I'm new here and reading up on some of the older posts. I have been following the case since the beginning, read the book Lost Girls but never read all of the info on here. I joined because I wanted to read about this specific case.
Anyway, there are some great comments in this thread and I'm happy to see that there are others that agree with me that the GB4 is exclusive to one killer and the other victims are either a different person or persons. With that said, there's a few things I saw that I'd like to comment on if anyone is interested in discussing. Firstly, I believe it was Dormer who says it's the work of one serial killer but there was another high ranking LE person who said that they do not know that defintively and so I don't believe that's a solid fact.
Dormer also made a statement (in one of the many interviews he did) that the burlap sacks thing was a rumor and was never confirmed by law enforcement. With that said, if there was burlap, I think the killer used it a) because he had access to it and b, because he knew where he was disposing the bodies, and a black garbage bag would certainly stick out like a sore thumb in the brush. They may have not been visible from the road when you drive by but they could be visible if you pulled over on the side of the road to change a flat tire or something. Also, many planes and helicopters fly on the coast (especially in the summer months) and black garbage bags also could be visible to some of the lower flying air crafts. One more thing is that I've seen a lot of people making the connection to some kind of fisherman with the burlap sacks but what about a landscaper? They must use them too.
As for the tattoo stuff, I'm a little lost with the peaches and cherries and how those two victims tie in here. Nothing about those two murders match up with the GB4 and the way they were killed.
One more thing about the one killer/2 killer theory. Maybe those who don't live on the island don't understand how hard it would be to hide something like a body here. Not as hard as in the city, but Long Island is a very densely populated suburb and it's not very big. You can drive from the north shore to the south shore in about 20 minutes or less (depending where you are). The further out east you go, (places like Manorville) the more land surrounds you but around the Gilgo beach, Babylon/massapequa area, and most of western Mid Suffolk is very densly populated.
The closer to the city, the more densly populated. More and more empty lots are being purchased and there is far less real estate here than there was say, 30 years ago, when was a kid. I believe the killer lives either in the town of Babylon or one of the surrounding towns. The best place to hide a body would be out in the pine Barron's (Manorville), but you're talking about driving approximately 25 miles in each direction. That's risky and the killer doesn't want to repeat the same mistake Rifkin made. (I believe LISK read up a lot on other serial killers before he murdered). In western Suffolk, where it's way more densly populated, houses are very close together and there's a lot of commercial/industrial buildings. There's no where to dump a body without it being discovered shortly after, by someone. If you'd want to hide something, you'd want to hide it in a desolate area that's close in proximity. The less time driving = less time being pulled over by police (which are also a dime a dozen on Long Island). Hence the reason the killer or killerS, would chose an area like the side of the Ocean Parkway. Gilgo is pretty much the halfway point between the Robert Moses bridge and the Jones Beach Bridges. it would not surprise me AT ALL that more than one killer would think to use that location as a dumping ground. Just like many killers used the woods in Manorville over the years or the Hudson River in the city. It's a good spot where you are least likely to be seen either by people or surveillance, dumping a body. There have been MANY bodies found out in Manorville, over the years.
What's the chances of there being two active serial killers at one time, in close proximity? VERY HIGH. We already had a few. joel Rifkin and the lesser known Robert Schulman, were both actively killing, in an overlapping time frame and both targeted prostitutes as their victims. At around the same time, we didn't know, but John Bittrolf, (who was responsible for two and possibly three murders) was also targeting escorts and he also dumped their bodies out in Manorville. Like police said, prositutes are very easy targets.
