© Franconia Township Police DeptSalvatore Perrone, shown in a Franconia Township Police Department mugshot, has been charged in three Brooklyn murders.
Salvatore Perrone, a balding, mustachioed man dubbed "Son of Sal" by his neighbors, was charged Wednesday in the chilling serial killings of three Brooklyn shopkeepers after confessing to two of the slayings, police said. The nebbishy-dressed door-to-door salesman had been a prime suspect after cops spotted him in surveillance footage and dubbed him "John Doe Duffel Bag" until they brought him in for questioning Tuesday. Though Perrone, who turns 64 today, did not reveal a motive for the killings, he didn't hesitate to talk during the interrogation. "When he came in he signed the Miranda, (saying) 'I'll talk to you, I want to talk to you,'" a police source said. "He thought he'd outsmart us, but he wasn't arrogant - just very level, no emotion. At one point he actually said, 'I'll be out of here in the morning.'"
The alleged killer ate pizza, a sandwich, smoked cigars and made numerous trips to the bathroom in the hours he talked to detectives, a source said.
He eventually clammed up and took a nap after admitting to two of the slayings, sources said. "He just stopped talking. Who can explain it? You're not going to be able to explain this guy at all," a law enforcement source told the Daily News. "I'm not a psychologist, but he seems to have mental problems. He's a little delusional."
© Joe Marino/New York Daily NewsAccused serial killer Sal Perrone is walked from the 67th Precinct on November 21st 2012.
"Nothing is his fault. His wife leaving him is her fault. His daughter being estranged from him is his wife's fault," the source said.
Cops were still trying to figure out the motivation for the slayings. An FBI profiler advised detectives to get Perrone to open up by exploring several avenues, including whether the changing demographics in Bay Ridge and the clothing business had infuriated him.
But he didn't take the bait and failed to indicate that was an issue, a police source said.
Perrone's neighbors in Staten Island nicknamed him "Son of Sal," and one even called him "insane" - saying he was creepy and annoying and would report them to 311 for things like trash-can violations and minor building irregularities.
Cops said they found a Ruger 10-22 carbine rifle with a sawed-off stock in the black duffel bag Perrone left in a closet at the Midwood, Brooklyn, apartment of his 60-year-old girlfriend, Natasha Cherova.
The sawed-off psycho used the weapon in all the homicides, according to ballistic tests and authorities. Detectives additionally lifted the suspect's fingerprints from the gun, which had a single live round in the chamber, police said. NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said detectives also found .22-caliber ammunition, an empty magazine, two 7-inch-blade Buck knives and a bloody kitchen knife.
The gun had a combo laser/flashlight attached to its barrel with duct tape and rubber bands.
The knife is being analyzed to determine if it was used to stab victim Isaac Kadare, 59, in the neck. Kelly called Perrone a "serial killer." "I think it's reasonable to assume that he was going to continue doing this, and, by arresting him, we saved lives," he said. "We know that he went to other locations, and asked questions that indicated that. Now that we look at them, he may very well have been planning to come back."
Perrone faces one first-degree murder charge and three second-degree murder charges.
"I suggest that any conviction on any of the charges will result in a sentence of the rest of his life in prison," said Kenneth Taub, head of the Brooklyn district attorney's homicide bureau.
At his arraignment early Thursday, Perrone, wearing all black, appeared haggard and fidgety. His kept his eyes downcast, and his hands were cuffed behind his back as the judge in Brooklyn Criminal Court denied him bail. His next appearance is Nov. 27.
"He does seem that he could have some mental-health issues," his court-appointed lawyer, Ken Jones, said after the hearing. Jones said his client showed no remorse. "He denies all the allegations," he said. "He denies making any incriminating statements."
All three victims were of Middle Eastern descent, two Jewish and one Muslim. They were all working alone when they were shot - two of them in the head - at closing time.
The victims' bodies were partially hidden under clothes and cardboard when they were discovered.
The NYPD dubbed now-charged Salvatore Perrone 'John Doe Duffle Bag' during the hunt for murder witnesses. The security camera image was captured along Flatbush Ave. near one of the crime scenes.
After being questioned by detectives for hours, Perrone copped to the slayings of Kadare in Bensonhurst and Mohammed Gebeli, 65, in Bay Ridge, the source said.
Perrone was caught on security video near two murder scenes, including outside the She She Boutique on Flatbush Ave. around the time Rahmatollah Vahidipour, 78, was gunned down Friday evening.
Some of Perrone's neighbors on Clove Road in Staten Island's Silver Lake section were stunned that he was implicated in the spree that started July 6 with Gebeli's slaying in his store, Valentino Fashion.
Perrone's neighborhood nickname, a veiled reference to "Son of Sam" serial killer David Berkowitz, was not prompted by fears Perrone was violent, but because he was a lousy neighbor, locals said.
They said Perrone's house was the biggest eyesore on the block and continually under construction, and he was the biggest complainer. "He'd always try to scare you with threats - 'I'll call the police, the Buildings Department, sanitation.' He'd say he'd take you out, but he never said he'd do it himself," a neighbor said.
Another neighbor relished the possibility that Perrone had been arrested - but found it difficult to believe Perrone killed anyone.
"If he is convicted, we'll throw a block party," the neighbor said. "He's insane. But a serial killer? That's a long stretch."
Early Thursday, detectives and CSU police searched Perrone's home on Staten Island. Floodlights illuminated the brush-strewn backyard as police made their way in and out of a basement door at the rear of the two-story dwelling.
"It was his main residence. He didn't use it for any criminality as far as we know, but we're searching it to be sure," a source at the scene said.
The break in the case that left Brooklyn shopkeepers terrified about who might be killed next came as a relief to the victims' families.
"We're all pleased to hear about the arrest. We hope he gets what he deserves," said Vahidipour's grandson, Edwin Shokrian, 28. "Even spending the rest of his life in jail is a very, very, small sample size of what he should be getting," sources said.
Gebeli was shot inside his store on July 6. Kadare was shot in the head and stabbed in neck inside his shop on Aug. 2. The girlfriend is not likely to face charges, one source said.
Perrone was known to Brooklyn merchants as a roving clothing salesman. Source said he had a relatively minor criminal record - two DWI arrests on Staten Island, one for theft in New Jersey, and one in Pennsylvania, in 2001, in which he broke into his girlfriend's house in a drunken stupor.
Two people, including a woman who refused to give her name, said they were Cherova's roommates. One, Justin Flood, 20, said Perrone and his girlfriend had a volatile relationship, and Perrone showed flashes of violence.
With Barry Paddock, Kerry Burke, Denis Slattery, Irving DeJohn, Joseph Stepansky, Shayna Jacobs and Christina Boyle
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