He then killed her and dumped her body in Millard County, Utah. I asked. In 1985 my biggest problem was sleep. Debra said she looked about 18 or 19 and desperate. I asked her the same questions I was asking everybody: Did you ever hear about a hitchhiker in a Dumpster? She brought the police right back to Rhoades's truck but then balked at pressing charges, so they had to let him go. She shook her head; then her eyes clouded some. Like me, she left home with her older boyfriend. robert ben rhoades, serial killer, torture, trucker Caught by Accident Robert Ben Rhoades. I lived among artists in the Lower East Side squats. October 20, 2022. Of the 200 people on a suspect list, almost all of them were long-haul truckers. Performance & security by Cloudflare. After all, it's just going to be his word against mine. Follow us on Twitter: @AShudders. The ruling went on to question the admissibility of eyewitness testimony. Women couldn't really get on the "zoo channel," as they called it then, because the sound of their voice would trigger twenty minutes of crass chatter. He even had a horse's bridle, which he had placed around the young woman's neck to immobilize and control her. I'm a 30-something true crime writer living in North America with my hubby & two fur babies https://thewickedtruthblog.com/membership Follow More from Medium Fatim Hemraj 8-Year-Old Boy Solves His Own Mom's Murder Fatim Hemraj Teen Murders Her Best Friend for $9 Million Dollars Jonathan Harker It made sense. We were back on the road before dawn, walking down a highway covered in black ice, shivering in our hoodies. Sometimes, as with Shana Holts, the girl who had escaped in the brewery, the sense of not being credible was internalized. He then tried to join the police force but was ultimately denied due to his robbery conviction. But Rhoades held desires went well beyond the limits of consensual sexual activity. Robert's first confirmed victims were in 1990. The Daily Nonpareil reports that these logs put Rhoades in the immediate vicinity of as many as 50 unsolved murders. In it, she's sitting in the backseat of a car. Young pulled out one last picture and slid it across to me. She walked out about a year and a half into their marriage, and months later, Robert was arrested for kidnapping a woman in Arizona. It was agent Young who recognized the small gap in Regina's teeth and noticed that a few freckles were in the same place. Law enforcement eventually learned that in addition to BDSM, Rhoades was a swinger who regularly had sexual liaisons with other married people in his hometown of Houston, Texas. 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 . There was always a sick mom or dead grandparent involved, and I was almost always abandoned by my jerk of a boyfriend, who'd made off with all my money and my car. He kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for weeks before killing them. The morning I left, I asked him to take me to the closest truck stop so I could get a ride going toward California. When she saw Miller, she began screaming for help (via GQ). If there are more murder confessions to make, there may be time yet for other families to find some semblance of closure and justice. Rhoades' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. He struck a deal with prosecutors in Texas, pleading guilty to avoid the state's death penalty for the murder of both Patricia Walsh and Douglas Zyskowski. Around the same time that Robert joined the military, his father was arrested for molesting a twelve-year-old girl and ultimately committed suicide while awaiting trial. I knew in my body that it was over. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. They get more nuanced and elaborate, but the basic topography remains the same. Rick Barnhart, Ed Russell, Troper Mike Miller. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. He immediately killed Doug and dumped his body in Texas. The whole thing seemed so uncanny. Now the whole Martinsburg truck stop had been swallowed by a Walmart Supercenter. Regina Kay Walters 14 years old died by the hands of Robert Ben Behind him was a shoulder-high pink plastic castle. I began talking, saying the same things over and over. They kept her from running away by convincing her that a secret society called The Company would find her and bring her back. She had been strangled at Breezewood. On April 1, 1990, Roberts murder spree finally came to an end. I pulled up a map of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, and that's where things started to get hazy. Robert is believed to have tortured, raped, and murdered over fifty women between 1975 and 1990 during truck stops, but because most of his victims were sex workers and hitchhikers it is difficult to confirm exactly who and how many people he has killed. But beyond that, it was the man's demeanor that was so chilling. Regina Walters and Ricky Jones were from Texas. And then you were still a prostitute. Going through the