True Crime All The Time - Daniel Rakowitz

Episode Date: July 9, 2018

Daniel Rakowitz made his way from Texas to New York City in the 1980s. He began squatting in empty buildings, hanging out with the homeless population, and plotting to build a marijuana empire. Daniel would meet and move in with a dancer named Monica Beerle. When she tried to end the relationship, Rakowitz murdered her in a blind rage. But, it's what would happen to Monica after death that would shock New York.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the bizarre life and actions of Daniel Rakowitz. There was no question that he murdered Monica Beerle. It would be up to a jury to decide whether he was legally responsible for her murder. But the biggest question of all would be what exactly did Daniel Rakowitz do with Monica's body after he murdered her.You can help support the by going to patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationSponsors:Visit simplisafe.com/tcatt today for the best value in home security.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

everyone and welcome to episode 86 of the true crime all the time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime Mike Gibson Gibby what is going on. Hey man, how you doing? I'm doing great. Yeah, come off a good birthday. I did. Yeah, had a birthday. I had a week off. Oh, you're 62? Yeah, you're old, man. I am. I am 10 years younger than you. Wait a minute. Well, that can't be. You're going the wrong direction then. We got that going for us. Yeah. No, it was. It was a good birthday and it was a good week off. Good. My daughter had a national dance competition and that was cool. Yeah, I know. I taught her some few things. You did. You taught her a couple Saturday night fever moves. Yeah, you know, somebody's got to do it. Yeah. They did very well. So I was

really proud of her. Shadow dancing. Shadow dancing. Yeah. I stood behind her and sang the Bee Gees. Did you? With my shirt open and a gold chain. Yeah. Stop now. What? Is it? Is it? A. You're saying. I did you. I stand. I was a. I was a. You're chest hair. Yeah. Gold chains. Yeah. Not just chest hair, but big fluffy chest hair.

It's, that's like, I was watching, I don't know, reruns of Saturday Night Live. Yeah. Where Jimmy Fallon does the Barry Gibb talk show. Oh, yeah. That cracks me up. He's funny, man. He's got that down, too. Yeah, it's very.

And when he has Justin Timberlake on. Oh, they're perfect together. Justin plays his brother, Robin. Yeah. And that's funny. Yeah, they're good together. All right, Gibbs, we've got some new Patreon supporters. We do.

So let's talk about Amy K. Hey, Amy. Nicholas Est. Nicholas. Binky G. Binky G. Binky G. Like binky?

Binky. Binky. With a G. With a G. Yeah. Well, I mean, Binky G. That's what I said. Sometimes I go by Mikey G.

G. And I know you do. You know my, you know, alias. Emily Flaws. Hey, Emily. Ivory Cople. I like ivory. It's a cool name.

Yeah, it is. Delia Severn. Hey, Delia. Nicole McCarthy. Paul's relative. David Paulson. Hey, Sarah Paulson's relative. So you can't remember a movie to save your life, but all of a sudden you can remember these actors?

I don't know. They just come and go. Or singers or actors? They just roll right off the tongue? No rhyme or reason. It just happens. Okay, so match this one up. Travis Goodminson.

Goodminson? Yeah, it's John Goodman and somebody else kind of kind of blend them. I don't know how you do that. Greg Hatch. Hey, Greg. Jen Lawrence. That's what we know. That's actually the real Jennifer Lawrence.

From, you know, this is Hunger Games, but she's trying to hide it. Yeah. She's just going to Jen. I mean, she can be disguised all she wants, but when she sends those, you know, messages to us, you know, hey guys, it's Jen, really enjoy the show. I'm here shooting my next movie. It's kind of hard to disguise. It's hard to disguise that. I've had Ariel Hawxton come out at our highest level.

Hawksden. Shelly know me? Do you know me? My name's Shelly. Do you know me? I'm probably butchered that, but that's what I'm going with. Anna Payland? Hey, Ann.

Hey, what? I said Anna. It sounds like you just said Ann. I know. It's kind of just dropped off, didn't it? Yeah, it was like you got tired. It was like, yeah. It's only four letters, yeah.

You got tired on like the third. A lot of effort there. On the third. On the third leg. Yeah, go on the next. No, I'm just joking. Kimberly Stiles. Hey, Kimberly.

Susan Hayden. Yeah, Susan. Kim Pancratz. Pancratz. Rachel Percy. Hey, Rachel. And then going back into the vault, this week we selected Leanne Abe.

Yeah. So a big shout out to Leanne, been with us a long time. Thank you, Leanne. And then on PayPal Gibbs, we had Joel Myers. Joel? Like, from Superman? No.

No? That's Jorell. Oh. This is a woman named Joelle. Oh, just, oh, Joelle. Oh, hey, Joelle. How you doing? That's Jorel.

I don't want to be, I don't want to nerd out too much, but I do know my Superman. You know your Superman? Okay. Ruth Johnson. Hey, Ruth. Allison Thompson, our friend Allison. Hey, Allison. How you doing?

Kelly Holiday. Hey, Kelly. Cindy Johns. Cindy and John? Nope, Cindy Johns. Oh, Cindy Johns. Hey, Cindy. Not spelled any way.

close to what I just said. Yeah. Ivy Lee. Ivy again? Oh, ivory was on the other, yeah, Ivy. It's just Ivy. Ivy, like Ivy League. Yeah, but without the G-U-E.

Yeah. And Tisha Wells. Hey, Tisha. So amazing PayPal support, great Patreon support. We appreciate all the new folks and all the people that say with us, month after month. It really makes a huge difference. All right, Gibbs. Let's talk about.

True crime all the time, Unsolved. Yeah, let's do it. Right now there's an episode out on the Black Dahlia. Yeah. Very famous Unsolved case. Mysterious. Very mysterious. Yeah.

There's a lot of reasons for it. I think Los Angeles is one. Well, Hollywood. Hollywood in particular. But I think the media, the media really jumped on this case. Especially back then, yeah. Well, I didn't mean yesterday. Well, I'm just saying.

