NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan architect who lived a secret life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer has spent the past three years alone in a segregated cell, reading crime novels and occasionally being visited by his lawyers or family, according to the sheriff who oversees the jail.
Rex Heuermann also struck up a brief correspondence with Keith Hunter Jesperson, the infamous “Happy Face Killer ” who confessed to killing eight women across the country in the 1990s, said Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon.
The sheriff said it was Jesperson, who is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole in Oregon, who wrote first to Heuermann at the jail in Riverhead, New York, where he's been held since his arrest in July 2023.
Heuermann wrote back, but hasn't responded to several follow-up missives from Jesperson, according to Toulon, who spoke to The Associated Press ahead of Heuermann’s sentencing Wednesday.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to murdering seven women and admitting in April that he killed yet another woman.
Toulon said “other fanatics” have also tried to reach out, but Heuermann has denied “all visits or any communication,” including from news outlets seeking interviews.
Gloria Allred, a lawyer for some of the Long Island victims’ families, dismissed Heuermann and Jesperson as “losers” and “cowards” and urged people to commit to ending violence against women.
“They both murdered someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, someone’s sister,” she said in a statement. “They chose the most vulnerable victims.”
Most of Heuermann’s victims were female sex workers whose dismembered remains were found off a remote ocean parkway near Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Manhattan.
Jesperson met many of his victims while working as a truck driver. He was dubbed the Happy Face Killer because he drew smiley faces on taunting letters he sent to media and police.
Macabre reading list gives insight to mindset
Heuermann has been a voracious reader in jail, but Toulon said the inmate’s preference for violent crime and mystery novels -- some about serial killers -- concerns him.
Some of the works he’s recently borrowed from the jail library include J.D. Robb’s “Portrait in Death,” John Sandford’s “Secret Prey,” Heather Graham’s “Picture Me Dead,” Sue Grafton’s “N is for Noose” and Lisa Jackson’s “Chosen to Die,” according to Toulon.
“He’s not taking out sports books or cooking books, you know,” the sheriff said. “He’s choosing to read about this.”
Toulon, who was elected in 2017 after decades working for the New York City corrections department, said Heuermann’s demeanor has remained unchanged through more than 1,000 days of incarceration.
“He doesn’t seem uncomfortable in his cell,” the sheriff said. “No emotion, no despair.”
“Every time you see him, it’s the same stoic look that he has when you see him in the courtroom,” Toulon continued. “There’s no remorse.”
Days spent under close supervision
The large, hulking Heuermann is housed in a standard, 6-by-9-foot cell equipped with a metal sink, a metal toilet and a bed with a “very thin mattress,” according to Toulon.
Cells in the unit are all in view of correction officers, he said. The department also beefed up staff after Heuermann's arrest, but purposefully did not assign any female correction officers to the unit, and no staff is allowed in unless authorized to work there.
“One of the things that we wanted to ensure when he came into our custody is that justice was served in the courts and not in our jails,” Toulon said.
Inmates in the unit are served three meals a day, all in their cells, Toulon said. There’s no common area, and they can only see the communal television through the bars of their cells.
Heuermann remains segregated anytime he leaves his cell — officers pause all other inmate movement to avoid interactions, he said.
He showers alone, and while he gets fresh air in the jail yard up to six days a week alone, he isn’t particularly active, according to Toulon.
“He does not play basketball, doesn’t do any sprints. He does not do any dips, pullups, or situps or pushups,” the sheriff said. “He just basically just walks around in circles in the yard.”
Heuermann sees visitors in a designated meeting area where his handcuffs are removed and where inmates are allowed to embrace or kiss their visitors once at the beginning and end of the meeting. He's sat face-to-face with his ex-wife Asa Ellerup, their grown daughter Victoria, his attorneys, his therapist and a few others.
“He does not have an extensive visit list,” said Toulon.
Heuermann's family won’t attend his sentencing
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on Heuermann’s life behind bars. Nor did his family.
His ex-wife and two grown children said through their lawyers that they won’t be attending the sentencing, where some of the victims' families are expected to face Heuermann and deliver emotional statements.
“Out of respect for those who have endured unimaginable loss and suffering, she does not wish her presence to distract from the purpose of these proceedings,” said Robert Macedonio, Ellerup’s attorney. “Her thoughts remain with the victims and their loved ones as they continue their pursuit of justice, healing, and closure.”
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