Katie Beers’ captor dies at Sing Sing

John Esposito, who kidnapped 9-year-old Katie Beers in 1992 and abused her in a Long Island basement dungeon, was found dead yesterday in his cell at Sing Sing, according to a report.

Esposito, 64, apparently died of natural causes, and his body was found at the Westchester prison shortly after a parole hearing, WCBS reported early today.

Beers, now 30, was held for 16 days by Esposito in a case that made headlines more than 20 years ago.

Esposito pleaded guilty to the kidnapping in 1994 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Beers released a statement to the TV station that said, "I'm saddened at the loss of a life, but at the same time, I'm happy that John Esposito will never be granted parole or have the opportunity to hurt anyone ever again."

Esposito had lured Katie to a bunker under a Bay Shore garage by promising her gifts.

At his sentencing, an 11-year-old Katie said she wanted Esposito to "go to jail for as long as he can."

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US spies missed signs of Syrian gas attack

WASHINGTON — US intelligence agencies did not detect the Syrian regime readying a massive chemical weapons attack in the days ahead of the strike, only piecing together what had happened after the fact, US officials say.

One of the key pieces of intelligence that Secretary of State John Kerry later used to link the attack to the Syrian government — intercepts of communications telling Syrian military units to prepare for the strikes — was in the hands of US intelligence agencies but had not yet been "processed," according to senior US officials.

That explains why the White House did not warn either the regime or the rebels who might be targeted as it had done when detecting previous preparations for chemical strikes.

"We know that for three days before the attack the Syrian regime's chemical weapons personnel were on the ground in the area making preparations," Kerry said as he presented the evidence in a State Department speech last week. "We know that the Syrian regime elements were told to prepare for the attack by putting on gas masks and taking precautions associated with chemical weapons."

But the Obama administration only uncovered the evidence after Syrians started posting reports of the strike from the scene of the attack, leading US spies and analysts to focus on satellite and other evidence showing a Syrian chemical weapons unit was preparing chemical munitions before the strike, according to two current US officials and two former senior intelligence officials.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the intelligence publicly.

The spokesman for the director of national intelligence confirmed that US intelligence did not detect the massive chemical weapons attack beforehand.

"Let's be clear, the United States did not watch, in real-time, as this horrible attack took place," Shawn Turner said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. "The intelligence community was able to gather and analyze information after the fact and determine that elements of the Assad regime had in fact taken steps to prepare prior to using chemical weapons," Turner said.

Turner offered no reason for the delay in processing the intelligence, but current and former intelligence officials said analysts were stretched too thin with the multiple streams of intelligence coming out of multiple conflict zones, from Syria to Libya to Yemen.

In December, US intelligence detected Syria's military was readying chemical weapons for use, and President Barack Obama warned the Syrian government publicly that such use was "totally unacceptable" and that the country's leaders would be held accountable.

The White House is now asking Congress to approve a punitive strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which the administration blames for an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

The administration says 1,429 died in the attack. Casualty estimates by other groups are far lower.

Kerry and other officials are laying out the intelligence in open and closed sessions with lawmakers, explaining why the U.S. intelligence community last week issued a "high confidence" report implicating the Syrian regime — a conclusion echoed by British and French intelligence in similar reports made public since the attack.

Senior administration officials explained last week that the US intelligence community had reconstructed a picture of the attack, from satellite and signals intercepts that indicated to them that troops from Syria's military unit that handles chemical weapons, the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, were readying such weapons. That conclusion was backed up, however, by a carefully written sentence that indicated the intelligence was somewhat circumstantial: "Syrian chemical weapons personnel were operating … near an area that the regime uses to mix chemical weapons, including sarin."

The report says US intelligence intercepted communications after the attack by a "senior official intimately familiar with the offensive" who confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government, and was concerned that the UN inspectors might find evidence of the attack. The report also says the U.S. has intelligence that Syrian chemical weapons personnel were directed to "cease operations" on the afternoon of Aug. 21, several hours after the attack.

The US officials briefed on the intelligence say such intercepts were in hand but waiting to be processed among hours of intercepted military communications.

The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have dozens officers on the ground in countries neighboring Syria, relying on a network of rebels and local agents to provide human intelligence on the goings on of both the regime and its opponents. The Pentagon also has satellites focused on the area, capturing images of the regime and rebel maneuvers, while various types of airborne platforms collect electronic transmissions such as military radio traffic or cellphone calls.

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Sliver of Hamptons beach sells for $120G

A 1-foot-wide sliver of Hamptons waterfront property was sold for $120,000, after two Manhattan financiers got into a territorial bidding war over the tiny ribbon of beachfront property, according to a report.

The narrow strip of land, which stretches 1,800 feet from the beach to the highway in the Town of East Hampton, was originally on sale for $10 — until the two homeowners got into the fierce war, according to Newsday.

