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Hey everyone and welcome back to the Into The Dark Podcast. I'm your host, Peyton Morland, and I am so, so happy and grateful that you are here. If you are watching on YouTube, can you please real quickly give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment? It helps the algorithm push it out so we can get more people here. And if you are listening on audio and can leave a review, that would be great.
Now, obviously, before we get into the episode, I'm going to do my 10 seconds really quick. And it has been a while, you guys. I recorded before we left out of town and I got all the way caught up until the live show. So...
It has literally been almost a month since I've sat down to record, which feels really weird. And I feel like I have a lot to catch you up on. Going on vacation was really great. It was amazing. We went on a bike ride and got lost in the jungle and ended up riding 12 and a half miles, which...
If you know me, I can barely ride around the block. So that was, that happened. That was a thing. I went snorkeling. I saw Nemo. I also saw a shark. Then the live show, we had two live shows in Arizona and it was so fun and so amazing. And every time I'm up there, I just think there's no way that this is real. Like it is the most surreal feeling ever.
I don't even know how to explain it. I did just want to give a little quick check-in. During the second show, I was reading the script, and then all of the sudden, I got hit with a bout of panic, and I just thought, okay, maybe it's just a surge, you know? Like, it doesn't have to mean it's going to be a full-blown attack. But it went into a full-blown attack, and so I had a full-blown panic attack on stage, and...
Garrett looked over and realized what was happening just because he's seen me have one so many times. And I don't think anyone else noticed. I'm going to be honest. I was panicking. I was like, I'm going to have to walk off this stage. I knew in my heart of hearts that no one would care if I just said, hey, I need to take a minute. But the whole reason I'm even telling you this is
I took a couple breaths while Garrett was talking and I said, oh my gosh, I need to walk off stage right now. This is so bad. I cannot believe this is happening. This has been a really big fear of mine, which is probably why it happened. And I was like, I gotta go. Like, I gotta go. This is so bad. I'm gonna die. And then I was, and then I just took a breath and I said to myself, you won't die. You're not going to die. You can keep going.
You don't have to if you don't want to, but you can keep going. And so I took, you know, I took a couple really deep breaths and Garrett was cracking jokes and I wasn't even laughing. So if you were there and you were wondering what was going on, it's because I currently wasn't on the stage. I was disassociated very much. So my heart was racing. My fingers were numb. My head was cold.
And I just said, focus on the words, focus on the words. Let this be here. Let the panic be here. Let these feelings be here, but also let you be here. Like I could exist with it. I could still be here with it.
i kept going i focused on the words and within a couple minutes things had died down a little bit and i was able to kind of dive back into the show and i don't you know i would never tell this story on murder with my husband but for some reason on into the dark i feel like
can just get vulnerable with all of you and I think it's because when I do talk about this stuff I I you know a lot of you message me and I end up talking to you and Basically, I just wanted to tell you that you can do tough things You don't have to but you can we can we all can having a panic attack on stage was my one of my fears when these attacks started for me and I did it I had one and
No one really noticed. Not that it would have mattered if they did. Like even if they did, it would have been okay. But I was also able to just use it as more practice and say, look at how I can retrain my brain. My brain alerted me. Nothing was actually wrong. I was able to say thank you for letting me know that we're nervous. Nothing's wrong. We're just going to keep going and we can let these feelings play out. And that's what happened. And so if you've ever felt
how I just described, just know you can coexist with these feelings. Your feelings, your thoughts do not define you. They are not you. Just because I was on stage freaking out did not mean that was the only place I wanted to be. That was a dream. I wanted to be there. That's what's so confusing.
So I just remember that, yeah, I do want to be there. Like I wanted to be up there. I, I, this is everything I've ever wanted. And so I'm going to do it. Like I'm going to live it and I'm going to keep going and I'm going to be there. So I don't know if that was scatterbrained. I'm sorry. But you know, that's what my 10 seconds has really turned into. Right.
All right, let's jump into the episode. I love you all and we've got this. Okay, so they say money can't buy everything and history is full of examples that prove it. No matter how rich you are, there's no guarantee that you'll have good health or happiness or a sense of meaning or spiritual growth. And in today's story, I'll discuss a man who became fabulously wealthy but could never buy love.
