Latest / Shades of Murder / 69: Making of a Monster - The Shoe Fetish Slayer part 3

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69: Making of a Monster - The Shoe Fetish Slayer part 3 · Shades of Murder

0:15
Hello and welcome to Shades of Murder.
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I'm your host, Alita Caldwell. In this podcast, I discuss cases
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of murder from around the world and throughout history,
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attempting to unravel the layers of darkness that help make
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humans into monsters. Please be forewarned that each
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episode contains specific and at times very graphic and
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disturbing details of the case. This show is not intended for
0:52
all audiences and listener discretion is strongly advised.
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Your feedback and support makes all the difference in the world
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to me and the show, so thank you.
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Serial killer Jerome Brutos, commonly referred to as Jerry
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Brutos, and his bizarre fetish induced crimes have been
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showcased and discussed in various forms of media.
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The serial killer has been popularly portrayed in fictional
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series such as in Mindhunter and Monster Ed Gain, with Mindhunter
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in particular being an excellent highly recommended show.
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There is a song, Fatal Foot Fetish, that details the life
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and killings of the sick perpetrator by the metal band
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Macabre. Yet somehow Jerry Brutos remains
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a lesser household name in the world of infamous serial killers
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like Gacy, Bundy, and Dahmer. Is it simply because he had a
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lower body count? It certainly wasn't for a lack
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of desire or motivation to kill more women.
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In only 16 months, he murdered four young women and attempted
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to abduct and kill two others. For serial killers, this is a
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very high number of victims in a short period of time.
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I have little doubt that Jury Brutos would have become one of
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the most prolific serial killers in history had he not given in
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to his own narcissism. He wanted so desperately to
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spill the gory details on his murders that he gave himself up
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to police when they didn't have anything on him, at least not
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for homicide. Even in his confessions, he was
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so arrogant and delusional that he believed that without a body,
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he wouldn't be charged for all of them.
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Over the last two episodes, I have discussed the crimes,
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investigation, horrifying evidence, and court cases
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surrounding this serial killer. But who was Jerome?
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Jerry Brutos? Some of you may not care about
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who he was or what happened to him in his life.
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He was a sick, evil predator. An absolute monster.
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If anyone ever deserved to wear the label, none of this can be
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denied. However, the life and
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experiences of serial killer Jerome Jury Brutos are critical
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to understanding how he became the monster he was.
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They're also fascinating in the sense of how many warning signs
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and red flags people in his life and the system chose to dismiss
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and minimize how dangerous he really was.
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On January 31st, 1939 in Webster, SD, Jerome Henry Jury
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Brutos was born to a mother who was immediately disappointed
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that he was a boy. The child hadn't been planned,
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and she desperately wanted a little girl, even though the
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family lived on a farm. From that moment when her second
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boy arrived with his bright red hair and blue eyes, Jerry Brutos
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was rejected. His father was a very small man
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standing only around 5 feet 4, but he could become verbally
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violent when he felt he was being taken advantage of.
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A farmer by trade, his father was often away from home working
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the fields and he never stood up to his plain looking but very
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commanding and dominating wife. Every year of his life, Jerome
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Brutos would inch closer and closer to heading down a path of
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desolation, depravity, and consuming darkness.
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To add further to his feelings of neglect and instability, the
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family moved around frequently, bouncing between California and
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Oregon until finally settling in Salem, OR in 1944.
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At this time, even though his family was financially
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established, with his father being in the agricultural
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industry, Jerry as a small child ran around junk yards searching
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for things to play with. The child was always alone, just
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wandering around the neighborhood.
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At five years old, one day little Jerry found a pair of
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women's shoes in the trash. They were unlike any other he
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had seen before. His mother never dressed up,
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much less wore high heels. These high heels were patent
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leather, open toed and open backed with a delicate thin
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strap that would have fit around a woman's ankle.
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One of them was missing its rhinestone studded decorative
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clip and they were a bit worn for wear, but otherwise, to
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Jerry they were perfect. For some reason something
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sparked in him when the boy saw these heels and he brought his
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new treasure home. Little Jerry Brutos proudly put
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them on his small feet and walked around the house.
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That is until his mother discovered him wearing the
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heels. She was disgusted by the sight
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of him parading around in women's shoes that he nolas
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discovered in the trash. His mother, Aileen, scolded him,
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her voice peeking to a shriek as she screamed at him and berated
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him over and over again, calling him wicked.
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This really upset and confused this child because he didn't
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mean any harm. He didn't think there was
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anything wrong with taking the shoes because someone else had
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already thrown them away. Jerome Brutus ignored his mother
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when she demanded that he throw them back in the trash.
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Instead, he hid them, and when she found them again, she became
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enraged. Jerry's mother made him stay
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inside his room for a long time, and she burned his treasure the
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high heels. When Jerry was let out of his
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bedroom and free to leave the house again, he ran over to a
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woman who lived next door. The neighbor was pretty, soft
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and very kind to the lonely little boy.
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In his eyes and heart, she became the closest thing he had
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to a mother. He even told himself he
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pretended that she was his real mom, and little Jerry Burdos
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became very attached. Sadly, the woman suffered from
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diabetes and became too ill and frail to allow the boy to
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continue visiting her. But Jerry didn't understand
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that. He just saw it as another form
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of female rejection. During this time, he also had a
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friend, a girl around his age. She was very pale and always too
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exhausted to play. Jerry Brutos didn't realize she
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had tuberculosis and was dying. Her death struck him deeply and
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according to Jerome Brutos, it was one of the most, if not the
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most horrible thing that have happened to him in his life.
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It took him years to recover from this loss.
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When interviewed years later, Jerome Bruto spoke about how
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these three moments or events in his life.
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First, being the discovery and destruction of the high heels by
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his mother. Secondly, how the sweet woman
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whom he wished was his mother could no longer see him and his
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dying childhood friend were intimately intertwined.
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This was a critical period in Jerome Brutus's life, which
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demonstrates that he wasn't born a monster.
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He was a sad, extremely lonely and isolated little boy who
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desperately wanted and needed affection from females, in
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particular his mother, which he never received.
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Jerome Brutos felt further abandoned by girls and women
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with no fault of his own. His sadness and feelings of
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abandonment and rejection by females twisted his mind and
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demented his psyche, slowly turning him and to a monster.
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His mother, Aileen, doted on his older brother Larry.
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Her neglect of her younger son Jerome escalated into acts of
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hostility when she punished him for taking and wearing the
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women's heels and then burned the shoes.
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This undoubtedly caused a great deal of confusion and sadness.
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Instead of stopping his desire for women's shoes and other
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feminine items, it ignited an obsession inside Jerome Bruto's
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that would lead to a fetish that fueled his aggression, rage, and
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mission to overpower women. Between 6:00 and seven years
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old, the Brutos family would once again move, relocating to
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Riverton, California. Jerry became so excited when he
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realized that his first grade teacher wore high heels and she
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kept two extra pairs inside the classroom.
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In an attempt to steal the shoes for himself, he would hide the
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second pair found within her desk underneath some blocks in
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the playroom, but another child saw him do it and told the
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teacher. The teacher understandably
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scolded him, which embarrassed Jerry, so he left the shoes and
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the classroom. This is the second time that
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Jerry Brutos had gotten into trouble and yelled at by a woman
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for his wanting high heels. Jerome Brutos at this time began
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to suffer from a series of health problems.
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He ended up failing the second grade because of this.
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He was inflicted with everything from measles to laryngitis.
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He had multiple operations to fight off fungal infections.
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It was also during this time that Jerome Brutos began
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experiencing having terrible headaches and this ailment would
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continue on into his adulthood. They became so bad that he had
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trouble seeing clearly. School officials believe that
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maybe the culprit of his headaches and therefore his poor
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performance at school was due to his eyesight, but the eye doctor
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didn't see any reason for him to wear eyeglasses.
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However, it was agreed upon that Jerry Brutos be given a low
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prescription to wear for a placebo effect, but the
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headaches didn't go away. His IQ was also tested at this
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time, which indicated that his intelligence was within normal
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range. As Jerry Brutos began to grow
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up, his fascination with the female body, in particular their
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clothing, now expanded to their underwear.
