– I wanted her to stop yelling at me, so I attacked her.
This is how convicted murderer Robert Bierenbaum explains why he killed his wife Gail Katz in 1985, according to court documents ABC News has gained access to.
It is the first time the American Bierenbaum, who was convicted of the murder in 2000, confesses to the heinous crime almost 40 years ago.
The confession was given during a hearing in connection with a request for parole in December 2020. The transcripts of the hearing have been obtained in connection with the ABC program «20/20», which premieres on the channel on Friday.
Thrown out of a plane
During the hearing in December, Bierenbaum, a former plastic surgeon and trained small pilot, went into detail about what happened to Katz.
After strangling Katz to death, according to his new explanation, he threw her out of a plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
The body of his wife has never been found.
– I took a flight, opened the door, and pushed her out of the plane and into the sea, Bierenbaum explained, according to the reproduced documents.
This is a completely different story than the one he has been doubting for more than three decades.
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Manipulated flight log
During the February 2000 trial, the surgeon explained that his wife had stormed out of their Manhattan apartment in New York on a July day in 1985. The two had quarreled earlier in the day, and he assumed she had taken the trip to Central Park to calm down. write People.
Bierenbaum’s story aroused suspicion from the first moment, because no one the police spoke to could remember seeing Katz leave the apartment that day.
The plastic surgeon also explained that he had mostly stayed at home that day, and only taken the trip out to visit some friends and family.
Months later, however, police were able to prove that Bierenbaum had driven to an airport in New Jersey, just hours after his wife allegedly disappeared. Here he had rented a plane to take a two-hour trip across the Atlantic.
In the trial, the public prosecutor was able to present evidence many years later that Bierenbaum had manipulated the flight log, in order to apparently hide his traces.
After many years without development in the case, Bierenbaum reported himself to the police after a search.
– Has found several identities
The confession is shocking
In connection with the December hearing, Bierenbaum is said to have explained the murder by saying that he was immature, and that he did not understand how to handle his own anger.
The confession is said to have shocked several of those involved in the case, writes ABC News.
– I thought «oh my god». I was stunned because I always thought this day would never come. That at some point he should take responsibility for his own actions, says Dan Bibb, who worked for the prosecution during the trial in 2000.
Bierenbaum was found guilty of murder in November 2000, and later sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 20 years. So far, none of the attempts at parole have been successful. He is still in prison, but will go to a new hearing already in November.
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