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The April 6 search of Schaefer's Martin County home yielded less [[Real evidence|physical evidence]], although investigators did recover two human teeth stowed in a plastic capsule inside the master bedroom,{{efn|These teeth were later determined to belong to a missing 22-year-old woman named Carmen Hallock}} several knives and firearms inside a utility shed, and an extensively bloodstained white pillowcase which had evidently been washed.<ref>''American Ripper: The Enigma Of America's Serial Killer Cop'' {{ISBN|978-1-604-52163-4}} p. 120</ref>
The April 6 search of Schaefer's Martin County home yielded less [[Real evidence|physical evidence]], although investigators did recover two human teeth stowed in a plastic capsule inside the master bedroom,{{efn|These teeth were later determined to belong to a missing 22-year-old woman named Carmen Hallock}} several knives and firearms inside a utility shed, and an extensively bloodstained white pillowcase which had evidently been washed.<ref>''American Ripper: The Enigma Of America's Serial Killer Cop'' {{ISBN|978-1-604-52163-4}} p. 120</ref>


Susan Place's distinctive purse was discovered in the possession of Schaefers wife; she informed police her husband had given her the item as a gift on a date shortly after Place's murder, but had attempted to persuade her to discard the item upon learning of the discovery of her body.<ref name="Aggressors p. 85">''Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct'' {{ISBN|978-3-030-28440-4}} p. 85</ref>
Susan Place's distinctive purse was discovered in the possession of Schaefer's wife; she informed police her husband had given her the item as a gift on a date shortly after Place's murder, but had attempted to persuade her to discard the item upon learning of the discovery of her body.<ref name="Aggressors p. 85">''Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct'' {{ISBN|978-3-030-28440-4}} p. 85</ref>


==Formal murder charges==
==Formal murder charges==

Revision as of 22:25, 4 June 2022

Gerard John Schaefer
Wilton Manors police applicant photo of Schaefer, September 16, 1970
Born
Gerard John Schaefer Jr.

March 26, 1946
Neenah, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedDecember 3, 1995(1995-12-03) (aged 49)
Bradford County, Florida, U.S.
Cause of deathMultiple stab wounds to the face, head, neck, and body
Other namesJerry Shepherd
The Killer Cop
Spouses
  • Martha Fogg
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1968; div. 1970)​
  • Teresa Dean
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1971; div. 1973)​
Motive
Conviction(s)Murder (x2)
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment
Details
Victims2–28
Span of crimes
September 27, 1972 (confirmed)
October 2, 1966 – January 10, 1973 (suspected)
CountryUnited States
State(s)Florida
Date apprehended
April 7, 1973
Imprisoned atFlorida State Prison

Gerard John Schaefer Jr. (March 26, 1946 – December 3, 1995) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer known as the Killer Cop who was convicted of the 1972 murder and mutilation of two teenage girls in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He is suspected of committing up to 26 further murders.[1]

Described by the prosecutor at his trial as "the most sexually deviant person" he had ever encountered,[2] Schaefer was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment at his 1973 trial, to be served at Florida State Prison. He was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate while incarcerated at this facility in December 1995.[3][2]

Schaefer became known as the "Killer Cop" due to the fact he had been a serving sheriff's deputy in Martin County, Florida, at the time of his initial arrest.[4]

Early life

Gerard Schaefer was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, on March 26, 1946, the first of three children born to Gerard John and Doris Marie (née Runcie) Schaefer. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mother a homemaker. He was raised in Nashville, Tennessee and, later, Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended Marist Academy until 1960, when his family permanently relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Schaefer later described his childhood as "troubled and turbulent", largely due to the frequent family relocations, his father's alcoholism, and his frequent verbal abuse of his wife and children. Although Schaefer's father's occupation resulted in his being frequently absent from the household, he endured a difficult relationship with his oldest son, who resented his frequent belittling of him and believed his father favored his sister over himself and his brother. By contrast, Schaefer was close to his mother, who was extremely protective of her children.[5]

As a child, Schaefer preferred outdoor pursuits. By his adolescence, he had developed a passion for nature. His primary interests as a teenager included collecting guns, and hunting and fishing—excursions that he and his father occasionally pursued together when his father was at home.[5] Although hardly a classic loner, classmates at St. Thomas Aquinas High School recall his "not being part of any clique", and he frequently pursued these interests alone, leading his family and peers alike to view him as an "outdoors man" who held aspirations to become a forest ranger.[6]

Adolescence and high school

By his teenage years, Schaefer became a chronic masturbator; he also developed erotic fantasies of hurting women whom he deemed worthy of his contempt. These fantasies gradually evolved into his developing a penchant for sadomasochism and bondage and deriving pleasure from inflicting pain upon himself—occasionally as he wore women's underwear—until he achieved orgasm via autoerotic asphyxia. Typically, these sadomasochistic rituals involved Schaefer tying himself to a tree in rural locations.[7]

Schaefer also became a peeping tom in his mid-teens and is known to have developed the habit of cross dressing.[5][a] Although Schaefer did date in his high school years, several female classmates viewed him with disdain due to his peculiar behavior and general perversion. One former classmate, Barbara Krolick, later recollected: "I can't remember him being friends with any of the guys. He was always on the outside looking in. As a matter of fact, the only thing I really remember is that I always had to tuck my skirt under my legs because [Schaefer] would practically stand on his head to look up a girl's skirt."[8]