There's not a whole lot of Black Dahlia media. probably yesterday. Yeah, that Hollywood, man. It was, it's a rough place. But back then for sure. There was a lot of media coverage and maybe some unethical media coverage too. Probably back then. We might talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, for sure. All right. You ready to get into this episode? True crime all the time. Yeah. What episode is this again? 86. 86, man.

We're closing in on a Hyundai. Yeah, we are. Be here before you know it. That's a throw a party or something. It's like what? episodes away. Yeah. That's my, that's how good I am a math. That's really good math. Yeah. So I have to give a big shout out to Daphne Dennis. Hey Daphne. Daphne. Daphne did some writing and research on this episode. Do we call her D.D.? We can. I don't know if she'll like that, but go ahead.

Well, thanks D.D. But it really made such a difference. You know, it's a big help. We say it all the time. Anytime we get some help writing and research. Absolutely. I mean, we need it. You know, it's just not enough time in the day anymore with everything we do outside of the podcast world. And we're going to New York in the 1980s. So, club, uh, club 55? No. Studio 54. Studio 54. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. I don't know when it shut down. Yeah. Yeah. 70s into the 80s probably. Good times, you know. But definitely. But Daphne was living in New York City. Oh, really?

In the 1980s. So she brought a lot of her own personal knowledge to the story. That's cool. I like that. No, it was really cool. The New York scene, man, back then, it was something. And it was so much different, right? Not like New York City is today.

No. And didn't you just go to New York or did you go, you went to New York, but I don't know if it was, did you go to the city? Yeah, I went to the city. Okay. Yeah. It's a little more family friendly today than I think it was. was in the 80s? Yes.

I'm not saying have a picnic in Central Park at 2 a.m. No, I wouldn't. But you'd have to say today is... Better than it was. Much, much better. Yeah, for sure. Than it was in the early 80s. Yeah.

You still have, you know, you're always going to have issues. You're going to have a bad element. You have that many people in a small, you know, square mile, you know, just not square miles but yeah square miles yeah yeah but you can go to time square today with your family oh absolutely theater district for sure yeah in the 80s you know time square was like the city's porn hub right it was there was a lot of drugs a lot of violence a lot of peep shows what are peep shows i'll tell you later is that i mean what is it i mean like the little easter candy the little marshmallow things bunch of peeps laying out.

Where they put on a show and they talk to each other. It's a little different than that. All right. I'll explain it to you off the line. But you really, it really is a different place. I mean, they have an American girl doll store,

like a flagship stored in Times Square, I think. They would not have had that in the 1980s. Let's put it down. Yeah, talking back in the day, like FAA shorts and all that stuff. I think it's FAA. FAA. FAA.

FAA? You crack me up. FAQ? F-A-Q. Yeah. Everybody knows F-A-O, right? F-A-O. I only know it from the movie big.

Big, yeah. That's the only reason I even know about it. Everybody goes to that big old keyboard thing and does a little tap dance on it. I've never been to New York City. Oh, you haven't? Never. New York City. Nope.

Never. That's the real cooking beans. Remember that? You don't remember that? I have no idea what you're talking about. beans. Yeah, that was a commercial. Never mind. What was it a commercial for? Beans. Beans? New York City. I think you're talking about salsa. That too. That's the one I think you're talking about. That's the other commercial. No. There's two. No, no. In what year you're

looking at. You're talking about Pace Picanti sauce. Yeah, that's the other one. That's the one you're talking about. But we're talking about New York City of the 1980s. Okay. There was a lot of homeless. There was a lot of panhandling. You know, it was said, that it smelled horribly, you know, putrid from the amount of homeless people lining the streets. I will say the last time I was in New York turned down an alley down by all the brownstones. And I looked across the street and there was a guy that just dropped his drawers and did his business on a, you know, instead of finding a toll, it did it right there on the street and pulled back up and walked away. And I thought, New York City.

Yeah. There you go. But that was an isolated incident. Yeah, I didn't, yeah. You didn't see it the whole way going down. Yeah, that would have been something. And more specifically, we're talking about the East Village, Alphabet City. You know, back then, it was a much different place, right?

A lot of drugs, a lot of drifters, homeless. You had a lot of mentally ill individuals walking the street. You had a lot of squatters. I just said I saw a squatter when I was there. You did. Yeah. It's a different type of squatter. Oh, okay. But this is where the story of Daniel Rackowitz takes place. Now, Daniel Rackowitz couldn't afford the East Village, Alphabet City today, right? Couldn't afford the prices. But back in the 80s, he was mooching his way around Alphabet City. He worked as a dishwasher,

short order cook. And then he figured out Gibbs that he could make a lot of money, buying marijuana, reselling it in the neighborhood at an inflated price. Entrepreneur. He's an entrepreneur. He would call himself the marijuana guru. And Daniel Rackowitz loved marijuana. It was his drug of choice.

Yeah. It was something that was constant in his life. life. It got him kicked out of Texas, which we'll talk about. And it's the reason why he ended up in New York in Alphabet City. And a lot of people talk about marijuana as this harmless drug. And I think to some people it is. Well, that's why it's legal in so many places. Yeah. But it's also in some ways the catalyst for some of the things that we're going to talk about. Right. So 1984, Alphabet City is the perfect place for a pothead like Daniel Rackowitz. A pothead.

A pothead. And he wasn't, I mean, he was a self-described pothead. He started his own religion that he called the Church of the Realized Fantasy. Okay. He also called it the Church of 966. Interesting. What is? Because you think of 666.

as the devil's number. But Daniel Rackowitz had his own view on Satan. So he wanted something bigger. He wanted something bigger than 666, so he went with 966. Don't ask me to explain this guy Gibbs during the story because it's going to be pretty tough. A lot of his actions are not explainable. They just are. They just are what they are.

Yeah. So he thought that, you know, he was on to something bigger. and he wanted his church or his name to reflect that. So it had to be a higher number. And there were people Gibbs that, you know, would come out later and talk about Daniel Rackowitz saying that he talked a lot about animal sacrifice. And I mentioned that he was a squatter, right?

