How would you feel if you met someone who was both a surgeon and a pilot? Would it be impressive if you found out that they could also speak several languages? Now, How would you feel if we threw murder into the mix? It’s the case of Robert Bierenbaum, right now on Love and Murderd. Welcome, everyone welcome welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder, the Weekly True Crime Podcast discussing Relationships Gone Terribly Wrong, where our motto is you’re either someone’s last love or their first murder. What can we say? I mean, we could say something different, but I mean, no, that’s not how it just goes.
They would get mad. Like, it’s not what you’re supposed to say. It would be like, yeah, you guys are right. So there’s no point, right? I mean, you got me there. Either way, I am your host, Ky, and this lovely gentleman gentleman, this lovely gentleman to our YouTube my right or my left? Well I don’t really want to say because then the lovely LaMs can kind of imagine us. However they want to imagine us. If I give them an answer that’s well I always thought Rick was behind Ky.
I always thought Rick was like across the room from Ky, you know. Now it’s like. Now they’re gonna be like, damn it. Now I gotta imagine Rick to the left of Ky. And I’m not saying this where I’m standing, but we gotta leave the mystery guy. Ok, well that’s Rick over there. Our show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and as usual, just a little bit of humor, but never, ever, ever at the expense of the victim.
Although, to be fair, we came out the gate with humor. Alright, I’m done. I’m done. Be sure to subscribe to Love and Murderd on whatever platform you’re on and give us five Stars, 1-2-3-4-5 right now so you don’t forget if you’re new here, of course. First listen to our episodes and go back and listen to the back catalogue too. And then rate US and also welcome. Thank you for joining us. We are so happy you’re here.
In today’s episode we’re talking about a case of a guy who was a catch or, was he? But first I wanted to remind you to head on over to our exclusive group at www.patreon.com/loveandmurder. Our last bonus episode was a case of unsolved mysteries and coming up is the Serial Killer corner. This one you don’t want to miss. However, I digress. As usual, we’ll talk about it later. Right now on to the show. So as usual, I can’t agree on how to say this guy’s last name. I believe it’s Robert Bierenbaum and I said. You’re in bomb because it has a E N B I E R E N B A U M B N bomb. We’re gonna call him Bob. So Bob was born July 22, 1955.
He grew up in West Orange, New Jersey and kind of like an upper middle class area. There wasn’t any information on who his parents were, but we do know that his father was a cardiologist. And Bob graduated College in 1978 but we can’t verify what college he went to as a person. Bob had kind of like a short temper. And he was considered to be very socially awkward.
There were a lot of times where he was known for taking women on short flights for manic dates, and we’ll get into more of that later. And he was thought to be a “perfect catch”. You know, he’s a handsome surgeon. He actually spoke a lot of languages. Right away. The dude is a doctor. He can fly. He speaks multiple languages. He also likes skiing. And fun fact, he received his pilot’s license while he was still in high school.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but to me that’s red flags all over the place. Yeah, you’re smart and yeah, you have a lot going for you, but it seems like you get bored and you move on to the next thing, which means to me that you’re about to get bored of me and move on to the next exciting thing. I agree, it depends on the person, but I know like.
In that situation, you either get bored very quickly or you have a lot of drive, and it’s very rarely a lot of drive. And there are people out there that have like multiple degrees and stuff. Those people freak me out, like automatically. Why do you need to have eight different degrees in different fields of stuff? But I see what you’re saying though. So on the flip side from Bob, we have Gail Katz, who was born March 8, 1956 to parents Sylvia and Manny. Katz grew up in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York, but the family moved to Long Island when she was in the fourth grade she had several siblings, including her brother Steven Katz, and a sister named Elaine Katz. I think it’s Elaine. It’s ALAYNEI think that’s pronounced ugly. Yeah, that sounds like Elaine. I’m used to Elaine being spelled with an E, though, so I’m not. Maybe that’s like an older generation kind of gal. Lived the carefree lifestyle. She went to Broadway shows a lot. She hit the honor roll quite frequently at school.
She was very soft spoken. Unfortunately, she attempted suicide in college because she suffered from depression. And this was during a particularly hard time for her because she was going through a breakup and she suffered an injury to her arm. Oh, wow. So the depression was not her normal persona. It was that she was going through a breakup and just a lot of stuff was going on at the. I think it’s more along the lines of like she had depression, but that’s kind of where it got the best of her for a little while. Have information on if she had it since childhood or if it was just like, I don’t know, all the stuff’s going wrong and now I’m kind of down.
I don’t think it was that. I think it was more along the lines of she had depression and this was just a struggle for her at the time. Understood the last thing about Gail individually. She went to Long Island University for a doctorate in clinical psychology that’s interested in being that she suffered from depression and she decided to go to college to basically treat that. It’s possible that she said this sucks. I hate it. How can I help other people that have it? And then boom, clinical psychology degree? Yeah, I’m assuming she went to college for like eight to ten years. Maybe because the doctor takes a while, doesn’t it? Isn’t it like the highest degree you can get? You do four years bachelor, two years Masters, and then two years Doctor Doctorate? So yeah, eight years.
