title: Ethylene glycol

text: According to most sources, French chemist Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1817–1884) first prepared ethylene glycol in 1856. He first treated "ethylene iodide" () with silver acetate and then hydrolyzed the resultant "ethylene diacetate" with potassium hydroxide. Wurtz named his new compound "glycol" because it shared qualities with both ethyl alcohol (with one hydroxyl group) and glycerin (with three hydroxyl groups). In 1859, Wurtz prepared ethylene glycol via the hydration of ethylene oxide. There appears to have been no commercial manufacture or application of ethylene glycol prior to World War I, when it was synthesized from ethylene dichloride in Germany and used as a substitute for glycerol in the explosives industry.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: In the United States, semicommercial production of ethylene glycol via ethylene chlorohydrin started in 1917. The first large-scale commercial glycol plant was erected in 1925 at South Charleston, West Virginia, by Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Co. (now Union Carbide Corp.). By 1929, ethylene glycol was being used by almost all dynamite manufacturers. In 1937, Carbide started up the first plant based on Lefort's process for vapor-phase oxidation of ethylene to ethylene oxide. Carbide maintained a monopoly on the direct oxidation process until 1953 when the Scientific Design process was commercialized and offered for licensing.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: The major use of ethylene glycol is as an antifreeze agent in the coolant in for example, automobiles and air-conditioning systems that either place the chiller or air handlers outside or must cool below the freezing temperature of water. In geothermal heating/cooling systems, ethylene glycol is the fluid that transports heat through the use of a geothermal heat pump. The ethylene glycol either gains energy from the source (lake, ocean, water well) or dissipates heat to the sink, depending on whether the system is being used for heating or cooling.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Pure ethylene glycol has a specific heat capacity about one half that of water. So, while providing freeze protection and an increased boiling point, ethylene glycol lowers the specific heat capacity of water mixtures relative to pure water. A 1:1 mix by mass has a specific heat capacity of about 3140 J/(kg·°C) (0.75 BTU/(lb·°F)), three quarters that of pure water, thus requiring increased flow rates in same-system comparisons with water.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: The mixture of ethylene glycol with water provides additional benefits to coolant and antifreeze solutions, such as preventing corrosion and acid degradation, as well as inhibiting the growth of most microbes and fungi. Mixtures of ethylene glycol and water are sometimes informally referred to in industry as glycol concentrates, compounds, mixtures, or solutions.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Pure ethylene glycol freezes at about −12 °C (10.4 °F) but, when mixed with water, the mixture freezes at a lower temperature. For example, a mixture of 60% ethylene glycol and 40% water freezes at −45 °C (−49 °F). Diethylene glycol behaves similarly. The freezing point depression of some mixtures can be explained as a colligative property of solutions but, in highly concentrated mixtures such as the example, deviations from ideal solution behavior are expected due to the influence of intermolecular forces. It's important to note that though pure and distilled water will have a greater specific heat capacity than any mixture of antifreeze and water, commercial antifreezes also typically contain an anti-corrosive additive to prevent pure water from corroding coolant passages in the engine block, cylinder head(s), water pump and radiator.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: There is a difference in the mixing ratio, depending on whether it is ethylene glycol or propylene glycol. For ethylene glycol, the mixing ratios are typically 30/70 and 35/65, whereas the propylene glycol mixing ratios are typically 35/65 and 40/60. It is important that the mixture be frost-proof at the lowest operating temperature.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Because of the depressed freezing temperatures, ethylene glycol is used as a de-icing fluid for windshields and aircraft, as an antifreeze in automobile engines, and as a component of vitrification (anticrystallization) mixtures for low-temperature preservation of biological tissues and organs.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: The use of ethylene glycol not only depresses the freezing point of aqueous mixtures, but also elevates their boiling point. This results in the operating temperature range for heat-transfer fluids being broadened on both ends of the temperature scale. The increase in boiling temperature is due to pure ethylene glycol having a much higher boiling point and lower vapor pressure than pure water, as is typical with most binary mixtures of volatile liquids.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: In the plastic industry, ethylene glycol is an important precursor to polyester fibers and resins. Polyethylene terephthalate, used to make plastic bottles for soft drinks, is prepared from ethylene glycol.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Ethylene glycol is used in the natural gas industry to remove water vapor from natural gas before further processing, in much the same manner as triethylene glycol (TEG).


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Because of its high boiling point and affinity for water, ethylene glycol is a useful desiccant. Ethylene glycol is widely used to inhibit the formation of natural gas clathrates (hydrates) in long multiphase pipelines that convey natural gas from remote gas fields to a gas processing facility. Ethylene glycol can be recovered from the natural gas and reused as an inhibitor after purification treatment that removes water and inorganic salts.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Natural gas is dehydrated by ethylene glycol. In this application, ethylene glycol flows down from the top of a tower and meets a rising mixture of water vapor and hydrocarbon gases. Dry gas exits from the top of the tower. The glycol and water are separated, and the glycol recycled. Instead of removing water, ethylene glycol can also be used to depress the temperature at which hydrates are formed. The purity of glycol used for hydrate suppression (monoethylene glycol) is typically around 80%, whereas the purity of glycol used for dehydration (triethylene glycol) is typically 95 to more than 99%. Moreover, the injection rate for hydrate suppression is much lower than the circulation rate in a glycol dehydration tower.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Minor uses of ethylene glycol include the manufacture of capacitors, as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of 1,4-dioxane, as an additive to prevent corrosion in liquid cooling systems for personal computers, and inside the lens devices of cathode-ray tube type of rear projection televisions. Ethylene glycol is also used in the manufacture of some vaccines, but it is not itself present in these injections. It is used as a minor (1–2%) ingredient in shoe polish and also in some inks and dyes. Ethylene glycol has seen some use as a rot and fungal treatment for wood, both as a preventative and a treatment after the fact. It has been used in a few cases to treat partially rotted wooden objects to be displayed in museums. It is one of only a few treatments that are successful in dealing with rot in wooden boats, and is relatively cheap. Ethylene glycol may also be one of the minor ingredients in screen cleaning solutions, along with the main ingredient isopropyl alcohol. Ethylene glycol is commonly used as a preservative for biological specimens, especially in secondary schools during dissection as a safer alternative to formaldehyde. It is also used as part of the water-based hydraulic fluid used to control subsea oil and gas production equipment.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Ethylene glycol is used as a protecting group in organic synthesis to protect carbonyl compounds such as ketones and aldehydes.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Silicon dioxide reacts in heated reflux under dinitrogen with ethylene glycol and an alkali metal base to produce highly reactive, pentacoordinate silicates which provide access to a wide variety of new silicon compounds. The silicates are essentially insoluble in all polar solvents except methanol.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: It also can be used in vaccine manufacture or as a formaldehyde substitute when preserving biological specimens.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Ethylene glycol is used as a protecting group for carbonyl groups in organic synthesis. Treating a ketone or aldehyde with ethylene glycol in the presence of an acid catalyst (e.g., p-toluenesulfonic acid; BF·EtO) gives the corresponding a 1,3-dioxolane, which is resistant to bases and other nucleophiles. The 1,3-dioxolane protecting group can thereafter be removed by further acid hydrolysis. In this example, isophorone was protected using ethylene glycol with p-toluenesulfonic acid in moderate yield. Water was removed by azeotropic distillation to shift the equilibrium to the right.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Ethylene glycol has relatively high mammalian toxicity when ingested, roughly on par with methanol, with an oral LD = 786 mg/kg for humans. The major danger is due to its sweet taste, which can attract children and animals. Upon ingestion, ethylene glycol is oxidized to glycolic acid, which is, in turn, oxidized to oxalic acid, which is toxic. It and its toxic byproducts first affect the central nervous system, then the heart, and finally the kidneys. Ingestion of sufficient amounts is fatal if untreated. Several deaths are recorded annually in the U.S. alone.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Antifreeze products for automotive use containing propylene glycol in place of ethylene glycol are available. They are generally considered safer to use, as propylene glycol is not as palatable and is converted in the body to lactic acid, a normal product of metabolism and exercise.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Australia, the UK, and seventeen US states (as of 2012) require the addition of a bitter flavoring (denatonium benzoate) to antifreeze. In December 2012, US antifreeze manufacturers agreed voluntarily to add a bitter flavoring to all antifreeze that is sold in the consumer market of the US.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Several hundred children died of acute kidney failure in Indonesia and Gambia because the paracetamol syrup made by New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals contained ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, ingredients that have been linked to child deaths from acute kidney injury in The Gambia.


