Steven Massof is a free man. Looking up the current state of the man I wrote about years ago, the convicted murderer sentenced to 6 to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of third-degree murder in the deaths of two babies and to related crimes, while admitting to 100 others, I was surprised to find that he was released on 01/27/2019, after serving less than 5 years for some of the most heinous crimes on some of the most victims in human history. I could not find details of his pre-trial state, whether he was granted bail or not, and it does appear he was incarcerated for some time between his arrest in 2011 and sentencing in 2014. But still, 5 years? 8 max?
Who is he? You may be excused for still being in the dark about America’s most prolific convicted serial killer who legally walks the streets. Even the right wing and pro-life community, so eager to prop up the horrific case of abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell, Massof’s boss, took no notice of the man. He was not even mentioned in Nick Searcy’s underrated Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer, starring Dean Cain as Detective James Wood and Earl Billings as Gosnell. Scouring the internet for mention of Massof and finding no articles more recent than 2014, I’m intrigued to find there appears to be no one more interested in his peculiar case than myself. I lack the passion and outrage commensurate with his unspeakable evil. I feel only an oddly detached intellectual curiosity towards the man. Perhaps it is because his deeds are so beyond the pale, and the consequences so absurdly underwhelming, that the only fitting response at this point is incredulity.
What did he do? An unlicensed physician working in the abortion clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell from 2003 till their arrest in 2011, Massof witnessed, participated in, and performed the late term and further infanticides that eventually brought Gosnell down. The incidents in question, it is important to point out in so much as the distinction matters (and society seems to think so), occurred not only past Pennsylvania’s legal cut-off point for abortions (24 weeks), but in fact not abortions at all, being that they were fully born babies, viable, completely separate from the mother. Massoff testified that he had snipped the back of 100 babies’ necks, killing the newborn children:
” Although Massof was not as cavalier about what he did, he admitted that there were about 100 instances in which he severed the spinal cord after seeing a breath or some sign of life“
(https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/15-274-bsac-Texas-Values-and-3801-Lancaster.pdf)
Have we any reason to doubt his confession or dismiss any part of it as hyperbole? The timeline makes his numbers probable, and other staffers testified they had witnessed him in the acts. More colorfully, Massoff said,
“Steven Massof’s voice cracked and he forced down a sob as he told Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner he was “ready to take full responsibility for my actions and my inaction.”…’It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place…I felt like a firemen in hell. I couldn’t put out all the fires.'”
(https://www.preciouslife.com/news/81/gosnell-staffer-who-witnessed-baby-being-beheaded-sentenced-to-612-years/)
As if he weren’t one of the arsonists himself. There is no footage of his testimony as far as I can find, and it’s hard for me to grasp exactly how remorseful he feels. His tearful guilt clashes with the description here:
“He appeared in court unshaven, his partially bald head sporting a large square bandage covering what he dubiously told bailiffs was the result of a slip on a ladder. Massof spoke eerily in slow and deliberate manner, almost over-articulating his words. That, along with his “scuzzy” appearance made him appear creepy and –at least to this observer–somewhat revolting. He seemed to take an odd sarcastic glee in relating the illegal activities and filthy conditions under which he worked for approximately five years.”
I find this interesting, but dubious. Obviously the site is biased and seems written to deliberately paint an unflattering portrait. But who should find that necessary? The man by his own admission murdered 100 infants by snipping them in the back of the neck! What do we care that he’s unshaven? You don’t need to embellish his creepiness! And honestly, whether he was taking “sarcastic glee” or choking down sobs in remorse, what difference does that make to the recently born he decapitated? Then there’s this:
“Massof said he quit his job at Gosnell’s clinic after a dispute with the father of Ashley Baldwin, a 15-year old girl who helped with abortion procedures at the clinic. His relationship with Ashley seemed odd and there was uneasy the impression that there was more to it than the inappropriate jesting that Massof related to the court. “He threatened to beat me within an inch of my life,” Massof said of his altercation with Ashley’s father. “I ran away as fast as I could.”
Again frustrating from the piece, and rather pointless insinuation. The man slaughtered dozens of children, just as part of his job. But if he had an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old girl, that’s another piece to this study of one of the most repulsive and unsung monsters humanity has to offer.
Let’s get this out of the way, because I really don’t want to make this a political post. The sins of Steven Massof transcend politics. Any partisan position or policy proposal on any specific issue just seems ludicrously inadequate to address the unique series of failings that allowed this man to exist, to do what he did, and walk away after so laughable a sentence served. Certainly, his crimes against humanity are indefensible from any position of women’s health or reproductive rights. Because once the baby/fetus/call it whateve is completely separate, on a table and the woman can just walk away, in what world or hell does it help her to snip the child’s neck?
