Gilgo serial killer's departure from Suffolk can't come soon enough for DA, sheriff

In the hours leading up to convicted Gilgo Beach serial killer's Rex A. Heuermann's sentencing on Wednesday for the grisly murders of eight women, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr. was haunted by a terrifying possibility.

What if the hulking Massapequa Park architect decided he couldn't face life in a state penitentiary and would deliver one last indignity to the victims' families?

Toulon, who'd made a promise to the families that he'd deliver them "justice" by ensuring Heuermann's presence in court, wasn't going to allow him to take one last life.

"I didn't want him to attempt any self-harm that would preclude him from going to court today," Toulon told Newsday following the sentencing.

Extra correction staff, he said, were monitoring Heuermann's every move during the overnight hours preceding his sentencing in Riverhead on Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, who also sat down for an interview with Newsday, said Wednesday was not about Heuermann but about the victims, and the lives they left behind.

"I think we shouldn't remember him," Tierney said of Heuermann. "I think we should remember the victims. I think that he should be studied ... but for me personally, I hope everyone forgets him."

Tierney described the raw and emotional victim impact statements, delivered by the loved ones of Heuermann's targets, as "spectacularly powerful" — and a far cry from the curt and largely emotionless statement delivered by Heuermann in court.

"It's certainly not easy to speak publicly about the worst thing that ever happened to you in your life," Tierney said. "So I was just really impressed with how well they did. ... That strength came from the responsibility they felt all along with protecting the legacy of their sisters or daughter or mom."

And while Suffolk is "anxious to be rid" of its most notorious inmate, Tierney said, no decision has been made about where Heuermann will live out his final days.

Since his arrest nearly three years ago, Heuermann has lived an isolated existence with no friends at the correctional facility in Yaphank and without a single photo in his cell, Toulon said.

Heuermann, he said, appeared to enjoy monitoring his coverage in the media, including in Newsday.

But he had virtually no conversations with correction officers or other inmates, with the exception of one individual in his housing unit who was "antagonizing him to no end" and spoiling for a fight with Heuermann. 

"He was intimidated," Toulon said of Heuermann. "Rex doesn't have it in his heart to be a tough guy."

And during phone conversations from the jail, Heuermann's peculiar fascination with another serial killer from nearly 150 years ago emerged, Toulon said.

"He just kept referring to his '1888 mentality,'" Toulon said, a nod to Jack the Ripper, who terrorized the East End of London near the turn of the 19th century, killing and targeting sex workers, similar to Heuermann.

And while Toulon went to great lengths to ensure Heuermann was protected from other inmates when he was outside his cell, no such guarantees, he said, will be made in state prison.

"He will have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life," Toulon said.

As Tierney prepares to close the chapter of the Gilgo serial killer, he acknowledged it will be difficult to fully rid himself of the man who occupied so much of his attention for the past three years.

"He'll never leave me," Tierney said. "Any case that you work and you spend that much amount of time on, those victims — and even those defendants — they never leave you."

Heuermann's exit from Long Island can't come soon enough, the sheriff said.

"As soon as we get rid of him, I will breathe a heavy sigh of relief," Toulon said. "I'll know that Suffolk County is safe when we're rid of Rex here."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.