Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Horror in the Hamptons is an episode of the Playboy Murders that will be aired on ID on Monday, February 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. It will dig into the details of the party at Roy Radin’s 72-room mansion where the actress and model Melonie Haller was reportedly assaulted and raped.
A vaudeville show producer and a show business promoter, Roy Radin, was a millionaire by age 20. He was the son of Broadway Al’ Radin, who ran 40 nightclubs and speakeasies in the 1920s.
On May 13, 1983, Roy Radin was reported missing after his alleged trip to Los Angeles. He went there to raise money to establish a film production company. His mother, Renie, promised a $1 million dollar reward for his safe return. She also announced $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of those who kidnapped him, the New York Times reported. On June 10, 1983, Radin’s body was found in a canyon north of Los Angeles. He had been shot to death.
On the night of his disappearance, Roy Radin reportedly met some people who could have helped him set up his production company. In 1988, five years after the murder, four people, Karen De Layne Greenberger, William Molony Mentzer, Alex Lamota Marti, and Robert Ulmer Lowe, were charged with the murder. Authorities then found that Greenberger and Radin had reportedly gotten into a dispute over some investors. The investors were from the Puerto Rican government and could further help them raise the $35 million.
Greenberger and Lowe were then convicted of second-degree murder, while Mentzer and Marti were convicted of first-degree murder, according to Deseret News.
What Was Roy Radin’s connection to the Son of Sam?
After David Berkowitz was identified as the Son of Sam and charged with 8 shootings, many suspected that he didn’t act alone. Vinny, Berkowitz’s cellmate, contacted Michael Zuckerman, a reporter with the Gannett Newspapers. He told him that the Son of Sam’s final killing was meant to be a snuff film. Ron Sisman was supposed to be the camera operator. Additionally, Sisman had a connection with someone called RR, who was into producing films.
Son of Sam on Netflix explains how authorities then claimed it was possible for “RR” to refer to Roy Radin. According to the documentary, a King James Bible had also been discovered near the crime scene where Radin was found. The passage of the Isiah from Chapter 22 was deliberately left open. The book’s spine was then bent so that the right side of the pages was above the left. The passage read, “And behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.”
This made investigators then suspect that some kind of satanic involvement was present in the murder of Roy Radin. Moreover, they also began to suspect that David Berkowitz didn’t act alone. He was also suspected of being part of a larger cult that carried out such satanic activities. Radin’s murder then came to be known as the Cotton Club killing because it was explained as an outcome of his conflict over the production of the Cotton Club, according to Oxygen.
Horror in the Hamptons will be aired on ID on Monday, February 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET.