Well, some degree of politics are unavoidable when speaking truthfully about Massof’s case and the media’s lack of interest in it. The inconvenient, uncomfortable fact is, there’s only a couple of weeks and a few inches away from being perfectly legal. And doesn’t that just hammer home how arbitrary it all is? How is a subject a living human being at 24 weeks, but an inconsequential clump of cells at 23 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds? Why are Gosnell and Massoff murderers for waiting until their targets were completely delivered from the mother to end their lives, but if they had done it a few moments earlier, in the process of labor, that would be the still-defended practice of intact dilation and extraction (because “partial birth abortion” is such an inflammatory and biased term). And an alarming number of politicians want to completely legalize, codify without question, abortion on demand all the way up to birth. Yes, such late-term abortions are extremely rare and happen nearly always in extreme cases. But how can a society that endorses as a right and celebrates as a ritual (see the protestors and starlets like Michelle Williams, for example) something so close to Massof’s crimes still condemn him as monster for going only one step further. Every major Democrat running for president in 2020 opposed legislation that would required life-saving treatment be giving to to the very rare baby that survives an abortion. So if you want it to be legal to abort a baby all the way up to birth, and legal to put that baby aside and just “let” it die (kept “comfortable” until the physician and mother finish their discussion as Virginia Governor Northam put it), what is the actual moral high ground to condemn or outlaw what Massof did?
A few years ago there was understandable national outrage when a college rapist got an outrageously light sentence. He was convicted, sentenced, and served ultimately only a few months for a heinous crime others receive life in prison for. People were upset, rightfully so, but there was no recourse, no way to put him back on trial (double jeopardy) and give him a heavier sentence. Nor should there be. We don’t want to live in a society where law and order can be so swayed by public outcry, especially of the vindictive sort. I don’t believe people have the right to kill other people, so I oppose the death penalty. Yet some things are so beyond the pale that even with genuine remorse, you should lose all right to ever take another breath of free air, no matter how long you live. Massof is one of those men, but he is free now, and there is nothing to be done about it.
But again, politics aside, because I’m so fascinated with this man. A poor example of the human race who after getting his medical degree at the University of Grenada took odd jobs like bartending before ending up as an unlicensed assistant working at a house of horrors, getting paid $300 a week under the table. Life takes us to unexpected places, but studying in the sunny Caribbean for the noble career of medicine, could he have ever imagined he end up in such a hellish place? In describing his enthusiasm for working for the butcher in the first place, he explained, ““I wanted to get experience. I wanted to counsel women and their partners about health issues.” Well look where that got him. He called his time with Gosnell, a “horrific part of my life that will always be there” and claimed he was “ready to take full responsibility for my actions and my inaction.” But it’s absurdly underwhelming, almost surreally so, as if he were describing some youthful indiscretions he was ashamed of, rather than racking up a body count larger than Bundy, Dahmer, and Gacy combined.
As baffling and outrageous as it is that one of the worst serial killers in American history is allowed to walk the streets like this, I don’t believe Massof is any further threat to society. His crimes were not of passion, but simply part of the job. He’s not going to be let near a hospital again, thank God, so we have no reason to believe he’s ever going to murder anyone else. But therein lies my fascination with the man. Because how do you move on after that? How can you snip the necks of 100 babies, serve less than ten years, and move on with your life? He’s not yet 60. He may very well have decades left in this world. But what does he do with them? Tend bar at some dive in Pittsburgh, the drinkers having no idea how infamous the man serving their drinks should be? Support himself with welfare because potential employers cannot ignore what the press and political establishment will? Enjoy his freedom while car thieves and drug dealers suffer much harsher sentences? Where is he now anyway? Leaching off his family or the public tax dollar, every bit the parasite he and his ilk designate their victims to make the medicine go down easier?
The man is an anomaly. A moral aberration to be sure, but he’s also what TVTropes calls a “Karma Houdini”, doing such unbelievably evil things and facing so little consequence. He fascinates and repulses me, in part because no one else shares my outrage or knowledge of him (in prison, he was reportedly threatened by the other prisoners for being a “snitch” who testified against Gosnell, rather than inspiring rage for his crimes against humanity).