title: Ethylene glycol

text: Ethylene glycol is a high-production-volume chemical; it breaks down in air in about 10 days and in water or soil in a few weeks. It enters the environment through the dispersal of ethylene glycol-containing products, especially at airports, where it is used in de-icing agents for runways and airplanes. While prolonged low doses of ethylene glycol show no toxicity, at near lethal doses (≥ 1000 mg/kg per day) ethylene glycol acts as a teratogen. "Based on a rather extensive database, it induces skeletal variations and malformations in rats and mice by all routes of exposure." This molecule has been observed in outer space.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The Long Island serial killer (also referred to as LISK, the Gilgo Beach Killer, the Manorville Butcher, and the Craigslist Ripper) is an unidentified suspected serial killer who is believed to have murdered between 10 and 16 people over a period of nearly 20 years, and to have disposed of their bodies in areas on the South Shore of Long Island, New York. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The victims' remains were found over a period of months in 2010 and 2011, after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert resulted in a police search of the area along the Ocean Parkway, near the remote beach towns of Gilgo and Oak Beach in Suffolk County. The remains of four victims designated "The Gilgo Four" were found within a quarter of a mile of each other near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Six more sets of remains were found in March and April 2011 in Suffolk and Nassau counties. Police believe the latter sets of remains predate the four bodies found in December 2010.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Gilbert's remains were found a year after the remains of "The Gilgo Four" were discovered. Her cause of death remains contested, with police claiming accidental drowning while an independent autopsy determined possible strangulation.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The first discovery of human remains was made by the side of Ocean Parkway in Oak Beach on December 11, 2010. The investigation was prompted by the search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker who had disappeared in the area in May that year after fleeing from a client's home and making a 23-minute-long emergency call to 911, saying, "They are trying to kill me." A month after her disappearance, the Suffolk County Police Department's missing persons bureau asked Officer John Mallia to search for Gilbert with his trained cadaver dog, a German Shepherd named Blue. Over the course of summer 2010, Mallia unsuccessfully searched the gated beach community where Gilbert had last been seen. The officer made a new attempt at a search on December 11, 2010, staying close to the shoulder of the parkway. Mallia based his choice of search area on FBI data indicating that dumped bodies are frequently found close to roadways. Despite thick vegetation and a light layer of snow, Mallia's cadaver dog alerted to a scent which the pair tracked to a skeleton in a disintegrating burlap bag. The remains were later identified as Melissa Barthelemy's. Police discovered three additional bodies while searching the scene for further evidence. The bodies of the four victims – Maureen Brainard, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello – were found approximately from each other.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: In March 2011, partial remains of Jessica Taylor were found along Ocean Parkway; eight years earlier, in 2003, other parts of Taylor's remains had been found in Manorville, a town in Suffolk County. The next month, in April 2011, police discovered three additional sets of remains: an unidentified female toddler, an unidentified Asian person, and Valerie Mack, partial remains of whom – like those of Jessica Taylor – had been found in Manorville years earlier in November, 2000. Two more bodies were found in Nassau County; an unidentified woman whose partial remains had previously been found on Fire Island in 1996, and an unidentified woman with a distinctive tattoo of peaches who was later found to be the mother of the unidentified toddler found in Suffolk County.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On May 9, 2011, police speculated that because of similarities in the cases, Valerie Mack (who at the time was unidentified) and Jessica Taylor may have been murdered by a second, separate killer. On November 29, 2011, however, police announced that they believed one person to be responsible for all ten murders, and that the perpetrator is almost certainly from Long Island. The single killer theory stems from common characteristics between the condition of the remains and forensic evidence related to the bodies.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: In June 2011, Suffolk County police announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the Long Island murders.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Shannan Gilbert's remains were finally located in Oak Beach in December 2011, 19 months after her disappearance. The cause of her death is contested.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On December 10, 2015, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini announced that the FBI had officially joined the investigation. The announcement came one day after former police chief James Burke was indicted for civil rights violations and conspiracy. Burke, who resigned from the department in October 2015, was reported to have blocked FBI involvement in the LISK cases for years. The FBI had previously assisted in the search for victims but had never officially been a part of the investigation. In November 2016, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for assault and conspiracy.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On September 12, 2017, Suffolk County prosecutor Robert Biancavilla from the county district attorney's office announced that John Bittrolff, a carpenter from Manorville, Long Island, was a suspect in at least one of the LISK murders. Bittroff had been convicted in May of that year of the murders of two sex workers in 1993 and 1994.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On January 16, 2020, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart released images of a belt found at the crime scene with the letters "HM" or "WH" (depending on the orientation of the belt) embossed in black leather. The belt had been found during the initial investigation near Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach. Police believe that the belt was handled by the perpetrator and that it had not belonged to any of the victims. The police revealed few details about the belt's evidentiary value and would not comment on exactly where it had been found. It was also announced that new scientific evidence was being used in the investigation and that they had launched "Gilgonews.com", a website enabling the department to share news and receive tips regarding the investigation.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: In June 2019, a proposal was made to use genetic genealogy to identify the unidentified victims and possibly the killer in the LISK case. On May 28, 2020, "Jane Doe No. 6" was identified as Valerie Mack, who also went by the name of Melissa Taylor.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Brainard-Barnes of Norwich, Connecticut, was 25 when she disappeared. She was last seen on July 9, 2007, saying that she planned "to spend the day in New York City." She was never seen again. Brainard-Barnes, a mother of two, worked as a paid escort via Craigslist to pay the mortgage on her house. She had been out of the sex industry for seven months but she returned to the work in order to pay her bills after receiving an eviction notice. Her body was found in December 2010. Shortly after her disappearance, a friend of Brainard-Barnes's, Sara Karnes, received a phone call from a man on an unfamiliar number. The man claimed that he had just seen Brainard-Barnes and that she was alive and staying at a "whorehouse in Queens". He refused to identify himself and could not tell Karnes the location of the house. He told Karnes he would call back and give her the address, but never called again. Karnes said that the man had no discernible New York or Boston accent.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: At the time of her disappearance, she was working at a Super 8 motel in Manhattan. On the night of July 9, 2007, she called a friend in Connecticut and told her that she was planning on meeting a client outside of the motel.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Barthelemy, 24, of Erie County, New York, went missing on July 12, 2009. She had been living in the Bronx in New York and working as an escort through Craigslist. On the night she went missing, she met with a client, deposited $900 in her bank account, and attempted to call an old boyfriend, but did not get through. Beginning one week later, and lasting for five weeks, her teenage sister, Amanda, received a series of "vulgar, mocking and insulting" calls from a man, who may have been the killer using Melissa Barthelemy's cell phone. The caller asked if Amanda, "was a whore like her sister." The calls became increasingly disturbing, and eventually culminated in the caller telling Amanda that her sister was dead, and that he was going to "watch her rot." Police traced some of the calls to Madison Square Garden, midtown Manhattan, and Massapequa, but were unable to determine who was making the calls. Barthelemy's mother noted that there were, "a lot of calls to Manorville" from her daughter's phone around the time of her disappearance. In September 2017, John Bittrolff, a carpenter from that town convicted of two other murders, was named as a suspect in the LISK cases.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Waterman, 22, of South Portland, Maine, went missing on June 6, 2010, after placing advertisements on Craigslist as an escort. The previous day she had told her 20-year-old boyfriend that she was going out and would call him later. At the time of her disappearance, she was staying at a motel in Hauppauge, New York, 15 miles northeast of Gilgo Beach. Her body was recovered in December 2010. Waterman was a mother of one and had become a victim of sex trafficking. Waterman was tall. She had been strangled.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Costello, 27, of West Babylon, New York, a town ten miles north of Gilgo Beach, was a sex worker and heroin user who went missing on September 2, 2010. That night she reportedly went to meet a stranger who had called her several times and offered $1,500 for her services. Born in Charlotte and raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, Costello was living in West Babylon, New York when she disappeared. Her family believed that she was in a residential drug rehabilitation center and so she was not immediately reported missing when she stopped responding to messages and phone calls. Prior to moving to West Babylon, Costello had been living with her second husband in Clearwater, Florida, and was working as a waitress. A strong student, Costello's drug addiction began when she was a teenager. She had been sexually assaulted by a neighbor when she was 6 years old.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Four more sets of remains were discovered on March 29 and April 4, 2011. All of the remains were found in another area off the parkway, near Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach, within two miles and to the east of those found in December 2010. The newly-discovered victims were Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, an unidentified woman designated "Jane Doe No. 3" or "Peaches", and an unidentified toddler who was the daughter of "Peaches". Suffolk Police subsequently expanded the search area up to the Nassau County border, looking for more victims.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Two further sets of remains were discovered on April 11, 2011, after the search expanded into Nassau County. They were found about one mile apart, approximately five miles west of those found in December. One set of remains belonged to a victim now thought to be a trans woman. Designated "Asian Male," police said that the victim had been dead for between five and ten years. The other remains were those of "Jane Doe No. 7" whose partial remains had been discovered on Fire Island in 1996.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Taylor was 20 years old and living in Manhattan when she went missing on July 21, 2003. On July 26, 2003, her naked and dismembered torso, missing its head and hands, was discovered east of Gilgo Beach in Manorville, New York; these remains were identified by DNA analysis later that year. Taylor's torso was found atop a pile of scrap wood at the end of a paved access road off Halsey Manor Road, just north of where it crosses the Long Island Expressway. Plastic sheeting was found underneath the torso, and a tattoo on her body had been mutilated with a sharp instrument.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Further remains found on March 29, 2011, at Gilgo, including the remains of a skull, a pair of hands, and a forearm were matched to Taylor. She had worked in Washington, D.C., and Manhattan as a sex worker.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Taylor was last seen working around the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan between July 18 and 22, 2003.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Mack, 24, also known as Melissa Taylor, was living in Philadelphia and working as an escort when she went missing in 2000. Like many of the victims, she was small in stature at approximately and weighing approximately .