truck stops, I'd heard about women getting their throats slit or strangled. At the center of everything was my own breath. "That's him! Shana was a pretty girl with freckles and blank blue eyes. Robert Ben Rhoades. He was not wearing jeans. A few minutes later, he pulled the truck onto the shoulder of the road by some woods, took out a hunting knife, and told me to get into the back of the cab. I spoke to a woman who had worked there a long time and told her about the dead hitchhiker while she fingered the gold cross on her neck and listened. "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. Born in Council Bluffs, IA #7. Lists about who they murdered, how they did it, and other horrifying facts that will keep you wide awake tonight, shaking your head at humanity. The only thing they neglected to take down is a website with the words Martinsburg TravelCenter of America flashing like a beacon online. Rhoades must have just picked her up, because he hasn't cut her hair yet. In the morning, they talked me into applying to the college. Robert Ben Rhoades. He shows it and asks what they think is going on. 1983. Microchips in her brain. Before serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades killed his victims, he like to snap a photo of them. 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. Looks too much like a target.". Everything I expected from Bob Lee changed in that moment. I spent a week on the road in Appalachia, visiting truck stops, interviewing the older truckers and waitresses. This spring a friend sent a news story link about a serial killer with the subject line "Is this your guy?" Criminals. At the time, he was struggling himself, living with several other guys in a house where you flushed the toilet with a bucket of water and working what little construction there was in the county. She was the only person who asked me this, and of course I did. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. You called and left a message a day or so after I dropped you off, saying I was going to read about a dead 17-year-old hitchhiker they found in a truck stop and that it wasn't you.". Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. Robert Ben Rhoades is suspected of raping and murdering more than 50 women over a 15-year period in the 70's and 80's as he road his semi-truck up and down the highways trolling for victims. She hid there until she was sure she heard his truck leave. That first night, my boyfriend and I stayed in an abandoned barn in Maryland. 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. Could Debra help solve an active investigation? People Also Viewed . "What I find interesting is that he told you about the body of the girl and talked about the Laughing Death Society while he was still driving. 'Truck Stop Killer' Robert Ben Rhoades is thought to have tortured, raped and killed more than 50 women during a reign of terror lasting from 1975 to 1990. Rhoades was dressed that night as an airline pilot, and it was months before Davis found out he wasn't one. "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. When I got home from West Virginia, a letter from Rhoades was waiting. He was not wearing flannel. While I was hitchhiking, he was driving. The source notes that Rhoades kept a "murder kit" in the cab, containing tools that he would use on anyone unlucky enough to be caught in his lair. Even the guys who were trying to help had used it. "She was on the end of the roll with Regina," he said. Walsh and Zyskowski had recently gotten married, and they had decided to travel from their hometown of Seattle, Washington, to Georgia. But I thought about what she'd said"It would just be my word against his," which was clearly followed by the unvoiced thought: And who is going to believe me? Det. As we pulled away, I looked once more in the side mirror. His favorite book was Games People Play, wherein each social encounter is treated as a transaction or "game." Young, a six-foot-four Texan and third-generation lawman, opened his laptop and pulled up a picture of a woman named Shana Holts. Officers later discovered this was the name Rhoades, who had been involved in BDSM for years, went by when he used his CB radio to communicate with his fellow truckers. Tall and square-jawed, Lee looked like he could probably still tackle a bank robber. The same week that I got the letter from Rhoades, the senior officer from the Berkeley County sheriff's department who had been fishing returned. I have no fascination with serial killers, so I didn't realize that Rhoades was famous. The true number of victims of Robert Ben Rhoades may never be fully known, for a variety of reasons. On the table in front of Young was a snapshot of Regina Walters that I hadn't seen, taken not very long before she was abducted. 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. ", "That sure sounds like Bob. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. He pled guilty to the first degree murder of 14-year-old Regina Walters in 1992 after investigators found haunting photos of the teenager in his apartment. He was wrong. It's more like a set of still photos. I had to jump when you slowed down because you were going to rape me. They were heading west on I-10 and stopped somewhere in Arizona at a busy truck stop. 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. One of serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades's last victims, Regina Walters, was found in a barn in Illinois. "Well," said Lee, sitting back after I finished, "you're probably right. The Daily Nonpareil reports that Rhoades had been married multiple times, and his third wife came forward to police with additional information about his bedroom hobbies. He also wanted $500. need your help for this. 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. When rescued, she was wearing fuzzy lion slippers, talking secret prisons and being on a mission to see the presidentjust the kind of testimony that makes most detectives stop taking notes, since they're looking at someone who can't stand trial. When he was caught, he said that he had been "doing this" for fifteen years, which would put the onset of his murders back into the 1970s. My emotions were a planet around which I spun like a moon. He was sentenced to life in prison. Lisa Pennal's full statement, it turned out, had been destroyed for file space. I called the office. Ted Bundy. This modus operandi makes it difficult for authorities to determine how many victims Robert Ben Rhoades had. I stuck to trucks because they were safer than cars. Ex-Wife Of Serial Killer Robert Ben Rhoades Speaks Out | Evil Lives Here: After the Evil. When we came back, the truck was gone and every reminder of home with itmy guitar, my knapsack, everything except the Smith Wesson, which we sold later in New Orleans. I never went to the police and didn't tell anyone for years. Rhoades was a great lover of games. I asked him. Debra also talked about Robert having sex with her against her will one time, which finally pushed her to end things with him. This is the last picture ever taken of Regina Walters. I was accepted, and that provided a thin strip of pride on which to stand while I made contact with my family. Keeping her captive, he repeatedly sexually assaulted and tortured the woman for days. When the FBI extradited him to Illinois, he was able to get a phone number off a waitress while shackled hand and foot and wearing an orange prison suit. In one, he relaxed on the grass in a park. As I saw it, it didn't matter if I left, because in so many ways I was already gone. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. I told Young about the Laughing Death Society. "We don't have any records," she told me. After she was rescued from Robert Ben Rhoades's vehicle, the woman told law enforcement that she had met the middle-aged husband and father at a truck stop, and he had agreed to give her a ride to her destination. Read More: Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now? I quickly realized I would have been nothing but a burden. She would be easy to dismiss. I got the sense Lee appreciated brevity, so I dispensed with small talk and went straight to my questions, but he stopped me. Robert Ben Rhoades, who already is serving a life sentence for killing a 14-year-old girl in Illinois, pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder when he appeared before a West Texas judge . The time had come to do it anyway. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Had I confused the state? Between 1975 and 1990, Robert Ben Rhoads, now 73, savagely murdered at least three victims and possibly, investigators believe, as many as 50 during his treks across North America as a professional truck driver. Murder Victim. "The hairs on my arm stand up right now talking about it.". 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. That it turned him on, just like Rhoades.". Records on her would provide a date and a place that could then be checked against Rhoades's trucking logs. That's where my fantasy ends, in a game of "Who Is Credible Now?". He said that no girls had ever been found in a Dumpster at the Martinsburg, West Virginia, truck stop, and I had no reason not to believe him. He's there with his neatly pressed shirt and colossal arrogance. I asked about the knife. "But a real serial killer wouldn't have let me go, right?" Robert Ben Rhoades, un serial killer amricain, vient de trouver un accord avec le bureau du procureur. Investigation Discovery referred to Rhoades' truck as a "rolling torture chamber," based on what was kept inside this enclosure. I hitchhiked in Europe and settled in Vienna for a few years. Without fake ID, I couldn't stay in a shelter. I didn't tell him about my recent inquiries at first; I just asked where he'd dropped me off. I had just hitched a ride and was sitting in a nearby truck waiting for the driver to pay for gas so we could leave. The couple were traveling from Georgia to Seattle when they allegedly crossed paths with Rhoades, a long-haul trucker suspected of a decade of rape . There was a Martinsburg truck stop somewhere in my story, and there was a dead 17-year-old hitchhiker. Word filtered back that the dead girl was a teenage hitchhiker. It was just the kind of promise a sexual predator or child molester would try to extract. 