It is glossy black and long. I had to jump when you slowed down because you were going to rape me. Regina Walters had been seen in Chicago standing freely outside his truck in a public place. He also wanted $500. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Rhoades received a second life sentence in the plea, in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. He requested information on missing Caucasian females aged 13 to 15 years old who had disappeared six to nine months earlier. Another is called "Beat Me Daddy," another "Frigid Woman." The trucker bought us chicken-fried steak, chatted amiably, and let us nap in the cab while he drove. Though his first confirmed murders didn't occur until 1990, one woman may have barely escaped with her life the year before. I remember being in the woods off I-95. ", I was in the one place where I knew for certain women had been found, one less than a hundred yards away from where she was standing. In it, she's sitting in the backseat of a car. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. Robert Ben Rhoades Popularity . allowing the middle-aged husband and father to torment and abuse women as he crisscrossed the United States. I go through the paperwork, get fingerprinted and led through a channel of air-locked doors into a room with him. 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. When investigators searched Roberts house they found several nude photos of Regina and Patricia. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. Walsh and Zyskowski had recently gotten married, and they had decided to travel from their hometown of Seattle, Washington, to Georgia. Picture taken by the killer of Regina Kay Walters before her murder. "Were there any murders that summer?" I pulled up a map of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, and that's where things started to get hazy. The sun is coming down on her long hair, and she's laughing. Piercings around the breasts, bruising, and other signs of torture were also frequently found. After receiving my friend's e-mail, I left messages with the FBI but was relieved when they were not returned. *Some of the victims names have been changed. They were both deeply religious, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when they reached the east coast. In January 1990, Douglas Zyskowski and his wife Patricia Candace Walsh were hitchhiking to Georgia from Seattle on their honeymoon when they accepted a ride from Robert. Holes in the ozone layer. We have many According to her, in the summer of 1985, Rhoades was driving for a trucking company based in Georgia that has an office right on I-95. 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. This photograph, of 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters, was taken by Robert Ben Rhoades, a serial executioner who was later discovered driving a 18-wheeler with a torture chamber in the back. Debra wanted to give her money or do something. But Holts, 18 years old, had been on the street since she was 12. Rhoades was identified as a suspect . She would be easy to dismiss. He was sentenced to life without parole at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois. His trucking logs place him in the area of fifty unsolved murders in the three years prior to his arrest alone. One story Debra Davis told still haunts me. Rhoades was from Texas. Who was the girl in the Dumpster? As I saw it, it didn't matter if I left, because in so many ways I was already gone. She never reported the incident, as she had promised Robert. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. I spent a week on the road in Appalachia, visiting truck stops, interviewing the older truckers and waitresses. 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 general rule was that you were a prostitute until proven otherwise. Then he started talking about the dead girl in the Dumpster and asked me if I'd ever heard of the Laughing Death Society. I could tell you the last three songs played on the radio if you asked, but only if you asked. Recently, the New Jersey State Supreme Court handed down a statement on memory, describing it as complex and often unreliable. Griselda Blanco. Games People Play was a bible for Rhoades. But Rhoades held desires went well beyond the limits of consensual sexual activity. His ex-wives described him as verbally, physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive; one stated he would become sexually aroused when she was suffering from the pain of lupus, an autoimmune disease. Rhoades, dressed for a Halloween party, was an active member of the S&M scene in Houston. "So was the trucker I met a true psychopath?" 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. Rhoades was a great lover of games. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. After his eventual arrest for murder, this ex-spouse told the FBI that Rhoades would often organize orgies. Investigation Discovery referred to Rhoades' truck as a "rolling torture chamber," based on what was kept inside this enclosure. He sent me a text just as I was leaving Texas saying that "Debbie" was ready to talk. Robert Ben Rhoades, 66, is already serving a life sentence without parole for the 1990 murder of 14-year-old runaway Regina Walters in Illinois. Wikipedia External References It was off the side of the freeway and probably very much like the one Regina Walters was found in. 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. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. She hid there until she was sure she heard his truck leave. The couple had just recently wed and were hitchhiking to Georgia from Texas. Law enforcement eventually learned that in addition to BDSM, Rhoades was a swinger who regularly had sexual liaisons with other married people in his hometown of Houston, Texas. In the second installment of Death on the Open Road: Highway Homicides, we cover the case of evil serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades aka The Truck Stop Killer. Six weeks later, though, we parted ways. Even so, it still wasn't safe to sleep. robert ben rhoades, serial killer, torture, trucker Caught by Accident Robert Ben Rhoades. Not even the FBI knew that he had already tortured, raped, and killed at least two people along his routes. Sagittarius. 