| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (26 min. 36 sec.) ; 159914710 bytes |
| Summary |
Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz. Three of America's truly gruesome figures of criminal infamy who killed and killed again. In the annals of crime, serial killers are relatively rare. But out on a bleak, windswept stretch of New Yorks' Long Island seashore police investigating a cluster of ten murders are grappling with the chilling prospect that more than one serial killer is responsible. They're not going to solve this in a nice, neat commercial half-hour.One by one they disappeared. Then a deeply disturbing discovery. In a remote, bracken covered patch of ground in Long Island not far from the rolling Atlantic surf there they were - decomposing bodies in what locals call burlap sacks and we know as hessian bags. They were sex workers who advertised on the popular website Craigslist.Then another gruesome find. Decapitated bodies - torsos and heads buried kilometres apart - and so a very different modus operandi. Police are almost certain two serial killers are at work. There remains the possibility that 4 killers may be responsible for the murders.The glib detectives and razor-sharp forensic profilers of a Network TV crime show would have this wrapped in prime time. In reality - of course - that's not how it works."There's never been a crime solved in this country by a profiler. They are always after-the-fact people. They are always super egg heads who think they know all of the answers after you catch 'em. Profilers are full of crap. OK ? Make it very clear." - Joe Coffey - Former NY Homicide DetectiveJoe Coffey hunted one of the big ones. Over the course of a year in the late '70's a killer was striking time and time again in New York City. Eventually Coffey got his man. David Berkowitz - Son of Sam. And he didn't do it tweezing definitive DNA from carpet or tricking his quarry into a withering confession. It was hard, relentless, procedural police work."What's it like ? I would say hours of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror. That's essentially what it is." - Joe Coffey - Former NY Homicide DetectiveReporter Michael Maher examines a bewildering confluence of true crime that's a long way from being solved. New Yorkers are gripped by this serial killer casebook, including one who's seen it all - legendary newsman Pete Hamill, the only editor to head up both New York tabloids - the Post and the Daily News."(New Yorkers) left for Long island because of the city's heroin or because of the crime but there's still crime because there's one big problem. There's still human beings out there and there are no perfect human beings and some of them are really bad". Pete Hamil - Author 'Tabloid City'Among the many desperate that these cases are cracked is Mari Gilbert - a mother, treasuring her last photo with daughter Shannan and waiting for news. Shannan - a sex worker - disappeared 12 months ago and it's feared she's one of the serial killer's victims."Her last phone call was to 911 lasting 23 minutes long screaming Help me! Help me! He's trying to kill me! And the police never got there. And they didn't arrive until 45 minutes later after the call and she was already gone. What breaks my heart the most is that - you know - what her emotions were, what her feelings were." - Mari Gilbert - Mother of missing sex worker Shannan Gilbert |
| Event |
Broadcast 2011-05-24 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
| Subject |
Missing persons -- Investigation.
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Murder -- Investigation.
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Serial murderers.
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United States.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Coffey, Joe, contributor
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Fernandez, Manny, reporter
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Gilbert, Mari, contributor
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Hamill, Peter, contributor
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Maher, Michael, host
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Siniari, Alex, contributor
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