Shaefer was considered a promising student by his teachers, and contemporary records reveal his being a member of the school Raiders football team during his sophomore and junior years, and he is known to have been an excellent golfer. He graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in June 1964, and briefly worked as a fishing guide in the Everglades before enrolling at Broward Community College.[9]

College years

Schaefer initially enrolled as a social studies major at Broward Community College in September 1964 before switching his focus to teaching, in which he achieved average grades.[10] Upon completion of his sophomore year at Broward, Schaefer applied for and was accepted for scholarship at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, where he began his studies in 1968 with aspirations to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in education.[11]

Marriage

In December 1968, Schaefer married his fiancée, Martha "Marti" Louise Fogg, a fellow FAU student two years his junior whom he had met while previously studying at Broward, and with whom he had briefly toured in her patriotic singing troupe Sing-Out 66, which offered an alternative to the contemporary hippie movement. Initially, their matrimonial life was content. The couple rented a property on SW 22nd Street in Fort Lauderdale, although their relationship soon soured due to his wife's refusal to capitulate to his frequent demands for sex. The two divorced in May 1970; his wife citing Schaefer's extreme cruelty as the reason for their separation.[12]

Career

Teacher

In March 1969, Schaefer successfully applied for a student teaching internship at Plantation High School.[13] He began this position on September 23, primarily teaching geography, but was fired from the position on November 7 for refusing to accept advice from his superiors, and continuously attempting to impose his own moral and political views upon his students,[14] which had led to the school receiving numerous complaints from the parents of his pupils. Shortly thereafter, Schaefer unsuccessfully applied for a student teaching position at Boca Raton Community High School.[15]

Four months later, in March 1970, Schaefer successfully applied for another teaching internship. This application was accepted, and Schaefer began teaching geography at Stranahan High School on April 2. Contemporary progress reports indicate Schaefer performed poorly at Stranahan High School, with his superiors noting both his arrogance and his "very limited" knowledge of the subject he taught. Seven weeks after Schaefer commenced this teaching position, the director of Stranahan High School informed him the school considered him unsuitable for the position, and of their intention to withdraw him from the internship by May 18. His career as a student teacher formally ended on May 19.[16]

Police officer

Shortly after the termination of Schaefer's teaching career, he vacationed in Europe and North Africa before returning to Florida, where he briefly worked for the Wackenhut Corporation as a security guard as he pondered his next career move.[13] On September 1, 1970, Schaefer applied for a vacancy within the City of Wilton Manors Police Department. He omitted to disclose the fact he had twice been fired from student teaching positions within the previous year; instead falsely claiming on his application form to have acquired two years' experience as a research assistant at Florida Atlantic University, and to have recently returned to the U.S. from Morocco. His previous work history was not verified, and Schaefer was formally inducted into the Broward County Police Department in September 1971, graduating as a patrolman at the end of the year at age 25.[17]

In January 1971, seven months before Schaefer began his career as a police officer, he encountered his second wife, Teresa Dean, while still working as a security guard. The two soon became engaged, and married in Fort Lauderdale on September 11 that year.[18]

Schaefer initially served as a policeman in the city of Wilton Manors; this tenure lasted only six months. Although Schaefer earned commendation from his superiors on one occasion relating to his conduct during a March 1972 police raid on a drug house,[7] his general performance was considered poor, and he was dismissed from his position when his superiors discovered his habit of stopping cars driven by female motorists who had committed minor traffic infractions, then entering their license plate numbers into a database to obtain further personal details about them before contacting them to request dates.[19]

Shortly before his dismissal from the Wilton Manors Police Department, Schaefer had begun searching for a better-paying law enforcement position elsewhere. He began his service as a deputy with the Martin County Police Department on June 23, 1972,[4] having forged a letter of recommendation from Wilton Manors Police Department endorsing his application. A standard background check revealed he had no criminal record.[20]

Abductions

On the afternoon of July 21, 1972, Schaefer encountered two teenage hitchhikers named Nancy Ellen Trotter (18) and Paula Sue Wells (17) while on official police duty;[21] he drove the pair to their intended destination of Stuart, although he cautioned the girls against the perils of hitchhiking. Upon learning neither girl was native to Florida[22] and that the two intended to travel to Jensen Beach the following day, Schaefer proposed to drive them to the location. The girls accepted his offer, and agreed to meet him at a bandstand on East Ocean Boulevard at 9:15 a.m.[23]

The following morning, Schaefer arrived at the bandstand at the prearranged time. On this occasion, he was not wearing his uniform and driving his own vehicle, although he convinced Trotter and Wells he was still on duty, having been switched to plain clothed, undercover duties and thus driving an unmarked vehicle.[24]

Shortly after the girls entered the vehicle, Shaefer deviated from their intended route on the pretext of showing the girls an "old Spanish fort" near Hutchinson Island. He again briefly lectured the girls against accepting lifts from random strangers and the dangers of being "sold into white slavery" before stopping the vehicle close to a dilapidated shed deep inside a remote forest where he handcuffed and gagged them. He then took one girl from the vehicle to a large cypress tree close to the Indian River where he tied her legs to the trunk just below her knees before binding a noose around her neck, which he affixed to a branch in such a manner as to force her to stand upon the exposed roots to counter the pressure from the noose. Schaefer then took the other girl to another tree a short distance away where she too was bound in a similar manner in which she was forced to stand upon a narrow exposed tree root as a makeshift, sloping plinth to counter the pressure from the noose around her neck.[25] Both were informed they were to be raped and murdered.[26]

