Craigslist Killer | The Case of Philip Markoff

[Music] hey you and welcome my name is mike and in this whole video we're going to talk about billy in boston philip was his name and pre-med was his game among other things in the commonwealth of massachusetts now i've never used craigslist i've never needed to find a list of craigs but it what you know what you can find on there and what you can do on there seems bananas now back in 2009 the internet you know was first kind of becoming what we know it as today a lot of the websites we used today were kind of in their infancy back then it was a lot wackier a lot more wild west and philip used that to his advantage in beantown let's have a go [Music] julissa brissman was very excited on the 13th of april 2009 she was boarding an amtrak from new york city to boston she was a new yorker true and true you know ended every conversation with hey i'm walking but she was going to boston for work she was 25 years old studying to become a substance abuse counselor but as her side gig she would give sensual massages let's just say you would leave one of those massages with a bit of a hop in your step you know all right let's move on she would advertise on the list of craigs sometimes using the name morgan susie rachel and when she arrived in boston she asked a friend of hers to post on craigslist this ad hi my girlfriend morgan the massage therapist will be visiting boston monday tuesday wednesday she visits only once every one to two months so don't miss her her pics are real recent and attached to this message she is visiting just these couple of days and i highly recommend her yada yada i do not give out a contact number until you have provided yours kisses xoxo morgan and mary hey i'm walking upon checking in at the marriott copley hotel julissa had a quiet night on the 13th not many clients on the 14th of april the very next day julis's friend who posted the message got an email from a well client she gave this uh client julius number and he called then julissa asking if she'd be available around 10 pm which was fine with her as she worked until 11. he sounded you know friendly cordial on the phone but julis's friend sarah was her name asked you listen to texts her before this client arrives and after he leaves yesterday her phone did not vibrate that night a woman named jill stern was just staying you know down the hall and across the way from july's room that night and she um heard things just after 10 pm she heard what sounded like some kind of commotion and a shriek and then another she popped the l head out of a room and into the hotel hallway and saw a woman lying on the carpet half in and half out down the hall she called security and a lad came up checked on her and saw blood julissa had been shot three times and had blunt force trauma to the head she passed away at 10 36 pm in the emergency room at boston medical center inside the closet had two bullet holes in it julissa had a zip tie dangling from her wrist she had probably fought her attacker while he was trying to tie her up and rob her and hence he shot her most likely in the doorway in a panic and fled before anyone could show up [Music] when the investigators began examining the surveillance footage from the married coupley they saw what they believed to be the guy [Music] they didn't have his id but he looked remarkably similar to a guy who had committed a remarkably similar crime just three days prior twenty-nine-year-old teresa leffler arrived in boston on a flight from las vegas on the 9th of april she was a sex worker you know not in town to see the red sox as soon as she checked into her hotel the westin copley place a two-minute walk from the marriot copoly she placed an ad on craigslist under the name valerie in the late hours of the 9th of april she got a call with the guy on the line agreeing to pay 200 buckos for you know an hour of her company when he arrived at the hotel after 12 a.m on the 10th of april a friday they met at the elevator and she took him to her room once inside he pulled out a shooter and pulled on gloves he zip-tied her hands took 800 from her took her credit cards took two pairs of her underwear and erased his number from her phone he then put duct tape over her mouth he took off his gloves to do that then he told her he would wait 15 minutes till he got out of the building then he would call security and get them to come get her called the cops that very night the next morning the cops showed trisha some grainy pictures they'd taken from the hotel's cctv asking her to identify and she did but that was it for three days until julissa brissman was found in the marriott copley after julissa's murder they knew it was the same guy that had robbed trisha she identified him again and was pretty scared to know that this could have happened to her and it happened in a hotel that was a stone's throw away a couple of days previous it was a tall blonde fella didn't seem too perturbed about what he'd done in either incident and didn't attempt any disguise in fact they could tell by looking at him that he made rookie mistakes for one he used his phone at the location of the crime both times so who was he well he would be someone that would be dubbed the craigslist killer and that's what sarah julis's friend who posted the ad thought she could help with she forwarded the email this guide sent regarding julius advert to the police once the investigators had the email they began to trace the ip address of