it creeps me the hell out.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they tested the DNA of the toddler to see if it matched any of the other bodies, to know if in fact it was the child of one of the women.
Also, I would start with figuring out who the Asian male is, because his death probably wasn't random, unless he was a transgendered prostitute. Meaning this Asian guy, if connected to the other bodies, was most definatly not a stranger to the killer.
I should be a cop.
Amber, I would have LOVED that class. For some reason I have always been fascinated by serial killers. I went to UF long after the Gainsevile murders, and there was a wait list @ Gatorwood apts, where 2 of the girls lived. That was sick to me. I may be fascinated, but I don't want to put my head anywhere near where someone was killed.
ReplyDeleteAs for this case, I have followed it since Shannon Gilbert disappeared - the reason the first four bodies were found as they were looking for her - and they continued to find more as they searched for this one girl. The Asian man was thought to be a woman at first - though this is the first time I have heard he was Asian.
Today is also the first time I have heard of James Bissett, the multi-millionaire who co-owned the aquarium and committed suicide the day after Gilbert's body was finally found. They tried to say she got her feet caught in the marsh in branches and drowned but she was last seen screaming for help. She even stopped at residences, begging for help, stated someone wanted to kill her, and when the gentleman - who came to the door - asked her to stay while the cops were on the way, something spooked her and she ran away.
There were other bodies found from years earlier, around the time Joel Rifkin was on the loose out there - but the last I read, they thought ALL the bodies were connected, and they found more body parts from a previously murdered girl (whose killer was caught), and from at least one new body this March. That was the last I heard.
Today, there are denials - in the press - that there is a possible new suspect, which in the past have included former cops and a doctor - but since this Bissett man committed suicide the day after Gilbert's body was found, there are reports on the net that the burlap sacks the victims were found in are tied to him, and that he was the number one suspect since last September. Like I said, I had never heard of him until today, but there are MSG boards going nuts that he is the guy. For his family's sake, I hope he can formally be named as a suspect, or they can clear his name and give the family some peace. And, I hope the killer is caught and brought to justice for these crimes sooner vs later!!
Snowstorms---I just spent some time on a NY site, in the comments, and people are going NUTS about Bissett. I guess he was a total pillar of the community, well-loved by all, kind to children & animals, etc. All kinds of comments w/ folks screaming at anyone bringing up Bissett's name, that IT CAN'T BE SUCH A NICE GUY, a good businessman, etc.
ReplyDeleteLike Gacy? Bundy? Maybe it's not Bissett, but 'successful' serial killers have to be smart. It's absurd to pretend a nice guy couldn't have done it.
Sorry snowstorms, I missed your part about the comment boards going 'nuts'. I don't wear my glasses, and gloss over stuff without realizing. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHysteria on web bulletin boards usually means people are speculating - real facts are rare. Who gave Enty the information that he wrote about and where did they get it? Because it was pretty slanted to read as if all these people had just turned up freshly murdered.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wish peace to the families of the victims, and I really hope that this case is solved. Soon
In response to serial killers don't kill themselves normally, they often do if they are close to getting caught. We had the Granny Killer in Australia, only reported serial killer of elderly ladies. He killed himself before trial I believe.
ReplyDeleteGMTA Libby!! :-) glad I am not the only one who read up more on this article after enty's post...lol!!
ReplyDeleteDementia, it wasn't me, but I'm glad someone did. They also sent news to enty right after people started speculating about this Bissett guy...interesting!!
feraltart, that was my feeling as well. The only one I remember was Christopher Wilder, back in the early 80's. I don't remember the specifics, but I do know he posed as a photographer and that is how he met a number of his victims. He was cornered by cops/roadblock and killed himself at a gas station. I might have some facts wrong, but it was something very similar.
Hollywood gossip is quite a bit more fun to discuss, and normally doesn't give me nightmares...lol I wish I knew what got me interested in this subject, but this is one I can't pin on my grandmother...lol
Check out the NY Magazine archives for an excellent article published in 2011 about the families of the missing girls. Have not been able to hear anything about iit and not think about what they must be going through since I read it
ReplyDeleteSpree murderers are the ones that usually off themselves before getting caught. Serial killers are too cocky for the most part.
ReplyDeletehey jax, in BC we also have the Highway of Tears where 18 women, many aboriginal, have gone missing. Unsolved, possibly a couple of truck drivers they speculate. And besides Robert Pickton, I think he was thought to have some help.
ReplyDeleteI believe that some of those 10 bodies were from a much older time than the others. I think there were 6 that were current.
ReplyDeleteThey tried to tie it to 4 hooker bodies that were found behind a motel in AC a few years before, but the signs didn't line up.
When the story first broke, if you tries to go to the hookers myspace pages to see their pics, you got hung w/ a virus/malware. I guess the FBI was on a phishing expedition.
Criminology experts estimate that there are approximately 30-50 serial killers operating at any one time in the US. A small amount in relative to the whole population, but still quite a few un-caught serial killers out there. More than you'd want there to be, certainly.
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