Marc Helie and Kyle N. Cruz were so obsessed with the thin parcel that Suffolk County set up a face-to-face auction in May so the moneymen could settle it once and for all.

"I gathered one guy really did not want the other one walking over his property to the water," a staffer who witnessed the auction told the paper.

After 34 back-and-forth bids, Helie finally topped Cruz's $115,000 offer with the winning bid of $120,000, the paper said.

The bitter bidding showdown was revealed yesterday by the Suffolk County Legislature's finance committee after it voted to approve the puzzling purchase.

The land, which runs alongside both men's beach homes, appears to give Helie pieces of land on three sides of Cruz's property, effectively blocking off his access to the beach, the report shows.

County officials speculated that the winning bidder did not want anyone traipsing by their yard on the way to the water.

"You know what water's worth," county property manager Wayne R. Thompson told Newsday. "You can say, 'Oh, yes, I have a right of way to the water.'"

The paper reported that there may be a beach-access easement, however.

A local politician told the paper that a tiny strip of land in that area could actually be very useful.

"That makes a lot 1,800 square feet wider, and lot area matters," said Suffolk County legislator Jay Schneiderman.

The land was acquired by the county in 2003 for nonpayment of taxes.

It was offered to the six landowners whose property abuts the path, but only Helie and Cruz were pining for the property, the report said.

The hamlet where the property dispute took place is just west of Montauk. The area is described as a small enclave of million-dollar waterfront homes.

Cruz is a managing director of Centerbridge Partners in Manhattan.

Helie once worked as a trader in emerging markets at Merrill Lynch.

Neither man could be reached for comment last night.

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Cops hunt foot-sniffing sex fiend

By Dana Sauchelli

September 5, 2013 | 3:27am

A foot-sniffing sex fiend is on the loose after attacking two women in The Bronx, cops said.

The man assaulted the first victim at 1:10 a.m. Friday in University Heights before removing her shoes and smelling her feet, according to police.

Twenty minutes later, he attacked a women outside 2816 Park View Place and tried to open her pants.

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Prosecutor slams Castro after fiend’s suicide

A day after the monster who held three women as sex slaves for over a decade hanged himself in prison, the prosecutor in charge of the case blasted the fiend as a coward.

"This man couldn't take, for even a month, a small portion of what he had dished out for more than a decade," Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty said of Ariel Castro, who killed himself in his cell in a prison near Columbus yesterday.

Castro, 53, was a month into his life sentence when he managed to hang himself with a bedsheet while in protective custody.

He abducted and then imprisoned three women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — in his Cleveleland house, keeping them chained to a wall and raping them repeatedly in the years before their rescued May 6.

While those in the community said Castro "took the coward's way out," his psychologist told a local news station Castro didn't appear suicidal when they last spoke.

It was "Possible that he had suicidal thoughts before and just covered them.  I would think it's more likely this was triggered by some stressful events," Dr. Phillip Resnick told Action 19 News. Resnick interviewed Castro before he pleaded guilty to guilty to 937 counts, including kidnapping and rape, in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

"I'm not a monster. I'm sick," Castro told the judge at sentencing.

Ohio's prison system is reviewing how Castro managed to kill himself in protective custody, which is supposed to involve checks every 30 minutes.

One review will look at the suicide — normal in such cases — while the other is an examination of Castro'scircumstances, and whether he received the proper medical and mental health care leading up to his suicide.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio called for an investigation into Castro's death as well as the question of whether all inmates are getting the mental health treatment they need.

"As horrifying as Mr. Castro's crimes may be, the state has a responsibility to ensure his safety from himself and others," ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link said in a statement.

was a month into his life sentence for holding three women captive in his home for a decade when he committed suicide Tuesday night. Protective custody involves checks every 30 minutes.

Residents in the westside Cleveland neighborhood where three women were secretly imprisoned reacted with scorn and grim satisfaction Wednesday to Castro's death.

"He took the coward's way out," said Elsie Cintron, who lived up the street from the former school bus driver. "We're sad to hear that he's dead, but at the same time, we're happy he's gone, and now we know he can't ask for an appeal or try for one if he's acting like he's crazy."

Castro's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have a psychological examination of Castro done in jail before he was turned over to state authorities, his attorney, Jaye Schlachet, said Wednesday.

Michael Casey, director of the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy outside Chicago, said a notorious figure like Castro would have been more apt to be harmed by other inmates, citing the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, the Milwaukee cannibal who was slain behind bars in 1994.

He said that given the way Castro managed to hide his crimes for so long, he probably would have been able to conceal any suicidal tendencies from his jailers.

The prison where Castro hanged himself, a so-called reception center for newly arrived inmates, is crowded with nearly twice the 900 prisoners it was meant to hold, according to state figures.

