Robert Berdella

Robert Berdella
Born	Robert Andrew Berdella (1949-01-31)January 31, 1949 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Died	October 8, 1992(1992-10-08) (aged 43)
Cause of death	heart attack
Other names	The Kansas City Butcher
Conviction(s)	Murder, Selling amphetamines
Criminal penalty	Life imprisonment
Details
Victims	6+
Span of crimes	July 6, 1984 – August 5, 1987
Country	U.S.
State(s)	Kansas City, Missouri
Date apprehended	April 2, 1988

Robert Andrew "Bob" Berdella (January 31, 1949 – October 8, 1992) was an American serial killer in Kansas City, Missouri who raped, tortured and killed at least six men between 1984 and 1987.

Early life

Berdella was enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute from 1967 to 1969. During this time he was convicted but received a suspended sentence for selling amphetamines. He was later arrested for possession of LSD and marijuana, but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. In 1969 he bought the house at 4315 Charlotte, which would be the scene of the crimes. He worked as a chef and eventually opened Bob’s Bizarre Bazaar, a novelty shop that catered to occult-type tastes. .

Crimes

Berdella was apprehended on April 4, 1988, after a victim he had been torturing for a week jumped naked from the second story of his house and escaped. By that time, he had abducted and tortured at least six young men, and the Kansas City Police Department suspected him in two other disappearances. Berdella had detailed torture logs and large numbers of Polaroid pictures he had taken of his victims. Volumes of pictures were recovered by the Kansas City Police Department, and remain in their possession. He claimed that he was trying to "help" some of his victims by giving them antibiotics after torturing them. He tried to gouge one of his victim's eyes out "to see what would happen". He buried one victim's skull in his backyard, and put the dismembered bodies out for the weekly trash pickup. The bodies were never recovered but left in the landfill. He also had an industrial garbage-disposal unit installed in his basement. There is no way to know how many he murdered.

A few months before the arrest was made, Berdella was offered a ride home from a bar by people who noticed he was too intoxicated to drive. On the way back, Berdella allegedly told stories about young men he'd had abducted and tortured in the previous months. It was not taken seriously at that time considering his advanced state of intoxication.

He claimed that the film version of John Fowles' The Collector, in which the protagonist kidnaps and imprisons a young woman, had been his inspiration when he was a teenager.

Victims

Name	Age	Date of disappearance
Jerry Howell	20	July 5, 1984
Robert Sheldon	18	April 19, 1985
Mark Wallace	20	June 22, 1985
James Ferris	20	September 26, 1985
Todd Stoops	21	June 17, 1986
Larry Pearson	20	July 9, 1987

Death

Berdella died of a heart attack in 1992 after writing letters to a minister claiming the prison officials were not giving him his heart medication. His death was never investigated, and his family was never notified.

Film

The Northeast Film Group released a feature film, Berdella, based on his crimes in September 2009.

Chicago death metal band Macabre's song "Diary of Torture" on their album Murder Metal is about Robert Berdella, and gives details of his abductions and killings.

External links

• Crime Library article
• Department of Psychology Radford University
• Official Movie Web Site