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. He then tried to join the police force but was ultimately denied due to his robbery conviction. Rhoades is currently being held in an Illinois prison where he will spend the rest of his days behind bars. If there are more murder confessions to make, there may be time yet for other families to find some semblance of closure and justice. She looks happy. Fondoleding a fourteen year old girl. Please enable javascript before you are allowed to see this page. Robert Ben Rhoades Father Killed himself after being charged with Fondoleding a fourteen year old girl. Plaintiff Robert Ben Rhoades, an inmate of the Illinois Department of Corrections ("IDOC") who is currently incarcerated at Menard Correctional Center, brings this action for deprivations of his constitutional rights pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Original. Walsh's remains were found in October 1990 in central Utah, but not identified until 2003, with the help of dental records. Without any hesitation he said Martinsburg, West Virginia. I asked. He was not wearing flannel. I remember driving around Ohio howling along with Bruce Springsteen and buzzed out of my brain on Diet Cokes and being sad that the ride ended because it was a safe one and I had almost been able to be myself for a second, but that second had passed. Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. 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. You told me I owed you sex for the ride and chicken-fried steak and threatened to drop me off somewhere dangerous. Maybe they would remember something the others hadn't. It's just going to be my word against his. 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." The birds went silent, and I didn't know what it meant. He was sentenced to life in prison. If there was any evidence, I would file. Unbeknownst to Regina Walters or Ricky Jones, the man behind the wheel was Robert Ben Rhoades, also known as the Truck Stop Killer. The dissonance between my emotional world and the one around me was still too great, and soon I left again, but in a more sanctioned way. If we went missing, months could pass before a report was filed, and by then there was little to connect the missing person in one state with the decomposed remains in another. While the first few months were great, Debra noticed that Roberts appetite for sex increased. SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Robert Boyd Rhoades was sentenced Friday to die by lethal injection for the rape, torture and murder of an 8-year-old Yuba City boy kidnapped three years ago while walking. Had she ever heard about it? I did a search on towns named Martinsburg. These were my private feelings. Listening to her, it occurred to me that this investigation of mine wasn't a detective novel. Officers later discovered this was the name Rhoades, who had been involved in BDSM for years, went by when he used his CB radio to communicate with his fellow truckers. "Human memory is not like a video recording," they said. Neither of these women were the one I was looking for, but a sentence in the article caught my attention. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. I arrived at his door melting in the hundred-degree heat. When I first saw his apartment, I thought I'd walked into the showroom of a furniture store. 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 did he let me go? I have no fascination with serial killers, so I didn't realize that Rhoades was famous. An unidentified girl, shown here in a photograph taken by Rhoades. Robert Ben Rhoades, born November 22, 1945, in Council Bluffs, Iowa turned out to be one of the most sadistic sexual predators that the US had ever encountered. One library archivist explained that I was looking for the kind of news nobody wanted to read. Now the whole Martinsburg truck stop had been swallowed by a Walmart Supercenter. Everywhere I looked, evidence of these girls was disappearing. Young, a six-foot-four Texan and third-generation lawman, opened his laptop and pulled up a picture of a woman named Shana Holts. They chatter about it on the CB, and you are driving off in what amounts to a huge billboard advertising the name of the company. He pled guilty to the first degree murder of 14-year-old Regina Walters in 1992 after investigators found haunting photos of the teenager in his apartment. 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'd told Shana Holts to "sit there and be a good girl." Truck stop killer: Robert Ben Rhoades, described by authorities as a sadistic killer, was first jailed in 1990 for killing a 14-year-old runaway girl in Illinois (left), also pleaded guilty to. When they found her, there was shouting. I ran my story past her. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Stowing his paperwork, he released the brake. Rhoades was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car while Miller questioned the woman in the truck. I needed to understand what my responsibility was and to find my own answers, if nobody else's, so I began to look. I looked at the picture on Young's computer. She was the only person who asked me this, and of course I did. Sometimes they're threatening, sometimes cajoling, but always manipulative. While I was hitchhiking, he was driving. she said. Once out on the road, though, he changed. I needed visibility to stay alive. In his early life, Rhoades got into trouble from a young age, he was arrested for . Rhoades didn't live a double life as much as a shadowed one. These are narratives we know. But I hadn't seen any shackles. The only thing they neglected to take down is a website with the