Philip Markoff

Robberies and murder Markoff was suspected in three robberies, one of which included a murder. Trisha Leffler (an escort) was bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint on April 10, 2009, at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston. Cynthia Melton (an exotic dancer offering lap dance services) was the victim of an attempted robbery on April 16, 2009, at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, Rhode Island.

Police suspected that the three crimesclose in time and similar in many wayswere committed by the same person. Security camera footage, cell phone activity, and email evidence led police to suspect Markoff in the April 10 and April 14 incidents,

On April 21, he was arraigned in Brisman's death; the prosecutor stated that a semi-automatic handgun, wrist restraints, and duct tape had been found in Markoff's apartment. Markoff pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, robbery and kidnapping, but was later charged with murder and held without bail.

While Markoff was called a "monstrous prostitute-predator" by the media, his fiancée initially affirmed her belief in his innocence, calling him "beautiful inside and out". On April 29, she visited Markoff in jail to call off their wedding.

Suicide Markoff made several suicide attempts while at the Nashua Street Jail; one attempt was made three days after his arrest, an additional attempt after his fiancée broke up with him, and another attempt on the day his wedding was to have taken place. At various times, he was on suicide watch or in the jail's psychiatric unit.

On August 15, 2010, one year and one day after his wedding was to have taken place, Markoff was found dead in his cell. Additionally, he had written his former fiancée's name and their pet names for each other in blood on the cell wall, and photographs of the two of them were scattered about.

Media adaptations Seven Days of Rage, the Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer by Paul La Rosa, was published in 2009 by Simon & Schuster. The April 25, 2009 episode of the CBS News television series 48 Hours Mystery, titled "Craigslist: Classified for Murder", was devoted to the case. A television movie, The Craigslist Killer, which premiered on Lifetime Network on January 3, 2011, is based on McPhee's book. The Season 3 premiere of Murder Made Me Famous, which aired on April 8, 2017, chronicled the case. The second episode of Season 5 (2019) of the Investigation Discovery show See No Evil covered Julissa Brisman's murder and the search for her killer.