The Mourning Hour

Episode 58: Immortal Horrors - The Gilgo Beach Murders - Part 2

The Mourning Hour Podcast

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Part 2 of 2. Last week you met the nine women of Ocean Parkway. This week is the reckoning. The twenty-three minutes at Oak Beach that started everything, a dog named Blue, ten sets of remains, a doctor's phone calls preserved in court records, a police chief who went to federal prison in the middle of the investigation, the state police investigator who solved an eleven-year cold case in six weeks, a pizza crust, a basement planning document with a "lessons learned" section — and the doors still open: a second killer charged on the same highway, a victim still without a name. There are no ordinary people, and that includes the horrors.

Trigger warnings: violence against women, sex work, strangulation, dismemberment, police misconduct, reference to a deceased toddler.

LISTENER DISCRETION IS HEAVILY ADVISED. 

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Advocacy & ways to channel the anger:

  • The CSE Institute (Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Villanova Law) — the group behind "Humanizing the Victims in the Gilgo Beach Murders." They've studied this case directly and push law enforcement to reform how missing-persons reports are handled when the person is a sex worker or trafficking survivor, which is exactly the gap that let Valerie Mack sit unreported and unidentified for over two decades.
  • Murder Accountability Project — a nonprofit of retired detectives, journalists, and forensic experts who track unsolved homicides nationwide and have repeatedly exposed how serial killers exploit police indifference toward murdered sex workers. Their data-driven pressure campaigns have helped reopen cold cases like this one.
  • Sex Workers Project (Urban Justice Center, NYC) — the first legal services program in the country built specifically for sex workers and trafficking survivors. They fight police misconduct, help clear criminal records, and keep women in danger from disappearing through the cracks the way these nine did.
  • NY Assembly Bill A6730 — the legislation Megan Waterman's family is championing to stop convicted killers' families from profiting off their crimes.
  • End Slavery Now — Antislavery Directory — searchable by zip code, this directory lets you find anti-trafficking organizations near you if you want to get involved locally, not just donate.

Sources & further reading/viewing:

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