where it came from back in 2009 i guess you know folks weren't as savvy as they are today about concealing the ip address because he made no attempt to do so another thing was that remember he had you know taken trish's phone and erased his number that he called her with from yeah so he erased her number from the phone but i mean the service provider will still have it so and while they were tracking this fella down he was still on the move in fact he was having a grand old time gambling away at the fox woods resort casino in connecticut what a lot on april 16th exotic dancer cynthia melton was settling into her room at the holiday inn express in warwick rhode island she like trisha and julissa placed an ad on craigslist seeing if well anyone wanted a lap dance this holiday inn was between foxwoods casino and boston and this guy did want a lap dance or so he said at 10 51 pm just like he did with trisha as soon as he was in the room with cynthia hold a gun give me all your money he zip tied her hands had her on the ground and as he was about to ask where's those dollar news her phone rang it was cynthia's husband who was uh downstairs in the lobby you know he she was supposed to text him before and after so he knew everything was cool cynthia's husband burst into the room but upon getting in there and seeing a guy with a gun standing over his zip-tied wife he said [ __ ] this legged out of the room the craigslist killer also fled at that point running out the door in the opposite direction search for the so-called craigslist killer there is new evidence linking the assaults to plastic handcuffs cbs news science and technology correspondent daniel sieberg is in boston this morning with more daniel good morning to you that's right good morning jeff those handcuffs are believed to be the link between three different attacks and after receiving more than 150 tips over the weekend this morning police appear to be closing in on the man known as the craigslist killer thursday night the latest disturbing incident a woman found tied up in a warwick rhode island hotel room after advertising for sexual acts on the popular internet marketplace craigslist her husband broke up the attack who knows where the crime would have led whether it would have led to something more serious than just the demand for money and items earlier last week julissa brissman was shot to death in a boston hotel after a similar encounter an apparent robbery gone wrong both of these individuals were advertising on craigslist and they were advertising masseuse services hotel surveillance video shows this man and along with another armed robbery that occurred in boston two weeks ago police suspect all three cases are related sally an escort who asked us to conceal her identity says women in her industry increasingly run background checks and avoid craigslist it would be two days later that the police would get a name and an address from tracing the killer's email [Music] the address was in high point circle quincy the name was philip murkoff they began scoping at his home hoping he'd look like the guy in the surveillance tapes and they saw philip murkoff leaving the building with an attractive woman at his side his girlfriend megan mcallister they followed them and the pair seemed to be in a great old mood philip not a care in the world very lovey-dovey and they were sure it was him philip was 23 years old megan two years older than himself he was born in 1986 in the small town of cheryl new york he graduated high school in 2004 in 2005 he met megan while volunteering at a hospital and he attended suny albany as a pre-med student after he applied to the boston university school of medicine and in 2009 was in his second year in april 2009 megan was his fiancee with the wedding bells due to ring out on the 14th of august 2009. and now instead he was about to be arrested if they could catch him because as they were surveilling him the police saw philip and megan leave their apartment with suitcase with a suitcase on heading backpacks driving south the police quickly contacted trisha once again they needed a positive id before they could arrest them they got a copy of phillips photo id from university and showed it to trisha who was all the way in new york they worked with an nypd sergeant who got it to her just as phil was approaching state lines and doctor well becoming doctor was arrested near walpole at 4 pm on the 20th of april 4 20. all right for the record today's date is april 20 at the year 2009 the young man being interviewed here this afternoon is mr phillip would you pronounce and spell your last name please mark off m-a-r-k would you like to speak to us now we relate to some questions we have to ask you well it depends what they're about maybe i should speak to a letter well it's up to yourself and it's a decision you have to make what's well it's about a series of incidents that have gone on and we just have some questions as you're well aware of there's been some reports of some robberies and a homicide and we've been following a ton of leads as a result of that stuff and you're a person of interest at this point and we'd like to speak to you relative to that okay maybe can you get me a higher thing can i get you a lawyer yeah you're right yet you're a lawyer yourself well i don't i don't know i don't know where to go from yeah that's i mean is that your decision that you'd rather have a lawyer than to speak with me i mean yeah i don't really know what this