Monster: BTK - Hunting LISK [1]

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

When Rex Heuermann is arrested for the Gilgo Beach murders, filmmaker Josh Zeman revisits the chilling clues uncovered in his documentary, The Killing Season. From Shannan Gilbert’s disappearanc...e to the discovery of ten bodies along Ocean Parkway, Josh explores how this mystery eluded investigators for over a decade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 New episodes are released weekly, absolutely free, but you can binge the entire season now with IHeart True Crime Plus, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. You'll also get ad-free listening and exclusive bonus episodes. So head to Apple Podcasts, search IHeart True Crime Plus, and subscribe today. You're listening to Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast and do not reflect those of Tenderfoot TV or IHeart Media.
Starting point is 00:00:38 This podcast contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. I remember like it was yesterday. 6.45 in the morning, July 13th, 2020. I was at the gym when the text started coming in. So many, I couldn't keep count. Rise and shine, buddy, it's happening. Hey, did you hear the new Suffolk County is about to arrest Lisk?
Starting point is 00:01:10 Holy shit, not sure if it's legit, but hearing they got him. I started frantically texting, trying not to get my hopes up, his words spread among reporters, true crime authors, and filmmakers like me. You see, 11 years ago, my producing partner Rachel and I made a documentary series called The Killing Season, and it followed our hunt for Lisk, aka the Long Island serial killer. Investigators on Long Island say they found the remains of 10 people thought to be the victims of a serial killer.
Starting point is 00:01:44 The body count is climbing as investigators grapple with a very elusive monster. The Gilgo Beach serial killer case. This is a case where there are still so many questions. When Rachel and I started filming in 2014, the case was only four years old. But for some reason, the police wouldn't even talk about it. So we started our own investigation and spent two long years searching for LISC. And no, we didn't find him, but I know we got close, closer than anybody had been before. Since then, I've been on 2020 Nancy Gray's Dateline, you name it.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Josh Zeman is the director of the killing season. We have an expert joining us. Joshua Zeman has an interesting take and insight in this case. You have no idea how many suspects we'd looked at, from eccentric doctors to wealthy businessmen. Over the years, dozens of names have been batted about. And still, we investigated them all. Because you just never know who may open up that door.
Starting point is 00:02:53 And let's be honest, what filmmaker doesn't want their own. Jinks moment. But there was also something deeper, an overwhelming frustration with a police department that had fumbled in the dark for years, leaving victims in their families in limbo. And so for the next hour I sat there as information trickled in until I finally got a text that said, turn on the news, turn on the news now. New York's number one news, Channel 7, I've Witness News. Talked today after an arrest in the infamous Gilgo Beach murders.
Starting point is 00:03:29 59-year-old Rex Heurman from Long Island is now charged in the murders of three women. Rex Hewerman, at the time it wasn't a name I'd recognized. It wasn't anybody we'd looked at before. But since then, I've come to realize we were far closer to catching Lisk than we first thought. And those same clues that led police to cracking the case were right there all along. buried in our footage. Is there anything that you can remember about him? He was just this beast of a man, like 6'9, 300 fucking pounds.
Starting point is 00:04:09 White, black, Hispanic. White dude, 50 years old, monster. There was only like a couple weeks right before she disappeared that that guy was there. On this podcast, we're going to reveal those clues as we sift through hundreds of hours of old footage from our show. interviews, phone calls, doorstep confrontations. Will you in my house tonight? Yes, we're looking for you. Lisk is not a good thing to do.
Starting point is 00:04:34 But we're also digging back in to confront an even harder question. Could Lisk have been caught sooner? And finally, what so many of us have been waiting for for over two decades, the upcoming trial of Rex Horman, the alleged Long Island serial killer. And while we might think we know who Lisk is, is, there's still so many questions that this trial might answer. The theory of our case is this defendant meticulously and methodically hunted down and
Starting point is 00:05:06 murdered seven women. Could this man have been caught as far back as 2010? God forbid we find more victims that could still be alive if they had made the arrest back then. Which brings us back to those first few moments, just after Rex Eurman's arrest, when someone sent me this interview that they'd found, filmed with Rex in his office. I'm Rex Heuhrman. I'm an architect. I'm a troubleshooter. Born and raised on Long Island, working in Manhattan. At the time, I didn't quite believe that this was actually him.