Stress is high and assaults are up at the prison, said Tim Shafer, an official with the guards' union, who added: "Just like out in the public, suicides happen, and you just can't prevent every one of them."

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Dem foes blast away at de Blas

Fellow Democrats pounded mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio in a debate last night — just hours after a new poll showed his support among city voters soaring above the pivotal 40-percent mark.

During the final televised showdown before next Tuesday's primary, de Blasio's four main opponents blasted his string of flip-flops — particularly on whether to extend term limits — as politically expedient.

"Why should the people of the city of New York believe you, Bill, given [that] your history . . . has been one of doing things in your political self-interest?" said former City Comptroller Bill Thompson.

Robert Miller

Bill DeBlasio

"In the end, it comes down to a simple fact: What do you believe in? What are your core principles? If you believe in the people of the city of New York, then under no circumstance is it right to change term limits."

De Blasio had supported a legislative change to extend term limits in 2005 when he was running for City Council speaker.

But after his speaker bid failed, he opposed Mayor Bloomberg when Hizzoner pushed for the extension in 2008.

At that point, de Blasio was eyeing another post — public advocate — and the two public referenda opposed the extension, foes said.

Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner ripped de Blasio for his switch.

"This is a value question — you don't change your values," Weiner said. "I mean, you either believe it was offensive to overturn the will of the people legislatively or you don't."

A defensive de Blasio said his opposition in 2008 was sparked by the lack of public debate before the City Council voted to extend term limits from two terms to three.

"[Bloomberg] tried to ram his proposal through a very quick timeline," said de Blasio, the public advocate. "He tried to use his money and power, and it was unfair to the people, and I led the opposition to it."

But City Council Speaker Christine Quinn — who orchestrated the council's vote for the extensions in 2008 — called her rival's 2005 stance "a statement to get votes from council members.

"When you weren't running for speaker anymore, you changed. It's you talking out of both sides of your mouth," she said.

The debate came as de Blasio won the backing of 43 percent of those surveyed by Quinnipiac University in a new poll — enough to avoid the runoff widely presumed just weeks ago to be a sure thing.

De Blasio's support has climbed by 7 percentage points since a Q poll released last week.

His rivals were far behind.

Thompson had 20 percent in the latest survey, while one-time front-runner Quinn had 18.

Disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner was at 7 percent — down from 26 percent in late July — followed by City Comptroller John Liu at 4 percent and former Councilman Sal Albanese at 1.

Liu last night ripped de Blasio for bragging about his 11th-hour support of a "living-wage bill," which requires companies receiving large city subsidies to pay their workers a minimum of $11.50 an hour.

"Bill, Bill, cut the nonsense here . . . You signed on at the very end to protect your own butt from the liberal and the progressive movement that was chiding you for opposing — or at least not supporting — that important living-wage legislation," Liu said.

The comptroller also scored one of the biggest hits of the night by poking fun at de Blasio's "Tale of Two Cities" campaign theme.

"We might not have a tale of two cities, but we'll have a city of two tales," under a mayor de Blasio, Liu said.

The battered public advocate responded, "I think what's consistent is that I'm talking about the inequality facing our city."

The hits contributed to criticism of the far-left candidate for his perceived hypocrisy, including involving a new case uncovered by The Post.

In late October, the public advocate put out a press release and did TV interviews supporting Mayor Bloomberg's initial decision not to cancel last year's NYC Marathon — despite the destruction of Hurricane Sandy.

After opposition mounted, de Blasio put out two press releases calling for the Nov. 4 event to be nixed.

Other cases of flip-flopping highlighted by de Blasio's opponents include him:

* Benefiting from discretionary funds for years as a city councilman but recently denouncing the council's allocation of the so-called "member items."

* Refusing to sign a resolution as a city councilman to ban horse-drawn carriages but now saying it's one of the first things he'll do in office.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, the new poll showed Joe Lhota far ahead of his competitors with the nod from 48 percent of GOP voters.

Supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis was at 24 percent, and Doe Fund founder George McDonald was at 10.

However, the poll surveyed only 101 likely Republican primary voters, leaving a margin of error close to plus or minus 10 percentage points.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

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Stringer once nixed sex-fiend registry

Democratic comptroller candidate Scott Stringer voted against Megan's Law — which created a state registry to track convicted sex fiends after their release from prison — when he was in the state Assembly in 1995, records show.

Stringer said yesterday he voted against the law initially because of concerns that such monitoring would drive sex offenders further underground.

But he subsequently changed his tune.

"Scott Stringer fully supports Megan's Law and voted 19 times to strengthen the state's Sex Offender Registry," said Stringer campaign spokeswoman Audrey Gelman.

