I was joined today by the executive producers of A&E Network’s gritty new docuseries, The Killing Season, Joshua Zeman (who also directed) and Rachel Mills. The series, which Joshua and Rachel co-produced with Academy Award-winner and noted documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, premieres November 12 at 9 p.m. The Killing Season is an eight-episode intensive look into the world of serial killers in which Joshua and Rachel investigate one of the most unsettling, unsolved cases in recent memory involving 10 dead sex workers first discovered on Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2011.
Joshua Zeman, Diane Clehane and Rachel Mills
Joshua told me the show goes beyond the sensational headlines to expose a real-life American nightmare behind serial killings around the country. “So many of the shows about serial killers don’t tell the truth,” said Joshua. “Serial killers are not evil geniuses.”
“And they’re not sexy,” interjected Rachel, referencing the all-too familiar stock character of misunderstood loner like the one Ed Westwick played on the thankfully short-lived ABC series Wicked City.
“These are guys who just think they can get away with it,” said Joshua.
As a Long Island native who spent many teenage summers at those beaches, I’ve always found the Gilgo Beach murders particularly creepy, thinking that just beyond the high grass that surrounds those stretches of beach so familiar to me lies the discarded bodies of women no one cared enough to find.
“This a bizarre case,” said Joshua, who was born on Long Island, as we settled in for lunch. “What we learned is that it’s much more complicated than what people might think about an individual crime. It’s about our society — and there are a lot of bad guys out there doing very bad things.”
And not all of them are murder suspects. Just this afternoon James Burke, the former police chief of Suffolk County who first headed up the criminal investigation into the Gilgo and Oak Beach murders, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for his actions in a series of events surrounding his attempts to recover a duffle bag he owned containing pornography and sex toys.
Joshua told me that Mr. Burke’s decision, along with those of the district attorney, to remove the FBI from the investigation into the murders is just one of many factors that have left the Gilgo and Oak Beach murders unsolved. “He’s done a lot of bad things including having his own detectives under surveillance,” said Joshua, who added at one point that Mr. Burke’s own detectives sent a letter to him and to the district attorney asking for the FBI to be reinstated in the investigation into the murders. “The request was denied. Who does that? [Mr.Burke] didn’t want the FBI snooping around his own bad deeds.”
When I told Joshua and Rachel that both my husband, who is the son of a New York City police officer, and myself believe that the Gilgo Beach killer is a cop because a police car is probably the only vehicle that could come and go from the desolate beaches without notice, Rachel said, “That’s funny, that’s what a lot of people have said.” There have even been anonymous posts online claiming the killer is a corrections officer, noted Joshua.
Joshua and Rachel’s own investigation, in conjunction with ‘armchair’ cyber-sleuths from Websleuths.com, plus other journalists and the victims’ families, uncovered connections that suggest the Long Island killer is just the beginning. “On the show, we reveal that serial killers are targeting sex workers around the country,” said Joshua, who noted that the epidemic of opioid addiction has resulted in an increase in the number of drug addicted sex workers and, as a result, more murders of people who often find themselves in very dangerous situations.
Many of the victims, often referred to as the “Missing Missing,” are never accounted for and their murders are far less likely to be solved. Shannan Gilbert disappeared on May 1, 2010 in Oak Beach. The disappearance of the 24-year-old sex worker launched a search that ultimately uncovered 10 sets of human remains in Gilgo Beach and Oak Beach. When her body was discovered in 2011, authorities said her death was due to accidental drowning but her mother, Mari, persisted in insisting her death be ruled a homicide and drew national attention to the crimes in the process.
Authorities have released very few new details in the Gilgo Beach case in recent years. Rachel told me they learned there are five unidentified bodies in the Gilgo Beach murder case, including a mother and child and an Asian male who was found in women’s clothing. “I think it would shed light on the case if someone was able to identify these bodies,” she said. “A toddler wrapped in a blanket was found. Someone, somewhere, knows who that child is. That could help build a timeline.”
On the show, both Rachel and Joshua have followed sex workers as they’ve gone off to meet clients and, in doing so, have exposed “the dark underbelly” of America, said Joshua. Many of the hotels that line both sides of the Long Island Expressway are notorious meeting places. “[Serial killer] Joel Rifkin had to go to the Lower East Side. Today, he wouldn’t have to.”
It was important to the overall success of the project to emphasize the humanity of the victims, said Joshua. “We needed to make the audience care.”
I asked Rachel if working on such dark material took an emotional toll on her. “It’s definitely difficult. I got emotional,” she told me. “I’ve stayed in touch with the families [of the victims].”
“We’re in a true crime renaissance,” said Joshua. “It’s no longer about ‘If it bleed, it leads.’ Thanks to narrative television, people have an appreciation for more complicated stories, which is good news for the victim because in the past it was so easy for people to write off victims as drug addicts and prostitutes.”
Both Joshua and Rachel told me they hope that by revealing the details of their investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders and other crimes, they can play a role in bringing the killers to justice. “But the police need to step up to the plate,” said Joshua. “Serial killings are notoriously difficult to solve, but let’s put the past behind us and focus on what we can do to prevent this happening again in the future.” Only then will The Killing Season end.
Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:
1. Don Marron presiding over a table full of suits
2. Mickey Ateyeh and Jackie Leo who were belatedly celebrating Jackie’s birthday. Jackie told me she’s now president and editor in chief of The Fiscal Times, which was founded by Michael’s regular Pete Peterson.
3. Adam Sandow with two gals we didn’t recognize. Anyone?
4. Discovery ID’s Henry Schleiff
5. Michael J. Wolf
6. John Sykes
7. Glenn Horowitz
8. Patrick Murphy and Donna Soloway
9. Jessica Reif Cohen
11. Andrew Stein and Judith Miller, who I met when she stopped by Mickey’s table to say hello.
12. Barry Frey
14. Louis Vuitton’s Nancy Murray
15. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Gordon Davis
17. Steven Haft
18. Lew Korman
20. Producer Beverly Camhe
21. David Poltrack
22. Andrew Spindler
23. Herb Yost
27. Joshua Zeman, Rachel Mills, Jaime Yandolino and yours truly
Diane Clehane is a FishbowlNY contributor. Follow her on Twitter @DianeClehane. Send comments and corrections on this column to LUNCH at MEDIABISTRO dot COM.