1. Joel David Rifkin was born on January 20,1959 and is an American serial killer, who was sentenced to 203 years in prison for the murders of nine women between 1989 and 1993, though it is believed he killed as many as 17 people.
14 Facts About Joel Rifkin
1. 2.
On February 14,1959, when he was three weeks old, Joel Rifkin was adopted by an upper-middle class couple living on Long Island.
3.
Joel Rifkin performed poorly in school due to learning disabilities, and was unpopular with classmates.
4.
Joel Rifkin graduated from East Meadow High School in 1977, then attended classes at Nassau Community College, the State University of New York at Brockport, and the State University of New York at Farmingdale, but left before earning a degree.
5.
Joel Rifkin committed his first murder on February 20,1989, killing Heidi Balch in his home in East Meadow.
6.
Joel Rifkin then dismembered her body, removing her teeth and fingertips, putting her head in a paint can which he left in the woods on a golf course in Hopewell, New Jersey, disposing of her legs further north, and dumping her remaining torso and arms into the East River around New York City.
7.
Joel Rifkin was implicated in Balch's murder after his arrest in 1993.
8.
Joel Rifkin picked up prostitute Tiffany Bresciani on Allen Street in Manhattan, on June 24,1993 with her pimp and boyfriend, punk rock musician Dave Rubinstein.
9.
Joel Rifkin was found guilty of nine counts of second-degree murder in 1994, and sentenced to 203 years up to life in prison.
10.
Prison officials decided in 1996 that Joel Rifkin was so notorious that his presence in the general prison population could be disruptive.
11.
Joel Rifkin was confined to his cell at the Attica Correctional Facility for 23 hours per day.
12.
Joel Rifkin spent more than four years in solitary confinement, then was transferred to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Clinton County, New York.
13.
Corrections officials said that Joel Rifkin was imprisoned with more than 200 other inmates at Clinton who were not allowed into the general prison population.
14.
Joel Rifkin begs him to change his name because of the association with a serial killer.