In fact, he was considered one of the most hated people in the United States, and someone loathed him enough to kill him. Then when police launched their investigation, they had to clear literally thousands of possible suspects. Today, the story is known as the Silk Pajama Strangling, and we are getting into it right now.
so it all began on the morning of january 27 1955 a man named william mortar began his day like usual he was a butler who worked for a notorious multi-millionaire named serge rubinstein
Now, Serge lived in this giant, fancy New York mansion with his mother, his aunt, and three staff members, including William the butler. He had the kind of lifestyle that most people only dream of.
Serge's five story house sat on the fabulous Fifth Avenue. It had eight master bedrooms and bathrooms, plus ten rooms for live-in workers. There was way too much space for the six people who actually lived there, including Serge's employees.
As for Serge himself, he spent his days eating at the most exclusive restaurants in New York, wearing the fanciest clothes and taking beautiful models on dates. Again, we are in the 50s.
But on January 27th, when William walked into Serge's bedroom, it was immediately apparent that the dream he lived was coming to an end. Serge was dressed in his dark blue or black silk pajamas and was lying on the floor. He was not in his bed.
He was right in front of one of his most treasured possessions. It was a framed photo of himself dressed as Napoleon that had been hung over his bed. And Serge was tied up and gagged with tape over his mouth. There were scuff marks on his face and he didn't move or respond when William the butler walked in. Nor was William able to wake him up when he ran up to his boss and tried to help.
It was clear that Serge, the multimillionaire living in New York, had been dead for hours and this was no accident. Someone had murdered Serge Rubinstein. But the police had a hard time identifying any early suspects. And not because it was too hard to find anyone with a motive to kill Serge, like I mentioned earlier. It was because there were too many people who had a motive to kill him.
See, Serge Rubinstein was hated and it was no surprise given how he lived his life up to that day. So let me back up and give you some history. See, Serge was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and his parents were very important advisors to government officials, which was pretty controversial in its own right.
And by 1917, when Serge was just nine years old, his parents could sense the tides were turning against the people they worked for. A revolution was brewing, and before the violence could reach their front doors because they worked with these people, the Rubenstein family fled the country, and they ended up splitting their time between Austria and Sweden for the rest of Serge's childhood.
And eventually, when Serge was an adult, he settled back down in France with a good job at a bank. Now, almost right away, Serge used his position to commit financial fraud. And once he got caught, he was kicked out of the country entirely. Like France would have said, bye-bye, Serge. And that's when Serge decided that he was going to immigrate to the United States.
And rather than go through a legal process to enter the country, he lied about his identity to get a fraudulent passport. It said he was Portuguese, but Serge wasn't. And when Portugal eventually realized the passport wasn't valid, they canceled it. But by that point, Serge had already started his brand new life in New York City. Now, as he built his reputation in his new country, Serge proved to have an odd ability.
obsession with Napoleon, which you probably kind of caught on to when I said his most prized possession was a picture of him dressed as Napoleon hanging over his bed.
Serge and Napoleon, they honestly did kind of have a lot in common. Both men were ambitious and willing to do almost anything to get what they wanted. They were also both very willing to make enemies on the way to achieving their goals. So maybe when Serge thought about Napoleon, he saw some of himself in the famous French emperor.
He might've even been inspired to create a financial empire all on his own because of this. He bought a Napoleon outfit, which he wore to every costume party he was invited to. And at one point, like I said, he had that photograph taken in those clothes and then hung over his bed. This was so every night when Serge went to sleep, he could gaze at himself literally standing in Napoleon's shoes. And in his waking life, Serge channeled Napoleon's arrogance and his ruthless attitude.
he was rude he acted like the rules didn't apply to him and when serge went out to dinner at nice restaurants he demanded to have access to the kitchen he'd look in the refrigerator see for himself what they had what looked good at parties and other gatherings serge also often talked about how much he admired adolf hitler now this was especially odd because serge was jewish
He complained a lot when he felt like people discriminated against him due to his religion and ethnicity, but he still thought Hitler was doing a good job running Nazi Germany. Now, it may have been similar to his obsession with Napoleon. Serge seemed to have a soft spot for ruthless political leaders.
