Despite prior attempts to take his own life, the apparent suicide of suspected "Craigslist Killer" Philip Markoff still took past friends by surprise. I had mixed emotions about the whole thing. At one point he was a friend. Markoff, the Boston University medical student who was arrested in April, was accused of killing one woman who advertised erotic services on Craigslist and robbing another.
CBS News's John Bentley reported that the Markoff case has prompted calls for Craigslist to drop its adult services advertising, but the company has refused, claiming it monitors the site for any illegal activity. Bentley said adult ads constitute more than one-third of Craigslist's revenue , according to one Internet monitor. Markoff was being held at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston. Conley said Markoff "was alone in his cell and all evidence collected thus far indicates that he took his own life.
Houston recalled a night when the two went out drinking with some friends, and Markoff allegedly got physically aggressive toward her when they were going home. It was really scary because I was fighting against him and saying, no, Phil, what are you doing? And thankfully one of our other friends came up and had to pull him off of me. Houston, who was speaking from Philadelphia, said, "That's not the guy I knew.
It was a totally different side. I just blamed it on the alcohol. I thought, well, this isn't normally him. Yes, he can be awkward but he wouldn't do something like this.
Asked whether there was anything that could have led Markoff to the crimes he's suspected of, Houston said she was at a lost. I wish he had maybe left something behind saying what happened. John Salsberg, who was Markoff's lawyer, said he was shocked by his client's death. At the time of the earlier suicide attempt, Salsberg said Markoff was having difficulty transitioning "from being free to being incarcerated.