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Mack's partial remains were discovered in Manorville on November 19, 2000, but were not identified until 2020. Her torso was found wrapped in garbage bags and dumped in the woods near the intersection of Halsey Manor Road and Mill Road, adjacent to a set of power lines and a nearby power line access road.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: A head, right foot, and hands, found on April 4, 2011, were at first determined to have belonged to an unidentified victim, dubbed "Jane Doe No. 6"; it was later determined that they belonged to the same woman whose torso had been found in 2000. Her right foot had been cut off high above the ankle, possibly to conceal an identifying mark or tattoo. On May 28, 2020, police announced that the remains had been identified as Valerie Mack, who had last been seen by family members in the spring or summer of 2000 in the area of Port Republic, New Jersey.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The dismembered remains of Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor were both disposed of in a similar manner, and in the same part of Manorville, suggesting a link.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On September 20, 2011, police released composite sketches of two of the unidentified victims (dubbed "Asian male" and "Jane Doe No. 6") whose remains had been found in March and April 2011, as well as photos of jewelry found on the remains of a female toddler and her mother, "Jane Doe No. 3," found on April 4 and 11, respectively. One of the sets of remains found in Nassau County on April 11 was later identified as the mother of the toddler.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On April 11, 2011, police in Nassau County discovered dismembered skeletal human remains inside a plastic bag near Jones Beach State Park. The victim was dubbed "Jane Doe No. 3." DNA analysis later positively indicated that the remains belonged to a woman whose torso had been found in Hempstead Lake State Park fourteen years earlier. On June 28, 1997, the dismembered torso of an unidentified young African-American woman was found at Hempstead Lake State Park, in the town of Lakeview, New York. The torso was found in a green plastic Rubbermaid container, which was dumped next to a road along the west side of the lake. Investigators reported that the victim had a tattoo on her left breast of a heart-shaped peach with a bite out of it and two drips falling from its core.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: In December 2016, "Peaches" and "Jane Doe No. 3" were positively identified as being the same person. DNA analysis also identified "Peaches" as the mother of "Baby Doe;" she was found wearing gold jewelry similar to that of her daughter.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: A third set of remains – the skeleton of a female toddler between 16 and 24 months of age (or, by another account, 1 to 4 years of age) – was found on April 4, 2011, about away from the partial remains of Valerie Mack. The body was wrapped in a blanket and showed no visible signs of trauma. DNA tests determined that the child's mother was "Jane Doe No. 3," whose body was found east, near Jones Beach State Park. The toddler was reported to be African-American and was wearing gold earrings and a gold necklace.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The body of a young Asian male who had died from blunt-force trauma was also discovered on April 4, 2011, at Gilgo Beach, very close to where the first four sets of remains had been discovered in December 2010. The victim was found wearing women's clothing. He was between 17 and 23 years of age, in height, missing four teeth, and may have had a musculoskeletal disorder which would have affected his gait. He had been dead for between five and 10 years. In September 2011, police released a composite sketch of the victim.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: A human skull and several teeth were recovered on April 11, 2011, at Tobay Beach. These remains were linked through DNA testing to a set of severed legs found in a garbage bag on Fire Island 15 years earlier, on April 20, 1996. Jane Doe No. 7's remains were the second set to be discovered in Nassau County on April 11, 2011. Jane Doe No. 7 had a surgical scar on her left leg.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On December 13, 2011, police announced that the remains of Shannan Gilbert had been found in a marsh about half a mile from where she had disappeared. A week earlier, some of her clothing and belongings had been discovered in the same vicinity. Gilbert was last seen banging on a resident's door and screaming for help before running off into the night. Gilbert made an emergency 9-1-1 call that night, saying that she feared for her life.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Police have stated that the death of Gilbert, an escort whose disappearance triggered the search during which the first set of bodies was found, is not related to the Long Island serial killer case. Gilbert's now-deceased mother Mari Gilbert, however, strongly advocated for the theory that Shannan Gilbert had been murdered by a serial killer.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: 19-year-old Tina Foglia was last seen alive in the early morning hours of February 1, 1982, at the Hammerheads rock music venue on Sunrise Highway, West Islip. She had hitchhiked from her home to the venue to see a friend performing with a Queens-based band, Equinox. Her remains were discovered by Department of Transportation workers on February 3 on a shoulder of the Sagtikos State Parkway in Suffolk County. Her dismembered body, which had been placed in three separate plastic garbage bags, was found a few miles north of the Robert Moses Causeway, which leads to Gilgo Beach and Oak Beach.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: A diamond ring that Foglia was known to wear was missing, and the DNA of an unknown male was found on the garbage bags. Police have not ruled out the possibility that Tina Foglia was an early victim of the Long Island Serial Killer but have stated that a connection is, "not an active avenue of the investigation."


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Shannan Maria Gilbert (October 24, 1986 – May 1, 2010) was an escort who may have been a victim of the Long Island serial killer. She left for a client's residence in Oak Beach after midnight on May 1, 2010. At 4:51 in the morning, 911 dispatchers received a panicked phone call from Gilbert who can be heard saying that there was someone "after her" and that "they" were trying to kill her. She was last seen a short time later banging on the front door of a nearby Oak Beach residence and screaming for help before running off into the night. After nineteen months of searching, police found Gilbert's remains in a marsh, half a mile from where she was last seen. In May 2012, the Suffolk County medical examiners ruled that Gilbert accidentally drowned after entering the marsh. They believe that she was in a drug induced panic, and have concluded that hers was "death by misadventure" or "inconclusive." Her family believes she was murdered. On November 15, 2012, a lawsuit was filed by her mother, Mari Gilbert, against the Suffolk County Police Department in the hopes of getting more answers about what happened to her daughter the night she went missing. Due to the controversy about Gilbert's death, in September 2014, famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden agreed to conduct an independent autopsy of Gilbert's remains in hopes of determining a clear cause of death. Upon examination of Gilbert's remains, Baden found damage to her hyoid bone, suggesting that strangulation may have occurred. Baden also noted that her body was found face-up, which is not common for drowning victims. Despite this, her death is still officially listed by police as an accident.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On July 23, 2016, Mari Gilbert was murdered in her home in Ellenville, New York. Later that day, her younger daughter, Sarra Elizabeth Gilbert, was arrested and charged with the stabbing death of her mother.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On May 6, 2020, the New York State Supreme Court ordered Suffolk County Police to release Gilbert's 911 call recording, denying their request to withhold it after more than 10 years. The tapes were released to Gilbert's estate attorney, John Ray a short time later. Under the court order, Ray is barred from discussing the specifics of the call. He did, however, comment that the nature of the calls contradict what Suffolk Police Detective Vincent Stephan had described in earlier reports about the calls from that morning. Specifically, Gilbert's tone had been described by Detective Stephan as calm, and indicated no desperation. After reviewing the tapes, Ray claimed that this was not true.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Andre Isaac was a professional drag queen known by his stage name, Sugar Bear. He was 6'5" inches tall and was 25-years-old when he disappeared from East New York in November 2002. Isaac's torso was found close to the boardwalk on Beach 63 Street in Arverne, Queens on December 17, 2002. On January 25, 2003, his head was discovered by ice skaters in East Millpond in Moriches, New York in Suffolk County, with a single bullet wound to a temple. His arms and legs were later found several miles away in plastic bags.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Jacqueline Smith, 16, was last seen in Brooklyn, New York on August 7, 1999. She had left her home at 9pm to visit friends and never came back. She was reported missing on August 12, 1999. On June 20, 2000, an unidentified female torso was recovered near Beach 88th Street in Rockaway Beach, Queens, NY. The torso was found in plastic bags and wrapped with tape. No other body parts were recovered. The case was previously listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as case #UP6058. The victim was later identified as Jacqueline Smith. Two years later, the torso of Andre Isaac was also recovered in Rockaway not far from where Jacqueline was found.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On June 23, 2008, Tanya Rush, 39, was last seen around 3 a.m. walking towards a subway station in Brooklyn. Her dismembered body was found by a state road-cleaning crew inside a black canvas suitcase on June 27, 2008, in plain sight on the Newbridge Road ramp leading to the westbound Southern State Parkway in Bellmore, New York. Rush was a mother of three who had been a Salvation Army volunteer and had worked in telemarketing. She took up sex work to support a drug addiction. Rush was African-American and lived in the Van Dyke Houses, a Brownsville public housing complex in Brooklyn, New York.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On January 23, 2013, a woman walking her dog found human remains in a small patch of brush in a sandy area along the shore at the end of Sheep Lane in Lattingtown, near Oyster Bay. The skeletal remains showed signs of trauma and were wrapped in a particular type of material that police have not disclosed. The remains are believed to be those of a woman between the ages of 20 and 30 who was possibly Asian. She was wearing a 22-karat solid gold pig pendant which may be related to the Chinese zodiac "Year of the Pig." The relevant birth years are 1971, 1983 and 1995, possibly suggesting that the woman died at the age of 29. Investigators believe that her body had been dumped before Hurricane Sandy in late 2012. Her case may be connected to the other 10 bodies found away in and around Gilgo Beach, though unlike the other victims, her body was buried rather than left above ground.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On March 3, 2007, a suitcase containing the dismembered torso of an unidentified Hispanic or light-skinned African-American woman washed up on a beach at Harbor Island Park, in the town of Mamaroneck. The victim had a tattoo of two cherries on her left breast, similar in appearance to the tattoo found on "Peaches." She was determined to have been stabbed to death. Never identified, the victim is referred to as "Cherries" by investigators. One of her dismembered legs washed up at Cold Spring Harbor on March 21, 2007, and the other at Oyster Bay in the village of Cove Neck the following day. "Cherries" was dismembered in a fashion similar to three other victims (Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and "Peaches") meaning she may be linked to the other official victims.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The media has speculated about a profile of the killer, referred to by police as "Joe C" (unknown subject). According to the "New York Times," the perpetrator is most likely a white male who would have been in his mid-twenties to mid-forties and who is very familiar with the South Shore of Long Island. He had access to burlap sacks, which he used to hold the bodies for disposal. He may have a detailed knowledge of law enforcement techniques, and perhaps ties to law enforcement, which have thus far helped him avoid detection.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: "Newsday" reporters speculated that serial killer Joel Rifkin, a former resident on Long Island, may have been responsible for some of the older remains found in March and April 2011. Four of the victims' complete bodies have never been found. In an April 2011 prison interview with "Newsday", Rifkin denied having anything to do with recently discovered remains.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: On September 12, 2017, Suffolk County prosecutor Robert Biancavilla said that John Bittrolff, a Suffolk county resident convicted of murdering two prostitutes and suspected in the murder of a third, was a suspect in at least one of the LISK murders. Biancavilla stated that Bittrolff was likely responsible for the deaths of other women, and that there were similarities between the Gilgo Beach crime scenes and Bittrolff's known murders, for which he was convicted in May 2017 and sentenced in September.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Bittrolff was arrested in 2014 after his DNA was found on two murdered women, Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee, whose bodies were found in 1993 and 1994, respectively. (The match had been made through DNA submitted by his brother, who was convicted in 2013 in an unrelated case.) Bittrolff was convicted in May 2017 of these murders, and in September sentenced to consecutive terms of 25 years for each murder. The Suffolk County police did not comment on the prosecutor's statement, due to the active homicide investigation of the LISK murders. Bittrolff's attorney rejected the prosecutor's assertion.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Bittrolff lived in Manorville, three miles from where the torsos of LISK victims Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack were recovered. Bittrolff was a hunter who was said to enjoy killing animals. He was a carpenter by trade with access to hacksaws and electric saws. Because many of the bodies were found precisely dismembered, his access to and proficiency with these tools is of note.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: The grown daughter of Rita Tangredi, who was murdered by Bittrolff, was also the best friend of Melissa Barthelemy, who was one of the Gilgo Beach victims. Barthelemy's mother said that her daughter Melissa "had a lot of calls to Manorville from her phone" before her death.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Joseph Brewer, an Oak Beach resident, was one of the last people known to have seen Shannan Gilbert alive. He hired her as an escort from Craigslist on the night of her disappearance. Brewer said that shortly after Gilbert arrived at his residence, she began acting erratically and fled his home. Gilbert was reportedly seen running through Oak Beach, pounding on the doors of homes in Brewer's neighborhood. Around this time, Gilbert called 9-1-1, saying that "they were trying to kill her". Police, however, did not find any evidence of wrongdoing, and Brewer was quickly cleared as a suspect. It is important to note that Gilbert is not a confirmed victim.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was reported to have blocked an FBI probe of the LISK case during his time as police chief.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: In November 2016, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for assault and conspiracy. Burke violently assaulted a man in custody who had stolen a duffel bag from his police vehicle. The duffel bag contained sex toys, a pornographic DVD with snuff and Viagra. Burke pleaded guilty in February 2016 to charges of a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Thomas Spota, the then-district attorney in Suffolk County, was convicted in December 2019 of conspiracy to cover up Burke's violent assault. Christopher McPartland, who had been Suffolk County’s top anticorruption prosecutor, was also convicted in the conspiracy.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: In December 2016, an attorney for Shannan Gilbert's family reported that an escort had stated that she suspected that Burke might be connected to the LISK cases. The escort, who identified herself as "Leanne," stated that at one party she had attended in April 2011 in Oak Beach she had seen Burke drag a woman of Asian appearance by the hair to the ground. Leanne said that when she saw Burke at a later party in August 2011, she decided to engage in sexual activity with him. She described an experience in which Burke violently yanked her head during oral sex to the point where she began to tear up. Burke was unable to reach orgasm and proceeded to throw $300–400 at her afterwards. At the time she was not a professional prostitute and she states that this was the first time she was paid for sex.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Two days after Gilbert's disappearance, Peter Hackett, a neighbor of Joseph Brewer who was a former physician and who had worked for Suffolk County as a police surgeon, phoned Shannan Gilbert's mother, Mari Gilbert. Mari Gilbert later recounted that Hackett said that he was taking care of Shannan, that he "ran a home for wayward girls," and that he had given her medication because she was distressed. Three days later, Hackett called Mari Gilbert again, denying that he had had any contact with her daughter and that he had previously phoned her.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Investigators later confirmed through phone records that Hackett had indeed called Mari Gilbert twice following her daughter's disappearance. The marshy area where Gilbert's remains were found was near Hackett's backyard, and her personal items and clothing were found directly behind his property in the marsh. Gilbert's family filed a wrongful death suit against Hackett in November 2012, claiming that he took Gilbert into his home that morning and administered drugs to her, facilitating her death. The lawsuit was dismissed because it could not be proven that Hackett had administered drugs or treatment to Gilbert.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Later police revealed that Hackett had a history of inserting himself into, or exaggerating his role in, certain major events. Police later ruled out Hackett as a suspect in the deaths of Gilbert and the LISK victims. Hackett left Oak Beach and moved to Florida with his family not long after Gilbert's disappearance.


