“A demon that walks among us.”
That’s what former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said about Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heurmann during an announcement of the elusive suspect’s arrest in 2023.
Harrison worked on numerous headline-grabbing investigations over a 30-year career in the NYPD as an investigator and top executive but he may best be known for orchestrating the law enforcement task force that finally led to Heurmann’s capture.
In a Long Island courtroom last week, Heurmann received multiple life sentences without the option of parole after pleading guilty in April. There was no apology to offer the still-shaken family members who finally had a chance to share their accounts of devastation and torment with Heurmann.
Harrison joins The Trial: USA this week with a behind-the-scenes account of the effort to close one of New York’s most memorable crime investigations. He recently authored “The Commissioner: From Street Cop to Top Cop in the NYPD, and the Inside Story of the Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.”
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