The Story of Marty Tankleff

On September 7th, 1988 Marty Tankleff woke up on the first day of his senior year of high school in Belle Tarre (Long Island), New York. Marty found his mom, Arlene dead and his dad, Seymour unconscious. Marty called 911.

When the officers arrived, Marty immediately identified his father’s business partner as the killer. Seymour was partnered with a man named Jerry Steurman and owned a bagel-store. While Seymour was in the hospital, Steurman faked his own death, disguised himself and left New York. (YA SURE, THAT DOESN’T SEEM SUSPICIOUS AT ALL). Instead of trying to find the business partner, the detectives took Marty in and began a “hostile interrogation.”

Arlene, Marty and Seymour

The real killer?

At this time, the Suffolk County law enforcement was under investigation for corruption and a detective was actually found guilty of perjuring himself on another murder investigation before Marty “confessed.” The police lied and faked a phone call and said Seymour identified his son as the killer. Marty was forced to confess and sign a confession and then to make matters worse, his father died weeks later. In 1990, at trial even though there was no DNA or anything linked to Marty he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Marty had a lot of support from his relatives and they were all on his side. Eventually he found some new lawyers, a new investigator and advocates to work on his case pro bono (for free). They found all leads led back to Jerry Steurman, they also found out Jerry’s son was selling cocaine out of the bagel shop. (GREAT FAMILY THEY ARE, HUH?) They eventually found a drug enforcer who couldn’t keep his mouth shut and bragged over the years about how he was a part of these murders, and they also tracked down a getaway driver that was there that night too.

Marty appealed his case to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in Brooklyn. Marty’s case was so popular that several high profile organizations submitted briefs on Marty’s behalf. On December 7th, 2007 Marty’s conviction was finally vacated and on June 30th, 2008 Attorney General Andrew Cuomo moved to dismiss all charges.

Marty was 36 when he walked out of prison and spent 17 years behind bars. On May 25, 2014 Marty graduated from the Touro Law Center and on April 7th, 2017 he passed the New York State Bar Exam. In 2018, he also received a settlement of $10 million dollars from Suffolk County. (RIGHTFULLY SO).

AFTER THOUGHTS:

-I just watched the Deadline episode and this case was featured on the Where Are They Now portion and I had to research it more.

-This case made me mad because of how much evidence they actually had on the business partner and his son. (I also don’t think anyone was ever charged after Marty was freed, so that’s annoying).

-Corrupt cops? Why was Marty even convicted then? Why was there only one cop who got in trouble? Did anyone even get fired? (CLEARLY I HAVE A LOT OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AND NO ANSWERS).

-Marty didn’t deserve this and I definitely don’t think he did it but also good for him for finishing school and PASSING HIS BAR EXAM, YAASS.

Wikipedia Page- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Tankleff

Marty Tankleff Story- https://www.martytankleff.org/the-story/

Deadline Episode on Investigation Discovery- Season 1, Episode 10 “Haunting Memory” This case was only featured the last few minutes of this episode.