And frustratingly, he never seemed to face any consequences for his bad behavior. In fact, the worse he acted, the more he seemed to be rewarded. Pretty soon after he arrived in New York, Serge made friends in high places. He even had dinner with President Roosevelt on a number of occasions. And there are rumors that he called in favors with his high-ranking government contacts. And nobody's really sure, like,
How he did this, how he climbed the social ladder. And they aren't sure how he was actually even allowed to stay in the country after his passport got revoked.
But being personal friends with the president probably does have its perks. And on top of that, Serge was heartless in the world of business. He acquired businesses and sometimes cut corners as he built his empire. In the 1930s, he partnered with a Texas oil man to open a company that drilled and sold fuel. The venture obviously did well. It made a little over $7 million and Serge pocketed half the cash.
which was a problem. According to his partner, Serge wasn't entitled to half the cash. He felt like Serge had scammed him. And I'm not entirely clear what the terms were when they originally agreed to this, but it does seem possible that the partner was right. Serge might have conned him out of millions of dollars. Given his long history, it was clear that Serge wasn't above the occasional shady tactic.
and he didn't mind making enemies. Plus, he did sleep with a bunch of women, which was very taboo in the 40s and 50s. To hear some news reports tell it, he even lied to certain ladies to get them into bed. Apparently, he had multiple girlfriends who believed they were his only partner.
And more than one of them was under the impression that they were actually engaged. So needless to say, Serge didn't go on to marry every one of the women who thought she'd be the next Mrs. Rubenstein. Sometimes after a particularly long day, I love to play games on my phone to get my
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I have always loved good scavenger hunts and puzzles, and of course, we all know I love a good murder mystery, and this is just the perfect marriage of the two. Right now, I'm on chapter two. I've been trying so hard not to use the light bulb feature to help me search for clues. I seriously look forward to playing it every night. Discover your inner detective when you download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android.
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It was because he was a draft dodger. See, during World War II, the United States actually instituted a draft before we even formally declared war on the Axis powers. So beginning in 1940, any single man between the ages of 21 and 45 could be called to serve for one year.
And once the U.S. formally joined the Allied forces in 1941, the terms changed. Now anyone who was drafted would have to remain enlisted until the war ended. And married men were no longer exempt from being called up. So when the rule was first passed, Serge was 32 years old and single, so there was a decent chance that his name might be called. Except he had an easy way of avoiding the draft.
If Serge really didn't want to serve, all he had to do was disclose that he wasn't actually a legal US citizen. But for whatever reason, Serge didn't want to go for that simple, straightforward solution. It's been speculated that Serge just didn't like to be told what to do. He resented the idea that he had to prove that the draft didn't apply to him.
And it was more important to him to make some kind of point than to just settle the matter in a straightforward way. So rather than fill out some simple paperwork and resolve the issue, he instead jumped through elaborate hoops to sort of make a mockery of the entire draft.
So first, Serge got married. Only single men qualified for the draft at that point, so now he had a wife, Serge didn't have to go to war. From the sound of it, the relationship wasn't actually based on love or affection, but that didn't stop Serge and his wife from having two children together. And then, when the rules around drafts changed,
and married men could be called, Serge found new ways to avoid military time. Among other things, he lied about his income. He pretended that his family was very poor and they depended on his modest wages to stay afloat.
He also claimed that a bunch of relatives needed him to take care of them and they'd suffer if he was shipped overseas. And he even launched new business ventures in the defense industry. It seems he hoped that he could avoid the draft if he could convince government officials that he was helping the war effort from American soil.
By 1945, it was clear that he had lied about everything and Serge was indicted for draft dodging. The good news for him was that the war ended that year, so he still didn't have to serve any time in the military. The bad news was that he went to court and was found guilty on those charges, and he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. His incarceration began in 1947 and lasted until 1949.
Now, according to Serge's mother, life behind bars was devastating. She actually said, quote, it left a scar which burned deeply. A man like Serge, who was very sensitive and who liked to mingle with people, was strangled by his imprisonment. And if anything, it only
only made him bitter and even more resistant to doing the right thing once he got out of prison. See, Serge used his newfound independence to act like he was out of control. He and his wife had divorced while he was in prison, and now Serge once more got into the habit of taking countless women home. He also drank to excess.
And when he was intoxicated out of his mind at the end of the day, he had a habit of heading home with his lady friend and barging into the kitchen. There, he'd pull food out of the fridge and shove it into his mouth with his bare hands. He'd make a big mess. He would throw bones and leftovers on the floor, spitting out food that he didn't like.