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Between the years of eight and 12 years old, the family moved
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two more times around the Oregon region.
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While they lived in Grant's Pass, one of his neighbors had
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two teenage girls. Jerry and their brother would
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sneak into their rooms and play with their clothing.
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Another incident involved a teenage girl who accompanied her
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parents to Jerry's house on a visit.
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While the girl was there, she wanted to take a nap, so she
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laid down inside Jerry's bedroom.
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As she laid there, Jerry crept inside the bedroom and watched
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with increasing excitement as one of the heels from her shoes
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was peeking out from outside the blanket.
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Jerome had to have her shoes. He did his best to quietly and
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sneakily pry them off of her foot, but she awoke and became
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upset with him, screaming at him to get out.
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When Jerome Brutus was 13, he came across a box belonging to
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his older brother Larry, who was now 16.
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Larry had what many would describe as a normal
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heterosexual fascination and interest in the female body, and
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he had pinups and even drawn pictures of Lois Lane, also
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known as Superman's love interest, which he had all
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locked inside a box. When little Jerry picked the
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lock and saw what was inside, he got caught and said they were
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his covering for his older brother.
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His mother would have been irate and so disappointed had she
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discovered they were Larry's, so Jerry figured he may as well
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take the blame since she already treated him like he could never
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do anything right. Not only would discussions
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around sexuality never have taken place in the household,
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but there were no signs of affection at all.
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Touching and hugging were extremely discouraged.
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Eileen Brutos was conservative, downright puritanical when it
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came to sexuality. The first time Jerome Brutos had
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a wet dream, she ridiculed and berated him for staining his
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sheets. She forced him to wash the
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sheets by hand and he had to sleep on his bed without any
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sheets since they were his only ones and had to line dry.
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This shame and humiliation around anything of a actual
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nature would taint any thoughts of normalcy that Jerry Brutos
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held regarding females and their bodies.
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He began to have fantasies that involved violence against women.
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Jerry Brutos desire to capture a woman or girl at this time, hold
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her against her will, make her do whatever he wanted her to,
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and watch her beg for mercy. Over several days he dug a
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tunnel in the side of a hill on the farm with the plan of
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abducting a girl and forcing her to obey his commands.
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But he was still very young and naive.
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Jerome Burdos had little to no knowledge about sex, so his
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fantasy was just limited to the idea, the power, the control.
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In the days before widespread access to pornography that
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sometimes involves such fantasies, and therefore have
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been partially to blame for some young men's warped perceptions
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of females and their bodies. What possibly could have
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explained these dark, demented desires Jerome Brutals had?
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Nothing could except his being psychologically broken to the
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point where the lack of connection to anyone else
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developed into a deeply narcissistic, delusional pursuit
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of his own desires and fulfillment.
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During this time, the Brutus family moved to Corvallis, OR,
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where Jerry's older brother Larry attended Oregon State,
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where he majored in electronics. Meanwhile, Jerry's fantasies
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become closer to reality as he continues to spy on his
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neighbors and steal their shoes and undergarments from inside
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their houses and off their clotheslines.
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One day in the late summer months, after stealing a
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neighbor's undergarments, Jerry Brutos decided that having her
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bra and panties was not enough for him anymore.
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He wanted photographs of the girl to satisfy his desire and a
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bizarre, almost delusional hoax. He approached her and offered to
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help her get back the items that were stolen.
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The girl was skeptical at first, but Jerry was persuasive and he
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knew how to spin a story. Jerry told her that since he
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lived in the neighborhood, the police had asked him for his
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help, so he told her to come to his house.
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When the girl arrived, the house was dark inside and she heard
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someone tell her to come up the stairs.
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As she entered Jerry's bedroom, she couldn't see him and the
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light was dim. Suddenly someone wearing a mask
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holding a knife jumped in front of her.
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The man told her to take off her clothes or he would cut her.
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He forced her to strip down to nothing and took pictures of
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her. The assailant then instructed
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her to pose and finished off the roll of film, taking photographs
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of her clothed and nude. The masked intruder fled the
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house and the girl threw her clothes back on as fast as she
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could move. As she was about to leave down
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the stairs, Jerry appeared in his bedroom without a mask.
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He was breathing heavily and claimed that someone had locked
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him in the barn. This was the first time Jerome
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Brutos had assaulted someone and had gotten away with it, or so
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he believed. The next year, Jerry Brutus's
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criminality escalated as his thirst for violence and control
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continued to grow. He lured a 17 year old girl into
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his car. At first.
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He initially began to speak with her as if they were on a date,
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which at first confused the girl and then she became panicked.
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As he drove faster and further down a desolate Rd., Jerome
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stopped the car at a deserted farmhouse.
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Then, without any warning, he dragged her out of the car to
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the ground and began to beat her excessively.
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His huge fists struck the young girl's face and breast, and she
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could barely breathe. He pulled at her clothing,
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trying to tear them off of her, yelling that he wanted to see
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her naked even though she was miles away from others.
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The girl screamed as loud as she could.
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A couple who lived at a nearby farm happened to be driving by
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and witnessed the incident. At first, Jerry said that the
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girl had just fallen out of the car and she was hysterical
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because it scared her. The couple didn't seem to
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believe him, so he then swore that he had actually stopped to
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help the girl, who was being attacked by some weirdo that ran
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off into the forest. The girl, unable to speak
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through her swollen lips, shook her head violently, indicating
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that he was the perpetrator. The couple saw through his lies
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and insisted that both the girl and he returned to their house.
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There, they contacted the Oregon State Police.
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When faced with the cops, Jerry said he just wanted to beat her
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up enough to scare her into taking her clothes off.
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He just wanted some pictures of her.
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Officers located his camera inside the vehicle.
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When investigators searched his bedroom, they also discovered
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his collection of women's shoes and undergarments.
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Then they found photographs of shoes, lingerie and some
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pictures of a nude young woman. When police officers asked Jerry
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about the photos, he told them that he had just developed the
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pictures for another guy who had threatened to beat him up if he
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didn't. 17 year old Jerry Brutos was arrested on assault and
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battery and sent to the Polk County Juvenile Department while
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the police conducted further investigation.
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His mother was absolutely furious and his father was in
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shock. No one on either side of their
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families had any history of violence nor shown any signs of
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being mentally ill. The girl whom he had attacked
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and forced to take nude photographs the year earlier
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felt safe enough now to admit to the police what Jerry Brutos had
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done to her. The young woman was terrified he
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would kill her if she said it was Jerry under the mask.
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But now she wanted to tell the truth.
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Between her confession, the assault of the young woman at
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the farmhouse, the weird cachet of stolen women's items and the
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photographs, the police felt that Jury Brutos had issues that
23:23
warranted professional help. He was transferred to Oregon
23:27
State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
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The young man was an anomaly of an offender, especially for
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someone who had committed deviant sexual offences.
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Although he was very tall and big, Jerry Brutos was humble,
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polite, even meek. He wasn't involved in any sports
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or activities that were violent or even competitive because he
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didn't like pushing other people around and he didn't want to be
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pushed around either. Jerry liked electronics and
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spent most of his time working on radios, mechanics and
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photography. When the doctors inquired about
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his sex life, the young man blushed profusely and claimed he
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didn't have any sexual experience.
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He had not even been alone with a girl before, except for his
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neighbor, whom he had tricked into taking nude photographs for
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him. He had never seen a naked woman.
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The young man was openly ashamed, depressed, and had
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great challenges with having any relationships, including with
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the professionals who evaluated him.
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Jerry Brutos claimed to feel there was something wrong with
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him, and he hoped that they could figure out what it was and
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cure him. Doctors remained perplexed and
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had great difficulty in determining A diagnosis.
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Psychiatrist initially diagnosed Jerry Brutos with adjustment
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reaction of adolescence with sexual deviation and fetishism.
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This would later be expanded to include the now excluded
25:09
diagnosis of borderline schizophrenia.