Nancy Trotter reenacts her binding and restraint by Schaefer for a Martin County police photographer

Schaefer then received an urgent police radio dispatch, informing him to immediately report to the station. He left both girls bound and standing upon their plinths, vowing that he would soon return and exclaiming to one of his captives, "I gotta go!" Both girls were warned not to "try to run away, 'cause I'm not going to be very far down the road", with Schaefer claiming he was to confer with the individual he intended to sell them to.[27]

Captives' escape

When Schaefer returned to the forest approximately two hours later he discovered that both girls had escaped;[28] he immediately returned home to call his station, where he informed Sheriff Robert Crowder: "I've done something very foolish, you'll be mad at me." Schaefer then proceeded to explain that he had decided to teach two girls "a lesson" on the risks of such an irresponsible method of travel, but had "overdid the job". He then proceeded to explain he had abandoned the two in the general swampland area of Hutchinson Island, not far from the Indian River.[29]

Crowder and Lieutenant Melvin Waldron immediately proceeded to Florida State Road A1A, where—close the highway—they discovered a desperate, partially-gagged teenage girl with her hands pinioned behind her back swimming via a flutter kick and with her hands cuffed behind her back in a subtropical river.[30] As the officers slowed to a halt, they observed the distraught girl clamber from the riverbank with sections of her jeans and blouse shredded, attempting to gesticulate for their attention. Upon removing the gag from the girl's mouth, the officers heard her identify herself as "Nancy", sputtering her friend was somewhere in the forest. To Trotter's relief, she was informed that a trucker had discovered Wells staggering through the woodland in the direction towards the highway approximately 45 minutes earlier, and that her friend was already at the police station.[29]

Initial arrest

Trotter and Wells were driven to Martin County Sheriff's Office, where they recounted their ordeal to Crowder. Both girls stated they had managed to escape from their bindings by gingerly writhing against their restraints and loosening their gags with their teeth as they maintained their balance upon the exposed tree roots; each stated the process of freeing themselves had taken considerable time, and that they had been acutely aware that, had they slipped, they would have hanged.[31] Both girls provided a detailed description of their assailant and his vehicle,[b] before formally identifying Schaefer as the individual responsible for their ordeal.[32]

Although Schaefer repeated his insistence that he had simply overreacted in his efforts to demonstrate the dangers of hitchhiking to the two young women, his story was not believed; he was dismissed from the force and placed under arrest, with Crowder instructing his officers to file charges of false imprisonment and assault against him.[27]

Bail

Two months after his arrest, Schaefer posted a $15,000 bail, thus meaning he remained at liberty prior to his scheduled November 1972 trial, in which he faced two charges of aggravated assault, and two of false imprisonment. He returned to the family home he and his second wife rented in Stuart.[33]

Murders

File:S.PlaceG.JessupFort Lauderdale September 27 1972A.jpg
Georgia Jessup (left), and Susan Place

Place and Jessup

On September 27, 1972, Schaefer abducted two teenage friends named Susan Carol Place (17) and Georgia Marie Jessup (16). The two had encountered Schaefer while all three attended an adult education center in Fort Lauderdale, which both girls attended with a mutual desire to obtain her diploma at this venue as opposed to continuing to attend high school.[c] While attending this adult education center, the two became acquainted with a man in his mid-20s who introduced himself to the friends as "Jerry Shepherd". According to letters exchanged between the three in the days before the girls' abduction, Schaefer had claimed to hail from Colorado, adding that he intended to return to his home state following a trip to Mexico; he likely feigned interest in Jessup's fascination with the concept of reincarnation and ESP in addition to Place's preoccupation with music and her desire to form a band with her older sister, Kristen, in order to ingratiate himself with both girls and gain their trust.[34]

On the afternoon of their disappearance, Place's mother, Lucille, entered her home from the backyard to observe her daughter "straightening her room" as Jessup sat upon a chair in the bedroom; both introduced Lucille to a man in his 20s whom they referred to as "Gerald", with Place informing her mother: "I'm cleaning my room. By the way, this is Jerry." Place initially informed her mother that she, Jessup and "Jerry" intended to travel from Fort Lauderdale "to the beach and play guitar". Although Place's mother remained suspicious, Shepherd assured her his intentions were noble; nonetheless, she noted the number of Shepherd's 1969 blue-green Datsun immediately prior to her daughter confirming her suspicions she intended to leave home, although Place tearfully reassured her mother she intended to leave "just for a little while" to "get away from Fort Lauderdale", and that she would remain in contact with her. The girls left the Place household with Schaefer at approximately 8:45 p.m.[d]

When her daughter had not returned after four days, Lucille first contacted Jessup's mother, Shirley, only to learn her daughter had "run away" on September 27, and that she likewise had not heard from either girl since. Lucille provided police with the vehicle registration she had noted, in addition to a physical description of the man the girls had left her home with. The registration was traced to an entirely separate model of vehicle belonging to a St Petersburg resident who did not resemble Jerry Shepherd, and who had a firm alibi for the date of the girls' disappearance. The sole Jerry Shepherd registered as living in Fort Lauderdale was also eliminated from police inquiries and by early 1973, the teenagers' disappearance had largely become a cold case.[36]

