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. "I've been a prosecutor since 1979 and it was one of the rare occasions when I was in the court where the defendant walked in and you felt the evil," Smith said. "But a real serial killer wouldn't have let me go, right?" One library archivist explained that I was looking for the kind of news nobody wanted to read. She also had children from another marriage. Rhoades' attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from ABCNews.com. She had a stocking down her throat, I think. Even so, it still wasn't safe to sleep. plans and enthusiasm "Her body was found months later so she was probably kept alive for a while," Smith said. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. allowing the middle-aged husband and father to torment and abuse women as he crisscrossed the United States. Girls no one would miss. How could she lack evidence? the Murderpedia project stay alive. 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. What evidence was she lacking? Despite the initial deception, Debra wanted to give the relationship a shot and continued to date him. I stayed there until I saw the truck pull onto the interstate. I arrived at his door melting in the hundred-degree heat. Investigators from various law enforcement agencies along his route poured over his driving logs. I lived with my mom in New York, and the fights between us were growing in intensity and emotional violence. Rhoades looked like the guy who picked me up. But to ex-wife Debra Davis, when they. I didn't tell him about my recent inquiries at first; I just asked where he'd dropped me off. Eventually, they reconciled and got married as well. Robert took Regina to an abandoned farmhouse. Rhoades was handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car while Miller questioned the woman in the truck. The idea that I might have been responsible for what happened to girls like Regina was devastating, and Lee's directness startled me. I asked. I'd never heard the word "drifter" used in earnest. He was grave and methodical as if preparing to dress a deer. Walsh's remains were found in October 1990 in central Utah, but not identified until 2003, with the help of dental records. 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. Drew Peterson, former police sergeant, was sentenced to 38 years for the murder of his 3rd wife, Kathleen Savio. Regina Walters had been seen in Chicago standing freely outside his truck in a public place. '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. The body was found in 1990, but not identified until 1992. Rhoades swiftly killed Jones so he could abduct Walters and keep her to abuse at his will. Why did he let me go? A sex worker went to the police in 1989, claiming that Rhoades had held her against her will. The couple had just recently wed and were hitchhiking to Georgia from Texas. Roadside Prey. It brought her back to that terrifying night in 1985. Keeping her captive, he repeatedly sexually assaulted and tortured the woman for days. Robert was immediately arrested and charged with unlawful confinement, and sexual and aggravated assault. Most Popular #231965. I asked about the knife. Through these stories, I jumped from truck to truck. Robert Benjamin Rhoades, fdd 22 november 1945, r en amerikansk seriemrdare och vldtktsman, aktiv mellan 1989 och 1990. Robert Ben Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. He must have seemed okay or I wouldn't have gotten in the truck with him. It touched a nerve I didn't know I had. He may be right, but certainly not because he's innocent. Her hair, long at the time of her abduction, had been clumsily cut short. Robert Ben Rhoades (defendant), pursuant to negotiations with the State, on September 11, 1992, pled guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to imprisonment for natural life. 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. Just a few months after she left Robert, he was taken into custody for a kidnapping. In 1994, Robert Ben Rhoades was convicted of the first degree murder of Regina Walters. 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. He was sentenced to life in prison. I'd always read that she got away because Rhoades forgot to chain her in, but I found out from Young that she'd not been shackled when she escaped. Robert Ben Rhoades' love for the BDSM scene wasn't something that he kept a secret. Debra Davis and Rhoades met in the early '80s at a Houston bar called Chipkikkers. : r/pics r/pics 10 yr. ago Posted by punkindrublicrpp Before serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades killed his victims, he like to snap a photo of them. Robert Benjamin Rhoades (born November 22, 1945), also known as The Truck Stop Killer, is an American serial killer and rapist. While she slept, he handcuffed her hands and feet. 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. October 20, 2022. When the FBI extradited him to Illinois, he was able to get a phone number off a waitress while shackled hand and foot and wearing an orange prison suit. Ted Bundy. Rhoades was a long-haul trucker, in jail since 1990, who had recently been convicted of a couple of new "cold cases." Rhoades was a great lover of games. Walsh was murdered, and her body was dumped in Utah. He'd told Shana Holts to "sit there and be a good girl." She had been strangled at Breezewood. These were my private feelings. "Human memory is not like a video recording," they said. 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. Had I confused the state? Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. Every trucker I ever met had a gun, so the knife seemed significant. Her statement was videotaped the night she was freed from Rhoades's truck. 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. The question of what you do with your old SWAT jacket when you retire had never entered my mind. 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. This former trucker is believed to have killed over 20 people spanning from 1975 to 1990. 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. Could Debra help solve an active investigation? She started to . The case of Robert Ben Rhoades serves as an excellent example of the type and nature of case to which VICAP s services would provide critical assistance and support. After receiving my friend's e-mail, I left messages with the FBI but was relieved when they were not returned. Rhoades didn't live a double life as much as a shadowed one. 