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At this time, Jury Brutus was allowed to attend classes at his
25:17
high school during the day and then he would return to the
25:20
hospital afterwards. Jerome Brutus was a nobody, a
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very gawky kid with red hair and freckles.
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He was very tall, but he was pudgy and he suffered from
25:31
chronic acne. He was highly intelligent in
25:35
math and science, possibly even brilliant, but when interviewed,
25:39
neither his teachers nor his fellow students even remembered
25:44
him. No one really talked to him or
25:46
even knew who he was. Later, during his court hearing,
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one of his defense attorneys would recall that he had
25:54
attended the same high school, North Salem High, and even had
25:59
the same homeroom as Jerry Brutos, but other than that, he
26:03
didn't remember him at all. This is one of the reasons why
26:07
no one viewed Jerome Bruto's as being a threat, including the
26:12
doctors. He was discharged from the
26:15
Oregon State Hospital after nine months.
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He was deemed to not be a danger to society and was advised to
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grow up. Of course, this professional
26:28
medical determination couldn't have been further from the
26:32
truth. Nothing inside Jerry Brutals had
26:35
changed. If anything, his resentment and
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hatred toward females and his fetishism toward high heels and
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women's undergarments had only worsened.
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Although he liked to think of himself as being smarter than
26:50
everyone in the room, especially later on with the police, Jerry
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Brutals was not exceptionally intelligent.
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In reality, he had normal to even below normal intelligence.
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He was never successful at school and graduated in the
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lower 30% of his class after 2 attempts at attaining a higher
27:13
education. He attended both Oregon State
27:16
like his brother Larry had and Salem Technical Vocational
27:20
School. He ended up dropping out and he
27:23
joined the US Army. During his time in the military,
27:27
he began having bizarre reoccurring nightmares about a
27:31
Korean woman. Every night she would sneak into
27:35
the barracks and into his bed attempting to seduce him, but he
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didn't want her jury. Brutos would become so
27:43
frustrated and angry that he would end up beating the woman
27:48
senseless. It upset him so much that he was
27:52
scared he wanted to kill her. With his concerns, he talked to
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the Army chaplain, who referred him to the staff psychiatrist.
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By the end of 1959, the same year he had joined, his weird
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obsessions and unsettling fantasies would lead Captain
28:11
Theodore Jay Berry to dismiss him from the Army.
28:16
During his time with the military, he attained skills as
28:19
a communications technician. With yet another failure and
28:23
disappointment in his life, Jerry Brutos, now 20 years old,
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returned to live with his parents in Corvallis, OR.
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They allowed him to stay in their second bedroom.
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That is until his older brother Larry returned home from
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college. No surprise that he was given
28:44
priority and they forced their forever disappointing second son
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to live in their shed. After running an errand one
28:52
night, Jerry noticed a young woman walking alone near the
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telephone booth. She wore bright red, and he was
29:00
awestruck by the side of her. His fantasies of capturing a
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woman and controlling her began to creep up again inside of him,
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and he decided to follow her home.
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He snuck inside and attacked the girl, strangling her until she
29:19
lost consciousness. Before leaving the scene, he
29:22
pulled her shoes off her feet and took them with him.
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That night and many nights after, he slept with her shoes,
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feeling more powerful as he cradled them in bed.
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Not long after, Jerry Brutos pursued his FCC license and got
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a job at the Corvallis radio station.
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There he has his first relatively normal interaction
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with a female. Her name was Darcy Metzler, also
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known as Raylene in other resources, and she was only 17
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years old. Darcy was a timid but pretty
29:59
girl with thick dark hair and big eyes.
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Darcy was not at all impressed with a six foot tall, 180 pound
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23 year old Jerry dressed like a slob.
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He had thinning reddish blonde hair and a bit of a double chin.
30:18
She dated boys frequently, and he was much less attractive than
30:23
her usual suitor. However, Darcy loved swimming,
30:27
so when he invited her to go, she took a chance.
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She was surprised that she really enjoyed his company.
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Jerry cracked a lot of jokes. He was fun, he had a good job,
30:39
and he was older. More than that, though, Jerry
30:42
courted Darcy in a way the younger man never had.
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He bought her flowers and little gifts, held her chair and doors
30:52
for her. Darcy's parents disapproved of
30:55
their relationship, which further encouraged her to be
30:59
more into Jerry. This was the first time in his
31:02
life that he had received positive attention from a female
31:07
and Jerry couldn't receive enough.
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Darcy rebelled against her parents wishes for the first
31:13
time in her life. The couple decided that if she
31:17
were to become pregnant, they would want them to get married.
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So they had sex, she became pregnant, and they were wed
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within six weeks. Now that Jerry Bruto's had a
31:29
female to call his own, his fantasies could finally become
31:35
reality. Or so he hoped.
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For the first several years, Jerry insisted that Darcy and he
31:43
wear nothing while in the house, except for high heels on her.
31:47
Of course, whatever they were doing, whether it was cooking,
31:52
cleaning, or just watching TV, Darcy was not allowed to wear
31:57
anything in his presence except for high heels.
32:01
In fact, she had to wear high heels no matter what.
32:05
He also insisted on taking photographs of her in the nude.
32:09
She was fine, even liked some of the classier glamorous black and
32:15
white ones because he could develop them at home.
32:18
But she never felt comfortable doing color because there was a
32:22
good chance someone at the store would see them.
32:25
Jury also instructed her to pose in bizarre ways that she didn't
32:29
like or feel comfortable doing, but she did it to appease him.
32:35
Jerry took pictures of her on their daughter's tricycle and
32:39
others with a nylon pulled over her face, and some featured her
32:44
only wearing black patent leather high heeled shoes.
32:49
It seemed as if this behavior satisfied his fetish and urged
32:54
to control and overpower women for a while.
32:58
All of this would soon change, however, once their daughter
33:02
Megan became a toddler. According to later interviews
33:06
with his wife Darcy, Jerry Bruto's hardly acknowledged
33:10
their daughter at all, but he spent a lot of time, at least in
33:15
comparison with her son. Darcy spoke out about how she
33:19
thought maybe that was his way of preventing himself from
33:23
harming Megan, but I highly doubt that was the case.
33:27
I think it was something grounded in his hatred for his
33:30
mother and how she wanted him to be a little girl.
33:35
When his daughter Megan was born, it likely stirred up the
33:40
same feelings in Jerry Bruto's of how much of A disappointment
33:44
he was, and his daughter was a reminder of who he can never be.
33:50
I also don't think Jerry Bruto's ever wanted to be a female, and
33:55
by extension dressing up as one. He was trying to become one.
33:59
I think he perceived females as having so much control and power
34:04
over him, and more importantly, the way he viewed himself by
34:09
dressing up as a woman, that power and control were
34:13
transferred to him. It wasn't a reflection of his
34:17
gender identity. Rather, it was a way to claim
34:21
that female power, and through items like high heels and a
34:26
women's undergarments, which in his mind defined being a woman,
34:31
he took their power away and made it his own.
34:36
Between 1962 and 1967, Jerry Brutos frequently moved his own
34:43
family up and down the West Coast.
34:45
They lived in 20 houses or more over seven years.
34:51
However, unlike his own father, who was always gainfully
34:55
employed, Rudos's family primarily relocated because he
35:00
lacked stable employment. In 1967, he got a job as an
35:05
electrician and the family settled down in Portland, OR.
35:10
Darcy gave birth that year to their first child, a son, Jason.
35:16
Jerry was thrilled to have a boy, but felt deeply hurt and
35:21
grew resentful when Darcy refused to allow him to be
35:26
present at his birth. She told him that she didn't
35:30
want him watching another man play with her body, even though
35:35
the other man was a doctor. This was a peculiar,
35:39
inappropriate way to describe a doctor's role in the birth of a
35:44
child, but she figured that knowing her husband, it would
35:49
have made him fiercely jealous and angry.
35:53
But instead, to Jerry Bruto's it was a betrayal.
35:56
This refusal, what he perceived as his wife's rejection of him,
36:03
reignited his fetish and his rage toward women.
