Robert Bierenbaum
Encyclopedia
Robert Bierenbaum is a plastic surgeon
who has been convicted in October 2000 of murder in the strangulation death of his wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum. The death occurred in their Manhattan
apartment on July 7, 1985.
Bierenbaum, a licensed pilot, took a two-hour flight in a Cessna 172
from Essex County
, New Jersey
over the Atlantic Ocean
on the day that Gail had vanished. He failed to mention this fact to authorities during their initial questioning. The prosecution stated that Bierenbaum discarded his wife's dismembered body in the ocean. The victim's body has never been recovered.
Despite a witness testimony for the defense who stated that he saw the victim in a Manhattan bagel shop during the time that Bierenbaum took his airplane flight, Bierenbaum was sentenced to twenty years to life in prison in New York. He appealed, but the conviction was upheld in the New York state Supreme Court
2002.
bestseller book The Surgeon's Wife. It was also one of the stories in the television show Dominick Dunne: Power, Privilege, & Justice on Court TV
.
In the ISBN database isbndb.com - free books & ISBN database, the summary of the book includes:
Bierenbaum has been referred to as The Lady Killer. It has been said in Vanity Fair
and New York
magazine that women still find him attractive, even though he has been convicted of murdering his first wife.
, setting precedent on upholding physician-patient privilege
even when a Tarasoff
warning is invoked: "Neither a psychiatrist issuing a Tarasoff warning nor a patient telling his friends he's in treatment constitutes a waiver of a patient's psychiatrist-patient privilege."
The case was also used as precedent in the California case of Glyn Sharf, where the accused was charged of murdering his wife, even though the victim's body was never found.
Medical Licensing Board's misconduct review following the court case, Bierenbaum surrendered his License to Practice medicine in November, 2000. In September 2002, New Jersey also revoked his medical practice license.
.
Lisa DePaulo profiled the Bierenbaum case in her story, "Intimations of Murder" published in the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
who has been convicted in October 2000 of murder in the strangulation death of his wife, Gail Katz-Bierenbaum. The death occurred in their Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
apartment on July 7, 1985.
Bierenbaum, a licensed pilot, took a two-hour flight in a Cessna 172
Cessna 172
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing fixed-wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft.-Design and development:...
from Essex County
Essex County, Ontario
Essex County is a county and census division located in Southwestern Ontario and covers an area at the southernmost tip of Canada. The administrative seat is Essex...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
over the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
on the day that Gail had vanished. He failed to mention this fact to authorities during their initial questioning. The prosecution stated that Bierenbaum discarded his wife's dismembered body in the ocean. The victim's body has never been recovered.
Despite a witness testimony for the defense who stated that he saw the victim in a Manhattan bagel shop during the time that Bierenbaum took his airplane flight, Bierenbaum was sentenced to twenty years to life in prison in New York. He appealed, but the conviction was upheld in the New York state Supreme Court
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...
2002.
Notoriety
The Bierenbaum case was the subject of the 2001 New York Times non-fictionNon-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
bestseller book The Surgeon's Wife. It was also one of the stories in the television show Dominick Dunne: Power, Privilege, & Justice on Court TV
Court TV
truTV is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Time Warner. The network launched as Court TV in 1991, changing to truTV in 2008...
.
In the ISBN database isbndb.com - free books & ISBN database, the summary of the book includes:
- "...Robert Bierenbaum, a prominent surgeon and certified genius... Gail's parents had been thrilled to learn she was marrying Robert Bierenbaum. He seemed to be the perfect matchMatchingIn the mathematical discipline of graph theory, a matching or independent edge set in a graph is a set of edges without common vertices. It may also be an entire graph consisting of edges without common vertices.- Definition :...
for their daughter. he was from a well-to-do family, a medical studentMedical schoolA medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
who spoke five languages fluently, a skier, and he even flew an airplane."
- "...Robert had tried to choke Gail because he caught her smoking, she filed a police report. She also alleged that he tried to kill her cat because he was jealous of it."
Bierenbaum has been referred to as The Lady Killer. It has been said in Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
and New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine that women still find him attractive, even though he has been convicted of murdering his first wife.
Legal precedent
People of the State of New York v. Robert Bierenbaum was a landmark decisionLandmark decision
Landmark court decisions establish new precedents that establish a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially change the interpretation of existing law...
, setting precedent on upholding physician-patient privilege
Physician-patient privilege
Physician–patient privilege is a legal concept, related to medical confidentiality, that protects communications between a patient and his or her doctor from being used against the patient in court. It is a part of the rules of evidence in many common law jurisdictions...
even when a Tarasoff
Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California
Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 17 Cal. 3d 425, 551 P.2d 334, 131 Cal. Rptr. 14 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of California held that mental health professionals have a duty to protect individuals who are being threatened with bodily harm by a patient...
warning is invoked: "Neither a psychiatrist issuing a Tarasoff warning nor a patient telling his friends he's in treatment constitutes a waiver of a patient's psychiatrist-patient privilege."
The case was also used as precedent in the California case of Glyn Sharf, where the accused was charged of murdering his wife, even though the victim's body was never found.
Medical status
As a result of the New York stateNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Medical Licensing Board's misconduct review following the court case, Bierenbaum surrendered his License to Practice medicine in November, 2000. In September 2002, New Jersey also revoked his medical practice license.
In popular culture
The Robert Bierenbaum case was featured by the television show "Law and Order: Criminal Intent", in an episode entitled "The Good Doctor", which originally aired in November, 2001, and in an episode of the French series Paris enquêtes criminellesParis enquêtes criminelles
Paris enquêtes criminelles is a French television series broadcast since May 3, 2007 on TF1.-Synopsis:Adapted from Law & Order: Criminal Intent , it follows the investigations of two police detectives with very different methods of investigation. Vincent Revel is very intuitive, while his partner...
.
Lisa DePaulo profiled the Bierenbaum case in her story, "Intimations of Murder" published in the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.
External links
- "Doctor Gets 20 Years to Life For the Murder of His Wife" (New York Times)
- "A man saw surgeon’s wife the day she disappeared"
- "Patient Confidentiality at Issue in 1985 Murder Case"
- "Dr. Bierenbaum's Missing Wife" (Crime LibraryCrime LibraryThe Crime Library is a website documenting major crimes, criminals, and trials, forensics, and criminal profiling from books, police reports, crime television shows, and writers...
) - Las Vegas Review Journal Nov. 30, 2000
- Las Vegas Review Journal Nov. 25, 2000