Gilgo serial killer Rex Heuermann's life at Dannemora: 23 hours a day in a cell

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann's new life inside the fortress-like upstate maximum security prison where he's been condemned to stay for the rest of his life includes regular messages to his friends and family on a tablet, prison officials said.

As Heuermann nears his first six months of a life sentence in state prison hundreds of miles away from his Massapequa Park home, he's "adjusted pretty well" to his new environment inside the walls of the 1800s-era Clinton Correctional Facility in the tiny village of Dannemora, just miles from the Canadian border, a source with knowledge of the situation but not allowed to talk about the case publicly told Newsday.

"Mr. Heuermann has access to a tablet and free phone calls but does not have access to the internet or email," said Thomas Mailey, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. "He does have secure messaging on his tablet."

State prison officials declined to detail Heuermann's daily schedule. But the source with knowledge of his accommodations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Heuermann lives among about 88 other prisoners. Heuermann does not have a job inside the prison, the source said, but has access to a television.

"He's resigned himself that he's going to be there for the rest of his life," the source said. 

Heuermann, 63, who once had an architectural firm on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, gets an hour a day to breathe in the air of the Adirondacks but is otherwise confined to his cell, the source said. 

Most prison inmates across the state have tablet access, according to the correction department. The state prison system's Secure Messaging Program, which is subject to content screening, allows inmates to send messages, up to 6,000 characters, and e-cards to family and friends, ranging in price from 9 cents to 12 cents. Family and friends can send messages, photos and "VideoGrams" to inmates. 

Contact with family members

Robert Macedonio, who has represented Heuermann's ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, in her divorce from Heuermann and in a reported $1 million documentary deal on NBC-connected Peacock, wouldn't specify if Ellerup and their grown children have visited Heuermann in prison. 

"I just know that he's been in contact with the family members," Macedonio said.

Heuermann's lawyer, Michael J. Brown, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Vess Mitev, who has represented Heuermann's only known biological child, Victoria Heuermann, who told Peacock previously that she believed her father likely committed the killings and was recently called for jury duty in Nassau County, would only say: "They remain in contact."

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who helped break the unsolved case after convening a task force to reignite the investigation and successfully prosecuted Heuermann, expressed disdain that Heuermann would have a tablet in prison. 

'When you really look at criminal justice in this state, it's kind of absurd," Tierney said. "I think the seemingly unfettered access to the outside world would be cause for concern in this case and in many cases."

Heuermann, who admitted strangling eight women whose remains were discarded across Suffolk County, including near Gilgo Beach, has been incarcerated in state prison since June. 

Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

During his guilty plea, he admitted strangling Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack and Karen Vergata, and then dumping their bodies across Suffolk County, including near Gilgo Beach, from 1993 to 2010. 

Heuermann was arrested on July 13, 2023, on the sidewalk outside his midtown office and was held without bail at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead until his transfer to the state prison system days after he was sentenced. 

Suffolk Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr., who oversaw Heuermann's more than three years of incarceration inside the Suffolk jail, said he's not surprised Heuermann has been able to adjust to prison life. 

"I've heard he's adjusted well ... I really think that he was prepared to have this lifestyle," said Toulon, who said he likely has fewer restrictions in state prison than he did while he was housed in Suffolk, where officials were concerned jail inmates might try to attack him to gain notoriety. 

"I think it's probably a little bit more comfortable for him because we had so many restrictions while he was here because we wanted to make sure that justice is served in the courts and not in our jail," Toulon said. "So he has a lot more freedom. He's probably making some friends."

Site of 2015 jailbreak

The Clinton Correctional Facility, which according to a 2023 audit had more than 1,100 inmates, is the site of New York's most infamous prison break.

Located in tiny Dannemora — the largest nearby town of 20,000 people, Plattsburgh, is about 14 miles away — the prison has walls reaching  about 60 feet tall. 

On June 6, 2015, convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat used smuggled tools to escape from the prison, leading police on a 23-day manhunt. A federal Border Patrol agent fatally shot Matt. A state trooper shot Sweat, who was captured. 

A worker at the prison, Joyce Mitchell, had befriended the pair and had smuggled drill bits, chisels and hacksaw blades into the prison inside hamburger meat, but she backed out of being the pair's getaway driver. Mitchell served 4 years in prison for aiding the escape. 

Heuermann ran into trouble at Dannemora just weeks after he arrived, Newsday previously reported. He was disciplined after correction officers found a small quantity of synthetic marijuana under his bed. He lost access to his mail and commissary account and was transferred to a more isolated area of the prison, Newsday reported. 

Heuermann joins infamous child killer Michael Valva, who was convicted of murder for forcing his 8-year-old son, Thomas Valva, to sleep in an unheated garage in subfreezing temperatures. Thomas died of hypothermia on Jan. 17, 2020. Valva's then-fiancee, Angela Pollina, also was convicted in the killing. 

Valva had been housed with convicted serial killer Joel Rifkin, who recently was moved to another maximum-security lock-up, Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County.