He just took up residence in places that he didn't own. And later on, that they would find in some of these squats that he lived in, 966 written in blood and chicken feathers. People remember him as a person that thought he was Jesus, told people that he thought he was Jesus. Wow. Often indulged in, you know, long, incoherent ramblings, talking about crucifixion, reincarnation, the power of Satan. So he had some, he had some strange ideas in his head. I mean, number one, he thought he was God, thought he was Jesus.

At some time, at some point, sounded like he thought he was Satan. So he was a little mixed up in that regard. Yeah, really mixed up. But all of this is painting the picture, helping to set the scene for, you know, what's going to be a very gruesome murder. You know, maybe one of the most gruesome that I can't say in the history of New York, obviously. New York's had a lot of gruesome murders. But this one is particularly rough. But let's go back, talk about how Daniel Rackaway.

got to New York City because he grew up in a small town in Texas. His dad was a deputy sheriff. And later on, Daniel Ratcliffe is going to have his name plastered on headlines across America. He's going to be called the butcher of Tompkins Park, the cannibal chef. That's going to be rough for your family from a small town in Texas to find. find out that you've done some very, very horrible things. It's going to be really tough. So he was born Christmas Eve in 1960.

He was the third son of Anthony John Rackowitz of Edna, Texas, and Velma Jean Breakbill of Idle, Oklahoma. Daniel's mom, Velma, had been married once before in 1951, but it didn't last. She got divorced very quickly. married Daniel's father, Anthony, in 1952. Their first son, Daniel's oldest brother, was named Anthony John Jr. Their second son was named Julian Roy, born in 1954. But they traveled around a lot because the father was in the military and he worked in the

Army's criminal investigation division. So the family traveled quite. extensively, not just in the U.S., but internationally. And they were in France in October of 1963 when Daniel's mom suffered a heart attack in a French hotel room and died. Wow. That ruined that vacation. Yeah. So, and she was, you know, she was very young. But relatives would later point to this trauma. of Daniel, who was in the room at the time, witnessing his mother's death as a possible reason that he would later have some of these very strange notions, some of which we've already

talked about, and do some very horrible things. You know, this is what some of his relatives thought maybe was a part of the catalyst, I guess you would say. Obviously, Gibbs, it can't be good for a child. It's not good for a child to lose a parent at a very young age. To see your parent pass away, that adds an element. It does. But there's a lot of us that have been in that position. But everybody's different. And you don't know how somebody's going to react to that type of stimuli. You like how I weaved in the word stimuli? I did. Now, you have to try to figure out a way to say it. Stimuli? No, you can't just say it. You have to work it into the conversation.

I'll work it in. It's easy just to say the word. She stimuli me. Easy, but his mom died. People thought that had this great effect on him, but he was still very young. But either way, Gibbs, when we start to talk about his actions as an adult, and especially his actions towards women. You have to wonder whether or not it had something to do with it. I don't know if it did or not. And I never do in these cases.

It's nearly impossible to say that any of these things that we talk about in somebody's background absolutely played this part or had this effect in what they did later. Yes. You can talk about what happened in their background, but how can you conclusively say that it had this effect or any effect? Right? It's really hard. Yeah, I don't think you can. It's all subjective. All right, Gibby. Let's take a quick break to talk about our sponsor, SimplySafe.

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I'm extremely happy. So protect your home today. Visit simplysafe.com slash teacat now. That's simply safe with two eyes. Dot com slash teacat. Simplysafe.com slash teacat. So Velma's body was returned to her home state of Oklahoma, which is where she was buried. And Anthony Sr.

was suddenly this single father. And he must not have liked that. Gibbs, because about three months after his wife dies, he married her sister. Really? Yeah. Now, I'm not saying you can't marry your dead wife's sister. Well, that's the way to keep it all in the family. I just don't know that you can do it within three months.

Eh, you know. You need some time to grieve, don't you? Well, maybe he got that out pretty. early. I don't know. Yeah, I would think you would want a little time to pass. You think the rumor mill probably got kicked up pretty fast? I would think so. Not to mention the fact that she was 12 years younger than him. Not that that's that much, but, you know, sometimes that gap of 12 years is not a big deal, you know? Right now there's somebody out there. It's probably seeing somebody or married to somebody or dating somebody with a 12 year gap. No, the 12 years doesn't bother me at all.

Unless you're 20. Yeah. Then you got a big problem. Then it's a problem. Or whatever. But the 12 years doesn't bother me as much as the, it was three months after she died. Yeah. That's pretty fast.

And it was her sister. I guess that bothers me a lot more. But it wasn't a good match because the marriage fizzled out. Now, Anthony Sr. retired from the army in 1965. and he would become a deputy sheriff in this small Texas town named Rockport. Population about 5,800, pretty small, I would think. Pretty small.

Kind of me of that movie with Sylvester Stallone. Played a local sheriff. Is that the one where he was like really timid and he was letting people walk all over him? Yeah, yeah. I think I saw bits and pieces of. Like the other side of New York or something or I forget what's, city it was, but it was like, this is a small little... That's the name of it? No, no, it's just where it was taking place at. What's the name of it? I don't remember. Okay. But he played a cop.

I do, I know what you're talking about, because I remember seeing a little bit of it, and he, he played almost like this very timid character. Now, there are people that came out later and said that Daniel Rackowitz was bullied as a child, but his family did try to help him. They took him to numerous doctors, he saw some mental health professionals. There are even some statements saying that he spent time in some institutions during his teen years and even received some shock therapy back in the day. It's been speculated that it's the time that he spent in these psychiatric facilities where he learned that he could use drugs to control behavior,

his own behavior. So there's some thought that this is where his drug used started. But there's no doubt that he rebelled against his very strict father. Later on, his dad's boss, the sheriff's, his name's Robert Hughes, he's going to do an interview after all of this bad stuff comes out. and he's talking about how, you know, the father was very straight-laced. He was a disciplinarian. But the boy Danny, you know, he's talking about Daniel.