36:08
Jerry soon after returned to stealing women's shoes and their
36:13
undergarments. Not long after Jason was born,
36:17
he stalked a woman for hours. He followed her inside the
36:23
grocery store, staying just behind her enough that he went
36:27
unnoticed. Then he followed the woman onto
36:31
the bus, again, far enough away, but close enough to get off the
36:37
bus. When she exited, he walked
36:40
behind her along the street. As she entered an apartment
36:43
building, he watched and waited for her to fall asleep and then
36:49
crept inside the house. Jury Brutus was a very large
36:53
man. He wasn't a small ninja.
36:55
Stealthily creeping through her home, he made a noise or bumped
37:00
into something and the woman woke up.
37:02
Jury strangled her until the woman's body fell limp.
37:06
Before he stole her shoes and left the house, he raped her.
37:11
His pent up rage and sexual fetish had no escalated into a
37:17
violent sexual assault. While at work one day, Jerry
37:22
Brutus was electrocuted by a 40 Volt shock.
37:26
It picked him up off the ground and threw him across a bench
37:32
onto the hard floor. It left him dazed and
37:35
disoriented. He survived with minor damage,
37:40
mainly to his neck, and he was never hospitalized for the
37:45
incident. The terrible headaches he had
37:47
experienced as a child, though, returned and became increasingly
37:53
more severe. At the beginning of the next
37:57
year, his sadistic desires would reach a whole new level.
38:03
He became increasingly frustrated with his wife Darcy,
38:08
who hardly fulfilled him sexually anymore.
38:12
She no longer would walk around nude.
38:16
They still had sex sort of regularly, but he could tell she
38:22
was no longer interested or really attracted to him.
38:26
Jerry wanted her to dress up in fancy clothes and high heels and
38:30
go dancing with him so he could show her off, but it was no
38:35
longer practical for her to do so.
38:38
She wore high heels when she could, but they hurt her back
38:42
and she had a bad knee, so she definitely wasn't up for going
38:46
dancing. Darcy no longer would obey his
38:51
every whim, and gradually she began to show signs of
38:56
independence. In response, Jerry Brutos became
39:00
more depressed. He moped around the house or
39:04
stayed shut up in his garage and workshop, hardly interacting
39:08
with the kids who he claimed triggered and made his migraines
39:13
even worse. He also began to gain
39:17
significant amounts of weight. When Darcy pointed this out to
39:21
him one day, Jerry just grunted about it and walked into another
39:26
room. A few minutes he returned,
39:30
appearing before her wearing a woman's bra that wasn't hers,
39:35
stuffed to emulate breasts, a girdle, stockings with Garter
39:40
belts, and the largest imaginable black pointy toed
39:47
high heels. Darcy was in shock, speechless
39:52
at the sight of her husband dressed like this.
39:55
He turned and posed for her. She was overwhelmed by how
40:00
funny, but not at all funny he looked.
40:04
Darcy laughed nervously at him, partially out of fear and
40:09
partially from embarrassment. Jerry didn't get angry at her,
40:14
but she could tell he was disappointed and felt down by
40:19
her reaction. He simply walked away and
40:23
returned. Wearing his normal clothes, the
40:27
matter was never discussed and he never wore women's lingerie
40:32
in front of his wife again. His rage and resentment will
40:38
continue to build and spread, and his fetishistic obsessions
40:44
and dark, distorted sexual fantasies would become all
40:49
consuming and would culminate in the worst imaginable ways.
40:55
Ever since he was a teenage boy, Jerry Brutos had fantasized
41:00
about capturing females and forcing them to do what he
41:06
pleased. Now he could turn his workshop
41:09
into the secret tunnel he had built as a youth.
41:14
He created his own underground butcher shop, which is how he
41:19
referred to it. It would have cells where he
41:22
could hold the women he abducted and a huge freezer room.
41:27
In his fantasy, he would have a bus in which he would drive
41:32
around the neighborhoods, finding and plucking up pretty
41:36
girls from different cities. Then he would take them back to
41:41
their cells inside his workshop where he could shoot them, stab
41:47
them, beat them, and do whatever he wanted sexually with them and
41:53
no one could stop him or do anything about it.
41:57
They would be all his and his alone.
42:02
When he had them completely, he would capture the moments on
42:06
film so he could cherish them in his collection.
42:10
The final step in his ultimate fantasy would be to move his
42:16
female victims to the freezer room where he could pose them
42:22
however he wanted, and they would last that way forever.
42:27
But even Jerry Brutos realized that his ultimate fantasy
42:33
scenario was not exactly practical.
42:37
It would cost thousands upon thousands of dollars to build
42:42
such a place, money which he lacked.
42:47
As it was. He always had to suck up to his
42:50
wicked mother for money, just even to use her car.
42:56
For now, he would have to make do with the space that he had.
43:02
So Jerry Brutos began to make improvements to his workshop.
43:07
He installed a large freezer and a big padlock on the door to
43:12
help ensure his privacy. Darcy wasn't happy about this at
43:16
all because the freezer held their meat and she wanted to be
43:20
able to look inside it each night for dinner.
43:24
However, her husband insisted that she stay out of his
43:29
workshop and that whatever piece of meat she wanted for dinner,
43:33
he would just bring it into the house later.
43:36
He justified his wife's denial of access to their own garage
43:42
and his workshop because his photo development equipment was
43:46
set up and he didn't want her to barge in whenever she pleased,
43:51
possibly messing up his work. Darcy, meanwhile, had spread her
43:55
wings over the years and went out frequently with friends.
43:59
Whenever she did, Jerry insisted that she call him first before
44:06
she was on her way back home. He claimed that he didn't want
44:10
to be surprised by her presence or anyone else.
44:14
When she was out of the house. He flooded her friends homes
44:19
with calls about where she was and who she was with.
44:23
He become paranoid, obsessed with controlling Darcy's every
44:28
move, and didn't like the weakening power he held over his
44:33
wife at the time of the strangely coincidental crash
44:38
into his garage, which could have exposed his evil acts in
44:44
the open. But just by chance, they didn't.
44:48
Jerry Brutos had gotten away with it all.
44:52
Instead of viewing this event as a close call, dangerously close
44:57
to being caught for the monstrous axe he was performing,
45:01
this incident only served to inflate his ego more and
45:06
supported his delusional beliefs that he had the power to get
45:11
away with doing whatever he wanted.
45:14
Of course, as is the similar case for many antisocial
45:19
offenders, it's this kind of narcissistic state of mind that
45:24
would ultimately be his downfall.
45:28
The 1969 disappearance of Karen Elena Sprinker affected the
45:33
community at large, and even Darcy Bruto's had become very
45:39
concerned about her young daughter's safety and welfare.
45:43
She thought there was a maniac on the loose, which there was,
45:47
especially since Jerry was gone most of the time, either working
45:52
in Lebanon OR running errands or doing God knows what.
45:57
Darcy didn't bother asking him anymore, and when he was home he
46:02
was almost always locked away in his workshop.
46:06
One day when she was in the garage doing laundry, she
46:10
decided to pop in to say hi to him, which was a huge mistake.
46:16
The door to his dark room was left open and when she walked
46:21
in, he was printing pictures of nude women, Women who weren't
46:27
her. She was in shock at seeing these
46:30
images and when she asked him about them, he swore they were
46:34
from a college student who would have asked him to do a favour.
46:38
Darcy was upset about it, but she believed him.
46:42
It didn't make any sense to her that he would have photographs
46:45
of other naked women. She asked him, though, to make
46:49
sure their daughter Megan never saw them.
46:52
In return, Jerry requested that from now on, she used the
46:56
intercom he installed to ask him for food from the freezer.
47:01
In Darcy's mind, it just wasn't worth arguing with her husband
47:07
anymore. She wasn't the only one who had
47:10
complaints about him, and at least he hadn't surprised her.
47:13
Again dressed up in women's lingerie, although she did find
47:18
some photos she would have preferred not to have found.
47:24
They were just lying around the house without concern about
47:28
whether she or anyone else saw them.
