Defending the Devil: Serial Killer Lawyers Speak Out on Gilgo Beach Murders

The legal team for the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer has a tough road ahead of them according to the high-profile defense attorneys who represented the infamous Charles Cullen and Thomas Huskey.

Johnnie W. Mask and Gregory P. Isaacs spoke to Newsweek about what it was like to defend an accused serial killer and gave their perspectives on alleged Gilgo killer Rex Heuermann’s case.

“It was basically seven, eight years out of my life and practice, but it was not a bad experience,” Mask said.

Mask represented Charles Cullen, who admitted to murdering 40 people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and some believe he could have hundreds of victims. Through his job as a nurse, Cullen gave patients a fatal dose of medication in their IVs.

He pleaded guilty to killing 13 patients and to attempting to kill two others in New Jersey in April 2004. He pleaded guilty to murdering three more the following month. In November 2004, he pleaded guilty to murdering six patients and trying to kill three others in Pennsylvania. He is currently serving 18 consecutive life sentences at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

Isaacs represented Thomas Huskey, who was accused of murdering four women in Tennessee in 1992, during two trials. Both resulted in a hung jury for the murder charges and the case was ultimately dismissed. Prior to the murder trial, Huskey was convicted on several rape charges and sentenced to 64 years in prison.

“The dynamic that I had with four capital homicides, it’s a tremendous amount of work because if they’re being tried together, which in my case they were, you’re basically doing four capital cases at the same time,” Isaac said.

Media frenzy and death threats

Heuermann is being represented by Michael Brown, a former Suffolk County prosecutor with experience in criminal defense. He served as the Assistant District Attorney with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office from 1992 to 1995. Since then, he has been running his own private practice.

Brown did not respond to Newsweek’s requests to be interviewed for this story.

Isaacs explained what it feels like to be in the courtroom for a serial killer case.

“I have done and do a lot of high-profile cases, but when you have the specter of a serial killer, this may sound cliche, but it almost adds a chill to the courtroom,” Isaacs said. “So it’s a very different dynamic and electricity that until you’ve been there, literally it’s hard to describe.”

Isaacs said one thing to expect when representing an accused serial killer is a lot of attention.

“There’s the media frenzy. The public, for whatever reason, good or bad, appears to be captivated by the fact that there was a serial killer in their community,” Isaacs said.

Mask explained what draws people into a serial killer case.

“I think it gets attention because of the rarity of the situation,” Mask said. “There’s not that many serial killers around, and people are curious about what would make a person commit these crimes and they want to see what’s going on in the heads of individuals that [do] these things.”

The defense in Huskey’s case included dissociative identity disorder, which Isaacs said increased public interest in the proceedings.

“There was actually a personality that was the killer, so [there was] a lot of sensationalism,” Isaacs said.

With the increased attention on the case, Isaacs said it is not unusual for the defense team of an alleged serial killer to receive backlash. He said his team received death threats while defending Huskey.

“It’s going to be a lot of public hostility, vitriol, animus and that’s just something that the defense team is going to have to deal with,” Isaacs said. “But what you want to ensure is that professionally, you create a vacuum because oftentimes you’ll see judges or prosecutors play into the public pressure and the media frenzy and the media scrutiny that’s on the case.”

Isaacs said it can be difficult to have people “looking over your shoulder,” but the important thing is to focus on the case.

“What you’ve got to be very careful [of] is that you are laser focused on what goes on inside that courtroom and do not get distracted by anything that happens outside the courtroom,” Isaacs said.

Mask recalled one instance when he received backlash while defending Cullen. The serial killer was preparing to donate a kidney, so he requested to waive his presence at the sentencing, which Mask said was allowed under state law.

“If he were to do that, the families wouldn’t get a chance to confront him face-to-face and basically say what they had to say about the sentence,” Mask said. “And so they said bad things about me, saying that I was the one that was encouraging that but I was not. That was just his way of making sure that the kidney transplant occurred. So it was not anything major, the comments that people made to me.”

Mask also shared how his experience was a bit different because his client pleaded guilty.

“I’ve been doing this for 40-something years and when it comes to criminal clients, he is probably one of the easiest clients to represent,” Mask said. “And I say that because he didn’t have any expectations of walking out of jail. When he was arrested, he had already given statements to the police basically incriminating himself, so he had almost no expectations of beating the case.”

While Mask did not have to prove his client’s innocence, he still played a critical role in Cullen’s case.

“My intent was to save his life, because at that time New Jersey still had capital punishment,” Mask said.

Mask was able to help Cullen avoid the death penalty by making a deal with the state. Cullen agreed to cooperate with authorities and provide details with how he carried out his murder spree if they did not seek a death sentence.

What’s ahead for alleged Gilgo serial killer

Heuermann was initially charged with murdering three women in July of 2023. Another murder charge was added in January and two more were added last week.

Isaacs said the two additional murder charges could complicate the case for Heuermann’s legal team.

“You have a tremendous responsibility and workload, because one case in and of itself is a tremendous amount of work, but when you look at it exponentially it is just a lot of heavy lifting for that defense team,” Isaacs said.

