The suspected “Craigslist Killer,” Philip Markoff, a second year medical student at Boston University, appeared on Wednesday in Boston Municipal Court where he was ordered held without on charges of murder, armed robbery and kidnapping. Markoff is charged with the brutal murder of Julissa Brisman, a masseuse from New York City who was found dead in a Boston hotel on April 14 and who met Markoff on the online site Craigslist which features free classifieds ads. Markoff is also charged with robbing a woman at gunpoint at another Boston hotel on April 10 whom he had also contacted through Craigslist, and is suspected in the attempted robbery of an exotic dancer in Rhode Island who had posted an ad on Craigslist. Markoff is believed to have substantial gambling debts, as suggested by the fact that a Connecticut casino has confirmed that is cooperating in the criminal investigation.
Craigslist maintains an “erotic services” category, and Brisman’s murder has prompted a number of groups to call for Craigslist to shut down this portion of its site. Craigslist has been referred to as the largest source of prostitution in the United States. The service, which was started by Craig Newmark in 1995 as a series of emails to friends about events in the San Francisco area, today has over 42 million visitors. Last month, the Sheriff of Cook County Illinois filed suit against Craigslist, claiming that the site permitted solicitation of prostitution. Last November, Craigslist entered into an agreement with several States attorneys general to crack down on solicitations for prostitution on its site, and agreed to provide information on users to law enforcement if subpoenaed. However, some attorney generals are still not happy that Craigslist continues to permit the advertising of “exotic services,” and seek to have the site shut down the category. A spokesperson for Craigslist told the media that criminals who use the site are virtually guaranteed to get caught because they leave electronic trails which are easily traced, and that the risks to users on Craigslist are very low.
A search reveals that Craigslist has been cited in over a dozen reported criminal decisions in California, New Jersey, Nebraska and Minnesota to date, and has been used by criminals to facilitate child molestation, prostitution, pimping and pandering, robbery, theft and receiving stolen property, and assault. The Markoff case is certainly unwelcome news for Craiglist and the vast majority of its users who use the site for lawful purposes, and the end result will likely be elimination of any “exotic services” and stricter policing of users.
