Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
YOUNG VICTIMS
Piers Morgan has interviewed many people who have had less than a passing acquaintance with the truth. Well, he is buddies with the US President Donald Trump.
So when he calls someone “the best liar” that he has ever known, you must sit up and listen.
Bronx Serial Killer Alex Henriquez, 57, does sound so plausible when pleading his innocence in his first interview in almost three decades.
His good looks have faded and he has piled on the pounds while being confined to a prison cell since 1992.
But the one thing that has not changed is the claim by him that he is not guilty of the three horrific murders, for which he was sentenced to 75 years behind bars.
Back in the 1980s, Henriquez was a New York taxi firm owner known to have plenty of girlfriends, even while being married three times.
But behind the facade of a charming womaniser was an evil serial killer, who managed to evade capture for murder before being eventually caught for a third savage attack. The authorities believe his victims may number as many as six.
TCAGED SERIAL KILLER
he first victim that is known of was 14-year-old Shamira Bello, who disappeared on July 2, 1988, from her working-class neighbourhood. Her sexually abused body was found the next day in Pelham Bay Park at a police firing range. She had been killed by repeatedly being hit on the head and strangled.
Lisa Ann Rodriguez, 21, was taken on June 14, 1990. She was found strangled with her body dumped along the Hutchinson River Parkway.
Three months later, 10-year-old Jessica Guzman vanished only to be found strangled near the Bronx River Parkway.
Her death caused a national outcry in the US. She had gone to the supermarket and never came home.
It prompted the New York Police Department to put together a task force to investigate the string of murders that had haunted the Bronx for two years.
Almost immediately after Jessica failed to return home for dinner, Henriquez came under suspicion despite his partic- ipation in search parties and candlelight prayer vigils.
He was the last person to have been seen with the girl and was well known to the other victims making him the common denominator in all three homicides.
At his trial in 1992, disgusted prosecutor Edward J Talty said of Henriquez: “He should never be allowed to breathe the same air as decent people.”
A jury found Henriquez guilty on their fourth day of deliberations at the end of a six-week trial that had featured 50 witnesses.
“B ***** d, I hope they kill you,” shrieked Milagros Guzman, Jesscia’s mother.
Yet now speaking for the first time about his crimes for which he was jailed 26 years ago, Henriquez still insists to Piers: “I didn’t kill them. Listen to me carefully, I have never taken anybody’s life not even an animal. Never. To me, there is nothing worse than taking an innocent child’s life.
“When I see something on TV that has happened to a child, I get emotional and my eyes get watery because I think, ‘Wow that is what they are accusing me of ’. It is not a nice thing.
“Am I capable of hurting a child? No, because I have two girls. Ironically, my second girl is called Jessica, the same name as a girl I am accused of killing. I really can’t express the pain I feel when I hear that.”
Yet after quizzing him in prison, Piers says: “This guy is the best liar I have