Mask also talked about how the defense has a difficult case ahead based on the new evidence uncovered by the district attorney’s office. Along with the new charges, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney revealed his team found a “planning document” allegedly written by Heuermann, which lays out preparation and other details related to the crimes he is accused of.

“The new evidence seems very strong and it seems to point that something happened in that house. And if he’s the author of those, especially the notes, it’s a tough case and his attorney has got to be in a tough situation,” Mask said.

Another thing that can make things harder for the defense team is when the defendant is being considered as a suspect in additional murders. Other names of potential victims were referenced in the documents released by the court last week, but no additional charges have been filed.

“The investigation continues,” Tierney said at a press conference on June 6. “That investigation has been expanded, both to the bodies that have been found on Gilgo and beyond.”

Isaacs said there was an effort to accuse Huskey of murdering other victims as well.

“You’ve got to just put your legal blinders on because in my case, my client was suspected of being the Green River Killer additionally,” Isaacs said. “Anytime there’s a body that the cause of death is not readily apparent, your client is going to be the number one suspect. So what you have to do is put your blinders on and not get distracted, and just focus on the cases that you have.”

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Sanjay Adhia told Newsweek that Heuermann shares some similarities with Gary Ridgway, who is known as the Green River Killer. Ridgway was convicted of 49 murders between the early 1980s and late 1990s, with many of his victims being sex workers and other vulnerable women. Heuermann also allegedly targeted sex workers and vulnerable women.

“I believe the reason that sex workers are targeted is a lot of people wouldn’t be alarmed if they’re missing also, they’re thought of as being vulnerable,” Adhia said. “The police don’t have infinite resources so they would not focus on if they found out a sex worker is missing. It’s not going to be the top of their to do list.”

How prosecution will approach Gilgo case

Looking ahead to the trial, Isaacs talked about what to expect and what approach the prosecution may take as they argue their case.

“The prosecution is going to portray Heuermann as a calculated cold-blooded serial killer that preyed on vulnerable people,” Isaacs said. “They’re going to talk about the double life that he led, the family dynamic. They’re going to paint a picture of somebody that’s going to be very scary. They’re going to be apprehensive. They’re going to be watching him as this proof unfolds.”

Heuermann’s estranged wife Asa Ellerup had no involvement in Heuermann’s alleged crimes, her lawyer said in a previously to Newsweek.

If the accused serial killer has a spouse, people often wonder if they were aware of their partner’s alleged illegal activities, according to Isaacs.

“If you’re the spouse, obviously you don’t want to be an accessory after the fact,” Isaacs said. “If you did know, you would have placed yourself in significant legal peril and legal jeopardy. I think that adds to what’s going to be racing through this jury’s mind as they hear about this double life.”

Mask shared some skepticism about the wife’s knowledge of Heuermann’s alleged crimes.

“She lived in the house and supposedly, he did all of these things in the house when she was out of town. I don’t know what out of town means, but it’s tough to live with a partner and not observe changes in the house when you come back. You can just sort of sense,” Mask said.

Mask explained that prosecutors could use Ellerup to get Heuermann to confess to the crimes he’s accused of.

“They might, somewhere down the road, threaten to put charges on her to try to put pressure on Rex to admit to these things and plead guilty,” Mask said.

Earlier this week, an attorney for potential victims of Heuermann, John Ray, alleged his daughter Victoria Heuermann made and viewed “sadistic” artwork mirroring the crimes her father is accused of.

Ray said the 27-year-old portrayed herself as “very innocent,” but her “true self is a very different self.”

Ray alleged that Victoria Heuermann may have been more aware or involved than previously thought, but she has not been charged with anything yet.

Possible plea deal?

With a trial date not set yet, Mask said it is possible that Rex Heuermann might take a plea deal.

“If he wants to work out a plea bargain, basically in my opinion, you just have to come to the realization that his days of freedom are over. Whatever plea bargain will basically mandate that he serve every day of the rest of his life incarcerated,” Mask said. “If he’s not of that mind and he wants to go to trial, then it puts the state in a difficult situation too because they will have to prosecute and prove each and every death.”

Isaacs talked about what the strategy for the defense will likely be if they do not claim a mental health defense.

“It’s going to be trench warfare, where you try to make the prosecution prove each and every homicide beyond a reasonable doubt,” Isaacs said.

Even if the case makes it to trial, Mask said some of the charges could be dismissed to make the case a bit easier for the prosecution.

“If they get a conviction on one or two, chances are he’s going to get a life sentence anyway. So they might end up just being willing to dismiss the others if he gets convicted on one or two, just to save money,” Mask said. “But that might be an unpopular thing to do, as to how do they decide which case to plea and which cases to possibly dismiss.”

The defense could also benefit from a change of venue for the trial, Isaacs said.

“You don’t want somebody that’s seen this one the news, somebody that’s read about it in the paper, someone that’s heard about it on the internet, somebody that’s been inundated with pictures of the region where the live and how there’s dead bodies under bridges and marshes,” Isaacs said. “You just want to try to get outside that media sphere of influence and pervasive coverage and hopefully find people that can be fair and impartial.”

Mask, however, said the prevalence of the case will follow it wherever it goes.

“The case is so well-known and I don’t know where they could put the cases that will be beneficial to him,” Mask said. “That facts of the case [are] going to control it, not the geography of the potential jurors.”