Got married on August 29, 1982. And at this point in time, Bob worked as a plastic surgeon at Maimonides Medical Center. Gail had worked different jobs throughout their marriage, including being an attorney. She worked as an ad agency, and she worked as an assistant for several wealthy businessmen. And it’s been reported and kind of verified that the two of them fought and argued a lot early on in their marriage. It was so bad. Gaily’s co workers could hear them arguing on the phone at certain times, and Bob himself would go on to admit that, you know, the arguments could become physical and. Guy, this is going to hit both of us because we talked about this before.
A lot of cases seemed to deal with this, but Gail thought she could change Bob. Even though he was a very controlling person. So the news got a bad temper very controlling. Their arguments get physical red flags left, right and center. Yeah, but as we tend to do, we always think we could change. He’ll see the light for us. On July 17, 1985, Bob went to his sister’s home in Montclair, New Jersey for his nephew ‘s birthday party. There he told his father that he and Gail got into an argument earlier that day that she stormed off and went to the Central Park by herself and she hadn’t come home.
At the time Bob left Manhattan to get to the party because at this point they were living in New York so he literally had to leave New York to get to New Jersey for his nephew’s party. So he’s saying we argued. It was so bad that she stormed off and I haven’t seen her all day. She never came home. Now here I am in the evening at this party, still haven’t seen her.
Later on in the evening though Bob went to see a friend of his, a doctor, Scott Baranoff, and for some reason he phoned his house several times throughout the night and during this time he informed Doctor Baranoff. As well as Gail not returning home, I’m thinking right away maybe he went to stay with his friend because he didn’t want to be at home when she got there. And he’s like well maybe I should call the house. And if she came back and talked to her. What do you think Kyle? I don’t know. I kind of just want to hear more and see where this goes first.
Luckily for you there is more. It was the next day Bob decided it would be a nearby police station close to his house. And he reported that she was missing, so he hasn’t heard from her. Over a day. I thought you had to wait 48 hours to report somebody missing. Though I think in some instances, in some states you can do it after 24 hours, I think generally it is 48 hours. But I gotta tell you, if I know somebody is, if it’s my husband or my child and they’re missing, is going to be 2 hours, call the cops.
So he reports that she’s missing. And police investigators, whoever needs to act, they look for. There’s no sign of Gail. Bob didn’t really have any useful information for them. He didn’t help with the search. They questioned him about her whereabouts and, you know, all that kind of stuff. He didn’t really have any good answers for where she could have gone or what might have happened to her. Or, you know, like if she went to Central Park where she had gone after that, he didn’t have anything to give. I mean, no information for them. You think the guy is at home? Oh, I can’t find my wife. I think she would be here or there. I mean, the not knowing where she is or having no answers.
I don’t think that’s strange, just not being more worried. That would be more strange to you. Well, I’m thinking like, if I’m married to somebody and it’s my wife and I can’t find her, I’d be thinking of all the different places I could look like, oh, maybe she went to Jacks house or maybe she was visiting her family. You could get away from me. Or, you know, I’m thinking of all the different ways that I could find or if I got worried about her yeah so at this point. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, months turn in the years, and there’s no sign of Gail anywhere.
It was believed they had found Gaily’s body lost up on shore off of the Atlantic Ocean in 1989 DNA tests done later proved it wasn’t her and her body was never found. So three months after Gail went missing. Her sister Anneline stated “He told me I could pick up her belongings, everything she had, including her clothes. He didn’t want any of her things. When I got there, he’d put it all in big garbage bags. He considered it trash” Yeah, just get rid of all our stuff.
I don’t want to hear. It doesn’t matter to me. My wife is gone. Who cares? That’s a major red flag for everybody. In the meantime, like I said, Gail goes missing. Time goes by. Years later, they still haven’t found her at this period in his life. Bob has remarried to a doctor, Janet Chollet. And they had a daughter named Anna together. So he’s done, moved on with his life. At this point. A former nanny of Bob by the name of Barb Cooper said that during this time, he looked good, wore suits, loved his child, and loved dogs.
Just overall, things that you think would be great characteristics, End Quote. I mean, of course now eventually the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, they pick up the case about Gail going missing and they start looking into it and they end up in the lap of investigators. Detective Andy Rosenzweig. Yes, you heard me correctly Rosenzweig now. Knowing of Bob’s love for flying and the fact that he did it all the time, Rosenzweig checked with the New Jersey airport. That Bob liked to rent planes from, and he discovered that the good doctor had taken a plane out on July seventh nineteen, eighty five.
