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Robert Bierenbaum

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Robert Bierenbaum is an American plastic surgeon who was 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 torso was first thought to be found in 1989 but after exhumimg the torso DNA testing in 1999 proved it to not Gail's.

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,[1] Bierenbaum was convicted and 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, Appellate Division in 2002.[2]

Notoriety

The Bierenbaum case was the subject of the 2001 New York Times non-fiction bestseller book The Surgeon's Wife.[3] It was also one of the stories in the television show Dominick Dunne: Power, Privilege, & Justice on Court TV.

In the ISBN database, the summary of the book includes:[4]

...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 match for their daughter. he was from a well-to-do family, a medical student 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 and New York magazine that women still find him attractive, even though he has been convicted of murdering his first wife.[5]

Legal precedent

People of the State of New York v. Robert Bierenbaum was a landmark decision, 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."[6][7][8]

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.[9]

Medical status

As a result of the New York state Medical Licensing Board's misconduct review following the court case, Bierenbaum surrendered his License to Practice medicine in November, 2000.[10][11] In September 2002, New Jersey also revoked his medical practice license.[12]

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 criminelles.

Lisa DePaulo profiled the Bierenbaum case in her story, "Intimations of Murder" published in the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. The case was featured in an episode of OWN series ‘Devil You Know’.

References

  1. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20060324083233/http://www.fredericvincent.com/Surgeon.htm. Archived from the original on March 24, 2006. Retrieved February 24, 2007. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20070211115618/http://www.cybersleuths.com/news/00__1999news/12091999.htm. Archived from the original on February 11, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2007. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20060110160507/http://www.kierancrowley.com/surgeonswife.asp. Archived from the original on January 10, 2006. Retrieved February 25, 2007. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ The Surgeon's Wife, by Kiernan Crowley, published by St. Martin's True Crime Library, Paperback; 2001-09-17, ISBN 978-0-312-97641-5.
  5. ^ Landman, Beth (2000-12-11). "December 11, 2000". Nymag.com. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  6. ^ "Legal news". Psychiatricnews.org. 2000-10-20. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  7. ^ https://www.webcitation.org/5wUaQW0YH?url=http://www.psychiatricnews.org/pnews/00-10-20/tarasoff.html. Archived from the original on February 14, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ KATHERINE E. FINKELSTEINPublished: September 08, 2000 (September 8, 2000). "Patient Confidentiality at Issue in 1985 Murder Case". New York Times. Archived from the original on February 15, 2009. Retrieved November 23, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ "Court TV becomes truTV". Courttv.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2009. Retrieved 2012-11-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ "Physician". W3.health.state.ny.us. 2000-12-20. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  11. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20110720024436/http://w3.health.state.ny.us/opmc/factions.nsf/0/53f688c0675715da85256a4a0047c4c4?OpenDocument. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Peter C. Harvey Attorney General of New Jersey: In The Matter of the Suspension or Revocation of the License of Robert Bierenbaum, M.D." (PDF). State.nj.us. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

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