Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Kansas City Butcher - Robert Berdella - Part 1

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The Kansas City Butcher - Robert Berdella - Part 1 · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: He became known as a butcher. He was a serial
0:10
Speaker 1: killer whose crimes were so methodical and depraved that even
0:14
Speaker 1: seasoned detectives struggled to comprehend what they were seeing. For
0:18
Speaker 1: nearly four years, he abducted vulnerable young men, held them
0:22
Speaker 1: captive for days and sometimes weeks, meticulously documenting their torture
0:28
Speaker 1: before murdering, dismembering, and quietly disposing of their bodies peace
0:34
Speaker 1: by peace.
0:36
Speaker 2: That is, until one of.
0:38
Speaker 1: His victims managed to escape his house wearing nothing but
0:42
Speaker 1: a dog collar. From there, police uncovered one of the
0:46
Speaker 1: most horrifying and meticulously documented serial murder cases in all
0:51
Speaker 1: of American history. This is the horrific and true story
0:56
Speaker 1: of Robert Burdella, aka the Kansas City Butcher.
1:04
Speaker 3: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
1:07
Speaker 3: and Grim, a true crime podcast.
1:11
Speaker 2: The following.
1:15
Speaker 3: Material intended more matural audience listener discretion.
1:38
Speaker 1: The look on Nicole's face when I was reading that
1:40
Speaker 1: intro was nothing but pure being mortified.
1:44
Speaker 2: It was something to see, I know.
1:47
Speaker 3: And then I'm sitting here being like I wasn't ready.
1:50
Speaker 3: I'm not ready for this, But what the hell did
1:52
Speaker 3: I think I was sitting down.
1:54
Speaker 2: For Yeah, what were you ready for?
1:56
Speaker 1: It's not like it's a tea party, oh.
1:58
Speaker 3: Boy, But that one does sound particularly disturbing.
2:02
Speaker 1: This is a particularly disturbing case. I will go out
2:05
Speaker 1: on a limb and say that there is I didn't
2:09
Speaker 1: think it was going to be possible at this point,
2:12
Speaker 1: but there is a new form of torture that we
2:13
Speaker 1: have not covered on this podcast that happens in this case.
2:18
Speaker 1: So yeah, be prepared to be surprised with something grotesquely new.
2:25
Speaker 1: And this is part one as well. Oh damn, So
2:31
Speaker 1: this is a two parter story.
2:34
Speaker 3: Huh okay, Oh man, I don't know now, I'm just like,
2:42
Speaker 3: my day has just been ruined, just been ruined.
2:45
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, this is a horrifying story. So I
2:49
Speaker 1: can understand that that breakdown.
2:50
Speaker 3: But then to have a horrifying story and not get
2:53
Speaker 3: the outcome, well.
2:55
Speaker 1: Sorry, I mean, this is very a very well known story.
2:58
Speaker 1: So many people listen listening to this case probably already
3:01
Speaker 1: know the outcome and know what happens and stuff. But
3:04
Speaker 1: it's still a story worth diving into and discussing. It's
3:07
Speaker 1: not something like I've heard of the Kansas City butcher before,
3:11
Speaker 1: but I've never dove into the story. I've never gone
3:14
Speaker 1: into it until well obviously recently in my research, and
3:17
Speaker 1: holy shit, I was.
3:19
Speaker 2: Not expecting it.
3:20
Speaker 3: And what year did this go down? Or years or
3:23
Speaker 3: time frame?
3:25
Speaker 1: Well, i'll just leave it to the story to tell you.
3:26
Speaker 1: How's that fine, I'll tell you this. It was like
3:30
Speaker 1: in the Golden Age ish kind of a little later.
3:32
Speaker 3: But yeah, okay, huh no, I've definitely heard of that name.
3:36
Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't know really anything in regards to
3:39
Speaker 3: the story. So I am very intrigued to hear it
3:44
Speaker 3: because we're in for a treat apparently.
3:46
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we are.
3:47
Speaker 1: But before we get into it, though, we do have
3:48
Speaker 1: to be like, hey, we're back from our vacation. Yes,
3:51
Speaker 1: you know, Nicole went and when it spent some time
3:53
Speaker 1: with family in the Okanagan and did a little spa chilling.
3:56
Speaker 1: I sat at home and did yard work and drank it.
4:00
Speaker 3: Right. Yeah, it's so interesting though, I when I came back, Okay,
4:05
Speaker 3: what day did I come back? Tuesday? And today's Friday.
4:09
Speaker 3: I finally feel what's the word rested? Recovered? Yes? From
4:16
Speaker 3: my trip, Like, holy frig well, that's why I was
4:18
Speaker 3: just exhausted when I got home.
4:20
Speaker 1: Many people say you need a vacation from your vacation,
4:23
Speaker 1: which is ironic. Yeah, supposed to recoup you, but then
4:26
Speaker 1: it's like you need recooping from the recooping.
4:28
Speaker 3: Well, see, I started the vacation with the spa, which
4:31
Speaker 3: was like amazing because I kind of went down, you know,
4:33
Speaker 3: a little bit stressed from working and stuff. And then
4:37
Speaker 3: but then it would have been better to end it
4:38
Speaker 3: with this spa.
4:40
Speaker 2: Why not both?
4:41
Speaker 3: I honestly think both is like a sweet spot. So
4:44
Speaker 3: maybe I'll try that next time.
4:46
Speaker 1: Maybe you need to make a spaw appointment after this
4:48
Speaker 1: case too, Who knows?
4:50
Speaker 3: Oh man, I think a lot of.
4:51
Speaker 2: Us may that's possible.
4:53
Speaker 1: Maybe we should test that theory, get into the story
4:55
Speaker 1: and see if we need some SPA treatments.
4:57
Speaker 3: After this a good old massage.
5:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, massage, or some cucumbers in the eyes. Maybe go
5:03
Speaker 1: into a sauna or a hot cool plunge or something.
5:06
Speaker 1: I don't know, but something might need to happen. I
5:09
Speaker 1: think for me, I might need a drink later on
5:11
Speaker 1: while I kind of try and forget about all this.
5:13
Speaker 2: Yes, but for.
5:14
Speaker 1: Now I need to remember it all because we're going
5:17
Speaker 1: to tell the story and let's get it going. So
5:21
Speaker 1: Robert Andrew Burdella Junior seemed like exactly the kind of
5:25
Speaker 1: person most neighborhoods appreciated having around. He owned a small business,
5:30
Speaker 1: and many knew him in the neighborhood by name. You
5:33
Speaker 1: know he was part of that community. He participated in
5:36
Speaker 1: the local neighborhood watch program, and he had a reputation
5:39
Speaker 1: for helping young people who had fallen onto difficult times.
5:43
Speaker 1: In fact, his house on Charlotte Street became a familiar
5:47
Speaker 1: gathering place where friends, acquaintances, and even drifters could often
5:51
Speaker 1: find a hot meal or a place to spend the
5:54
Speaker 1: night with someone to listen. Now, for those who knew
5:58
Speaker 1: him more casually, he was rather eccentric rather than threatening.
6:02
Speaker 1: He was a collector of unusual antiques, with a fascination
6:05
Speaker 1: of strange artifacts and obscure history. Robert was certainly an
6:11
Speaker 1: interesting man, to say the least. He was born on
6:14
Speaker 1: January thirty first, nineteen forty nine, in Cuyahuga Falls, Ohio.
