By Marianne McClure
Edited by Dolores Kennedy, JD Staff
"On September 7, 1988, Martin Tankleff discovered the brutally beaten and stabbed bodies of his mother and father in their home in Belle Terre, New York. Although it was Marty who called 911 to report the discovery and who tried to save his father's life (Seymour Tankleff was still barely alive), Marty quickly became the police's prime suspect." Bureau of National Affairs Criminal Practice Manual, published on February 28, 1996, Vol. 10, No. 5.
After placing a 911 call, Marty Tankleff, then 17 years old, met the police when they arrived at the Tankleff home. Running barefoot to the driveway, he screamed, "Somebody murdered my parents!" Police found Seymour Tankleff lying on his office floor, with a pillow under his feet and a white towel around the gaping wound in his neck. (At trial, a 911 operator testified that she instructed Marty to raise Seymour's feet and apply direct pressure to the neck wound with a towel.) Police found Arlene Tankleff dead on the floor of her bedroom. Both victims had wounds suggestive of attempted decapitation.
A distraught Marty told police he thought that Jerry Steuerman, his father's disgruntled business partner, was responsible. Marty's brother-in-law also told police he believed Steuerman was responsible. Steuerman owed a great deal of money to Tankleff and, according to witnesses who were present at the game, was in the Tankleff home on the previous evening playing poker until at least 3:00 a.m. Steuerman was the last player to leave. It was a well-known fact that Steuerman was a heavy gambler and owed money to various people.
However, police were more interested in Marty's appearance than in his protestations of innocence. There was blood on Marty's hands, and he had black eyes as a result of recent nose surgery.
Before attempting to contact Steuerman, homicide detectives focused on Marty as their suspect. According to the 1996 habeas petition, instead of driving Marty to the hospital to be with his dying father and the relatives gathered there, detectives took him to the police station. They subjected him to five and one-half hours of accusatory and deceptive interrogation, including false representation that his father had regained consciousness and identified him as the assailant.
Tired and confused, Marty asked the detectives: "Could I have blacked out and done this?"
The detectives insisted that this was actually possible. Marty then allegedly confessed to using a dumbbell and a kitchen knife to kill his parents -- items suggested by detectives who had seen weights in Marty's room and a long knife lying next to a piece of watermelon in the kitchen.
Released from the stronghold of the police and aware that physical evidence contradicted his statement, Marty quickly repudiated his "confession." He learned that no blood, hair or human tissue was found on the dumbbells or on the knife or its handle. Human hairs found in Arlene Tankleff's hand did not match Marty's.
Despite evidence to the contrary, prosecutors built a motive for Marty's guilt, which they presented at trial. Acquaintances told them that Marty was upset because his parents made him drive a ten-year-old Lincoln Continental, and would not let him use the family boat as much as he wanted.
Prosecutors claimed that Marty killed his parents for a substantial inheritance. However, Marty, who had just turned 17, was unable to receive his inheritance until he turned 25.
Marty's attorneys argued that his "confession" was not Mirandized, unreliable, false and should never have been admitted as evidence. It was obtained in a coercive environment, and is inconsistent with the physical evidence present in the case. The Bureau of National Affairs Report compared the confession with the physical evidence, and clearly stated that they did not match.
For instance, Marty allegedly took a shower to wash the bloodstains from his body, the dumbbell and the knife. However, physical evidence showed that the police tested the shower floor and walls and even disassembled the traps under the shower to determine the presence of blood, hair or any trace evidence from the parents. None was found anywhere.
Marty allegedly assaulted his parents between 5:35 a.m. and 6:10 a.m., but technicians testified that Seymour Tankleff had dried blood on his head, scalp and arms, and that a coagulated clump of blood had fallen to the floor. They found that Arlene Tankleff's skin was pale, dry and discolored, and that there was dried blood on her skin and clothes. All these details suggested a time of death hours earlier than Marty's statement indicated.
Family members wondered why Marty would call 911 while his father was still alive. If he had committed the crime, they reasoned, he would have been fearful that his father would regain consciousness and tell the authorities that his son attacked him. Instead, Marty tried to save his father's life.
The day after the attack, Jerry Steuerman cleaned out a joint bank account he held with Seymour Tankleff, faked his own death, and fled to California under an assumed name. The police's failure to investigate Jerry Steuerman raised further questions. He owed a great deal of money to the elder Tankleff and, after his flight to California, still appeared a likely suspect.
