they lied they would be looking at serious jeopardy. Both men changed their stories, and Hansen’s alibi fell apart.
Hansen was arrested. The authorities took the profile to a judge and were granted a search warrant for Hansen’s property; this was the first time a criminal profile had ever been used to support a search-warrant request. In Hansen’s house, they found jewelry and identification belonging to some of the victims, as well as a .223 caliber Ruger Mini-14 hunting rifle that was a ballistics match to the shell casing.
Hansen pleaded guilty to the four homicides the police could definitively connect him to, and as part of his plea deal, he showed them seventeen grave sites in the Knik River Valley. Twelve of the sites were ones that the authorities hadn’t known about, and human remains were discovered in most of them. Ultimately, the police connected Hansen to twenty-one murders, and they believed that there could be more.
Robert Hansen is serving a 461-year prison sentence at the Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska. His big-game hunting days are far behind him, and his name has been expunged from the record books.
YET ANOTHER PROSTITUTE murderer who earns a mention on Criminal Minds is Joel Rifkin, who is brought up in the episode “Charm and Harm” (120) as an example of a criminal who was also an amateur photographer. Rifkin was busted because of a minor violation—driving a pickup truck with no license plate—in East Meadow, Long Island, on June 28, 1993. Instead of pulling over, he tried to flee, so the patrol officers called for reinforcements and gave chase. His truck missed a turn and smashed into a lamppost, and the driver finally surrendered.
The cops noticed a foul odor coming from beneath a tarp in the truck’s bed. Underneath, they found the decomposing, plastic-wrapped body of Tiffany Bresciani, twenty-two years old. Rifkin, thirty-four, explained her presence by saying that she was a prostitute. He had sex with her and then killed her. “Do you think I need a lawyer?” he asked. As it turned out, he did.
Later that day, the authorities searched the house that Rifkin shared with his mother. They found women’s clothing and jewelry, purses and wallets, and several photographs of women. He also had books on the as-yet-unsolved Green River Killer and articles about prostitute-murderer Shawcross. In the garage the police found rope and a tarp, plus a chain saw with bits of human flesh stuck in the teeth and a wheelbarrow that contained human blood.
Once Rifkin was in custody, it didn’t take long for his tale to emerge. Bresciani, he revealed, was actually his seventeenth murder victim, making him New York’s most prolific serial killer. Bludgeoning and strangling his victims, he was then creative in hiding their bodies. His first victim, in 1989, he dismembered, putting her head in a paint can and the rest of her in garbage bags that he spread throughout New Jersey and New York. The next victim he chopped up and put into cans that he filled with fresh concrete, then tossed into the East River.
Dismemberment proved to be too much effort, so after that Rifkin left the bodies whole and simply stashed them inside containers of some sort—oil drums were a favorite. He patronized prostitutes nearly every night, spending almost all of the money he earned on them, but his murders were relatively selective. Rifkin, who was white, victimized white, Asian, Latina, and African American women of various ages.
At the trial, the prosecutor described Rifkin as a sexual sadist who got his satisfaction from causing his victims pain. The jury agreed, and he’s now ensconced at the Clinton Correctional Facility, better known as Dannemora, in New York. With a 203-year sentence, he’ll be eligible for parole in 2197.
Rifkin, like many other sexual predators, had an abiding interest in photography, and the photographs that were found in his bedroom helped to convict him of his
Hansen was arrested. The authorities took the profile to a judge and were granted a search warrant for Hansen’s property; this was the first time a criminal profile had ever been used to support a search-warrant request. In Hansen’s house, they found jewelry and identification belonging to some of the victims, as well as a .223 caliber Ruger Mini-14 hunting rifle that was a ballistics match to the shell casing.
Hansen pleaded guilty to the four homicides the police could definitively connect him to, and as part of his plea deal, he showed them seventeen grave sites in the Knik River Valley. Twelve of the sites were ones that the authorities hadn’t known about, and human remains were discovered in most of them. Ultimately, the police connected Hansen to twenty-one murders, and they believed that there could be more.
Robert Hansen is serving a 461-year prison sentence at the Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska. His big-game hunting days are far behind him, and his name has been expunged from the record books.
YET ANOTHER PROSTITUTE murderer who earns a mention on Criminal Minds is Joel Rifkin, who is brought up in the episode “Charm and Harm” (120) as an example of a criminal who was also an amateur photographer. Rifkin was busted because of a minor violation—driving a pickup truck with no license plate—in East Meadow, Long Island, on June 28, 1993. Instead of pulling over, he tried to flee, so the patrol officers called for reinforcements and gave chase. His truck missed a turn and smashed into a lamppost, and the driver finally surrendered.
The cops noticed a foul odor coming from beneath a tarp in the truck’s bed. Underneath, they found the decomposing, plastic-wrapped body of Tiffany Bresciani, twenty-two years old. Rifkin, thirty-four, explained her presence by saying that she was a prostitute. He had sex with her and then killed her. “Do you think I need a lawyer?” he asked. As it turned out, he did.
Later that day, the authorities searched the house that Rifkin shared with his mother. They found women’s clothing and jewelry, purses and wallets, and several photographs of women. He also had books on the as-yet-unsolved Green River Killer and articles about prostitute-murderer Shawcross. In the garage the police found rope and a tarp, plus a chain saw with bits of human flesh stuck in the teeth and a wheelbarrow that contained human blood.
Once Rifkin was in custody, it didn’t take long for his tale to emerge. Bresciani, he revealed, was actually his seventeenth murder victim, making him New York’s most prolific serial killer. Bludgeoning and strangling his victims, he was then creative in hiding their bodies. His first victim, in 1989, he dismembered, putting her head in a paint can and the rest of her in garbage bags that he spread throughout New Jersey and New York. The next victim he chopped up and put into cans that he filled with fresh concrete, then tossed into the East River.
Dismemberment proved to be too much effort, so after that Rifkin left the bodies whole and simply stashed them inside containers of some sort—oil drums were a favorite. He patronized prostitutes nearly every night, spending almost all of the money he earned on them, but his murders were relatively selective. Rifkin, who was white, victimized white, Asian, Latina, and African American women of various ages.
At the trial, the prosecutor described Rifkin as a sexual sadist who got his satisfaction from causing his victims pain. The jury agreed, and he’s now ensconced at the Clinton Correctional Facility, better known as Dannemora, in New York. With a 203-year sentence, he’ll be eligible for parole in 2197.
Rifkin, like many other sexual predators, had an abiding interest in photography, and the photographs that were found in his bedroom helped to convict him of his
Similar Books
