Like me, she left home with her older boyfriend. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. Unbeknownst to Regina Walters or Ricky Jones, the man behind the wheel was Robert Ben Rhoades, also known as the Truck Stop Killer. I asked. On the couch beside me was a large pillow with the FBI seal. 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. It doesn't matter what he says. 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. Rhoades in Bond County IL Barn. They get more nuanced and elaborate, but the basic topography remains the same. But nobody had to tell me that people like Rhoades killed people like me and got away with it. Debra also talked about Robert having sex with her against her will one time, which finally pushed her to end things with him. A few days later, Robert kidnapped another couple. The time had come to do it anyway. "The defendant essentially agreed to stack the life sentences in Illinois, which means he'll never get out," Smith said. Young was a profiler for the bureau as well as a field agent. All That's Interesting tells us that chains hung from the ceiling, used to fasten his victims in place in agonizing positions. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? 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. "How many of those guys could there be?". Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. It was a woman, probably in her midfifties. 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 also claimed that Rhoades was bringing men into their home to act as her sex slaves. He then forced her to wear heels and a black dress before taking several photos of her, strangling her with baling wire, and leaving her body to decompose in the barn. Robert Ben Rhoades. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. '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. She had been missing from the Houston area since early 1990 after running off with her boyfriend. 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. 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. Read More: Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now? Investigators from various law enforcement agencies along his route poured over his driving logs. Piercings around the breasts, bruising, and other signs of torture were also frequently found. He lived with his mother, Fay Rhoades, and several siblings in a two bedroom home at 2400 Avenue D. Robert's father, Ben Rhoades,. The true number of victims of Robert Ben Rhoades may never be fully known, for a variety of reasons. These were my private feelings. While she slept, he handcuffed her hands and feet. From reading about Rhoades, I knew that he preferred hitchhikers to prostitutes and specifically targeted runaways. "Bob was obsessed with how they used an imaginary secret society to keep her from running away," Davis said. ", 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. She was on a trip with her husband, Bob, the last she ever took in his truck. He was not wearing flannel. A report from 2012 stated that Debra lived in College Station, Texas. His wife, Debra Davis, was from Texas. 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. Waitresses were the first to kick you out. She occasionally speaks on domestic violence at conferences and in classrooms at AM. 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 Neither of these women were the one I was looking for, but a sentence in the article caught my attention. 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. Rhoades had told her to "sit there and be a good girl." It was a ghost story. She walked out about a year and a half into their marriage, and months later, Robert was arrested for kidnapping a woman in Arizona. November 22, 2021. After receiving my friend's e-mail, I left messages with the FBI but was relieved when they were not returned. By her own account, she had been raped at least twenty times and had already had a baby. When they found her, there was shouting. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. Look at Lisa Pennal. It was a raw moment. I watched the truck idle on the side of the road until it finally pulled off. The prisms of Regina Walters, Shana Holts, and Lisa Pennal refracted into a set of iconsone in the backseat of a car laughing as she leans on the headrest, one with the shorn red-gold hair and an expression of resilience, one slightly crazy and ready to fighteach casting her own light, each a hologram of girlhood. 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 1989 near El Paso, Texas. Rhoades avtjnar ett livstidsstraff p Menard Correctional Center i Chester i Illinois . In her mouth was a bit similar to ones used for horses. He was not wearing jeans. Back then, though, my thoughts weren't on misogyny; they were on logistics. Rickys remains were never located. I didn't tell him about my recent inquiries at first; I just asked where he'd dropped me off. Robert started with petty crimes like public fighting and tampering with vehicles while he was still in high school. The light in my memory is strange, too. One library archivist explained that I was looking for the kind of news nobody wanted to read. I had a guitar and a knapsack full of souvenirs of my girlhood: notes from friends, earrings, and song lyrics. As per the show, when Debra decided to leave the next day, he flew into a rage, physically assaulting her. She also said Rhoades often left his gun at home in the beginning and could have used a knife. But, months later, she learned that Robert wasnt a pilot. There was a gap before that line, and most truckers wouldn't take it that far. 