Ex-surgeon confesses to killing wife, throwing her body out of plane: report


Dr. Robert Bierenbaum and wife Janet walk together during break from his murder trial. Bierenbaum, a plastic surgeon, is accused of killing his previous wife and throwing her body into the Atlantic Ocean from an airplane in 1985.

A former plastic surgeon who had long denied killing his wife confessed to strangling her to death and throwing her body out of an airplane, according to a report out Thursday.

Robert Bierenbaum, who is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, revealed the details of the 1985 murder during a December 2020 parole hearing whose transcript was recently obtained by ABC News. A Manhattan jury convicted him based on circumstantial evidence presented at a 2000 murder trial, but this is the first time he admitted to killing Gail Katz.

"I wanted her to stop yelling at me and I attacked her," he reportedly told the parole board at the hearing.

Now 66, Bierenbaum was 29 when he killed his wife, who was also 29.

Bierenbaum blamed his actions on being "immature" at the time and not understanding "how to deal with his anger," according to the transcript. He also detailed what he did to the body, which has never been found.

"I went flying. I opened the door and then took her body out of the airplane over the ocean," he reportedly said.

Prosecutors said Bierenbaum rented a plane out of New Jersey the day his wife died but doctored his flight log to pretend he went flying the following day. Their marriage was said to be toxic, with Katz reportedly telling a neighbor once that she no longer felt comfortable at home.

Her sister said Bierenbaum caught his wife smoking on their balcony one night and he choked her until she became unconscious, ABC News reported. Katz reported the attack to police but her husband was not charged.

As the case grew cold, Bierenbaum moved on with his life, remarried, had a daughter and opened medical practices in Las Vegas and North Dakota. But prosecutors never gave up on the case and eventually charged him with second-degree murder more than a decade after the killing.

Katz's sister, Alayne, told the court during Bierenbaum's sentencing hearing in 2000 that her brother-in-law killed the victim "to prevent her from exposing him as a violent and twisted man," according to The New York Times.

One of the prosecutors in the case, Dan Bibb, told ABC he was "stunned" by Bierenbaum's confession because he thought the convicted murderer would never "own up" and "take responsibility for his actions.

Bierenbaum remains in prison, but he gets another shot at parole in a hearing scheduled for November, according to the network.

ABC's reporting is part of a two-hour "20/20″ episode set to air Friday night.

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