Snapshot: Jerry Steuerman

Seymour Tankleff's business partner in Strathmore Bagels. Owed Seymour half a million dollars and was the last to leave a poker game at the Tankleff residence in the early morning of the murders. One week after the attacks, as Seymour lay in a coma, withdrew $15,000 from a joint bank account he shared with Seymour, named his girlfriend the beneficiary of his life insurance policy, faked his own death, shaved his beard, changed his hair weave, assumed an alias and fled to California, where he stayed for a time at the Big Sur resort. Alleged to have attempted to hire Joseph Creedon to cut out Marty Tankleff's tongue. Weeks before the murders, is alleged to have pulled Seymour Tankleff across a counter and threatened to cut his throat. While he has always publicly denied involvement in the Tankleff murders, is said to have recently told people privately, "So what, I slit their throats, what are they going to do, give me 50 years at my age?" The year following the Tankleff murders, a cabinet maker overheard Steuerman threaten a man, screaming that he'd already killed two people and it wouldn't matter if he killed another. In early 80s, son Todd Steuerman pled guilty to selling cocaine out of the bagel store, an operation in which, according to a confidential defense witness, cops were paid off not to interfere. Contradicting Detective James McCready's testimony at Marty's original trial that he never knew Jerry Steuerman, at court hearings in 2004 a baking supplies wholesaler testified he was 100% certain he repeatedly saw Detective McCready with Jerry in the bagel store in the late 70s and early 80s, well before the Tankleff murders. In the late 80s, Jerry Steuerman was represented by the current or former law partner of current Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota. For selling cocaine out of the bagel store, son Todd Steuerman was represented by Spota's law firm. To this day, Suffolk County law enforcement has never considered Jerry Steuerman a suspect in the Tankleff murders.

Comments

[JIM]

I LIVED IN P.J. VILLAGE AT THE TIME OF THE MURDERS. MARTY'S COVICTION WAS A CROCK THEN AND IT IS A CROCK NOW. HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN HELD, OR CONVICTED. THAT SKANK BUSINESS PARTNER IS AND ALWAYS WAS GUILTY. HE(STEUERMAN) WAS A DIRT BAG THEN AND PROBABLY STILL IS. DRUGS AND MONEY ARE WHAT KILLED MARTY'S PARENTS, NOT THEIR SON. I THINK WHAT STINKS NOW IS THAT THE PROSECUTERS CAN'T GET OFF THEIR STORY AND REALIZE THAT THEY MADE A MISTAKE. LET IT GO. IT IS BETTER TO ADMIT YOU BLEW IT THAN TO LET MARTY ROT IN JAIL. SUFFOLK COUNTY SHOULD BE ASHAMED AND WORSE YET THEY PROBABLY WANT TO KEEP HIM IN PRISON TO STOP HIM FROM SUING THEIR SORRY BUTTS FOR DESTROYING HIS LIFE. SORRY MARTY, THIS NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU.

[bruce sturwood]

Marty was surrounded by complete incompetents...especially his horrible attorney Gottleib...how does that man sleep at night?

Add to this the extraordinary prejudice , cronism, of the Suffolk County Justice system....and poof...innocent people are always being convicted to convenient the police/da, etc.

[Doctor News]

Please explain why you call Gottlieb horrible and incompetent. Did you lead your comment with Gottlieb's competence because you believe the job he did was the primary reason Marty was convicted?

[Randal Wright]

Marty Tankleff is undoubtedly innocent and it is very sad that he still is in prison for a crime he didn't commit. I just want to say I have lost all confidence in our justice system here in America. If innocent people can be convicted by people who are randomly selected to decide the fate of a human being, than our justice system needs to be changed.

[Chris]

I always felt that this case was and always will be a sham. I hope that McCready gets what he deserves. He is just as guilty as Steuerman. The Suffolk PD has always been corrupt. I agree with Marty when he says that if you are being interogated you can and will admit to anything they want you to admit to. I hope that Marty will be set free soon because He has already lost the best part of his life to a corrupt police and to a legal sytem that does not have any "checks or balances". Nobody watches the police,the courts or the DA. The public needs to understand that the judges and the rest of our legal sytem right down to the police can do no wrong. All I can say is that Marty has a tough fight ahead of him. If they admit they screwed up then they are liable. McCready and steuerman are scum!!! marty keep the faith and I hope you get the justice that you deserve!!

[good guy]

the big issue with this case i see is financial gain. detective mccready who took marty's confession opens a bar/restaurant with marty's step sister and husband.the sister inherited $$$ from the estate. poor judgement on the detectives part .this looks more like police corruption although it was done after marty's conviction. i see it as if the detective was planning a nest egg for his retirement. whether marty is guilty or innocent was this ever looked into??