He called him in this interview Gibbs, his words, not mine, a mental basket case. Wow. These are, this is many years ago. Yeah. Too. But that's what he called him. You know, he said that he was very hot-tempered. Apparently he had, he tore up.

his dad's trailer on more than one occasion. They had to arrest him for marijuana a couple of times and eventually got too much and his dad threw him out. And in this interview, the sheriff's talking about the last thing that he knew was that Danny, as he called him, had gotten into what he called this Jesus thing. I'm using my air quotes. Yeah. You always like to do that. I do. I do. It's more for you. I appreciate that. Yeah. It helps.

It gives you some context. So his dad's thrown him out. The sheriff's doing this interview after the fact and saying all these things about Danny, but ending it with saying you could see that he was headed for some big trouble. Well, that's a pretty big understatement, Gibbs, because the interview is after the fact. He knows what trouble Danny's already gotten into. So Daniel leaves home. He drifts around.

1983, he's 22 years old. He marries a 14-year-old girl in Texas. And I'm thinking Gibbs back then, a 14-year-old probably could get married on their own, maybe. Probably back then, I think. Maybe, you know. I know there were some states, I don't know today, but not that long ago, where 14, I thought was a legal marrying age. or age of consent. I may be getting the two mixed up.

But that is so young. Well, don't you have a 14 year old? I have a 13 year old. So next year she'd be getting married. That would be crazy. Yeah, it would be nuts. That would just would, to me, would make, I mean, obviously I would never let it happen, but even if it was legal, just she's not in the position to even be close to being ready for

that type of stuff. But you know this isn't going to work out. Right. A 22-year-old man marries a 14-year-old girl. Now, we talk about that's only an eight-year age difference, but that is a big age difference. It is a big age difference because of their ages. If one of them was 60 and the other one was 52, you wouldn't bat an eye. That's more like Jerry Lee Lewis. But yeah, well, it is. You start talking about 22 and 14. That's a big age difference. Now, but it wasn't just the age. You know, he was apparently abusive. And my understanding is that this girl, many years later, is going to testify against him at some type of hearing about being transferred to a less secure facility.

I know we haven't gotten into the crime yet, but I wanted to throw it in there because it was the only time I was going to talk about her. But there was an assistant state attorney general that recounted that Daniel had battered, not only. battered his wife, chained her to the refrigerator. And apparently when they asked him why he chained her to the refrigerator, he replied that she wanted him to chain her there. That was his reply. This is going to be a common theme from Daniel Rakowitz, which is blame the victim. And we hear that a lot in a lot of cases we do. A lot of these guys have this mentality that, that somehow in their mind gives it's their victim's fault for what they did to them. That is a very strange thing in my mind.

And I'm sure in your mind and in the listeners' minds too, because our minds don't work like that. No, not at all. But it's probably based on this fail relationship in the early mid 80s that he makes the decision that he's going to leave Texas forever. And folks that he would later know in New York say that it was around 85 that some of them met Daniel Rackowitz in Tompkins Square Park. And back then, this was, you know, an area almost like a homeless tent city.

But even during that point, things were starting to change. There were people coming in. that wanted to renovate, that wanted to, you know, bring in housing and fix up that neighborhood. So you're going to have two sides that are at odds. This group of people that wants to come in and, you know, fix it up. And then you have all these people that are calling it home, essentially, living in tents, a lot of people, you know, doing drugs. what they also had in this area were some brownstones, right, which at one time were probably great,

but they had fallen on hard times. These were some of the properties that people wanted to come in and buy and fix up, but these were also the properties that a lot of these people were squatting in, not the squatting that you witnessed. That I saw by the brownstones I was by. But the living in places that you don't own. Because we're talking about Manhattan. I mean, this is, is some valuable real estate, right, that people are squatting in. You know there were people that just were seeing nothing but dollar signs Gibbs. Hey, I'm going to buy that. I'm going to fix it up. We're going to fix up this whole street. And next thing you know, the yuppies are going to move in and we're going to make tons of money. But you can't do that when you have a bunch of people

shooting heroin laying in the street. So I mentioned you have these two sides at odds. And it came to a head. August 8th, 1988, there was like a full out riot in Tompkins Square Park because what happened was the police were ordered to remove these people, right? These encampments of homeless people that had, were using tents, were living in the park. They were told that they had to go. They didn't want to go. And it turned into an all-out riot. And I guess it was, it was, said that it lasted all night, you know, into the next morning, 38 people on both sides were injured. And there's some footage you can see on YouTube showing, you know,

the cops storming these crowds swinging night sticks. Good old riots. Yeah. So we fast forward a few years, 1989. Daniel's been in New York for about four years when he meets a dancer. And... What? Tanya? Tanya. Tanya Dancer?

Sorry, I just had to say it. You mean Tiny Dancer? Or... Are you saying to hold me closer, Tanya Dancer? Well, I'm the one I thought it was Dream Weaver, was Jessica. Were you really thinking that? That's how the song went? Tanya Dancer?

Yeah, I did. It's Tiny Dancer. I missed that one. All those years. That's funny, though. Evan actually cracks me up. No, it's a dancer and a choreographer. Her name's Monica Beirley.

Okay. You're never going to live that down, man. I'm not. You're going to leave that in? I'm going to leave that in. You're going to leave that in. Oh, yeah, I'm going to leave that in. Yeah.

Sorry people. So Monica Beirley is from Switzerland, and they meet in Tompkins Square Park. Because even though this riot had happened, these people are still living in the park. Right? you have a large contingent of mentally ill individuals. You've got a lot of drug addicts.

And you have a lot of homeless people, all living in this park. I'm still thinking about Tanya. Tanya Dancer. Yeah. I remember when I had to live down the old Jane Weaver for Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver. That was a good one, though. So Monica had come from Switzerland to New York to study at a prestigious,

contemporary dance school, but she was having to pay for it. And to pay her way through school, she was working at what was described as a not-so-nice bar called Billy's Toplas. Doesn't leave a lot to the imagination in the name of the bar. Billy's Toplis. Right. Yeah, you see that sign. You pretty much know what's happening there.