title: Long Island serial killer

text: Two days after Shannan Gilbert's remains were found, businessman James Bissett died by suicide in his car at Mattituck park. One of Bissett's businesses was a plant nursery which was the main supplier of burlap in the region. Many of the victims' remains were found wrapped in burlap.


title: Back in Black

text: Back in Black is the seventh studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. It was released on 25 July 1980 by Albert Productions and Atlantic Records. It is the band's first album to feature lead singer Brian Johnson, following the death of previous lead singer Bon Scott.


title: Back in Black

text: After the commercial breakthrough of their 1979 album "Highway to Hell", AC/DC was planning to record a follow-up, but in February 1980, Scott died from alcohol poisoning after a drinking binge. Instead of disbanding, they decided to continue on and recruited Johnson, who was previously vocalist for Geordie.


title: Back in Black

text: The album was composed by Johnson, Angus and Malcolm Young, and recorded over seven weeks in the Bahamas from April to May 1980 with producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who had worked on their previous album "Highway to Hell". Following its completion, the group mixed "Back in Black" at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The album's all-black cover was designed as a "sign of mourning" for Scott.


title: Back in Black

text: As their sixth international studio release, "Back in Black" was an unprecedented success. It has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, and is one of the best-selling albums in music history. The band supported the album with a yearlong world tour, cementing them among the most popular music acts of the early 1980s. The album also received positive critical reception during its initial release, and it has since been included on numerous lists of "greatest" albums. Since its original release, the album has been reissued and remastered multiple times, most recently for digital distribution. On 9 December 2019, it was certified 25× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making it the fourth best-selling album in the United States and the best-selling album that never reached the top spot in the American charts.


title: Back in Black

text: AC/DC, formed in 1973, first broke into international markets in 1977 with their fourth album, "Let There Be Rock". By 1979, they were poised for greater success with their sixth, "Highway to Hell". Robert John "Mutt" Lange produced the record, making the band's sound more catchy and accessible, and it became their first gold album in the United States, selling over 500,000 copies, while also peaking at number 17 on that country's pop charts and number eight in the United Kingdom.


title: Back in Black

text: As the new decade approached, the group set off for the UK and France for the final tour dates of their breakthrough release. They planned to begin recording a follow-up shortly after its completion. On 19 February 1980, Scott went on a drinking binge in a London pub that caused him to lose consciousness, so a friend let him rest in the back of his Renault 5 overnight. The next morning, Scott was found unresponsive and rushed to King's College Hospital where medical personnel pronounced him dead on arrival. The coroner ruled that pulmonary aspiration of vomit was the cause of Scott's death, but the official cause was listed on the death certificate as "acute alcoholic poisoning" and classified as "death by misadventure". Scott was cremated and his ashes were interred by his family at Fremantle Cemetery in Fremantle, Western Australia. The loss devastated the band, who considered breaking up. However, friends and family persuaded them to carry on.


title: Back in Black

text: After Bon Scott's funeral, the band immediately began auditions for a replacement frontman. At the advice of Lange, the group brought in Geordie singer Brian Johnson, who impressed the group. After the band begrudgingly worked through the rest of the list of applicants in the following days, Johnson returned for a second rehearsal. On 29 March, Malcolm Young called the singer to offer him the job, to his surprise.


title: Back in Black

text: As the band commenced writing new material for the followup to "Highway to Hell", vocalist Bon Scott, who began his career as a drummer with The Spektors, recorded the drum tracks on demo recordings of "Let Me Put My Love into You" and "Have a Drink on Me".


title: Back in Black

text: In a 2021 interview with "Paste", Angus Young claimed that Scott's contributions to the album were limited to playing drums on early demo versions of the songs "Hells Bells" (instead of "Let Me Put My Love into You") and "Have a Drink on Me." However, this is contradicted by earlier statements by Young himself, including a 1991 interview with "Kerrang!" in which in response to a question about Bon having lyrical input on the album he said, "Bon wrote a little of the stuff." Jesse Fink's 2017 book "Bon: The Last Highway" examines the issue of the lyrics and Scott's possible involvement.


title: Back in Black

text: Rehearsals for "Back in Black" were scheduled over three weeks at London's E-Zee Hire Studios, but it was cut to one week when an opening came up at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, in the Bahamas. Although they preferred to record their next effort in the UK, there were no studios available, and the Bahamas presented a nice tax advantage.


title: Back in Black

text: "Back in Black" was recorded from mid-April to May 1980 at Compass Point with producer "Mutt" Lange. Upon their arrival, the area was being hit by several tropical storms, wreaking havoc on the studio's electricity. Johnson recalled that: "It was hardly any kind of studio, we were in these little concrete cells, comfy mind, you had a bed and a chair. And this big old black lady ran the whole place. Oh, she was fearsome, she ruled that place with a rod of iron. We had to lock the doors at night because she'd warned us about these Haitians who'd come down at night and rob the place. So she bought us all these six-foot fishing spears to keep at the fucking door! It was a bit of a stretch from Newcastle, I can tell you." In addition, their equipment was initially held up by customs, and other gear was slowly freighted over from the UK. Johnson felt pressure during the process, having never recorded with the group. None of Scott's writings were used for the album's lyrics, as the group felt it would seemingly profit from his passing. Johnson reported having trouble adjusting to the environment, and even referenced the bad weather on the opening lines of "Hells Bells" ("I'm rolling thunder, pourin' rain. I'm comin' on like a hurricane. My lightning's flashing across the sky. You're only young but you're gonna die.") Lange focused particular attention on Johnson's vocals, demanding perfection out of each take.


