Rex Heuermann, the Manhattan architect who lived a secret life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer, has spent the past three years alone in a segregated cell, reading crime novels and occasionally being visited by his lawyers or family, according to the sheriff who oversees the jail.

A Life of Isolation

Heuermann struck up a brief correspondence with Keith Hunter Jesperson, the infamous “Happy Face Killer” who confessed to killing eight women across the country in the 1990s, said Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon. Jesperson, who is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole in Oregon, initiated the correspondence, but Heuermann has not responded to several follow-up letters.

Heuermann faces life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to murdering seven women and admitting in April that he killed yet another woman. His family, including his ex-wife and two grown children, will not attend his sentencing, citing a desire not to distract from the proceedings.

A Macabre Reading List

Heuermann has been a voracious reader in jail, but Toulon said the inmate’s preference for violent crime and mystery novels — some about serial killers — concerns him. Some of the works he’s recently borrowed from the jail library include J.D. Robb’s “Portrait in Death,” John Sandford’s “Secret Prey,” Heather Graham’s “Picture Me Dead,” Sue Grafton’s “N is for Noose” and Lisa Jackson’s “Chosen to Die.”

Heuermann’s demeanor has remained unchanged through more than 1,000 days of incarceration, according to Toulon. “He doesn’t seem uncomfortable in his cell,” the sheriff said. “No emotion, no despair.”

Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.