I sat across from New Yorks most notorious child killer. He still refuses to admit the truth

My head throbbed, my skin was clammy, my stomach roiled.The man sitting across from me was literally making me sick.But I’d spent days persuading Joel Steinberg, one of New York’s most notorious child killers, to have dinner with me.

I could hardly get up and leave.When The Post approached me not long ago about making a short documentary about the most memorable story I’d ever covered, I had plenty to choose from.But the first thought that came to mind was my interview with Joel Steinberg.My second thought: Must I?In 2017, I reached out to Steinberg for an interview marking the 30th anniversary of one of New York’s most horrifying crimes: the fatal beating he inflicted on his 6-year-old adopted daughter, Lisa, in their West Village apartment.I wasn’t optimistic.What could Steinberg possibly stand to gain by talking to me?A lot, as it turned out.

After serving 17 years for manslaughter and retreating into a kind of self-imposed exile in Harlem, the disbarred lawyer seemed to envision some grand comeback, with me enlisted to help engineer it.He insisted on Sparks Steak House, where he ordered soup to nuts: steak, lobster, shrimp, scallops, crabmeat, mozzarella, ice cream, the works.He washed it down with scotch and wine.And money was no object.

The Post was picking up the tab, which came to nearly $1,700.In 2017 dollars. He talked endlessly about his brilliance as a lawyer, the injustices he’d suffered, the greatness the world had failed to appreciate.I’d inevitably start to tune him out, and he always seemed to know, stopping abruptly to stare me down with those unnerving, prying eyes.“Are you following me? Do you hear me? Do you hear what I’m saying?”I’d try to steer the conversation to Lisa.

He kept dragging it back to Joel, monologuing for hours, none of it usable material.I felt less like a reporter than a detainee at a CIA black site, where they’d break me by forcing me to listen to Joel Steinberg talk about himself.It’s hard to c...