Starting point is 00:05:42 We'd spent years tracking down dozens of leads, identifying persons of interest. But Rex Hewerman wasn't one of them. At least his name wasn't. But when the news said, that he was a commuter. Now that caught my attention. Leading a kind of double life where prosecutors say he was a professional who commuted into Manhattan for his job, but that he was also a serial killer.
Starting point is 00:06:09 Evidence from early in the investigation suggested that LISC had commuted from Long Island to Manhattan. But when the news went on to say where he lived in Long Island, now that was huge. He was hiding. in plain sight. Heurman lives in the community of Massapequa Park
Starting point is 00:06:28 with his wife and two children. All the clues had pointed to that exact same town, Massapequa Park. And then there was that video somebody had sent, that strange interview with Rex in his office.
Starting point is 00:06:44 How's this job? taught you about yourself. I think it's taught me more about how to understand people. Rex was huge, 6'4, close to 300 pounds with this smile that just didn't feel quite real, like it was a mask. And that's when I started debating because I couldn't believe what I was thinking. Maybe it was true.
Starting point is 00:07:09 Maybe the police had finally caught Lisk. Yet as I stared at the latest photo of Rex going around, this awkward selfie he'd taken standing in front of a bathroom mirror. I felt something I didn't expect. Anger. Because I didn't see some evil genius or criminal mastermind. I only saw a man who was oafish, overweight, and aging badly. And this was the guy that I had spent years obsessing about.
Starting point is 00:07:41 This was the man that had snuffed out the lies of ten victims. The same man making headlines around the world as one of the most elusive serial killers in modern history. And if this was that man, then I couldn't help but ask why. Why didn't anyone catch him sooner? Why did it take so many years? Why did this man, was made of nothing more than flesh and blood, get away to something so monstrous for so goddamn long? I'm Josh Zeman, and this is Monster, hunting the Long Island serial killer. Now, if you know the list case, because you know the list case because you've watched the latest docs here.
Starting point is 00:08:51 or listen to a few podcasts. I'm going to tell you what detectives have always told me, that in any series of murders, you always go back to the first, because that's where you find the clues. And that same logic applies here. You always go back to the first. That was our show, the killing season. When she first disappeared, I called all the precincts to find out if she had been arrested,
Starting point is 00:09:20 Finally, someone called me. They said, Kim, they just pulled up four bodies off Gilgo Beach. Right then, I knew one of those girls was Amber. Me and my sister never talked about serial killers, but we should have because it's one of the most common amongst type of word. It's just not brought the light because they're prostitutes. It's just the way it is. The hunt for the Long Island serial killer and the story of his victims
Starting point is 00:09:45 starts back in the winter of 2010, exactly 15 years ago. On a remote stretch of highway in Long Island, in an area known as Gilgo Beach. Hi, you guys are on? This is Gilgo Beach. Breaking and off-duty cop walking his dogs stumbles on a woman's dead body. This tail started waving and I showed the skeletal remains of the body. On December 11th, 2010, while searching for a missing woman named Shannon Gilbert, A cadaver dog finds the body of a different woman named Melissa Bartholomey.
Starting point is 00:10:23 But Melissa was only the first. Bombshell tonight, within 48 hours, three more sets of female remains discovered. Who is a serial killer? On March 29, 2011, the police would uncover another body. Body count along Ocean Parkway continues to climb. Then again on April 4th. Three more sets of human remains were discovered near, Go Go Beach.
Starting point is 00:10:48 April 11th. The first set of remains found in a plastic bag. And then a second set of remains, human skull, Nancy, 3.30 p.m. What police uncovered on Ocean Parkway went far beyond anyone's worst nightmare. The remains of 10 innocent victims, sex workers, seemingly dump-like trash, on a desolate highway. But it wasn't just the number of bodies that shocked investigators. It was that some were found intact. and others dismembered,
Starting point is 00:11:19 the only thing that was clear was that a serial killer was hunting on Long Island and a frenzy of fear had gripped the public. You know, we're not used to any of this. People are scared, all right? Right now, it could be anybody.
