Full attention on Gilgo cases
Police examine the area between Oak Beach and West Gilgo Beach where the remains of five people were found within days of each other in early 2011. Credit: Kevin P. Coughlin
A killer has been on the loose in our community, burying murdered prostitutes in shallow graves near Gilgo Beach. Eight bodies have been found and the murders happened over a well-spaced period of time. That means the case fits the FBI's definition of serial killings.
The awful truth is that killers -- no one knows if there's one or more in this case -- can arrange to meet sex workers at a time and place of their choosing, and the Gilgo slayer doesn't represent Long Island's first brush with such sociopathy. Joel Rifkin of East Meadow was convicted of murdering nine prostitutes in 1994 after police spied him driving without a license plate, stopped him and found a corpse in his pickup truck.
Rifkin, like so many serial murderers of women, was a social outcast and loner, friendless and disconnected. It's likely, but far from certain, that this killer has similiar issues.
The killing of prostitutes may not spark the same level of public outrage that other murders do, but it deserves the same attention from police. So it's encouraging that the case appears to be getting meticulous investigation and a high level of cooperation from the Suffolk County Police Department, the FBI and other experts. That intensity must continue. Attention cannot waver until the killer is caught and convicted.
What these women did for a living made them more vulnerable to violence, but it should not and cannot make their killer less vulnerable to capture.