title: Back in Black

text: Near the end of the process, the band phoned manager Ian Jeffery in search of a bell to include on the album. Jeffery located a foundry to produce the bell, but with seven weeks having already gone by, he suggested Platt record a nearby church's bells. These recordings did not suffice due to the sound of a flurry of birds flying away at each bell hit. The foundry brought forward production on the bell, which turned out perfectly tuned, and it was recorded with Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio. Following the recording's completion, the group mixed "Back in Black" at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.


title: Back in Black

text: According to Angus Young, the album's all-black cover was a "sign of mourning" for Scott. Atlantic Records disagreed with the cover, but accepted if the band put a grey outline around the AC/DC logo.


title: Back in Black

text: "Back in Black" was first released in the United States on 25 July 1980. Its release in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe followed on 31 July, and on 11 August in Australia. It was an immediate commercial success, debuting at number one on the British albums chart and reaching number four on the American chart—which "Rolling Stone" called "an exceptional showing for a heavy-metal album". It topped the British chart for two weeks and remained in the top 10 of the American chart for more than five months. In Australia, it reached number two on the ARIA Charts.


title: Back in Black

text: After "Back in Black" was released, AC/DC's previous records "Highway to Hell", "If You Want Blood You've Got It", and "Let There Be Rock" all re-entered the British charts, which made them the first band since The Beatles to have four albums in the British Top 100 simultaneously. "Back in Black"s American success prompted Atlantic, the band's US record company, to release their 1976 "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" album for the first time in the US; in May 1981 it surpassed "Back in Black" on the US chart at number three.


title: Back in Black

text: To promote the album, music videos were filmed for the songs "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Hells Bells", the title track, "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", "Let Me Put My Love into You", and "What Do You Do for Money Honey". Only the first four were released as singles. In the US, the single "You Shook Me All Night Long"/"Have a Drink on Me" became AC/DC's first Top 40 hit in the country, peaking at no. 35.


title: Back in Black

text: On 13 December 2007, the album was certified 22× multi-platinum by the RIAA, denoting 22 million American sales. This placed it sixth in the list of best-selling albums in the US. Worldwide, it went on to sell 50 million copies, leading "NME" journalist Mark Beaumont to call it "the biggest selling hard rock album ever made"; rock historian Brock Helander said it was possibly "the best-selling heavy-metal album in history".


title: Back in Black

text: Reviewing for "Rolling Stone" in 1980, David Fricke regarded "Back in Black" as "not only the best of AC/DC's six American albums" but "the apex of heavy-metal art: the first LP since "Led Zeppelin II" that captures all the blood, sweat and arrogance of the genre." Red Starr from "Smash Hits" was more critical, finding the songs indistinguishable from one another and marred by hypermasculine fantasies, rock music stock phrases, garish guitar, and dull rhythms, on "yet another triumph for lowest common denominator headbanging—the new thoroughly predictable, thoroughly dreadful AC/DC album." He gave the record a score of 3 out of 10.


title: Back in Black

text: In a retrospective review, "Rolling Stone" critic Christian Hoard praised the album as the band's greatest work, possibly "the leanest and meanest record of all time—balls-out arena rock that punks could love." Barry Walters from "Rolling Stone" said "Back in Black" "still sounds thoroughly timeless, the essence of unrepentantly simple but savagely crafted hard rock" and "a celebration of thrashing, animal sex", although he observed "mean-spirited sexism" on songs such as "What Do You Do for Money Honey" and "Given the Dog a Bone". Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic, finding the band somewhat too "primitive" and their sexual imagery "unimaginative". "Angus Young does come up with killer riffs", he wrote in "" (1990), "though not as consistently as a refined person like myself might hope, and lead singer Brian Johnson sings like there's a cattle prod at his scrotum, just the thing for fans who can't decide whether their newfound testosterone is agony or ecstasy."


title: Back in Black

text: As her favourite album, Kitty Empire of "The Observer" acknowledged "Back in Black" is "a preposterous, drongoid record ... built on casual sexism, eye-rolling double entendres, a highly questionable attitude to sexual consent ('Don't you struggle/ Don't you fight/ Don't you worry/ Cos it's your turn tonight') a penchant for firearms, and a crass celebration of the unthinking macho hedonism that killed the band's original singer." Nonetheless, she concurred with Fricke's original view of the album as a heavy metal masterpiece while naming it her favourite album ever, "the obsessive soundtrack of my adolescence, the racy middle-brow thriller that spoke to me both as a tomboy who wanted to be one of the guys, and the increasingly female ingenue who needed to work out the world of men. Plus teenagers love death."


title: Back in Black

text: The album is featured on many "best of" lists. In 1989, it was ranked No. 26 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the Eighties. The title track was ranked no. 190 on the same magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2001, VH1 ranked "Back in Black" No. 82 on its list of the Top 100 Albums. VH1 also placed the title track at No. 2 on its list of the 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 73 on "Rolling Stone"s list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", No. 77 in a 2012 revised list and No. 84 in a 2020 revised list. In 2006, "Q" placed the album at No. 9 in its list of the 40 Best Albums of the '80s. That same year, "Back in Black" was included by "Time" in its list of the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. It was listed at No. 2 in the book, "100 Best Australian Albums", in October 2010, and included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" in 2005.


title: Back in Black

text: "Back in Black" is an influential hard rock and heavy metal album. According to Tim Jonze of "The Guardian", it has been hailed by some as "a high watermark" for heavy metal music. "NME" regarded it as an important release in 1980s metal and heavy rock, naming it one of the 20 best metal albums of its decade, while "The Daily Telegraph" ranked it as one of the 20 greatest heavy metal albums of all time. Paul Brannigan of "Metal Hammer" cited it as one of the ten albums that helped reestablish the genre's global popularity in 1980, making it "the greatest year for heavy metal".


title: Back in Black

text: According to rock journalist Joe S. Harrington, "Back in Black" was released at a time when heavy metal stood at a turning point between a decline and a revival, as most bands in the genre were playing slower tempos and longer guitar solos, while AC/DC and Van Halen adopted punk rock's "high-energy implications" and "constricted their songs into more pop-oriented blasts". Harrington credited producer Lange for drawing AC/DC further away from the blues-oriented rock of their previous albums, and toward a more dynamic attack that concentrated and harmonized each element of the band: "the guitars were compacted into a singular statement of rhythmic efficiency, the rhythm section provided the thunderhorse overdrive, and vocalist Johnson belowed and brayed like the most unhinged practitioner of bluesy top-man dynamics since vintage Robert Plant." The resulting music, along with contemporaneous records by Motörhead and Ozzy Osbourne, helped revitalize and reintroduce metal to a younger generation of listeners, "eventually resulting in the punk-metal crossover personified by Metallica and others." In "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die" (2008), Tom Moon said "Back in Black"s "lean mean arena rock" and the production's "delicate balance of power and finesse" defined the commercial side of heavy music for years after its release."


title: Back in Black

text: Lange's production for the album had an enduring impact in the music industry; "to this day, producers still use it as the de facto paint-by-numbers guidebook for how a hard-rock record should sound", Harrington wrote. In the years after its release, studios in Nashville would use it to check the acoustics of a room, while Motörhead would use it to tune their sound system. American death metal group Six Feet Under recorded a cover of the entire album under the title "Graveyard Classics 2".


title: Back in Black

text: In December 2021, the album was listed at number one in "Rolling Stone Australia"s "200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time" countdown.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The Lonely Island is an American comedy trio, formed by Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone in Berkeley, California, in 2001. They have written for and starred in the American TV program "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL").


title: The Lonely Island

text: The three first met in junior high. After graduating from college, they regrouped and moved to Los Angeles, where they struggled to find work and began making short films, combining absurdist comedy and occasionally music. Among the first performers to post their material on the Internet, they involved themselves with Channel 101, a non-profit monthly short film festival. Their popularity at the screenings led to unsuccessful pilot deals with Fox and Comedy Central and a writing job for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. Subsequently, that show's host, Jimmy Fallon, recommended them to Lorne Michaels, the creator of "Saturday Night Live".