Starting point is 00:11:33 Before this sick bastard is caught, they are going to find more bodies out here in these woods. Like so many others, I was fascinated by the case, but after a few years, I started to notice something strange. No more updates to the community. No new leads. No progress on identifying so many
Starting point is 00:11:53 nameless victims, which didn't make sense. This wasn't happening in some small town. Suffolk County was huge, and it was one of the most well-funded police departments in the country. And all of this unfolding in the shadow of New York City. I mean, you've got women wrapped in burlap on the side of a desolate highway. You've got a community pointing fingers at one another, and you've got a police force with no suspects, and you've got grieving families wondering why nobody ever helped them. In 2013, we interviewed investigative reporter Robert Kolker, who would just come out with a new book called Lost Corals that not only profiled the Gilgo Beach murders, but it shed light on
Starting point is 00:12:38 at least one of the issues plaguing this case. these women's lives really needed to be written about in a way that would bring attention to them because we tend to write off the victims and glorify the killer. Everybody thought these women, they were just castaways, they were outcasts, that nobody cared about them. The fact of the matter is these families knew that these people were missing. They asked the police to go look for them.
Starting point is 00:13:01 The police decided not to look for them because we stigmatize escort work. With Roberts' interview in hand, we started calling the families. We wanted to give these victims, voice, but we also wanted to dig deeper to explore a growing web of theories that might explain why justice had been so elusive, theories that began with the mysterious disappearance of Shannon Gilbert.
Starting point is 00:13:34 I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast. called business history about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all. It's a very simple, elegant lesson. Make something people want. First episode, How Southwest Airlines Use Cheap Seats and Free Whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever.
Starting point is 00:14:12 There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons. And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked.
Starting point is 00:14:26 Like Thomas Edison and the Elections Chess. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood? a Cuban musician with a dream and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time. You get Desi Arness, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and yes, I grew up watching him,
Starting point is 00:14:55 probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From plening canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, the moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television, and what that man for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one man's spotlight lit the path for so many others and how we carry his legacy today. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama. That's part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.
Starting point is 00:15:38 It's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th.
Starting point is 00:16:00 This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout?
Starting point is 00:16:37 There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Starting point is 00:17:07 podcasts. Suffolk County police are focusing on 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert of Jersey City. Gilbert's family says on that night Shannon met with a man. She met on Craigslist at the beach in Long Island. To understand the list case, you first need to understand the mysterious death of Shannon Gilbert. Now I've investigated crimes for decades, and I've never seen a case like Shannon's. No one has. But whatever happened to Shannon became so polarizing that it literally hijacked the narrative. It fueled internet trolls, smear campaigns, and conspiracy threats.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Tragically, you might even say the fight over Shannon. It's just one more reason the police didn't catch list sooner. Because her disappearance defies logic. It defies everything we think we know about crime. And it flies in the face of one of the first words. rules of detective work, that there's no such thing as coincidence. The subject, please, one curious to have your emergency. I'm in Oak Beach.
Starting point is 00:18:17 What's going on there? I have to follow Missing Carson's report, actually. During the early morning hours of May 1, 2010, Shannon Gilbert, age 24 of Jersey City, and her driver, a man by the name of Michael Pack, made the hour and a half trip to Oak Beach, Long Island. Oak Beach is a dimly lit, gated beachfront community, and it's known for its wealthy residents who values seclusion and privacy. Look, but this is called Shannon Gilbert, and there's a friend of yours, right?
Starting point is 00:18:50 Well, I had just met her that night, and he almost took you. A little after 2 a.m., Shannon met with her client, Joseph Brewer, a 46-year-old financial advisor who lived alone. Shannon's driver, Michael Pack, waited in his SUV. According to a deposition from PAC, he saw the two leave to go buy party drugs before returning. Then, at around 4.45 a.m., Brewer surprisingly knocked on PAC's SUV, asking for help in getting Shannon to leave. Inside, they found the young woman crouched behind a sofa, dialing 911, acting, quote, irrationally. Shannon Gilbert made a 911 call that lasted more than 20 minutes.
Starting point is 00:19:34 She reportedly claimed someone was trying to kill her. Now, whatever happened inside that house, sent Shannon into a panic as she bolted out the front door. Running through Oak Beach, she banged on the doors of at least two neighbors screaming for help. As both residents dialed 911, Shannon, dazed and incoherent, refused to answer their questions. As Michael Pack drove up in his SUV, Shannon took off again. Around a quarter to five in the morning, somebody was screaming and banging on the door. She says, help me, help me. They're after me.