is about but i probably should i don't want to say something just so that it's clear you're asking us to try to provide you an attorney you don't have to yeah i don't i don't i don't have a lawyer i don't know and you absolutely don't want to talk to us unless you have an attorney before they talk to us because the thing of it is i want to be very frank with you you i'm sure you have some idea of what we're looking at here right you have some idea what we're talking about not really well you live in the area and you've been watching the news i don't really watch things do you read the newspapers no not at all no people minds don't really watch because you don't watch the news eye well the detective talked about it briefly that there's a number of incidents that have happened in the area your physical description and that you're a white male with light-colored hair has triggered our interest in you to some a certain extent but as you can imagine there's about probably 80 000 other people that are about your height about your facial features about your hair color yeah you're a person of interest because of these things and some other things we would like to talk about that but we're not going to talk to you if you insist on having an attorney there what are the other things well until we get through this moment we can't talk to you about anything okay well as i alluded to early on about that there's been a lot of stuff going on and as a result of that stuff there's been hundreds of tips coming in here and if you haven't read the paper you really don't have a close to what we're talking about no i really don't read the paper and watch the ass so in the last week or two you haven't heard anything about some stuff that's been going on in and around boston regarding uh craigslist no i really really don't watch the news there's a photograph in one of the surveillance photographs so a couple of this available photographs there's a strong likeness and image to yourself fellow okay one of the reasons why you're here well tell me this do you do you um have anything to do with craigslist at all do you kind of like advertise or buy clothes or buy cars or do anything like that on craigslist have you been in rhode island at all lately well i go through it right now do you stop have you stopped going through rhode island at a hotel at all maybe to get gas okay at a hotel at a hotel yeah you wouldn't get gasoline you stop i don't think so on the way through you don't think so you don't think you're at a hotel in rhode island i don't think so okay you seem to be getting a little frustrated yeah obviously you're keeping asking me the same question i'm gonna ask you phillip the first incident that i spoke to in the western hotel a girl was robbed do you have anything to do with that no why i just answered you it was a crazy story someone you know who seemed to be on a successful career path leading a double life though to be fair you know we've talked about our fair share of uh doctor killers in these old videos the man on your left is under arrest in the case police say he's the same man pictured on your right in those hotel surveillance photos that suspect in custody is a 22 year old medical student at boston university phillip markoff is now facing murder and kidnapping charges and 7's nicole alvario is live in the south end where markov's being held nicole that's right right now phillip markoff is inside the boston police department and he has an unsuspecting resume a 22 year old med student scheduled to be married this summer but police say he is the craigslist killer but why you know that was the hot ticket why would he do what he did the big question at this point is why did he do it one possible motive emerging this morning is gambling debts it wasn't sexual or anything though the women worked in that industry or closely related to it he never did anything sexual with the women and julissa the one he killed he did so because she resisted the murder wasn't the goal the robbery was and he never got much out of them either 800 books being the most as the other two were interrupted everyone who knew philip said he was a friendly guy they were shocked he was never in trouble he's pleaded not guilty he is not guilty he had everything going for him the only possible motive people have kind of debated with something they're still debating was maybe a gambling debt but that's never really been substantiated he was a bit of a fan of the uh you know all unread i don't know what do you believe was the motive in this case our belief right now is that philip markoff was motivated by robbery um we are exploring and not foreclosing any other possible motives but at this time where our theory of the case is that he was preying upon young women who were advertising their services on craigslist for robbery but why i mean there are reports that he had a gambling debt is that something you guys are looking into and a valid motive well i think that's uh something that at this point we're looking at but at this point again we continue to believe that his focus was robbery what motivated his robbery why he was robbing women could gambling have been an issue we'll look at that but right now robbery was the motive there was never any indication that megan knew anything about the crimes philip had committed and this was this in fact is an email she wrote to reporters to the boston herald philip is a beautiful man inside and out he is intelligent loyal and the best