47:30
They were of her husband Jerry, alone, lying around, posing
47:36
provocatively in women's high heels and undergarments.
47:40
Then one day she found a strange object in the house.
47:44
It was round and quite heavy, and appeared to be constructed
47:48
of some kind of plastic. When she turned it over and
47:51
looked at it more closely, she realized that it resembled a
47:56
woman's breast. Darcy asked Jerry about the
48:00
strange sexual object, to which he just laughed at all, seeing
48:05
he was just experimenting, making a paperweight really just
48:09
a joke, a novelty. Still, she found it odd and
48:13
offensive. Darcy missed the old Jerry, who
48:17
was full of wholesome, silly jokes.
48:20
She wasn't fond of this new version, whose humor was hostile
48:26
and full of sexual vulgarity. His arrogance continued to
48:31
express itself in increasingly brazen behavior.
48:35
Less than a month later, he tried his luck with the same
48:40
modus operandi, this time wielding a toy gun, Jerry
48:45
stocked the parking garage at Portland State University.
48:49
He watched and waited, lurking from the top of the parking
48:54
garage as different women crossed the street.
48:58
He spotted a pretty young woman who was exactly the kind he was
49:04
hoping to find. She was slender and tall, with
49:08
long reddish golden locks that stood out against the bright red
49:13
dress and high heels she was wearing.
49:16
But everything imaginable, anything that could possibly go
49:21
wrong, went wrong that day. The woman screamed when he
49:27
grabbed her around the throat. Then she tore her teeth into his
49:31
thumb, making him bleed until he had no choice but to bash her
49:37
head into the ground. Then a vehicle showed up and
49:41
ruined everything. It just wasn't Jerry Brutus's
49:45
day. The very next day, Jerry Brutus
49:49
attempted to rectify this failure, and he failed again.
49:54
He thought he found another perfect target.
49:59
She was much younger than his usual preference for girls, but
50:04
he was angry and he needed an outlet.
50:08
The girl was only 13 or 14 years old, and she had gotten the best
50:13
of him. But Jerry Brutos didn't give up.
50:17
He would succeed the very next day when he approached a young
50:21
woman in a department store parking garage and showed her
50:25
his fake officer badge. When Jerry Brutos later read
50:30
about the discovery of Linda and Karen's bodies, he wasn't at all
50:35
worried. In fact, he was filled with
50:38
power and pride like he had never known before, and no one
50:44
was going to take it away from him.
50:46
No one. Not his stupid mother, not his
50:49
naive wife, and certainly not the dumb police.
50:53
Besides, they didn't know anything about what he'd done,
50:57
much less who he really was, and Darcy was finally behaving like
51:02
he wanted her to. She decided to start taking
51:06
dance lessons. Now he could finally take her
51:09
out all dressed up in high heels and make the rest of the men
51:13
jealous of him. He thought about how those
51:17
stupid shrinks and therapists over the years he had been
51:20
forced to talk to, and about how clueless they were.
51:24
There was nothing wrong with how he thought, and now he had
51:28
proven that he could plan and execute whatever he wanted to,
51:33
and no one could stop him. Jerry Brutus decided that the
51:38
perfect place to find his next victims would be at the college
51:43
dormitories. There was an endless supply, a
51:47
constant inventory of young, beautiful females there.
51:51
He came up with a plan that initially worked.
51:54
He would call the dorm and ask to speak to someone with a
51:58
common name who was almost sure to live there, like Susan, Lisa,
52:03
or Mary. When the girl got on the phone,
52:06
he would pretend that one of their friends had given him
52:09
their name. Some of the girls would just
52:11
hang up, but others would take the bait.
52:14
So far, it had worked three different times for him, but
52:18
none of them were the exact type of girl he wanted.
52:23
His misplaced confidence, rather his arrogance, would be his
52:27
downfall and the police would finally end his cycle of
52:32
increasing madness. If law enforcement had never
52:36
pursued this particular path in their investigation, who knows
52:42
if and when Jerry Brutos would have ever been discovered or
52:47
stopped. It was everything he had ever
52:49
dreamed about and more. He was all powerful, holding
52:54
women's life and limbs in his hands.
52:59
The only person who is responsible for the horrific
53:03
crimes that were committed against these girls and young
53:06
women is Jerome Henry Gerry Brutos.
53:11
However, there are many lingering questions surrounding
53:15
the accountability of others in his life.
53:20
His extremely low self esteem that spiraled into his
53:24
psychopathy began with how he was treated by his mother,
53:30
father, and older brother too. From the day he was born, Jerry
53:36
Brutos was ostracized by his family.
53:41
It is impossible to deny the profound psychological and
53:46
emotional impact this must have had on him.
53:50
Studies have shown a strong correlation between absent or
53:55
neglectful parenting and mental health, leading some to criminal
54:00
and antisocial behavior and may manifest into psychopathic
54:05
thoughts and actions. Many individuals who have
54:09
committed homicide and especially serial killers have a
54:14
history of childhood that are wrought with abuse and neglect.
54:19
Although it never condones their behavior, nothing ever could.
54:24
It shows that parents have a major effect on their child's
54:30
spirit, mind and body and even when they mature and become
54:35
adults, the way they were treated in their childhood and
54:39
youth can severely impair their self worth and the value they
54:44
place on their own and others lives.
54:48
Jerry Brutos was just a little boy, a 5 year old child running
54:54
around junk yards in the neighborhood looking for things
54:57
to play with. No one was his friend, his
55:00
parents, nor his older brother could careless about what he was
55:05
doing. That is a heartbreaking reality.
55:09
As he grew, nothing really changed for Jerry Brutos.
55:12
He was an outcast, a loser, and no one really noticed his
55:17
exhibit distance. This self hatred and rejection
55:21
by everyone in his world made him turn inwards and focus on
55:27
his obsession, his passion, which would become his fatal
55:31
fetish. It became the only thing that
55:35
made him feel happy and powerful, and in order to
55:39
fulfill his desperate need to have this in his life, he was
55:44
willing to do anything possible, the most depraved, sadistic
55:50
things imaginable, to keep that happiness in power.
55:55
Jerry Brutos allowed his fetish to spin out of control and the
56:00
power and control he gained from it turned him into the ultimate
56:04
sadist and psychopath. Society will never know whether
56:09
having love and acceptance from his family, especially his
56:14
mother, may have prevented him from becoming the monster he
56:19
turned into. I can't help but ponder the
56:23
power those in our upbringing and throughout our lives half
56:27
over our psyche. It also can't be ignored how the
56:32
dismissal and minimization of his sex crimes by the justice
56:37
system played a prominent role in his future killings.
56:42
His psychological problems were well known and his bizarre
56:46
obsessions were not hidden. Medical professionals determined
56:52
that Jerry Brutos wasn't a risk to society, turning a blind eye
56:59
to a young man who openly exhibited violence, perversion,
57:04
chronic deception and madness when they downplayed his violent
57:10
sexual offenses. It gave him further permission,
57:15
almost approval in his mind, that he could continue to commit
57:19
assaults and thefts and much worse, it gave him the
57:23
confidence to escalate his crimes.
57:27
I wonder whether any of these so-called psychiatric and
57:31
medical professionals carried any guilt around the evil acts
57:36
he would later commit because he wasn't treated properly and was
57:40
prematurely released. Many also pointed blame at the
57:44
actions, or rather the inactions of law enforcement.
57:49
But it's important to remember this was the late 1960's.
57:54
The term serial killer hadn't even been whispered yet.
57:58
Anyone who killed more than one person was simply clumped into
58:03
being a mass murderer. This was before serial killers
58:06
like Edmund Kemper and Ted Bundy would be discovered during the
58:09
1970s. Very little information, much
58:14
less a strong, accurate criminal profile, have been established,
58:18
and Jerry Brutos didn't fit into the expected mold of 1.
58:23
He was married with two small children.
58:26
Jerry Brutos wasn't intimidating to anyone except maybe to his
58:31
wife. He was a nobody.
