It doesn't matter what he says. The woods were blue in the gray light, which was either dusk or a coming storm. They were both deeply religious, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when they reached the east coast. The body was found in 1990, but not identified until 1992. Not even the FBI knew that he had already tortured, raped, and killed at least two people along his routes. Davis asked quietly. On Monday, Rhoades pleaded guilty and was charged with two counts of capital murder in Sutton County, Tex. This is the last picture ever taken of Regina Walters. He could be the killer. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Robert Boyd Rhoades was sentenced Friday to die by lethal injection for the rape, torture and murder of an 8-year-old Yuba City boy kidnapped three years ago while walking. She brought the police right back to Rhoades's truck but then balked at pressing charges, so they had to let him go. Akin to the murders of Douglas and Patricia, Robert killed Ricky immediately and disposed of his body but held Regina captive for a long period of time, periodically calling her father from a payphone. 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. That forced me into asking for rides in the hallway by the showers. You didn't do it.". Investigators from various law enforcement agencies along his route poured over his driving logs. 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. 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. One snowy night several months later, I was hitchhiking through Amherst, Massachusetts, and a carful of students from Hampshire College picked me up and let me stay with them. Now the whole Martinsburg truck stop had been swallowed by a Walmart Supercenter. When I first saw his apartment, I thought I'd walked into the showroom of a furniture store. Tall and square-jawed, Lee looked like he could probably still tackle a bank robber. 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? Eventually she was left unbound. Wikipedia External References 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. Nothing came up, but that wasn't too surprising. It wasn't the early '70s, it was 1987, and the woman killed was 19-year-old Lamonica Cole. She was a drifter." He must have seemed okay or I wouldn't have gotten in the truck with him. During the 80s, Robert was heavily into the BDSM and swinger lifestyle, dubbing himself as whips and chains. He continuously tried to involve his wife in his fantasies but she wasnt interested, so Robert found other ways to satisfy his sexual urges. 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. Rhoades was first arrested when an Arizona state trooper found a screaming woman named Lisa Pennal* chained in the back of his cab. Getting sleep was pretty easy with a boyfriend, because one of us could always stay awake. November 22, 2021. In the morning, they talked me into applying to the college. ", Pennal was the woman chained into Rhoades's truck when they arrested him in Arizona. At the bottom of the yellow legal paper, scrawled in all caps, he wrote, "IT WASN'T ME!!!" "You see that, Debbie," he whispered in her ear. robert ben rhoades, serial killer, torture, trucker Caught by Accident Robert Ben Rhoades. But to ex-wife Debra Davis, when they. Robert Ben Rhoades, born November 22, 1945, in Council Bluffs, Iowa turned out to be one of the most sadistic sexual predators that the US had ever encountered. 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 was wrong. Your IP: He shows it and asks what they think is going on. Today, Robert, the Truckstop Killer, is 74 and is paying for his crimes, serving two life sentences in the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. He then forced her to wear heels and a black dress before taking several photos of her, strangling her with baling wire, and leaving her body to decompose in the barn. Look at Lisa Pennal. There was talk of me going to live with my dad in Virginia, where I had traditionally spent my summers. Robert Benjamin Rhoades ( 22 de novembro de 1945) um assassino em srie americano e estuprador. When I got home from West Virginia, a letter from Rhoades was waiting. On the phone, agent Robert F. Lee was civil and to the point but not overtly warm. The trial began in 1994 and Robert was ultimately convicted of the first-degree murder of Regina Kay Walters. A few minutes later, I got up like nothing had happened. 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. However, before he killed the 14-year-old, Rhoades took several haunting images of Walters that the authorities eventually recovered from his home. First Name Robert. Robert found pleasure in taunting Reginas father about his daughters disappearance and the fact he had cut off her hair. When questioned by police, The Daily Nonpareil reports that Rhoades calmly told officers that the woman was "clearly crazy," and the officers believed him. Rhoades immediately exited the cab of his truck and attempted to give a hasty explanation of what the patrolman was seeing. This meant that several of the photos she was the subject of were taken during her last moments alive. And who's going to believe him? When they found her, there was shouting. Robert Ben Rhoades: From 1989 to 1990, Robert Ben Rhoades is believed to have tortured, raped and killed more than fifty women, although he has only three confirmed victims. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. Murder Victim. We do the interview, but I don't take notes. Like me, she left home with her older boyfriend. He immediately killed Doug and dumped his body in Texas. Rhoades was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car while Miller questioned the woman in the truck. 