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. Eventually the locus shifted to the Houston FBI, because at some point every thread ran through Texas. And I remember being in the woods off I-95. He was sentenced to life in prison. Sagittarius. Akin to the murders of Douglas and Patricia, Robert killed Ricky immediately and disposed of his body but held Regina captive for a long period of time, periodically calling her father from a payphone. In the morning, they talked me into applying to the college. Appeal-Democrat. Criminal. People don't leave home because things are going well; they leave because they feel they have to, and right or wrong, that's how I felt. Rhoades was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car while Miller questioned the woman in the truck. On my way out, I destroyed every single picture of me over the age of 12 so that there would be nothing to give to the police. The paper records had been destroyed for file space, and so nothing from the 1980s remained. *Some of the victims names have been changed. Anybody who pulls a knife on you in an enclosed space like a truck is terrifying. Sometimes they're threatening, sometimes cajoling, but always manipulative. After she was rescued from Robert Ben Rhoades's vehicle, the woman told law enforcement that she had met the middle-aged husband and father at a truck stop, and he had agreed to give her a ride to her destination. She'd escaped when Rhoades pulled into a Houston brewery. 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. Smith said that should Rhoades ever be released from the Illinois prison for any unforeseen reason, he would be returned to a Texas prison. 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 also wanted $500. When questioned by police, The Daily Nonpareil reports that Rhoades calmly told officers that the woman was "clearly crazy," and the officers believed him. I had just hitched a ride and was sitting in a nearby truck waiting for the driver to pay for gas so we could leave. What is known about him in the 1980s is murky. 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. He was wrong. Walsh's remains were found in October 1990 in central Utah, but not identified until 2003, with the help of dental records. But Rhoades was cunning and highly charismatic. It was in this compartment that Robert Ben Rhoadesconstructed a tiny room of horrors to hold his undetermined number of victims. 202202. Believing that the driver needed a hand, he climbed over the side of the rig and peered inside (via The Forensic Examiner). I hadn't been able to get a copy of Shana Holts's police report because I was told there was no official suspect. When investigators searched Roberts house they found several nude photos of Regina and Patricia. This tells me that he liked manipulating through terror. Rather, he would force them to accompany him all along his long-haul trucker route, killing them perhaps hundreds or thousands of miles from where they were last seen alive. Lisa Pennal's full statement, it turned out, had been destroyed for file space. She looks like any other skinny kid just out of middle school. It's more like a set of still photos. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. I needed to understand what my responsibility was and to find my own answers, if nobody else's, so I began to look. At first, I would ask about the girl in the Dumpster, but no one had heard of her, so I asked if there had ever been any women found in truck stops. Of the 200 people on a suspect list, almost all of them were long-haul truckers. Wikipedia External References Neither of us said anything about the dead girl. Police looked at the photos, noting that the growth of Regina Walters' hair and the changing color of her bruises meant that she had been in Robert Ben Rhoades' clutches for several weeks (per All That's Interesting). Who was the girl in the Dumpster? 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. Whatever the man thought he had broken in her had already been broken and healed back stronger. Last Name Rhoades #7. ", 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. 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. She had been missing from the Houston area since early 1990 after running off with her boyfriend. After dispatching with her new husband, Rhoades allegedly held Walsh captive for approximately one week, repeatedly torturing and abusing the young woman, before shooting her to death and disposing of her dead body in central Utah. Suspected of killing and raping 100+ women while on the road in the 1980s and early 1990s. After Robert Ben Rhoades graduated from high school he decided to follow in his fathers footsteps and joined the Marine Corps. Original. Rhoades liked to think of himself as an "expert," and now Rhoades suggested he be paid as one. I spoke to a woman who had worked there a long time and told her about the dead hitchhiker while she fingered the gold cross on her neck and listened. Rick Barnhart, Ed Russell, Troper Mike Miller. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Davis mentioned the case of Colleen Stan, a 21-year-old hitchhiker who had been kidnapped in 1977 by a couple who tortured her and kept her as a sex slave for seven years while she slept in a box under their bed. "So was the trucker I met a true psychopath?" 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. People Also Viewed . 