202202. Her body was left in the very barn she was last photographed in in rural Illinois. This tells me that he liked manipulating through terror. She attested that she was pressured to perform acts to satisfy his masochistic fantasies. she said. "There was that hitchhiker. Robert Ben Rhoades will serve two life sentences without parole. The paper records had been destroyed for file space, and so nothing from the 1980s remained. In the end, Debra was able to escape Roberts fury and worked on moving on. The sheer amount of victims he had coupled with the contrast of how little we know about his crimes makes this case haunting. He wasn't nervous, angry, or excited. 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. The pair were on their way to attend a religious conference but sadly never made it. Movie Actress. The 40+ Best Companies To Work For By The Beach in Southern California. Five years ago, the truck stop was demolished along with its restaurant. I could easily imagine my own teenage voice whispering those same words. She ran. Rhoades immediately exited the cab of his truck and attempted to give a hasty explanation of what the patrolman was seeing. A remembrance before rape, torture and murder. She maintained that the trucker repeatedly sexually assaulted her while inflicting her with various forms of torture. Being up high, warm, and looking out over the traffic was a great improvement. And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was getting more adept at killing. Whatever the man thought he had broken in her had already been broken and healed back stronger. There's a picture of him in leather and chains that floats around the Internet. While he was in the Marine Corps, he committed a robbery and was dishonorably discharged in 1968. Despite the initial deception, Debra wanted to give the relationship a shot and continued to date him. I needed to understand what my responsibility was and to find my own answers, if nobody else's, so I began to look. I could rest but not dream. Similarly, Rhoades' hometown newspaper also noted that he was suspected of the torture, rape, and . An unidentified girl, shown here in a photograph taken by Rhoades. However, shortly after they accepted a ride from Rhoades, the middle-aged trucker shot Zyskowski and dumped the 28-year-old's corpse near a Texas highway. Appeal-Democrat. Anybody who pulls a knife on you in an enclosed space like a truck is terrifying. Girls who'd run away. Silence fell over the Sacramento County courtroom as Judge Loyd H. Mulkey . Robert Ben Rhoades is considered to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the country. 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. Rhoades whipped her repeatedly, causing red welts to appear all over her chest and back, and he had a briefcase in his truck, filled with toys and tools her used to sadistically torture and abuse the hitchhiker. Debra met Robert at a bar in Houston, Texas, in the 1980s. I don't remember much about him except that he was taller and leaner than most truckers and didn't wear jeans or T-shirts. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. I finally spoke to a woman and asked if they had a homicide record for a girl who may have been found in the Martinsburg truck stop during the summer of 1985. As many he would have picked up were transients themselves, they would most likely not be reported missing for some time after he abducted them. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. They are more like habits, he said, and can adapt to circumstances or mood. He requested information on missing Caucasian females aged 13 to 15 years old who had disappeared six to nine months earlier. I arrived at his door melting in the hundred-degree heat. Years later, Veselka read a news story about a serial killer who had been a long haul trucker named Robert Ben Rhoades. He picked up two of his other victims in Texas. Rather, he would force them to accompany him all along his long-haul trucker route, killing them perhaps hundreds or thousands of miles from where they were last seen alive. He was convicted for three murders, and slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. Believing that the driver needed a hand, he climbed over the side of the rig and peered inside (via The Forensic Examiner). 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. I needed visibility to stay alive. He was given two life sentences inTexas without the possibility of parole. He may be right, but certainly not because he's innocent. 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