title: The Lonely Island

text: The group was hired for "SNL" in 2005, with all three as writers and Samberg as a featured player. Bypassing the traditional process of pitching, they recorded their own material independently and submitted it to the program. Their second sketch to air, "Lazy Sunday", became an internet sensation, the first of many viral videos they produced while at "SNL". They led their own division at the program — "SNL" Digital Shorts — which led to numerous viral videos, including "Motherlover", "Dick in a Box", "Jizz in My Pants", "I'm on a Boat", "Like a Boss", "I Just Had Sex", "Jack Sparrow", and "YOLO". Their musical comedic work has comprised four full studio albums: "Incredibad" (2009), "Turtleneck & Chain" (2011), "The Wack Album" (2013), and "The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience" (2019), along with a soundtrack album for their 2016 film "". The three retired from "SNL" in the early 2010s, but occasionally make guest appearances.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The troupe has written, directed and starred in two feature-length films, "Hot Rod", released in 2007, and "", co-produced by Judd Apatow and released in 2016. The group also produced the 2020 film "Palm Springs", starring Samberg and Cristin Milioti.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The Lonely Island first formed at Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, California, in the early 1990s. Schaffer and Taccone first met in seventh grade Spanish class, and the group later expanded to include Samberg, a year behind the two. The trio belonged to a large group of friends interested in skateboarding. Each had plans to pursue the arts following their graduation from Berkeley High School, but they split apart, attending different colleges. Taccone attended the University of California, Los Angeles to study theatre, while Schaffer and Samberg both attended the University of California, Santa Cruz as film students. Samberg later transferred to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in his sophomore year, with the three communicating over the phone during this period. Following college, the trio regrouped in Berkeley to decide their future. Their two options — either stay in Berkeley and begin making short films or move to Los Angeles, "get real jobs," and eventually begin making films —ended in a compromise.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In September 2000, they moved to Los Angeles and created their website, which would host short films. They named themselves The Lonely Island, after the "modest, low-rent" L.A. apartment that they shared with roommates Chester Tam and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. The latter was a musician, and their late nights together often led to the trio making comedic rap songs, which they began to upload online. Their videos were produced via borrowed equipment and edited on a single PowerMac, and they were first uploaded to websites such as iFilm and Heavy.com. Their first "fake rap" song, "Ka-Blamo!", was uploaded in September 2001. They released their work under Creative Commons licenses, which allowed anyone to distribute their content (such as blogs and peer-to-peer networks), perhaps leading to wider audiences. In December 2001, they produced a pilot for a television series titled "The Lonely Island"; the first episode involved the three becoming addicted to teeth whitening products. The video gained the trio agents, and it was notable for a scene in which they mug an elderly woman. During the shoot, actor Kiefer Sutherland, not realizing it was a video, stopped and tried to intervene. Their agents requested they convert their shorts to VHS tape because they did not have high-speed Internet at the time.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Unable to secure full-time positions, the trio took temporary jobs; one season, they worked at Fox Television over the holidays, tying ribbons around metal snowflakes the studio gifted to their employees. Eventually, Schaffer worked as an assistant at a movie poster company, while Taccone and Samberg became production assistants on "Spin City". In 2003, they produced a second pilot for a "The Lonely Island" series. The film premiered at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles, the cable network's proving ground for new talent. The network purchased the series, but further scripts did not move forward. They became involved with Super Midnight Movie Club, a club hosted by screenwriters Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, which evolved into Channel 101, a non-profit hosting monthly short film festivals. Their first submission, "Ignition TV Buzz Countdown", was voted back after its premiere, but ended after two episodes. Their second "Channel 101" series, "The 'Bu", is a parody of Fox's "The O.C." and was enormously successful at the screenings, running for eight episodes. It was pivotal in their early successes, demonstrating to television executives their popularity among tastemakers and a younger audience. Samberg's former producer at "Spin City" passed along the trio's demo reel to the United Talent Agency, which would lead them to their first major television deal.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Following their success with "The 'Bu", The Lonely Island secured a pitch meeting with Fox's then-president Gail Berman. There, the trio showed executives the video for "Just 2 Guyz", which received a positive reception. Following their deal with Fox, they produced a pilot titled "Awesometown", over which the network passed. MTV and Comedy Central also passed on the series. Consequently, they began to question whether their material was humorous enough for a wide audience. They subsequently released two versions of the pilot on their website, the Fox-edited version and a "director's cut". Their increasing profile within Los Angeles comedy circles led to a writing job at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, hosted by then-current "Saturday Night Live" cast-member Jimmy Fallon. Fallon's praise, in addition to word of mouth spreading to others at "SNL", among them Tina Fey and creator Lorne Michaels, led the trio to audition for the series in mid-2005. For his audition, Samberg impersonated a 1980s jogger, commenting on the recession. "SNL" hired the trio in late August, with Taccone and Schaffer as writers and Samberg as a featured player. Samberg was the second new cast addition that season, alongside The Second City alumnus Bill Hader. Their debut episode premiered on October 1, 2005.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Schaffer and Taccone had been on the writing staff for nearly three months, yet to this point, they had only two live sketches that survived the dress rehearsal process and aired. By Thanksgiving, the duo felt antsy, and decided to produce a parody of "The Whisper Song" by the Ying Yang Twins as "The Bing Bong Brothers" (the song mainly consisting of a whispered refrain, "You will like our penises"). The video became a viral sensation and was picked up by G4's "Attack of the Show". Encouraged by the response, the trio would incorporate that method into their next work for "SNL". Their next sketch on "SNL", "Lettuce Heads", consists of Samberg and Will Forte holding a serious discussion while intermittently eating whole heads of lettuce bite-by-bite. In creating the short, they decided to bypass the pitching process, as they were so new to the show that it would have been dismissed as too expensive. Their second video was turned down as it was deemed too similar.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In December, 2005, the trio, alongside player Chris Parnell, wrote and recorded "Lazy Sunday", a short rap song. Samberg and Parnell adopt the brash personas of hardcore rappers, while the song follows their quest to achieve their "ultimate goal" of attending a matinee of the fantasy film "". It was recorded on a laptop in their offices at "SNL", while it was shot throughout Manhattan the next day. In the moments preceding the show's live performance and broadcast, the team learned from Michaels that "Lazy Sunday" would be shown on that night's show. The three comedians were very worried about how the video would be received by the studio audience.


title: The Lonely Island

text: "Lazy Sunday" aired on December 17, 2005, when the comedy troupe were little known to even "Saturday Night Live"s most devout fans. By the following morning, it had spread online nationwide. Schaffer and Taccone also were contacted by friends who heard the track played on radio stations and in bars. "Lazy Sunday" inspired a line of T-shirts, released during the initial boom of popularity in the weeks after its release. The film was one of the first viral YouTube videos, and it increased the trio's recognizability, particularly Samberg's, nearly overnight. Their success, according to "New York", "forced NBC into the iPod age"; the short was initially available after its broadcast through the iTunes Music Store, made free for subscribers.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Following his stardom on "SNL", Samberg became a celebrity, being covered in tabloid publications. A profile of "Island" in "The New York Times" led to a record deal and their own division at "SNL": "SNL" Digital Shorts, which the group controlled with complete autonomy. In March 2006, the trio produced their second viral hit, "Natalie's Rap". In the sketch, actress Natalie Portman acts as a gangsta rap star, juxtaposing her clean-cut, Harvard-educated image with profane and shocking lyrics. Portman was the host of the program that week and came to the three having seen "Lazy Sunday".


title: The Lonely Island

text: Their rise to fame was highlighted by a combination of "new" and "old" media, with Schaffer later remarking:


title: The Lonely Island

text: Much of their work on "Saturday Night Live" further explored music. Their office—described by Taccone as "the nastiest dorm room you've ever been in"—doubled as a recording studio and editing bay. Multiple artists in the ensuing years would record their vocals for The Lonely Island songs on a $500 microphone in the office (which was not equipped with sound-proofing). The songs were recorded without professional audio engineers, and each video was edited by Taccone, Schaffer, and Samberg.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Creator Lorne Michaels was often confused by the trio's pitches. His attitude towards their work is referenced in the "Digital Shorts" series "Laser Cats", which consisted of Samberg and Hader brandishing cats as weapons that shoot lasers from their mouths. In each sketch, Michaels appears at the end, dismissing the visual quality and stupidity of concept. As such, he decided to stop taking their pitches and allow them independence from the program, producing their efforts themselves and turning them in.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In the summer of 2006, The Lonely Island filmed their first feature film, "Hot Rod", in Vancouver. The film concerns Rod Kimble (Samberg), an Evel Knievel-type daredevil who dreams of jumping 15 school buses on a moped. The role was originally conceived for Will Ferrell before Samberg signed on. Subsequently, the trio re-wrote much of the original script to match their standards: "Which is another way of saying, just dumb it down," said Schaffer. The film was released in August 2007 to mediocre reviews and a tepid box office reaction. Despite this, the later attracted a cult following; in 2012, "The A.V. Club" wrote that it differentiated itself from other Lorne Michaels–produced comedies: "They may be just as poorly received, but their rhythms are unpredictable and exciting, shocked to life by moments of anti-comedy and wacky deconstruction. Hardcore comedy devotees pick up on them like a dog whistle."


title: The Lonely Island

text: The Lonely Island's next major viral success came in December 2006, when they collaborated with singer Justin Timberlake for the Digital Short "Dick in a Box", starring Samberg and Timberlake as R&B-crooning balladeers who package their genitals as Christmas gifts. Taccone came up with the "dick in a box" premise after Michaels asked Samberg to write a sketch showcasing Timberlake's voice. Timberlake recalled that the musicians were "laughing hysterically" during its production, and that the "delirium of no sleep" contributed to the humor of the song. The online version of the short—which, like its predecessors, attracted millions of views on YouTube—was uncensored, creating controversy. "In the process "Saturday Night Live" appears to have become the first scripted comedy on a broadcast network to use the Web to make an end-run around the prying eyes of both its internal censors and those of the Federal Communications Commission, whose jurisdiction over “Saturday Night Live” effectively ends at the Web frontier," said Jaques Steinberg of "The New York Times". The song won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In the summer of 2008, the trio rented a home in Los Angeles and began recording their debut studio album, "Incredibad" (2009), over the course of three months. The album is composed of new songs and pre-existing songs debuted and recorded for "SNL". Many songs recorded for the album would later premiere as Digital Shorts in the following season of "SNL". In contrast to their work at "SNL", the troupe went through each song in detail, taking their time to craft the album. For the first time, the group incorporated professional mixing and mastering, leading to an improved sound quality of the recordings. The first song they created for the record "Jizz in My Pants", was the lead single and debuted as an "SNL" Digital Short in December 2008. It received millions of views, and was their first single to go platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.


