Philip Markoff, The Craigslist Killer

Phillip Markoff, Boston University medical student and former member of the National Honor Society, became a notorious thief and a murderer in the span of a week, at the young age of 23 years old. He had so much to lose. He was going to be a doctor. He had a dedicated and loving fiancé who was looking forward to their lives together. Unfortunately, he threw it all away, leaving a literal mess behind him.

To everyone in his life, he was an incredibly busy medical student living on a tight budget and with little time to himself. His teachers believed he was brilliant. His fiancé believed him to be an incredible soul and a pacifist. To his surviving victims, he will always be the monster who took joy in traumatizing them.

Reader Discretion is Advised: This Story Contains Graphic Content and Mildly Disturbing Images.

Secrets, Debt, and Internet Homicide

Markoff was a gambler who frequented casinos, and he was in debt to the tune of $130,000. His crimes were calculated, and he began surfing his options on Craigslist a full year before his first reported crime. He initially trolled, flirted, and exchanged sexual pictures with a person who identifies as a transvestite, perhaps in an effort to groom an initial victim. Luckily, that person Markoff was exchanging dirty emails with never met him face-to-face.

He soon began haunting the personal ads, occasionally posing as a female or searching for others who identify as transvestites. All discussion he had were sexual in nature. And he always wanted to meet up with them. Authorities were never able to discover if he actually met any of these people he spoke to online at this time. Eventually, after a year of practice, he came up with a plan he felt confident with.

Who and where were his victims?

The incidents Westin Copley Marriott (pictured above) in Boston, MA proves how prostitution crime is a common threat to hotel security.

Markoff started looking at escorts and women offering private massages for a fee on Craigslist. He was confident that with the promise of money, he could get these women to meet him anywhere. He would meet them at hotels, only half-heartedly disguising himself from the cameras with a baseball cap. He wasn’t careful, and it was only a matter of time before he was caught.

The three victims:

• Trisha Leffler
• Julissa Brisman
• Cynthia Melton

Trisha Leffler

29-year-old Trisha was the first victim. She offered personal masseuse services and agreed to meet him at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. As soon as they met at the hotel, she was held at gunpoint, tied up, gagged her, and robbed her of everything of value that she had. Unfortunately, they didn’t use their real names when talking to each other and making the appointment, so she could not identify her attacker by name.

Julissa Brisman

Four days after robbing and terrorizing Ms. Leffler, Julissa became the second private masseuse brought to the same hotel in Boston. This time, things didn’t go as planned. Julissa Brisman was a force to be reckoned with, and she fought her attacker until, unfortunately, he bludgeoned her with the pistol and shot her three times. Hotel staff found her laying near the doorway of the room and called 911. She passed away soon after she was brought to a Boston hospital.

After her murder, Markoff decided to move his criminal activities to Rhode Island, where he believed seclusion would give him an advantage. He never suspected his next victim would prove him wrong.

Cynthia Melton

Two days after killing Ms. Brisman, Markoff met erotic dancer Cynthia Melton for a lap dance at the Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, RI. Here, Markoff got more than he bargained for. He was able to tie up Ms. Melton and demand her cash and credit cards. As soon as he said that he wasn’t going to kill her, Melton’s boyfriend, who heard something shifty, broke through the door.

The Craigslist Killer fled the hotel, running back to Boston and his waiting fiancé, where he attempted to go on with his life. The police soon began to tie the three crimes together.

How was Philip Markoff caught?

The victims had identified their assailant as a tall, blonde, somewhat young, and clean-cut man. It took police a few days to finally catch Philip Haynes Markoff, pictured above, on CCTV footage.

Seemingly unaware of IP addresses, detectives were able to trace messages through the emails he sent his victims.  However, meeting the women at a hotel made identifying the killer/attacker through fingerprints and DNA slowed down the investigation. So many people are in and out of those rooms and housekeepers don’t have the time to wipe down every single surface–which highlights why it’s important to hire a trained biohazard team like us in the event of a hotel crime. Since the robberies and the murder went unnoticed for a fair bit of time, it took a longer amount of time to connect all evidence, including reviewing the hotel hallway cameras running at all times.