6:21
Speaker 1: He was born to Robert Senior and Virginia Bridella. The
6:24
Speaker 1: family was devoutly Roman Catholic, and religion played a very
6:28
Speaker 1: significant role in his early upbringing. Like many children in
6:32
Speaker 1: Catholic households during the nineteen fifties, Robert attended church regularly
6:37
Speaker 1: and received a strict religious education. As he grew older,
6:41
Speaker 1: though he gradually distanced himself from the faith and eventually
6:44
Speaker 1: stopped attending church altogether during his teenage years. Now, Robert
6:50
Speaker 1: spent much of his childhood feeling like an outsider. He
6:54
Speaker 1: suffered from severe nearsightedness and required very thick corrective classes
6:59
Speaker 1: from the time he was about five years old. The
7:02
Speaker 1: oversized lenses made it very easy for him to be
7:04
Speaker 1: a target for bullying, and classmates frequently mocked both his
7:08
Speaker 1: appearance and his speech impediment that made it difficult for
7:11
Speaker 1: him to communicate confidently. Although he performed well academically, he
7:16
Speaker 1: was often described as an intelligent student who struggled socially
7:19
Speaker 1: and found it difficult to form close friendships, and at home, well,
7:24
Speaker 1: it offered little comfort from it all. His father worked
7:27
Speaker 1: as a die setter for the Ford Motor Company, and
7:31
Speaker 1: reportedly he held very traditional expectations for what a son
7:35
Speaker 1: should be. Robert, who preferred books and artistic interests over
7:40
Speaker 1: sports or physical activities, often failed to meet those expectations
7:44
Speaker 1: of his father, so in turn, his father ridiculed him
7:48
Speaker 1: for his lack of athletic ability and disciplined him with
7:51
Speaker 1: a leather strap. When Robert's young brother, Daniel was born,
7:56
Speaker 1: Robert saw that his father began to favor him, and
7:59
Speaker 1: that perception deepened his sense of resentment within his family. Then,
8:04
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five, when Robert was sixteen years old,
8:08
Speaker 1: his father died suddenly from a heart attack at just
8:10
Speaker 1: thirty nine years of age. This loss became one of
8:14
Speaker 1: the defining moments in his adolescent life. Friends and family
8:18
Speaker 1: later recalled that he never seemed to really process the
8:22
Speaker 1: death in a healthy way, and the situation became even
8:25
Speaker 1: more complicated when his mother remarried not long after. Robert
8:30
Speaker 1: openly resented both the remarriage and his new stepfather alike,
8:34
Speaker 1: creating a further tense situation inside the home. Now, around
8:40
Speaker 1: that same period, Robert had allegedly been sexually assaulted by
8:44
Speaker 1: an older male coworker while working at a restaurant. The
8:48
Speaker 1: allegation had never been independently verified, but it was something
8:53
Speaker 1: that he would later point to as one of the
8:55
Speaker 1: several formative experiences during his teenage years. He also frequently
9:00
Speaker 1: referenced another event that left a very lasting impression on him,
9:04
Speaker 1: and that was watching the nineteen sixty five film The Collector,
9:09
Speaker 1: which was adapted from John Fowle's novel which had the
9:13
Speaker 1: same name, The Collector. The story follows a socially awkward
9:17
Speaker 1: man who kidnaps a young woman and imprisons her in
9:21
Speaker 1: his basement, believing that over time she will eventually come
9:25
Speaker 1: to love him. Now, that film fascinated Robert, and that
9:31
Speaker 1: central idea of complete control over another person remained in
9:36
Speaker 1: his mind long after he first saw that film. Now,
9:41
Speaker 1: after graduating high school in nineteen sixty seven, Robert left
9:45
Speaker 1: Ohio and moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he enrolled
9:48
Speaker 1: in Kansas City Art Institute. His original ambition was to
9:52
Speaker 1: become a college professor, and he initially pursued fine arts
9:56
Speaker 1: with some rather genuine enthusiasm, but before long his interests
10:02
Speaker 1: began to shift away from academics. It was during this
10:06
Speaker 1: time at the Art Institute that several troubling patterns first
10:10
Speaker 1: came out. Robert began heavily being involved in a local
10:14
Speaker 1: drug culture, experimenting with alcohol illegal drugs while also selling
10:19
Speaker 1: substances that included marijuana, LSD, and phetamines. He was arrested
10:25
Speaker 1: on drug related charges during this period two though one
10:28
Speaker 1: case was dismissed for lack of evidence, another resulted in
10:32
Speaker 1: a suspended sentence. Classmates also witnessed increasingly disturbing behavior involving animals.
10:40
Speaker 1: On separate occasions, Robert tortured a duck and a chicken
10:43
Speaker 1: as part of artistic experiments will call them. And he
10:47
Speaker 1: reportedly conducted crude experiments on a dog using sedatives and tranquilizers,
10:52
Speaker 1: and we won't be exploring those details any deeper. Those
10:56
Speaker 1: incidents generated significant backlash within the college community and contributed
11:02
Speaker 1: to his decision to leave the art Institute before completing
11:05
Speaker 1: his education.
11:07
Speaker 3: Well isn't he just progressing quite naturally like a serial
11:10
Speaker 3: killer would? Hey?
11:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, very stereotypically in all honesty. You have a bit
11:15
Speaker 1: of a rough upbringing.
11:17
Speaker 3: Quite a rough upbringing, really well.
11:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, you get bullied and you don't fit
11:21
Speaker 1: in at home, and then you know, you start going
11:25
Speaker 1: on to experimenting with animals and there is something that
11:27
Speaker 1: you see that you're like, oh my god, I could
11:30
Speaker 1: do that Akaa film where you huh take over power
11:34
Speaker 1: over other people.
11:35
Speaker 3: That's probably just been in the back of his mind
11:37
Speaker 3: since he's.
11:38
Speaker 1: Watched it, right, so exactly, So it's honestly, I mean,
11:43
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's the same as every other scenario,
11:45
Speaker 1: but it's a very cliche pattern that we see.
11:48
Speaker 3: It is. Yeah, I mean, they're not all the same,
11:50
Speaker 3: but they kind of follow a bit of a bit
11:53
Speaker 3: of a like progressive timeline.
11:55
Speaker 1: There is certainly a pattern within many serial killers, not all,
11:58
Speaker 1: and in fact, many normal people follow that same sort
12:01
Speaker 1: of pattern. They do not go on to aspire to
12:05
Speaker 1: collect people and stuff.
12:06
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, we should address that because that is the truth.
12:09
Speaker 3: Lots of people have shitty upbringings and they still become
12:13
Speaker 3: decent adults.
12:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, people get bullied and they don't bully other people.
12:17
Speaker 1: Like I didn't have a shitty upbringing, I'll say that,
12:19
Speaker 1: but I was bullied when I was in elementary school.
12:22
Speaker 2: And here I am not.
12:23
Speaker 1: Killing people, and in fact, I'm shaming people who do.
12:26
Speaker 3: Like I almost feel like the majority of people have
12:29
Speaker 3: some bullying experiences.
12:31
Speaker 2: Oh likely, I would assume likely.
12:33
Speaker 3: Like I was never skin and bones, so I feel
12:35
Speaker 3: like I got that was kind of what I was
12:37
Speaker 3: bullied for, Like, not being you know, being a little
12:41
Speaker 3: bit like heavier than other kids or whatever, right and
12:44
Speaker 3: fair enough. Apparently that's just not okay. Yeah, people everyone
12:48
Speaker 3: should look exactly the same and act exactly the same
12:50
Speaker 3: and be the same.
12:51
Speaker 1: And people focus when you are different in any way.
12:53
Speaker 1: And in Robert's situation, his speech and his glasses is
12:56
Speaker 1: what the target was. Now not after sorry, After not
13:00
Speaker 1: achieving his degree, Robert turned his attention to cooking. He
13:05
Speaker 1: proved to be a very capable chef and spent much
13:07
Speaker 1: of the nineteen seventies working in restaurants throughout Kansas City.