58:33
He blended in perfectly with society because he went about
58:37
life unnoticed. There is also the fact that
58:41
sharing information on similar cases across jurisdictions
58:45
wasn't something that was typically done.
58:48
Hell, it still isn't common protocol across departments
58:51
today. In my opinion, the only reason
58:54
Jerry Brutos was discovered was because of Detective Stovall's
58:58
surprisingly accurate and descriptive criminal profile,
59:04
which led homicide investigators to study the similar patterns
59:09
among the victims. Otherwise, it is highly unlikely
59:14
that the police would have ever decided to investigate the
59:18
college dormitory and interview Karen Sprinker's fellow female
59:23
Co eds. If they hadn't gone to the links
59:25
they did to talk to these young females patiently waiting for
59:30
several weeks, asking them all kinds of vague and specific
59:35
questions, I highly doubt law enforcement would have ever been
59:41
able to identify him in this particular case, which is often
59:45
rare. I highly applaud the efforts and
59:50
commitment that was made by these law enforcement agents and
59:55
investigators, especially the highly skilled interrogation
1:00:00
tactics and profiling that was done by Detective Jim Stovall.
1:00:06
And last, but certainly not least, is the accountability of
1:00:11
his wife, Darcy Brutos. My feelings on her degree of
1:00:16
accountability or responsibility have shifted over the years
1:00:22
after studying criminology and victimology and then reading
1:00:26
Anne Rule's book Lust Keller. My perception of her has become
1:00:32
mixed the more I read about her, specifically how young she was
1:00:36
during these events in her early 20s, her naivety and lack of
1:00:41
life experience, it made me see her in a different light.
1:00:46
Her much older husband manipulated her and controlled
1:00:50
her in ways that she didn't quite know how to handle, which
1:00:54
is very common in power imbalanced and abusive
1:00:59
relationships. No, maybe she wasn't a victim in
1:01:03
a typical domestic abuse sort of way because Jerry Burdos didn't
1:01:08
hit her. But as we know, there are many
1:01:11
forms of intimate partner violence, including manipulation
1:01:15
and control. As their marriage became more
1:01:19
strained and distant over the years, and Jerry preferred to
1:01:23
spend all of his time in his workshop and darkroom, Darcy
1:01:28
viewed this as a relief. It was an escape from him.
1:01:32
She could breathe a little easier when he was away, even if
1:01:36
it meant bowing down to his weird and highly suspicious
1:01:40
demands. Was Darcy Brutos ever aware that
1:01:45
he had abducted and murdered young women, much less that it
1:01:49
was occurring on their property? I don't think Darcy Brutos had
1:01:54
the mindset or the imagination to believe anything ominous was
1:01:59
going on. However, I strongly doubt that
1:02:03
she never discovered things that warranted serious concern.
1:02:09
It's already a recorded fact that she saw not only nude
1:02:13
pictures of females who weren't her in her husband's darkroom,
1:02:18
but she also found the breast paperweight.
1:02:21
Again though, I can't help but think she was far too innocent
1:02:25
and unaware that someone, much less her own husband, was
1:02:30
capable of committing such evil acts.
1:02:34
It is difficult, however, to believe that she never saw or
1:02:36
heard anything and the same thing could be said of their
1:02:41
neighbors. This is 1960s suburbia.
1:02:46
It's not like all of the women were out working.
1:02:49
There had to have been tons of housewives peeking around and
1:02:54
noticing things. No one ever saw him drive up
1:02:58
with a young woman in his vehicle and force her into the
1:03:01
garage. We know that Jerry Brutos didn't
1:03:04
gag his victims. He didn't tie them up or
1:03:08
chloroform them to get them to go with him, much less willingly
1:03:13
enter his garage. Could it be as simple as his
1:03:17
victims believed that if they did what he wanted, he would let
1:03:21
them go so they didn't make a fuss?
1:03:24
None of his victims, except for the brave actions of Sharon Wood
1:03:29
and Leanne Brumley, ever screamed, attempted to jump out
1:03:34
of the car, or tried to get help in any way.
1:03:39
Concerning the actions of his wife Darcy, it must be addressed
1:03:44
that when Jerry Brutus revealed his fetish for women's
1:03:47
undergarments and heels, she was in total shock and didn't know
1:03:52
what to make of it at all. Darcy was repulsed and found it
1:03:55
weird and not at all funny to see her husband dressed in
1:04:00
women's laundry and heels, trying to pose as he had posed
1:04:04
her in the photos she once allowed him to take.
1:04:08
Transvestites inside their homes or in the community were not a
1:04:12
regular topic of discussion in society, and for someone
1:04:17
sheltered like Darcy Brutos, she likely didn't even know they
1:04:22
existed. She certainly would not have
1:04:25
known of or even been aware of how some men, regardless of
1:04:30
their sexual preference or gender identity, enjoyed wearing
1:04:35
women's clothing. Further, the concept of having a
1:04:39
foot fetish would have been completely foreign to her.
1:04:42
Either way, she wouldn't have perceived these as being
1:04:46
indicative of her husband being necessarily dangerous, much less
1:04:50
a serial killer, and rightfully so.
1:04:54
Having a foot fetish, or any kind of fetish for that matter,
1:04:58
in itself is not considered dangerous, much less something
1:05:02
that warrants intervention or alerting the authorities.
1:05:06
The term fetish originates from the Portuguese term fetiso,
1:05:11
which translates to spell charm, sorcery, or amulet.
1:05:17
Over the years, this term was adapted into English and other
1:05:20
languages, shifting the concept of it being a description of a
1:05:24
magical charm to something broader, often psychological or
1:05:29
sexual, meaning that this charm or this magic is applied to an
1:05:35
item. It ultimately means obsessive
1:05:38
fascination. Fetishes typically develop
1:05:41
before or during puberty. Studies show that males
1:05:45
predominantly develop sexual fetishes.
1:05:49
Many theories float around what may cause or trigger a fetish.
1:05:53
Everything from childhood experiences, cultural factors,
1:05:58
and abnormal brain development has been theorized to be a
1:06:02
reason regarding childhood experiences.
1:06:06
Some theorists believe that fetishes are derived when a
1:06:09
particular object has been associated with a powerful sense
1:06:13
of sexual arousal or some other kind of gratification.
1:06:18
Having a fetish versus a disorder is an entirely
1:06:22
different thing according to the DSM 5.
1:06:26
Fetishistic disorder, which is a paraphilia, is a condition in
1:06:31
which there is a persistent and repetitive use of or dependence
1:06:36
on a non living object or objects, or a highly specific
1:06:41
focus on a body part other than the genitalia to reach sexual
1:06:47
arousal. An individual who has been
1:06:50
diagnosed with this condition experiences severe personal
1:06:55
distress or impairment in the way they function in society.
1:07:00
Their fetish dominates and dictates the way they live.
1:07:05
Or it could be more simplistic in that they can't achieve
1:07:08
sexual arousal without the fetish.
1:07:12
It is interesting to note that the disorder appears almost
1:07:15
exclusively in males. To be diagnosed with the
1:07:19
disorder, an individual must have reoccurring, intense and
1:07:24
sexually arousing urges, behaviors or fantasies that
1:07:29
involve non living objects or again, a highly specific focus
1:07:34
on a body part. These fantasies, behaviors, and
1:07:37
urges cause significant amounts of distress and impair the
1:07:42
person from functioning at work or in a social setting and in
1:07:46
their personal life. The DSM 5 specifically sites
1:07:51
that fetish objects are not considered to be articles of
1:07:55
clothing that can be used in cross dressing.
1:07:59
Now, fetishes revolving around women's feet, in particular high
1:08:02
heels and of women's undergarments are some of, if
1:08:06
not the most common type of fetish.
1:08:11
There are countless websites, forms, and films dedicated
1:08:16
solely to them. Having these types of outlets
1:08:20
and supportive resources, if you will, provide others who share
1:08:24
in the fetish a usually healthy outlet so that they can explore
1:08:29
and connect with others who are turned on by the same thing.