Yeah, they're not trying to hide what's going on inside, I don't think. But she's working there to pay her tuition to dance school. She meets Daniel. And like we talked about, at this point in time, Daniel is big time into drugs. It was said Gibbs that he walked around with a rooster on his shoulder. Pretty cocky guy. That's kind of funny. Like a pirate walks around with a parrot.

Yeah. This guy's just walking around. It's a what? A peepee. A pp? Pirate parrot. Pirate, parrot. He's just walking around with a rooster on his shoulder, smoking jays, like it's nobody's business. Rister on my shoulder. And he was also known to carry around dead chickens.

Really? I talked about, I foreshadowed a little bit of this up front. Like if you get hungry, you can just start a fire and cook it up? And it was said that he used these chickens to make soup for the homeless. Huh. Depends on how long it's been dead, though, you know? I don't know what he's walking around with these chickens for weeks on the end. What's the shelf life of a dead chicken before you got to refrigerate it? Not long at all. Yeah. I don't think it's very long at all.

But the key here is that Daniel Rackowitz made soup for the homeless people that lived in Tompkins Square Park. That's going to come back around in a big way. Well, they need their protein, so get your chicken. Now, Daniel moved out of the park. He moved into an apartment on East 9th Street, and he saw an ad from a couple that were looking for a roommate to help cover the rent. So he goes and sees this couple. Apparently, they weren't too picky. I don't know if I would choose the marijuana guru who's got a rooster on his shoulder.

Yeah, the rooster would have thrown me. But maybe they're not too picky. They just needed somebody to help cover, you know, half the rent. Well, the rooster and the dead chicken in the other hand would have thrown me. Both. One of the other or both. But he could pay the money because, like we said, he's actually making some money selling marijuana around town. His share of the rent Gibbs was $200 a month.

Not bad deal. Not too bad. The problem that he runs into is that this couple that he's splendid. the place with, they break up and they both move out. So he's left there all by himself. So he's only got a couple options. Either he's got to pay this whole rent, scraped together all the money, which is $500 a month. Yeah. Now, what do you think that that would probably go for today, Gibbs? In that part of town? Yep. Now, keep in mind, today it's probably renovated. Yeah. I don't know. Three grand? I'd say you're probably pretty close.

Yeah. That's a lot of money. I'm not, I'm not. For her apartment. Yeah. But New York real estate's outrageous. Oh, it is. Yeah. Yeah, my niece lives up there, so. So I don't think you're, I doubt you're probably too far off. Yeah. But he's not going to, he doesn't want to pay this money. So he really has one choice. And it's very timely because he had met this Monica, barely. She needed a place to say. So it was.

worked out for both of them. She moves in with Daniel. So there's going to be a lot of people interviewed after the fact talking about how strange Daniel Rakowitz was. So apparently on the apartment door, he had written some words or some phrases. One was, is it soup yet? That might make more sense here in a little while. Okay. Bizar. The second one was, welcome to spawn Ranch East. Welcome to Spahn Ranch East. Now that's obviously a nod to Charles Manson. Yep.

Who it was said that Rackowitz had more than a fascination with. I mean, he was just enthralled with Charles Manson. Now, there were other people that said Daniel told them he wanted to move back to Texas and take over the state. take over the state of Texas. The state? The state. The whole state. That big old state down there. It's pretty big.

He wanted to take that over. The guy's got ambitions. Well, you know, they're big or go home, but that's pretty damn big. I don't know how you take over a state, any state, let alone the state of Texas. Yeah, you're going to try to take over state. Maybe start with something small like Rhode Island. Even that would be tough, but easier than Texas. Yeah.

You don't need as many resources. Yeah. You get 100 guys, you could probably take a road aisle anything. Yeah. 50. 50 guys. Yeah. There was a lot of people that said that he told them he was the head of a satanic cult.

And you had a lot of people talking about, you know, this rooster that he kept in the apartment. He took with him when he left and walked around. The rooster man. And that he often made food for the homeless in Tompkins Square Park. Now, you think of that as not strange at all. That's really a great thing to do, right? To you're helping out to homeless people and living in the park. You're taking them food.

Feeding the masses. That's great. Yeah. But again, there's a little bit of foreshadowing here. Now, this relationship between Daniel and Monica, there's problems from the get-go. Monica was described as a free spirit. And she liked drugs. She liked to have sex with lots of different people.

And even her friends would come out and say that. That's hard to have a relationship with somebody like that unless you're open as they are. And it made Daniel jealous when she would bring these men to their place, right, the place that they're sharing. And you'll see that this relationship referred to a bunch of different ways. right there were definitely roommates some of the newspaper articles say that they were boyfriend girlfriend i don't know gibbs it maybe there's a little bit of both there maybe it was more roommate than anything else or maybe to her it was more roommate to him it was more in a relationship you know you could be absolutely right but one thing's for certain he did not like the fact that she was bringing home

a large number of men over a short period of time. It was the 80s. It was the 80s. Love Boat was popular. That's your answer for everything. It was the 80s and Love Boat? Hey man, I did that, but it was the 80s. And Love Boat was on TV.

And Love Boat was on. You can't blame everything on Love Boat, Man. Fantasy Island then. I used to love Fantasy Island. Deep Lane, Deep Lane. You kind of look like Ricardo Montelban right now. Do I? Yeah, you got...

Too much sun? You got... Your face is looking very... tanned. I don't know you were working outside or something. No leather though, huh? No, I didn't say it looked leathery. That's good. Wisterized. But no matter what the relationship

was, Gibbs, and we'll probably never really know for sure, it wasn't good. And it's going to go from bad to deadly when the lease term on this apartment is up. Now, Daniel has some money from selling drugs, but he doesn't have a real job. He can't provide any proof of income.

It's hard for drug dealers. You know what I just thought of? What? You're talking about Elton John in that one song? Uh-huh. Tanya Dancer? Yeah. Uh-huh.

But he also did a song about Daniel. He did. There's the tie-in. What was it called? Daniel. Yeah, well, I thought you were going to say something, no. I just wanted to do that tie-in for you.

All right. So we got Daniel, we got Tanya Dancer. Yeah. We got a lot of Elton John. That's right. Elton John would be rolling over in his grave, except for he's still a lot. I was just said, did he die? No, he didn't.

