He was given two life sentences inTexas without the possibility of parole. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. creator of The Wicked Truth - a true crime blog https://ko-fi.com/fatim. Walsh was murdered, and her body was dumped in Utah. They get more nuanced and elaborate, but the basic topography remains the same. At the time, she was out with friends when she came across Robert in a pilots uniform. Rhoades is thought to have killed Zyskowski while the young man slept. The phrase "play, pass, run" is used twice in the letter. It was in this compartment that Robert Ben Rhoadesconstructed a tiny room of horrors to hold his undetermined number of victims. She was found running naked, screaming down a street in Houston with DNA all over her body, her head and pubic hair shaved, still with his chain around her neck. The 27-year-old woman, who had been restrained by both her hands and ankles, was freed by the officer, and once at the police station, she told the officers the horrifying story of how she'd ended up shackled inside the truck and covered in red welts and lacerations. Sadly, while the remains of both Zyskowski and Walsh were discovered shortly after they were murdered, it took years for both of them to be identified and returned to their families. 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. I knew from talking to the Martinsburg police that the truck stop had been under the jurisdiction of the Berkeley County sheriff. Fondoleding a fourteen year old girl. This gave me a screen behind which to observe drivers when they thought I was distracted. He was not wearing a T-shirt. They were both deeply religious, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when they reached the east coast. Wearing down from lack of sleep and trying to get a handle on my risk level, I began to work off a 1-to-5 scale of sexually aggressive behavior: You (the driver) kept your urges to yourself. While she slept, he handcuffed her hands and feet. Movie Actress. On the phone, agent Robert F. Lee was civil and to the point but not overtly warm. Robert kept her for over a week, torturing and raping her repeatedly. It said there had been a string of prostitute murders in truck stops in the area beginning in June of 1985, which was right on the edge of my time frame. I said I knew he didn't want to do it. 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. Rhoades received a second life sentence in the plea, in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Robert Boyd Rhoades was sentenced to death Friday for the 1996 brutal attack on 8-year-old Michael Lyons. She started to . The memory was twenty-seven years old, and nothing in it was actionable. Rhoades is additionally suspected of torturing, raping, and killing more than 50 . 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. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. When he grew tired of her, he choked her to death with a garrote made of baling wire (via The Daily Nonpareil). "Bob was fascinated by secret societies.". Robert Ben Rhoades, now 74, is currently serving his two life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. Robert Benjamin Rhoades 19451122 - 32 1975199050 Robert shot and killed Douglas right away and dumped his body in Sutton County, Texas. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." Rhoades swiftly killed Jones so he could abduct Walters and keep her to abuse at his will. The victim, Lisa Pennal, told Miller that Rhoades had picked her up at a coffee shop in Buckeye, Arizona. ", Vanessa Veselka is the author of Zazen (Red Lemonade), which won the 2012 PEN/ Bingham Prize for fiction, Apply Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon and save 25% Off your entire purchase, Target Circle: up to 50% Off with Target promo code, With Asos Promo Code you take 70% OFF Select styles, Michael Kors Promo Code: sign up for KORSVIP + Get 10% Off on First Order, 2023 Cond Nast. Rhoades picked her up along with her boyfriend, Ricky Jones, in February of 1990. 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. Prosecutors say the trucker kept a mobile torture chamber in the cab of his long-haul rig. On April 1, 1990, Roberts murder spree finally came to an end. Every trucker I ever met had a gun, so the knife seemed significant. He would offer them a ride, charm them and seduce them. I go through the paperwork, get fingerprinted and led through a channel of air-locked doors into a room with him. Why didn't I go to anyone? 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. The body was found in 1990, but not identified until 1992. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. My emotions were a planet around which I spun like a moon. It wasn't lost on me that while I was hitchhiking and he was driving, we would both have struggled with some of the same challengessleep deprivation and the hypnotic dullness of going through identical locations over and over, a world constructed of boredom and violence. They found her near a Dumpster behind the restaurant at the Gateway Travel Plaza in Breezewood. Why did he let me go? Several days later, though, heading south on I-95 through the Carolinas, I got picked up by another trucker who was not fine. 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 could rest but not dream. Robert "Bob" Berdella (also known as known as The Kansas City Butcher and The Collector) was a serial killer and torturer who documented his sinister slayings in photographs. Being 16 and in college is an easier thing to talk about. I remember sitting in the drizzle in a truck while the crime-scene tape was strung around a Dumpster. We drove up to Ohio drinking Diet Coke and listening to Bruce Springsteen. I got the sense Lee appreciated brevity, so I dispensed with small talk and went straight to my questions, but he stopped me. It brought her back to that terrifying night in 1985. Robert was immediately arrested and charged with unlawful confinement, and sexual and aggravated assault. The serial killer's name was Robert Ben Rhoades. When she saw Miller, she began screaming for help (via GQ). 