Then Serge would shovel caviar into his mouth with a spoon like it was breakfast cereal. He'd end the sloppy feast by knocking back even more alcohol. And I can't imagine that at this time, I mean, and kind of even now, this was very attractive for his dates. But I guess money can make up for a lot of bad table manners. Because after this big show of excess, plenty of women would still head up to his bedroom.
And it should be no surprise, given how disgusting his behavior was, that Serge had even more enemies than ever. It probably didn't help that after his time in prison, the U.S. was trying to deport him. Because remember, he was not legally there. Serge used all the money at his disposal to fight the deportation case.
His lawyers delayed his trial year after year, dragging the process out until the 1950s. And during that time, he was also hit by charges of stock fraud. And then another bad decision from his past caught up with him. I mentioned Serge's Texas-based oil partner before, the man who believed that Serge had conned him out of half the proceeds from their company.
In late 1954, that man sent a debt collector to track Serge down using some less than legal methods. See, a scary, strange man paid Serge an unexpected visit one day and he told Serge that he needed to pay his former business partner back or else he'd end up in the hospital. This man also made some comments that strongly implied he was involved with organized crime. So the threat did seem pretty serious.
But rather than play along and pay his old partner back, Serge lashed out and he sued his former associate for extortion and he won the case. So in the legal sense, it was a big victory. But I've got to imagine Serge wasn't making himself any fans by taking his former business partner to court, especially when those former partners were still convinced that they were the wronged parties.
Basically, it didn't matter what he did. Serge was just getting deeper and deeper into trouble. He received regular death threats. And on one occasion, someone threw a rock through his window with a note attached that said, we will kill you. Another time he was walking down the street, minding his own business, when suddenly a man he didn't recognize walked up and punched him in the face. It was completely unprovoked.
Serge reported both of the incidents to the police and they recommended that he just hire a bodyguard. But Serge did not take the advice. It's not that he didn't take the threat seriously, he did. However, he was also too proud to hire professional help. And again, Serge did not like being told what to do. In his mind, it seemed that he should be able to do what he wanted to do, how he wanted to do it, and somehow there would be no consequences.
So in mid-January 1955, just one week before he was murdered, Serge told one of his girlfriends that he'd had a premonition. He knew he was going to be killed soon. And we can debate about whether this was something supernatural or if he was just making a reasonable guess based on how many people seemed to want him dead.
But either way, the night of January 26th, 1955 started out feeling like another typical evening. Serge had to work until about 7.30 p.m., which was when a coworker dropped him off at his mansion. And then later that evening, he went on a date with a model named Estelle Gardner. They had dinner, then went dancing. And at 1 a.m., Estelle came home with Serge, but she didn't stay long.
She later told the police she only dropped by for a quick drink at the end of the evening. Nothing physical happened between her and Serge.
Which might have been true because by 1:30 or so she was in a taxi and on her way home. Now reading between the lines here, it sounds like Serge was probably disappointed that the night didn't involve something physical because after this he climbed into bed and put on his blue or black silk pajamas and he decided to reach out to another woman. So it was basically a 1950s booty call using landlines.
And he dialed the number for Patricia Ray, who he'd gone out with a couple of times before. So Serge is in bed in his silky pajamas. His other date has just left. And he says, Patricia, please come over. But it was too late and she wasn't in the mood. So she said no. She hung up and then nobody heard anything from Serge again for the next seven hours. And then the next morning, his butler, William, found him dead.
So when police first arrived at the scene of the crime, before they even confirmed it was a homicide, Serge's mother was obviously upset and worried. She didn't know he was dead yet, but she did know something had gone down the night before. The old woman was so anxious that a doctor actually had to come over and sedate her. She didn't learn the truth about Serge until hours later when the drugs were off. And when she heard the news, she was obviously devastated. She was probably the only one.
Even the newspaper coverage played up how widely hated Serge was. It was almost like this villain from New York who had screwed over multiple people, who wasn't very honest in his dealings, had been murdered. The so-called silk pajama strangling was big news, but it wasn't because a lot of people felt bad for him.