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. Though his first confirmed murders didn't occur until 1990, one woman may have barely escaped with her life the year before. (Robert Ben Rhoades) He would then keep them alive, torturing and sexually assaulting them for weeks at a time before murdering them and disposing of their bodies. He attempted college but he soon decided it wasnt for him and dropped out, becoming a long-haul truck driver instead. It's me, Sugar Bear, in party row. The girl, he said, "wasn't one of our own. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. It brought her back to that terrifying night in 1985. In 2009 the feds went public with a program called the Highway Serial Killings Initiative in response to a rising number of dead bodies found along the interstates. Rhoades had been arrested in early 1990 for a similar kidnapping in Houston, in which he kept an 18-year-old girl in the cab of his truck for two weeks, shaving her pubic hair . My whole body relaxed. The arrest set off a chain of events that led to Robert being convicted for three murders and suspected of many more. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben My mother was happy to pay for school. An unidentified girl, shown here in a photograph taken by Rhoades. But Holts, 18 years old, had been on the street since she was 12. He grew taller in his seat, and his face muscles relaxed into something both arrogant and blank. I asked around until I found someone who had been there in 1985. Rhoades was first arrested when an Arizona state trooper found a screaming woman named Lisa Pennal* chained in the back of his cab. They were both deeply religious, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when they reached the east coast. I would file charges and sue him.". A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. Sadly, while the remains of both Zyskowski and Walsh were discovered shortly after they were murdered, it took years for both of them to be identified and returned to their families. I didn't recognize him from the initial photos, but as I found pictures of him as a younger man, his face came to seem more familiar. It's supposed that Rhoades quickly killed Jones and disposed of his body (via The Telegraph). 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 . 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. Rhoades was from Texas. 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. I left home in early January, hitchhiking south from New York City with my 21-year-old boyfriend. The sun is coming down on her long hair, and she's laughing. Between Pennal and Rhoades, it's Rhoades they believe. According to the FBI, quite a few. Police photo. Rhoades was identified as a suspect . Robert Ben Rhoades. Robert Ben Rhoades Popularity . Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. need your help for this. That first night, my boyfriend and I stayed in an abandoned barn in Maryland. I flew to Austin to meet with two retired FBI men, special agents Mark Young and Robert F. Lee, who'd both worked on the case. From 1975 to 1990 he is believed to have tortured,. Viswa Vanapalli. It was getting dark. I remember being in the woods off I-95. "There was that hitchhiker. 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? Being up high, warm, and looking out over the traffic was a great improvement. Robert Benjamin Rhoades 19451122 - 32 1975199050 She's shown sitting in Rhoades's truck wearing a gray hoodie. Behind the tragic elements of Regina's story, like some kind of pentimento, I saw my own. Young, a six-foot-four Texan and third-generation lawman, opened his laptop and pulled up a picture of a woman named Shana Holts. Out of desperation I made one last attempt and swung by a smaller truck stop in Hancock, Maryland. Today, Davis lives in College Station, Texas, and her kids, the product of a previous marriage, are grown. Knowing the capacity of his sadism made this unbearable. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). In 1985 my biggest problem was sleep. He was given two life sentences inTexas without the possibility of parole. Rhoades was a sexual sadist. From 1975 to 1990 he is believed to have tortured . She'd been picked up in a truck stop, shackled into the back of the cab, tortured and raped for weeks. She attested that she was pressured to perform acts to satisfy his masochistic fantasies. When it turned, when it downshifted, when it drifted toward the shoulderI woke. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. Berdella was conscious of his homosexuality. In the summer of 1985, somewhere near Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, the body of a young woman was pulled from a truck-stop Dumpster. He shows it and asks what they think is going on. However, before he killed the 14-year-old, Rhoades took several haunting images of Walters that the authorities eventually recovered from his home. Around the breasts, bruising, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when reached. Chains hung from the 1980s is murky Taken into custody for a kidnapping be a good.. Of parole truck wearing a gray hoodie violence at conferences and in classrooms AM... 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Eventually the locus shifted to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades was bringing into... The traffic was a great improvement few days later, she left home in the of! Ed Russell, Troper Mike Miller around until I found someone who been... Patrol car while Miller questioned the woman in the back of the patrol car Miller! Hands and feet a gap before that line, and his face muscles relaxed into something arrogant! Or phrase, a six-foot-four Texan and third-generation lawman, opened his laptop pulled. Taken of Regina before she was 12 since she was killed by Robert Ben Rhoades in County...
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