1:08:33
However, in the 1960s, there weren't any resources for
1:08:38
fetishes. Most people were confused by, if
1:08:41
not downright revolted by, such interests or behavior,
1:08:46
especially the thought or sight of a man dressed as a woman.
1:08:51
Jerry Brutos discovered his fetish at such a young age, but
1:08:57
he didn't associate it with anything sexual until he reached
1:09:01
puberty. With no one and nothing to help
1:09:05
him understand why. In addition to the constant
1:09:09
isolation and rejection he experienced in his youth, his
1:09:14
fetish became all consuming and beyond destructive.
1:09:18
Wood may have once just been a fixation on a high heel found in
1:09:22
the junkyard, manifested into something dangerous, criminal,
1:09:29
and became the primary source of inspiration for him to commit
1:09:35
his crimes. What is fascinating and
1:09:39
extremely alarming about Jerry Brutus's fetish is that it
1:09:43
wasn't limited to women's high heels and undergarments over the
1:09:48
years. His obsessions, his fetishisms
1:09:52
expanded into many more. It could be argued that Jerry
1:09:57
Brutos would be diagnosed with transvestic disorder when he
1:10:00
dressed as a woman. It was his ultimate joy and a
1:10:03
source of power for him, but it caused him great distress when
1:10:08
Darcy rejected this version of him.
1:10:11
Jerry Brutos also had sexual sadism disorder, which is
1:10:15
described as having intensely sexually arousing urges,
1:10:20
behaviors, and fantasies that involve causing physical and
1:10:25
psychological pain to others. He exhibited many signs of this
1:10:30
in his youth, and it only escalated as he aged.
1:10:35
There has been a strong correlation found between an
1:10:38
individual with sexual sadism disorder and sexually motivated
1:10:43
homicide, which is at the highest end of the spectrum.
1:10:48
For individuals who are afflicted with a paraphilic
1:10:51
disorder, their sexual obsession becomes the prime motivator in
1:10:56
their deviant sexual behaviour, which can culminate in criminal
1:11:01
sexual acts. Research shows that in most
1:11:05
cases, males experience multiple paraphilias.
1:11:11
Specifically, when the connection between sexual sadism
1:11:15
disorder and sexually motivated homicide exists.
1:11:20
Multiple paraphilic disorders within the offender exist.
1:11:26
Now, what exactly is a sexually motivated homicide is not
1:11:31
strictly defined. Part of the reason for this is
1:11:35
because for a murder to be classified as being a sexually
1:11:39
motivated homicide, there must be evidence of a sexual assault
1:11:45
or sexual event occurring of some kind, whether it's
1:11:49
collected from the crime scene itself or the offender's
1:11:52
confession. It's definition and
1:11:55
classification can vary widely from one country to the next as
1:11:59
well, and what may clearly appear to be a sexually
1:12:03
motivated homicide may not be 1 at all, and others that don't
1:12:09
indicate any sexual motivation may have in fact been the
1:12:14
primary reason. Sexually motivated homicides are
1:12:18
very rare, with approximately 1.1% being classified as such.
1:12:25
Studies have shown distinct differences between sadistic and
1:12:29
non sadistic sexual homicide. For a murder to be classified as
1:12:35
a sadistic sexual homicide, there must be signs of sexual
1:12:40
sadism documented. According to multiple studies,
1:12:44
certain distinct variables are common and individuals who
1:12:48
commit sexually motivated homicides.
1:12:51
These include a significant history of childhood abuse,
1:12:55
transvestism, obscene telephone calls, indecent exposure, and
1:13:01
voyeurism. Many of these offenders were
1:13:04
diagnosed with other paraphilic disorders including transvestic
1:13:10
fetishism, voyeuristic disorder, and exhibitionistic disorder.
1:13:16
Characteristics of the crime include calculated careful
1:13:20
planning, a location, pre selected, a detached emotion
1:13:24
during the ACT, torture that was intentional such as a beating or
1:13:29
rape, and sexual dysfunction during the offence.
1:13:34
Other specific characteristics include being bound, blindfolded
1:13:38
and gagged. Victims are often forced to
1:13:40
perform sexual acts on the perpetrator with the main
1:13:44
purpose of it humiliating and degrading them.
1:13:49
Offenders of sexually motivated murders also were involved in
1:13:53
acts of deception, such as the impersonation of a police
1:13:57
officer had a partner who helped in the offence, the victim was
1:14:01
held captive for 24 hours or longer, they were subjected to
1:14:05
sexual bondage, the acts were recorded or documented in some
1:14:09
way, the bodies were concealed and they kept personal items or
1:14:14
trophies belonging to their victims.
1:14:17
The most popular method of ending their victims lives was
1:14:21
ligature strangulation. What is particularly
1:14:25
interesting, and so relevant to Jerry Berto's was the connection
1:14:30
found between sexually motivated homicide and sexually motivated
1:14:36
burglary. The studies in this area have
1:14:39
been minimal since the connection is often not
1:14:42
subjected to forensic psychiatric analysis when
1:14:46
burglary is the primary offence. There are two identified types,
1:14:51
including fetishism, motivated burglary and voyeurism motivated
1:14:57
burglary. Research conducted on sexually
1:15:00
motivated homicide revealed that over 1/3 of these crimes
1:15:05
involved a sexually motivated burglary.
1:15:09
Sexually motivated killers don't equate to being a serial killer
1:15:14
necessarily. Serial killers are the rarest
1:15:17
offenders of all, but the type of serial killer Jerry Brutos
1:15:21
has been classified as is. Arguably the most common
1:15:29
typologies of serial killers are classified into 4 main groups
1:15:33
based on the offender's motivation.
1:15:37
These include power, financial gain, anger, and lust.
1:15:41
Power killers are driven to murder because they seek the
1:15:45
pleasure that comes from having absolute power and control over
1:15:49
their victims. Financial gain is pretty
1:15:52
self-explanatory, with the offender being primarily
1:15:55
motivated to kill a victim for more money and material comfort
1:16:00
in their lives. Anger based serial killers are
1:16:04
driven to murder their victims based on their all consuming
1:16:07
feelings of betrayal, anger and frustration.
1:16:11
These feelings may be based on real experiences or their own
1:16:16
imagination. The last typology is the Lust
1:16:20
killer. These offenders kill to fulfill
1:16:23
their sexual desires and fantasies, and their modus
1:16:27
operandi almost always involves elements of brutality and
1:16:33
sadism. Rarely, if ever, does a lust
1:16:37
killer shoot their victim. Part of their fulfillment is
1:16:42
derived from the intimate face to face method of killing by
1:16:48
beating, stabbing, and most commonly strangulation.
1:16:54
Their murders always involve a sexual element, but for the lust
1:16:58
killer, the main sexual attack comes after death or while their
1:17:03
victim is unconscious. This is because for most lust
1:17:08
killers, their rage originated in a place of female rejection,
1:17:13
whether it is from their mother, their significant other, or even
1:17:18
their sister. Lust killers, unlike some other
1:17:22
kinds of serial killers, don't become killers overnight.
1:17:27
Their crimes gradually escalate, and just like how they began for
1:17:33
Jury Brutos, they frequently start with acts of voyeurism,
1:17:39
such as watching females from their windows or stealing
1:17:42
intimate items that desire. Their cravings for more
1:17:47
stimulation, more sexual excitement, continue to
1:17:51
intensify into other acts of deviance, like sneaking into
1:17:57
their homes. For a Jury Brutos, that still
1:18:01
wasn't enough, and it soon turned into sexual violence and
1:18:05
eventually manifested itself into sexual torture and murder.
1:18:10
It comes to no surprise that most lust killers require having
1:18:15
a trophy, a keepsake of their victims to commemorate and
1:18:20
remember time and time again the experience of their kill.
1:18:26
One particularly unique characteristic of the Lust
1:18:30
killer is their tendency to travel longer distances to find
1:18:35
their victims versus other kinds of serial killers.
