The Most Bizarre Things About The Craigslist Killer's Case

On April 10, 2009, a 29-year-old Las Vegas-area sex worker named Trisha Leffler met a man on Craigslist and arranged to rendezvous at a local hotel. When she arrived, a handsome and broad-shouldered young man pointed a gun at her. He bound her wrists, gagged her mouth, and robbed her, according to Boston.com.

Four days later, a "masseuse" named Julissa Brisman made the same arrangement with the same young man. This time a struggle ensued, and Brisman was hit in the head and shot dead. On April 16, a 26-year old sex worker was also bound and robbed at a Vegas Holiday Inn Express, also by a man she met on Craigslist.

It only took the police four days to track down the IP address of their suspect and spot his car on I-95, where he was arrested. His name was Philip Markoff, a 23-year old student at the prestigious Boston University School of Medicine (via Biography). Police found a gun and women's underwear in his apartment. By June, a Grand Jury handed down a seven-count indictment, including murder. But Markoff would never face trial — he was found dead in his cell a year later. It's an almost inexplicable case of a privileged and promising young man exploding his own life in a sudden series of brazen and strangely sloppy crimes. These are the most bizarre details about the Craigslist Killer Philip Markoff.

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It's scary to imagine the Craigslist Killer Philip Markoff somehow getting away with his brutal crimes and becoming a practicing physician. But that was his plan.

Markoff graduated from the State University of New York in Albany with a BA in biology, according to Biography. Though Markoff wasn't popular, according to ATI, teachers noticed he was "academically brilliant" and certainly smart enough to get into medical school. And it turns out, this career path isn't unusual for psychopathic personality types. A surgeon is the fifth most popular career choice for people who rate on the psychopathy scale, according to Business Insider. CEO, lawyer, media jobs, and salesperson make up the top four, respectively. 

Psychopaths are characterized by "shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality." But this low level of reaction to stress, of all kinds, including the suffering of others, can actually make for a good surgeon, according to Prospect, translating into the "ability to make objective, clinical decisions divorced from feelings." The last thing you want on the operating table is someone faint at the sight of blood, and Markoff certainly wasn't bothered by such things. That said, Dr. Craigslist Killer would not likely be anyone's primary care provider of choice, given his bedside manner was a decidedly anti-Hippocratic combination of deceit and clumsy violence. 

There's a not wholly unfair assumption about people who get hard science degrees and are then accepted into elite medical schools: that they are really, really smart. And likely Craigslist Killer Philip Markoff was indeed a high IQ individual, but his horrible attacks on women during his odd seven-day crime spree were not exactly the work of a criminal mastermind.

Markoff did use black leather gloves when he attacked his first victim, Trisha Leffler, according to CBS News' "48 Hours Mystery." But the man the Las Vegas-area escort described as "good looking," and hence probably somewhat memorable, never bothered to cover or disguise his face, which she described as "dumb."

Leffler was carrying about $800 in cash which Markoff robbed her, but he also pilfered her very traceable credit cards as he waved his gun in her face. But then, Markoff took off his gloves. He proceeded to cut the hotel room phone lines, followed by three pieces of duct tape to put over Leffler's mouth. This left his fingerprints on the tape, rendering the gloves useless, at least according to Leffler. And since he never dawned a disguise, the omnipresent hotel security cameras captured the first images of Markoff at the scene of his crimes, which aided in his eventual capture.

The average med student graduates with about a quarter-million dollars in debt, as of 2020, according to US News. Now imagine instead of hustling through your MD program to pay that off, you develop a nasty gambling habit on the side as well. Philip Markoff had at least $130,000 in debt, according to the Boston Herald, and was doing the most to make matters worse. 

Two days after Markoff murdered Julissa Brisman, the fledgling killer was up all night playing more games of chance at Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, where he cashed out $5,300 in winnings, according to ABC News. He also hit up a casino two nights after assailing his first known victim, Trisha Leffler. Anonymous sources told ABC News Markoff frequented Foxwoods, and had applied for multiple lines of credit. Police believe paying off his mounting gambling debts may have been part of his twisted motive. 

Markoff was long known for setting up all-night poker games, according to Thoughtco. "He earned a reputation for being a good, serious player — sometimes too serious. He wasn't a good loser." Even after his arrest and incarceration, he organized jailhouse poker games. Markoff's love of the rush of gambling alongside his impulsively violent behavior is likely not a matter of mere coincidence. According to a Polish study published in the Medical Science Moniter, "incarcerated men with a diagnosis of pathological gambling are characterized by psychopathic personality disorders, alcohol problems, and criminality."

When Craigslist Killer Philip Markoff initially appeared in court to face the charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping, he brazenly shouted at the judge, "not guilty," according to ABC News.

This kind of overconfidence was a strange hallmark of his crimes. Prosecutors say Markoff used the ID of a man named Andrew Miller to purchase a 9mm firearm. But after he struck sex worker Julissa Brisman in the face with the weapon, and then shot her "point-blank" three times, the highly-educated med student — who went to some lengths to conceal he owned a gun in the first place — didn't bother to get rid of the weapon, flunking a crucial course known as getting-away-with-murder-101. 

When police eventually searched Markoff's apartment they found the weapon tucked neatly inside a "hollowed-out" copy of the medical reference text, "Gray's Anatomy." The investigation revealed Markoff had driven to New Hampshire to purchase the weapon while his fiancée Megan McAllister was away for the weekend. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms was even able to match Markoff's prints to receipts for the weapon, as well as those found at the scene of Brisman's death.

As devoted as Megan McAllister was to her murderous beau, you can't blame her for having a change of heart. Only a month after she issued a firm statement in defense of fiance, Craigslist Killer Philip Markoff, McAllister abruptly called off the relationship, according to the Boston Herald.

The imprisoned Markoff was so distraught he was put under special surveillance and was considered a danger to himself by prison staff for the remainder of his incarceration. A year later, on August 15, 2010, Markoff was found dead in his cell on what would have been his one-year wedding anniversary.

But that's not all. Just before his death, Markoff remained so obsessed with his former fiancée he had written McAllister's name on the wall of his cell where guards could not easily see, according to ABC News. The jilted killer had also created a "ghoulish shrine" to his former partner, his body found amid photos of McAllister, fanned out on a small table in his cell, this odd little detail again per ABC News.