Starting point is 00:20:12 When I called 911, she got very upset and took right off. And then the car was coming down the road looking for somebody. I think she was either drunk or on drugs. She just stared at me like I wasn't there. For the next 30 minutes, Michael Pack tried to convince Shannon to get into the SUV so he could take her home. After speaking with one of the neighbors, he lost sight of her. Eventually, Pat gave up, assuming she had run out the front gate and hitched a ride with a passing motorist.
Starting point is 00:20:44 By the time Suffolk County PD arrived, at 5.40 a.m., Shannon had vanished. Gilbert was reportedly last seen screaming and running into the brush near here after meeting a client who found her on Craigslist. The responding officer took down reports of the screaming girl and the man in the SUV. But that's as far as it went. He spent only 30 minutes at the scene before driving off.
Starting point is 00:21:11 To make matters worse, Shannon mistakenly told operators that she was at Jones Beach, not Oak Beach, so they transferred the call to the state police and not Suffolk County. Despite a 23-minute call, 911 operators had no idea about the commotion at Oak Beach.
Starting point is 00:21:30 When my sister didn't, come back home. I called Suffolk County to try to file a missing person's report, but they said because of where she lives that I would have to file it through New Jersey. And they said, well, no, because she wasn't missing here. You know, she was missing in Long Island, you have to go there. In 2015, as part of the killing season, we sat down with Shannon's sister, Sheree Gilbert, and Shannon's mother, Mary. We tried to go to Long Island. They said, no, you have to do it where she was livid. I mean, we were ping pong back and forth. With the confusion over Shannon's missing persons report, Mary, Shannon's boyfriend, and even Michael Pack went back to Oak Beach
Starting point is 00:22:11 to conduct their own search, but found nothing. It's also worth noting that Michael Pack and Shannon's client, Joseph Brewer, had also tried to file a missing person's report. Detectives would eventually clear Brewer and pack of any wrongdoing, but no one could find Shannon. prompting many to assume that Suffolk County Police Department and the tight-knit community of Oak Beach wanted nothing to do with a sex worker who had gone missing in their midst. Did you tell them she was a sex worker? Yes.
Starting point is 00:22:48 And do you think that that changed their perception? I don't think it changed their perception. I think they've always had that perception. We were told by the police, do not so. thought to the media. Why? Why did they tell you don't speak to the media? Because of their blatant incompetency. Our daughter was screaming and crying for 23 minutes for help. The police are doing nothing. They're doing nothing.
Starting point is 00:23:18 Despite a 911 call that suggested something far more nefarious, Suffolk County would theorize that Shannon, with a history of bipolar disorder, and drug use that night had some sort of paranoid mental health episode, leaving her to run from Brewer's House into the surrounding marsh. They assumed she was heading towards the bright lights of Ocean Parkway before succumbing to the elements. According to police officials, searching the marsh was nearly impossible. It was flooded with waste-high water and that thick reeds were more than 12 feet high. But soon, as weeks turned to months, the police stopped giving updates altogether, and then the vacuum left by their silence. Wild speculation grew as to what happened to Shannon. It's been almost exactly
Starting point is 00:24:06 a year now since Shannon Gilbert vanished. The day after her disappearance, Gilbert's mother says she received a strange phone call from a doctor who lives nearby, saying Shannon had been in his house the day she disappeared. An Oak Beach physician named Dr. Peter Hackett, who had a reputation for inserting himself into local drama, telephone Mary offering his help. Mary claimed that during one of these calls, Peter Hackett said he gave Shannon a sedative during her panicked run through a beach. He also said he ran a home for wayward girls.
Starting point is 00:24:42 Later under deposition, Hackett denied giving Shannon any drugs and that he was just trying to comfort an upset mother. Do you believe that Peter Hackett gave your daughter some kind of drug? I do believe that Peter Hackett gave your daughter some kind of drug. I do believe that Peter Hackett Gave Shannon something. Whether Hackett gave Shannon a sedative or not,
Starting point is 00:25:04 it was a strange thing to say. So strange, in fact, that suddenly everyone was pointing the finger at him. One theory had Hackett as the lone killer, following Shannon into the marsh and murdering her. Another theory suggested that Hackett had killed Shannon because he was covering up for something even more terrifying. Here's Robert Kolker.