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. 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. Adhering to my rule (that the only safe truck was a moving truck) meant I woke when a truck took an exit. The serial killer's name was Robert Ben Rhoades. Like a lemur in a canopy of trees, I barely saw the ground. While he was in the Marine Corps, he committed a robbery and was dishonorably discharged in 1968. Last Photo Taken of Regina before she was killed by Robert Ben She ran. It was a solution that worked for both of us and looked like redemption but didn't last. She's tried to put the years with Rhoades behind her but still gets letters from him sporadically. When you get in a truck at a truck stop, everyone notices. Robert Ben Rhoades is considered to be one of the most notorious serial killers in the country. 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 said a gun was about control but a knife is personal. It was later determined that Rhoades kept Walters alive for weeks while he subjected the young woman to an immeasurable amount of cruelty. 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's first confirmed victims were in 1990. Her remains were found in September 1990. The trucker bought us chicken-fried steak, chatted amiably, and let us nap in the cab while he drove. I'd seen the page from Regina's little notebook on which Rhoades had drawn a picture of a gun and a huge dagger dripping blood next to the words RICKY IS A DEAD MAN. 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. Robert Ben Rhoades was born in Council Bluffs in 1945. Wearing down from lack of sleep and trying to get a handle on my risk level, I began to work off a 1-to-5 scale of sexually aggressive behavior: You (the driver) kept your urges to yourself. I knew from talking to the Martinsburg police that the truck stop had been under the jurisdiction of the Berkeley County sheriff. De 1975 a 1990 acredita-se que tenha torturado, violado e matado mais de 50 mulheres, contudo foi condenado por apenas trs homicdios devido a ausncia de provas. 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. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Listening to her, it occurred to me that this investigation of mine wasn't a detective novel. Had she ever heard about it? And while I was getting more adept at survival, he was getting more adept at killing. "I just want you to know," he said, looking me squarely in the eye, "that what Rhoades did to women, he did to women. It was a ghost story. Behind the tragic elements of Regina's story, like some kind of pentimento, I saw my own. Like Regina, I also had a little journal and probably wrote something in it that night, because it was far too cold to sleep. Waitresses were the first to kick you out. I wrote him back and told him that journalistic standards wouldn't allow me to pay for interviews. It was agent Young who recognized the small gap in Regina's teeth and noticed that a few freckles were in the same place. Prosecutors say the trucker kept a mobile torture chamber in the cab of his long-haul rig. Read More: Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now? Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, with only a pair of slippers on her feet. He requested information on missing Caucasian females aged 13 to 15 years old who had disappeared six to nine months earlier. On Monday, Rhoades pleaded guilty and was charged with two counts of capital murder in Sutton County, Tex. Another is called "Beat Me Daddy," another "Frigid Woman." Rhoades was found guilty of murdering Patricia Walters in an Illinois court and sentenced to life in prison. November 22, 2021. Robert Ben Rhoades is suspected of raping and murdering more than 50 women over a 15-year period in the 70's and 80's as he road his semi-truck up and down the highways trolling for victims. The sheer amount of victims he had coupled with the contrast of how little we know about his crimes makes this case haunting. Rhoades saw what Debra was looking at. Silence fell over the Sacramento County courtroom as Judge Loyd H. Mulkey . "Bob was obsessed with how they used an imaginary secret society to keep her from running away," Davis said. In the morning, they talked me into applying to the college. These are narratives we know. Robert Ben Rhoades used his job as a long haul truck to satisfy his sexually sadistic needs. 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. Criminal. 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. When I first saw his apartment, I thought I'd walked into the showroom of a furniture store. Original. Last Name Rhoades #7. Rhoades, dressed for a Halloween party, was an active member of the S&M scene in Houston. Rhoades kept Regina for at least two weeks. But, months later, she learned that Robert wasnt a pilot. I needed to understand what my responsibility was and to find my own answers, if nobody else's, so I began to look. Initially, agents had disagreed over whether the young girl on Rhoades's film was Regina. A few minutes later, I got up like nothing had happened. Everywhere I looked, evidence of these girls was disappearing. 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 women he may have hurt, since he traveled so much. Click to reveal VI, 11, subd. She was wearing those slippersbut she was telling the truth. It made sense. Robert Ben Rhoades who is famously known as The 'Truck Stop Killer' is an American notorious serial killer and rapist who found taste in killing, raping and torturing young female teens. "He's 67. One of serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades's last victims, Regina Walters, was found in a barn in Illinois. "Do you remember what his cab looked like? Young was a profiler for the bureau as well as a field agent. The Daily Nonpareil reports that Rhoades had been married multiple times, and his third wife came forward to police with additional information about his bedroom hobbies. His wife, Debra Davis, was from Texas. 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. There were seven within rangeIndiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, West Virginia, and New Yorkall less than a day's drive apart. The Daily Nonpareil reports that these logs put Rhoades in the immediate vicinity of as many as 50 unsolved murders. for the slayings of Patricia Walsh, 24, and her husband Douglas Scott Zyskowski, 28.