13:12
Speaker 1: Colleagues generally regarded him as hard working and quite knowledgeable,
13:16
Speaker 1: and he became active in local chefs associations that helped
13:19
Speaker 1: train aspiring cooks entering the profession. During these years, he
13:24
Speaker 1: also purchased a three story house at four three one
13:28
Speaker 1: five Charlotte Street in the historic Hyde Park neighborhood. It
13:32
Speaker 1: was a quiet residential area located just south of downtown
13:36
Speaker 1: Kansas City, and it would remain his home for the
13:38
Speaker 1: rest of his life. Now as the years passed, Robert
13:42
Speaker 1: developed another passion alongside cooking. He began collecting antiques, ethnographic artifacts, taxidermy,
13:50
Speaker 1: books on mythology in the occult, antique, medical equipment, and
13:54
Speaker 1: countless other unusual curiosities. His collection even eventually became so
14:00
Speaker 1: extensive that he rented a space at the Westport Flea Market,
14:04
Speaker 1: where he sold many of the items he acquired through
14:06
Speaker 1: estate sales, auctions, and trades with other collectors.
14:10
Speaker 3: See, I do love this part about him. I love
14:12
Speaker 3: a home that has character itself, but then is also
14:15
Speaker 3: like filled to the brim with just unique things that
14:20
Speaker 3: have a little bit of a story of their.
14:21
Speaker 1: Own story history is science or like it's a rich,
14:27
Speaker 1: like almost culture you've cultivated in your own dwelling. I
14:32
Speaker 1: can't remember there's a creator. I can't remember his name.
14:35
Speaker 1: I can picture his face. He's a very educated individual.
14:38
Speaker 1: He's like a scientist guy, and he's quite quite a
14:41
Speaker 1: unique personality to him. And he said he doesn't want
14:44
Speaker 1: his home to be like thin or he doesn't like minimalism.
14:48
Speaker 1: He wants his house to be filled with things from
14:51
Speaker 1: like the many adventures of his life, like you walk
14:53
Speaker 1: into like a wizard's cabin sort of thing.
14:56
Speaker 2: And I love that.
14:57
Speaker 3: I know, I think that was kind of why we
14:59
Speaker 3: didn't love our our previous house because it was just
15:02
Speaker 3: very like modern, it didn't have really any character to it, right.
15:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I ironically now we're minimalists in a tiny
15:10
Speaker 1: home and we actually have cool things and storytelling in
15:13
Speaker 1: our home.
15:14
Speaker 3: Yeah. We put a lot of thought into how our
15:16
Speaker 3: decor is and stuff. So I feel like our next
15:18
Speaker 3: house will be quite interesting, I think so.
15:20
Speaker 1: I definitely think it'll be a very kind of like
15:23
Speaker 1: Wizard's Cabin, kind of which is cottage type vibe.
15:26
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but
15:28
Speaker 3: along those lines.
15:29
Speaker 1: Well, it'll dabble, it'll dabble for sure, Cottage Corps will say. Anyways,
15:35
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, he left the restaurant business and
15:37
Speaker 1: opened his full his shop full time, and that was
15:40
Speaker 1: called Bob's Bizarre Bizarre. So Bob's buzzar Bizarre, you know.
15:47
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I like that now.
15:49
Speaker 1: Customers browsing the shelves could find everything from antique furniture
15:53
Speaker 1: and tribal artifacts to even like shrunken heads and unusual
15:56
Speaker 1: books and odd collectibles that appeal to people interested in
16:00
Speaker 1: the strange and unconventional. The shop attracted artists, collectors, students, musicians,
16:05
Speaker 1: and members of Kansas City's alternative community, many of whom
16:09
Speaker 1: came to actually know Robert very personally. He was intelligent,
16:13
Speaker 1: He was soft spoken, and often very generous with his
16:15
Speaker 1: time too, which were qualities that helped him build a
16:18
Speaker 1: very loyal customer base outside the store. He also remained
16:23
Speaker 1: active in his neighborhood. He participated in the local neighborhood
16:26
Speaker 1: Watch program. He was generally viewed as a dependable resident
16:29
Speaker 1: who took pride in the community. Neighbors regularly saw visitors
16:33
Speaker 1: arriving at the Charlotte Street house where he lived, and
16:36
Speaker 1: many of them were young men who appeared to be
16:38
Speaker 1: passing through difficult periods of their lives. Some stayed for dinner,
16:42
Speaker 1: some spent the night, and others stopped by simply just
16:46
Speaker 1: to talk. Robert often told people he was trying to
16:49
Speaker 1: help young men struggling with addiction or homelessness or sex
16:53
Speaker 1: work to get back on their feet. It all matched
16:56
Speaker 1: the kind of person that he was, and by the
16:59
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen eighty four, Robert had spent nearly fifteen
17:02
Speaker 1: years building a life in Kansas City. Many people knew
17:06
Speaker 1: him as being very friendly. He was openly gay, and
17:09
Speaker 1: people knew that, and he was certainly a familiar face
17:12
Speaker 1: throughout the Westport district. Customers wandered in and out of
17:16
Speaker 1: Bob's Bizarre Bizarre every day, while the nearby flea market
17:20
Speaker 1: brought together the same vendors week after week. One of
17:24
Speaker 1: those neighboring vendors was Paul Howell. Now Paul operated a
17:28
Speaker 1: booth not far from Robert's and often brought his nineteen
17:31
Speaker 1: year old son, Jerry Howell, along with him. Over time,
17:35
Speaker 1: Jerry and Robert became rather acquainted to know each other,
17:39
Speaker 1: and Robert was fifteen years older, but he had developed
17:42
Speaker 1: a reputation for helping out younger people who seemed to
17:45
Speaker 1: be struggling to get back on their feet. As I mentioned,
17:47
Speaker 1: and Jerry's life had become pretty rough recently for him.
17:51
Speaker 1: He had drifted between temporary places to stay and occasionally
17:55
Speaker 1: supported himself through sex work. Friends knew him as someone
17:59
Speaker 1: who could be outgoing and personable, but his circumstances often
18:03
Speaker 1: left him very vulnerable, and that vulnerability made him exactly
18:07
Speaker 1: the kind of person that Robert had quietly begun surrounding
18:11
Speaker 1: himself with over the previous several years. And it was
18:15
Speaker 1: on July fifth, nineteen eighty four, when Robert offered Jerry
18:21
Speaker 1: a ride. Now, regarding this ride, though, accounts differ slightly
18:26
Speaker 1: on where they planned to go, but Robert later said
18:29
Speaker 1: that he offered a ride for Jerry to go to
18:31
Speaker 1: a concert or a dance or something along those lines. Now,
18:34
Speaker 1: because the two men already knew one another through the
18:37
Speaker 1: flea market, there was no reason for Jerry to think
18:39
Speaker 1: anything negative and refuse this sort of kind behavior. He's like, hey, kind,
18:44
Speaker 1: you want to go to a concert. It's a friendly
18:47
Speaker 1: thing with someone you know. So he accepted. He climbed
18:50
Speaker 1: into Robert's vehicle, believing he was spending the time with
18:53
Speaker 1: someone trustworthy, and that was the last time anyone saw
18:57
Speaker 1: Jerry alive. From there, Jerry was taken back to Robert's
19:02
Speaker 1: house on Charlotte Street after he was drugged. Robert first
19:07
Speaker 1: used sedatives to make him drowsy before administering additional injections
19:12
Speaker 1: of veterinary tranquilizers. Once Jerry had lost the ability to resist,
19:16
Speaker 1: and when he regained consciousness, he found himself in Robert's home,
19:22
Speaker 1: restrained to a bed.
19:24
Speaker 3: Jang This is really scary because there was honestly no
19:28
Speaker 3: reason that he shouldn't trust him really zero right, Like
19:33
Speaker 3: his dad knew him, like probably for quite a long time,
19:36
Speaker 3: a long period of time. This would be the last
19:39
Speaker 3: thing that I think he ever expected to happen to him.
19:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's part of a neighborhood watch. He has a
19:43
Speaker 1: history of helping people and being kind. It's almost like
19:48
Speaker 1: out of the blue, he decided he's going to live
19:52
Speaker 1: out fantasies and he's going to take the opportunity. Over
19:57
Speaker 1: approximately the next twenty seven to twenty eight hours, Robert
20:01
Speaker 1: repeatedly sexually, assaulted and raped Jerry, while documenting nearly everything
20:07
Speaker 1: he was doing. He wrote notes on loose sheets of paper,
20:10
Speaker 1: and investigators would later recover them, showing that even during
20:14
Speaker 1: his first known victim, Robert had already begun recording times,
20:19
Speaker 1: drug doses, observations, and the physical effects various injuries produced.
20:25
Speaker 1: Although the notes from Jerry's captivity were less detailed than
20:28
Speaker 1: those associated with later victims, they revealed a man who
20:32
Speaker 1: was approaching the ordeal with unsettling calculation rather than an
20:37
Speaker 1: uncontrolled rage or passion. He photographed Jerry repeatedly with a
20:42
Speaker 1: polaroid camera, and he carefully noted how he responded to
20:46
Speaker 1: the drugs and the assault. Investigators would later conclude that
20:51
Speaker 1: Robert was attempting to maintain control over every single aspect
20:55
Speaker 1: of Jerry's captivity. Sedatives kept him compliant, will repeated injections
21:01
Speaker 1: prolonged that control. The note suggested Robert was paying close
21:06
Speaker 1: attention to how long Jerry remained conscious, how he reacted physically,
21:10
Speaker 1: and how additional drugs altered his condition.
21:14
Speaker 2: Now.
21:14
Speaker 1: Eventually, the prolonged assault, with heavy sedation and the gag
21:18
Speaker 1: that was placed in Jerry's mouth, proved to be fatal.
21:22
Speaker 1: Jerry died after choking on his own vomit, unable to
21:26
Speaker 1: clear his airway, and for Robert, the death created an
21:29
Speaker 1: entirely different situation. He now had a body inside his home,
21:35
Speaker 1: and rather than panic after that, Robert immediately turned his
21:39
Speaker 1: attention to disposing of the body, almost like it was
21:42
Speaker 1: a reflex or instinct, like he knew what to do.
21:46
Speaker 1: He carried Jerry's lifeless body to the basement of his home,
21:49
Speaker 1: and from there he suspended his body upside down by
21:52
Speaker 1: his ankles over a large stockpot. He made a few
21:56
Speaker 1: cuts in his flesh to allow gravity to drain as
21:59
Speaker 1: much blood as possible before he began dismembering his remains,
22:06
Speaker 1: much like a book butcher shop would do with a livestock.
22:09
Speaker 1: After the blood was drained, he used kitchen knives and
22:13
Speaker 1: chainsaws to separate the body into smaller sections that could
22:17
Speaker 1: be concealed inside ordinary garbage bags.
22:20
Speaker 2: And rather than.
22:21
Speaker 1: Placing everything out in his bin all at once or
22:23
Speaker 1: on the curb, Robert spread the disposal out over multiple
22:28
Speaker 1: different garbage collections, placing only a portion of the remains
22:32
Speaker 1: out with the household trash each time. It was a
22:36
Speaker 1: method that greatly reduced the chances of anyone noticing human
22:40
Speaker 1: remains or connecting them to a missing person at all.
22:44
Speaker 1: All they saw was someone taking out a single garbage
22:48
Speaker 1: bag like everyone else.
22:49
Speaker 2: In the block.
22:50
Speaker 3: Wow, how is he just so prepared for this?
22:55
Speaker 1: Clearly he's been thinking about this for a long time.
22:58
Speaker 3: No kidding, because yeah, to not panic, and he seems
23:01
Speaker 3: like he's he has like this plan in his head
23:04
Speaker 3: of how he's going to dispose of him exactly so clearly,
23:09
Speaker 3: which is bizarre.
23:10
Speaker 1: And even with a stinge like that, like people throw
23:12
Speaker 1: out rotting meat from their fridge, people throw out scraps
23:16
Speaker 1: or stuff rots. It smells you walk by a single
23:19
Speaker 1: small garbage bag on the curb for garbage day, and
23:22
Speaker 1: it stinks of rotting.
23:24
Speaker 4: You don't bat any No, you wouldn't.
23:27
Speaker 1: However, not every part of Jerry's body was discarded, though
23:31
Speaker 1: Robert kept his dismembered head, and eventually he would bury
23:35
Speaker 1: it in his backyard. Now, when Jerry failed to return home,
23:39
Speaker 1: his disappearance quickly became a source of concern for his family.
23:43
Speaker 1: Paul Howell immediately began asking questions among the people who
23:47
Speaker 1: knew his son, trying to retrace his final movements and
23:50
Speaker 1: trying to determine who had seen him last, and those
23:53
Speaker 1: conversations repeatedly led back to the same person, Robert Burdella.
24:00
Speaker 1: In their search, detectives soon learned that Robert had been
24:03
Speaker 1: one of the last known people to spend time with Jerry,
24:06
Speaker 1: and they arranged to interview him. Robert calmly acknowledged giving
24:10
Speaker 1: Jerry a ride that night, but insisted he had later
24:13
Speaker 1: dropped him off and he had seen him walk away alive.
24:16
Speaker 1: According to his account, Jerry simply got out of his
24:19
Speaker 1: vehicle and walked away, and there was nothing investigators could
24:22
Speaker 1: immediately prove otherwise, without a body or a witness or
24:27
Speaker 1: blood evidence, or signs that a violent crime had occurred,
24:30
Speaker 1: the case just remained a missing person's investigation rather than
24:33
Speaker 1: a homicide one. Detectives documented Robert's statements, and they continued
24:39
Speaker 1: following other leads too, hoping someone might report seeing Jerry
24:42
Speaker 1: after he supposedly left Robert's company. Jerry's father, though Paul Howell,
24:49
Speaker 1: never believed Robert's explanation. He repeatedly told investigators that he
24:54
Speaker 1: suspected Robert knew exactly what had happened to his son,
24:57
Speaker 1: and detectives thankfully listened to him, and he kept Robert
25:00
Speaker 1: on their radar, but there wasn't much they could do
25:03
Speaker 1: beyond that. Officers spoke with him again, and the investigation
25:07
Speaker 1: progressed and eventually conducted well limited even surveillance on him.
25:12
Speaker 1: They were trying to watch him see if he did
25:14
Speaker 1: no more. They were hoping that they might observe something
25:17
Speaker 1: that justified taking the investigation further, but nothing ever materialized.
25:23
Speaker 1: Keeping him in mind was about the extent of their
25:25
Speaker 1: limit at this point. Now, from an investigative standpoint, the
25:29
Speaker 1: case presented some very large challenges regarding Jerry. So he
25:34
Speaker 1: as an adult who lived an unstable lifestyle, frequently moving
25:38
Speaker 1: between temporary accommodations, and sometimes disappearing from friends for a
25:42
Speaker 1: period of time. These circumstances made it very difficult to
25:46
Speaker 1: determine precisely when something could have gone wrong. Detectives had suspicions,
25:51
Speaker 1: but suspicions alone couldn't justify, say, searching a private residence
25:57
Speaker 1: like Robert's home. As the weeks turned into months, the
26:02
Speaker 1: investigation gradually lost momentum, the surveillance ended, leads dride up,
26:07
Speaker 1: and without new evidence, Jerry Howell's file just joined countless
26:11
Speaker 1: other unsolved missing persons investigations. His family continued searching for answers,
26:16
Speaker 1: but detectives, well, they had exhausted every.
26:19
Speaker 2: Avenue available to them, so.
