Date: 2 July 1993
Originally published in: Daily Mirror (UK)
Written by: Allan Hall
Pop star Kim Wilde did a photo session with crazed killer Joel “The Ripper” Rifkin, it was revealed yesterday.
One of the pictures was found in a scrapbook belonging to the fiend, who has confessed to murdering 20 prostitutes he picked up in New York. Keen photographer Rifkin, 34, conned British singer Kim into the studio session when she visited the record store where he worked on Long Island in the early 1980’s. She was in New York as her hit We’re the Kids in America was topping the charts.
One of the pictures, found at the home where Rifkin carved up the bodies of his victims, showed Kim in a pin-striped suit. Others showed her posing with some of Rifkin’s pals. Police say the pictures were taken several years before the killings.
“We don’t think Miss Wilde was in any danger”, said a spokesman. “Besides, he had his friends with him. He was a lone predator when he killed.”
Rifkin was arrested earlier this week with his latest victim under a sheet in the back of his pick-up truck. Rifkin, who lived in Long Island with his mother and sister, told police he smothered or strangled most of the 20 prostitutes.
Then he moved them to a freezer in his garage before dumping the remains in shallow graves at remote spots.
