The Rifkin Murders Part 1
Cold Case Files
A&E / PodcastOne
4.1 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Serial killer Joel Rifkin took the lives of 17 women in New York before he was caught red handed in 1993. Almost thirty years later, after interviewing Rifkin for a documentary, a TV producer leverages his relationship with New York’s most prolific serial killer to get information police could use to discover the identities of Rifkin’s two remaining unknown victims. When presented with actionable leads, New York State Police revisit the case and begin a two year search for justice for Victims Six and Nine.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following episode contains disturbing accounts of physical and sexual violence. |
| 0:05.8 | Listener discretion is advised. |
| 0:08.8 | I remember a small creek. |
| 0:13.0 | Is that where you put the body? |
| 0:15.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:16.1 | Joel Rifkin has told police he's a serial killer. |
| 0:19.5 | Authorities in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have been searching the areas where Rifkin said he dumped bodies. |
| 0:26.8 | Joel Rifkin's the worst serial killer in New York State history. |
| 0:30.4 | He was arrested in 1993 and confessed to killing 17 women. |
| 0:35.2 | To this day, victim six and victim nine have never been identified. |
| 0:40.4 | There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare |
| 0:49.2 | stories. After three decades, |
| 0:58.7 | investigators are following new leads in the Joel Rifkin cold case. |
| 1:03.4 | The following depicts the 18-month investigation that started in 2021, |
| 1:08.3 | with an unlikely alliance between Rifkin and TV producer Peter Rice. |
| 1:13.6 | I'm going to go all the way to the beginning. |
| 1:16.6 | So I first met and got in contact with Joel Rifkin back in 1998. |
| 1:24.6 | I was doing a science documentary and it was about the biological causes of violence. |
| 1:31.3 | Like, can your biology be a factor in why you become a killer? |
| 1:35.9 | We had a sporadic relationship of letters back and forth for a while. |
| 1:40.6 | And in 2004, I was doing a number of A&E biographies. |
| 1:46.0 | So I reached out to Rifkin. |
... |
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