Gelman noted that Eliot Spitzer, Stringer's rival in the Democratic primary, engaged in prostitution.

"The last person who should be lecturing anyone about this kind of thing is the only candidate for office in New York City who actually committed a sex crime. That's Eliot Spitzer," Gelman said.

Spitzer spokeswoman Lis Smith shot back that Stringer had also voted against a bill to eliminate the tax-exempt status of a group promoting sex between men and boys.

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UWS pol in drive bust

An Upper West Side City Council contender was busted yesterday for allegedly driving with a suspended license.

Noah Gotbaum, 53 — whose stepmom is former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum — was pulled over at West 95th Street and West End Avenue at 11 a.m.

He said his license had been suspended over a summons for a seat-belt violation that he was late in paying.

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Sleaze & thank you, El backers

Shunned by the Democratic establishment, Eliot Spitzer has reached out to officials with checkered backgrounds to support his run for city comptroller — including two longtime allies of disgraced ex-Assemblyman Vito Lopez.

State Sen. Martin Dilan and his son, City Councilman Erik Dilan, who have been tied to Lopez for years, are among the handful of elected officials backing Spitzer over Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in next week's Democratic primary.

"That's true. Mr. Spitzer reached out to us," Sen. Dilan told The Post.

"Mr. Stringer has never reached out to us. He thought he had an easy race. Mr. Spitzer has been out in the district. We were with him at the Brooklyn Dominican Day Parade. He was very well received by the public."

Stefan Jeremiah

Elliot Spitzer

Dilan called Spitzer an "effective governor," even though his term ended after only 15 months when he was caught in a hooker scandal.

Dilan insisted his backing of Spitzer has "no connection to Vito."

One Brooklyn political veteran said that was hard to believe.

"This is a Machiavellian move that could only be engineered by Vito," the source said.

Publicly, the Dilans distanced themselves from Lopez after their mentor resigned from the Assembly and as Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman following charges that he sexually harassed female staffers.

Both Dilans have remained neutral in Lopez's comeback campaign for City Council. Virtually the entire Democratic establishment — including Stringer — is backing Lopez rival Antonio Reynoso.

Political insiders charged that the Dilans' hands-off approach in the race was an act.

"The Dilans are very loyal to Vito. From everything we know, . . . behind the scenes, they're doing everything they can to help Vito," said one political operative.

Lopez was so close to the Dilans that he pushed Erik Dilan's failed bid to unseat Brooklyn Rep. Nydia Velasquez last year.

Spitzer spokesman Hari Sevugan said the candidate has not had any conversations with Lopez about the comptroller's race, and has not sought his backing.

Spitzer has not taken sides in Lopez's council race. But in a recent Politicker interview, he said he and Lopez did "great things" together on housing policy when both were still in office.

But a Spitzer spokesman noted that the Love Gov also condemned Lopez for his misconduct.

Former Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, who was investigated for putting one boyfriend on a government payroll and another at a nonprofit, is a paid Spitzer campaign consultant.

ccampanile@nypost.com

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Ohio monster kills himself

He just couldn't face a millennium behind bars.

Ariel Castro — the monster who held three women as his personal sex slaves for a decade in a Cleveland house — committed suicide last night by hanging himself in his prison cell, officials said.

The sick fiend was being kept in protective custody in Ohio's Corrections Reception Center in Harrisburg after being sentenced last month to more than 1,000 years in prison.

The 53-year-old inmate was found hanging at 9:20 p.m., officials said.

He was able to off himself even though guards were supposed to be checking on him every 30 minutes.

Reuters

NIGHTMARE: Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus were held captive for a decade by rape fiend Ariel Castro (above). He was found hanging in his prison cell late last night.

"Upon finding inmate Castro, prison medical staff began performing lifesaving measures," Joellen Smith of the Ohio Department of Corrections said in a statement.

"Shortly after, he was transported to [Ohio State University Medical Center], where he was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m.

"A thorough review of this incident is under way."

Castro had been in protective custody — but not on a full suicide watch — be cause of the notoriety of his case, in which the former bus driver pleaded guilty to 937 counts connected to the rape and kidnapping of his three victims.

The women — Michelle Knight, 32, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Berry, 27 — disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old.

Castro, who fathered a daughter with Berry, bizarrely claimed during his sentencing that he cared well for his captives.

"I'm not a monster. I'm just sick. I have an addiction," he told the court.

The women's horrific ordeal ended on May 6, when Berry escaped with her young daughter.

The dramatic rescue was aided by Castro's neighbor Charles Ramsey, who called 911. When police arrived, they found the other women.

Investigators showed how the women had been chained, windows had been boarded and padlocks were placed on doors.

In an emotional public statement in July, the three victims thanked their supporters.

"I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face and my head held high," Knight said.

With

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