friend a woman could ask for he would not hurt a fly unfortunately the boston police try to make money out of these things and release things without my knowledge or consent i will stand by philip as i know he is innocent i love him now and always will things that age poorly you know where this is going however just a few hours later after um she sent that the police found in phelps apartment trisha's cards her underwear they found the gun he had used inside a hollowed out copy of grey's anatomy ooh quite symbolic if that was in a movie you would roll your eyes and they also found you know the same zip ties that he used philip was charged with murder robbery and kidnapping and he pled not guilty in the initial days after the arrest and publication of who the craigslist killer really was some strange things were found online one was an ad linked to philip's phone titled ebony erotic massage which asked people to call philip's number and book in probably maybe he was trying to lure men in to rob them or something a username was also linked to philip sexadict53885 and that name popped up on various websites passion.com alt.com extreme restraints and gay club lists some tried to link that to his crimes that you know he was leading a double life and was doing it for you know the trill of it which is ramping up and up you know certainly that that whole side of him you know the sexual things that was certainly another thing he kept uh you know hidden from megan his fiance you know uh and speaking of his fiancee soon after the wedding was called off unfortunately in june megan visited philip once again and well her support wasn't so steadfast anymore she broke up with them mcallister's lawyer doesn't expect her to visit again in the near future i think she feels good about coming up and seeing him but now it's time to move on with other things in her life today mcallister has professed her support and his innocence but now it appears she may have heard enough new reports say police found 16 pairs of women's underpants allegedly souvenirs from his victims and 60 pairs of plastic restraints hidden under the bed he shared with mcallister [Music] phillip actually made several suicide attempts in prison three days after he was first arrested shoelace marks were found around his neck then he tried again the day after megan broke up with him and once again on the day his wedding was due to be held on august 15 2010 which would be one year and one day after his wedding was supposed to be held and seven months before the trial would begin he was successful the same weekend phillip markoff was found dead in his cell he should have been celebrating his one year wedding anniversary but last year his fiancee called off the engagement after discovering he was the alleged craigslist killer he slashed major arteries in his ankles legs and neck stuffed toilet paper down his throat and covered his head with a plastic bag as he bled out in his cell philip wrote on the wall in his own blood megan and pocket pockets being their pet name for each other he had photos of both of them scattered around his cell and so ends the story of craigslist's mad lad philip murkoff and you know people are still debating to this very day why he did it why he did all of it was he a trill seeker who just went too far did he have a you know another reason for robbing people because it didn't seem like he kind of got much enjoyment out of it like he was you know i want to be serial killer or anything it seemed like he generally had a goal which was to get money and he was you know doing it to people maybe in the sex industry because he thought they wouldn't report it to the police but then again maybe he he he was you know he started he was getting getting off on it and then why does he want to end his own life you have to spare megan the trial or maybe you know he had everything going for him and he threw it all away for you know nothing and murdered innocent an innocent woman he would not be the kind of person who wanted to face the music face the trial be embarrassed and humiliated in public during his trial for first-degree murder so it could have been all of those things or just a giant piece of [ __ ] you be the judge thank you so much for watching i really appreciate it i will see you as always real soon in the next one take care of yourselves [Music] you

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,314,461

Rating: 4.883193 out of 5

Keywords: that chapter, philip markoff, phillip markoff, julissa brisman, Craigslist, craigslist boston

Id: _CaH-DgBoc0

Length: 24min 26sec (1466 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/cutsforluck]

The big question is...has Cynthia forgiven her husband?...

[u/guppypink]

I can't wait to finish these shifts on Monday morning so I can relax and properly watch this. Because, you know, there's nothing more relaxing than watching true crime videos :)

[u/Pleather_Boots]

I found that one a couple weeks ago.

It was so sadly cringy as the fiance slowly came to realize what the detectives were getting at. She couldn't understand what they meant that he was making a “massage” appointment and thought he was trying to book a legit massage with a trained massage therapist.

I really wished there was another interview with her after that first one.

[u/Charming_Image_4411]

There is a movie "Craigslist killer", and it's a good movie. But I love Mike's version even better!

[u/CaptainKit-T]

Just watched this one, hollllly shit