It's just like when you forgot that Manson died? Yeah, let's not bring that up again. So like you said, Daniel Rackowitz has no chance of getting the lease on this apartment, right? He can't show anybody that he makes X amount of money. He's a cash-only business. But Monica can. So she has a chance to get the lease. And that's exactly what she does.

She signs the contract. And as soon as she does, she tells Daniel that she wants him out of what is now her apartment. He didn't like this, Gibbs. He didn't like the fact that he thought it was his and he let her stay there. Now it never really was his, but now it really is hers. and she's telling him to hit the bricks. Time to go. So it's August 19th,

1989 when she tells him to leave. And Daniel Rackowitz goes into a rage and hits Monica Beerley. But he doesn't stop there. He ends up murdering Monica. And there are multiple people, Gibbs, who either witness the murder or saw Monica's body after the fact in the bathtub and not a single one of them reported

to police. But Daniel was not making any secrets about what happened. In fact, he was bragging that he had murdered Monica Beirley, dismembered her body, but it gets so much worse than that. He starts telling people that he brought. welled her head in a pot on the stove. Okay. And later served soup from, made from that broth from her head.

Gross. To the same homeless people that he had fed before. That's why I said foreshadowed. Somebody right now just spit their soup out. Oh yeah. By the way. Yeah. If you're eating, stop now.

Not spoiler alert. What is it we're supposed to say? Uh, yeah. Heads up. something. It's not called a heads up. Get it? Heads up.

Yeah, I do get it. Okay. But sorry, yeah, we didn't warn anybody, but if you're eating or, I did say there was some cannibalism involved in the beginning. Yeah, this is absolutely terrible. What a, it is. Wow. It makes me sick right now, actually.

It's unbelievable what he did. But then you look at the fact that he's going around, he's not hiding it. He's openly bragging about it. So the rumors start to fly about some. some of the folks in the encampments in Tompkins Square Park about whether or not they had eaten some of this quote unquote soup you upset would you have been you know that mess with your head now there were a lot of people it was said that were so strung out on drugs or whatever they didn't even know they didn't seem to care yeah but there were a lot of homeless people

that were not drug addicts. They were just down on their luck. And when they started hearing that stuff, they became seriously uncomfortable. And that's probably an understatement. I would think, especially if you were that guy that went and got back seconds. And they finally reached out to a local reporter. Yeah. Told the reporter what they had been hearing and the reporter contacted the police. So this is September 8th, 1989. Okay. The authorities immediately opened an investigation. And according to the New York Times, they conducted two searches of the building in which Daniel lived, searched through nearby lots, but they didn't find evidence of this crime. And it's about a week into the investigation, the police finally locate someone. It's a woman who said she had seen Monica's body after she had been murdered.

So police arrest Daniel Monday, September 18th, and it was in a videotaped interview with New York City police that Daniel Rackowitz admitted he hit Monica in the throat, killed her, dismembered her body, and disposed of her. Now, this is pretty graphic, but the way that he disposed of her body, he cut off the flesh in chunks and flushed. it down the toilet. Then he goes on to tell police that he cleaned the bones. But his story for that is that he was keeping the bones because he was going to give them to Monica's mother in Switzerland. So he put her bones along with her skull in a large plastic bucket. So it was like a, it's like a, what do you call it, a five gallon? What was five gallon? A compound. a joint compound bucket. Yeah.

Like a mud bucket. Yeah. That you would use the mud walls. Yeah, we kind of figure what that was. Yeah, I'm trying to wrap it around. Just a contractor's five-gallon bucket. I wasn't a contractor. You're a contractor.

But everybody knows what it is. Multiple contractor too, man. I know. You were for hire. He covered all of this with kitty litter in the bucket. And then he went down to the Port Authority, rented a locker and put it in there. And sure enough.

Police go down there. They open the locker. They find this five gallon bucket containing the skull and bones that they believe belonged to 26 year old Monica Beirley. And this was about two weeks, right, into the investigation that they finally figured it out. Two weeks into the investigation, but the rumors had been swirling around for, you know, almost a month of what he had done. Because it took the police a little bit to get involved. Yeah. So you had all these rumors that have now been confirmed to be true. So you have all the squatters. You have the homeless people, nightclub workers, musicians, all these people around the village that now know what really happened. And some of these individuals Gibbs now know that they most likely, ate or drank or whatever you want to call it a soup that was made from human remains.

Yeah, it's rough. So the criminal complaint was filed against Daniel Rackowitz on September 18th, 1989. And it said, Mr. Rackowitz killed Ms. Beerley by punching her in the throat as hard as he could. And of course, that's just the beginning, right? he killed her, but then he did all kinds of, you know, things after the fact. Now, there are a lot of people that do not believe the cannibalism part of the story. There's a lot of people that have written in papers saying that they just don't believe

Daniel Rackowitz ever served soup in the park, that type of soup. Well, you know, well, you would never want to believe it. You just wouldn't want to believe that. you would not. I mean, to think that you even could have possibly ingested human. I didn't find anything where it said that he ate any of it. But it's definitely out there that he served it.

So Daniel Rackowitz goes on trial. And the New York Times had an article in the February 23rd, 1991 edition that really summed it up well, right? to trial proceedings. And the title is man acquitted of killing and boiling roommate. And, you know, it goes on to talk about how a Manhattan jury found Daniel Rackowitz not guilty by reason of insanity for killing and dismembering Monica Barely. The jury deliberated for nine days.

And at the end of it, they came to the conclusion that Daniel Rackowitz, suffered from mental disease or defect, and because of that, he was not criminally responsible for the murder of Monica Beirley. Wow. But after they return their verdict Gibbs, Daniel Rackowitz thanked them, and this is what he said. I hope someday we can smoke a joint together. He said that to the jury. Really?

