The New York Ripper

A decomposed hand is found in New York City and identified as model Ann Linn. Lieutenant Fred Williams, a burned-out detective, interviews Ann's nosy landlady Mrs. Weissburger, who recalls a phone call Ann had with someone speaking in a duck like voice. The discovery sets the hunt for a serial killer in motion.

On the Staten Island Ferry, a young woman is eviscerated by an unseen attacker. The pathologist notes that the killer is left-handed and uses the same technique as Ann Linn. Williams goes to the press to warn of a possible serial killer, but the police chief forbids public announcements, pushing Williams to seek help from Dr. Paul Davis.

Jane Lodge attends a live sex show in New Yorks red-light district and records the performers moans. After the show, the killer murders a female performer in her dressing room with a broken bottle. Mickey Scellenda watches from nearby as the killer remains at large.

That night the duck-voiced killer taunts Williams with a phone call from the apartment of Kitty, a prostitute he patronizes, hinting at the latest murder. The threat deepens Williams's sense of danger as the case widens.

Fay Majors is accosted by Scellenda on the subway and left with a deep leg wound. She later enters an empty cinema where she hallucinates a man repeatedly attacking her with a straight razor, and wakes in a hospital with her leg being tended. Peter visits, and Fay tells Williams that the duck voiced attacker and the subway stalker may be the same person.

Jane continues her sexual escapades and ends up with Scellenda in a sleazy hotel for BDSM. While he is asleep, Jane slips from the room and is killed by the Ripper in the hotel hallway.

Williams identifies Scellenda as the man with missing fingers, a Greek immigrant with a history of sexual assault and drug abuse. Dr. Davis doubts that Scellenda is intelligent enough to be the killer, but his potential involvement cannot be discounted.

A misleading lead delays progress, and Williams realizes the Ripper's next target is Kitty, but he arrives too late to prevent her murder.

Scellenda is found dead and the autopsy reveals he killed himself days before Kitty's murder, ruling him out as the Ripper.

Dr. Davis completes a profile of the killer: an intelligent young person who hates young, sexually active women and shadowed Scellenda to identify potential victims and frame him.

With the hint of Fay and Peters high IQ, Williams and Davis suspect the couple and discover Suzy, Peters terminally ill daughter from a previous relationship, which deepens the mystery.

Fay correctly guesses Peter's identity as the Ripper, setting the stage for a final confrontation.

As Peter is about to kill Fay, Williams and Davis arrive and shoot Peter in the face, ending the immediate threat. Davis consoles Fay and Suzy attempts to call Peter from her hospital room, but the call goes unanswered.

With Peter dead, the investigation turns to the tangled web of relationships and past crimes, leaving Fay with trauma and the sense that the killer may still be out there.