But Bob had seemingly doctored his flight log to make it look like he went flying the next day. So there, you know, when you fly, there are devices and guidelines in place to keep track of when you went flying. I think that’s more of a thing where like if you crash somewhere and they can’t find you, then they know, oh, you went flying. So he’s probably out there somewhere. He’s more of a safety thing. But they found evidence of tampering with the log of the plane. I guess it’s, I couldn’t verify if it was like that.
The log or the flight recorder of the plane he used at this time, if that was it or if it was like, you know, a journal they had at the place where you sign in, you know, I couldn’t verify that, but there was evidence that he had tampered with the timestamp on when he went flying. I mean, it seemed like he went flying the day after he actually went flying. And remember July 7, 1985 was the last day he saw Gail. So that’s looking awfully suspicious.
The investigator here. And when they questioned Bob, he stated that Gail left after they had their fight, which she had said before, and she must have wound up killing herself or had a bad drug deal going wrong. That’s what he had to say about it at this point, yeah former New York prosecutor Dan Bibb. He said, “ it was almost like pulling teeth to get Bob to help. It was almost like they had to drag him kicking and screaming”. So even after all this time, he’s still not.
He’s still like, just making up. Oh, she probably, you know, went off and killed herself. Or he’s not really giving them any details or they’re trying to force answers out of him. He’s being very difficult. And, you know, it’s evident too. While he wasn’t helping search for her like it’s underwater and searching for her, you know, investigators found out that he spent his time going to parties, going to spas, dating other women. It sounds to me like he moved on way earlier than most people move on. That kind of threw them off about Bob too.
He claimed that after she left the house that day. He stayed there until 5:30. Before leaving to go to his nephew’s party, which does not add up but the fact that he went flying for a little while. So here’s what happened. What the investigators found out, they totally caught him in a lie. So on July 7, 1985 at 4:30 PM. He rented a cressona. 172 plane at Caldwell Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey. He returned it after only one hour and 56 minutes. Now I’m saying only but. That gave him enough time to fly a round trip approximately 165 miles. Over the Atlantic Ocean and then back again.
And another thing about this too, the way that you kind of get in the plane at this place, like the way you load it up. If Bob needed to load any of his gear or equipment. He would have been able to do so without people watching him because of the way that the building, the air, the way that the business was structured. The people who ran the place couldn’t see him putting stuff in the plane or preparing the plane, so. He had an opportunity there to be sneaky, if you catch my drift.
I understood yep At this point, there’s enough circumstantial evidence that it’s adding up in all points to him. So he got arrested in September of 1999 Under suspicion of, you know, having some ill intent towards Gail, he was the number one suspect at this point. Yeah, because I was about to say why. What was the evidence for him to get arrested? Ok, it was all circumstantial. You know, he doesn’t care about his wife. Apparently they’re hearing about how they fought all the time, and you know, he’s lying about staying at home. Like lying about the day she disappeared is the biggest red flag for me there.
Red flags are very popular in this episode. Let me tell you, I’m seeing that. It’s insane. The trial started on September 18, 2000 in Manhattan. And the name of the judge for his case was Leslie Snyder. And during the trial, like all throughout the run of the trial, Bob refused to talk to the media. You know, reporters would ask him questions after certain sessions and trials, he wouldn’t say anything.
His lawyer did all the talking for him in regards to anything. During this time, he absolutely refused to answer questions. So for the trial, they were testimonies from friends and family about the two of them as a couple. You know, Bob being the last person to see her alive. There was also a letter from Gail psychiatrist. Detailing to her why the psychiatrist thought that Bob was a dangerous person and that Gail should get away from him and. They even managed to do a reenactment how Bob could have put a body into the plane made off over the ocean and then dumped it out.
So that’s where they used the evidence of, you know, the way that he could load his plane meant there being no witnesses. But this is all circumstantial. I don’t know, testimonies from your friends and family about an abusive relationship. That’s I believe that would give him motive. Ok, I’m OK. During the testimonies it came to light that Gail. Apparently cheated on Bob several times including with a close coworker that she had wow in the past. He had strangled her to unconsciousness before. Wow and get this guy.
What do we always say? If you’re gonna commit a murder, just have all the evidence on your person. Just tell everybody you’re going to do it. He told people that “he hated his wife and wanted to kill her”. We always say that tell as many people as possible what you are planning or what you’re fantasizing about doing. As many people really the only thing I could find about Bob’s defense said that the one major point they had during the case, they tried to say that you couldn’t use the psychiatrist’s letter to Gail as evidence because that would ruin patient confidentiality.
