Dr. Peter Hackett is frequently mentioned as a possible suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.
The film Lost Girls (2020) paints him in a highly suspicious light, and many true crime aficionados are adamant that he is involved.
Although the idea that a doctor committed such crimes in a private gated community is intriguing, it doesn’t really hold up to the known facts.
It is very easy to look at Hackett’s behavior and think, “This guy is weird.” However, being strange does not make someone a serial killer.
Hackett wouldn’t be connected to the case even if he were involved in Shannan Gilbert’s death
I can’t say whether Hackett had anything to do with the death of Shannan Gilbert.
The evidence is too scant for me to speculate.
What I can say is that he wasn’t involved in the other murders.
The biggest issue with the “Hackett is LISK” theory is that Gilbert’s death is likely unrelated to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.
When you scrape below the tabloid headlines, it starts to become clear that the connection between Gilbert and the other victims is entirely coincidental.
He is an attention-seeker
Hackett likes to be at the center of events. Over the years, he has built up a reputation for inserting himself into cases.
For example, he reportedly embellished his role in the aftermath of the Trans World Airlines Flight 800 disaster by claiming that he had valiantly passed roadblocks against the orders of his superiors.
Shortly after the incident at Oak Beach, Hackett called Gilbert’s mother, Mari, and claimed that he had looked after her missing daughter at a “home for runaway girls.”
This was, of course, just another one of his lies, as no such place ever existed.
What’s notable is that his neighbors were unsurprised when they learned that he had inserted himself into Gilbert’s disappearance. They knew him, so they were likely aware of his tendency to lie about seemingly random things.
A crucial piece of context is that Hackett involved himself in Gilbert’s disappearance long before there was a serial killer investigation. When he first made the calls, it was just a local missing person case. The discovery at Gilgo Beach didn’t occur until months later.
Basically, Hackett had no idea that he was about to get himself involved in one of the biggest serial killer cases in New York’s history.
The Gilgo Beach killer showed more sophistication
As is usually the case, the devil is in the details.
Hackett contacted Gilbert’s mother using his wife’s phone.
The call was easily traceable.
The Gilgo Beach killer used cheap, disposable burner phones to contact his victims. When he used one of his victims’ phones to taunt her sister, he kept the calls short and made them from crowded areas in Manhattan. He also turned the phone off when he wasn’t using it.
This behavior shows a significantly higher level of sophistication.
Furthermore, Hackett is an older man with a prosthetic leg and an implantable defibrillator. One also has to wonder whether he is even physically capable of murdering women, wrapping their bodies in burlap, and then carrying them over to the side of Ocean Parkway.
Hackett does not fit the profile of a man who kills sex workers
There is no indication that Hackett was involved in the sex industry.
Precedence tells us that the Gilgo Beach killer is almost certainly a regular “john” who has been picking up girls since the 1990s.
He knew how to speak to these women, and he understood how they operated.
In other words, he wasn’t someone who was just pretending to be a client.
He was one.
This was a “hobby” that would have consumed a considerable portion of his spare time.
There are former escorts out there who will recognize his face and remember his requests for violent sex or other atypical things of that nature.
Some might even remember him by whatever name he gave them, as there is a strong chance that he was a repeat client.
During the latter half of the 2000s, he would have spent a lot of time poring over escort ads on Craigslist, even if he knew that his schedule wouldn’t allow him to see any of them.
This was a world that fascinated him and preoccupied his mind.
Despite all of the publicity surrounding Hackett and the movie Lost Girls (2020), nobody has managed to connect him to any sex workers. With the Gilgo Beach killer, it is likely that there will at least be some kind of hint that he paid for sex in the past. For example, there will be a comment from a family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor. He might have previously been arrested for solicitation.
There will be something, even if it is small.
However, with Hackett, there is nothing like that.
They would have pinned it on him.
Last but not least, Dr. Hackett is not some “high-up” individual with powerful connections.
If that were the case, Suffolk County wouldn’t have fired him for falsely claiming to be at work when he wasn’t.
Although conspiracy theorists like to insinuate that the SCPD refused to investigate him as a suspect in the Gilgo case, that is simply untrue.
In reality, both the SCPD and the FBI saw him as a meddlesome nuisance.
If there was any evidence tying him to the Gilgo victims, the authorities would have charged him with murder and put the case to rest.