This is a very judgmental post, God forgive me. I also apologize for the laughably unconvincing attempt to separate this from politics. But what’s to be done with this man? Some would say giving him any attention is the wrong idea, that we should let him rot in anonymity. I disagree. What this monster did was borderline legal, and it would behoove us all to understand how he happened, and why he can never happen again.
Is this him? https://www.linkedin.com/in/smassof1976
Hello.
I was a roommate of this guy before he was caught/convicted or whatever it’s considered. His ugliness popped into my head today; so I decided to see if I can find out if he got out from prison yet, then stumbled upon your article. I cannot believe he did all that stuff. He was a very very very nice man. Hidden from that house of horror; no one knew but Steve. I lived with him for years, he even had a GF for some time. She was nice also… totally living a second hidden life. Where is he now? Pittsburgh?
Thank you for sharing. Anything else you want to share would be interesting and welcome.
I don’t know where Mr. Massof is now and I hesitate about doing further research. Not that I think I’m in any danger from this serial killer, being that his murders were professional and his victims helpless. I just don’t want to face any legal or civil repercussions for encouraging the harassment of a private citizen.
Your comment did pique my interest, so searching today, I find he has written a self-published, unfinished book. https://www.amazon.com/Ghetto-Doctor-Unfinished-Steven-Massof/dp/B0BKSCTZLJ, though I’m not sure who “Dr. David” is and to what extent this is supposed to be fictional or not. He does refer to himself as “Steven Massoff, MD”, which is fraudulent.
In his rambling, self-serving, and barely coherent description, it almost seems like he started to write “Kaiser Bellman, MD” (no records of such an individual on the web, let alone his “infamous court case”) as a fictional stand-in for Gosnell, then halfway through forgets about the pretense, confused about whether he worked for Bellman or Gosnell:
“My story takes place in three parts. The years I spent at the clinic in Philadelphia chronologizing the cultural misogyny and abuse of my female patients. Insight to how Kermit Gosnell conducted himself.
My story working at the clinic in Philadelphia centers on myself and the relationship I had working with Bellman as well the staff. “
I was Massof’s celly for about a year at SCI Somerset. He was quite a character. To the point, he did not express any remorse for what he did. He had a friend in Brooklyn that he corresponded with. He said he had worked at Coney Island Hospital and lived in Brooklyn for a time. I believe he moved in with his mother in Pittsburgh when he was released on 1/27/2019. In addition to the 5 years he was incarcerated at SCI Somerset, he was first incarcerated at a federal facility in Philadelphia. I believe he was with the feds for at least a year. So, he got out on his minimum. He always bragged that he would write a book. I advised him that if he tried to minimize what he did, that he would be crucified.
I was Massof’s celly for about a year at SCI Somerset. He was quite a character. To the point, he did not express any remorse for what he did. He had a friend in Brooklyn that he corresponded with. He said he had worked at Coney Island Hospital and lived in Brooklyn for a time. I believe he moved in with his mother in Pittsburgh when he was released on 1/27/2019. In addition to the 5 years he was incarcerated at SCI Somerset, he was first incarcerated at a federal facility in Philadelphia. I believe he was with the feds for at least a year. So, he got out on his minimum. He always bragged that he would write a book. I advised him that if he tried to minimize what he did, that he would be crucified.
Thank you for sharing. I appreciate you giving us this information.
I did read his book, “Ghetto Doctor”, and he did minimize what he did. In the book, “Dr. Steve” makes brief references to late-term abortions in the clinic, criticizes the Gosnell figure throughout as unprofessional and corrupt, and complains a lot about law enforcement’s efforts in bringing him in. The book ends before he is actually prosecuted, and there is no mention of snipping the necks of newborns or how a man could be compelled to do that, which is what interested me in his story in the first place.
Steve attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs,OH in the early-mid 80’s.He was a short pudgy guy with an obsession with Marilyn Monroe. I believe he was also the residential advisor for the dorm he lived in. He was a quiet, unassuming guy and well-liked. I did not know him very well, but I was absolutely stunned when I figured out he was the assistant to Gosnell.
There were times when Steven Massof could be very cordial. But what stood out to me was that only saw himself as a victim. And that’s a typical response by someone who has no remorse. And, he would also make very blatant racist remarks such as, “who cares if one less nigger is born.” That’s not exactly the kind of remark you would expect from a doctor. But Massof did actually tell me that he never did have a Medical Degree. He said that Gosnell had promised to help him get his MD license. That’s why he took that job. He went to medical school in Belize and he needed an American doctor to sponsor him. But he enjoyed having all the inmates refer to him as “Doc.”