'John Doe Duffle Bag's' girlfriend shocked to discover she's dating a 'serial killer' as its revealed he posed as a retired cop
- Girlfriend Natasha Charova told police she had no idea she might be datinga serial killer
- Neighbors say Salvatore Perrone pretended to be a police officer
- Peronne 'confesses to two of the killings' but not the third
- Casings from the same .22 caliber handgun found at all three crime scenes
- Killer may have chosen stores based on lack of surveillance cameras
3
View
comments
Natasha Charova, the girlfriend of accused Brooklyn serial killer Salvatore Perrone, is reportedly shocked to discover the man she's spent so many years with may be responsible for the deaths of three shopkeepers.
The murder weapon was found in Charova's Queens home, but it's unlikely she'll be charged in connection to the crimes as police said she had no idea Perrone was an alleged-killer.
Perrone has pled not guilty to three counts of murder and three counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the murders of three Brooklyn shopkeepers.
Scroll down for videos
Salvatore Perrone (pictured in a 2001 police mugshot provided by the Franconia Township Police Department in Telford, PA) is charged in connection with the Brooklyn murders
Charova did not respond to interview requests.
In the dark: Police say Natasha Charova had no idea her boyfriend could be a serial killer
A neighbor who spoke on condition of anonymity described Charova as a woman with a wild streak.
'[Charova] would go dancing every Friday night. You should see the way they dressed,' said the neighbor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the New York Post. '[Charova] would wear different wigs, and you should see the net stockings her friend had. They liked to go the clubs.'
The neighbor described Charova's relationship with Perrone as extremely rocky.
'They slept in different beds,' the neighbor said. 'She sleeps in the bedroom and he sleeps on the sofa — that’s what the roommate told me.'
People who've crossed paths with Perrone have described him as a man who wanted people to believe he was a tough guy, going so far as to claim he was a retired police officer.
'He was the kind of guy who you could tell had watched 'The Godfather' too many times,' Ben Elchonen, 26, who lives in the same apartment building as Charova, told Reuters.
Elchonen said Perrone often spoke as if he were a police officer and once questioned him as to why he was on the building's roof, saying: 'we've gotten reports of someone throwing eggs.'
'He acted like a tough guy, but he wasn't at all,' Elchonen said. 'He spoke with this heavy Italian accent, but you could tell he was playing a part, playing a role.'
Perrone 'speaks 100 percent fluent, northeastern English,' said Bryan Gibbs, 33, who grew up near the alleged-killers Staten Island home.
Gibbs said Perrone claimed he was a retired detective and played at being a cop by patrolling the neighborhood.
Perrone kept notes on neighbors' homes and reported minor violations to the city buildings department.
'He is completely unhinged,'' Gibbs said. 'When I was in high school I'd come home at one and two in the morning and (Perrone) would be sitting on a lawn chair in the middle of the street - not on his property, in the middle of the street - wearing a beret and drinking a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer, and just staring up at his house. It was insane.'
Weapon: Police say that Perrone used this rifle to kill three New York shop keepers
Descriptions of Perrone come shortly after a flower shop seller told of how he came face-to-face with 'John Doe Duffle Bags' serial killer Salvatore Perrone.
Luis Reyes, 42, was working the register at New Events
Flower Shop in Brooklyn, New York, when the man charged with killing of three shopkeepers walked in last week.
'I feel lucky. It's surprising. That kind of person is crazy. You never know what they can do,' Mr Reyes told the New York Daily News.
'He was walking slow, just looking into all the stores,' Mr Reyes added. 'I thought he was one of those guys that begs for money.'
Salvatore Perrone, 63, of Staten Island, has confessed to two of the killings after turning himself in to police. Officers said he put himself at all three scenes but his motive is still unclear.
Before police knew his identity, the suspect was dubbed the 'John Doe Duffel Bags' for the bag that he was seen carrying the most recent attack, which was visible in surveillance videos.
Perrone carried clothing in the duffel bag, which he had tried to tried to sell to the shopkeepers, police said.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly on Wednesday called Perrone a 'serial killer' who is likely to have continued the murder spree.
'I think it's reasonable to assume that he was going to continue doing this, and, by arresting him, we saved lives,' Commissioner Kelly said.
'We know that he went to other locations and asked questions that indicated that. Now that we look at them, he may very well have been planning to come back.'
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne echoed Commissioner Kelly's sentiment, saying Perrone did not show signs of stopping the mayhem on his own.
'There was some concern he may have targeted another merchant,' Mr Browne said.
Revealed: The balding, mustachioed man dubbed 'John Doe Duffle Bags' who was seen near at least two crime scenes in Brooklyn voluntarily submitted himself for questioning
The realization that the alleged sawed-off psycho was mere steps away sent chills through Reyes' veins.
'It's surprising. I bet those people (who he shot) didn't think anything was going to happen, either,' Reyes said.
Police recovered a bag containing a sawed-off rifle believed to have been used in the killings. The other killings happened in July and August. All three shopkeepers were men alone in stores that had no video cameras.
After being questioned by detectives for hours, Peronne admitted to the slayings of Mohammed Gebeli, 65, in Bay Ridge and Isaac Kadare, 59, in Bensonhurst.
In the most recent killing, Rahmatollah Vahidipour, an Iranian, was shot three times in the head and chest at his store, the She She Boutique.
After that killing, detectives discovered the same gun was used in the fatal shootings of two other shopkeepers when ballistics matched the .22-caliber gun shell casings on all three. On July 6, Gebeli, an Egyptian, was found shot in the back of his shop, Valentino Fashion Inc. On August 6, Kadare, also Egyptian, was shot in the head in his store, Amazing 99 Cent Deal.
