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NEW YORK — <\/span>The Manhattan architect who lived a secret life as the Gilgo Beach serial killer<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Rex Heuermann also struck up a brief correspondence with Keith Hunter Jesperson, the infamous \u201cHappy Face Killer<\/a> \u201d who confessed to killing eight women across the country in the 1990s, said Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon.<\/p>\n The sheriff said it was Jesperson, who is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole in Oregon, who wrote first to Heuermann at the jail in Riverhead, New York, where he’s been held since his arrest in July 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n Heuermann wrote back, but hasn’t responded to several follow-up missives from Jesperson, according to Toulon, who spoke to The Associated Press ahead of Heuermann\u2019s sentencing Wednesday. <\/p>\n He 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. <\/p>\n Toulon said \u201cother fanatics\u201d have also tried to reach out, but Heuermann has denied \u201call visits or any communication,\u201d including from news outlets seeking interviews. <\/p>\n Gloria Allred, a lawyer for some of the Long Island victims\u2019 families, dismissed Heuermann and Jesperson as \u201closers\u201d and \u201ccowards\u201d and urged people to commit to ending violence against women.<\/p>\n \u201cThey both murdered someone\u2019s daughter, someone\u2019s mother, someone\u2019s sister,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cThey chose the most vulnerable victims.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of Heuermann\u2019s victims were female sex workers whose dismembered remains were found off a remote ocean parkway near Gilgo Beach, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Manhattan. <\/p>\n Jesperson met many of his victims while working as a truck driver. He was dubbed the Happy Face Killer because he drew smiley faces on taunting letters he sent to media and police.<\/p>\n Heuermann has been a voracious reader in jail, but Toulon said the inmate\u2019s preference for violent crime and mystery novels — some about serial killers — concerns him.<\/p>\n Some of the works he\u2019s recently borrowed from the jail library include J.D. Robb\u2019s \u201cPortrait in Death,\u201d John Sandford\u2019s \u201cSecret Prey,\u201d Heather Graham\u2019s \u201cPicture Me Dead,\u201d Sue Grafton\u2019s \u201cN is for Noose\u201d and Lisa Jackson\u2019s \u201cChosen to Die,\u201d according to Toulon. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not taking out sports books or cooking books, you know,\u201d the sheriff said. \u201cHe\u2019s choosing to read about this.\u201d<\/p>\n Toulon, who was elected in 2017 after decades working for the New York City corrections department, said Heuermann\u2019s demeanor has remained unchanged through more than 1,000 days of incarceration.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t seem uncomfortable in his cell,\u201d the sheriff said. \u201cNo emotion, no despair.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time you see him, it\u2019s the same stoic look that he has when you see him in the courtroom,\u201d Toulon continued. \u201cThere\u2019s no remorse.\u201d<\/p>\n The large, hulking Heuermann is housed in a standard, 6-by-9-foot cell equipped with a metal sink, a metal toilet and a bed with a \u201cvery thin mattress,\u201d according to Toulon. <\/p>\n Cells in the unit are all in view of correction officers, he said. The department also beefed up staff after Heuermann’s arrest, but purposefully did not assign any female correction officers to the unit, and no staff is allowed in unless authorized to work there.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that we wanted to ensure when he came into our custody is that justice was served in the courts and not in our jails,\u201d Toulon said. <\/p>\n Inmates in the unit are served three meals a day, all in their cells, Toulon said. There\u2019s no common area, and they can only see the communal television through the bars of their cells.<\/p>\n Heuermann remains segregated anytime he leaves his cell \u2014 officers pause all other inmate movement to avoid interactions, he said.<\/p>\n He showers alone, and while he gets fresh air in the jail yard up to six days a week alone, he isn\u2019t particularly active, according to Toulon. <\/p>\n \u201cHe does not play basketball, doesn\u2019t do any sprints. He does not do any dips, pullups, or situps or pushups,\u201d the sheriff said. \u201cHe just basically just walks around in circles in the yard.\u201d<\/p>\n Heuermann sees visitors in a designated meeting area where his handcuffs are removed and where inmates are allowed to embrace or kiss their visitors once at the beginning and end of the meeting. He’s sat face-to-face with his ex-wife Asa Ellerup, their grown daughter Victoria, his attorneys, his therapist and a few others.<\/p>\n \u201cHe does not have an extensive visit list,\u201d said Toulon. <\/p>\n Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney\u2019s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on Heuermann\u2019s life behind bars. Nor did his family. <\/p>\n His ex-wife and two grown children said through their lawyers that they won\u2019t be attending the sentencing, where some of the victims’ families are expected to face Heuermann and deliver emotional statements. <\/p>\n \u201cOut of respect for those who have endured unimaginable loss and suffering, she does not wish her presence to distract from the purpose of these proceedings,\u201d said Robert Macedonio, Ellerup\u2019s attorney. \u201cHer thoughts remain with the victims and their loved ones as they continue their pursuit of justice, healing, and closure.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Follow Philip Marcelo on X: @philmarcelo<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n