Long Island Serial Killer Is Smart, Suave, Sadistic

That's the best guess of criminologists sketching a personality profile
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2011 12:45 PM CDT
Updated Apr 24, 2011 12:57 PM CDT
Personality Profile Emerges of Long Island Serial Killer: Smart, Rich, Sadistic
Suffolk County dive team police officers search for possible victims of a suspected serial killer in Hemlock Cove along Ocean Parkway on Long Island Thursday.   (AP Photo/Robert Mecea)

With a suspected serial killer dumping bodies near Long Island's Ocean Parkway, the New York Times rounds up a personality profile based on interviews with experts. Among the guesses:

  • It's a white man in his mid-20s to mid-40s who is either married or has a girlfriend.
  • He's smart and articulate, and has a decent job.
  • That job (or perhaps a hobby) gives him access to burlap bags, which he uses to bury victims. Burlap isn't that easy to get these days.
  • He lives or lived near the parkway.

“This is someone who can walk into a room and seem like your average Joe,” says a sociology professor who researches serial killers. “He has to be persuasive enough and rational enough that he is able to convince these women to meet him on these terms. He has demonstrated social skills. He may even be charming.” Convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin has his own ideas, based on the burlap bags. “My guess is it would be someone like a landscaper, contractor, or a fisherman," he told Newsday. Click to read previous stories on the killings. (More Long Island serial killer stories.)

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