True Crime Campfire - Introducing: The Shrink Next Door

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbor in the Hamptons was a therapist named Ike. Ike counted celebrities and Manhattan elites as his patients. He’d host star-studded parties at his eccentric vacation house. But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about his neighbor -- and the house next door -- was wrong. From Wondery, the company behind Dirty John and Dr. Death, and Bloomberg, “The Shrink Next Door” is a story about power, control and turning to the wrong person for help for three decades. Written and hosted by Joe Nocera, a columnist for Bloomberg. The Shrink Next Door is now an Apple Original series, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd. Watch now only on Apple TV+. Listen to the Shrink Next Door now! https://link.chtbl.com/shrink_next_door?sid=Audio-Shrink_Next_Door_2021-True_Crime_CampfireBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hi, campers. Wondery in Bloomberg's hit series The Shrink Next Door is moving from podcast to screen, but you can listen to all episodes right now and hear why Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd signed on to play the real people in this unreal true story. Journalist Joe Nassara investigates a decade-long story of how a New York psychiatrist deliberately and maliciously took over his client's lives. The most notable victim was a wealthy businessman named Marty Markowitz. Over the years, Joe got to know Marty and saw direct and clear evidence of how his shrink, Ike Hirschkopf, manipulated him and systematically took over his life. The shrink next door is an incredible, jaw-dropping story about how Marty nearly lost everything

to a man he thought was his friend and most trusted confidant. It's strangely funny and totally terrifying at the same time, and it's well worth a listen. I'm about to play you a preview of the shrink next door, but while you're listening, make sure to follow the Shrink Next Door on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or you can binge the entire series, add free with the Wondery Plus on the Wondery app. Every neighborhood has its share of mysteries. We can live our entire lives and barely know the people just one door down. I have a summer house in South Hampton, a couple of hours outside of New York.

This part of the Hamptons is called the Bayside. It's quiet. peaceful, a place to escape from the city in the hot summer months. Samson and Jackie Ghiott have a house on the same street as me. My name is Jacqueline Giott, and we're married 35 years? We're married 52 years. They've been coming here since the 80s. Most of the houses on our street are single-story with wooden clappered fronts,

but there's one house on the street that stands out. For starters, it's just bigger than most of the other houses. It's two stories instead of one. And it's the only one on the street with a separate guest house out back. And then there's the way it looks. The house is spectacular, with windows and windows and windows. Everything about it is over the top. There's a pond with goldfish.

Lots of fish. And a waterfall to the pond, too. It's bigger, bolder, brashier. than anything else on the street. In 2010, my wife Dawn and I bought the house next door. It wasn't long before a man popped over to our house to introduce himself. He was dressed like a maintenance man, green khaki pants, a long-sleeved work shirt, and a faded baseball cap. He welcomed us to the neighborhood, and then he handed us a folder of press clippings.

I literally just took them and said thank you, but he wanted us to have them. He really wanted Joe to have him. There were articles that a psychiatrist, Dr. Isaac Hirschkoff, had written, and articles that had been written about him. In mid-August, an invitation arrived to a summer barbecue next door, hosted by Dr. Hirschkoff, Ike. This would be the last of three big summer parties he threw every year. It was a warm afternoon.

I chatted with a few people, sipped on my glass of wine, and began to wander around. At some point, I found myself in the living room. There was a fake giraffe bust, Venetian masks, plastic parrots hanging from the ceiling, even a giant gong. But what struck me most were the photographs. Lots and lots of photographs. And in nearly every one of them, there was Ike Hirschkoff with a different celebrity.

Ike with Henry Kissinger. Ike with Elie Wiesel. Ike with Brooke Shields. Ike with Gwyneth Paltrow. even Ike with O.J. Simpson. It was like one of those diners where the walls are covered with pictures of celebrity patrons.

At that moment, the man himself appeared. He greeted me like a long-lost friend and said that my wife and I should come over soon for a drink. And then he was gone. Sure enough, a few days after the summer party, the same maintenance man we'd met before showed up at our door again. This time, he brought in a day.

invitation for drinks. It was very formal, as if he was reading from a script. I mean, like Dr. Hirschoff would want you to come over. Right. At such and such a time on such and such a day. The formality of it blew me away. And he was very, very exacting about how it had to go. So we went. One of the strangest evenings I've ever had in the Hamptons. Or anywhere else, for that matter. But definitely the Hamptons. Ike and his wife, Becky, welcomed us in and ushered us to a round kitchen table. There were snacks laid out, carrots and celery.

Ike served white wine. So what I remember is him talking incessantly about being a sex therapist and a celebrity therapist. And I can't remember the details, but that just really sticks in my mind that he kept going on and on about that. It was more like a monologue than a dialogue. That's what I remember.

What do you remember? I just remember thinking these people are, I felt, suffocated. I talked about his work. I've never seen like it. But I remember thinking he was very brazen about the details of his life, considering we were strangers and also considering what he does. He did talk about an NBA sports guys and somebody, a Yankees player. I just thought he lacked a lot of discretion given his.

feel. We listened politely as he went on and on. I just remember looking towards the door. Finally, after about an hour, I said we needed to get home. And we got up to leave, and it was very clear that I wanted a photograph. A photograph of me. I think he came out and said, well, we'd like to get a picture of you. And it was just Joe. It wasn't Joe and I. So I let I take my picture, hit it to his wall, and then we left, as fast as we could.

I remember getting to her home collapsing on the couch or something. Dawn told me she never wanted to go back. There was no sign of the maintenance man the night Dawn and I went over. But I knew he was still around. Sometimes we'd be on our deck and we'd see him outside, working in the yard. When I returned to the Hamptons the following summer, I noticed something strange at the house next door. I would see the maintenance man out on the property

doing his usual work in the backyard. But Ike Hirschkoff was gone. I would never see him or his wife Becky in the Hamptons again. There were no more summer parties. It was as if they had simply disappeared. And that's when I learned that everything I had thought I'd known about my neighbor was wrong. It's a wild story.

That's the maintenance man. The guy who came to our door with the press clippings, the guy we saw working around the yard, that was Marty Markowitz, the same guy who had first gone to see Dr. Isaac Hirschkopf as a patient nearly 30 years earlier. You've just heard a preview of the shrink-man Next Door. To hear this unreal story in its entirety, plus new bonus episodes where

Joe Nassara interviews the cast and creators of the TV adaptation, including Will Farrell and Paul Rudd, follow The Shrink Next Door in Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you're listening now.