Whatever Happened to Philip Drelich Who Murdered His Pregnant Wife and a Diamond Dealer?

 

Philip Drelich, an inmate at Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate New York, blows the shofar during the Jewish month of Elul

He was released on February 29, 2016 even though he was sentenced to serve  two consecutive life sentences for murder! 

I am very familiar with this story, because I lived in Monsey in the 70's, and Philip would come to visit his parents from time to time; his parents owned a bakery called "Pinkey's" on Kennedy Blvd off Route 59. I knew his parents very well, they were the nicest people and they davened at the Community Synagogue on Carlton off Maple Avenue. The Rabbi of that Shul was Rabbi Moshe Tendler z"l (this fact became very crucial in the story). 

On the Friday night following the horrendous stabbing of his pregnant wife, Miriam, Philip davened at the Stanislover Shul on Maple Avenue, and quietly said kaddish for her without any emotion. I remember that there was a detective in a car outside the shul making sure he didn't disappear, he was already being questioned in the disappearance of Martin Paretzky 71, a diamond dealer.

Philip Drelich, was born in 1950 and raised in Brooklyn and attended Yeshiva Chaim Berlin receiving good grades. His father was a WW2 veteran. Sometime in 1975, he met Miriam Lea Ziskind, and they subsequently married and had 2 children.

On March 7, 1979, a Diamond dealer by the name of Martin Paretzky 71, disappeared, while carrying as much as $500,000 in diamonds, telling colleagues at the Diamond Dealers Club on West 47th Street that he was going to meet a client at the New York Hilton Hotel. 

On May 25, 1979, Martin Paretzky's body was found floating in the Hudson River., with a heavy cord around his neck and feet.

Dr. Geetha Nataranjan, an associate medical examiner who conducted a seven-hour-long autopsy, which included X‐rays, said she found no diamonds in the dealer's clothing or inside his body.

The last person to have seen Paretzky alive was none other than Philip Drelich, and the police knew that. According to police, Philip said that he picked up Mr. Paretzky at a Queens subway station with an offer to drive him to Manhattan. Philip lived in Flatbush at the time and had no reason to be in Queens. 

During trial much information came out including the fact that Miriam's family knew Paretzky and knew that he was a Diamond broker on 47th Street. Philip had gotten in touch with Paretzky telling him that he had a client that wanted to purchase thousands of dollars worth of diamonds, they made an appointment to meet on March 7 in Manhattan at the New York Hilton Hotel. But instead of meeting Paretzky at the Hotel, where he would be seen with Paretzky, Philip decided to stake out the Queens subway station that Paretzky would normally take to 47th Street, knowing that Paretzky would take the subway with the goods, he then made believe that he was just driving by and that he spotted Paretzky by coincidence. Paretzky naively went into his car (why would he think that a a frum bearded Jew and family friend would kill him) and met his maker soon after.

The Police had their eyes on Philip and kept on questioning him but telling him that he was not a suspect but a witness only and that was because of Philip's admission that he himself last saw Paretzky on March 7, the last day anyone saw him alive.  The police kept questioning him and putting a lot of pressure on him, calling him frequently at home.

Meanwhile in the Drelich home there was tension. Mrs. Drelich knew of the appointment that her husband had with Mr. Paretzky (at the trial it was suggested that she made the appointment for her husband, since she knew him well) and kept pressuring Philip badgering him about Paretzky's disappearance,  asking him if he knew where he was. 

She was pressuring him to come clean with the cops and threatening him that she would talk to them. 

 In fact she told her husband that she made an appointment with police for Friday morning April 13, 1979  to tell them what she knew and suspected; she never made it. 

On Thursday night, Philip called his wife to tell her that he wasn't coming home that night as he was sleeping over that night by his parents. On Friday morning, Philip called police to tell them that he was very worried because he couldn't reach his wife, when the Police arrived at his Flatbush home on 1422 East 16th Street, they broke down the door to find Miriam's nude seven-month pregnant body stabbed to death with her toddler children crying nearby, Shraig was approximately three years old, and their son Elliot was approximately one year old. She was stabbed in her belly around the fetus. 

Philip Drelich the frum tzaddik became burdened with guilt,  decided to unburden himself to his parent 's rabbi, Rav Moshe Tendler z"l. He confessed to murdering Paretzky and his wife Miriam a"h. Rabbi Tendler had him write the confession in his own writing. Rabbi Tendler couldn't possibly keep this quiet and so he went to the police to tell them what they already suspected that Philip Drelich was the cold blooded murderer of both, the mother of his 2 children and yet unborn child and the murderer of Martin Paretzky who trusted him as an old family friend. 

Philip was tried and convicted of the murder of Martin Paretzky and sentenced to 25 years to life. At the trial, it was revealed that the rope that was used to strangle and to sink Paretzky in the Hudson River was bought by Philip Drelich in Rickels (Evergreen is there now) a department store on Route 59 in Monsey.

Philip was then tried for the brutal murder of his wife, Miriam, the mother of his two children and yet unborn child. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life to be served consecutively with his other murder conviction. At the trial the medical examiner displayed concrete evidence such as Philip's hair under her fingernails, indicating that Miriam put up a fierce battle for her life. There was a lot more, but I don't have the stomach to go into the gory details. I attended both trials as members of the Diamond Club were asked to come show support for the victims.

To be clear the Jury convicted this animal without even considering his confession to Rabbi Tendler. 

So how did this unmitigated menuveil get out?

A group of heimishe misguided "ass'kanim" decided that this disgusting walking time bomb was set up and totally innocent of both murders. 

What is their reasoning?

They claim that Rabbi Tendler z'l was lying and made it all up.

This ridiculous claim is so convoluted on so many levels.

Why would Rabbi Tendler z"l make up something like this, what did he have to gain? In fact Rabbi Tendler was very close to his parents, why would he want their son to sit in jail for life?

The Jury didn't take Philip's confession to Rabbi Tendler in their consideration at all in  their verdict, that was confirmed when Philip appealed his case. 

What was he doing in Queens on the same day that Paretzky disappeared? Why would he offer to take Paretzky to Manhattan? Why did he take a $50,000 life insurance policy on his wife when he hardly had money to pay for rent and food? 

The "arse'kanim" cannot answer these questions and cannot answer how two different juries came up with the same conclusions. 

At his wife's trial it was revealed that Philip fell in love with a prostitute and that he spent thousands on her, the prostitute went thru rigorous cross-examination and was found credible. 

The Ass'kanim quietly managed to raise thousands of dollars to hire a top lawyer to get him released to the outrage of the Ziskind & Paretzky families. 

Drelich was released from confinement on February 29, 2016. He was released to Parole. He is not on any Parole site  He was not supposed to meet with the New York State Parole Board until 2029 because of the consecutive life sentences he received in 1980.

How did he manage to get out?