Profiling Long Island's Craigslist serial killer

Close look at personality traits of killer

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Emergency personnel search the dunes and scrub near the ocean, across the road from where eight bodies where found, near Oak Beach, N.Y.

Photo by AP

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“Most murders, there’s an additional motive to it. You want to eliminate witnesses, or there’s a fight, or you want to eliminate the person for some reason, such as a husband kills a wife or vice versa. Rifkin was killing people for the pure purpose of killing them. He would actually get sexual pleasure out of the murder.”

Experts say the current serial killer on the loose could share similar impulses to Rifkin, as conveyed by his phone call to the teenage sister of one of his victims.

Jim Clemente, a retired F.B.I. criminal profiler suggests that he is probably a sadist.

“That would be reflected in his relationship and jobs. He is the one who laughs when a cat gets run over or a kid falls off his bike. He likes the suffering of others, and he really likes it when he can cause it or witness it,” he told the New York Times.

Rifken who is currently serving a 203-year sentence for his crimes has offered his own opinions on who the potential killer could be.

He told Newsday that the murderer could be a local resident who works in a job where no one would be suspicious if he was seen with burlap bags.

“My guess,” Rifkin told the newspaper, “is it would be someone like a landscaper, contractor or a fisherman.”

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