His clothes were gray or blue, but that may have been the light. In the summer of 1985, the author was such a girl. He stopped responding to my questions. You were not under his control. A trucker picked us up at daybreak, and I rode in a semi for the first time. It was a raw moment. She looks happy. Between 1984 and 1987, he murdered at least six men in Kansas City, Missouri. Debra also talked about Robert having sex with her against her will one time, which finally pushed her to end things with him. But his insistence that everything on board was consensual wasn't going to go without investigation by Miller, especially when a search of Rhoades revealed a loaded handgun. This modus operandi makes it difficult for authorities to determine how many victims Robert Ben Rhoades had. Arizona state trooper Mike Miller was cruising along I-10 one April morning in 1990 when he noticed a tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of the highway. "There was that hitchhiker. The Daily Nonpareil reports that these logs put Rhoades in the immediate vicinity of as many as 50 unsolved murders. The serial killer's name was Robert Ben Rhoades. It was just the kind of promise a sexual predator or child molester would try to extract. 6min. Rhoades must have just picked her up, because he hasn't cut her hair yet. I said it was his choice. 76 Year Olds. The whole thing seemed so uncanny. Police looked at the photos, noting that the growth of Regina Walters' hair and the changing color of her bruises meant that she had been in Robert Ben Rhoades' clutches for several weeks (per All That's Interesting). Even at the time, I'd wondered if my running was part of the game. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Robert Ben Rhoades (defendant), pursuant to negotiations with the State, on September 11, 1992, pled guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to imprisonment for natural life. I arrived at his door melting in the hundred-degree heat. "He's 67. I called the office. Young was a profiler for the bureau as well as a field agent. I wrote him back and told him that journalistic standards wouldn't allow me to pay for interviews. "One thing I always did," I told Young, "was rifle through a trucker's cassette case as soon as we were out on the highway." I asked. "How many of those guys could there be?". But I hadn't seen any shackles. This Picture was the key evidence photo. As a 15-year-old, the author left home and became a hitchhiker, hopping from semi to semi on the interstate. I had been a drifter. In that one, driven by penis envy, a woman's inner child taunts a man into seducing her so that she can be freed from guilt for her own "sadistic fantasies." Being up high, warm, and looking out over the traffic was a great improvement. The trial began in 1994 and Robert was ultimately convicted of the first-degree murder of Regina Kay Walters. I remember driving around Ohio howling along with Bruce Springsteen and buzzed out of my brain on Diet Cokes and being sad that the ride ended because it was a safe one and I had almost been able to be myself for a second, but that second had passed. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. She later stated that she wasnt comfortable with some of the things he made her do. Rhoades is currently serving life sentences in Illinois for three murders. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. He was wrong. She was the only person who asked me this, and of course I did. A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. In one photo, the teen is standing in a barn, clad in a black dress and wearing high-heeled shoes. The photo was taken by serial rapist, torturer and murderer, Robert Ben Rhoades, who dressed the young teen in a black dress and heels, forcibly cutting her hair for the occasion. I spent a week on the road in Appalachia, visiting truck stops, interviewing the older truckers and waitresses. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. Original. A chipper recorded voice told me to press 1 for tas, press 2 for guns"all other callers stay on the line!" You asked me to have sex and offered to pay. It made sense. I needed to find rides and usually couldn't get into the restaurant. There was going to be no more talking. Through these stories, I jumped from truck to truck. So I went back to hitchhiking in circles and discovered a state of half-consciousness wherein I could be asleep and not asleep at the same time. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. There were seven within rangeIndiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, West Virginia, and New Yorkall less than a day's drive apart. Modes of operation change. The prisms of Regina Walters, Shana Holts, and Lisa Pennal refracted into a set of iconsone in the backseat of a car laughing as she leans on the headrest, one with the shorn red-gold hair and an expression of resilience, one slightly crazy and ready to fighteach casting her own light, each a hologram of girlhood. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. Sexual sadists in particular work off erotic maps established early on. Robert Ben Rhoades, dubbed the Truck Stop Killer is one of America's most prolific serial killers. Around her neck was a dog chain with a padlock attached to the ring that had been used to restrain her neck. That ride turned out to be fine. Follows the disturbing story of truck driver Robert Ben Rhoades, whose obsession with violent sex prompted him to pick up prostitutes, runaways, and lonely women and torture them to death, a practice that went undetected for fifteen years. While I was hitchhiking, he was driving. In 1994, Robert Ben Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Walters. Robert Ben Rhoades Father Killed himself after being charged with Like Young and Lee, she had never heard of the Laughing Death Society, and since it had featured so strongly in my experience, I thought it salient. That's where my fantasy ends, in a game of "Who Is Credible Now?". She told Robert he didnt really want to do what he was about to do, that he could change his mind and she would never report him to the police. What is known about him in the 1980s is murky. ", Pennal was the woman chained into Rhoades's truck when they arrested him in Arizona. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. He would then take them to his torture chamber (yes, he had a torture chamber . Robert Ben Rhoades who is famously known as The 'Truck Stop Killer' is an American notorious serial killer and rapist who found taste in killing, raping and torturing young female teens. Although I'd told it more in the preceding week than in the past two decades, I still wasn't used to doing it, and the nausea still came. Watching the driver of my truck walk back across the wet asphalt, a second thought arose: It could be him. If we went missing, months could pass before a report was filed, and by then there was little to connect the missing person in one state with the decomposed remains in another. His ex-wives described him as verbally, physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive; one stated he would become sexually aroused when she was suffering from the pain of lupus, an autoimmune disease. My memory may have been bent by sleep deprivation, but I was not crazy. Why did he let me go? Robert Ben Rhoades will serve two life sentences without parole. new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help Young pulled out one last picture and slid it across to me. I asked him. And they're right. They get more nuanced and elaborate, but the basic topography remains the same. Among the photographs recovered from Rhoades' home while he was jailed was several of Walters. He welcomed me into his spacious living room. In the morning, they talked me into applying to the college. On the show, Debra talked about a point in the relationship where she found Robert with another woman at a party. It was just a matter of looking harder. She also said Rhoades often left his gun at home in the beginning and could have used a knife. I said I wouldn't go to the cops if nothing happened to me, but it was his choiceuntil he looked at me and I went still. Between the seats in the rear of the cab was a woman bound by chains. "I just want you to know," he said, looking me squarely in the eye, "that what Rhoades did to women, he did to women. I looked at the letter. A few minutes later, I got up like nothing had happened. I asked her the same questions I was asking everybody: Did you ever hear about a hitchhiker in a Dumpster? When she saw Miller, she began screaming for help (via GQ). Rhoades had told her to "sit there and be a good girl." The vehicle had been converted into a refuge for the killer, a place where his most sinister desires could be inflicted on victims without detection. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Six weeks later, though, we parted ways. Condamn la prison vie pour une srie de meurtres, il en a confess un nouveau . Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. Your IP: In her mouth was a bit similar to ones used for horses. Rhoades antas ha torterat, vldtagit och mrdat fler n 50 kvinnor, [ 2] men endast 3 har bekrftats. He shows it and asks what they think is going on. He then killed her and dumped her body in Millard County, Utah. I remember a fuel island in the blue morning light and a driver with a white shirt that stood out like a flag, and taking the turn back east, then south, and a gray day just before a storm so pressurized my ears hurt. She occasionally speaks on domestic violence at conferences and in classrooms at AM. On the couch beside me was a large pillow with the FBI seal. He was grave and methodical as if preparing to dress a deer. All That's Interesting tells us that this trucker was Rhoades. At the time, she was out with friends when she came across Robert in a pilots uniform. According to the FBI, quite a few. I had a guitar and a knapsack full of souvenirs of my girlhood: notes from friends, earrings, and song lyrics. Like Regina, I also had a little journal and probably wrote something in it that night, because it was far too cold to sleep. Sometimes, as with Shana Holts, the girl who had escaped in the brewery, the sense of not being credible was internalized. "Lot lizards" is what truckers call prostitutes who work truck stops, and since many drivers don't distinguish between hitchhikers and prostitutes, I was a lot lizard, too. Rhoades was born to his middle name sake, Ben and his mother, Betty Rhoades, on November 22, 1945 in Council Bluffs Iowa, and was reportedly raised by his mother for most of his childhood. Rhoades swiftly killed Jones so he could abduct Walters and keep her to abuse at his will. It touched a nerve I didn't know I had. November 22, 2021. And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was getting more adept at killing. After Evil: Master Manipulator. Friend, 43, says she wants "California voters to know what kind of offenders are on death row," men like Robert Boyd Rhoades, who sodomized, tortured and killed 8-year-old Michael Lyons two . I'd put off writing Rhoades, mostly because I didn't want him to write me back. He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank. When questioned by police, The Daily Nonpareil reports that Rhoades calmly told officers that the woman was "clearly crazy," and the officers believed him. 1983. His bearing shifted. If Rhoades hadn't been stopped by a patrolman on I-10 in Casa Grande, Ariz., in 1990, his crimes might never have been discovered. It's supposed that Rhoades quickly killed Jones and disposed of his body (via The Telegraph). The barn had a loft with wind coming through broken slats and was surrounded by the same kind of brown grassy field and frozen mud. Every trucker I ever met had a gun, so the knife seemed significant. Robert took Regina to an abandoned farmhouse. She'd escaped when Rhoades pulled into a Houston brewery. I was sure he would remember where he took me back then, so last spring I called him. Regina Kay Walters 14 years old died by the hands of Robert Ben Rhoades. These were my private feelings. At night I listened to the voices of prostitutes on the CB, barely intelligible between streams of name-calling: "Hello, honey. At first, I would ask about the girl in the Dumpster, but no one had heard of her, so I asked if there had ever been any women found in truck stops. Not even the FBI knew that he had already tortured, raped, and killed at least two people along his routes. "They don't use that emblem now. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. He'd told Shana Holts to "sit there and be a good girl." The FBI theorized Robert had killed at least three women per month. According to her, in the summer of 1985, Rhoades was driving for a trucking company based in Georgia that has an office right on I-95. Between Pennal and Rhoades, it's Rhoades they believe. What we do know about this dark story shines a light on the hell faced by as many as 50 women before they met their ultimate demise. After receiving my friend's e-mail, I left messages with the FBI but was relieved when they were not returned. Det. On April 1, 1990, a state trooper made a shocking discovery when he stopped to investigate a semi-truck that was parked off Interstate 10 in the city of Casa Grande, Arizona. After Debra Davis interviewed about life with her ex-husband, serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades, Kentucky state troopers reached out, telling her that they suspected Rhoades in a 1985 cold case. I got the sense Lee appreciated brevity, so I dispensed with small talk and went straight to my questions, but he stopped me. Const., art. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. He was charged with kidnapping and assault. His favorite book was Games People Play, wherein each social encounter is treated as a transaction or "game." *Some of the victims names have been changed. He grinned. Silence fell over the Sacramento County courtroom as Judge Loyd H. Mulkey . I could easily imagine my own teenage voice whispering those same words. My emotions were a planet around which I spun like a moon. Upon approaching Roberts vehicle he heard screaming and discovered a naked woman in the bed of his truck. Viswa Vanapalli. A week before the girl was found in the Dumpster, though, I'd gone to see my dad in Virginia. Serial Killer and Rapist Robert Ben Rhoades Case Review Profiling Evil The Interview Room Profiling Evil 129K subscribers 28K views Streamed 2 years ago Robert Benjamin Rhoades, also known as. From 1975 to 1990 he is believed to have tortured,. On April 1, 1990, Roberts murder spree finally came to an end. Inside Robert Ben Rhoades' Traveling Torture Chamber, Illinois Department of Corrections/Wikimedia Commons. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is a serial killer and rapist and a native of Council Bluffs. They were stringing crime tape around the Dumpster just as another state trooper rolled into the lot. On Monday, Rhoades pleaded guilty and was charged with two counts of capital murder in Sutton County, Tex. October 20, 2022. There was a Martinsburg truck stop somewhere in my story, and there was a dead 17-year-old hitchhiker. She was a prostitute. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." I imagined for a moment flying to Illinois. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben "Do you remember what his cab looked like? "Bob was obsessed with how they used an imaginary secret society to keep her from running away," Davis said. Piercings around the breasts, bruising, and other signs of torture were also frequently found. the Murderpedia project stay alive. People don't leave home because things are going well; they leave because they feel they have to, and right or wrong, that's how I felt. Patricia and Douglas were later confirmed as victims of serial killer, Robert Ben Rhoades. I didn't tell him about my recent inquiries at first; I just asked where he'd dropped me off. I was 15. "I've been a prosecutor since 1979 and it was one of the rare occasions when I was in the court where the defendant walked in and you felt the evil," Smith said. Walsh and Zyskowski had recently gotten married, and they had decided to travel from their hometown of Seattle, Washington, to Georgia. Richard Speck, A New Kind of Mass Murderer, Henry Howard Holmes, The Devil in the White City, Charles Ng & Leonard Lake, Family Slayers, Timothy Jay Vafreades, The Vampire Trucker, Highway Horrors: Robert Ben Rhoades, The Trucker With A Mobile Torture Chamber. In the 1990s, the Berkeley County sheriff's department's computer crashed and burned. The sentence of death had been a possibility because on May 6, 1992, the State had filed a notice that it intended to seek the death penalty. Over lunch at a local sushi place, he taught me the difference between a mode of operation and a signature. I expected that to be the end of it, but I got another letter. She had been strangled at Breezewood. Her body was left in the very barn she was last photographed in in rural Illinois. Debra also mentioned that she remarried and worked with domestic abuse and rape survivors. Then he said one word: Run. It is also worth mentioning that Debra has spoken at domestic violence conferences over the years and shared her story. In 2009 the feds went public with a program called the Highway Serial Killings Initiative in response to a rising number of dead bodies found along the interstates. Lisa Pennal's full statement, it turned out, had been destroyed for file space. He was not wearing a T-shirt. Ricky Lee Jones body has never been found. Laying asleep next to her was the driver of the truck, Robert Ben Rhoades. I ran my story past her. "Her body was found months later so she was probably kept alive for a while," Smith said. I kept my eyes closed, stayed still, then rolled away from him, pretending I was still asleep. To pay Robert was ultimately convicted of the cab was a large pillow with the FBI.. While he was taken into custody for a kidnapping of capital murder in Sutton County Tex. Transaction or `` game. torture were also frequently found crashed and.! 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