In a telephone interview from California, Suffolk County homicide chief Edward Jablonski told Newsday, Long Island's major newspaper, that he and Detective James McCready stressed that Jablonski did not go to California looking for a killer.
Police and prosecutors did not tell the press or the defense that Steuerman once hired members of a motorcycle club to beat up another man with whom he had a business dispute. It was never explained why the missing persons department did not conduct a search for Steuerman, or why the homicide division and three of its members flew to California to track Steuerman, whom they claimed was not a suspect.
Marty Tankleff was sentenced to 50 years to life imprisonment. The case against him is devoid of physical evidence, and is dependent on a coerced confession and a distorted interpretation of Marty's relationship with his parents, Seymour and Arlene Tankleff.
The leading false confession expert, Professor Richard Ofshe, reviewed Marty's case and determined that the "confession" was false, unreliable, and completely inconsistent with all of the evidence.
Marty's cousin, Jennifer, discussed the "motives" used to convict Marty.
"Marty and I are the same age. We spent a few summers together starting when we were very young up until the summer before his parents, who were my aunt (who was also my godmother) and uncle, were murdered. My stepsister, Kristi, and I spent a lot of time with Marty that summer of 1988. We stayed, along with our parents, in my aunt and uncle's home for two weeks.
"Marty took us all over. He was always a perfect gentleman, opening doors for us and taking us wherever we wanted to go. He also took us on his boat on Long Island Sound, which was the very boat prosecutors said was a motive for killing his parents because they said he was grounded from using it that summer. That was not true because he took us for a ride on it that summer, just one month before his parents were killed.
"Prosecutors also said he hated his car, the "crummy old Lincoln," another motive for the murders. That also was not true. Marty took Kristi and me all over in that car and he was very excited about not only getting this car, but also about fixing it up and making it really special for his senior year in high school.
"The prosecutors also said that he killed his parents because they were going to leave him with a baby sitter or caretaker while they went on vacation. Marty told me that he was excited about the 'baby sitter' because he was a man who worked in the family-owned gym. He was a personal trainer and was going to help Marty get back on his feet after the operation on his nose. I saw firsthand all of the so-called 'motives' used to convict Marty, and know first-hand that none of them are true.
"The first time I saw Marty after his arrest, he was in jail. My mom and I walked in the room to find him with a tissue in his hand and his eyes full of tears. I knew then and there that there was no way Marty killed his parents. Nothing said or done in the courtroom ever proved to me that he did this crime."
Another cousin, Joy, recalls Marty telling her that he simply repeated what the police said he did because they weren't going to let him go until he told them what they wanted to hear. She recalls that there was a great deal of love between Marty and his parents.
Marty talked about his relationship with his parents.
"I was adopted before I was born. However, I never looked at myself as an 'adopted child.' My parents were my parents my entire life. I loved them as though they were my blood and I was theirs. My earliest memories up until the tragic day are good memories. My parents always instilled good things in my life, like manners, respect and trust for others, kindness and strength for life. I was always brought up to fight for what you believe in and that strength has aided me in my struggle for justice.
"The relationship I had with my parents was similar to that of any other teenager. Never happy enough with the way I was doing in school. However, they were always proud when I succeeded in areas of life that I enjoyed. My father was especially proud of the interest I had in his businesses. I also had a desire to learn, which brought my father and me together.
"The relationship I had with my mother was a special one. She taught me the finer things in life. She also showed me how to appreciate life and how to carry myself in all settings. She especially showed me how to respect women and how they should be treated.
"Our family relationship was great. Since we were exposed to the finer things in life, I was able to learn about developing good friendships with people before developing relationships.
"My life was a good life until someone or some people ruined it."
Marty is currently serving his tenth year in Clinton Correctional Center in Dannemora, New York. At present, his case is wending its way though the federal and appellate courts. You can contact Marty as follows:
Martin Tankleff 90T3844
Clinton Correctional Facility
1074 Cook Street, P.O. Box 2001
Dannemora, New York 12929-2001
Marianne McClure can be reached by e-mail at MMccL22275@aol.com.
Also, visit
Marty's web site at www.angelfire.com/wy/tankleff/.
© Justice Denied
