Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
His parents didn't raise him right.
His mother almost never said she loved him.
His dad taught him how to kite checks.
And his wife, Craig Rabinowitz says, rarely had sex
with him.
From the cold comfort of an upstate prison,
Rabinowitz, the Main
Line wife-killer last seen giving a courtroom
confession in which he
blamed no one but himself, has found his way back
into the news by
giving an interview in which he seems to blame
everyone else.
Rabinowitz, whose life as a lifer sounds not so bad
(racquetball,
stress-management classes, decent food, cable TV),
told a reporter
from Philadelphia Weekly: "I felt emasculated. I
had 13 years of
resentment inside me."
According to an article being published today,
Rabinowitz, 34,
speaking with writer Karen Abbott, complained that
his upbringing left
him with feelings of inadequacy, detailed the
breakdown of his
marriage to lawyer Stefanie Rabinowitz -- including
his frustration at
their lack of a sex life -- and admitted his
passion for Shannon Reinert,
the exotic dancer known as Summer, whose role in
the story has
always been mysterious.
"If Governor Ridge decided tomorrow that I'm a hell
of a guy and
should be released," the article quotes Rabinowitz
as saying, "the first
thing I'd do would be to go see Shannon."
Not much chance of that. One of Rabinowitz's
lawyers, Jeffrey Miller,
was taken aback yesterday by his client's published
words, calling the
interview "legal suicide" if any future governor
considers commuting
the life sentence.
"Twenty years down the road," Miller said, "I can
assure you that the
D.A. of Montgomery County, whoever it may be, if
there is a petition
for commutation laying before the governor, will
present this [
Philadelphia Weekly ] story to the governor."
Not only that, Miller said, "this is torture for
the family" -- the people
Rabinowitz had said in court he didn't want to hurt
anymore.
"This puts his daughter, his mother, his
mother-in-law, in a very tender,
embarrassing, difficult position," the lawyer said.
"None of this does
anybody any good."
The article brought a sharp reaction, too, from
Stefanie Rabinowitz's
mother, Anne Newman, who is raising Haley,
Rabinowitz's daughter.
Haley turns 2 on May 2.
"His own words show that he's a person without
character, decency
or conscience," Newman said through her lawyer,
Neil Epstein.
Yesterday, during visiting hours at Houtzdale
Prison, about 30 minutes
west of State College, Pa., Rabinowitz told a
reporter that he had not
known his remarks would be published so soon.
Rabinowitz said it was his understanding that
publication of his
interviews with Abbott in February and March was
contingent on their
having another conversation. (Abbott could not be
reached for
comment on this yesterday.)
Asked whether he was quoted accurately in the
article, Rabinowitz
declined to comment further -- except to say that
he was disturbed by
the timing of the story: a week before the
anniversary of his wife's
death.
In the article, Rabinowitz is quoted as saying of
the woman he killed:
"Steffi . . . was a wonderful woman and my best
friend and I miss her
more than anyone, but she, well, she lived her life
like a calendar,
strict, planned, regimented. And I was more
easygoing, more 'go with
the flow.' A lot of times I felt emasculated. I had
13 years of
resentment inside me."
Among other comments attributed to Rabinowitz in
the jailhouse
interview:
"The first time my mother told me she loved me . .
. was the day they
cuffed me and took me to jail."
He described his father, now deceased, as a man who
kited checks
and "hid a lot from my mother . . . especially the
financial problems."
Rabinowitz said he slipped sleeping pills into his
wife's beer before
strangling her because he "wanted her gone, but
didn't want her to feel
any pain."
Rabinowitz is also quoted as hinting that his
relationship with Reinert
was sexual; he says he and Reinert would frequently
have lunch during
the week or go to a hotel.
That, too, surprised lawyer Miller, who said
Rabinowitz had told him
he and Reinert never reached that level -- "more of
an infatuation,"
Miller said. He said Rabinowitz had also assured
his attorneys the
relationship with Reinert was over.
Reinert's lawyer, Michael Wolf, said yesterday that
Rabinowitz
regularly writes letters to Reinert, in an attempt
to keep their
relationship alive.
"This is a guy who's obsessed with her, and
apparently his obsession
hasn't stopped," Wolf said.
He added that Reinert has not responded and "has no
desire to see
him."
"The way Shannon views this is that they did a have
a close
relationship, but the relationship was not sexual,"
Wolf said. He added
that she has adopted another stage name, and
continues to work as a
dancer outside Philadelphia.
Rabinowitz strangled his wife last April 29 inside
their Merion home.
Their baby daughter was in the house at the time.
Initially, police
accepted Rabinowitz's story that Stefanie had
apparently had an
accident in the bathtub. But it was quickly
discovered that Stefanie
had been strangled, and within days Rabinowitz was
arrested.
On Oct. 30, the day his trial was to begin, he
confessed to the crime
and accepted a sentence of life without parole.
In the Philadelphia Weekly interview, Rabinowitz
seemed to clear up
one minor mystery: the contents of a phone call
made to him by
Reinert the night he strangled Stefanie. According
to the article,
Rabinowitz said Reinert's taped message was: "Hi,
sweetie, it was
good talking to you today. I miss you and I love
you and I'll talk to
you tomorrow."
Reinert's lawyer did not dispute the accuracy of
the killer's memory.
"He was supposed to meet her at the club the night
of the murder,"
Wolf said yesterday. "He never showed up, so she
called and left a
message."
She did use the word love, Wolf said, but
Rabinowitz "is making a
little more of it than he should."
"He was a customer," Wolf said. "Her job is to make
men feel good
about themselves. And she did that with him. Only
he took it one step
further."
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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