Even people who considered themselves to be Serge's friends didn't seem to miss him all that much. In fact, at his funeral, his own rabbi mostly spent the entire eulogy insulting him. He said, quote,
The word paradox best describes the strangely complex, ambitious, and unquestioned psychopathic personality of Serge Rubinstein. It is God to whom belongs the final judgment. So that's what Serge's rabbi said at a religious service that was supposed to honor him. I'm getting very much Great Gatsby vibes at the end of the movie when his friend is the only one who comes to his funeral, the funeral of a
Very wealthy man. Now, as for his cause of death, Serge's autopsy showed that he had been strangled to death, which you probably already put together based on what people were calling this case. The killer had broke two bones in his throat.
But other than the injuries to Serge's neck and face, he didn't have another single mark on him. There was no sign that he even fought back against his killer. Now, obviously this could be because it was possible the attack began while Serge was asleep. But you'd think at some point Serge would have woken up and tried to struggle. It defied an easy explanation. The murder was so clean, in fact, that one of Serge's good friends told a reporter that he thought this was a professional hit.
The police declined to say whether they agreed with that assessment or not, but if Serge was killed by a professional, it would make it hard to rule out anyone. Even if someone had a great alibi, that didn't stop them from paying someone else to do their dirty work for them. Besides the fact that the police didn't have any clear suspects, they also kind of had a hard time identifying a motive. I mean, again, a lot of people wanted him dead for different reasons.
But the crime scene itself didn't clearly point to his money or a lover's spat or revenge or anything else. Serge's bedroom was trashed. The killer had pushed his mattress off the bed and ripped up his sheets and blankets, but they didn't touch his safe where he kept his valuables. They also didn't disturb the nice dress clothes that Serge had laid out before he went to bed.
As near as the officials could tell, nothing of value had been taken from Serge's mansion. And there were also no signs of forced entry. Even the murder weapons were mysterious. I mentioned before that Serge was tied up when his body was discovered. The murderer had used the pole cord from his Venetian blinds to do it. And the tape they used to seal his mouth was also wrapped around his neck. It was so specific. Venetian blinds and adhesive tape as a murder weapon.
The detectives actually told reporters that they were specifically searching for any other murders that were committed with the same tools because they thought maybe they could find a pattern, but they never identified another case that fit.
Now, I know you're thinking, there are five other people who lived in Serge's house with him, and the detectives ruled out his family members pretty quickly. His mother and aunt had no reason to want to hurt him. In fact, Serge's mother was one of the few people who seemed to genuinely love him. Not to mention the fact that she and the aunt were both elderly women who couldn't probably have physically overpowered the 46-year-old Serge.
So next came the long process of sorting through all the people who had reasons to want him dead. And at the start of the investigation, the police gathered the names of literally thousands of suspects. Every woman that he'd ever slept with and then dumped, every business rival he defeated, and every former partner he betrayed. The authorities looked at people in the mafia, professional hitmen, really anyone they could think of who could potentially be connected to Serge in some way.
And on February 5th, 1955, this is about a week after the murder, a news story announced that the police had narrowed down their list of suspects. It was now only 10,000 names long. That is quite the place to start from.
When they couldn't hone in on any one suspect in particular, they questioned at least five of Serge's former lovers. And to be clear, they were pretty positive that a woman didn't do this. Serge was a large man with a thick, sturdy build and the killer had to be pretty big and strong to overpower him and kill him. Of course, it's still possible that some wealthy heiress could have hired a hitman to murder Serge.
I don't know how seriously they took that theory though. The police said they were just questioning these women to try and learn more about his personal life. So if anyone could point at an enemy or maybe help produce a lead, it could have been them. But it's also possible they were just being sexist. Maybe they didn't approve of these women having intimate relationships while they weren't married. So they made a big show of bringing them into the station and questioning them. The newspaper actually called these interrogations a parade of pretties.
But these sessions didn't go anywhere. The detectives learned basically nothing. And the police didn't discover much more when they talked to his family members. Okay, you guys, let me guess. Your medicine cabinet is crammed with stuff that doesn't work. You still aren't sleeping. You still hurt and you're still stressed out.
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Use code dark. All right, let's get back to the episode. Serge's aunt, Gloria, who lived with him at his house, said that at about 1 a.m. on the night of the murder, someone turned on the light in her bedroom, which was on the fifth floor. So two floors above Serge's room where he was killed. She said whoever turned the light on flipped it off right away. It was before Gloria could even look up and see who they were. All she could tell was that the person looked like a woman and she was fully dressed.