The suspect was taken into police custody after he voluntarily entered the 68th Precinct in Bay Ridge. He was later transferred to another police location for additional questioning.
Ballistics tests matched in each killing, all of which occurred in Brooklyn shops with an '8' in the address.
Peronne was caught on surveillance footage a block and a half away from the Flatbush store where Rahmatollah Vahidipour was killed on last Friday evening.
Minutes later, the same moustachioed-man is seen in a different video two blocks away from the store.
Murdered: Vahidipour Rahmatollah was killed with three gunshots, but it seems nothing was stolen
The New York Post reports that a different surveillance camera, located by the scene of the second murder in Bensonhurst also shows the same man.
The video is of poorer quality, but they feel confident that the same duffel bag-toting man was in the area around the time that shopkeeper Isaac Kadare was killed on August 2.
‘”John Doe Duffel Bag” wore a long overcoat and carried a duffel bag,’ police commissioner Ray Kelly said.
‘He was seen in the vicinity of Vahidipour’s store just after 6pm. The shop owner’s body was found at 7.11pm.’
This is not the first person-of-interest in the case, and a number have since been ruled out.
Previously unidentified suspects, dubbed ‘Jane Doe Green Jacket’ and ‘John Doe Bubble Jacket’, were on the police’s watch list since they were seen in the area of Vahidipour’s shop at the time of the murder.
They have since been eliminated from the suspect pool as it turns out that ‘Green Jacket’ stole a bottle of perfume from street vendor ‘Bubble Jacket’ who was chasing after her following the theft.
Two remaining possibilities are ‘Jane Doe Long Coat’, a woman who was seen near the crime scene wearing sunglasses and a scarf.
Looking for the man: He appeared near at least two of the three crime scenes over the past four months
Near the scene: None of the stores where the shootings took place had video cameras inside
There also was a police sketch released following the first murder that took place earlier in the summer at a 99 cent store that left Mohammed Gebeli dead on July 6.
That possible suspect was a man with dark skin and wearing sunglasses, who witnesses described as being ‘disturbed’ and talking to himself about putting a bullet in someone’s head.
That man is said to be roughly 5ft 5in and around 140lbs.
The Daily News reports that the shop owner Vahidipour of Great Neck was behind the counter of She She in Brooklyn's Flatbush section when he was shot.
The gunman dragged the victim's body toward the back of the store and covered it with clothing.
Victims: Isaac Kadare and Mohammed Gebeli were killed by the same handgun earlier this year
Police found the 78-year-old with two gunshot wounds to the head and one to the torso, DNA Info reported.
On the floor of the shop were the killer's calling card: shell casings matching casings left at the scenes of the last two homicides.
'Now it's like he's telling us, 'It's me again,'' a police source told the New York Daily News.
casings that police have matched to two other murders.
“Now it’s like he’s telling us, ‘It’s me again,’ ” a police source said.
The way Rahmatollah's body was hidden was also consistent with the previous shootings.
On July 6, Mohammed Gebeli, 65, was found shot through the neck in his Bay Ridge clothing shop. His body was also hidden.
Police believe the methodical killer does this to buy himself more getaway time by delaying the discovery of the bodies.
'I hope they catch the son of a b****,' Gebeli's son, Mourad said.
When Rahmoatollah didn't come home at the usual time Friday his family called the police, who discovered his body.
It wasn't not clear if the killer actually took anything, or if the murder was his sole motivation.
'He never had in his whole life one enemy, he didn't have, he was a very kind man,' his sobbing wife, Naima Rahmatollah, told reporters.
VIDEO: A community on edge as three shopkeepers are murdered
Suspect: Following one homicide at a 99 cent store that used the same gun, police released this sketch of the suspect
He was supposed to be at his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah last Saturday.
Police believe the murderer had been watching the store in preparation for the attack, noting that he'd chosen a shop with no security cameras.
Issac Kadare, 59, was found dead in his Bensonhurst store at 1877 86th Street, was shot in the head and stabbed in the neck.
Besides owning stores, each victim was of Middle Eastern descent, prompting suspicion the killer could be racially motivated.
It appeared nothing was taken from Rahmatollah's shop but both Kadare and Gebeli had money taken from them, and it remains unclear whether robbery is a motive.
Unguarded: Police believe the killer was attracted to Vahidipour's store because, as with previous crime scenes, there were no cameras
Fernando Mateo, of the Bodega Association of the U.S., said they were sending copies of the police sketch to their members but were mostly concerned with those fitting the previous victim's description.
'The only members that we would be concerned about are Middle Easterners,' he said.
It's also possible the killer has a fascination with numerology, as the address for each homicide includes the number 8: Kadare at 1877 86th Streer, Gebeli at 7718 5th Avenue, and Rahmatollah at 834 Flatbush Avenue.
None of the stores had working surveillance cameras.
Scene: Police believe the killer may have been casing the shop, as it had no security cameras to catch him in the act
Neighbors called Rahmoatollah a 'neighborhood staple.'
'He was a regular guy,' said customer Xanius Patterson. 'He never hurt nobody.'
VIDEO: Surveillance shows 'John Doe Duffle Bags' near two different crime scenes
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2Fc3%2BWcWhvZ3qkta95o6icZnylm7OtsYx7mKCrXZy2s7jFq6CeppRiwKm7wqScnWWUnsCku9WeqWarmJrAbrDAraCnn12osrO1wKVkpKGcobKzedGerZ6ZnJqxbrzOrJydZaKawaq%2BxJ1knKegqHupwMyl