It took a couple of days, but police finally identified a tall, blonde young man in a baseball cap coming into each hotel. The police began to stake out the apartment complex they were led to by the IP address and recognized the killer from the CCTV footage.

Philip Markoff and his fiancé, Megan McAllister, left their apartment to drive to a nearby casino when they were pulled over by the cops. He was swiftly arrested for the murder and robberies. As he was being transported to jail, officers swarmed his apartment to collect further evidence.

Weapons Used and Evidence Collected

He used a variety of weapons to assault, torment, and eventually murder his victims. He tied up his victims using a specific kind of duct tape, plastic cords, and then killed them with a gun. In total, he used:

• Zip Ties
• Duct Tape
• 9mm Semi Automatic Handgun

At the apartment, police also uncovered a large amount of cash and several personal possessions of his victims, including several pairs of women’s panties hidden in his apartment. They were not his fiancé’s panties. They also found a hard drive that contained the conversations he had with his Craigslist victims.

What Happened to Him?

It was easy for prosecutors to keep him in prison with all the evidence that they found. And although he pled guilty at his arraignment, his fiancé had trouble believing that her other half could do such a thing. But within the following week she had canceled the wedding and he had attempted suicide several times by:

• hanging himself with his shoelaces and being scarred with a few ‘rope burns’ on his neck.
• slashing his wrists with a sharpened spoon.

On August 15, 2010, Philip Markoff was determined that this time, it would work, no matter what.

Being a med student, he knew anatomy, and he went the extra mile to make sure that, no matter what, he would succeed this time. He created a makeshift shiv out of a pen and either a piece of metal he took from an electric outlet in the prison or a razor used for shaving. Markoff got into bed and shoved toilet paper down his throat, so he could not be so easily revived. He then slashed through the arteries in his legs, ankles, and his neck. He wrapped his legs in plastic bags to collect any obvious signs of blood that would alert someone to his attempt.

Despite his conscientious effort to reduce being discovered, Philip made sure to leave behind his… well, mark-off.

What did he leave written in blood?

Markoff wrote his ex-fiancé’s name on the wall, in blood. He also wrote the word pocket, the meaning of which we may never know.

He then took a plastic bag and put it over his head, used gauze to tighten the bag around his neck, and then pulled his blankets up, over his head. Many hours later, after missing breakfast and being in bed half the day with his head covered, a guard finally checked on him. When Markoff didn’t answer, the guard went into the cell, pulled down the blanket, and witnessed the horror underneath.

It was noted that he had spread out pictures of his fiancé on the table in his cell and had killed himself in prison the day that marked his would be first wedding anniversary. Why did he do this? None of his motives are clear, but perhaps it was to guilt trip her for her absence. Either way, his ex fiancée Megan McAllister vowed to never look back.

His calculated and dramatic suicide left his surviving victims and victim’s families unable to confront the person who hurt them. They will never see justice done. Some may feel that they were denied closure. But the strong evidence discovered in his apartment and his resulting suicide allows people to affirm his guilt. As far as the public is concerned, he has been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, even without a trial. Had he stayed alive, he would’ve likely went away for the rest of his life.

How the Markoff Murders Helped Changed History

Philip Markoff left a tragic legacy behind that went far beyond the hurt experienced by the victim’s families. Markoff had been one of the many murderers using online dating to trap escorts. In fact, in 2016 it was estimated that over 100 murderers had used Craigslist personals to murder prostitutes. The “Craigslist Killer” became the catalyst to shutting down part of the Craigslist personals for “erotic services” in 2011, before new legislation removed the personals section entirely in 2018.

Among other notable cultural changes, the murders spurred a successful TV movie The Craigslist Killer (2011) and the 2009 book Seven Days of Rage, the Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer by Paul La Rosa. Several other motion picture works featured the case including Lifetime Networks, Murder Made Me Famous, and Investigation Discovery.

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