Suspected further murders

Two teenage girls named Mary Alice Briscolina (14) and Elsie Lina Farmer (13) vanished while hitchhiking to a Commercial Boulevard restaurant from a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea motel on October 26, 1972,[37] less than one month after Place and Jessup were last seen alive.[38] Their bodies were separately recovered in undergrowth close to Sunrise Boulevard not far from the city of Plantation early the following year—both with legs spread apart.[39] Briscolina had been extensively beaten about the head, with one blow to her skull proving fatal. Several of her fingernails had been torn from her body, indicating a ferocious physical struggle with her murderer. Farmer had also been bludgeoned to death.[40]

Barbara Ann Wilcox

Three months later, on January 10, 1973, two 19-year-old hitchhikers, Collete Marie Goodenough and Barbara Ann Wilcox, disappeared while hitchhiking from Sioux City, Iowa to Florida.[41] Their disappearances occurred while Schaefer remained free prior to beginning his sentence for the abductions of Trotter and Wells. He is known to have made a long-distance phone call from Iowa to his Florida home at the time of the girls' disappearance. Their scattered skeletal remains were discovered close to a large tree and an orange crate in 1977. Both victims had been bound together with baling wire,[42] and impressions upon the tree branches—coupled with the actual positioning of the orange crate—indicate one or both victims had been suspended from the tree as their murderer sat or stood upon the orange crate.[2]

Initial imprisonment

In December 1972, Schaefer appeared in court in relation to the July abductions. Due to a plea bargain his attorney strongly recommended he accept, Schaefer was able to plead guilty to just one charge of aggravated assault, for which he received a sentence of one year in jail, with the possibility of parole after six months, to be followed by three years' probation.[43]

Upon passing sentence on December 22, Judge D. C. Smith informed Schaefer: "It is beyond the court's imagination to conceive how you were such a foolish and astronomic jackass as you were in this case."[44] Judge Smith allowed Schaefer's formal sentencing to be postponed until "after the holidays", and he began serving his sentence in Martin County Jail on January 15, 1973.[45]

Upon leaving court on December 22, Schaefer informed several reporters: "I made a stupid mistake. There was no sex involved... no one was hurt."[43]

Developments

In March 1973, Lucille Place discovered a letter penned by "Jerry Shepherd" in her daughter's bedroom;[14] she drove to the return address upon the letter—333 Martin Street, Stuart, FL—only to discover when conversing with the building manager that "Jerry Shepherd" had registered at the property under his real name of Gerard Schaefer and that he no longer resided at the premises, having been recently jailed for the abduction and attempted hanging of two girls.[46]

As Lucille and her husband, Ira, drove around the county, Lucille realized investigators had likely incorrectly noted Schaefer's license plate number as she relayed the information to them as being a vehicle registered in Pinellas County as opposed to Martin County, given the fact most license plates she observed in Martin County began with "42" and not the "4" of Pinellas County which investigators had previously informed her the registration plate she had provided had been registered within. Upon relaying this information to police, Lucille discovered the license plate she had noted actually belonged to a blue-green Datsun[47] registered to one Gerard Schaefer, who resided at 333 Martin Street, Stuart.[48]

When questioned, Schaefer denied ever having encountered Place or her parents, although Lucille positively identified a 1970 Wilton Manors Police Department photograph of Schaefer as "Jerry Shepherd".[48]

Discoveries

On the afternoon of April 1, a father and son searching for discarded aluminum cans discovered the extensively decomposed remains of two individuals scattered within and around a hole dug among trees in Oak Hammock Park, Port Saint Lucie, Florida. Scratching marks were evident upon the base of the tree immediately alongside this hole, close to where sections of a torso had been bound to the base of the trunk. One victim wore the remnants of blue jeans emblazoned with a circular emblem of the Road Runner,[49] whereas the other was completely nude, and a pile of clothing belonging to the decedents was discovered in nearby undergrowth. Sections of both bodies had evidently been disinterred and scattered by wild animals. The location of the discoveries was approximately six miles from where Trotter and Wells had been bound, suspended and threatened prior to their escape the previous summer.[50][e]

Both girls had been bound and murdered, with their spinal cords severed and several bones completely severed with a knife or machete. Their bodies had been decapitated after death and their jawbones had sustained numerous fractures. Place had also sustained a gunshot wound to her jaw consistent with having been inflicted by a .22 caliber pistol. Furthermore, sections of wearing of tree bark upon a nearby oak tree indicated the victims had been suspended from this tree long enough to leave welt impressions within the bark prior to their deaths, and the initials 'G.J.' had been carved into a tree trunk.[50]

Identification

The bodies were taken to the Dade County Medical Examiner's Department, where Dr Richard Souviron formally identified the victims via dental records and healed bone fractures as Susan Place and Georgia Jessup on April 5.[50] Shortly thereafter, Schaefer was informed of the identifications; he immediately requested the representation of a public defender. The individual appointed as his legal representative was Elton Schwartz.[52]

The location of these discoveries and the decedents' identities, plus the similarities in the modus operandi of the method of abduction and murder of Place and Jessup to Schaefer's earlier abduction and restraint of the two girls who had escaped led Broward County and Martin County police to obtain search warrants for Schaefer's house and vehicle and the home of his mother after Place's mother formally identified Schaefer as being the man she had last seen with her daughter and Jessup.[4] These warrants were issued on April 6 and 7.[53]

