Daniel Rakowitz
Daniel Rakowitz | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 24, 1960 Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri |
| Other names | Daniel Rakowitz; Butcher of Tompkins Square Park |
| Known for | Killing of Monika Beerle |
Daniel Paul Rakowitz (born December 24, 1960), also known as the Butcher of Tompkins Square Park, is an American killer and cannibal.[1][2]
Early life
[edit]Rakowitz was born in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where his father was a criminal investigator for the U.S. Army. When he was 2 years old, his mother suffered a heart attack and died, and he stayed with her body for hours.[3] The Rakowitz family moved to Rockport, Texas sometime in the late 1970s. Although it is commonly reported that Rakowitz graduated from Rockport-Fulton High School in 1980, he actually attended and graduated from high school in Refugio, Texas.[citation needed]
Killing of Monika Beerle
[edit]Rakowitz moved to New York City around 1985.[1] He had a long history of psychosis since childhood and heavily used cannabis and drugs in general.[4][5] An eccentric well-known to his East Village neighbors as a cannabis dealer and owner of a pet rooster, Rakowitz attempted to found his own religion — the Church of 966.[6] He variously claimed to be Jesus Christ or God, the Antichrist, and the "God of marijuana".[7][8] Rakowitz is also known to have been involved with a cannabis church in Manhattan called the Church of the Realized Fantasy and to have sold cannabis for them.[9] In addition, he is known to have briefly visited the Temple of the True Inner Light, a psychedelic church in the East Village, and to have smoked the psychedelic drug dipropyltryptamine (DPT) there a few times, but the group found him disturbing and he was eventually told to stay away.[10][1][2][11]
In 1989, Rakowitz walked around Tompkins Square Park in the East Village bragging to some of the people he believed were his disciples that he had killed the woman he believed to be his live-in girlfriend. Monika Beerle, actually a roommate of Rakowitz's, was a Swiss student at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, and a dancer at Billy's Topless. Several of Rakowitz's friends disputed the notion that Monika was his girlfriend. By his own confession, he dismembered her body in the bathtub, boiled the parts, and served some of her remains in the form of a soup to the homeless in Tompkins Square Park.[1][12] He said that he had boiled her head and made soup from her brain. He had tasted it, liked it, and thereafter referred to himself as a cannibal. At least one of the people to whom he had told his tale went to police.[citation needed] Rakowitz was arrested shortly thereafter, and led the police to the Port Authority Bus Terminal storage area, where he had stored her skull and teeth.[13]
On February 22, 1991, a New York jury found Rakowitz not guilty by reason of insanity for the killing of Monika Beerle on August 19, 1989.[14] Sunny Hostin later said that she had been the holdout juror who was principally responsible for preventing the jury from returning a guilty verdict.[15][16] However, jurors at that time had said the holdout juror was a man.[citation needed]
In 2004, a jury found Rakowitz no longer dangerous but decided that he is still mentally ill and should remain at the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on New York City's Wards Island.[17] A judge however found that the jury had no authority to make such a determination and determined that Rakowitz does in fact have a dangerous mental disorder.[18]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Cantor, Max (10 October 1989). "The Untold Story of the Tompkins Square Murder". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
- 1 2 Aronowitz, Al (1 June 2002). "The Strange Case of Max Cantor: Monika's Ghost". The Blacklisted Journalist. Retrieved 13 August 2026.
- ↑ Italiano, Laura (22 June 2004). "Cannibal's 'helpful' in Ward: Lawyer". New York Post. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ↑ Cantor, Max (18 September 2020) [10 October 1989]. "The Untold Story of the Tompkins Square Murder". The Village Voice. Retrieved 14 August 2026.
- ↑ "INSANE KILLER SEZ HE'S NOW OK". New York Daily News. 19 October 1995. Retrieved 14 August 2026.
- ↑ Steiger, Brad. Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside. Visible Ink Press, 2010, page 70
- ↑ "Psycho made human soup, dumped bones in a bucket after slay of Swiss beauty in 1989". New York Daily News. 21 August 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2026.
- ↑ McKinley, James C. (20 September 1989), Accused Slayer of Girlfriend Began a Religion, Police Say, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved 24 September 2026
- ↑ Marinacci, Mike (4 July 2023). "Minor Sects: An A–Z Guide from Ambrosia to Zide: Church of the Realized Fantasy". Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781644117088.
- ↑ Marinacci, Mike (4 July 2023). "Temple of the True Inner Light: A DPT Eucharist on the Lower East Side". Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America. Simon and Schuster. pp. 219–231. ISBN 9781644117088.
- ↑ "East Village Fringe Drew Occult Groups". Newsday. New York, New York. 23 February 1992. pp. 7, 40.
- ↑ Myonihan, Colin (June 15, 2004). "Hearing Revisits East Village Killing and Dismemberment". New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ↑ Al Aronowitz (June 1, 2002). "Column 72 - The Strange Case of Max Cantor". The Blacklisted Reporter.
- ↑ Sullivan, Ronald (February 23, 1991). "Man Acquitted of Killing and Boiling Roommate". New York Times. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
- ↑ Lenthang, Marlene (23 September 2026). "Sunny Hostin reveals she was holdout juror in 1991 'Butcher of Tompkins Square Park' trial". NBC News. Retrieved 25 September 2026.
- ↑ "Sunny Hostin Shares Bizarre Take on Lindsay Clancy Trial That Leaves 'The View' Cohosts Bewildered". TV Insider. September 22, 2026. Retrieved 22 September 2026.
- ↑ "Jury Finds Insane Killer Not Dangerous". New York Times. July 21, 2004. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ↑ Matter of Rakowitz v Consilvio (NY Civ Ct. 2005), 2005 NY Slip Op 50310 (U), Date Decided: February 8, 2005