The sheer amount of victims he had coupled with the contrast of how little we know about his crimes makes this case haunting. And then you were still a prostitute. Thinking that it would be her word against his, his victim recanted her statement, and Rhoades was free to go. Rhoades allegedly dumped the body of Walsh's husband, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, 28, in Texas. Robert Ben Rhoades will serve two life sentences without parole. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. Serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades kidnapped and tortured his victims inside a chamber set up inside his big rig truck. Smith said prosecutors believe Rhoades killed Zyskowski relatively soon after picking him up and dumped his body along Interstate 10 in Ozona, Texas. Despite the initial deception, Debra wanted to give the relationship a shot and continued to date him. The arrest set off a chain of events that led to Robert being convicted for three murders and suspected of many more. According to law enforcement officials, almost immediately after he picked up the hitchhiking runaways, Rhoades killed Jones and dumped his corpse in Mississippi. In 1994, Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Kay Walters and was slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. 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. There was a Martinsburg truck stop somewhere in my story, and there was a dead 17-year-old hitchhiker. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. 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. The photo was of a beautiful young girl, possibly Native American. It was a ghost story. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. By her own account, she had been raped at least twenty times and had already had a baby. The source notes that Rhoades kept a "murder kit" in the cab, containing tools that he would use on anyone unlucky enough to be caught in his lair. I called as soon as I landed. to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really He was involved in the BDSM and swinger scene in his hometown of Houston. Rhoades was from Texas. The trial began in 1994 and Robert was ultimately convicted of the first-degree murder of Regina Kay Walters. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. Prosecutors believe Rhoades may have put many other women through the cycle of "kidnap, torture, and kill," but Smith said they do not know how many, since he traveled so much. While I was hitchhiking, he was driving. Serial Killer and Rapist Robert Ben Rhoades Case Review Profiling Evil The Interview Room Profiling Evil 129K subscribers 28K views Streamed 2 years ago Robert Benjamin Rhoades, also known as. Picture taken by the killer of Regina Kay Walters before her murder. I had a guitar and a knapsack full of souvenirs of my girlhood: notes from friends, earrings, and song lyrics. The outlet reports that Rhoades had filled the rest of the sleeper of the cab with various pieces of "BDSM equipment and pain-implementation devices." Robert Ben Rhoades. Why did he let me go? Whether or not he'll make any confessions to police about other murders remains to be seen. But beyond that, it was the man's demeanor that was so chilling. One snowy night several months later, I was hitchhiking through Amherst, Massachusetts, and a carful of students from Hampshire College picked me up and let me stay with them. Debra stated that he seemed like a nice guy, and they eventually started dating. Among the photographs recovered from Rhoades' home while he was jailed was several of Walters. His first known murder victims were 28-year-old Douglas Zyskowski and his wife, 24-year-old Patricia Walsh, a couple he'd picked up as hitchhikers at the end of 1989near El Paso, Texas. This former trucker is believed to have killed over 20 people spanning from 1975 to 1990. How could she lack evidence? His bearing shifted. You asked me to have sex and offered to pay. 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. My mother was happy to pay for school. 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). Regina Walters and Ricky Jones were from Texas. GQ may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. I asked him. Robert Ben Rhoades, now 74, is currently serving his two life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. I arrived at his door melting in the hundred-degree heat. I remember a fuel island in the blue morning light and a driver with a white shirt that stood out like a flag, and taking the turn back east, then south, and a gray day just before a storm so pressurized my ears hurt. He also wanted $500. On April 1, 1990, a state trooper made a shocking discovery when he stopped to investigate a semi-truck that was parked off Interstate 10 in the city of Casa Grande, Arizona. Like Young and Lee, she had never heard of the Laughing Death Society, and since it had featured so strongly in my experience, I thought it salient. When they found her, there was shouting. He turned her slowly toward the girl and pointed. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. I asked her the same questions I was asking everybody: Did you ever hear about a hitchhiker in a Dumpster? Records on her would provide a date and a place that could then be checked against Rhoades's trucking logs. Six weeks later, though, we parted ways. Her hair, long at the time of her abduction, had been clumsily cut short. ", Vanessa Veselka is the author of Zazen (Red Lemonade), which won the 2012 PEN/ Bingham Prize for fiction, Apply Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon and save 25% Off your entire purchase, Target Circle: up to 50% Off with Target promo code, With Asos Promo Code you take 70% OFF Select styles, Michael Kors Promo Code: sign up for KORSVIP + Get 10% Off on First Order, 2023 Cond Nast. The natural light brought his hair closer to the color I remembered, and, again, the side view heightened the key similarities, his cheekbone shape, glasses, the expression; but as I had learned from the echo chamber of Martinsburgs, memory is strange territory. He was charged with kidnapping and assault. In 1994, Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Kay Walters and was slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. 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. After that, she spoke of feeling inadequate and questioning if something was wrong with her. He immediately killed Doug and dumped his body in Texas. Through these stories, I jumped from truck to truck. Mark Young said Rhoades likes to feel like an expert and that I should ask him to "educate" me, so while writing my letter I used permissive language, saying I wanted him "to teach me what I did right and what I did wrong" when I was traveling. Games People Play was a bible for Rhoades. At the time, he was struggling himself, living with several other guys in a house where you flushed the toilet with a bucket of water and working what little construction there was in the county. Sexual sadists in particular work off erotic maps established early on. His wife, Debra Davis, was from Texas. It's supposed that Rhoades quickly killed Jones and disposed of his body (via The Telegraph). The memory was twenty-seven years old, and nothing in it was actionable. Her facial expression could be described as a combination of desperation and abject fear. He raped, tortured, and killed at least six men. 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. When the Illinois state trooper who was trying to identify the body of Regina Walters, the girl Rhoades left in that barn, put her forensic description out on the national teletype, he was totally unprepared for the response. I said he could do it in a few minutes. I'm a 30-something true crime writer living in North America with my hubby & two fur babies https://thewickedtruthblog.com/membership Follow More from Medium Fatim Hemraj 8-Year-Old Boy Solves His Own Mom's Murder Fatim Hemraj Teen Murders Her Best Friend for $9 Million Dollars Jonathan Harker Movie Actor. VI, 11, subd. The idea that I might have been responsible for what happened to girls like Regina was devastating, and Lee's directness startled me. All rights reserved. Magazine porn often dominated the aislesglossies like Hustler and Barely Legal but also newsprint rags with cheap color covers. These were my private feelings. Rhoades. And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was getting more adept at killing. As we pulled away, I looked once more in the side mirror. They kept her from running away by convincing her that a secret society called The Company would find her and bring her back. Robert Ben Rhoades, truck driver, is a serial killer, and rapist. I asked to speak to any senior officer who might have been there at the time. Without looking back, I ran into the woods and hid. Rhoades looked like the guy who picked me up. It was off the side of the freeway and probably very much like the one Regina Walters was found in. Robert Benjamin Rhoades, fdd 22 november 1945, r en amerikansk seriemrdare och vldtktsman, aktiv mellan 1989 och 1990. According to the FBI, quite a few. It is also worth mentioning that Debra has spoken at domestic violence conferences over the years and shared her story. He attempted college but he soon decided it wasnt for him and dropped out, becoming a long-haul truck driver instead. The story was that she was too scared, but I wondered if there was more. I have no fascination with serial killers, so I didn't realize that Rhoades was famous. 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 was a raw moment. I remember being in the woods off I-95. Javascript is required. He must have seemed okay or I wouldn't have gotten in the truck with him. It said there had been a string of prostitute murders in truck stops in the area beginning in June of 1985, which was right on the edge of my time frame. They were both deeply religious, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when they reached the east coast. "You see that, Debbie," he whispered in her ear. On the show, she talked of feeling a lot of guilt. Defendant Robert Boyd Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Michael Lyons, with special circumstances of murder in the commission of forcible sodomy, murder in the commission of a lewd act on a