words Martinsburg TravelCenter of America flashing like a beacon online. The memory was twenty-seven years old, and nothing in it was actionable. With all her freckles, she looked very Irish. Some of these were women left in Dumpsters. Rhoades' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com. Robert's victims were hitchhikers. I got the sense Lee appreciated brevity, so I dispensed with small talk and went straight to my questions, but he stopped me. Anyone want to party?". "She's one of the invisible people. Most Popular #231965. They were heading west on I-10 and stopped somewhere in Arizona at a busy truck stop. I knew from talking to the Martinsburg police that the truck stop had been under the jurisdiction of the Berkeley County sheriff. I thought that maybe in a truck stop where known murders had occurred, people would be more forthcoming. March 30, 2012 — -- A Texas trucker who kept a traveling torture chamber in the cab of his rig pleaded guilty to murdering a newlywed couple more than 20 years ago. When a state trooper founda nude woman chained up and terrified in the cab of Robert Ben Rhoades's vehicle, he inadvertently stumbled upon a sadistic serial killer who had been using his job as a long-haul truck driver to find vulnerable victims for years. She had been missing from the Houston area since early 1990 after running off with her boyfriend. We both had our own systems, our own rituals, and our own beliefs about what people were really like and how they acted under pressure. I asked. Smith said prosecutors believe Rhoades killed Zyskowski relatively soon after picking him up and dumped his body along Interstate 10 in Ozona, Texas. While he was in the Marine Corps, he committed a robbery and was dishonorably discharged in 1968. It was getting dark. As a 15-year-old, the author left home and became a hitchhiker, hopping from semi to semi on the interstate. The trial began in 1994 and Robert was ultimately convicted of the first-degree murder of Regina Kay Walters. Criminal. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? The question of what you do with your old SWAT jacket when you retire had never entered my mind. Young pulled out one last picture and slid it across to me. I imagined for a moment flying to Illinois. As a true sexual sadist, Rhoades would have been interested in a level of submission requiring no chains. She was a drifter." Her hair, long at the time of her abduction, had been clumsily cut short. Microchips in her brain. 16. I began by Googling things like "dead girl truck stop Martinsburg." He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank. She looks like any other skinny kid just out of middle school. . Ad Choices, He was methodical, he rode the highways, and he preyed on teenage girls. Smith said that should Rhoades ever be released from the Illinois prison for any unforeseen reason, he would be returned to a Texas prison. By now papers and photographs were spread out all over the table, and Young was waiting for me to tell my story. He shaved her head and pubic hair, pierced her with fishing hooks, dressed her up in a black dress and heels, and photographed her in moments of terror, then killed her with a garrote made of baling wire, leaving her one-hundred-pound body to decompose in a barn in Illinois off Interstate 70. It had the same neutral arrogance. Sleeping by myself on the street made me a target, and having sex with some creepy old guy for a spot on a mattress also held little appeal. Even the guys who were trying to help had used it. Walters and Walsh had been held captive by Rhoades while he traveled the interstate highways in his truck. 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. She had been strangled at Breezewood. Robert Ben Rhoades Father Killed himself after being charged with From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. ", "That sure sounds like Bob. ", Inside the briefcase, officers found dildos, alligator clips, handcuffs, leashes, and whips. If what he said was true, the trail I was on had disappeared into a field. Rhoades. Rhoades, for instance, used guns and ligature strangulation and probably knives, too. Robert Ben Rhoades, a Houston trucker who kept a torture dungeon in the cab of his long-haul rig, accepted two life prison sentences http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/sns-ap-tx--serialkiller-texas,0,3734866.story Houston trucker already imprisoned in Illinois for murder avoids Texas death penalty with plea His bearing shifted. Her body was left in the very barn she was last photographed in in rural Illinois. He was married. HOUSTON . I needed to find rides and usually couldn't get into the restaurant. 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. 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. She was on a trip with her husband, Bob, the last she ever took in his truck. She occasionally speaks on domestic violence at conferences and in classrooms at AM. Another prostitute had been grabbed there as well, in 2006, but was found farther down the road with her throat slit. He picked up two of his other victims in Texas. It brought her back to that terrifying night in 1985. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. I only saw the man with the knife. Knowing the capacity of his sadism made this unbearable. It was just a matter of looking harder. It made sense. The picture was given to Young by Regina's mom. Rick Barnhart, Ed Russell, Troper Mike Miller. "Do you remember what his cab looked like? Around the same time that Robert joined the military, his father was arrested for molesting a twelve-year-old girl and ultimately committed suicide while awaiting trial. Roberts relationships didnt last very long, he had been married three times. "I just want you to know," he said, looking me squarely in the eye, "that what Rhoades did to women, he did to women. Rhoades allegedly dumped the body of Walsh's husband, Douglas Scott Zyskowski, 28, in Texas. On April 1, 1990, Roberts murder spree finally came to an end. Through these stories, I jumped from truck to truck. 