Search warrants

Broward County

Inside a locked bedroom at Schaefer's mother's southwest Fort Lauderdale residence, police found 300 pages of lurid stories (occasionally accompanied by crude illustrations) Schaefer had both penned and typed over the course of several years detailing the kidnapping, humiliation, rape, and execution by hanging of a number of teenage girls and young women whom he routinely referred to as "whores", "sluts" and "harlots", including two named "Belinda" and "Carmen" and an unidentified woman whom he graphically describes hanging at an unknown location close to Powerline Road.[54]

Several of these narratives indicate Schaefer had forced his victims to drink beverages—typically beer or wine—as they stood upon makeshift plinths with a noose around their necks in order that he could observe them urinate prior to their hanging, and that he had frequently returned to his crime scenes weeks or months after the actual murders in order to commit acts of necrophilia with buried and dismembered bodies and to extract teeth from the skull.[55] The journals and other literature recovered also reveal his deep fascination with worldwide historical methods of torture and execution and the pleasure he derived from observing acutely distressed females urinate and/or defecate prior to and at the time of their actual hanging.[25][f]

Also found at Schaefer's mother's Fort Lauderdale residence were eleven guns, bags filled with live and spent cartridges, thirteen hunting knives, sections of rope, and scores of softcore pornographic magazines which he had modified to depict nude, urinating women bound with ropes, hanging from trees or other makeshift gallows, and occasionally bearing bullet wounds.[57] Other images recovered were 37 black and white Polaroid photographs depicting women being hung and/or mutilated, although the focus of these images was insufficient to permit identification of the subjects.[g] Several other images depicted Schaefer dressed in female garments simulating his own hanging from a tree.[25]

Inside a gold jewelry box, Broward County investigators also discovered personal possessions such as jewelry, passports, and clothing belonging to several teenage girls and young women. Some of these items—such as a distinctive heart shaped charm inscribed with the initials M.T.N.—investigators were unable to link to missing or murdered individuals; others were identified as belonging to young women who had been reported missing in recent years. One silver bracelet was found to belong to a missing woman named Leigh Hainline Bonadies, who had been a neighbor of Schaefer's when both were teenagers and who had been missing since September 1969;[59] also recovered was a driving license belonging to Barbara Ann Wilcox and a passport belonging to Collette Marie Goodenough—both of whom had been reported missing in January 1973. Furthermore, teeth and sections of bone later identified as belonging to at least eight young women and girls were also recovered.[60]

Martin County

The April 6 search of Schaefer's Martin County home yielded less physical evidence, although investigators did recover two human teeth stowed in a plastic capsule inside the master bedroom,[h] several knives and firearms inside a utility shed, and an extensively bloodstained white pillowcase which had evidently been washed.[61]

Susan Place's distinctive purse was discovered in the possession of Schaefer's wife; she informed police her husband had given her the item as a gift on a date shortly after Place's murder, but had attempted to persuade her to discard the item upon learning of the discovery of her body.[62]

Formal murder charges

"There has been evidence of considerable paranoid feelings, hostility, and anger, which erupts with little stress. It is noted that past examiners have [also] seen this patient as representing a character disorder ... In addition, there appears to be a very active fantasy life. He is considered to be a very dangerous person, both to himself and to others."

Section of Dr. Benjamin R. Ogburn's pretrial evaluation of Schaefer. June 20, 1973.[63]

By May 12, investigators had gathered enough physical and circumstantial evidence to link Schaefer to 28 individuals either murdered or listed as missing. The majority of these individuals hailed from Florida, although two victims each hailed from West Virginia and Iowa. At a press conference held on May 14, Chief Investigator Lem Brumley Jr. informed the media that, "in terms of scope and bizarreness", the case was the biggest he had encountered in his career to date.[64]

On May 18, 1973, Schaefer was formally charged with the first degree murders of Place and Jessup; he was held without bond pending trial[4][i] and transferred to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee to undergo 30 days of psychiatric examinations before being returned to St. Lucie County Jail on June 20. The results of these examinations revealed Schaefer to be an individual suffering from depression in addition to possessing suicidal ideation likely increased due to his confined predicament.[66]

At a circuit court hearing on June 21, District Attorney Robert Stone successfully argued before Judge Cyrus Pfeiffer Trowbridge that Schaefer was sane and thus competent to stand trial.[67]

Schaefer vehemently protested his innocence, claiming the accusations against him were "a mistake" and informing one reporter he remained confident he would be exonerated.[68]

Murder trial

Schaefer was brought to trial on September 17, 1973.[68] He was tried in St. Lucie County before Judge Cyrus Pfeiffer Trowbridge.[69][70] Schaefer pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.[71]

Among the evidence presented before the jury were the actual tree limbs upon which he had suspended his victims and which bore the sections of wearing upon the tree bark, indicating both girls had remained suspended for a sufficient period of time to create these deep markings before their death. Also introduced into evidence were the actual tree roots upon which Place and Jessup had been forced to balance themselves to prevent themselves from being hung prior to their being filleted.