Starting point is 00:25:25 I interviewed the people in Oak Beach who believed the doctor is hiding something. Some of the things that they say have to do with grand conspiracies of neighbors who have been doing supposedly horrible things for years. They come short of saying that it's a satanic cult, but it's close to that. It's like weird games where they prey on young women, and it makes you think of eyes wide shut. Now for those of you who don't know, eyes wide shut, a film directed by Stanley Kubrick, follows a Manhattan doctor who stumbles into a mysterious masquerade ball, where a cult-like sex rituals occur, culminating.
Starting point is 00:25:58 in the murder of a sex worker and its cover-up. Those were not just ordinary people there. If I told you their names, I don't think you'd sleep so well. You called it a fake, a charade. Do you mind telling me what kind of fucking charade ends with somebody turning up dead? She was a junkie. She OD'd. Now let's stick with reality here.
Starting point is 00:26:25 Could Dr. Hackett have given Shannon a sedative absolutely, but he also had a prosthetic leg, which would have made it nearly impossible for him to run down and murder Shannon. As for the alleged weird games, rumors of men who were waiting for Shannon in Brewer's basement, who then hunted her through the marsh, as outlandish as it sounds, people still bought into it.
Starting point is 00:26:52 There's no other way to describe this except explosive. These high-ranking government officials have ties to note beach with sex parties, What is the public need to put two and two together here? What do they think happen to these girls? And that's because of whispers that circled Oak Beach for years. Claims that politicians and police had partied out in Oak Beach. Parties that included drugs, sex workers, and of course, power. And if you know anything about cops and politicians, well, that's not really a stretch, is it?
Starting point is 00:27:24 But there's a darker reason, one that's far more difficult to wrap. your head around. It's because of what those same officials were about to uncover seven months into the search for Shannon Gilbert, waiting less than a half mile away in a beach called Gilgo. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Officer John Malia. This is my partner, K-9 Blue. We work in the shoulder to the road. This tail started waving. He started indicating to a spot off the parkway. At that point, I saw the skeletal remains of a body. The second day, we found the second body and we found the third body and then ultimately the fourth body all within about 500 feet of each other it was almost an unbelievable coincidence a cadaver dog on his way back
Starting point is 00:28:12 from a training mission to find Shannon finds instead over nine miles away the remains of a different sex worker and then another and then another and then another eventually suffolk county would uncover 10 victims in all. Discovery so shocking, residents didn't know what to think. You have a serial killer dumping bodies along this stretch. Well, you know, certainly we're looking at that, that we could have a serial killer. After determining that Shannon wasn't among those ten victims, detectives were now faced with two overwhelming mysteries. What happened to Shannon, where was her body? And what terrifying tragedy led to these other ten victims, whose bodies
Starting point is 00:28:56 they did have. And now, there were even more families demanding answers. Do you think it's part of the Gilgo killings? I believe it's all connected. After finishing their grim task on Ocean Parkway, detectives doubled down on their theory
Starting point is 00:29:12 that Shannon was somewhere back in that Oak Beach marsh. But they had to wait until late fall until they could drain nearly a square mile of waterlogged terrain. Only then could they bring in a giant amphibious excavator and a helicopter to perform a grid search.
Starting point is 00:29:31 It's an area that is dense with brush. It's been very hard for the investigators themselves and even the cadaver dogs to get into it. After an exhaustive search, they found Shannon's jeans. Then her purse. Then her cell phone. And then finally, about a quarter mile away. Her remains. After a massive search, we have located a set of skeletal remains.
Starting point is 00:30:02 We believe at this time to belong to Shannon Gilbert. There were no physical signs of abuse or trauma, adding credence to the original police theory, that Shannon suffered a mental episode, ran into the marsh, and succumbed to the elements. Yet Mary believed differently, and now backed by her attorney, John Ray. She sued the Suffolk County Police Department for access to the 911 tape as part of a wrongful death suit against Dr. Peter Hackett. Have you ever heard the 911 call? It was read to me by the coroner.