[ROSEMARY KONRAD]

I LIVED IN SELDEN AT THE TIME OF THESE MURDERS. JERRY STUERMAN IS A CREEP ALL HE EVER CARED ABOUT WAS MONEY AND HE TREATED HIS CUSTOMERS LIKE SHIT. THAT IS ONE OF THE REASONS THAT I STIPPED GOING TO HIS BAGEL STORE. IF YOU ARE INNOCENT THEN YOU DON'T FAKE YOUR DEATH AND CHANGE YOUR IDENTITY AND MOVE TO CALIFORNIA. I WISH HIM NOTHING BUT GRIEF ALTHOUGH HIS SON HAS GIVEN IT TO HIM AND HE SHOULD SPEND ALL HIS ROTTEN MONEY AND THE MONEY HE OWED TANKLEFF ON ATTORNEY FEES. ROT IN HELL JERRY STUERMAN I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT. YOU MANAGED TO KEEP YOUR SON OUT OF JAIL AND AN INNOCENT MAN IS SITTING WHERE YOU SHOULD BE.

[Lola]

SCUM....God is watching !

[idrathernot]

I'll say this which I said to the defense... I remember overhearing that a 10 000. Contract (not 100 000) was on the bagel man BY HIS PARTNER.

I was in a crackhouse at the time...Harris was there... The son is lying against the father who's innocent... Why do I say this... because I know the guy and he's a good guy. A lot of people who have commited thieving or petty crimes can be decent people and have big hearts... I've worked with the family and they're good people with an undeserved rep... a rep given to them by lazy cops and scumbag druggies talking smack while they're high...

Chances are good Harris did the crime he was a heroin addict at the time... He threatened my life with a gun once... Terry Bruel attacked me with a lawn dart over a dollar... The Ruland Boys where doing all kinds of attacks and jumping people... That Mallard area a fucked up area...Zeppes said hi to me as they passed me on the street on their way to the gold exchange funeral home... Pica played piano in my church... its a wild town...

and my X GF's son was protected on his school bus from two older bully shitheads by the boy shot and killed by White who was found guilty of manslaughter...

Again Selden is some fucked up town.. Is every town like this? I dont know...perhaps... we're Long Island...Home of Amy Fisher...

Its possible Tanklief committed the crime but damn if reasonable doubt doesn't jump out... the chances of a hit being advertised by the partner... AND THEN the kid coincidentally kills them a few weeks later because he had to drive a shitty car... let me live in bell Terre and I'll drive around with a Gremlin... a Shitty Vega... A mini school bus... a vesper... as for trusting the police in the sixth precinct...I lived in that police station... and there's good and bad but some police do LIE and some are quite content to make a bad collar stick and they don't lose any sleep at night over it either. Who is to say? But just like they hung Tanklief on make believe evidence in a make believe trial...now they'll try and save face by doing the same make believe show with another man...

[C.P.G]

This is a true case of corruption. The evidence is so clear that it is all a matter of friends and associates dealing with each other and hiding the truth at the expense of someone innocent. The web of acquaintances surrounding the conviction was enough to make the whole thing unethical and a mis-trial should have been declared. It is amazing to me how it took so long for a court system to cut through all the b.s. and give Marty a new trial. They should have thrown out the conviction with respect to ALL the evidence, but the a new trial is at least heading in the right direction. Anybody could see right through this frame-up. The business partner owed Marty's father $500,000, faked his own death, got an alias, moved 3000 miles away, and was not a suspect? Nobody wanted to ask him any questions? This saga tells us that our court system needs to battle evil from within, so there is definitely a need to have more checks and balances. Otherwise criminals will be running law enforcement, the justice system, and government in general, all of which we are supposed to trust.

[bubba11126@yahoo.com]

hi marty been tryin to contact you. so glad your home!

[shlub of west palm beach]

reguardless strathmore has some great f--in bagels Store is always jammed great food. Sunday is called running of the jews

[sean]

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/6/petition-in-support-of-hr4300---ending-juvenile-life-without-parole

[justice]

suffolk county Spota, Lato, wanted an innocent man to rot in jail, never once would they give him a chance, this case smells BAD. Justice will prevail,Spota knows who killed Martys parents, but he isn,t speaking, why?????

[L M J]

Hmm... the innocent don't run.

[amk]

Sickening how that animal is living in boca raton as if he deserves to live the good life after destroying Marty and his family.
is he in jail where he belongs yet?