26:21
Speaker 1: Robert simply remained a person of interest in their minds,
26:25
Speaker 1: and that was that. Inside the house on Charlotte Street,
26:29
Speaker 1: Robert reached a very different conclusion. Though he had abducted
26:33
Speaker 1: a young man he knew personally, he held him captive
26:37
Speaker 1: for more than a day, photographed and documented the ordeal thoroughly.
26:42
Speaker 1: He then dismembered the body, disposed of nearly all the
26:45
Speaker 1: evidence without attracting the attention of law enforcement. Police had
26:49
Speaker 1: even interviewed him, watched him for a time, and then
26:53
Speaker 1: walked away because they couldn't prove that a crime had occurred.
26:56
Speaker 1: For Robert, the realization of this was significant. The sick
27:01
Speaker 1: system of control and power that he had secretly imagined
27:04
Speaker 1: in his head for years had not only worked, it
27:08
Speaker 1: had flourished in its first real test. And this whole
27:13
Speaker 1: experience appeared to reinforce a very dangerous belief that he
27:17
Speaker 1: could do it again, and he could get away with it.
27:20
Speaker 3: Honestly, it's very shocking to me how well he I
27:24
Speaker 3: don't like, I don't want to say the.
27:26
Speaker 4: Word well, but how thoughtical maybe.
27:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, how he got away and did this honestly, so
27:32
Speaker 3: perfect for his first victim.
27:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's large so scary, Yeah, because most people it's
27:39
Speaker 1: it's something that happens out of a passion or a
27:42
Speaker 1: moment of you know, taking advantage of what's the word.
27:46
Speaker 1: I'm looking for a moment of opportunity, a moment of opportunity,
27:50
Speaker 1: and you know, it's all this adrenalines flowing through them.
27:53
Speaker 1: And I'm sure the adrenaline was flowing through Robert two.
27:56
Speaker 1: But he had so much control and calm for his
28:00
Speaker 1: entire demeanor this whole time.
28:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, which I don't know, just someone who I guess
28:04
Speaker 3: doesn't have that. This is shocking to me. And I
28:08
Speaker 3: also do really like how the dad is sticking to
28:11
Speaker 3: his gut, like he knows who did this.
28:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he.
28:15
Speaker 3: But unfortunately there's just no way of proving it.
28:18
Speaker 2: Nothing he could do. Yeah.
28:20
Speaker 1: Now, Over the following months, Robert refined both his methods
28:24
Speaker 1: and his thinking. Alike, Robert continued to write notes and
28:28
Speaker 1: in fact got more detailed and in depth with them.
28:31
Speaker 1: He eventually even experimented with different sedatives, paid closer attention
28:35
Speaker 1: to dosages, and recorded more detailed observations about how his
28:40
Speaker 1: soon victims responded physically to prolonged captivity. But I am
28:44
Speaker 1: getting ahead of myself. By the spring of nineteen eighty five,
28:49
Speaker 1: another young man entered Robert's life. His name was Robert Sheldon,
28:55
Speaker 1: and he was eighteen years old. Like Jerry Howell, his
28:59
Speaker 1: life had become rather unstable. He occasionally relied on friends
29:03
Speaker 1: for somewhere to stay, and Robert already knew him prior
29:06
Speaker 1: to his first murder. In fact, Sheldon had visited the
29:08
Speaker 1: Charlotte Street House on previous occasions and trusted Robert enough
29:12
Speaker 1: to ask if he could stay there temporarily, and when
29:15
Speaker 1: he did, of course, Robert agreed. For several days he
29:21
Speaker 1: stayed there and everything appeared ordinary. Then on April tenth,
29:26
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, Robert decided it was time to act
29:31
Speaker 1: like before. He drugged Sheldon, and once he was incapacitated,
29:36
Speaker 1: he restrained him inside the house, intending to use the
29:39
Speaker 1: young man as means to vent what he described as
29:43
Speaker 1: years of anger and frustration towards other people. Once Sheldon
29:48
Speaker 1: regained consciousness, Robert began repeatedly sexually assaulting and raping him,
29:55
Speaker 1: while systematically inflicting increasingly severe physical abuse on him too.
30:01
Speaker 1: Over the following days, he administered electrical shocks using a
30:04
Speaker 1: transformer fitted with alligator clips. He forced needles beneath Sheldon's fingernails,
30:10
Speaker 1: packed silicone window cooking into his ears, and repeatedly swabbed
30:16
Speaker 1: drain cleaner fluid into his left eye, causing devastating chemical
30:23
Speaker 1: injuries and burns.
30:24
Speaker 3: Holy shit, what is he doing here? And so he's
30:31
Speaker 3: all of his pent up anger, resentment or whatever he's
30:35
Speaker 3: putting on this victim, Yes, who is probably like super nice,
30:39
Speaker 3: probably and trusted him.
30:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's just going through tough time and he needs
30:44
Speaker 1: help and he's seeking that help.
30:45
Speaker 2: He's trying to better himself.
30:47
Speaker 3: What a psychotic asshole.
30:50
Speaker 1: Throughout the ordeal, Robert also photographed Sheldon at various stages
30:54
Speaker 1: of captivity, while recording increasingly detailed notes about the drugs
30:58
Speaker 1: he was administering, also plus the injuries he was inflicting.
31:02
Speaker 1: Now compared to the records associated with Jerry Howell, these
31:06
Speaker 1: notes were noticeably more thorough Now. One decision made the
31:10
Speaker 1: Sheldon case unlike anything Robert had done before. After several
31:14
Speaker 1: days of captivity, Robert unexpectedly transported Sheldon to a doctor.
31:20
Speaker 1: The injury Sheldon had sustained had become serious enough that
31:24
Speaker 1: Robert feared he might die sooner than he wanted him to, so,
31:28
Speaker 1: rather than allowing that to happen immediately, he sought medical
31:32
Speaker 1: treatment in an effort to keep Sheldon alive. And somehow
31:37
Speaker 1: Sheldon was unable to ever disclose that he had been
31:40
Speaker 1: held captive or assaulted, and after receiving the medical treatment,
31:45
Speaker 1: he was simply just taken back to the house on
31:48
Speaker 1: Charlotte Street.
31:50
Speaker 3: Well that's disappointing.
31:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it remains one of the most bizarre and remarkable
31:56
Speaker 1: moments of this entire case, because how did that happen.
31:59
Speaker 1: For a moment, like Sheldon had left the house alive,
32:03
Speaker 1: he was examined by a medical professional, and that medical
32:06
Speaker 1: professional didn't ask questions or call police at all.
32:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, which because he would have to have been in
32:14
Speaker 3: pretty rough shape exactly. So I find that a little
32:18
Speaker 3: bit hard to believe.
32:20
Speaker 1: Now I'm not too sure what stuff had been done
32:23
Speaker 1: to him prior to the hospital and after, but if
32:26
Speaker 1: he's about to die, some shit has seriously been done
32:29
Speaker 1: here to.
32:30
Speaker 3: What he was relatively healthy young man prior to exactly.
32:35
Speaker 3: I also just have to touch on the fact of
32:37
Speaker 3: how freaking disturbing it is that he keeps all these
32:41
Speaker 3: notes and shit.
32:42
Speaker 1: Oh I know, and it's getting more meticulous as he goes.
32:45
Speaker 3: Oh, that is just so messed up.
32:47
Speaker 1: He's documenting what he's doing, the person's reaction, how long
32:51
Speaker 1: he does it, for the dosage, like all these things.
32:54
Speaker 2: It's it's sick.
32:56
Speaker 3: It's like every victim is a case study of sorts
32:58
Speaker 3: to him.
32:59
Speaker 2: Essentially.
32:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Sheldon was now just basically being returned to
33:05
Speaker 1: the place that he needed to escape from, essentially, and
33:08
Speaker 1: from there within days, events forced Robert's hand. On April fifteenth,
33:13
Speaker 1: a repairman arrived at the Charlotte Street residence to carry
33:16
Speaker 1: out scheduled work on the roof, and the timing created
33:20
Speaker 1: an immediate problem. Sheldon was still alive inside the house,
33:24
Speaker 1: and Robert feared that any noise could expose what was
33:27
Speaker 1: happening upstairs, So rather than risk discovery, he decided to
33:32
Speaker 1: kill Sheldon. Robert took a plastic bag and placed it
33:37
Speaker 1: over Sheldon's head, then pulled it tight against his face
33:41
Speaker 1: and suffocated him. The decision was not driven by a
33:45
Speaker 1: moment of sudden rage. It was a more of a
33:47
Speaker 1: practical one regarding not getting caught. The presence of a
33:51
Speaker 1: workman outside the house meant the risk of being discovered
33:54
Speaker 1: had become too great. And then once the repair work
33:58
Speaker 1: was finished, Robert turned his attention to the disposal of
34:02
Speaker 1: the body. As he had done with Jerry Howell, he
34:05
Speaker 1: drained the body of its blood and dismembered it before
34:08
Speaker 1: gradually disposing of most of the remains throughout various garbage collections.
34:13
Speaker 1: Now I say most, because Robert Sheldon's skull was kept,
34:18
Speaker 1: It was cleaned, and it remained inside the house as
34:21
Speaker 1: a trophy from his second victim.
34:24
Speaker 3: Oh, he didn't bury it in the backyard. He just
34:26
Speaker 3: kept it in his house.
34:27
Speaker 2: He kept it.
34:29
Speaker 3: Oh, that's disturbing.
34:31
Speaker 2: Outside the house.
34:32
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, another missing person's investigation was beginning. Friends and family
34:36
Speaker 1: searched for Robert Sheldon while detectives retraced his final known movements,
34:39
Speaker 1: and once again, Robert's name resurfaced during the investigation because
34:43
Speaker 1: Sheldon had been staying at his home before he disappeared.
34:47
Speaker 1: But once again there was no evidence to support a
34:50
Speaker 1: search warrant, and the pattern just repeated itself. Investigators interviewed Robert,
34:55
Speaker 1: documented his statements, and continued pursuing other leads. Without physical
34:59
Speaker 1: evidence or eyewitness testimony, the case gradually slowed until it
35:03
Speaker 1: reached the same frustrating dead end as Jerry Howell's disappearance did,
35:07
Speaker 1: and with a growing confidence, it was only two months
35:10
Speaker 1: later when Robert decided to kill again.
35:13
Speaker 3: Of course, they're like so close, yet so far exactly.
35:18
Speaker 1: In June of nineteen eighty five, Mark Wallace, a twenty
35:21
Speaker 1: year old who had recently helped Robert with yardwork at
35:23
Speaker 1: his house, found himself caught in a sudden storm all
35:26
Speaker 1: nearby so looking for shelter, he went running to Robert's
35:30
Speaker 1: property and took refuge in a tool shed behind his house.
35:34
Speaker 1: But Robert saw this, and, of course, being the friendly
35:37
Speaker 1: man he was, he invited him inside instead. To anyone
35:40
Speaker 1: who may have seen this, it would have been, you know,
35:42
Speaker 1: a simple act of kindness with a local homeowner inviting
35:45
Speaker 1: someone in out of the rain. But instead Mark was
35:49
Speaker 1: drugged shortly after entering the house. Now, compared to the
35:53
Speaker 1: day's long captivity that was endured by Robert Shelton, Mark's
35:56
Speaker 1: ordeal was considerably shorter, and it may have been a blae,
36:00
Speaker 1: blessing or a curse, depending on how you look at it.
36:03
Speaker 1: But once Mark regained consciousness, he found Robert had restrained
36:06
Speaker 1: him to a bed, and from there he began subjecting
36:09
Speaker 1: him to repeated sexual assault and rape, while again documenting
36:12
Speaker 1: portions of the captivity with both handwritten notes and polaroid photographs.
36:18
Speaker 1: Robert once again used a transformer fitted with alligator clips
36:21
Speaker 1: to deliver repeated shocks to particularly sensitive areas of Mark's body,
36:27
Speaker 1: which were things like his nipples and genitalia. Although Mark
36:31
Speaker 1: endured roughly a day of captivity, the written notes from
36:33
Speaker 1: the events suggest Robert had become noticeably more methodical than
36:37
Speaker 1: he had been during the earlier murders, and sometime the
36:40
Speaker 1: following day, Mark died of axphyxiation. Now we don't know
36:45
Speaker 1: exactly how it was, but he was killed by Robert.
36:51
Speaker 1: Now Robert carried the body then to the basement, like
36:55
Speaker 1: he'd done with his previous victims, drained the blood through
36:58
Speaker 1: a series of incisions and hanging him upside down, and
37:00
Speaker 1: then dismembered him with kitchen knives and a chainsaw and
37:03
Speaker 1: gradually disposed of them through the municipal garbage collection. This
37:07
Speaker 1: was now three disappearances, as Mark Wallace was reported missing
37:11
Speaker 1: on June twenty second, nineteen eighty five, followed by a
37:16
Speaker 1: third missing person's investigation, as detectives again began retracing the
37:19
Speaker 1: final days of a young man who seemingly vanished without
37:22
Speaker 1: an explanation. Interviews with friends and acquaintances even eventually established
37:27
Speaker 1: that Mark had recently been with Robert, leaving investigators to
37:30
Speaker 1: question him once more, but like before, there was no proof.
37:34
Speaker 1: There was no legal basis to search his house, so
37:36
Speaker 1: as the weeks passed, the investigation gradually lost its momentum,
37:41
Speaker 1: leaving Mark's disappearance unresolved with a third dead end. By now,
37:46
Speaker 1: Robert had become noticeably more confident in his routine. His
37:50
Speaker 1: victims all came from vulnerable backgrounds, making it very difficult
37:53
Speaker 1: to establish precise timelines for when they had last been seen.
37:57
Speaker 1: They even lived transient lifestyles or occasionally disappeared for periods
38:00
Speaker 1: of time. Circumstances well, they all complicated missing persons investigations
38:06
Speaker 1: long before detectives even were able to consider foul play,
38:11
Speaker 1: and the pattern would continue into the autumn. On September
38:15
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, nineteen eighty five, Robert met James Ferris, a
38:20
Speaker 1: twenty year old he encountered at a local gay bar. There,
38:24
Speaker 1: the two spent time together chatting, sharing stories, and getting
38:27
Speaker 1: to know one another over some drinks before returning to
38:31
Speaker 1: Robert's house on Charlotte Street. But James Ferris well he
38:37
Speaker 1: would never leave. As with previous victims. Once inside Robert's home,
38:43
Speaker 1: he incapacitated James Ferris using drugs before securing him to
38:47
Speaker 1: a bed. Now, by this point, the assaults had become
38:50
Speaker 1: increasingly more elaborate. In addition to the repeated sexual assault
38:54
Speaker 1: and raped, the electrical shocks, and the handwritten notes and
38:57
Speaker 1: recordings of medications, with the injuries, of physical responses and
39:01
Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff was just getting more and
39:03
Speaker 1: more refined in his methods and in depth. It was
39:07
Speaker 1: as if he was studying how his victims reacted and
39:10
Speaker 1: he wanted to find ways to get better responses that
39:13
Speaker 1: pleased his sick and twisted mind, like a morbid mad
39:17
Speaker 1: scientist making his puppets dance for him just the right way,
39:21
Speaker 1: just how he wanted now. James died after approximately a
39:26
Speaker 1: day at Robert's home. Again, we don't know exactly how
39:31
Speaker 1: he was exphyxiated, but we do know he was killed
39:34
Speaker 1: from exphyxiation, and if I were to guess, since Robert
39:37
Speaker 1: seemed to be following a pattern, he would have likely
39:39
Speaker 1: used a plastic bag over his face. From there, James's
39:43
Speaker 1: body was processed in much the same way that the
39:46
Speaker 1: others were. Blood was drained, his remains were dismembered and
39:50
Speaker 1: then disposed of through the city's garbage collection system, and
39:54
Speaker 1: by the end of nineteen eighty five, four young men
39:56
Speaker 1: had disappeared after spending time with Robert. Bridge detectives had
40:01
Speaker 1: interviewed him once more. Families had expressed concerns about him,
40:06
Speaker 1: and his name appeared repeatedly in investigative files, Yet each
40:12
Speaker 1: case suffered from the same fundamental problem. There were no
40:16
Speaker 1: bodies that were recovered, there were no witnesses that could
40:19
Speaker 1: stand there and tell about the murders, and there was
40:22
Speaker 1: still no legal basis for searching his house on Charlotte Street.