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. Robert started with petty crimes like public fighting and tampering with vehicles while he was still in high school. All That's Interesting tells us that this trucker was Rhoades. Rhoades must have just picked her up, because he hasn't cut her hair yet. Lee told me that the final lines of Holts's police statement read, "I don't see any good in filing charges. When investigators searched Roberts house they found several nude photos of Regina and Patricia. Knowing the capacity of his sadism made this unbearable. Several months before Walters and Jones climbed aboard Rhoades' big rig,Patricia Walsh and Douglas Zyskowski had the misfortune of crossing paths with the killer. I asked her the same questions I was asking everybody: Did you ever hear about a hitchhiker in a Dumpster? Word filtered back that the dead girl was a teenage hitchhiker. He would offer them a ride, charm them and seduce them. Laying asleep next to her was the driver of the truck, Robert Ben Rhoades. There were other points where she saw similarities and would say, "That sounds like Bob," but these were less emphatic, and it was hard to tell what she really thought. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Robert Andrew "Bob" Berdella was an American serial killer from Kansas City, Missouri. Instead, police suspect he held the teenager captive for at least two weeks, subjecting her to sickening acts of torture and rape, before he strangled her to death with a garrote and dumped her corpse in an abandoned barn in Illinois. I spent a week on the road in Appalachia, visiting truck stops, interviewing the older truckers and waitresses. I lived in that gap. In the summer of 1985, the author was such a girl. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. Piercings around the breasts, bruising, and other signs of torture were also frequently found. Sagittarius. This kit included numerous sex toys, chains, whips, fishhooks, pins, and other items used to inflict on his captives. He then tried to join the police force but was ultimately denied due to his robbery conviction. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. I expected that to be the end of it, but I got another letter. It was clear Rhoades had been using the relative anonymity of the nation's highways to spread terror throughout the nation. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. In Roberts truck, the authorities found his murder kit which contained cords, chains, whips, leashes, and fishhooks. He pulled the truck into a wooded area, took out a hunting knife, and told the girl to get into the bed of his truck. I have no fascination with serial killers, so I didn't realize that Rhoades was famous. "There was that hitchhiker. Const., art. His first known murder victims were 28-year-old Douglas Zyskowski and his wife, 24-year-old Patricia Walsh, a couple he'd picked up as hitchhikers at the end of 1989near El Paso, Texas. She also claimed that Rhoades was bringing men into their home to act as her sex slaves. Waitresses were the first to kick you out. Serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades kidnapped and tortured his victims inside a chamber set up inside his big rig truck. Her facial expression could be described as a combination of desperation and abject fear. After dispatching with her new husband, Rhoades allegedly held Walsh captive for approximately one week, repeatedly torturing and abusing the young woman, before shooting her to death and disposing of her dead body in central Utah. I quickly realized I would have been nothing but a burden. 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. "Did you ever hear of anything like that at all, in other times, any other bodies of women found along this stretch of I-70? 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. It brought her back to that terrifying night in 1985. Rhoades liked to think of himself as an "expert," and now Rhoades suggested he be paid as one. Bruce Willis. There's a picture of him in leather and chains that floats around the Internet. She attested that she was pressured to perform acts to satisfy his masochistic fantasies. 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 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. 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. To a teenager, though, someone pushing 40 is pretty old, and hair often looks darker in photos. It's more like a set of still photos. That it turned him on, just like Rhoades.". Regina Kay Walters 14 years old died by the hands of Robert Ben Rhoades. Walsh and Zyskowski, the newlywed victims, left Seattle in November 1989 to hitchhike to Georgia where they were going to preach the Christian gospel when Rhoades picked them up in Texas. Debra Davis and Rhoades met in the early '80s at a Houston bar called Chipkikkers. I'd always read that she got away because Rhoades forgot to chain her in, but I found out from Young that she'd not been shackled when she escaped. It took me a second to understand those last sentences. Robert Ben Rhoades, dubbed the Truck Stop Killer is one of America's most prolific serial killers. I wrote him back and told him that journalistic standards wouldn't allow me to pay for interviews. 