Place's mother also took the stand to formally identify Schaefer as the man whom she had last seen her daughter and Jessup in the company of prior to their disappearance.[62] Also to testify were Trotter and Wells, who described their abduction and narrow escape from Schaefer two months prior to the murders of Place and Jessup; their testimony was followed by a video presentation depicting the girls as they had been bound in situ at Hutchinson Island.[72] A medical examiner also detailed the mutilation inflicted upon the victims' bodies and illustrated the numerous knife marks evident upon the victims' bones.[73]

Schaefer (left), pictured on the date of his formal sentencing to life imprisonment for the murders of Place and Jessup. October 4, 1973

Conviction

The jury began their deliberations on September 27, but returned with a guilty verdict after five hours and ten minutes of deliberation. On October 4, 1973, Schaefer was found guilty and sentenced to two concurrent terms of life imprisonment. Contemporary statutes indicated the possibility of parole after serving 45 years' imprisonment.[74][j] He did appeal his conviction, although the appeal was rejected.[73]

Imprisonment

In the years following his conviction, Schaefer maintained his innocence in the Place and Jessup murders and denied his culpability in any murders; insisting he was framed by what he termed "overzealous" prosecutors and his own defense attorney, who ultimately married his second wife on December 21, 1973.[2] He also filed several frivolous lawsuits while incarcerated. One of these lawsuits was filed against true crime writer Patrick Kendrick for describing Schaefer as "an overweight, doughy, middle-aged man who preyed on victims who were psychologically and physiologically weaker than him". He also sued authors Sondra London, Colin Wilson, and Michael Newton and former FBI agent Robert Ressler for describing him as a serial killer in printed works.

While incarcerated, Schaefer also developed a reputation among his fellow inmates as an aloof and imperious individual who many suspected of being an informant.[76] He spent much of his time devoted to correspondence and what he termed a "new writing genre" named killer fiction. Schaefer described this genre as one which does not glorify violence, but enables the reader to see the acts of murder and necrophilia in stark reality. Although Schaefer claimed these writings were fictional, several investigators believe many of these writings incorporate his own murders and assaults.[77]

Killer Fiction

Sondra London, a true crime writer who had been Schaefer's girlfriend in high school shortly prior to his 1964 graduation, interviewed Schaefer at length following his conviction; she gradually served as his coauthor in his writing genre, later publishing a compilation of his short stories and drawings entitled Killer Fiction in 1990. A second book, Beyond Killer Fiction, followed two years later. Schaefer remained adamant the stories were pure fiction and that he had actually begun writing stories of this nature in the 1960s, having been inspired to do so after watching Herschell Gordon Lewis's 1963 splatter movie Blood Feast. However, police and prosecutors viewed the content as thinly veiled descriptions of his actual crimes. In private letters to his attorneys, Schaefer admitted these speculations were true, claiming one story, Murder Demons, specifically recounts the murders of Briscolina and Farmer.[78]

The stories within Killer Fiction typically involve the savage, graphic torture and murder of women, usually from the perspective of the killer, who is often a rogue police officer.[79]

"When I nabbed Jessup and Place, I had been in the ghoul game for almost ten years, so I knew what to expect from these juicy young creatures at the end ... Doing doubles is far more difficult than doing singles, but on the other hand it also puts one in a position to have twice as much fun. There can be some lively discussions about which of the victims will get to be killed first. When you have a pair of lively teenage bimbolinas bound hand and foot and ready for a session with the skinning knife, neither one of the little devils wants to be the one to go first, and they don't mind telling you quickly why their best friend should be the one to die."

Letter penned by Schaefer to author Sondra London, detailing the murders of Place and Jessup, 1992.[79]

A revised edition of Killer Fiction, published after Schaefer's death, included numerous stories and rambling articles from the first two books and a collection of letters to London, in which Schaefer claimed to be responsible for the murders of scores of women and girls. He also claimed that he had impressed and become a focus of envy to fellow serial killer inmate Ted Bundy, whom he labeled a "tyro" by comparison to himself; also accusing Bundy of "playing at copycat" regarding his own crimes.[79]

London noted that at the time Schaefer was corresponding with her, he was publicly proclaiming his innocence and threatening to sue anyone who labeled him a serial killer. In one letter, Schaefer claimed to have began murdering women in 1965, when he was 19. In another, he claimed responsibility for the disappearance of two schoolgirls, nine-year-old Peggy Rahn and eight-year-old Wendy Stevenson,[80] who vanished in December 1969 and whom he claimed to have and cannibalized.[81] Publicly, Schaefer had denied any involvement.[82]: 82–90 

London ended her collaboration with Schaefer in 1991, after repudiating his story that he was merely a "framed ex-cop" who wrote lurid fiction. Upon hearing London had publicly stated that he was indeed every bit the serial killer he simultaneously boasted of being, Schaefer allegedly repeatedly threatened her life. One of the frivolous lawsuits he filed was directed against her for publicly referring to him as a serial killer in print.[82]: 142 

In support of London's defense against this lawsuit, she compiled an exhibit of photocopies of five hundred incriminating pages of Schaefer's handwritten correspondence. The judge dismissed Schaefer's lawsuit without further ado. Schaefer's aforementioned lawsuits against Newton and Wilson were likewise dismissed after London provided copies of the five hundred page exhibit to them; Schaefer's lawsuit against Kendrick was still ongoing at the time of Schaefer's 1995 murder.[83]

Schaefer continued to direct threats against Sondra London until his 1995 death.

