Though her remains were discovered within months of her death, it wasn't until 2003 that she was able to be positively identified (via The Daily Nonpareil). In one, he relaxed on the grass in a park. I said I wouldn't go to the cops if nothing happened to me, but it was his choiceuntil he looked at me and I went still. Eventually she was left unbound. One of serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades's last victims, Regina Walters, was found in a barn in Illinois. So I told him the truth, which I had not told othersthat I didn't say anything because I didn't think anyone would believe me. Richard Speck, A New Kind of Mass Murderer, Henry Howard Holmes, The Devil in the White City, Charles Ng & Leonard Lake, Family Slayers, Timothy Jay Vafreades, The Vampire Trucker, Highway Horrors: Robert Ben Rhoades, The Trucker With A Mobile Torture Chamber. Please enable javascript before you are allowed to see this page. Between 1975 and 1990, Robert Ben Rhoads, now 73, savagely murdered at least three victims and possibly, investigators believe, as many as 50 during his treks across North America as a professional truck driver. There was only one word for woman on the CB, and that was beaver. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. The sentence of death had been a possibility because on May 6, 1992, the State had filed a notice that it intended to seek the death penalty. Inside Robert Ben Rhoades' Traveling Torture Chamber, Illinois Department of Corrections/Wikimedia Commons. At the time, she was out with friends when she came across Robert in a pilots uniform. Instead, police suspect he held the teenager captive for at least two weeks, subjecting her to sickening acts of torture and rape, before he strangled her to death with a garrote and dumped her corpse in an abandoned barn in Illinois. Original. Now, years later, she returns to the scenes of her fugitive youth looking for clues to that terrorand the girls who lost their lives to it, All the Under-$20 Style, Tech, and Home Goods We're Feeling This March, 35 Alarmingly Good Watch Deals to Upgrade Your Wrist, Fellas, You're About to Blow Your Rent Money at the SSENSE Sale, Jeff Staple Breaks Down Pigeon Dunk, Building a Brand & Top 5 Sneakers | My Life In Sneakers, Symbas Slow But Steady Path to Rap Stardom, The Best Sandals for Men Make Every Season Even Hotter. Rhoades liked to think of himself as an "expert," and now Rhoades suggested he be paid as one. Megan Fox. "One thing I always did," I told Young, "was rifle through a trucker's cassette case as soon as we were out on the highway." He raped, tortured, and killed at least six men. I asked. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben Her arms are in front of her chest, with both hands positioned as if they were recoiling in fear of the person behind the camera. Whether or not he'll make any confessions to police about other murders remains to be seen. He kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for weeks before killing them. But Rhoades held desires went well beyond the limits of consensual sexual activity. 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters and her boyfriend Ricky Lee Jones had run away from their homes and like Roberts first victims, they were hitchhiking when he picked them up. You told me I owed you sex for the ride and chicken-fried steak and threatened to drop me off somewhere dangerous. While passing through various states, he thought he could pick up a hitchhiker here or a sex worker there and no one would notice if they disappeared. I also knew the first thing he did was to get them into the back of his sleeper cab, which had anchor points for shackles. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. Rhoades is additionally suspected of torturing, raping, and killing more than 50 . Along with cutting off her hair, he also shaved her pubic hair and pierced her genitals with fishhooks. Last Name Rhoades #7. And who's going to believe him? On the table in front of Young was a snapshot of Regina Walters that I hadn't seen, taken not very long before she was abducted. He was convicted for three murders, and slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. As a 15-year-old, the author left home and became a hitchhiker, hopping from semi to semi on the interstate. He stopped responding to my questions. Lists about who they murdered, how they did it, and other horrifying facts that will keep you wide awake tonight, shaking your head at humanity. A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. Behind the tragic elements of Regina's story, like some kind of pentimento, I saw my own. she said. The time had come to do it anyway. In Robert Ben Rhoades's truck, authorities recovered a briefcase filled with sex toys and torture devices which the hitchhiker said the trucker had used to abuse her over the course of several hours. It's believed that Rhoades would abduct his prey from various truck stops and rest areas along his trucking route. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. He was not wearing flannel. When they found her, there was shouting. I remember coming down through the Blue Ridge Mountains in a truck with its brakes on fire and dropping over Chester Gap in the middle of the night when it was still hot and the air was loud with the chirping of bugs. Despite the initial deception, Debra wanted to give the relationship a shot and continued to date him. Rhoades immediately exited the cab of his truck and attempted to give a hasty explanation of what the patrolman was seeing. Criminals. We were back on the road before dawn, walking down a highway covered in black ice, shivering in our hoodies. The 27-year-old woman, who had been restrained by both her hands and ankles, was freed by the officer, and once at the police station, she told the officers the horrifying story of how she'd ended up shackled inside the truck and covered in red welts and lacerations. "How many of those guys could there be?". Walsh and Zyskowski, the newlywed victims, left Seattle in November 1989 to hitchhike to Georgia where they were going to preach the Christian gospel when Rhoades picked them up in Texas. He was married. She looks happy. He held Patricia captive in his makeshift torture room in the bed of his truck for over one week where he continuously raped and tortured the poor woman. While we were asleep, he pulled into a small truck stop, and I woke to his hand down my shirt. I could easily imagine my own teenage voice whispering those same words. Listening to her, it occurred to me that this investigation of mine wasn't a detective novel. need your help for this. 'Truck Stop Killer' Robert Ben Rhoades is thought to have tortured, raped and killed more than 50 women during a reign of terror lasting from 1975 to 1990. Robert Boyd Rhoades was sentenced to death Friday for the 1996 brutal attack on 8-year-old Michael Lyons. Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, with only a pair of slippers on her feet. There are articles, TV episodes, and books on himDriven to Kill, Roadside Prey, Killer on the Roadand from these sources I learned that every grim and secret fear I have about the human race is manifest in Robert Ben Rhoades. Magazine porn often dominated the aislesglossies like Hustler and Barely Legal but also newsprint rags with cheap color covers. He was given two life sentences inTexas without the possibility of parole. So I went back to hitchhiking in circles and discovered a state of half-consciousness wherein I could be asleep and not asleep at the same time. As I saw it, it didn't matter if I left, because in so many ways I was already gone. . The memory was twenty-seven years old, and nothing in it was actionable. During the 80s, Robert was heavily into the BDSM and swinger lifestyle, dubbing himself as whips and chains. He continuously tried to involve his wife in his fantasies but she wasnt interested, so Robert found other ways to satisfy his sexual urges. There was always a sick mom or dead grandparent involved, and I was almost always abandoned by my jerk of a boyfriend, who'd made off with all my money and my car. Roadside Prey. It was agent Young who recognized the small gap in Regina's teeth and noticed that a few freckles were in the same place. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." I didn't recognize him. He shows it and asks what they think is going on. If you didn't, I had no memory of them at all. Tall and square-jawed, Lee looked like he could probably still tackle a bank robber. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. Or rather, I remember what he was not wearing. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Described by authorities as a sadistic killer, Rhoades was charged with their 1990 abductions and slayings, and pled guilty to their murders. Rhoades whipped her repeatedly, causing red welts to appear all over her chest and back, and he had a briefcase in his truck, filled with toys and tools her used to sadistically torture and abuse the hitchhiker. He talked about it frequently and applied its ideas. I pulled up a map of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, and that's where things started to get hazy. Rhoades swiftly killed Jones so he could abduct Walters and keep her to abuse at his will. Performance & security by Cloudflare. However, shortly after they accepted a ride from Rhoades, the middle-aged trucker shot Zyskowski and dumped the 28-year-old's corpse near a Texas highway. He came around behind her and grabbed her shoulders. A man from the restaurant ran out and started yelling for everyone to stay away as a small crowd gathered around the Dumpster in the rain. Six weeks later, though, we parted ways. Rhoades, for instance, used guns and ligature strangulation and probably knives, too. I got the sense Lee appreciated brevity, so I dispensed with small talk and went straight to my questions, but he stopped me. She had existed enough for me to call my dad all those years ago and warn him about what he would read. Walsh and Zyskowski had recently gotten married, and they had decided to travel from their hometown of Seattle, Washington, to Georgia. Sometimes they're threatening, sometimes cajoling, but always manipulative. "I just want you to know," he said, looking me squarely in the eye, "that what Rhoades did to women, he did to women. She came over and gave me an open smile. TV-14. "Do you remember what his cab looked like? She later stated she did not report the incident because no one would have believed her, since there was no evidence. Rhoades was first arrested when an Arizona state trooper found a screaming woman named Lisa Pennal* chained in the back of his cab. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. (Robert Ben Rhoades) However, she fell asleep shortly after climbing into the vehicle, and when she awoke, she found Rhoades had placed restraints around her wrists and ankles. Why didn't I go to anyone? I had a guitar and a knapsack full of souvenirs of my girlhood: notes from friends, earrings, and song lyrics. It allowed me to pretend not to hear scary red-flag comments so I could act dumb and get away later, and this is what I was doing that day, going through a tape case, chatting like an idiot and watching the driverwhich is why I saw him change. He was wrong. Before serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades killed his victims, he like to snap a photo of them. The girl, he said, "wasn't one of our own. While he was in the Marine Corps, he committed a robbery and was dishonorably discharged in 1968. She looks like any other skinny kid just out of middle school. So, if youre curious about where Debra might be today, heres what we know. Further compounding this problem is that Rhoades did not presumably kill his victims where he met them. By the restaurant door was a young woman with a baby, trying to get a ride. The photos stayed in my head, though, and with them came questions: What if the man who pulled the knife on me really did murder the hitchhiker? When it turned, when it downshifted, when it drifted toward the shoulderI woke. Rhoades. He narrowly avoided the death penalty, accepting a second life sentence. The light in my memory is strange, too. And I remember being in the woods off I-95. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. Bruce Willis. I finally spoke to a woman and asked if they had a homicide record for a girl who may have been found in the Martinsburg truck stop during the summer of 1985. I kept my eyes closed, stayed still, then rolled away from him, pretending I was still asleep. One of Rhoades's signatures was shaving the head and pubic hair of his female victims. Patricia and Douglas were later confirmed as victims of serial killer, Robert Ben Rhoades. I'd heard of at least one who got hung up on a meat hook in the back of a refrigerated trailer because a trucker thought she'd given him VD. He will die in prison.". Friend, 43, says she wants "California voters to know what kind of offenders are on death row," men like Robert Boyd Rhoades, who sodomized, tortured and killed 8-year-old Michael Lyons two . I ran my story past her. ", I had a vision of Lisa Pennal as a truck-stop Kali roaming the back lots in her denim skirt and fuzzy slippers with an ozone hole for a halo. That's exactly like him!" A chipper recorded voice told me to press 1 for tas, press 2 for guns"all other callers stay on the line!" It's more like a set of still photos. I could rest but not dream. His clothes were gray or blue, but that may have been the light. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. I hadn't been able to get a copy of Shana Holts's police report because I was told there was no official suspect. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is a serial killer and rapist and a native of Council Bluffs. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Born in Council Bluffs, IA #7. After Evil: Master Manipulator. I asked. 1 of 3 DNA26C-C-24JAN00-EZ-HO --- Convicted murderer Robert Boyd Rhoades was linked to the 1984 slaying of eighteen year-old Julie Connell through DNA records. Bottles of isobutyl nitrite and rotgut aphrodisiacs like Locker Room and Spanish Fly crowded the counters by the register, along with the iconic bumper sticker ASS, GAS, OR GRASSNO ONE RIDES FOR FREE. You didn't do it.". I have no fascination with serial killers, so I didn't realize that Rhoades was famous. "Lot lizards" is what truckers call prostitutes who work truck stops, and since many drivers don't distinguish between hitchhikers and prostitutes, I was a lot lizard, too. Everywhere I looked, evidence of these girls was disappearing. Without any hesitation he said Martinsburg, West Virginia. In Martinsburg, West Virginia, where the truck stop should be is a massive Walmart stretching flat and endless along a parking lot the size of a lake. Even so, it still wasn't safe to sleep. Murder Victim. A few minutes later, I got up like nothing had happened. I called the office. I never went to the police and didn't tell anyone for years. 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