Hamptons ‘mystery and crime’ festival cancels Gilgo Beach panel

An upcoming “mystery and crime” festival in the Hamptons has scrapped a controversial panel on the infamous Gilgo Beach murders after complaints that the event exploited the brutal killings of young women and sex workers.

The “Hamptons Whodunit” festival was forced to nix a panel about “the elusive Long Island serial killer after outrage from the victims’ families who called the event a “sick, perverted celebration of death.”

“We have decided not to proceed with the Long Island Serial Killer Panel this year,” East Hampton village officials told The Post.

“Although all of our true crime programming is meant to be educational, thoughtful and handled with sensitivity, we do not want to upset any members of the victims’ families.”

The organizers added that they extended the invitation for some family members and they have agreed to attend.

The focus of the hour-long panel was the string of tragic unsolved murders, which included the remains of 10 different people, four of whom were identified as female sex workers, discovered beginning in 2010 on Gilgo and Oak Beach in Suffolk County.

The investigations of the human remains, which also included an unidentified toddler and male adult, were the subject of national attention and even got the Hollywood treatment.

The grim chapter terrorized the Long Island area for years and was notoriously plagued by scandal and stalled investigations.

A lawyer for the families of Shannon Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, two “LISK” – Long Island Serial Killer victims – called the “festival” an “absence of conscience.”

Festival officials caved after the attorney, John Ray, threatened a “small army of protesters” would descend on the planned powwow.

Ray issued a blistering letter urging organizers and sponsors to reconsider the “perverse” event, which also includes a sold-out “exclusive” cocktail party at the upper-crust Maidstone Club in East Hampton, which saw one of its own.

Ray told The Post that the “tone deaf” panel was like stomping on graves on the graves of the victims.

“It’s a sick, perverted celebration of death by murder and slaughter. Who in their right mind would do that except some very sick people?” he said.

He argued that organizers’ concession to cancel the panel wasn’t due to sensitivity, but fear of greater backlash and disappearing sponsors.

“They scrapped it because they were scared. They were losing sponsors because of my letter and were scared of people disrupting it,” Ray told The Post.

“They didn’t care about the memory of these people. It was strictly a money call.”

The sister of Shannan Gilbert, the 23-year-old whose remains were found in 2011, was “completely distraught” and “utterly offended” upon learning of the panel, said Ray.

“After all these years of hopeless searching for what really happened to Shannan and the other victims, for Sherre Gilbert to see these elites dancing on the graves, is ghoulish,” added Ray.

“Giving publicity to serial killers is wrong. And making a festival out of it is worse,” one local told The Post. “If this was about raising awareness to a cold case, it should have all the proceeds go to fund a bounty and possibly some private investigators. The publicity around the event feels very commercialized and generally ‘off.’”

But for Ray, his clients are relieved that their loved ones’ memories aren’t dragged into the misguided fest.

“This was far more important than a matter of taste — there’s taste and then there’s perversion,” said Ray. “This was perversion.”