Aftermath

Susan Place was laid to rest in Lauderdale Memorial Park on October 7, 1973. She was buried in a bronze casket adorned with pink flowers. Georgia Jessup was cremated the same week as Place's interment; her ashes were scattered alongside flowers over the Atlantic Ocean.[84]

On December 3, 1995, Schaefer was found stabbed to death on the floor of his cell. He had been stabbed over forty times times about the face, head, neck and body, with his throat also being slashed and his right eye destroyed. Schaefer had also suffered several fractured ribs prior to his death.[77]

According to prison officials and prosecutors, a 32-year-old fellow inmate named Vincent Faustino Rivera had killed Schaefer following an argument over who received the final cup of hot water from a dispenser days prior to his murder. In 1999, Rivera was convicted of Schaefer's murder; he received 53 years and ten months' imprisonment added to the sentence of life plus twenty years he was already serving for a double homicide committed in Tampa in 1990.[85]

Upon receipt of the news of Schaefer's death, the mother of Georgia Jessup informed the media she considered Schaefer's own murder a case of long overdue justice, stating: "I've always believed he was going to get this. I just wish it had been sooner rather than later."[4]

Rivera never confessed to the crime nor gave any motive for the murder, although he did reveal highly relevant circumstances in correspondence he subsequently sent to Sondra London; to wit, Rivera had been an ear-witness to the prison murder of Frank Valdes by corrections officers. Rivera had written a complaint about the first assault on Valdes and was still held in the cell next to Valdes when the second beating killed him. Rivera was actively resisting the cover-up, claiming Valdes had killed himself and filing multiple grievances and appeals, when he was accused of killing Schaefer.[k]

At the time of Schaefer's death, Broward County homicide detective John King and homicide chief Timothy Bronson were in the process of preparing to bring further murder charges against Schaefer pertaining to three unsolved murders—in part to ensure he would never be freed from prison.

Alleged victims

1966

1969

  • September 8: Leigh Hainline Bonadies (25). A newlywed waitress and former neighbor of Schaefer. She was last seen driving to Miami, having left a note to her husband of two weeks indicating she would soon return home. Her skull, which was found to have multiple bullet holes, was discovered at a construction site in Palm Beach County in April 1978.[60][88]
  • December 18: Carmen Marie Hallock (22). Hallock disappeared after informing her sister she had an appointment with a male teacher who may be able to provide her with employment. Two of her teeth and a gold shamrock pin belonging to her were found at Schaefer's home in 1973.[89]
  • December 29: Peggy Rahn (9) and Wendy Stevenson (8). Last seen by relatives at Pompano Beach. Their bodies have never been found. Several years after his conviction, Schaefer sent a letter to his girlfriend in which he confessed to killing the children. Several investigators dispute the authenticity of this confession, as the individual last known to have seen the girls alive had observed both girls, still clad in their bathing suits, in the company of a man whose physical description markedly contrasts with Schaefer.[90]

1970

  • January 18: Mared Ellen Malarik (19) and Karen Lynn Ferrell (18). Two West Virginia University students last seen alive leaving a theater in Morgantown. Their decapitated bodies were discovered on April 16. An inmate with an extensive history of providing false confessions provided a 35-page confession rife with errors confessing to their murders in 1976, and the validity of his confession is disputed. The evidence linking Schaefer to their murders is circumstantial.[91]

1972

  • January 4: Belinda Hutchens (22). A cocktail waitress with a two-year-old daughter. Hutchens is known to have previously dated Schaefer while he attended the police academy. She was last seen entering a blue Datsun. Police recovered an address-book identified as belonging to Belinda and containing the name Jerry Shepherd from Schaefer's home.[92]
  • February 29: Debora Sue Lowe (13). Lowe was last seen walking to Rickards Middle School; her schoolbooks were later discovered in a trash bin one block from her home.[93] Her body has never been found. Lowe's family strongly believe Schaefer, who had worked with her father and previously visited the Lowe household, was involved in her disappearance.[94]
  • October 26: Mary Alice Briscolina (14) and Elsie Lina Farmer (13). Disappeared while hitchhiking to a restaurant. Their decapitated bodies were found by construction workers buried several hundred yards apart on January 17 and February 15, 1973, respectively. A distinctive gold chain and Madonna medal belonging to Briscolina were later found in Schaefer's jewelry box.[95]
  • c. December 15: Suzanne Gale Poole (15). Poole was a Fort Lauderdale teenager reported missing by her family shortly before Christmas 1972. Sections of her skeletal remains were discovered on June 16, 1974 bound to a mangrove tree in a swampland district of Singer Island.[96] Poole's remains were identified in May 2022 via genetic genealogy. The circumstances of her disappearance and murder lead authorities to believe she may have been a victim of Schaefer.[97]

1973

  • January 10: Collette Marie Goodenough (19) and Barbara Ann Wilcox (19). Goodenough and Wilcox were both native to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Both disappeared while hitchhiking from Sioux City to Florida, just days before Schaefer began serving his jail sentence for the abductions of Trotter and Wells. Personal property identified as belonging to both women was later recovered from Schaefer's home.[98] Their bound bodies were discovered along a canal bank in St. Lucie County, Florida, in January 1977.[92][99]

Media

Literature

  • Kendrick, Patrick (2020). American Ripper: The Enigma Of America's Serial Killer Cop. Florida: BluewaterPress LLC. ISBN 978-1-604-52163-4.
  • Newton, Michael (2016). Hangman: The Life and Crimes of Gerard John Schaefer. Toronto: Rj Parker Publishing. ISBN 978-1-987-90216-7.

