A voice from the past warns... Do not misclassify risk!

A Netflix documentary on the serial murders in Long Island, New York. 
Shannon Gilbert may have been one of his victims.

by Gregory Saville

This week, I resumed Zoom meetings with my fabulous writing team, Mateja Mihinjac, Jason Tudor and Carl Bray. Since Covid began, we’ve been writing a book on SafeGrowth. We are now about to launch the final phase in publishing what has been an exhilarating journey, digging into the research, re-examining our many projects, and asking questions about the future. 

Our manuscript examines the SafeGrowth work by ourselves and other members of the SafeGrowth Network over the past decade. The book looks at how different cities attempt to prevent crime and build resilient neighborhoods. It offers a new way forward in crime prevention and urban planning. 

In one chapter, we unveil the myth that wealthy neighborhoods do not have crime because the wealthy have resources to protect themselves while poor neighborhoods, with all their crime “hotspots”, have no resources to tackle their problems. All we need, according to this myth, is more money. As we show in our book, the reality is something different. 

Consider swindlers like financier Bernie Madoff or the white-collar criminals who triggered corporate scams like the 1989 savings and loan crisis or the 2008 global financial crisis. These events, documented in The Global Financial Crisis and White-Collar Crime, destroyed millions of jobs, lives, and livelihoods. This is not the simplistic story of a drug addict robbing a corner store. It is a very different, and hidden, class of (as yet) ignored hotspots. 

Screenshot of news coverage of police investigating body drop locations on Long Island

In our book, we describe a more logical and ethical way to think about crime and prevention and we describe how SafeGrowth provides a new philosophy of neighborhood development to guide future community-building. 

SHANNON GILBERT

Two days ago, authorities in New York announced the arrest of an alleged serial killer in the famous Craigslist serial murders near Giglio Beach on Long Island in New York State. More to the point – and related to our thesis about crime “hotspots” in poor neighborhoods – this suspect may have murdered Shannon Gilbert in a wealthy one.

To say Shannon Gilbert led a troubled life is an understatement. There are reports of bipolar disorder, exposure to abuse and violence, and drug addiction in her life. Apparently, she was an aspiring singer and actor, but fate did not treat her well. She eventually became a sex worker who advertised through Craig’s List to wealthy clients. 

Police crime location map of Giglio Beach, not far from where Shannon Gilbert went missing - photo Creative Commons

Twelve years ago, I wrote a SafeGrowth blog about a possible serial murderer at work near the gated community where Shannon Gilbert fled. The story was brought to light via a late-night call to 9-1-1 by a terrified Shannon. She told the dispatcher that someone was after her. The residence she was fleeing was in a gated community in the wealthy town of Oak Beach, only a mile from Giglio Beach where the bodies of 8 other victims were later found. 

INVESTIGATION STALLED 

A year and a half later, Shannon’s body was found not far from that gated community in a marsh near the ocean.

The FBI behavioral analysis unit later concluded the available evidence did not show Shannon was murdered. Some claimed she drowned accidentally after stumbling into a marsh. A later independent autopsy contradicted those findings and suggested there were signs of strangulation. 

But there was suspicion of a serial murderer in the area since a number of young women had already been reported missing, many of whom were found strangled to death by the so-called Craigslist serial murderer. Today we know that this horrific case of murdered women includes at least 18 victims found around wealthy beach communities. 

Screenshot of a recent BBC news headline about the Long Island serial killer

WEALTH DOES NOT MEAN SAFETY

Shannon’s tragic story, and this recent arrest, reminded me of our manuscript discussion about neighborhood safety and how easy it is to misclassify where risk exists. 

This week’s arrest points to the reality of an active serial murderer at work during the time of Shannon’s death, and that he was active in a wealthy part of Long Island, New York, including the gated community where she called police for help. The truth is that the entire sordid affair took place in wealthy beach communities. In fact, it turns out the arrested suspect is an architect with an apparently normal family life living in a community 20 miles from the beach area.

It seems, at least in this case, that wealthy communities are also vulnerable to crime and potential breeders of a special sort of criminal. We write in our book that wealthy, leveraged neighborhoods do not provide an answer about how to create safe neighborhoods. Equally, we should not classify poor neighborhoods as high-risk, and beyond revitalization, simply because they have limited funds.

I concluded my blog 12 years ago by saying I hope Shannon will be found safe. As this case comes to a close, we now know she was not. Any illusion that Shannon might have held about safety in a wealthy neighborhood was shattered that night. Our book is a reminder that a tragedy like Shannon’s calls out to all of us and pleads that we must not look in the wrong place for safety.