Free Republic

<p>May 24, 2007 -- Peter Braunstein - the demented, hate-filled fashion writer who costumed himself as a firefighter to kidnap, strip and sexually torture a beautiful ex-colleague - was convicted yesterday of the terrifying Halloween 2005 attack.</p> <p>The lightning-fast verdict - after just under four hours of deliberations - capped a dramatic, four-week Manhattan trial that featured a gossip column's worth of celebrity names from fashion and entertainment, two worlds that fascinated the mad molester.</p>

It had the makings of a Halloween prank: a small fire set in a stairwell, a man dressed up as a firefighter and a knock at the front door. But police say the fake fireman was an armed predator who used the ploy to get a 34-year-old woman to let him into her Manhattan apartment, where he bound and molested her for more than 12 hours. Police were searching on Wednesday for the man amid a simultaneous investigation by fire officials. ``There was a clear indication of arson,'' said Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon. Authorities believe that at about 6...