Television

  • The crime documentary series Married with Secrets has broadcast an episode focusing upon the life and murders committed by Gerard Schaefer. This 42-minute episode was first broadcast in 2017.[100]
  • Killer Cops: Gerard Schaefer: A documentary focusing upon the murders committed by Gerard Schaefer commissioned by Sky Vision. Directed by Christopher Puttock, this documentary was initially broadcast on February 26, 2017.[101]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Schaefer later claimed to have formed this habit solely in order for him to successfully to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War.[5]
  2. ^ Trotter and Wells each described Schaefer's vehicle as having a distinctive bumper hitch from which Schaefer had tied one end of a rope to before throwing the other over a tree branch, explaining he intended to use the vehicle to "haul [them] up" to a height from which he intended to hang them.[32]
  3. ^ Place had opted to attend the adult education center due to ignorance she had occasionally endured from classmates due to her epilepsy and mild paralysis of the left side of her body; Jessup—although an academically achieving student—had enrolled in the adult education center due to attendance and disciplinary issues.[34]
  4. ^ Shortly prior to her daughter's disappearance, Lucille Place had learned her daughter and Jessup had planned to travel together to Colorado to meet a friend with whom they could stay. Place had informed her mother that a "good guy" who resembled "Hoss of the Cartwrights on Bonanza", who hailed from the state, had agreed to drive them.[35]
  5. ^ The upper portions of both girls' skulls were never recovered.[51]
  6. ^ The earliest documented record of Schaefer's fascination with the legality and morality of capital punishment—in particular the executional method of hanging—dates from a May 1970 letter he penned to a publishing firm in which he references his having read Arthur Koestler's Reflections on Hanging and his subsequent intrigue in reading of women scheduled to hang being "required to wear waterproof underwear on the morning of their execution" and of his dismay in being unable to locate further information. Schaefer closed this letter with a sentence indicating he hoped the magazine would locate and publish further information on this topic.[56]
  7. ^ Many of the women hung and/or mutilated within these photographs had been photographed in melaleuca thickets investigators suspected were located in an undergrowth area in Davie, Florida.[58]
  8. ^ These teeth were later determined to belong to a missing 22-year-old woman named Carmen Hallock
  9. ^ These charges were filed against Schaefer less than one month prior to his scheduled release from Martin County Jail.[65]
  10. ^ Schaefer escaped the death penalty as the murders of Place and Jessup had been committed when the Supreme Court of the United States had declared the death penalty unconstitutional.[75]
  11. ^ London later stated that she believed Schaefer was likely murdered for repeatedly informing on other inmates to authorities. Schaefer had previously made multiple statements to London to the effect that he used his status as a "death row law clerk" to obtain confidential information from inmates. In an effort to curry favor with authorities, Schaefer then provided this confidential information to the prosecutor's office. This divilged information was then used against the inmates at their trials. In the year before Schaefer's death, other inmates repeatedly threw human waste at him and his cell was twice set on fire. Reportedly, Schaefer's classification officer told London Schaefer was killed after he leaked information to authorities pertaining to an inmate who was well respected behind bars.

References

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Cited works and further reading

  • Barker, Thomas (2020). Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct. New York City: Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-030-28440-4.
  • Cawthorne, Nigel; Tibballs, Geoff (1993). Killers: Contract Killers, Spree Killers, Sex Killers. The Ruthless Exponents of Murder, the Most Evil Crime of All. London: Boxtree. ISBN 0-752-20850-0.
  • Cole, Catherine; Young, Cynthia (2011). True Crime: Florida: The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases. Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-811-74439-3.
  • Cyriax, Oliver (1993). Crime: An Encyclopedia. London: Andre Deutsh Limited. ISBN 978-0-233-98821-4.
  • Douglas, John E.; Burgess, Ann W.; Burgess, Allen G.; Ressler, Robert K. (2006). Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 978-0-787-98501-1.
  • East, Bernard (2021). A Dramaturgical Approach to Understanding the Serial Homicides of Ted Bundy. Washington DC: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-793-62505-2.
  • Goldman, Pearl (2016). Florida Criminal Law. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-611-63816-5.
  • Hazelwood, Roy; Michaud, Stephen G. (2010). Dark Dreams: A Legendary FBI Profiler Examines Homicide and the Criminal Mind. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-98011-5.
  • James, Earl (1991). Catching Serial Killers: Learning from Past Serial Murder Investigations. County Durham, England: International Forensic Services. ISBN 978-0-962-97140-2.
  • Kendrick, Patrick (2020). American Ripper: The Enigma Of America's Serial Killer Cop. Florida: BluewaterPress LLC. ISBN 978-1-604-52163-4.
  • Lane, Brian (1992). Real-Life Crimes. London: Eaglemoss Publications Ltd. ISBN 978-1-856-29736-3.
  • Newton, Michael (2002). The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings. New York: Facts on File Inc. ISBN 978-1-438-12988-4.
  • Newton, Michael (2006). The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers: A Study of the Chilling Criminal Phenomenon from the Angels of Death to the Zodiac Killer. New York: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0-816-06196-9.
  • Newton, Michael (2016). Hangman: The Life and Crimes of Gerard John Schaefer. Toronto: Rj Parker Publishing. ISBN 978-1-987-90216-7.
  • Ressler, Robert K.; Schachtman, Tom (1992). Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Hunting Serial Killers for the FBI. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-30468-3.
  • Wilson, Colin; Seaman, Donald (1988). Encyclopedia of Modern Murder: 1962-1982. Prineville, Oregon: Bonanza Books. ISBN 978-0-517-66559-6.
  • Wilson, Colin (2000). The History of Murder. London: Arcturus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-785-81835-9.
  • Wilson, Colin; Wilson, Damon (2015). An End to Murder: A Criminologist's View of Violence Throughout History. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-632-20238-3.
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