Arrest made in one of our generation's most confounding unsolved cases
Plus: Kevin Spacey and the House of Savoy
the true crime that's worth your time
People unable to get the book Lost Girls out of their heads woke up to incredible headlines this morning. “Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings of Women Near Gilgo Beach,” said the New York Times in news so fresh it didn’t make its morning newsletter (the paper instead sent a special alert). “Surely not…” I thought as I opened Slack to laugh to Sarah at what I’d first thought — that there might be a break in the Long Island Serial Killer case — when I saw that she’d dropped a link in our channel too.
As Sarah put it at her bookshop, Robert Kolker’s Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery “has no real end.” The deeply researched book, which was published — hold for another chilling date coincidence — ten years ago this week, examined the seemingly related deaths of five women who worked in the New York sex trade, and were found dead in and around Oak Beach, a fairly affluent Long Island community. (Law enforcement confirms that in total, eleven sets of remains are seemingly linked, all found along a Suffolk County highway.) Though Kolker pulled together a lot of threads in his book, the person behind their deaths remained unknown.
Little had changed in the case when Netflix released its dramatic adaptation in 2020. For the Blotter Presents podcast, Kevin Smokler spoke with Kolker about his book and the adaptation; it’s in the second half of the episode and can be listened to here:
So, today’s news: According to NBC News, the suspect arrested in the case is 59-year-old Rex Heuermann, who News 12 reports as having lived in Massapequa Park “for his entire life,” as an adult with a wife and two kids.
According to the NY Post, Heuermann is an architect at an eponymous firm, the website for which has removed its “meet the team” section at some seemingly recent point. Before it did, the Post scored this photo from it of Heuermann, who we hasten to remind you has only been arrested at the time of this writing.
Per the Post, “On Friday morning, investigators swarmed Heuermann’s run-down home and removed a cooler at one point.” “Run-down” seems like shade, but the NYT concurs, reporting that he “lived in his longtime family home — a red, slightly rundown house that stands out from the neatly kept homes on the block. ‘You’d think he’d have a better house, for an architect,’ said one neighbor, Mike Cafiero.”
It might seem odd that reporters are dwelling on that little detail, but that’s likely in part due to the absence, right now, of other information. At this point, police have not officially named Heuermann as a suspect, and the slews of news coverage come from anonymous sources within local law enforcement.
That’ll change at 4 PM ET today, when a press release is planned: I’m sure local stations will break in to broadcast it, and I suspect cable networks will stream it as well. Per a news release, we should expect the following folks to speak at the presser: Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney, Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr., and folks from the New York State Police and FBI.
I’m sure everyone here has thoughts and feelings on this case and an arrest; let’s hear them. — EB
After that, I’m having a hard time getting it up for weekend true crime TV — it’s more likely I’m going to read Lost Girls again to bone up for what’s next. If this news hadn’t broken, however, I was set to flip on The King Who Never Was, a Netflix three-parter that dropped today about the last heir to the Italian throne, Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, who, in 1978 — I’m just gonna quote the Variety feature on the film — “became enraged when some loud ‘shitty Italians’ ‘borrowed’ the dinghy off his yacht and tied it to another nearby boat. Fuming, he took a rifle, went to one of their boats and, after shots from his rifle rang out – that were just meant to scare – someone got hurt.”
A teen sleeping nearby died of gunshot injuries linked to the incident, and for decades the scandal, investigation, and claims of a cover-up has haunted the family. Juicy stuff, and I can see it being a nice fit for a hot weekend as one sips a cold drink.
So if I have time, that’s what I’m dipping into. How about you? — EB
Hearsay
Kevin Spacey Says “I Was Promiscuous” and “Definitely Misread” Signs From One Complainant in London Trial [The Hollywood Reporter]
It seems like every aspect of the allegedly shitty male playbook is being utilized in this case, with Spacey taking the stand to say that after allegations against him surfaced, “My world exploded, there was a rush to judgment and before the first question was asked or answered I lost my job, I lost my reputation, I lost everything in a matter of days.”
BBC resumes Huw Edwards inquiry as no criminality found by police [BBC]
UK readers, I’m eager to hear how this case is being presented over there and your perception of the incidents Edwards is reportedly accused of. Here are the bones of what I know, as block-quoted by the BBC:
The initial allegations, first reported by the Sun online on Friday evening, were that the news presenter paid a young person for sexually explicit photos, beginning when they were 17.
In later versions of the story, the Sun changed the wording of this allegation to "it is understood contact between the two started when the youngster was 17".
The paper had quoted the person's mother as saying her child, now 20, had used the money that had been paid for the photos to fund a crack cocaine habit, and she was worried they could "wind up dead".
Police say “there is no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed,” and Edwards’s family says he’s been hospitalized with “serious mental health issues.” If someone more familiar with the situation can act as a pundit for those of us in the U.S., we’d be most grateful. — EB
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