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. Const., art. Like Regina, I also had a little journal and probably wrote something in it that night, because it was far too cold to sleep. creator of The Wicked Truth - a true crime blog https://ko-fi.com/fatim. Debra met Robert at a bar in Houston, Texas, in the 1980s. 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. You were not under his control. Around her neck was a dog chain with a padlock attached to the ring that had been used to restrain her neck. He kept Walsh alive for an undisclosed amount of time, subjecting her to the same cruel treatment that he would later dole out to Walters. She passed through that world as if she were invisible. Watch with discovery+. Young was right. The serial killer's name was Robert Ben Rhoades. But I thought about what she'd said"It would just be my word against his," which was clearly followed by the unvoiced thought: And who is going to believe me? The arrest set off a chain of events that led to Robert being convicted for three murders and suspected of many more. My mother was happy to pay for school. 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. 6min. I found her in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette later that night. A signature, however, does not change. I crouched on netted twigs and breathed into my shirt to muffle the sound. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. ", 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 rig was equipped with handcuffs on the ceiling, which enabled Rhoades to chain his female victims so that he could torture them before killing them. Investigation Discovery's ' 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. Martinsburg was nothing but a pinprick, just a dot on a minor route feeding into a midsize highway on the outskirts of Altoona, PA, not the sort of place you'd expect to find a busy truck stop. Robert Ben Rhoades was a truck driver with a torture chamber attached to his semi. She ran. His trucker handle on the CB radio waves was "Whips and Chains," a reference to his kink. I said it was his choice. "How many of those guys could there be?". At the bottom of the yellow legal paper, scrawled in all caps, he wrote, "IT WASN'T ME!!!" The Daily Nonpareil reports thatRobert Ben Rhoades was set to be free on work release when Illinois police identified the body of 14-year-old Regina Walters. Five years ago, the truck stop was demolished along with its restaurant. Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, with only a pair of slippers on her feet. In the 1990s, the Berkeley County sheriff's department's computer crashed and burned. October 20, 2022. Thank you very much in advance. In 1985 my biggest problem was sleep. Robert Ben Rhoades: From 1989 to 1990, Robert Ben Rhoades is believed to have tortured, raped and killed more than fifty women, although he has only three confirmed victims. 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. The Daily Nonpareil reports that these logs put Rhoades in the immediate vicinity of as many as 50 unsolved murders. And if it happened, she could be found. Debra had a difficult time coping with the news that Robert had tortured women and killed multiple people. It's supposed that Rhoades quickly killed Jones and disposed of his body (via The Telegraph). Could Debra help solve an active investigation? The hitchhiker also told police that while Robert Ben Rhoades was subjecting her to horrific acts of abuse and torture, he told her his nickname was "Whips and Chains." Narrowing the field to those last seen around truck stops and rest areas, the bureau counted over 500 bodies, almost all women. Patricias remains were found in October of 1990, it would take thirteen years for her to be identified. My emotions were a planet around which I spun like a moon. There was talk of me going to live with my dad in Virginia, where I had traditionally spent my summers. Rhoades was first arrested when an Arizona state trooper found a screaming woman named Lisa Pennal* chained in the back of his cab. He raped, tortured, and killed at least six men. And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was very likely getting more adept at killing. The serial killer's name was Robert Ben Rhoades. Going through the truck stops, I'd heard about women getting their throats slit or strangled. 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. The driver reached the cab, swung up behind the wheel, and said we should get going. I asked to speak to any senior officer who might have been there at the time. Debra also mentioned that she remarried and worked with domestic abuse and rape survivors. He pulled the truck into a wooded area, took out a hunting knife, and told the girl to get into the bed of his truck. However, before he killed the 14-year-old, Rhoades took several haunting images of Walters that the authorities eventually recovered from his home. A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. The more I learned about Rhoades, the more I saw parallels between us. Robert shot and killed Douglas right away and dumped his body in Sutton County, Texas. This modus operandi makes it difficult for authorities to determine how many victims Robert Ben Rhoades had. This Picture was the key evidence photo. Over lunch at a local sushi place, he taught me the difference between a mode of operation and a signature. After Debra Davis interviewed about life with her ex-husband, serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades, Kentucky state troopers reached out, telling her that they suspected Rhoades in a 1985 cold case. One night on I-95, she hitched a ride from a stranger and endured the most terrifying moments of her life. He then killed her and dumped her body in Millard County, Utah. . 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.
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