All of the above are murder victims named in this NYT article, which reports:
… In the 25 years since legalized gambling helped transform Atlantic City from a faded resort to a popular destination for weekend slots players, casino companies have reaped immense profits, but the city itself has experienced both boom and bust. Thirty-four million tourists come each year, pumping billions of dollars into the local economy and providing more than 45,000 jobs.
That economy has evolved into a two-tiered system catering to the addicted. Inside the casinos, where prostitutes work the sprawling halls, betting is legal and the state has even exempted gamblers from its indoor smoking ban. On the sketchy streets outside, sex and drugs are sold openly, around the clock, as dozens of prostitutes prowl the avenues and side streets just off the Boardwalk offering sexual encounters for as little as $10 : the price of a rock of crack cocaine and a five-minute high.
What has emerged in the days since the bodies were discovered in a spongy strip of land between the Black Horse Pike and the Atlantic City Expressway is that each of the four women came to Atlantic City to escape something: abusive relationships, relatives who objected to their drug habits, or street life in other cities considered to be more dangerous.
Once they were here, their drug-fueled descent landed them on the lowest rung in Atlantic City’s social order, a strip of rundown motels just outside of town where prostitutes are so desperate to feed their habits that rocks of crack cocaine are the preferred method of payment. …
Easily and inexpensively purchased sex is obviously one of Atlantic City’s tourist lures, so it’s doubtful anyone governing or doing business in Atlantic City has much interest in investing in drug abuse prevention or treatment programs. Quite the contrary, because addiction is such an effective tool for drawing people into prostitution, and keeping them there. Another way to keep the number of sex workers high is to keep the number and quality of shelters and assistance programs low. But let’s pretend that we are actually good people because we don’t put anyone in jail. The article further notes:
Local lore has long been that the Police Department takes a laissez-faire attitude toward prostitution. A lawsuit settled this year bolstered that notion: the city agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to a former vice-squad detective who claimed he was demoted in 2001 for defying a directive by the police chief at the time to stop arresting streetwalkers. The city’s current chief, John Mooney, declined to discuss the suit, but in the court file, officials never refute the contention that police commanders had disbanded the department’s prostitution unit and discouraged arrests.
I don’t think sex workers should be arrested either, but pretending that the only two options are arresting or not arresting them is simply appalling, and grotesquely immoral. No doubt authorities are unwilling to consider arresting “customers,” because that would scare off the tourists. The article concludes:
Detectives are still not certain whether the killer may have claimed more victims, and have been inquiring about other streetwalkers not seen in weeks.
The authorities have also been searching for links between the current case and the attacks on three prostitutes whose throats were slashed earlier this year, leaving two of them dead, though Mr. Blitz has said they appear unrelated.
Despite those violent deaths : and the prospect that there may actually be two serial killers preying on the city’s prostitutes : local officials say they don’t expect any decrease in the number of people drawn to the excitement of Atlantic City.
“There are 30 million people a year who pass through this little town with 36,000 residents,”said William Southrey, president of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission.”So if someone is looking for action, there are things going on all the time, legal opportunities and perverse ones.”
Yep, everybody “looking for action” is welcome in Atlantic City. Kill a few desperate, drug addicted women and it’s possible no one will even notice. Here’s a sentence from near the beginning of the article: “Only two of the women had even been reported missing before their decayed bodies were found in a drainage ditch on the outskirts of town three days before Thanksgiving.”
From top left clockwise: Kimberly Raffo, 35; Barbara V. Breidor, 42; Tracy Ann Roberts, 23; and Molly Jean Dilts, 20.
–Ann Bartow