40:26
Speaker 1: And for Robert, each successful concealment reinforced the belief that
40:30
Speaker 1: he had perfected his system of capture, rape, torture, murder
40:35
Speaker 1: and concealment.
40:36
Speaker 3: How frustrating is that, though, because for him to be
40:40
Speaker 3: connected to all four of these victims, like the investigators
40:45
Speaker 3: have to know that it was most likely him.
40:50
Speaker 4: I mean, there's just nothing they can do, that's the thing.
40:52
Speaker 2: Right.
40:54
Speaker 1: However, however, he could argue the fact of well, you know,
40:59
Speaker 1: I help a lot of transient young men, right, and
41:02
Speaker 1: it's a lifestyle that leads him into dangerous situations and
41:05
Speaker 1: they often disappear.
41:06
Speaker 4: So was he just.
41:07
Speaker 3: All along from the beginning, setting himself up for this?
41:11
Speaker 2: I don't know.
41:12
Speaker 3: Kind of appears that way.
41:13
Speaker 2: It seems like it now.
41:16
Speaker 1: Robert's written records were becoming increasingly detailed, too, which pointed
41:20
Speaker 1: to that very belief of him getting more confident, and
41:24
Speaker 1: with it that confidence increased every single victim.
41:27
Speaker 2: Along the way.
41:28
Speaker 1: It was more and more and more, and the next
41:30
Speaker 1: young man he abducted would remain alive inside the house
41:33
Speaker 1: longer than anyone before him, and the evidence left behind
41:37
Speaker 1: would reveal just how far Robert's crime had evolved. Todd
41:42
Speaker 1: Stoops was twenty one years old and had experienced years
41:46
Speaker 1: of instability before crossing paths with Robert for the final time.
41:50
Speaker 1: He struggled with drug addiction, drifted between temporary places to live,
41:54
Speaker 1: and occasionally supported himself through sex work. At one point
41:58
Speaker 1: he had been married, but his life had become difficult
42:02
Speaker 1: with addiction taking hold in his life. Now, Robert had
42:05
Speaker 1: already been acquainted with Todd, as he had stayed at
42:07
Speaker 1: his home on Charlotte Street before on two previous occasions,
42:11
Speaker 1: and like several of the earlier victims, Todd viewed Robert
42:14
Speaker 1: as someone who is willing to offer food, a place
42:17
Speaker 1: to sleep, or help when he needed it. Most essentially,
42:20
Speaker 1: it was a sanctuary for Todd right and in all honesty,
42:23
Speaker 1: the fact that Todd stayed there, or other people had
42:26
Speaker 1: stayed at his house previously and left completely fine, would
42:29
Speaker 1: only strengthen his case of Hey, you know what, I'm
42:32
Speaker 1: just a nice guy. They stayed here plenty of times before,
42:35
Speaker 1: you know. On June seventeenth, nineteen eighty six, though, the
42:40
Speaker 1: two encountered one another again near Penn Valley Park, an
42:43
Speaker 1: area where Robert was known to spend time and where
42:45
Speaker 1: he frequently met young men. As they talked, Robert invited
42:49
Speaker 1: Todd back to his house, which was an invitation that
42:52
Speaker 1: would not have seemed unusual given their previous history, and
42:55
Speaker 1: so Todd agreed. They went back to Robert's house, and
42:58
Speaker 1: once inside, Robert followed the same pattern he had established
43:02
Speaker 1: during his previous victims. Todd was given drugs that left
43:06
Speaker 1: in him unable to resist before being restrained to a bed,
43:10
Speaker 1: and from that point forward, Robert began documenting nearly every
43:14
Speaker 1: aspect of his captivity.
43:17
Speaker 2: Now.
43:17
Speaker 1: The notes this time, though, revealed a significant change in
43:21
Speaker 1: Robert's approach. See Earlier victims had been held for relatively
43:24
Speaker 1: short periods of time, you know, a couple days at best,
43:28
Speaker 1: but Todd, on the other hand, would ultimately survive for
43:32
Speaker 1: approximately two weeks in total in captivity.
43:35
Speaker 3: Oh that's so long.
43:37
Speaker 1: And the handwritten records became increasingly clinical, listing medications, even
43:43
Speaker 1: schedules along the way and when they'd be administered, with
43:46
Speaker 1: drug doses, observations about Todd's Tod's physical condition and the
43:51
Speaker 1: progression even of his injuries, and rather than simply recording
43:55
Speaker 1: what had happened, Robert appeared to be monitoring how long
43:58
Speaker 1: his victim could survive under increasingly severe circumstances and conditions.
44:04
Speaker 1: Robert in fact begun administering antibiotics during the captivity two
44:09
Speaker 1: now he did so in an effort to slow the
44:11
Speaker 1: onset of infection and prolong Todd's life, rather than any
44:16
Speaker 1: sort of concern for his well being and help him
44:18
Speaker 1: get better. The antibiotics were recorded alongside sedatives, tranquilizers, and
44:23
Speaker 1: it all created a disturbing picture of someone attempting to
44:26
Speaker 1: manage his captive's physical decline while continuing to subject him
44:31
Speaker 1: to repeated assaults over and over.
44:33
Speaker 3: And over again, which is just so bizarre and so
44:37
Speaker 3: messed up, so fucked.
44:39
Speaker 1: As the days passed, Todd's condition deteriorated dramatically. According to
44:44
Speaker 1: Robert's written records and even later confessions, he inflicted repeated
44:49
Speaker 1: physical abuse and injured Todd while also continuing to sexually
44:54
Speaker 1: assault and rape him. Now, among the most significant findings
44:57
Speaker 1: documented in these writings was Robert's use of caustic chemicals.
45:04
Speaker 1: See drain cleaner was taken and using a needle, it
45:09
Speaker 1: was injected directly into Todd's throat and vocal cords in
45:14
Speaker 1: an apparent attempt to make it increasingly difficult for him
45:17
Speaker 1: to speak or cry out, probably in order to you know,
45:20
Speaker 1: keep him quiet and hidden from the outside world. The
45:24
Speaker 1: notes also described similar chemicals being injected into his eyes
45:30
Speaker 1: as well, causing severe injuries and effectively blinding him. So basically,
45:36
Speaker 1: Robert was taking draino and injecting it into his vocal
45:40
Speaker 1: cords and his eyeballs with a hypodermic needle. He was
45:45
Speaker 1: piercing his eye and injecting draino.
45:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't, I can't even with that. That is
45:50
Speaker 3: just so fucked up.
45:51
Speaker 4: This guy is so fucked That gave me so much.
45:54
Speaker 2: He Begbi's and it was like, I thought, I've heard
45:57
Speaker 2: it all.
45:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, researching and talking about this true crime that that.
46:02
Speaker 4: Was new, Like, what is wrong with him?
46:05
Speaker 3: How is he even coming up with these idea? Is
46:08
Speaker 3: let alone doing them and repeatedly like what the shit.
