To: BunnySlippers
Plastic surgeon guilty of killing his wife in 1985
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - A plastic surgeon accused of killing his wife 15 years ago and dropping her body into the ocean from an airplane was convicted of murder yesterday.
Robert Bierenbaum, 44, faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 20.
His wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum, 29, vanished in 1985. Her body was never found and the prosecution's case was mostly circumstantial.
Prosecutor Daniel Bibb said Bierenbaum probably strangled his wife in their Upper East Side apartment after she told him she was leaving their sometimes violent marriage for another man.
He said Bierenbaum put his wife's corpse in a duffle bag, drove it to a New Jersey airport, took the body up in a small plane and dropped it into the ocean off New Jersey or Long Island.
David Lewis, Bierenbaum's lawyer, denounced the prosecution's case as guesswork since there were no eyewitnesses or physical evidence.
Over the years, Bierenbaum gave various explanations for his wife's disappearance, saying that she was a waitress in California, that she was suicidal and may have killed herself or that she had run off with another man.
Bierenbaum, who has a pilot's licence, spent nearly two hours flying the afternoon after his wife was last seen. It was after prosecutors found his flight log, which the law requires pilots to maintain, they believed they could make a murder case against him.
The victim's sister, Alayne Katz of Irvington, N.Y., said: "I've waited a very, very long time for this day.
"I heard the cuffs close round his hands. I've waited for that sound a long time."
To: Palladin
That's very interesting. I am a crime buff and remember lots of stories ... and I remember that many, many years after the crime the husband was popped. But not before he married a very pretty wife. I'm lgad you reminded me of this crime ...
To: Palladin
It's interesting that you mention the Robert Bierenbaum case. I am from Los Angeles. This monster lived in the area. I had a friend of a friend type situation where "the friend" went out with this Doctor and just had a creepy feeling about him. She did not know about his wife at the time. She found out later before he was finally convicted.
To: Palladin
To: Palladin
The Bierenbaum case was fascinating. Vanity Fair had an in-depth article about it a few months ago. What a creep he is.
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