Lieutenant Fred Williams, the burned-out police detective investigating the murder, interviews Anne's nosy landlady, Mrs. Weissburger.

She reveals that during her routine phone eavesdropping on her tenants, she overheard the girl arranging to meet someone speaking with a strange, duck-like voice.

The pathologist conducting the autopsy tells Williams that the modus operandi was similar to the one seen in Anne Lynne and an earlier one in Harlem.

Later that night, at the apartment of Kitty, a prostitute he patronizes, Williams receives a taunting phone call from the duck-voiced killer announcing his recent kill.

Her flight ends in a deserted cinema, veers into hallucinatory territory and culminates in her apparent death at the hands of a handsome, razor-blade-wielding killer.

As he has a post-coital nap, Jane overhears a radio DJ describing the killer, now dubbed 'the New York Ripper' by the press, as fitting Scellenda's description.

Williams identifies Scellenda as the eight-fingered man — a Greek immigrant with a history of sexual assault and drug abuse.

After being delayed by a false lead, Williams realizes the Ripper's target is Kitty but arrives too late to prevent her gruesome murder.

Sacchetti stated that the film had initially involved a murderer suffering from progeria, that it was "a meditation on old age and human decadence.

Balun wrote in GoreZone that The New York Ripper was "justifiably overlooked" stating that "one can almost summarily dismiss the clunky plotting, regressive world view, mean-spirited misogyny and sleazy sexual sadism, but no one can let Fulci off the hook for featuring a psychopathic killer who quacks like a duck!

"[15] Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine called the film "sour and pointless," adding that it "utilizes all the necessary ingredients but fails to summon from them the magisterial dignity one expects from the finer NYC vomitoriums.

"[16] On his website, Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings, Dave Sindelar criticized the film's clichéd plot, obvious identity of the killer and attempts at pathos, the latter of which he felt were "forced and ineffectual."

"[17] Maitland McDonagh from TV Guide gave the film 1/4 stars, writing, "Fulci alternates sleazy sex scenes with graphic and deeply misogynistic murders, fills the plots with twists that make no sense, then wraps the whole thing up in a preposterous psychological flourish.

He added that "Fulci showed with this blatant play for the sicko slasher crowd that the days of well-plotted, stylish Italian horror were gone, replaced with the most vicious sort of sexual violence and perversion", concluding that the film was a "shameful piece of work".