The Gilgo Beach Killer
AKA: The Craigslist Ripper
Years Active: 1996 - 2011
Victim Count: At least 10
The Crimes: Since 2010, police have discovered the remains of 10 people along Gilgo Beach, Long Island, several of whom were sex workers who used Craiglist to find customers. Originally, police suspected there were multiple murderers, but eventually concluded it was likely the work of just one serial killer. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said:
We've had the same dumping ground, sex workers, young women - even though there were the Asian male and the toddler - but we think they were connected to the sex trade in some way. And these common denominators indicate we have the one person committing these crimes.
Status: In 2023 and 2024, architect Rex Heuermann was charged with the murders of the “Gilgo Four” - Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the killings.
In The Media: Lost Girls, a crime drama based on the killings, was released on Netflix in 2020.
Joel Rifkin
AKA: Joel the Ripper
Years Active: 1989 - 1993
Victim Count: 17
The Crimes: In 1993, police attempted to pull over unemployed landscaper Joel Rifkin for driving without a license plate. Instead, he led them on a car chase that ended with him crashing into a pole. Inside his trunk was the body of 22-year-old Tiffany Bresciani. In addition to Bresciani, Rifkin confessed to killing 16 other sex workers.
Punishment: 203 years in prison
In The Media: In Season 5, episode 9 of Seinfeld, entitled “The Masseuse,” Elaine dates a man named Joel Rifkin and must convince him to change it so no one confuses him with the serial killer.
A docuseries about Rifkin, entitled Cold Case Files: The Rifkin Murders, was released in 2023.
Richard Cottingham
AKA: The Torso Killer
Years Active: 1967 to 1980
Victim Count: 12, but has confessed to up to 100
The Crimes: Richard Cottingham - a computer programmer, husband, and father - earned his disturbing nickname because of the way he mutilated his victims, five of whom were on Long Island.
Punishment: Life in prison. Judge Caryn Fink, who added to his sentence after he confessed to more murders in 2022, told him:
Make no mistake, Mr. Cottingham. Nobody has any sympathy for you. There is no sentence that I can impose that will truly be enough.
In The Media: There have been at least two docuseries about Cottingham: Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer and The Torso Killer Confessions.
Robert Shulman
Years Active: 1991 - 1995
Victim Count: 5
The Crimes: Post office employee Robert Shulman killed several sex workers in his Hicksville, NY, apartment, including Kelly Sue Bunting, 28, Lori Vasquez, 24, Lisa Ann Warner, 18, Meresa Hammonds, 31, and an unidentified woman. During the investigation of Bunting's death, several sex workers led police to Shulman's apartment, where they found forensics that connected him to the crimes. His brother, Barry, later confessed to helping Shulman hide the bodies and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Punishment: Life without parole. Shulman died of natural causes in 2006.
Richard Angelo
AKA: The Angel of Death
Year Active: 1987
Victim Count: 4 confirmed, 30+ suspected
The Crimes: Richard Angelo worked as an intensive-care nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, where he injected patients with a paralyzing muscle relaxant called Pavulon so he could then revive them. In a taped confession, Angelo said he did it so he could “Come out looking like [he] knew what [he] was doing” and that he “had no confidence” in himself and “felt very inadequate.”
The bodies of 32 of his patients were exhumed to see if they had Pavulon in their system. Angelo was found guilty of the second-degree murder and second-degree assault of John Stanley Fisher, 75, Anthony Greene, 57, and Milton Poultney, 75, and the criminally negligent homicide of Frederick LaGois, 60.
Punishment: 50 years in prison.
Raymond Fernandez And Martha Beck
AKA: The Lonely Hearts Killers
Years Active: 1947 - 1949
Victim Count: As many as 20
The Crimes: Fernandez and Beck - posing as siblings - used personal ads to lure single women to their deaths. They were eventually convicted of killing Janet Fay, 66, but confessed to the deaths of Delphine Downing, 28, and her infant, Rainelle.
Punishment: Fernandez and Beck were both executed in 1951.
In The Media: The murderous lovers inspired at least three movies, The Honeymoon Killers from 1970, Deep Crimson from 1996, and Lonely Hearts from 2006.