title: The Lonely Island

text: "Incredibad" was released a dual CD/DVD set in February 2009. Their next significant viral success was "I'm on a Boat", a collaboration with T-Pain that spoofs hip-hop excess. The trio had met T-Pain when he guested on "SNL" a year prior, who confirmed he was a fan of "Hot Rod". "I'm on a Boat" was a bigger success than its predecessor, going double-platinum and earning a nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Although not an official single, based on digital downloads, "Like a Boss" was certified gold. The record sold nearly 250,000 units in 2009, making it the year's eighth bestselling hip hop album.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Taccone quit "SNL" in 2010, but nevertheless returned for the following seasons to produce Digital Shorts related to their musical work.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The group returned to Los Angeles, renting the same home and setting up a makeshift studio to record "Turtleneck & Chain" (2011), their follow-up to "Incredibad". On January 29, 2011, the group debuted "The Creep" featuring Nicki Minaj and a cameo by filmmaker John Waters, on "SNL" and YouTube. On March 15, 2011, Direct Current Music reported that the album would be named "Turtleneck & Chain" and would be released on May 10, 2011. On April 1, 2011, the Lonely Island appeared as guests on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", where they premiered the lead track, "We're Back!", as well as the new album cover. On April 19, 2011, the group released "Motherlover" featuring Justin Timberlake as the fourth single from the album. This song was last featured on season 34 of "SNL".


title: The Lonely Island

text: The group held a fundraiser to promote their new album on April 16, 2011. This event was at Amoeba Music in Berkeley, California. There were only 250 tickets available, and the only way to obtain a ticket was to preorder their album. They hosted a Q&A session and an autograph session. Shortly after, "Motherlover" was released on iTunes. On May 7, they released a new track, "Jack Sparrow", featuring Michael Bolton singing passionately about the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Turtleneck & Chain was both Emmy and Grammy nominated (for Best Comedy Album).


title: The Lonely Island

text: Shortly after the release of the album, the group premiered a new song, "3-Way (The Golden Rule)", featuring Timberlake and Lady Gaga, on the season finale of "SNL". Timberlake and Gaga were guests for the show, and the song re-approaches territory explored in "Dick in a Box" and "Motherlover". Much like their past work, it was recorded and shot in the week preceding the broadcast. At the end of the 2011–2012 season of "SNL", Samberg's last season on the cast, a sequel to "Lazy Sunday" was released, also with Chris Parnell.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Taccone and Samberg left at the end of the program's 2011–12 season. By this time, each member of the group increasingly began taking time off from "SNL": Taccone for television work, Schaffer for directorial efforts ("The Watch"), and Samberg with leading film roles. The trio found it increasingly difficult to get together and work, as they all lived in different cities. In an interview with "Splitsider" the following year, they mentioned that different responsibilities and work in other fields strengthened their work as a unit: "I think if we just did this [the Lonely Island] all the time, then it maybe we would be in trouble, but going off and doing other things reminds us it's more fun to work with your friends," said Schaffer.


title: The Lonely Island

text: Despite these obstacles, the trio regrouped in late 2012 to begin recording their third album for Republic Records, which they titled "The Wack Album" (a homage to minimalist titles such as "The White Album"). Rather than rent the same home in Encino, they cut the album in nearby Los Feliz at a home equipped with a professional recording unit. Taccone and Samberg again lived together; Schaffer, now with a family, simply drove over each day to record and write. For the album's production, they solidified song premises long before receiving beats for each song, which were culled from both high-level and low-level producers. In some cases, the trio made the beats themselves.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The album's lead single, "YOLO" featuring Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar, premiered on "SNL" in January 2013. The song is an anthem parodying the phrase "you only live once" and a culture lacking caution and responsibility. It was their first return to "SNL" since their respective departures; as such, the video was co-funded by the program. To promote the album, the trio released music videos for each song each Wednesday ("Wack Wednesdays") leading up to its release. Among the music videos produced include "Diaper Money" (a trap song regarding adulthood, aging, and impending death), "Semicolon" (which spoofs the popularity of hashtag rap), and "Go Kindergarten". "Spring Break Anthem" juxtaposes raucous and irresponsible spring break behavior with descriptions of same-sex marriage. "We wanted to show just how ridiculous it is that spring break behavior is considered normal and gay marriage is insane when it's actually the opposite," said Schaffer. The group wanted to mount a full-scale tour behind the album, but other opportunities (Samberg's comedy series "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" was just ordered as a series by Fox at the time) made it difficult.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In early 2014, the group collaborated to write "Everything Is Awesome," a song featured in "The Lego Movie", with Shawn Patterson, Joshua Bartholomew, and Lisa Harriton. The song, performed by Tegan and Sara, also features in The Lonely Island. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In 2014, the troupe signed a deal with Fox to develop serial comedy programming for digital platforms and were listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 YouTube Channels, ranked at #70. Later that year, Universal Studios acquired a pitch from the trio for a second feature film, which was co-produced by Judd Apatow. Schaffer and Taccone co-directed the film, "", which was released on June 3, 2016 along with a corresponding soundtrack album. The trio promoted the film by airing a Digital Short for the track "Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song)" during the "Saturday Night Live" season 41 finale.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The day after the 90th Academy Awards the group premiered a song on YouTube titled "Why Not Me" which they claimed was commissioned by the academy although not used because it was "financially and logistically impossible." The song features characters from various movies who didn't get nominated sing about being snubbed by the academy. It was not immediately clear if the group was actually asked by The academy to perform or if this was part of the joke.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In 2018, Lonely Island held their first live performance at Clusterfest, a comedy festival in San Francisco hosted by Comedy Central. Several of their featured guests appeared at the festival, including Chris Parnell and Michael Bolton.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In 2020, the group produced romantic comedy film "Palm Springs" starring Samberg and Cristin Milioti. The film released at Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 and released widely via Hulu on July 10, 2020. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances and concept.


title: The Lonely Island

text: In 2017, the group released "Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special", a Netflix special starring Michael Bolton and featuring numerous cameos from celebrities and SNL cast members. On May 23, 2019, the group released a Netflix special, advertised as a "visual poem" to go with a new album, "The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience," itself framed as a rap album written and performed by baseball players Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in the 1980s, while the pair were known as the Bash Brothers while playing for the Oakland Athletics.


title: The Lonely Island

text: As part of the team's television production contract, several programs produced by The Lonely Island began airing. "Party Over Here", a sketch comedy series, aired on Fox in 2016 but was cancelled after one season. The next year, "I'm Sorry", a sitcom starring Andrea Savage and produced by the Lonely Island along with Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, began airing on TruTV In 2018, the group created and produced "Alone Together", which had 2 seasons on Freeform. The next year saw the release of "PEN15", comedy web television series focusing on middle school, and airing on Hulu.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The comedic influences of the group include "SNL" forebears such as Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, the Monty Python troupe and the Marx Brothers. While the group is most strongly inspired by hip-hop and R&B, the lyrics are commonly rooted in self-deprecation as is reflected in a 2011 interview conducted shortly before the release of "Turtleneck and Chain". The Lonely Island's debut "Incredibad" was produced with the goal in mind to make an impact on listeners just as "They're All Gonna Laugh At You" (1993), a musical comedy album by Adam Sandler, had heavily influenced Samberg. Songs by the Lonely Island rarely exceed three minutes, as brevity is very important to the troupe, who believe that is "about as much as the audience can stand."


title: The Lonely Island

text: The group parody a variety of aspects of rap music, by inverting the machismo of much rap music by rapping with enthusiasm about their erectile dysfunction problems ("We're Back!"), rapping in a bombastic tone about mundane subjects ("Lazy Sunday"), or diss tracks by recording a song featuring death threats in deliberately weedy voices ("We'll Kill You"). Much rap music tends to feature inventive boasting about the speaker's wealth, power or sex appeal, and the group have regularly inverted this by creating deliberately repetitive tracks that make similar statements in an extremely literal way ("I Just Had Sex", "I'm on a Boat"). "I'm on a Boat", created to parody the style of many rap music videos, avoids making any comment about the group's wealth besides the fact that they are, indeed, standing on a boat in the music video. Many of their songs, both during and after their tenure on SNL, are produced with accompanying videos.


title: The Lonely Island

text: The group's popularity through television has allowed them to access much higher-end production and special guests than most comedy music acts. Nicki Minaj was in "The Creep," and Rihanna was in "Shy Ronnie." "I Just Had Sex" features production by DJ Frank E and Akon as a special guest, while Justin Timberlake has appeared in "Dick in a Box", "Mother Lover" and "3-Way (The Golden Rule)."