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. Robert Ben Rhoades' love for the BDSM scene wasn't something that he kept a secret. While we were asleep, he pulled into a small truck stop, and I woke to his hand down my shirt. But in the picture, with her inch-long hair and dog collar, she looked like a gutter punk, like any girl you might see in any university district. I looked at the picture on Young's computer. In the end, Debra was able to escape Roberts fury and worked on moving on. Robert Boyd Rhoades was sentenced to death Friday for the 1996 brutal attack on 8-year-old Michael Lyons. She walked out about a year and a half into their marriage, and months later, Robert was arrested for kidnapping a woman in Arizona. In Robert Ben Rhoades's truck, authorities recovered a briefcase filled with sex toys and torture devices which the hitchhiker said the trucker had used to abuse her over the course of several hours. His clothes were gray or blue, but that may have been the light. That ride turned out to be fine. She came over and gave me an open smile. He also wanted $500. 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. I could rest but not dream. He was sentenced to death for the crime. He kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for weeks before killing them. 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. 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 believed that Rhoades would abduct his prey from various truck stops and rest areas along his trucking route. ", "Oh no, not at all!" Robert Ben Rhoades "Whips and Chains" Sarah Stallard, Kelsey Lawson, Erin Laird, and Jackie Wood Department of Psychology Radford University Radford, VA 24142-6946 Date Age Life Event 11/22/1945 0 Born in Counsel Bluffs, Iowa Raised initially by his mother and then by his mother and father after the father returned from overseas. Several days later, though, heading south on I-95 through the Carolinas, I got picked up by another trucker who was not fine. 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. Regina Kay Walters is remembered among his victims for the terrifying photograph he took of her moments before he murdered her. 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. Everything I expected from Bob Lee changed in that moment. He sent me a text just as I was leaving Texas saying that "Debbie" was ready to talk. And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was getting more adept at killing. The Daily Nonpareil reports that these logs put Rhoades in the immediate vicinity of as many as 50 unsolved murders. She maintained that the trucker repeatedly sexually assaulted her while inflicting her with various forms of torture. Though her remains were discovered within months of her death, it wasn't until 2003 that she was able to be positively identified (via The Daily Nonpareil). "Her body was found months later so she was probably kept alive for a while," Smith said. As the details unfolded, it was discovered that Walters and Ricky Lee Jones had been picked up while hitchhiking by a truck driver outside of Houston. Jailed for kidnapping and assault, Rhoades had his house and truck combed over by investigators, who made some gruesome discoveries. "Of course," Lee says, "Lisa was talking all sorts of crazy stuff. As per the show, when Debra decided to leave the next day, he flew into a rage, physically assaulting her. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Rhoades allegedly dumped the body of Walsh's husband, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, 28, in Texas. He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank. 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. His trucker handle on the CB radio waves was "Whips and Chains," a reference to his kink. 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. Rhoades is additionally suspected of torturing, raping, and killing more than 50 . The morning I left, I asked him to take me to the closest truck stop so I could get a ride going toward California. Robert Ben Rhoades. 76 Year Olds. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. Modes of operation change. Smith said prosecutors believe Rhoades killed Zyskowski relatively soon after picking him up and dumped his body along Interstate 10 in Ozona, Texas. My memory may have been bent by sleep deprivation, but I was not crazy. It is glossy black and long. Criminals. While I was hitchhiking, he was driving. In 1985 my biggest problem was sleep. I needed to find rides and usually couldn't get into the restaurant. He was not wearing jeans. ", "That sure sounds like Bob. 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. He even had a horse's bridle, which he had placed around the young woman's neck to immobilize and control her. If what he said was true, the trail I was on had disappeared into a field. If there was any evidence, I would file. He then killed her and dumped her body in Millard County, Utah. They kept her from running away by convincing her that a secret society called The Company would find her and bring her back. They had to make up stories for me: "I got a beaver needs a ride to Flagstaff for her grandma's funeral don't want no trouble, c'mon back." I lived among artists in the Lower East Side squats. ", I had a vision of Lisa Pennal as a truck-stop Kali roaming the back lots in her denim skirt and fuzzy slippers with an ozone hole for a halo. Robert Ben Rhoades Is A Member Of . He was not wearing flannel. Robert Ben Rhoades is considered to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the country. Det. All That's Interesting tells us that chains hung from the ceiling, used to fasten his victims in place in agonizing positions. In one, he relaxed on the grass in a park. I said it was his choice. Prosecutors say the trucker kept a mobile torture chamber in the cab of his long-haul