He said, I won't fault you for your verdict. And apparently throughout this whole six-week trial, he had interrupted the court a whole bunch of times. He had had a number of extremely bizarre outbursts. There was no doubt that he killed Monica Beerley. That was never in doubt. The prosecution had, you know, overwhelming evidence against him. The question was always going to be about his mental capacity at the time of the murder. and he said that. He said, you know, the prosecution had an overwhelming case against me,

but I'll be getting out soon and I'll sell a lot of marijuana so I can bring to justice the people who actually committed this crime. I don't understand that statement at all. No, I don't either. We know who actually committed the crime. Who's he going to be looking for? And then he gets to talk to the judge. And he offered to smoke a joint with the judge. Wow, he's on a roll. So Rackowitz was sentenced, remanded to the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on New York's Ward Island. That's where Leo was, too. Is that Stutter Island?

Stutter Island. That's a good movie. Or was it Shutter Island? Yeah, Shutter Island. Did I say Stutter? You said Stutter. I knew you didn't know what it was. That's why I came back with Shutter.

Yeah. I'm glad. I like it when you correct me. It makes me feel not so bad. about myself for all the times I have to correct you. Just go out and look at Raku, man. You can watch it. You can see it on Raku.

That's right. It balances this out a little. Yeah. But this is a maximum security facility that he still calls home to this day. Yeah. Now, he's filed a lot of appeals over the decades requesting to be released. And somewhere he requested to be transferred to a less secure facility. And that's what I mentioned earlier when I said his 14-year-old wife later would testify against him.

It's at one of those types of hearings that she testified about what he did to her. He's probably really pissed now that he sees that marijuana is legal in like 14 states or something. Yeah. But the one thing about this case, Gibbs, that was tough for me was that you really couldn't find a lot about the victim. You know, and where we can, we like to talk about the victim, but there's not much out there about Monica Beerley. Yeah, just probably because of the age of the case. That and the fact that she came from Switzerland.

Yeah. I wonder if any of our, I mean, we've got some great Switzerland listeners. Did you just call them Switzerland? Listeners. I think it'd be Swiss. Yeah, that's what I meant. Swiss listeners. You got some great Swiss listeners.

That's kind of hard to say, too. Swiss listeners. Yeah. You say it very well. Of course. But it was. I mean, it was hard to find anything about her. You know, there's no mention in any of the papers back in the day about, you know, whether her mother attended the trial, no articles that I could find of, you know, her family talking to the press and saying, you know, what this guy took away from them, just couldn't

find any of that. can't even really figure out what happened to her remains. I'm assuming they were given to her family. And I'm assuming she was probably buried back in Switzerland, but I can't confirm that. Yeah. Unless she just didn't have family, then. Because I couldn't find it.

The state would have burned them and, you know, just spread dashes. So you can't find that. But what you can find is the obituary for Daniel's father. Okay. He died March 18th, 2003. And listed in his obituary is Daniel Rackowitz of New York, which to me is very strange. They had a very rocky relationship, but in death, either he wanted it or someone else in the family wanted Daniel's name in the obituary, despite the evil.

evil thing that he did. Yeah, it's bizarre, man. I'm going to guess a family member decided that one. Unless for some reason his father gave instruction beforehand, that would be the only other way it could happen. Yeah, that's true. Though not too many people plan that far ahead. I don't like to plan that.

That's for sure. I figure whoever is taking care of me at that time knows what I probably would like. Can make that decision? Yeah. If they don't make a good one, I'll just haunt them for the rest of their lives. World-class podcaster. World-class podcaster. Master of the English language.

Grammar fanatic. Mensa member. I could go on and on. Yeah, you could. And probably will at some point. Professional pilot of small airplanes. That is something I will not be finding out firsthand. I can tell you that right now.

I don't want to go to try. I am not going up in a plane with you. Let's do it, man. Trust me. So after everything's said and done, and I've talked about some of it, right? Right. This happens in every case. People come out after the fact they talk about the killer, what he was like, what he said. You know, there's people come out talking about how, you know, Rakowitz went around bragging that he was going to become a world-class drug dealer. And he was going to take over this dilapidated building on East 9th Street. And he was going to turn it into his marijuana. headquarters for his big empire.

His growth, growth center, huh? Like I said, the guy had ambitions. I talked about he wanted to take over Texas. He also told people that he wanted to buy an island on the Gulf. Yeah.

So that he could watch his ships coming in, bringing all of this marijuana to the free world. Well, he sat on the dock of the bay. Yeah. Sitting on the dock of the bay. Watching the ships. Come in and go away.

But that part's funny that he would say that. Yeah. He did have big dreams, isn't he? Because he's probably sitting in his cell right now. Yeah. I wonder if he has a view of any ships that he can, that he might see, he might catch a glimpse of a ship from his cell. Yeah.

Because I don't know much about this Ward's Island, but I'm assuming that there's ships somewhere. So maybe he's been sitting there for 30. years watching the ships. Come and go. But that's it. Gibbs, that is the story of Daniel Rackowitz. It's not one that I had heard before.

Before, you know, Daphne brought it up to me before I started, before you and I started researching it. Right. But it's one of those that you're just like, wow. Well, all I can say is maybe not take free food from people. Well, you know I have an issue with that anyway. Yeah. And that's not a hoity-to-ty thing.

It's just I have an issue eating food that I'm not sure who made it. And that's why. Like a potluck type things. Yeah, that's why I didn't share that potato candy that Kristen made. That is BS. I knew. Not the reason. I knew that you had issues.

I didn't want you to have to worry about it. That was pure selfishness. That's all that was. All right, Gibbs. We've got some voicemails. You want to check those out? Yeah, let's hear them out. Hi, Mike and Gibby. It's Justin from Southern California. I just wanted to tell you, I recently been assaulted and almost killed. But anyways, the podcast is it thrown time?

Okay, that was Justin calling in. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for calling in. You know, I'm sorry that that happened. Yeah. You know, I just, I don't get the world. I probably say that a lot. But, I don't get people in general, a lot of people, why they want to violate other people's rights and liberties or just mess with them in any way. Just do your own thing and leave everybody else to F alone. I feel bad, Justin, you got assaulted. I'm glad I don't know the extent of it, but it sounds like you're doing okay. Make sure you take care of yourself, though. Not just physically, but mentally as well.

