Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer is a 3-part docuseries now streaming on Netflix about how investigators finally zeroed in on a local architect, Rex Heuermann and arrested him for the murders of four young women. More murders are being linked to him even as he awaits trial for these serial murders and his killing spree appears to go back at least 20 years.
Previous reporting and writing alerted me to the corruption of the very people charged with bringing a serial killer to justice. It struck a chord, if you will.
This article in Tudum, the official companion site to Netflix, again lays bare the cause of delay and failure in this investigation: A dirty police chief and a dirty DA, who entangled law enforcement “in a web of corruption that prioritized self-preservation over justice.”
Constituents of Oakland County, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the Michigan State Police, the Oakland County office of the FBI, read on and consider yourself enlightened by example:
A key factor in the drawn-out nature of the investigation, [Gone Girls director Liz] Garbus argues, are the allegations of corruption that dogged Suffolk County authorities initially in charge of the investigation, and may have hindered progress in the case for years. “I think Suffolk County under police chief Jimmy Burke and DA Tom Spota was run like a crime syndicate. This is a cautionary tale about how to stop that kind of thing before these kinds of people get in positions of power,” Garbus says.
Gone Girls explores how Burke and Spota compromised the integrity of the Gilgo Beach murder investigation. Burke, with numerous internal affairs complaints against him and a history of leveraging his position to protect himself from scrutiny over illicit activities, curtailed collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, obstructing the FBI’s involvement and halting crucial investigative steps. Meanwhile, Spota, who was later convicted of obstruction of justice, consistently shielded Burke, further entangling law enforcement in a web of corruption that prioritized self-preservation over justice.
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/gone-girls-the-long-island-serial-killer-case-rex-heuermann
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Yesterday a reader sent me a screen shot of a post by MSP Inspector Sarah Krebs who had just participated in the inaugural AdvocacyCon, “a groundbreaking event dedicated to amplifying the voices of crime victims and missing persons.” Sarah, I believe Mark, Jill, Kristine and Tim would like a word. And you can pass that on to your state lab personnel who continue to sit on a disorganized pile of evidence from four homicide cases.
How about just a flat out ConCon? It could be hosted in Oakland County. Include the still-living participants in the OCCK con and their modern-day perpetuators. That would make for interesting talks and Q & A sessions. I bet you would have a waiting list for tickets.
You can reach me at OCCKTruth@protonmail.com. That’s just me, not a committee and while it is not Signal and certainly not a SCIF, it is an ecrypted email. No cowards, please. It’s been almost 50 years. Be straightforward, or be gone.