No, this is a murder investigation. Patient confidentiality has nothing in this. In this instance, you need to let everything out. My thing is, client patient confidentiality is in play if the person is alive. I mean, if it was just a natural death, I could understand that. But this is a murder investigation, and what your patient has told you could possibly be evidence to help this murder investigation along. There’s no need to be confidential if she’s not around anymore. I agree exactly. So with all this evidence and the testimonies with all that. It took the jury 5 and a half hours of just debating, so I was gonna say 5 minutes and in October of 2000 Bob was found guilty of murder in the second degree and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Now you’re thinking he murdered his wife of only 20 years. While Judge Snyder said that he was given a reduced sentence due to his service in the medical field. So the judge was like he was a plastic surgeon and he did a lot of hard work. As a doctor, I’ll reduce the sentence. I don’t know that I agree with that. And it sounds like you’re about to freak out, guy. Yeah, that’s absolutely ridiculous.
So because you’re a doctor and you’ve helped other people, you have a license to murder as well and get away with it for the most part. So his sentence. Was 20 years to life in prison, meaning after he served 20 years. He could then, you know, have a parole hearing and they could decide whether or not he would still. Continue to serve a sentence, so it sounds like the judge didn’t. Officially cut his sentence down. She just gave him a chance to get a reduced sentence later, which is still being very lenient. Yeah, 20 years to life, there’s a big gap there yep. And we should add. During the trial, Ky, what do you think? He pleaded.
Not guilty the whole time. During the trial, he said he wasn’t guilty. But in December of 2020 at a parole hearing, Bob admitted to killing Gail. Just straight up admitted it. Oh wow. Just came out and said, Yep, I killed her. I dumped her in the ocean. She’s probably still there. Wow, I wonder what made him change his mind. He might have thought if I show remorse and tell them the truth, maybe I’ll get my son introduced like the judge. Then they’ll just be like, OK, well, we’re so happy that you finally told the truth.
It looks like you’ve experienced growth. So yeah, we’ll let you out. You murdered your wife in cold blood, but you know, you’ve told the truth. Dumped her body into the ocean, just continued on with life. Yeah, but you know, telling the truth shows us that you’ve had much growth. We think you’re rehabilitated. I know we’re making jokes about his approach to this, but I’m just thinking. And so he’s a freaking asshole and he deserves life in prison for this. They always explain every episode. There’s no humor at the expense of the victim. Sometimes the murderers are just so stupid guy, you can’t help but make fun of them.
It’s too easy. So his parole hearing was in 2020 As of this recording. That’s two years ago. During his confession, they started to find out that Gill felt spoiler alert, Gail felt unsafe in their marriage, and in 1983 she had gotten in contact. With an attorney who was kind of preparing to file for divorce the true story of what happened the day that she disappeared, she came to Bob and told him that she wanted a divorce. In the ensuing argument, Bob strangled her to death, took her body to the plane that he rented, and then dumped her in the Atlantic Ocean.
Just like people have believed all along, craziness and surprise, surprise Bob is still serving time at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility. As of today, what? I thought they would have let him out. At what point can you no longer be redeemed? Because he clearly didn’t care about her after she disappeared. Like, I don’t think he regrets killing her even after he admitted to doing it.
I don’t think he regrets it because you heard the story. He killed her and then dumped her body in the ocean just to be forgotten. Literally forgot about it because he got rid of all her stuff. Just carried on with his life, moved on to another. Woman had a kid. The daughter, fun fact, was two years old at the time of his trial. Just a little fun fact there.
So he clearly moved on from her and had no. I want to say he had no regrets killing her. I want to say he didn’t feel remorse, so him coming clean doesn’t mean a whole lot to me personally. However, I mean at the time that he committed the act that he had no remorse. That doesn’t mean he actually, while sitting in prison and thinking about it, possibly getting counseling and everything like that doesn’t mean he didn’t actually build remorse. He might have built remorse and might and that probably is the reason why he did confess. You never know. That’s possible too.
But that seems too convenient to me. Like he has his parole hearing now he feels regret. Now he feels remorseful. It’s not like he was sitting in his cell one day after therapy and coaching and coming to terms with certain things and he went you know what I did do it. Hey guard over there. I had something to say he didn’t like.
Feels like he picked the quote. Unquote the most opportune time to put that. Out there and I didn’t hear a statement. I wasn’t there. But from what I know, personally, I don’t believe it. And maybe more than possibly it’s why he didn’t get parole because what he was saying just didn’t connect. People didn’t believe him, you know. You know, I mean, yeah, I hear you. And I mean, it does coincide with when he needed to sound remorseful, but at the same time you don’t know. Yeah, it’s like, you know, the age-old counterpoint of.
You’re not sorry you did it. You’re sorry that you got caught. You’re sorry you got caught. That’s how it feels to me right now, whatever the answers are. That is the story of good old Bob, AKA Robert Bierenbaum. So guys, let us know what you think in the comments below and if you can hear this loud behind the car that’s right outside my house. I don’t know, Ben. Anyways, let us know what you think in the comments below.
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