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Look out, ladies: Two deranged sex fiends convicted of nightmare attacks on New York women are back on the prowl.
Fake firefighter fiend Peter Braunstein, who chloroformed and sexually tormented an ex-colleague for hours, and burly bouncer Darryl Littlejohn, who raped and strangled a young SoHo bar patron, have posted online personals in their search for lonely hearts willing to overlook their vile crimes.
Both have uploaded pictures and profiles on the prison pen-pal site FriendsBeyondtheWall.com, talking up their supposed sensitive sides in a plea for companionship or more.
“I’ve been told I’m a good problem-solver. Or life coach,” writes Braunstein, a creepy ex-fashion writer now serving 41 years to life for dressing up as a firefighter to con his way into his victim’s apartment, then going on a cross-country crime spree.
“If that seems twisted and ridiculous — a convict life-coach — well, I’ve learned that life can be stranger than fiction,” he adds.
Sure, he was a fixture on “America’s Most Wanted” after fleeing the scene of his 2005 assault, then jabbed a knife in his neck when cornered by police two months later, but he’s busy penning a “true-crime memoir,” speaks fluent French, and loves the movie “Black Swan” and TV’s “The Vampire Chronicles,” according to his pitch.
“It would be cool to meet someone with a creative mind and interesting ideas,” he muses.
His profile features an impressionistic illustration of the 48-year-old felon, depicting him with a droopy eye, misshapen skull and sickly yellow-green complexion.
Willing parties should address all mash notes to the upstate Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where Braunstein concedes he’ll be “incarcerated forever and a day.”
Littlejohn, the hulking monster who murdered 24-year-old aspiring criminologist Imette St. Guillen in 2006, was a bit more brazen in his notice, titled “Dark Chocolate — (More Filling/Less Calories/Guilt-Free).”
Posing in a tight wife-beater shirt, he says he has a lot to love: 210 pounds of “all masculinity.”
“I am very open-minded, optimistic, and never judgmental of anyone else’s shortcomings.” And he’d need the same from any prospective pal.
Littlejohn, who spent 12 years in prison for robbery before being released to pursue his perverted passion for abducting women and attacking them in his van, asserts in his ad that he’s innocent — and hates liars.
“I’m alone and really hope to find a true friend or two sincerely interested in establishing a meaningful relationship without mind games, lies and deceit,” he writes.
He makes no mention of St. Guillen, a pretty John Jay grad student who wandered alone into The Falls bar shortly before last call and was never seen alive again. Her brutal murder shocked the nation and chilled Manhattan nightlife.
Felons seeking friends is part of an emerging trend, and a rogue’s gallery of heinous thugs — including infamous women — have joined such sites, often with the help of intermediaries.
Child-drowning mom Susan Smith claims to be the epitome of innocence in her online friend-seeking post, leaving out the details of her horrific killing of her sons — Michael, 3, and infant Alex — whom she drove into a South Carolina lake in 1994 to be free to continue an illicit affair.
“I love rainbows, Mickey Mouse, the beach, the mountains and waterfalls,” gushed Smith, who tried to pin the kids’ deaths on a fictitious carjacker but got life in jail.
“I consider myself to be sensitive, caring, and kind-hearted,” she said, adding that she’d “grown alot [sic] since my incarceration.”
California’s Randy Kraft, the “Scorecard Killer” who raped, tortured and slaughtered 67 boys and young men in the ’70s and early ’80s, now prefers solving crossword puzzles and Su Doku, according to his profile on Web site CellPals.com.
The death-row inmate is having trouble making meaningful connections from his San Quentin address, lamenting, “I’m beginning to wonder if there are any sincere people out there!”
Now 68, Kraft says he’s no “old fogey,” keeps fit and enjoys the pleasures of life. “I like to read all sorts of things and listen to most kinds of music,” he said.
Victim advocate Andy Kahan says hoosegow hook-up sites are “booming.”
Kahan, who closely monitors prisoner activities nationwide as the head of Houston’s Crime Victims Assistance Office, says other popular Web addresses include Inmate.com, PrisonPenPals.com, Goodprisoner.com and Cyberspace-inmates.com.
The appeal?
Some women suffer from a “modern-day Florence Nightingale syndrome — they’re trying to save the inmate’s soul,” he said.
Of course, many of the most infamous don’t need to go around asking for attention.
“Preppie Killer” Robert Chambers had to be transferred from one prison to another because aspiring girlfriends kept smuggling him contraband, and wife-killing Scott Peterson was similarly deluged.
But for those who aren’t so lucky, finding a cyberspace soulmate takes some doing.
In New York, prisoners are not allowed to use a computer, so they need an outside third party to find a site and upload their photo and information.
The jailbird must identify himself as a convict and reveal the prison where he’s doing time.
Pen pals must send missives to inmates through snail mail and can’t violate “standards of behavior” set by the state Department of Correctional Services, said spokeswoman Linda Foglia.
Braunstein appears to be playing by the rules, though he sent a letter to a Post reporter last week lamenting that his love life isn’t picking up.
“So, like, I used this photo on one of those dating sites ’cos it captures my essence and got no response at all,” he wrote.
“I totally can’t imagine why.”