| Name: | Joel RIFKIN |
| Nickname: | The Drifter / Joel the Ripper |
| Born: | 20 Jan 1959, New York |
| Status: | |
| Occupation: | |
| Died: |
| Classification: | Serial Killer |
| Country: | USA |
| Active: | 1989 – 1993 |
| Victims: | 9+ |
| M.O.: | |
| Arrested: | 28 Jun 1993 |
| Fate: | 203 years to life |
Rifkin was born in New York city and adopted t three weeks of age. He was described as having poor social skills and learning disabilities. He attended college but left before earning a degree.
In 1972 he became obsessed with the idea of strangling prostitutes. He started favouring their company spending all his cash on them.
Rifkin committed his first murder in 1989 when he killed Heidi Balch in his home After inviting her round when his mother went away. He dismembered the body and dumped body parts in various locations, including putting the head in a paint can and leaving it in the woods of a golf course.
His second murder came a year later when he used the same technique and bludgeoned and strangled Julie Blackbird. Again he dismembered the body but this time put the parts in buckets weighted with concrete, tossing them into a river and canal.
In 1991 he murdered Barbara Jacobs, Mary Ellen DeLuca and Yun Lee among others.
He was arrested after failing to stop for police. After crashing into a telegraph pole, police noticed a foul smell coming from the vehicle. They found the corpse of his final victim, Tiffany Brescani.
During interviews he confessed to killing 17 women.
He was sentenced to 203 years in prison in 1994.