You got to get past that, you know, but it takes time. Hi, Mike and Gibby. My name's Clint. I'm from Kansas City, and I love your show. I work overnight stocking a home improvement store, and it's gotten me through a lot of long and boring nights. So keep going with what you're doing. I love it. And I had a few ideas for shows for you guys. Two of them for true crime all the time. We've got Robert Berdella, who's called the Kansas City Butcher, and he was a pretty messed up guy. And then I've got John. Edward Robinson, who was called the Internet Slave Master. He killed like eight women between 1984 and 1999. And he's called the Internet Slave Master because after 93, he met his victims online through Chathletons. And he's called what is, well, he's known as the Internet's first serial killer. So I think those would be some cool ones for you guys to cover from my hometown.

Other than that, I've got one for the Unsolved, too, that I think you guys should do. and that's the Cleveland torso murders with Elliot Ness. I think that'd be really interesting to hear about too. But I love the show. Can't wait to hear the new episodes every Sunday. Stay safe and keep your own time-sicking, guys. So great voicemail from Clint. Yeah, thanks, Clint.

All of those are on the list. They're all great cases, but we definitely have those on the list. Yeah. Hello, Mike and the Gimster. This is Lily calling from Springfield, Illinois. Right quickly, I'd like to say that T-Cat is one of my favorite podcasts. You guys rock.

I called to submit a suggestion. It's in regards to the James Bulger killing. James was two years old and his murders were the youngest convicted killers in the UK. It is absolutely horrific. Fergie, you do amazing research and you guys should definitely report on it. I feel like I'd learn a lot more. Anyway, thank you for all you do and keep your own time ticking. Thanks.

All right. Thanks for that voicemail. Did she? Gibbs, I must have heard something wrong. Did she call me the gibster? She did call you the gibster, which is cool. The gibster. I call you that sometimes.

Yeah, you do. I must have heard something wrong. I swore that she said two years old. That can't be right. That can't be right. Something must have cut out. It has to be. I can't imagine a two-year-old, you know.

Somehow murdering something? Willing a knife. All right, we got to look that one up. Yeah. We need to check it out for sure. That's the case. Yeah, if that's true. we really need to do that one.

Yeah, definitely going to research that one. Hi, Mike and Gibby. This is Laura calling from East Chatham, New York. And I'm wondering if you guys have ever thought about covering the story of Wiley Gate. He was a local kid here in Columbia County who went to the Chatham High School. Back in 1986, shot his dad, his dad's girlfriend, his brother, and his three-year-old cousin. Crazy story that is something I'd love to hear more about, actually. because you guys certainly cover things well.

Anyway, love the show, and I'm grateful for all the hard work you guys do. Thanks so much. All right. Great voicemail. We appreciate that. Absolutely. Another suggestion that I've never heard of.

No. So it's great. I'm going to make sure that gets on the list. Glad you're writing all this down. I always do. Hi, Mike and Givie. My name is Stacy from Clarksville, Tennessee. I wanted to let you guys know that I really enjoy all of the shows,

actually T-CAT, T-Cat and Fault and Criminology. There is a case. Well, first of all, I appreciate all of the research that you put into the shows. I'm a little OCD about details, and I don't like it when the podcast just put out opinions or, you know, opinion-based stories. And I love that you guys, you know, do extensive research and you put a lot of work into the shows. I really appreciate that. out of Clarksville here, I know how much Mike is horrified by the patricide stories. There's a story out of Clarksville, Tennessee, about a young man named Jordan Hazel.

I actually think that it still unresolved. It's can fast-teeat. They know who did it, but I think that as far as final court dates and sentencing and things, that hasn't happened yet. But Mr. Hazel reportedly, supposedly went into his home early one morning and shot his young, 23-year-old or 21 or 23-year-old wife, a nine-month-old child and three-year-old child in the face with a shotgun. And then I don't know if I think neighbors called police. This actually happened around the corner from me in Clarksville, so it's interesting to me

because of location. And I know how much Mike really likes the patricide story, so, or doesn't like anyway, is morbidly interested. So I thought you guys might enjoy looking into that one. Anyway, thank you so much. Bye. Right. Another good suggestion.

A shotgun to the face. That is brutal. Yeah, that's going to sting. That's, uh, hmm. It's not a good visual to end on. No. So let's go to the mailbag. Yeah, let's go to the mailbox.

What's in the box? What's in the box? So Paula Hammond sent me a chip from Texas. Very cool. Silver Wolfman, not real name. That's not the real, silver, Wolfman? No.

How cool would that have been? That is a cool ass name. Silver Wolfman. What's Wolf, not Wolf. It is Wolf. It's not woof. What does the sound does a dog and a wolf make? Woof, woof.

You just said what sound does a dog and a wolf make? Woof, woof. I did. It's wolf. Say it. Wolf. You can't say it. It's wolf.

Woof, woof. What? You crack me up. That's what they do. send in from Alaska. A Harley chip for me and a ring. An unbelievable ring for you, Gibby. Yeah, it's actually it's a real moose droppings.

Moose poop on the top of a ring. On a ring. Somebody had said, look at this pile moose poop. We could probably make some money out of this. Let's get it, dry it out, slack it, put it on a ring and sell it at the local store. Yeah, the sad part. it is are probably multi-millionaires. And they probably are. All because of moose poop. Moose poop. But I know you're going to wear that proudly. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Show it off.

Yeah. I'll show it off. Man. I'll wear it. Next meeting. Just put it out to her. And then Rebecca Hirschkoff sent us both the chip from New York City. New York City. So she'll probably like this episode, be right up Raleigh. But one for me and one for you. And she reached out ahead of time to figure out what our favorite colors were and then got us the chips in the colors. Didn't tell us what it was for. Just wanted to know what our favorite colors were. I got my burgundy. I got my blue and you got your seafone green. It's burgundy. What's wrong with you? Yeah. You always like blue. Like your, like your boy blue. I love you blue. I love you blue. You're my boy. My boy. All right, Gibbs. That is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and

Gibby. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.