The dismembering in manorville it seems served two purposes. Shock value and to hinder identification. The time span given by the prosecutor for the possible manorville victim connection was a decade prior to 2011. I take it he's talking about JD #6/2000. If this is him he's certainly not shown consistency in either the gaps between killing or the manor in which the victims were treated postmortem. The only consistency would be Gilgo beach for his later victims. If it turns out to be him the forensic countermeasures he employed worked well for him. The only escalation I see was the last 2 victims because instead of going 1-4 years between kills he only went a few months The case could be made that all ten could be related but I'm not there yet. I do stand by my belief that at least those 6, 2000-2010, and probably the male because of proximity more than anything else, were killed by the same long islander.
I was talking escalation more in terms of the MO, but that is a good point too. If Bittrolff did commit the LISK murders, it went from strangulation and bludgeoning (first two Bittrolff victims), to mutilation of the body (third Bittrolff victim), to full on dismemberment (Manorville butcher victims and possibly others), then back to strangulation and bludgeoning (the Asian male suffered blunt force trauma, and the GB4 were strangled). Looking back at other cases, this is not as unusual as one would expect. Ted Bundy, Randy Kraft, and Joel Rifkin all varied between leaving their victims intact or dismembered. Personally, I'm not sure I'm 100% behind the idea that one killer is behind all 10 victims. IMO, 8 of them are probably linked, but I have some doubts about Peaches and her baby. I can't shake the feeling that that those two were the victims of some kind of domestic incident, and happened to be disposed of at a serial killer's dumping ground.
I'm also really glad you brought up Bittrolff's forensic countermeasures. One of the biggest features of the police LISK profile, is someone who has knowledge of law enforcement techniques and knows how avoid detection. That definitely fits John Bittrolff:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-24...-killer-preying-on-prostitutes-on-long-island
"“From day one, he knew we were following him,” Leser says.
John at one point stopped at a railroad crossing and just sat there until the detectives drove past. Another day saw him make a sudden right, then an immediate button hook.
“Evasive driving,” Leser says.
John is a carpenter, and when on a job he would seek a high vantage point.
“He’d stand up on the roof, looking for us,” Leser remembers."
"That left only John, but the detectives still wanted a sample of his DNA before arresting him. He seemed to anticipate their intentions.
“I think in the back of his mind he was nervous,” Leser says. “He never discarded something personal.”
The detectives observed him drinking beer at home and hoped that he would eventually put the bottles out for recycling.
“That never happened,” Leser says. “He had tons of beer bottles. I don’t know what he did with them.”"
This makes me wonder, if the only murders Bittrolff committed were in the early 90s, why was he so on edge in 2013? Almost seems like he was concerned about something that happened more recently.