rig. "That's him! Lisa Pennal's full statement, it turned out, had been destroyed for file space. Rhoades' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com. In January 1990, Douglas Zyskowski and his wife Patricia Candace Walsh were hitchhiking to Georgia from Seattle on their honeymoon when they accepted a ride from Robert. Robert was immediately arrested and charged with unlawful confinement, and sexual and aggravated assault. Her thick red-blond hair had been cropped close to her head with a knife or scissors and was now growing back. De 1975 a 1990 acredita-se que tenha torturado, violado e matado mais de 50 mulheres, contudo foi condenado por apenas trs homicdios devido a ausncia de provas. She was on a trip with her husband, Bob, the last she ever took in his truck. Further compounding this problem is that Rhoades did not presumably kill his victims where he met them. She started to . To her shock and horror, she realized Rhoades had converted the cab of his truck into a mobile torture chamber, equipped with chains, shackles, and handcuffs to help him restrain his victims. Could Debra help solve an active investigation? Her arms are in front of her chest, with both hands positioned as if they were recoiling in fear of the person behind the camera. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, with only a pair of slippers on her feet. I could tell you the last three songs played on the radio if you asked, but only if you asked. Police photo. 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. Between the seats in the rear of the cab was a woman bound by chains. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. Without any hesitation he said Martinsburg, West Virginia. 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. This spring a friend sent a news story link about a serial killer with the subject line "Is this your guy?" The Daily Nonpareil reports thatRobert Ben Rhoades was set to be free on work release when Illinois police identified the body of 14-year-old Regina Walters. Robert Ben Rhoades known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. I only ran about a hundred yards before I turned and hid, because I didn't know if I was being chased and needed to see. If there are more murder confessions to make, there may be time yet for other families to find some semblance of closure and justice. 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. "But a real serial killer wouldn't have let me go, right?" This modus operandi makes it difficult for authorities to determine how many victims Robert Ben Rhoades had. Debra stated that he seemed like a nice guy, and they eventually started dating. Over time, I learned safer ways of getting rides by having truckers navigate the CB radio for me. Eventually the locus shifted to the Houston FBI, because at some point every thread ran through Texas. 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. Her own sister had been on the street, and she was overwhelmed by the woman at the door and didn't want to just walk away. "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. "Wait a minute. I never went to the police and didn't tell anyone for years. Why didn't I go to anyone? I remember being in the woods off I-95. As I saw it, it didn't matter if I left, because in so many ways I was already gone. The question of what you do with your old SWAT jacket when you retire had never entered my mind. After his eventual arrest for murder, this ex-spouse told the FBI that Rhoades would often organize orgies. Regina Walters had been seen in Chicago standing freely outside his truck in a public place. It is also worth mentioning that Debra has spoken at domestic violence conferences over the years and shared her story. Robert Benjamin Rhoades 19451122 - 32 1975199050 "That was the problem with him," Smith said. But nobody had to tell me that people like Rhoades killed people like me and got away with it. Investigation Discoverys Evil Lives Here: Deadly Fetish has serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades ex-wife, Debra Davis, talk about when she met Robert and how their relationship ended eventually. 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. Upon approaching Roberts vehicle he heard screaming and discovered a naked woman in the bed of his truck. I kept my eyes closed, stayed still, then rolled away from him, pretending I was still asleep. 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. The natural light brought his hair closer to the color I remembered, and, again, the side view heightened the key similarities, his cheekbone shape, glasses, the expression; but as I had learned from the echo chamber of Martinsburgs, memory is strange territory. for the slayings of Patricia Walsh, 24, and her husband Douglas Scott Zyskowski, 28. They were heading west on I-10 and stopped somewhere in Arizona at a busy truck stop. After that, she spoke of feeling inadequate and questioning if something was wrong with her. 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. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 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. Robert kept her for over a week, torturing and raping her repeatedly. He was married. Rhoades was a sexual sadist. Investigation Discovery referred to Rhoades' truck as a "rolling torture chamber," based on what was kept inside this enclosure. 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. Sexual sadists in particular work off erotic maps established early on. 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.
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