Serge's mother also said that at some time during that night, although it's unclear when, she went out into the hallway and she was a woman wearing a brown dress. But when the aunt was asked to describe this woman, all she said was that she didn't look like the kind of girl who belonged there. Now I do find it unlikely that either of them saw Serge's date from that night, Estelle. She was a glamorous model who was dressed up from a night on the town. And she was only at Serge's place for a half hour to have a drink.
There was no reason for her to go all the way up to the fifth floor, flip on a bedroom light, turn it back off, and then head back down. So maybe Serge's aunt and mother really did see a killer who had broken in, and she might have been poorly dressed, in a brown gown is what they described, or there might be more to this case than anyone realizes. It's pretty clear that police didn't know what to do with this testimony, so they conducted literally hundreds more interrogations.
Still, with nothing to show for their efforts. Even when the homicide team swelled to include 30 to 40 detectives, it didn't generate one single good lead. But,
About a month after the homicide, they finally did make a break when someone voluntarily turned himself in and confessed to the murder. His name was Herman Scholz, and he was a small-time criminal who also worked as a chauffeur sometimes. Except to hear Herman tell it, he was also a mafia hitman.
He said his contacts in organized crime were planning to abduct Serge and ask for a huge ransom. Herman was in charge of putting together an elite team of kidnappers for this plan, but apparently the plan went wrong in some way and they ended up killing Serge instead. This confession was just the break the police needed.
But the more Herman talked, the stranger his story seemed. He almost seemed to forget who the target of his ransom-turned-murder plot was. He talked about how he was also going after a major crime boss with the mafia, and within a day or so, it became clear that Herman was just mentally unwell. He had nothing to do with Serge's murder, and the statements he gave to the police had no basis in reality.
So about a year passed after the murder before the investigation fizzled out. This wasn't due to any lack of leads. In fact, one newspaper article published on the anniversary of Serge's death said police had only made it about halfway through its very lengthy Rolodex full of contacts. The problem was nobody stood out as an especially obvious suspect. In 1956, they did arrest the oil executives who'd been found guilty of extorting Serge, but the
But those arrests had nothing to do with his homicide. Instead, those men were caught in an unrelated case where they were smuggling maps of oil fields. So after their arrest for that, the authorities did question them at length, but they couldn't find any definite connection to Serge's murder.
The fact was that Serge had friends and enemies all over the world with business contacts in every country. It wasn't practical to chase down every former friend or girlfriend or associate, knowing most of them knew nothing about the crime. For example, the police spent almost a year trying to reach one of Serge's ex-girlfriends. It was a woman named Jackie Rogers. She was never a suspect, but her relationship with Serge lasted for a while and she seemed to know him maybe better than anyone else.
The detectives figured she might be able to help the investigation along. However, Jackie was also a successful model who was always traveling around the world for her different jobs. So when investigators wanted to call her in for questioning, she always was out of town. She was in California or Cuba or Europe.
And since Jackie wasn't a top suspect or even a major person of interest, it wasn't worth the effort to track her down and bring her back to New York City. So now imagine a suspects list full of thousands of Jackie's. At a certain point, it started to feel easier to just stop following up with certain individuals. No one had the time or the money to keep throwing everything at the wall and hoping that something would stick.
And frankly, other than Serge's mother, didn't really seem like anyone was pushing for justice for him either. This was one of those cases that felt destined to just fall through the cracks. And I'm sorry to say, this Serge Rubenstein's murder has never been solved. And while I'd love to be able to point at one individual as a possible killer or top suspect, I can't even do that. He was too hated. And the police were too overwhelmed by all of the possibilities.
So I'll have to end this episode in the same place that the investigation ended, on a note of uncertainty. Just like Serge's all too short life, the mystery is also incomplete. And that is the mystery of Serge's death. It always shocks me when we can have a case with someone very high profile, someone with a lot of money, someone who knew a lot of people, and there's just not one lead, not one clue.
as to what happened. It makes you wonder if police were to look back now, would there be something? Or is this just one of those cases that is never, ever going to be solved? Okay, you guys, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. And I will see you next time with another one as we go further into the dark together. Goodbye.