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. "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." He was sentenced to life without parole at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. The Daily Nonpareil reports that these logs put Rhoades in the immediate vicinity of as many as 50 unsolved murders. We both had our own systems, our own rituals, and our own beliefs about what people were really like and how they acted under pressure. One game in the book is called "Courtroom." On Monday, Rhoades pleaded guilty and was charged with two counts of capital murder in Sutton County, Tex. "Bob was obsessed with how they used an imaginary secret society to keep her from running away," Davis said. What put him away for life, though, was the rape and murder of Regina Walters, a 14-year-old girl from Pasadena, Texas. To keep creating He sent me a text just as I was leaving Texas saying that "Debbie" was ready to talk. One of serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades's last victims, Regina Walters, was found in a barn in Illinois. The FBI theorized Robert had killed at least three women per month. Debra wanted to give her money or do something. 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 . He will die in prison.". That was way back in the early '70s, though.". 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. It was off the side of the freeway and probably very much like the one Regina Walters was found in. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. In 1994, Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Kay Walters and was slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. Clearly the answer is: Make a throw pillow. She walked back out onto the road and hitchhiked south. Similarly, Rhoades' hometown newspaper also noted that he was suspected of the torture, rape, and . Described by authorities as a sadistic killer, Rhoades was charged with their 1990 abductions and slayings, and pled guilty to their murders. Inside Robert Ben Rhoades' Traveling Torture Chamber, Illinois Department of Corrections/Wikimedia Commons. Robert Ben Rhoades used his job as a long haul truck to satisfy his sexually sadistic needs. It was later determined that Rhoades kept Walters alive for weeks while he subjected the young woman to an immeasurable amount of cruelty. To a teenager, though, someone pushing 40 is pretty old, and hair often looks darker in photos. They kept her from running away by convincing her that a secret society called The Company would find her and bring her back. "We don't have any records," she told me. But beyond that, it was the man's demeanor that was so chilling. Going through the truck stops, I'd heard about women getting their throats slit or strangled. "The defendant essentially agreed to stack the life sentences in Illinois, which means he'll never get out," Smith said. Silence fell over the Sacramento County courtroom as Judge Loyd H. Mulkey . 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. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. She ran. Today, Davis lives in College Station, Texas, and her kids, the product of a previous marriage, are grown. Wikipedia External References Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, with only a pair of slippers on her feet. 6min. "It has to be him," a friend said. I wrote him back and told him that journalistic standards wouldn't allow me to pay for interviews. All That's Interesting tells us that chains hung from the ceiling, used to fasten his victims in place in agonizing positions. Regina Kay Walters 14 years old died by the hands of Robert Ben Rhoades. The 40+ Best Companies To Work For By The Beach in Southern California. Watch with discovery+. Who was the girl in the Dumpster? His bearing shifted. Smith said that should Rhoades ever be released from the Illinois prison for any unforeseen reason, he would be returned to a Texas prison. Robert Ben Rhoades, 59, was linked by DNA in 2003 to the murder of 24-year-old Patricia Candice Walsh. It was a cloudy day just before a summer storm, and everything in the truck is cast in gray. Debra told me that "Bob" always wore matching Dickies, usually dark blue. Roberts relationships didnt last very long, he had been married three times. He shaved her head and pubic hair, pierced her with fishing hooks, dressed her up in a black dress and heels, and photographed her in moments of terror, then killed her with a garrote made of baling wire, leaving her one-hundred-pound body to decompose in a barn in Illinois off Interstate 70. "He's 67. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. By then, though, I had been kicked out of two schools for absences and was cutting myself regularly. 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. He was wrong. Whatever the man thought he had broken in her had already been broken and healed back stronger. We do the interview, but I don't take notes. 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. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. According to The Daily Nonpareil, Rhoades' truck logs placed him in the area where at least 50 unsolved murders were believed to have taken place. Modes of operation change. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. She had existed enough for me to call my dad all those years ago and warn him about what he would read. It's supposed that Rhoades quickly killed Jones and disposed of his body (via The Telegraph). So, if youre curious about where Debra might be today, heres what we know! I lived in that gap. Smith said prosecutors believe Rhoades killed Zyskowski relatively soon after picking him up and dumped his body along Interstate 10 in Ozona, Texas. Behind him was a shoulder-high pink plastic castle. Approximately one month after killing Patricia Walsh, Robert Ben Rhoades picked up 18-year-old Ricky Lee Jones and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Regina Kay Walters, not far from their hometown of Pasadena, Texas. I finally got to Davis through agent Young. A report from 2012 stated that Debra lived in College Station, Texas. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Thank you very much in advance. Sleeping by myself on the street made me a target, and having sex with some creepy old guy for a spot on a mattress also held little appeal. I was 15. He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank. She later stated that she wasnt comfortable with some of the things he made her do. 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. I had been a drifter. Holes in the ozone layer. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. Berdella was conscious of his homosexuality. Rhoades kept Regina for at least two weeks. Robert Ben Rhoades. VI, 11, subd. Rhoades antas ha torterat, vldtagit och mrdat fler n 50 kvinnor, [ 2] men endast 3 har bekrftats. He grinned. It's just going to be my word against his. Records on her would provide a date and a place that could then be checked against Rhoades's trucking logs. If there was any way to connect my story to Rhoades, it would be through the body of the girl in the Dumpster. I asked to speak to any senior officer who might have been there at the time. 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. We were back on the road before dawn, walking down a highway covered in black ice, shivering in our hoodies. He may be right, but certainly not because he's innocent. She had been missing from the Houston area since early 1990 after running off with her boyfriend. An unidentified girl, shown here in a photograph taken by Rhoades. He kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for weeks before killing them. This spring a friend sent a news story link about a serial killer with the subject line "Is this your guy?" Movie Actor. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." I didn't recognize him. Robert Ben Rhoades was born in Council Bluffs in 1945. 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. Robert Ben Rhoades. His wife, Debra Davis, was from Texas. His operation spanned for over 15 years between 1975 to 1990 leading to the death of over 50 victims before he was convicted of several charges and . Lee still uses the tape when he trains police detectives in interrogation. Rhoades was a sexual sadist. It's more like a set of still photos. And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was getting more adept at killing. The pair were on their way to attend a religious conference but sadly never made it. The officer saw that the truck's driver, 44-year-old Robert Ben Rhoades, was also in the vehicle, and he was able to handcuff the middle-aged man and place him in the back of his patrol car. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. I was accepted, and that provided a thin strip of pride on which to stand while I made contact with my family. The arrest set off a chain of events that led to Robert being convicted for three murders and suspected of many more. According to the FBI, quite a few. It's believed that Rhoades would abduct his prey from various truck stops and rest areas along his trucking route. The victim began saying anything she could think of to try and save her own life. Rhoades' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com. I'd seen the page from Regina's little notebook on which Rhoades had drawn a picture of a gun and a huge dagger dripping blood next to the words RICKY IS A DEAD MAN. 97.107.136.113 Rhoades later was extradited to Texas for the murder of Jones and another victim. Rhoades is currently being held in an Illinois prison where he will spend the rest of his days behind bars. Neither of these women were the one I was looking for, but a sentence in the article caught my attention. Robert Ben Rhoades Father Killed himself after being charged with The idea that I might have been responsible for what happened to girls like Regina was devastating, and Lee's directness startled me. 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. Once out on the road, though, he changed. Unlike those of other young women on the road, my story was now recognizable. I watched the truck idle on the side of the road until it finally pulled off. He lived with his mother, Fay Rhoades, and several siblings in a two bedroom home at 2400 Avenue D. Robert's father, Ben Rhoades,. But then, Rhoades looks like a lot of guys. An FBI agent who reviewed the contents of the briefcase dubbed it a "rape kit," and he claimed it was one of the most "refined" kits he'd ever seen, leading him to conclude Rhoades had been torturing and abusing victims for a very long time. Your IP: Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. That it turned him on, just like Rhoades.". Young was right. Her remains were found in September 1990. In 1985 my biggest problem was sleep. "No," she said, "I never heard of anything like that anywhere.". Murder Victim. The sun is coming down on her long hair, and she's laughing. Ad Choices, He was methodical, he rode the highways, and he preyed on teenage girls.
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