A CRIME TO REMEMBER Career girl murders safety lessons & lessons on intruders

*warning graphic photos*
*spoiler warning*

I just finished watching A CRIME TO REMEMBER Career girl murders

which happened Manhattan 1963


copyright to ID, posting a few photos under fair use

it's about the 1963 murders of Emily hoffman and Janice wiley both found murdered in their own apartments




the detectives who arrived saw the window was open,

like Jonbenet they were tied and bound



they looked around, saw valuables and jewelry but nothing was taken



detectives at the scene notice the window was open



but concluded as the 2 women lived in an apartment that was more than 3 stories above the ground, 30 feet up, there was no way an intruder could have climbed and entered through the apartment window, he had to have entered through the door.

no signed of forced entry

they then concluded that the killer must have been known to the victims, this was a sexual assault and as the women were stabbed to death, it must have been highly personal. so it would appear robbery was not the motive

they go through suspects, suspects known to the victims but they had alibis, then suspects who were sex offenders. they found a black guy and decided to force him confess but it turns out he was innocent.

a heroin addict was caught said he knew who killed those white girls, and gave up the name Ricky Roebels


Ricky Roebels was a heroin addict and a burglary. He confessed to the crime and gave a full accounting.

He originally wanted to burglarize the apartment for money, in part, to pay for drugs. He saw apartments and saw that window on the third floor 30 feet up was open.



remember the open window



he was able to climb straight up 30 feet in daylight undetected by climbing a brick wall to the open window and let himself in.



the guy is spiderman


it turns out the women were there and he decided instead of burglary to change his intention and rape them. when they said they would call police and report him, he murders them.


he didn't know them, he only picked them bc their window was open. detectives admit it's unbelievable but they were able to corroborate his confession.

safety lessons

Ricky Roebels managed to climb an apartment building like a master rock climber 30 feet up, like spiderman, undetected and entered an open window he saw at ground level.

he did not bring with him a murder weapon, he took the knives there were present. his original intention was burglary but when he saw the women he changed his intention and plan.

for me the take home point is if you leave your window open, even if it is on second or third floor, an intruder can climb the wall and enter.

a major emphasis of the program was that a black guy was blamed and coerced into confessing



but for me the take home point is an open window on the third floor is an invitation to an intruder to come in

even before i saw this program, during the day when i'm in my home i have windows open during spring and fall, but at night or when i leave the home i close the windows.

but in this case the blonde woman was in her apartment with window open, janice wiley i think, and so when the intruder entered and saw the young 20 something blonde naked woman he decide to rape her instead of burglary which was his original intention. he did not know she would be there.

one possible lesson for intruder theorists is that Jonbenet's killer could have climbed and entered an open window or unlocked window on the second or third floor, and his original intention may have been burglary but changed his mind when he met Jonbenet.

for me the take home lesson is not to leave windows open since they can invite bad guys

Very true about an open window. Women have to be careful about Bad guys unless they have major Martial Arts skills and can disarm someone with a weapon. Yes it is possible that JonBenet's killer changed his plans once he saw her and he got into the house. There was probably a lot of unlocked windows or open ones too. People make the mistake of thinking a window is too small for someone to get through when that is not necessarily true. Criminals change their plans when they break in to a home.