Was Philip Markoff Leading A Double Life?

(CBS)  The world knows Philip Markoff only by his headline nickname, the "Craigslist killer," but to Morgan Houston, he is more than a suspect or a defendant. To her, Markoff was a classmate and a friend - someone she thought she knew.

"I thought he was very nice," she tells 48 Hours Mystery correspondent Richard Schlesinger. "He was dorky, but so many of us are. I mean, I can be a big dork, too. So, you can't hold that against him."

Houston first heard that her college friend had been arrested from another friend on the social networking Web site, Facebook.

"I logged on to Facebook and a girl that I hadn't talked to in about four years sent me a message, a chat message on Facebook, saying , 'Oh my God, Morgan.' And I started freaking out already because what is this girl going to say to me?"

It was the news that Markoff, the same man who just a few years ago was Morgan's classmate in pre-med, was now the nation's most famous murder suspect. When they were at the State University of New York together, Houston says she saw Markoff often.

"He was very intelligent," she says. "He was definitely lacking in some social skills. … It didn't seem like he was always 100 percent comfortable in his own skin."

Houston says she and Markoff were friends, but that was it. That was what she wanted, although she got the feeling Markoff wanted more.

Then, one night when a group of friends went out drinking, she says Markoff saw her to her dorm. She tells Schlesinger that along the way, Markoff cornered her, pushing her against a wall in an attempt to kiss her.

"I was turning my head to the side so he couldn't and I was saying, 'No, Phil. You know, we're just friends. What are you trying to do?' And I was trying to push him away. And he was being forceful," she recalls. "I couldn't physically get him off me… thankfully, one of my very close friends… had come along and he was able to pull him off of me."

Houston says she escaped upstairs, but felt shocked and betrayed by her friend, "…because, you know, I never gave him any signs that, 'Hey, Phil, I like you more than a friend.' It wasn't just the two of us out for drink. A lot of us were out. I was just hurt by it. And I just wanted to forget it. I knew he had a lot to drink that night. And I just was trying to chalk it up to that I just kind of wanted to forget about it."

Being in that situation scared her.

"I had no control. I physically couldn't push him away. And anything like that is always, it's frightening. …you don't know how far they're gonna try - I don't have experience with anything like this… He wasn't listening to me when I was saying no."

When asked if Markoff ever apologized to her, Houston replies, "No, I'm not sure he never mentioned it… it was awkward. I just wanted to forget about it. It wasn't the Phil I knew. The Phil I knew was a nice, easygoing, a little but awkward, but a nice, easy going guy. I chalked it up to the alcohol."

They remained friends, but Houston looks back at that incident now and wonders: Could it have been a sign that Markoff had a secret side?

"If all this turns out that it's proven to be true, then I should have been a lot more frightened than I was," she says.

Dr. Michael Welner has consulted on some of the most complex criminal cases in America.

"As a forensic psychiatrist, I don't hear this as a person living two lives," he tells Schlesinger. "You wanna know what a double life is? A double life is another wife, kids in another town - a different set of friends."

Looking at the evidence, Welner believes Philip Markoff was not leading a "double life." Instead, for some reason still unknown, Welner thinks Markoff suddenly embarked on a crime spree.

"In my professional opinion, I'm seeing an individual who was in school, who was in a stable relationship where there's no previous criminal history. And there are three dramatic crimes in 10 days. That has the hallmark of a spree," Welner says.

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[Lolary]

I don't think his motives for killing or robbing were money. Why would he keep his victims underwear at home? I think this guy is a real psycho...

[stryker54]

I believe with all the technology available today, the cell phones, cameras, csi, and such pretty much will tell the story before it is heard. This guy had his prints on the duct tape in the hotel, fingerprint on the wall the girl was murdered in, come on, are you all rocket scientist? This gut is guilty as sin, he just wanted money for his gambling, things went wrong, the gir fought back or did something and he lost control because he didn't know what to do and got scared. I say give him a rope instead of shoelaces and let hin hang himself. Less cost to taxpayers. He had no value for that girl, why should we have any for him. Lets end the excuses for behavior like this and just cook the guy, lethal injection is to good for any murderer.

[guest173]

just because they are a med student doesn't mean they have great morals and ethics, first they need to get through all the years of schooling, it is easy to start out in it, it's graduating that's the hard part. When I was a teenager about 10 years ago, I went to pick up some marijuana from some people at the university dorm. It turned out the guy we were getting it from was a med student claiming marijuana was just fine and he even took tests while high. I have since stopped my criminal lifestyle, I hope that other med student has too, med students aren't automatic angels, most of them are just trying to get rich, it isn't that they care about people that much

[rsmik]

Was Philip Markoff Leading A Double Life?

Uh, yeah.

[sandy19731]

Most people lead double lives.
Posted by snarkysnark

No, actually we do not.
Is there something you want to get off your chest?

[sripton]

Comparing this to the Duke rape case is ludicrous. That case was based wholly on flawed victim testimony of one "victim". In this case we have three living eyewitness victims and a stiff one too! Fingerprints, guns emails eyewitnesses video etc etc. his goose is cooked. Get it Losers, it's not even close to the same, it is unbelievable how some people will argue any point just for the delight of having gas escape their mouth

[mejordelahistoria]

if this dude was black or hispanic all the whites would be wanting his head, and here we are, they defend this rapist murderer.

[mejordelahistoria]

death penalty to this scumbag!

[Wendyjog]

Why would a 2nd year med student try to strangle themselves with shoe laces? Guess that's all he had available, maybe. Pretty desperate, or just looking for sympathy?

Poor, poor, Phil.

[OskarPfungst]

You are mostly wasting time trying to figure out a "crazy" (and a dangerous one, too). These cases are rare (thank God) and even the best psychiatrists can only guess Charles Whitman, the Texas Tower killer in 1975 had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. "Son of Sam" (David Berkowitz) who shot people dead through their car windows in 1976-77 had no obvious trauma. Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah building in 1995 for no explicable reason. You can theorize forever as to "what was wrong" with these people, or Hitler, or Stalin but each case tends to be quite different. Better to go on to working to improve society - "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative...." - volunteer someplace, help a stranded motorist (hoping he is sane and a decent person...). Report suspicious behavior - remember the Kitty Genovese case (1964). Better to report a few dead-end leads than to let another case like that one go by. I wish we could do something for that unfortunate fiancee but let us just hope that "time will heal."