S&D: Serial Killers

*than

It was less the interviews themselves, for me, than that was pretty much all there was. My own preference, purely in terms of a film, would be a narrator, mostly footage from when it happened--the neighborhood arrest, for instance, was great--and less time on those interviews. I guess they were working within the strictures of what they had. It did spook me, though. I finished around 11:00 p.m., and I had planned on taking a shower afterwards. Held off until today.

Severely underrated outside of France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais

I loved the two main detectives tbh. Couldnt get enough.

i would much rather hear from homicide detectives & survivors than talking heads trying to “humanize” ramirez

definitely not looking for a 'fanboy' documentary of dude or anything!

I thought the film (or series, or whatever) struck the right balance here. It was very clear on what Ramirez's childhood was like, but it didn't dwell on it, and it positioned that information at the beginning of the fourth episode, at which point you're fully aware of everything he's done.

agreed, the show centred the crimes and the victims rather than Ramirez himself, who wasn’t even mentioned by name until the last episode. I also liked that it highlighted how institutional incompetence and petty one-upmanship between police jurisdictions were a major, major reason why Ramirez wasn’t caught earlier. And even though the detectives were the main talking heads, the series didn’t portray them as flawless heroes (there was even that one horrible cop who bragged about beating up perps ugh).

The man he murdered in San Francisco was named Peter Pan.

he can die, he can die, he can die!

― if Spaghetti-Os had whammy bars (Neanderthal), Wednesday, January 27, 2021 6:05 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

guilty lol

yeah that idiot cop boasting about beating up a perp, what a wanker. I thought there was going to be some context added: like I was having a breakdown at the time because of work stress or something. But no it was a very banal story with no point told by a pitiless thug that likes beating the shit out of people and then boasting about it on a netflix doc!

I liked how the editorial decision was clearly to just let him at it tbh

I also liked that it highlighted how institutional incompetence and petty one-upmanship between police jurisdictions were a major, major reason why Ramirez wasn’t caught earlier.

You get this a lot in fictional films, but it's usually resentment when the FBI comes in and pulls rank on an investigation that local cops have already begun (Silence of the Lambs, Mindhunter, etc.). Here, it was more like tension between co-equals in L.A. and San Francisco.

yeah the City vs County stuff was maddening, like preventing the car from being fingerprinted. cmon. it seems like it was just out of puerile competitive vindictiveness that the city put up roadblocks like that

you hear about it all the time but seeing it on a huge case like that is just ugh

Id not discount the power of the framing here too tho. Our two boys were settling scores left, right and centre here

tru

Isn't there a serial killer at large in Long Island right now?

― emilys., Friday, 7 June 2013 23:22 (ten years ago) link

Not anymore

https://nypost.com/2023/07/14/gilgo-beach-lisk-serial-killings-suspect-in-police-custody-report/

A suspected serial killer has been arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island, The Post can confirm.

Rex Heuermann, 59, a married architect at a New York City firm, was arrested after being matched to DNA, sources told The Post Friday as cops swarmed his home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park.

Gilgo Beach is very close to wear I grew up. I remember when they found the first remains. I hope the girls’ families have some peace now.

wow.

Ugh where not wear

Gonna be interested to read about how they tracked him down though seems like the family DNA database thing has started to be the break in the case on many of these (iirc both the golden state killer and that guy they caught for the Idaho college student murders were nabbed that way)

oh wow yeah those families have really been through it, hope this gives them some relief

if anyone is curious, Robert Kolker’s “Lost Girls” book covers these murders - highly recommend if you haven’t read it

Glad a suspect was caught, but I really need to know why an architect who works in Manhattan is living in such a shithole of a house.

I guess if I was a serial killer I probably wouldn't ever want to do renovations if it might involve having workers on the property snooping around.

Xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdUOG8pL_m0

I guess if I was a serial killer I probably wouldn't ever want to do renovations if it might involve having workers on the property snooping around.

True, but he had a wife and possibly one or two kids living there as well, according to what I've read. I wonder what they thought of living in that shack while dad commuted to his Fifth Avenue office every day.

I had always felt married serial killers were more a thing of the 70s and earlier. Feel like in this era of electronic communication and surveillance, keeping secrets from anybody is much more difficult.

The last couple major serial killers they caught were the usual "devoted family man", iirc the golden state killer and btk fit that profile.

it’s not really a matter of technology improving - hiding in plain sight (including deceiving a spouse) is a power move for them bc they believe they’re smarter than anyone else and/or technology

they will continue to believe it & act accordingly until humans no longer walk the earth

My best friend in hs lived in the town this guy is from. Range of houses in terms of style and condition but I was also a little surprised when I saw it.

xpost sorry i went right into Keith Morris mode lol

*son

One article I implied the break was related to communications/surveillance technology that the Feds brought to bear only recently. For years prior to that, local (Suffolk County) police had refused to bring in the Feds or utilize other technology. Ten years ago someone had taunted the sister of one of the victims with one or more phone calls in which they gloated about the killing and the calls were only traced to somewhere in Manhattan.

My guess is the reference to DNA was that a recent sample had confirmed the suspect already under surveillance was connected to the crimes, not that they found the suspect with DNA.

article I read

I read Kolker's Lost Girls three or four years ago--I don't remember, but I guess it ended then with the murders unresolved.

Yeah I saw something earlier about communications and cell phones being one of the final pieces of evidence.

_I guess if I was a serial killer I probably wouldn't ever want to do renovations if it might involve having workers on the property snooping around._

True, but he had a wife and possibly one or two kids living there as well, according to what I've read. I wonder what they thought of living in that shack while dad commuted to his Fifth Avenue office every day.

that's how they found him

It’s very hard for me to understand how a guy like this can have an outwardly stable job and seemingly normal family life.

Whereas nice, normal people often struggle with this stuff.

https://imgur.com/a/38me63N

oh dammit - I don't remember how to post pics

Anyway, breaking news from the news12 Long Island instagram account (shut up) - Pizza was used to match DNA to Gilgo Beach suspect which is just the most perfectly Long Island thing.

It's becoming apparent that this might have been solved years ago had the previous Suffolk County DA not been so corrupt and incompetent.

Yeah the entire thing was crazy corrupt. I have to reread about it to remember the details but that much has been clear for a while.

I say that because the task force found this guy was only formed in February 2022 after the previous DA refused for years until he got convicted of corruption.

xp

I mean:

The task force formed to restart the investigation into the Gilgo Beach serial killings was created in February 2022 — more than 10 years after human remains were first found on a stretch of Long Island.

Six weeks later, in March 2022, Rex Heuermann was first named as the potential suspect in the killings, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at a news conference Friday.

I just read about how they used his Amex statements to link him to a tinder account which was under a fake name and email which was linked to burner phones. He had repeatedly been searching for info on the case and suspects and also for info on the victims families.

So fucking creepy. Oh and they’ve already established that his wife was either out of state or abroad when 3 out of the 4 murders happened. They could have figured this out years ago. Jesus.

The way these guys will revel in the pain of the families is just some of the sickest shit, not that any aspect of their crimes isn't already on that level.

That's the part that just made my skin crawl. Not only do you have the pain of losing a family member, but you get stalked afterwards by the creepazoid who did.

it.