46:12
Speaker 1: Well, it's like a sadistic doctoral like a fucked up,
46:15
Speaker 1: twisted sick doctor, because like for what for what?
46:18
Speaker 3: Really, I don't know.
46:19
Speaker 1: But he's carefully recording their effects too. He's noting changes
46:22
Speaker 1: in Todd's condition. He's conducting experiments. Really, rather than imprisoning
46:27
Speaker 1: another human being, He's not just holding a person. He
46:30
Speaker 1: doesn't see Todd as a person anymore. He's experimenting on him,
46:34
Speaker 1: and he's documenting everything he's doing because he wants to
46:38
Speaker 1: know the effects.
46:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, this just gives me like big time heavy gvs
46:43
Speaker 3: that someone in this frickin world exists like this.
46:45
Speaker 2: I know now.
46:47
Speaker 1: Ultimately, the culminative effect of the prolonged abuse eventually overwhelmed
46:51
Speaker 1: Todd's body. Medical evidence later established that he died after
46:55
Speaker 1: developing overwhelming infections following catastrophic internal injuries. The damage to
47:02
Speaker 1: his intestinal wall allowed bacteria to spread throughout his body,
47:06
Speaker 1: resulting in septic shock. Unlike Jerry Howell, Robert Sheldon, Mark Wallace,
47:11
Speaker 1: and James Ferris, Todd was not intentionally suffocated. His death
47:16
Speaker 1: occurred because the injuries inflicted well over the course of
47:19
Speaker 1: the last two weeks had become too severe for his
47:21
Speaker 1: body to handle or survive. Robert pushed every single limit
47:26
Speaker 1: he wanted to and could with Tod, and even after
47:30
Speaker 1: Todd died, Robert approached the aftermath with the same calculated
47:34
Speaker 1: routine as before. His body was hung upside down, drained
47:38
Speaker 1: of blood, then being dismembered and disposed of in the
47:41
Speaker 1: garbage outside the house. Todd simply just disappeared. Friends and
47:48
Speaker 1: family searched for him, and another missing person's investigation began.
47:51
Speaker 1: Like the others before it, Detectives attempted to reconstruct his
47:54
Speaker 1: final movements, speaking with people who knew him and identifying
47:58
Speaker 1: those who had recently spent time with him. Robert's name
48:01
Speaker 1: again surfaced during those inquiries because of his prior relationship
48:04
Speaker 1: with Todd, but the evidence was just frustratingly familiar. There
48:09
Speaker 1: was still no body, no eye witness, no indication that
48:12
Speaker 1: a violent crime had occurred inside the house. The investigation
48:16
Speaker 1: eventually reached the same impasse that had frustrated detectives in
48:20
Speaker 1: the previous cases, and by the summer of nineteen eighty six,
48:24
Speaker 1: four investigations had quietly become five, viewed individually. Each disappearance
48:30
Speaker 1: represented unique challenges because the victims lived transient lives and
48:34
Speaker 1: they often associated with different groups of people viewed together. However,
48:39
Speaker 1: an unmistakable pattern was beginning to emerge, even if investigators couldn't.
48:43
Speaker 2: Prove it yet.
48:45
Speaker 1: Young men connected in one way or another to Robert
48:48
Speaker 1: were disappearing, and despite repeated interviews, police remained unable to
48:53
Speaker 1: develop the evidence necessary to search his home. And for Robert,
48:58
Speaker 1: Todd's stoops keptivting. He marked yet another evolution in his crimes.
49:03
Speaker 1: He had succeeded in keeping a victim alive for far
49:06
Speaker 1: longer than he had before, and he was documenting that
49:09
Speaker 1: progress of injuries and everything with increasing precision, and so
49:13
Speaker 1: his confidence grew. It grew alongside his methods, too, and
49:17
Speaker 1: there was nothing in the outcome of the investigation into
49:21
Speaker 1: Todd's disappearance that suggested that law enforcement was any closer
49:25
Speaker 1: to uncovering what had happened from there. Within a year,
49:29
Speaker 1: Robert would abduct another young man he believed he could
49:32
Speaker 1: control just as completely as Todd. That victim would be
49:36
Speaker 1: Larry Wayne Pearson, and Larry would survive even longer than
49:40
Speaker 1: Todd did, and the events that followed would convince Robert.
49:44
Speaker 1: He had become basically untouchable at this point, and that's
49:51
Speaker 1: where we're going to end part one.
49:53
Speaker 3: I knew it, I knew it.
49:55
Speaker 4: Oh, this guy's disgusting.
49:58
Speaker 3: Is like this isdiculously disturbing.
50:01
Speaker 1: Oh fuck this man he needs Oh he's got a
50:03
Speaker 1: rot for Oh, Satan better have his way with this guy.
50:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, because just everything he's doing and just it's just
50:11
Speaker 3: it's so I don't know, his whole life I feel
50:14
Speaker 3: like was just a build up. And in his adult
50:16
Speaker 3: years too, he just like had this course that he
50:21
Speaker 3: you know, helped these vulnerable men and stuff. Yep, and
50:24
Speaker 3: he's just setting himself up then later do these terrible
50:29
Speaker 3: things to them. Oh I just my goodness, it's so uncomfortable.
50:33
Speaker 2: I know.
50:34
Speaker 1: It seems like that's what he was doing, was setting
50:36
Speaker 1: himself up, and it.
50:37
Speaker 4: Likely was mm hm.
50:39
Speaker 1: Now if it wasn't the case, he was likely a
50:42
Speaker 1: bit more of a sexual predator too, because he clearly
50:45
Speaker 1: he was gay and he liked young men, So he's
50:48
Speaker 1: probably crossing that line of like getting as young as
50:51
Speaker 1: he could, you know what I mean, that could have
50:53
Speaker 1: been a reason and then it evolved into this. If
50:56
Speaker 1: he wasn't setting himself up.
50:58
Speaker 3: But uh yeah, yeah, I know, and then it's just
51:01
Speaker 3: so frustrating to how each one they get away with it.
51:06
Speaker 3: Just it literally just builds their confidence for.
51:08
Speaker 4: The next I know.
51:10
Speaker 1: Now there is some stuff that I still get a
51:12
Speaker 1: research in regards to after Robert is caught. So there
51:16
Speaker 1: may be some confession stuff in regards to, you know,
51:21
Speaker 1: how he evolved and did he set himself up. So
51:23
Speaker 1: I'm hoping to see if I can uncover some of
51:25
Speaker 1: that for part two. I'll let you know if I
51:27
Speaker 1: do for sure, though, Huh.
51:28
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I mean I guess the slight silver lining
51:31
Speaker 3: is that we know he gets caught eventually, so that's good.
51:35
Speaker 4: Well, he definitely does these notes.
51:38
Speaker 2: We know all this because of his notes.
51:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, so so that is, like, I mean, if you
51:44
Speaker 3: have to find a silver lining in this case, it's that.
51:46
Speaker 4: I guess. Yeah, that's a tough silver lining though. Jeez.
51:52
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I guess we'll just be all on the
51:54
Speaker 3: edge of our seats for next week then.
51:57
Speaker 1: For next week and next week on Tuesday, when we
52:00
Speaker 1: talk about our patrons and everyone who has signed up,
52:03
Speaker 1: we'll be going back the week that we missed when
52:05
Speaker 1: Nichole's on vacation and I was doing house chores and things.
52:08
Speaker 1: I guess we were both technically on vacation, just taking
52:11
Speaker 1: care of personal time off. How is that when we
52:13
Speaker 1: are on personal time off, we'll be covering all those
52:16
Speaker 1: patrons that signed up during then and we missed because
52:19
Speaker 1: of the pre recorded episodes. So your name will be
52:21
Speaker 1: shouted out on Tuesday.
52:23
Speaker 3: Perfect sounds great, and until then, stay wicked A