The popular CBS show "Criminal Minds" has been played on screens across the nation since its premiere in 2005. The intense show is about an elite FBI task force known as the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). The team analyzes the minds of their suspects in order to understand their motives and predict the next moves. Many of the suspects the BAU help track down are serial killers.
Growing up in New Jersey, I never heard any news about serial killers in the area. In the middle of my binge of "Criminal Minds" on Netflix, I decided to look up if there were any serial killers in New Jersey (both born in and/or committed their crimes in the Garden State). Here are three prolific serial killers in New Jersey whose stories and crimes seem like a script from "Criminal Minds" itself.
1. Richard Biegenwald
The Thrill Killer
Richard Biegenwald was born in Rockland County, New York, but he committed his horrific crimes in Monmouth County, New Jersey. As a child he was regularly beaten by his alcoholic father. At just five years old, Biegenwald intentionally set fire to his family's home, prompting him to be sent to Rockland County Psychiatric Center for evaluation. But his actions only worsened from this point forward. He led a life of drinking and theft. He committed his first murder after stealing a car from Staten Island and driving it to Bayonne, New Jersey. Police didn't catch up to Biegenwald until two days following the shooting. He was given a life sentence for the murder but returned to New York after 17 years for good behavior. Within the next few years he married and moved to Asbury Park, where he lured an 18-year-old young woman into his car. Her body was found by children playing in a lot. By the time Biengenwald was actually able to be arrested, he had killed four more victims that the police had evidence for. Biegenwald was linked to at least nine murders, but only able to be convicted on five counts of first-degree murder because of the lack of evidence against him. The New York native was originally sentenced to death by lethal injection, but the ruling was appealed and became four life sentences without chance of parole. At the age of 67, Biegenwald died of respiratory and kidney failure in 2008 at St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton.
2. Richard "Iceman" Kuklinski
A native to New Jersey, Kuklinski was born to an alcoholic father and a strict mother who both abused him as a child. One night, his father beat his older brother so badly that he died. Not long after his father abandoned the family, Kuklinski, at the age of 13, committed his first murder in 1948. He went as far as to remove the victim's teeth and fingertips in order to prevent identification of the body he threw off a bridge. Kuklinski searched for and beat nearly to death all the members of the gang that his first victim had led. His like for killing led him to become a hit-man for a crime family in the area. He admitted to killing anywhere from 33-200 individuals over 30 years, but to this day authorities still can't come up with an accurate number. Kuklinski earned the nickname "Iceman" because in an effort to hide the time of deaths of his victims, he would freeze the corpses before thawing and disposing of the bodies. The hit-man was often suspected in murders but there was always a lack of evidence. However, in 1988 he was finally convicted for five murders and was sentenced to consecutive life sentences. In 2003, he earned more time after admitting to killing a police officer in 1980. At the age of 70, Kuklinski died at the St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton in 2006. He is said to have only regretted ONE of his numerous murders.
3. Charles Cullen
Charles Cullen is the most prolific of New Jersey serial killers. Throughout his life, Cullen has attempted suicide 20 times, the first when he was only nine years old. Cullen was born in West Orange. He joined the Navy in 1978 after the death of his mother. He was discharged in 1984 after the last of his several suicide attempts while serving. He attended nursing school and was employed at the St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston in 1987. He committed his first of 11 murders as a nurse at St. Barnabas. In 1992 Cullen moved on to commit three more patient murders at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg when the St. Barnabas staff began investigating the tampered medical equipment. In early 1994, Cullen began work at Hunter Medical Center in Rarity Township, where he remained for three years. In the last of the three years, he killed three patients. In 1997, Cullen was hired at Morris Memorial Hospital in Morris, but was fired before he could commit any crimes. He murdered patients for the next few years at: Elston Hospital, PA; Lehigh Valley Hospital, PA; St. Luke's Hospital, PA; and Somerset Medical Center, NJ. Cullen was arrested after being fired from Somerset and cooperated with police in exchange for not being sentenced the death penalty. Through the years Cullen has admitted to killing 22 patients in NJ and 7 in PA during his 16-year career. He is currently serving 11 life terms and is also sentenced to seven life terms for his crimes in PA at a penitentiary in NJ.
In all of these cases, there were many more victims than each perpetrator received conviction for and it's absolutely heartbreaking. I never knew there were any serial killers in New Jersey, and it leaves me speechless. These men collectively committed countless murders that they were able hide for numerous years thus labeling them as serial killers.
