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Last week, we mentioned a positively terrifying story from Halloween: A man, dressed as a fireman for Halloween, tricked his victim into thinking there was a fire, then forced himself into her Chelsea apartment and sexually assaulted her for nearly 13 hours. This weekend brought major developments in the case, courtesy of the Daily News: The primary suspect is 41-year-old Peter Braunstein, a freelance writer who worked for Women's Wear Daily and the Village Voice, and who was also, it seems, batshit insane.

Alas, these are the dangers of freelancing that not even Mediabistro will address. We kid, sort of. As it turns out, Braunstein may have known his victim through Condé Nast's W magazine, where she once worked with Braunstein's ex-girlfriend, beauty editor Jane Larkworthy. After the jump, our sleuthy explanation.

According to the Daily News, Braunstein is "on probation after pleading guilty in July to menacing his ex-girlfriend." The ex-girlfriend claims Braunstein harassed her for 18 months, taped her hands to a chair, sent hundreds of frightening emails and phone messages to her professional contacts and her family, and posted her naked photos and personal information on an adult web site. In Braunstein's defense, breaking up is hard to do.

Two years later, Braunstein "planted an outlandish item in a gossip column, claiming his ex-girlfriend had him committed to Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric ward." That gossip column was Page Six, and the item, from January 8, 2004, names W beauty director Jane Larkworthy as the ex-girlfriend. In the Page Six "report" — which is basically an extended quote from the man himself — Braunstein is portrayed as a victim to Larkworthy's sexually psychotic tendencies. Too bad it was actually the other way around.

But let's not dwell on Larkworthy; the poor woman has dealt with enough as is. Back to the Halloween victim. The Daily News reports:

Detectives also learned that Braunstein's ex-girlfriend, whom he is on probation for menacing, is an editor of a fashion magazine where the victim once worked.

Cops said the attacker knew intimate details about the victim, including that she had recently been laid off from her job.

One might safely conclude, then, that the victim once worked at W with Larkworthy. But even if we did know the victim's identity, we certainly wouldn't reveal it — that's a line not even we're willing to cross. Besides, we'd rather focus on what this means for the pretty ladies of fashion magazines. We have to wonder: Are mastheads like sororities, where letting one questionable fellow through the front door puts everyone at risk?

'Kinky' Writer Sought [NYDN]
Sorry for Sex-Attack Vic [NYDN]