Starting point is 00:30:38 I never heard it. Why did they never play it for you? They refused to. They tell you why they refused? They refused, saying it is still a piece of evidence. They said she wasn't murdered. It was an accident, so evidence that what? It made no sense.
Starting point is 00:30:59 It didn't make sense. But why were they holding back? Because it proved their incompetence, opening the door for a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Was it something more? I believe they're not being honest about her now when I'm called. It's not a lot to go through to hide the police incompetent. when a lot of the police, governors, businessmen,
Starting point is 00:31:29 they're their jobs. You know, Shannon said to me once, she said, Mom, you don't know who my clients are. She says, I have cops, I have doctors. I have lawyers and judges. She says, Mom, it's everywhere. While making the killing season, we were contacted by a former detective
Starting point is 00:31:51 who will call Hawkshaw, who worked for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. As Hawkshaw explained, Suffolk County has had a long history of corruption, documented claims of coercive interrogations, retaliations against whistleblowers, and of course, sexual misconduct. He told us that in Suffolk County, the top cops, the bosses, were like kings, kings who felt they were untouchable, in bed with politicians, business leaders, and as we were about to find out, everyone else.
Starting point is 00:32:24 Why do you think that tape was unreleased? Well, there's something on it that they don't want somebody to hear. This is a very big political area. There's a lot of important people. She may have uttered some names that they don't want you to hear it. As much as Hawkshaw's theories sounded a bit conspiratorial, we also hadn't forgotten about those rumors in Oak Beach, the parties with police and politicians.
Starting point is 00:32:50 where there were drugs and, most importantly, sex workers. They consistently recruit girls from these strip joints, and they have wild parties down here. Who is they? Police, politicians. So your allegation is that in due course of protecting certain people, we are not really getting to the heart of the serial killer case. That's my opinion, just based on my experience and my experience.
Starting point is 00:33:20 So had Shannon mentioned names on that 911 call, names that were being deliberately omitted to protect people, people who could provide information that could potentially solve the murders of 10 other sex workers? Yet how could that be if Shannon wasn't connected to those other murders? And if she wasn't, then why not release the tapes? As much as it all didn't make sense, it also did because if you start to hear enough rumors about cops and parties and sex workers
Starting point is 00:33:55 then those rumors start to become something else a thread that you keep pulling on over and over until eventually everything starts to slowly unravel
Starting point is 00:34:11 I'm Robert Smith and this is Jake Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all. It's a very simple, elegant lesson.
Starting point is 00:34:43 Make something people want. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons. And you know what?
Starting point is 00:35:00 They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. you get your podcast. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream,
Starting point is 00:35:23 and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arnest, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe, most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From plenty canary cages to this night here,
Starting point is 00:35:45 New York. It's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life. The moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television, and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one man's spotlight lit the path for so many others and how we carry his legacy today. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama as part of the My Cultura Podcast Network, available. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Starting point is 00:36:17 or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you?
Starting point is 00:36:34 Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline, December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting. and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. The forces shaping the world's economies
Starting point is 00:36:52 and financial markets can be hard to spot. Even though they are such a powerful player in finance, you wouldn't really know that you are interacting with them. And even harder to understand. Donald Trump's trade war, 2.0, is only accelerating the process of de-dollarization, which in a way is jargon for people turning away from the dollar. That is where the big take from Bloomberg podcast comes in, to connect the dots.
Starting point is 00:37:18 How unusual is a deal like this? Unprecedented. Every weekday afternoon, we dive deep into one big global business story. The biggest story of the reaction of the oil market to the conflict in the Middle East is one of what has not happened. Katie, you told me that ETFs are your favorite thing. They are. Explain that. Why is that the case?
Starting point is 00:37:39 And unpack what it means for you. Our breakfast foods are consistent, consistent. consumers' staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The theories put forth by Mary Gilbert and Hawkshaw. Claims of a cover-up related to escorts and high-profile Johns would remain nothing more than that, theories, until we could find some shred of evidence or some sliver of
Starting point is 00:38:20 corroboration, something that would add credibility to this alleged conspiracy. Though in the end, the evidence found us. Just a month after our show aired, we were contacted by a woman who will call Leanne, a sex worker from Long Island claiming to have intimate details about. out those rumored wild parties in Oak Beach. And so we met Leanne in a car outside our office. Okay, let's just do this. Fine. Roll in.