child, and murder by torture. Robert Ben Rhoades, who is serving a life sentence in Illinois for killing a 14-year-old girl, pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder when he appeared before a West Texas judge . Rhoades had told her to "sit there and be a good girl." Appeal-Democrat. There were other points where she saw similarities and would say, "That sounds like Bob," but these were less emphatic, and it was hard to tell what she really thought. Though his first confirmed murders didn't occur until 1990, one woman may have barely escaped with her life the year before. What is known about him in the 1980s is murky. they uncovered a number of disturbing photographs, taken right before he murdered one of his teenage victims, Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, Rhoades had converted the cab of his truck into a mobile torture chamber, he told her his nickname was "Whips and Chains. He narrowly avoided the death penalty, accepting a second life sentence. I left home in early January, hitchhiking south from New York City with my 21-year-old boyfriend. Even so, it still wasn't safe to sleep. Candace Walsh and her husband Douglas Zyskowski were hitchhiking when Rhoades' picked them up in a truck stop. A few minutes later, he pulled the truck onto the shoulder of the road by some woods, took out a hunting knife, and told me to get into the back of the cab. Most truckers occupied the middle of the scale, but the trucker who resembled Rhoades didn't have a place on it. Robert was immediately arrested and charged with unlawful confinement, and sexual and aggravated assault. "Did you ever hear of anything like that at all, in other times, any other bodies of women found along this stretch of I-70? Look at Lisa Pennal. If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Sometimes they're threatening, sometimes cajoling, but always manipulative. Ex-Wife Of Serial Killer Robert Ben Rhoades Speaks Out | Evil Lives Here: After the Evil. I remember sitting in the drizzle in a truck while the crime-scene tape was strung around a Dumpster. He said he didn't want to get caught up in anything time-consuming. Out of desperation I made one last attempt and swung by a smaller truck stop in Hancock, Maryland. Neither of these women were the one I was looking for, but a sentence in the article caught my attention. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. Follow us on Twitter: @AShudders. In 1994, Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Kay Walters and was slated to be tried for two more before charges were dropped due to the wishes of victims' families. Criminal. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." I didn't recognize him. Robert shot and killed Douglas right away and dumped his body in Sutton County, Texas. Upon approaching Roberts vehicle he heard screaming and discovered a naked woman in the bed of his truck. But nobody had to tell me that people like Rhoades killed people like me and got away with it. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. Upon searching Rhoades's vehicle, officials found he had converted his semi-truck into a mobile torture chamber, allowing the middle-aged husband and father to torment and abuse women as he crisscrossed the United States. 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. An unidentified girl, shown here in a photograph taken by Rhoades. But an expert in what, I thought, killing? So, if youre curious about where Debra might be today, heres what we know! You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. When they visited his home, they uncovered a number of disturbing photographs, taken right before he murdered one of his teenage victims- photos that are perhaps even more disturbing than Rhoades's mobile torture chamber. He said that no girls had ever been found in a Dumpster at the Martinsburg, West Virginia, truck stop, and I had no reason not to believe him. I stuck to trucks because they were safer than cars. Read More: Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now? The remarkable thing is that when she did, she didn't dump him. There was a gap before that line, and most truckers wouldn't take it that far. Wherever I went, I was told nothing "like that" ever happened, which was remarkable given the numbers of bodies the FBI had tracked over the past thirty years. Smith said that should Rhoades ever be released from the Illinois prison for any unforeseen reason, he would be returned to a Texas prison. Debra also mentioned that she remarried and worked with domestic abuse and rape survivors. Being 16 and in college is an easier thing to talk about. Robert Ben Rhoades Popularity . Robert Ben Rhoades, who already is serving a life sentence for killing a 14-year-old girl in Illinois, pleaded guilty to two counts of capital murder when he appeared before a West Texas judge . Det. Evil Lives Here: Deadly Fetish has serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades ex-wife, Debra Davis, talk about when she met Robert and how their relationship ended eventually. Rhoades' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com. 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