The Daily Beast
The Dirty Cop and the Long Island Prostitute Serial Killer Hunt
Suffolk County Police DepartmentThe Long Island serial killer case has baffled the Suffolk County Police Department for more than a decade, and it is disappointing – if not entirely surprising – that Unraveled: The Long Island Serial Killer does not answer definitively who committed the murders in the luxurious gated community of Oak Bech, Long Island. However, as a documentary accompanying Billy Jensen (I will go in the dark) and Alexis Linkletter’s seven-part real crime podcast of the same name, the new two-hour Discovery + special (debuting on March 9) presents a good These are intriguing speculations about a possible suspect, who is even more notable for being the region’s former police chief. Unraveled’s story begins on May 1, 2010, when 23-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert was hired by Craigslist to spend time at Joseph Brewer’s private residence in Oak Beach, just to escape from the house and call. to 911, claiming that someone was trying to kill her – before disappearing. Brewer and Gilbert’s driver Michael Pak was cleared of any wrongdoing, and the police began a comprehensive search of the rich enclave, which in December 2010 resulted in the discovery of four bodies next to Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. In March and April 2011, the remains of six more women were found and, in December 2011, Gilbert was also located within walking distance. Although the police could not decide whether they were after a single perpetrator or several demons – or whether Gilbert had been the victim of the individual who murdered the others – it was clear to most that a serial killer was on the loose. Nanny, who witnessed Woody Allen’s “shocking” behavior towards Dylan Farrow Comes Forward, unlike Lost Girls, Liz Garbus’ excellent drama on Netflix (starring Amy Ryan), who pointed a finger at the Oak Beach resident , Dr. Peter Hackett, who suspected of giving Gilbert medication the night she disappeared – Unraveled fixes his gaze on Suffolk County Chief of Police James Burke. According to several pieces of evidence discovered and / or highlighted by Jensen and Linkletter, Burke has been a disreputable character from the moment he joined the force. In the early days of his career, he was caught having sex with a prostitute who just owned his revolver, and he was known to have a penchant not only for attending sex workers, but also for indulging in drugs. . However, his bad behavior did nothing to hinder his upward trajectory in the department, thanks in part to his close relationship with district attorney Thomas Spota, whose office he worked in before he was promoted to chief of police. both on camera and on the phone, some of them choosing to have their faces obscured and their voices changed to hide their identities for fear of reprisals. The brutally unflattering portrait they paint is of a man who enjoyed transactional sex, treated women like garbage, had a voracious appetite for narcotics and considered himself an untouchable king who could do and say whatever he wanted. One speaker remembers Burke laughing while the cops watched a real snuff movie (for work purposes), and another woman reports playing with Burke at a sex party in Oak Beach (a few miles from where some of the victims were discovered! ), Just to make the meeting end with him throwing money at her and belittling her with nicknames. As legislator and former policeman Rob Trotta said, “He was a psychopath.” Journalist Jesse Kornbluth is even more direct, considering Burke “an uncivilized animal”. The ace in the sleeve for Unraveled is the participation of Linkletter’s childhood friend, Christopher Loeb, who appears on the camera site to discuss the incident that brought Burke down – and further raised his status as a prime suspect. On December 23, 2012, Loeb sought to finance his heroin addiction by breaking into Burke’s car to steal the confiscated drugs that the boss always left unattended in his vehicle. He was successful in this endeavor, but in a backpack also pulled from the car, Loeb says he found several sex toys and a DVD of a tied and gagged woman being tortured. Loeb was soon in custody, chained to a floor where he claims he was beaten and mocked by Burke and his cronies. He climbed that infamous and poignant stream without a paddle, except that in a fortuitous turn of events, his subsequent claims against Burke were corroborated by other officers, leading to Burke’s expulsion, conviction and imprisonment. Burke and Spota tried to cover up this scandal, thus yielding the prosecutor their own federal indictment. Worse, his misconduct occurred at the end of a Burke term that saw him thwart any attempt by the FBI to assist in the investigation of the serial killer. Unraveled and many of his interviewees assume that Burke did this because he was the killer or, more likely, he had close ties to the wealthy and powerful people of Oak Beach, who were responsible. It is a conspiracy theory, and although there is no conclusive evidence that Burke is guilty, there is plenty of smoke engulfing the dishonored big shot of the law – including gangster threats, as Jensen is informed by Burke’s lawyer during a routine request for an interview. , “Watch what you do”. Unraveled’s assumptions about Burke are not entirely convincing – as Lost Girls confirms, there are other interesting and intriguing people – but neither can they be easily dismissed. Jensen and Linkletter make a convincing argument that Burke and his colleagues may have wanted to prevent the investigation because they themselves were implicated. The duo’s desire that the police release the main evidence to the public does not always seem justified (since one can imagine the reasons for certain items to remain secret). However, his greater calls for transparency ring true, especially in light of the dubious conduct of the Suffolk County Police Department from the start. It is a pity that the shape of Unraveled is below average; Jensen and Linkletter narrate the action as they would a podcast, their comments going through an unrealistic mix of archival material, filming on the scene and unnecessary shots of them working from their office on Long Island. Even if the style of the process is, at best, functional, the journalists’ special documentary proves a valuable contribution to the ongoing search to resolve this notorious case, which 11 years later, still seems to be far from over. The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.