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a series of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The phase began in 2013 with the release of "Iron Man 3" and concluded in 2015 with the release of "Ant-Man". It includes the crossover film "", also released in 2015. Kevin Feige produced every film in the phase. The six films of the phase grossed over $5.2 billion at the global box office and received generally positive critical and public response.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Chris Evans appeared the most in the phase, starring or making cameo appearances in four of the Phase Two films. Marvel Studios created two more short films for their Marvel One-Shots program to expand the MCU, while each of the feature films received tie-in comic books. "Iron Man 3", "", and "" also received video game tie-ins, while "Lego Marvel's Avengers" was also released, which adapted the storyline of multiple films of the franchise. Phase Two, along with and , make up The Infinity Saga.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Following the release of "Iron Man 2" (2010), the timing and distribution arrangement of a possible third "Iron Man" film was brought into question following a conflict between Paramount Pictures, the distributor of previous Marvel Studios films including the first two "Iron Man" films, and The Walt Disney Company, Marvel Entertainment's then-new corporate parent. On October 18, 2010, Walt Disney Studios agreed to pay Paramount at least $115million for the worldwide distribution rights to "Iron Man 3" (2013). The next October, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said the studio was beginning to look at the films of the second "phase" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which would start with "Iron Man 3" and culminate in a sequel to "The Avengers" (2012). Feige announced the full slate of Phase Two films at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2012: "Iron Man 3", "" (2013), "" (2014), "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014), and "" (2015). In January 2013, Feige stated that "Ant-Man" (2015) would be the beginning of , but later revealed that this had changed and "Ant-Man" would actually be the final film of Phase Two.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: In August 2012, Marvel signed Joss Whedon to an exclusive contract through June 2015 for film and television. With the deal, Whedon would "contribute creatively" on Phase Two of the MCU and develop the first television series set in the universe. In March 2013, Whedon expanded on his consulting responsibilities, saying he would "read the scripts and watch cuts and talk to the directors and writers and give my opinion", while also writing material if needed. Once the story for "Avengers: Age of Ultron" was approved, Whedon and Marvel Studios were able to examine the other films of the Phase to "really lay it out" so things could be adjusted between the films. Despite this, Whedon did not want to be beholden to the other films of Phase Two because he wanted people to be able to watch "Age of Ultron" who had not seen the other MCU films since "The Avengers". He also found working in television and script doctoring to be "great training ground[s] for dealing with this ... because you're given a bunch of pieces and told to make them fit—even if they don't."


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: A new Marvel Studios logo was created by Imaginary Forces for "Thor: The Dark World", featuring a fanfare composed by "The Dark World" composer Brian Tyler. Feige explained that a new logo was commissioned for "The Dark World" since it was the first Marvel Studios film to not also have a distributor logo due to the studio's acquisition by Disney.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Tony Stark faces a powerful enemy, the Mandarin, who attacks and destroys his mansion. Left to his own devices and battling posttraumatic stress disorder, Stark struggles to get to the bottom of a series of mysterious explosions.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: In late 2010, Marvel and Disney announced that they were developing a third "Iron Man" film. In February 2011, Marvel hired Shane Black to direct "Iron Man 3". Black co-wrote the film's script with Drew Pearce. Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle reprised their roles, with Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley joining the cast as Aldrich Killian and Trevor Slattery, respectively. Filming began in May 2012, in North Carolina. Additional filming took place in southern Florida, China, and Los Angeles. "Iron Man 3" premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris, France, on April 14, 2013, and at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on April 24. The film was released internationally on April 25, and in the United States on May 3.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: "Iron Man 3" is set in December 2012, after the events of "The Avengers" (2012), with Tony Stark experiencing PTSD-like symptoms following the Battle of New York depicted in that film. Black explained, "that's an anxiety response to feeling inferior to the Avengers, but also to being humbled by sights he cannot possibly begin to understand or reconcile with the realities he's used to... There's a line in the movie about 'ever since that big guy with the hammer fell out of the sky, the rules have changed'. That's what we're dealing with here." Bruce Banner appears in a post-credits scene, with Mark Ruffalo reprising the role from "The Avengers". About the scene, Ruffalo said "They were about to wrap the movie and I saw Robert [Downey, Jr.] at the Academy Awards... and he said, 'What do you think about coming and doing a day?' I said, 'Are you kidding me? Bang, let's do it!' We sort of spitballed that scene, then I came in and we shot for a couple of hours and laughed."


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Thor reunites with astrophysicist Jane Foster as a series of portals, linking worlds at random, begin to appear. He discovers that Malekith and his army of Dark Elves have returned after thousands of years, and they seek a powerful weapon known as the Aether. Thor must join forces with his now-imprisoned brother Loki to stop them.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: A sequel to "Thor" (2011) was first announced in June of that year, with Chris Hemsworth reprising his role as Thor. Tom Hiddleston confirmed he would return as Loki in September, and Alan Taylor signed on to direct the film in December. The film's title was announced as "Thor: The Dark World" in July 2012 at the San Diego Comic-Con International, and Christopher Eccleston was cast as Malekith a month later. Production started in September 2012 in Bourne Wood, Surrey, with additional filming taking place in Iceland and London. The film premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on October 22, 2013. It was internationally released on October 30, 2013 and on November 8, 2013 in the United States.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: The film is set one year after the events of "The Avengers". Chris Evans briefly makes a cameo appearance in the film as Captain America when Loki shapeshifts into him while mocking Thor. Hiddleston wore the Captain America costume while standing in for Evans, before Evans came to shoot the scene. Hiddleston said, "I did an impression of Loki in the Captain America costume, and then they showed Chris [Evans] my performance on tape. It's him doing an impression of me doing an impression of him. And it's brilliant." James Gunn, the director of "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014), directed the mid-credits scene that featured the Collector, played by Benicio del Toro. Asked about shooting the scene, Gunn said, "I got the script that morning, and I did it in two hours at the end of a day of second unit shooting [for "Guardians of the Galaxy"]."


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Steve Rogers, now working with S.H.I.E.L.D., teams up with Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow and Sam Wilson / Falcon to expose a deep conspiracy which involves a mysterious assassin known only as the Winter Soldier.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: A sequel to "" (2011) was announced in April 2012. Anthony and Joe Russo were hired to direct in June, and in July it was officially titled "Captain America: The Winter Soldier". Evans and Samuel L. Jackson were set to reprise their respective roles as Rogers and Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johansson would again play Romanoff. Sebastian Stan, who portrayed Bucky Barnes in "Captain America: The First Avenger", returned as the Winter Soldier. Production started in April 2013 in Manhattan Beach, California, and filming also took place in Washington, D.C. and Cleveland, Ohio. The film premiered in Los Angeles on March 13, 2014. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was released internationally on March 26 and in the United States on April 4.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: The film is set two years after the events of "The Avengers". Stephen Strange is mentioned by name in the film by the character Jasper Sitwell, with Maximiliano Hernández reprising his role from previous MCU media. A remodeled Stark Tower from "The Avengers", now known as Avengers Tower, also makes an appearance in the film. "The Avengers" director Joss Whedon directed a post-credits scene featuring Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), List (Henry Goodman), Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), who appear in "" (2015). The revelation in the film that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by Hydra informed the final six episodes of the first season of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", a television series set in the MCU.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Peter Quill / Star-Lord and a group of misfits, including Gamora, Rocket, Drax the Destroyer and Groot, fight to keep a powerful orb from the clutches of the villainous Ronan.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Nicole Perlman began writing a screenplay in 2009. Marvel Studios announced it was developing a "Guardians of the Galaxy" film in July 2012. The film is directed by James Gunn, based on his and Perlman's screenplay. In February 2013, Chris Pratt was cast in the lead role, as Peter Quill / Star-Lord. The film was shot at Shepperton Studios and in London from July to October 2013, and post-production work was completed on July 7, 2014. The film premiered on July 21, 2014 in Hollywood. "Guardians of the Galaxy" was released in the United Kingdom on July 31, 2014, and in the United States on August 1.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: The film is set in 2014. Josh Brolin provides the voice and performance capture for Thanos, the supervillain who appeared in "The Avengers" mid-credits scene. Gunn noted that the film would be connected to "" (2018). Several other objects of significance appear in the Collector's museum, including a Chitauri from "The Avengers" and a Dark Elf from "Thor: The Dark World", among other characters. About their appearances Gunn said, "There's a lot of stuff in the Collector's Museum. And for me, it was mostly just really fun. As a Marvel fan, giving the actual fans something that they can freeze frame on their Blu-Ray at home and just kind of pick out everything that's in there. So there are, I mean, seriously all those boxes have something interesting in them, so it's pretty fun." Ronan's race, the Kree, were first introduced in the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." episode "T.A.H.I.T.I.".


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye must work together as the Avengers to defeat Ultron, a technological enemy bent on human extinction, while encountering the powerful twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, as well as the new entity Vision.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: A sequel to "The Avengers" was announced by Disney in May 2012, shortly after the first film's release. In August 2012, Joss Whedon was signed to return as writer and director. In June 2013, Downey signed a deal to reprise the role of Iron Man for the second and third "Avengers" films. On July 20, 2013, at San Diego Comic-Con International, Whedon announced that the subtitle of the film would be "Age of Ultron". In August 2013, James Spader was announced to portray Ultron. Second unit filming began on February 11, 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Principal photography began in March 2014 at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England, with additional footage filmed at Fort Bard and various other locations in the Aosta Valley region of Italy, and Seoul, South Korea. Filming was completed on August 6, 2014. "Avengers: Age of Ultron" had its world premiere in Los Angeles on April 13, 2015, and was released internationally beginning April 22, and on May 1 in the United States.


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: The film confirms that the gem in Loki's scepter is an Infinity Stone, specifically the Mind Stone, and Brolin reappears as Thanos in the mid-credits scene wielding an Infinity Gauntlet. "Age of Ultron" also features references to vibranium and Wakanda, both connections to Black Panther, introducing both to the universe ahead of the "Black Panther" film (2018). Additionally, Andy Serkis portrays Ulysses Klaue in the film, traditionally a Black Panther antagonist, and would subsequently appear in "Black Panther".


title: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase Two

text: Thief Scott Lang must aid his mentor Dr. Hank Pym in safeguarding the mystery of the Ant-Man technology, which allows its user to decrease in size but increase in strength, from various menaces and plot a heist to defend the Earth.