1:18:40
Some lust killers even drive hundreds of miles searching for
1:18:45
the right victim, which may be indicative of their high
1:18:49
intelligence and cunning, and that they are aware that it is
1:18:54
much more difficult for them to be discovered when victims are
1:18:58
across multiple jurisdictions. In a multinational study of 233
1:19:06
male serial killers with childhood abuse, lust killers
1:19:11
were the dominant typology, with 152 meeting this criteria.
1:19:19
The characteristics of the Lust Killer show a strong correlation
1:19:23
between early childhood abuse, including neglect, and
1:19:28
individuals who kill for sexual gratification.
1:19:32
When the typology of a serial killer was cross referenced with
1:19:36
a specific type of abuse an offender experienced as a child,
1:19:42
psychological abuse was the most common type of abuse for the
1:19:48
Lust Killer. A strong connection was also
1:19:52
made between lust killing and torture and the mutilation of
1:19:57
the victims bodies. Lust killers were also the most
1:20:01
common type of serial killer to engage in necrophilia, that is,
1:20:06
acts of a sexual nature post mortem.
1:20:10
This supports the theory that most lust killers had abnormal
1:20:15
paraphilias or were identified as being sexual sadists.
1:20:21
A psychopathic sexual sadist is driven to kill for the sheer
1:20:25
pleasure of torturing and killing their victims in a
1:20:29
sexual way. The torture and mutilation of
1:20:33
their victims has frequently been connected with a history of
1:20:37
sexual abuse, which of course is not always the case, such as in
1:20:42
the crimes of jury brutos. What I find to be particularly
1:20:46
interesting about Jury Brutos is that based on these identifying
1:20:51
characteristics of serial killer typologies, he didn't fit into
1:20:56
only one. Needless to say, he was a lust
1:21:00
killer. Rudos was obviously driven by
1:21:03
lust and his desperate desire to fulfill his disturbing sadistic
1:21:09
fantasies that were inspired by and driven by his fetish.
1:21:15
But it could also be argued that he was a power and anger based
1:21:20
serial killer. Brutos felt betrayed by almost
1:21:23
all females except for his wife Darcy.
1:21:27
He was consumed with his frustration and anger toward
1:21:30
them. He felt enraged and betrayed by
1:21:35
how they had treated him. His mother at the very top of
1:21:40
the list, Jerry Brutos, used torture and murder of young
1:21:45
women as his outlet to release his rage.
1:21:49
His actions were also fueled by his need to take back that lack
1:21:55
of control. He felt powerless throughout his
1:21:58
life and his thirst for control over females and the strength
1:22:04
and pride it gave him to overpower and conquer them,
1:22:09
dictating their life and death. With these kinds of crossovers
1:22:14
between the types of serial killers and their motivations,
1:22:18
which analysis has shown is more common than previously believed,
1:22:23
it has been suggested that it may be more relevant to look at
1:22:27
the modus operandi, that is, the specific methods a serial killer
1:22:32
used, rather than the motivating factor.
1:22:35
What, if anything, can be done to treat the brain and alter the
1:22:41
psychological functioning of such a violent, twisted
1:22:46
offender? Sexual sadism and its direct
1:22:50
correlation with brain disorders has made some progress in the
1:22:55
area of neurobiological research in recent years.
1:22:59
Specifically, the association between temporal lobe pathology
1:23:05
and sexually sadistic behavior was discovered.
1:23:09
It is curious to wonder if more advances in mental health have
1:23:13
been made, specifically regarding possible triggers of
1:23:18
individuals who commit sex crimes existed in the day of
1:23:22
Jerry Bruto's. Could it have helped him and
1:23:26
thus prevented the torture and murder of four innocent women?
1:23:31
One will never know. What is known about Jerome Henry
1:23:36
Jerry Bruto's is that he was severely psychologically and
1:23:41
emotionally damaged and weak when he discovered his fetish
1:23:46
for women's heels. It made him feel powerful and it
1:23:50
psychologically helped him to separate females from their
1:23:54
bodies. Women's undergarments and high
1:23:57
heels was something that turned him on, and by extension their
1:24:01
body parts were. But it wasn't about the beauty
1:24:05
or even the sexuality of a woman.
1:24:08
Being a woman was something he could never be, and he hated
1:24:12
females for that reason in itself.
1:24:16
No, he didn't want to be a female in the sense of gender,
1:24:19
but he wanted the power. He believed they helped.
1:24:24
He gave his mother all of the power over his own self worth,
1:24:29
and in return his fetish grew into something beyond dark.
1:24:34
All consuming rage filled his obsession, motivated him to
1:24:40
commit monstrous things. Was he evil?
1:24:45
Undoubtedly. Yes.
1:24:47
He turned into one of the greatest monsters ever.
1:24:50
But he was also a frightened, weak, insecure man whom 2
1:24:56
incredibly brave young females stopped from becoming his
1:25:02
victims, Leanne Brumley and Sharon Wood.
1:25:07
Leanne Brumley was a minor at the time of the incident, but
1:25:11
like Sharon Wood, she sensed evil and nothing was going to
1:25:16
stop her from doing whatever she had to to get away from the
1:25:22
stranger trying to abduct her. When Sharon Wood first heard
1:25:28
that the strange large man who had attacked her in the parking
1:25:32
garage had been arrested and then convicted of multiple
1:25:37
murders, she was in denial. She buried her head in the sand,
1:25:41
so to speak. She didn't want to know about
1:25:45
what had happened to those other women because it almost happened
1:25:49
to her. But as Sharon Wood grew older,
1:25:52
she became a freelance writer and photographer, and she found
1:25:56
herself wanting and ready to learn more about her attacker,
1:26:01
Jerry Brutos. In 1984, she requested a follow
1:26:06
up on her case to the Portland Police Department and ended up
1:26:11
going to Oregon State Penitentiary and interviewed the
1:26:16
prison warden there. At the prison, she learned about
1:26:19
how Jerry Brutos was viewed as a model prisoner.
1:26:24
He was one of a very small group of inmates who were allowed to
1:26:29
work in the hobby shop. After learning this, Sherin Wood
1:26:33
stood in front of the prison store where key fobs that were
1:26:38
crafted from a serial killer. The man who would assaulted her
1:26:44
lay dangling for sale in the window.
1:26:48
The warrior woman who bravely took on and defeated this
1:26:53
monster when he tried to abduct her in the university parking
1:26:58
garage purchased one of the key fobs.
1:27:02
It helped to remind her of what she went through and how it was
1:27:08
a symbol of how she helped to not only empower other women to
1:27:13
defend themselves, but escaped a serial killer.
1:27:20
Over the years of my life, I have often thought about how I
1:27:24
would react in similar circumstances.
1:27:29
The scenarios too often begin the same way.
1:27:35
A vulnerable female and a motivated predator.
1:27:40
Yes, there are many, many cases where the female is overtaken by
1:27:46
sheer brute force, but there are often cases where there's signs
1:27:52
of manipulation at play or a misleading of trust.
1:27:57
Don't trust anyone if you are in a vulnerable position.
1:28:02
Don't believe that someone is taking you somewhere to help you
1:28:07
or that they will let you go once you do what they ask of
1:28:12
you. No matter what the circumstances
1:28:16
are. You fight, you scream, you dig
1:28:20
into the deepest depths of your inner strength and soul to
1:28:26
battle them and resist. Because if you don't, you may
1:28:30
find yourself the next victim of a yet to be discovered serial
1:28:38
killer. Thank you so much for listening
1:28:41
to this special, hopefully fascinating 3 part episode on
1:28:46
serial killer Jerome Henry Jerry Brutos.
1:28:52
Thank you so much for being part of the community.
1:28:54
If you enjoy the show and want to help grow it, please make
1:28:59
sure you are following or subscribed on your listening
1:29:02
platform of choice. Share with a friend, leave a
1:29:05
rating and leave a review. Thank you so much.
1:29:09
Until next time, stay safe and watch over shades of Murder
1:29:16
happening in the streets next door, especially inside your own
1:29:22
home. Shades of Murder is created,
1:29:26
researched, written and edited by your host Alita Caldwell.
1:29:33
Original music stranger composed by stereo code.