Starting point is 00:39:00 All right. You put your hand there again. All right. So when you were called to go to these parties at Oak Beach, did you know that Shannon had disappeared from Oak Beach at that time? I knew that something had happened, but I was young 20. I wasn't paying attention. The police officers who are at these parties, are they still in law enforcement now?
Starting point is 00:39:23 They're very much still in these soliciting escorts. So you hung out with them at parties in 2011. Yes. Drugs were there. Drugs were there. Prostitutes were there. Burke was there. Do you have any relations with Burke at this parties? Burke and I had had sex, yes.
Starting point is 00:39:40 And was he violent at all? Burke was a very aggressive person, very narcissistic, godlike. Mm-hmm. Not only was Leanne claiming that she had attended these infamous parties, but while there, she had sex with a police official named James Burke. Now, Burke was one of those top cops we've mentioned before, who treated Suffolk County like it was their own fiefdom. But what's important is that six months after this alleged person,
Starting point is 00:40:11 party, James Burke would replace the former commissioner, Richard Dormer, to become the new Suffolk County, Chief of Police. We're dealing with one of the most corrupt departments in the country, and they just keep showing it left and right and left and right. I've seen Suffolk County at parties after, and it's completely shady behavior. They did it right after the whole thing unfolded, April 2011, and they need to cover that up. I'm not surprised that police officers. I'm not surprised that police officers' party. With escorts.
Starting point is 00:40:43 With escorts and with drugs? Sure. The fact that they did it in Oak Beach, which was so right around the corner, just right after these women. We don't matter. Right. We don't matter. The idea of Suffa County police officials, having sex with escorts in Oak Beach, while
Starting point is 00:41:02 Shannon was still missing, just a few houses away from where she disappeared, and right after that same police department had just done. covered ten bodies less than nine miles away was beyond arrogant. And while there was no way to corroborate Leanne's claims at the time, her story rang true. And that's because Burke wasn't just a bad guy. He was a really bad guy. A police chief who had just been arrested for crimes that would forever change the Gilgo Beach murders. Former Suffolk County Chief of Police. James Burke was put in handcuffs this morning. Jimmy Burke is the sociopath without question.
Starting point is 00:41:46 The disgraced police official may have connections to 10 women who are believed to have been murdered by the serial killer on Long Island. Steve, he's still denying the accusations? Remember, you can binge the rest of the season right now with an IHeart True Crime Plus subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Plus you get exclusive bonuses and add free listening. So head to Apple Podcasts. Search IHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe today. Hunting the Long Island serial killer is a production of Tenderfoot TV,
Starting point is 00:42:40 Heart Podcasts, hosted, written, and executive produced by me, Josh Zeman, produced and written by Caitlin Coulford, Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV. Matt Frederick and Trevor Young are executive producers on behalf of IHeart Podcasts. Original music by Alex Lassarenko, David Little, and makeup and vanity set. Our supervising producer is John Street. Editing and writing by Daniel Lonsbury. Additional voiceover provided by Rachel Mills. Additional production provided by Ghost Robot. Sound design Mix and Master by Dayton Cole. Cover design by Byron McCoy. Interns, Arnett Afontan, Shelby Hanson, Alec Walker, and Fox Williams. A&A Television Networks, LLC, audio from the killing season, used under license. Copyright 2025, A&E Television Networks, LLC, all rights reserved.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Special thanks to the team at United Talent Agency, the Nord Group, Brad Abramson, Todd Leibowitz, Rich Perillo and Jigsaw Productions, Rachel Mills, Zachary Mortensen, Jen Beagle, David Baker, Joe Jackalone, and Evan Krause, as well as the teams at IHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. Find us on social media at Monster underscore Pod. For more podcasts like Monster hunting the Long Island serial killer, search Tenderfoot TV in your podcast app or visit tenderfoot.tv. And if you want to keep following my hunt for the Long Island serial killer, or a deeper dive into my other true crime content,
Starting point is 00:44:30 join me on YouTube at Sinister with Josh Zeman. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio,
Starting point is 00:45:09 app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever.
Starting point is 00:45:38 Listen to business history. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arness. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz
Starting point is 00:45:54 and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valdarama on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Starting point is 00:46:12 or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you?
Starting point is 00:46:29 Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline, December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.

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