Hello!
Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosing a Killer.
My name is Kena. I'm Koel.
This one's a fucking douche.
A douche.
It's the dousiest of the dousies.
I forgot that we weren't doing any ads here and that means that there's no pause for
the music because it's gonna go to the music.
Welcome back everybody.
Yeah.
Are you excited to be having your case on a Tuesday this week?
That's kind of weird, right?
It's odd.
It feels odd, but everything feels odd this week with the con coming up this weekend.
We are so excited. I've been posting the countdown on the Instagram and this is technically
also a countdown with this case. So this will be countdown two and then I guess one tomorrow.
Not tomorrow, but when this comes out on Wednesday for the last mental breakdown and then we're
going and then we're going.
Oh my gosh, I can't even.
So that just means that nothing on Thursday is to be expected, but we'll try to get you
something out on Monday, which is likely gonna be our experience while we're gone.
Yeah, absolutely. We're definitely gonna talk about that.
But before we do get into this case, do you want to tell everybody about where they can
find us on social media?
If this is their first time listening?
Sure. If it's your first time listening, you can check out diagnosingakiller.com.
There, there is links to merch and resources.
You can also check us out on any social media platform at diagnosingakiller other than X,
which is at killer diagnosis.
And yeah, I think that's it.
We have a Patreon. We have a PayPal.
Hit us up.
I do just want to quickly mention a message that I got on my personal Instagram the other
day from my friend Christina.
She said that she's been binging DAK and she said it's so good that we crack her up.
And she said she already is on episode 20 and she only started a few weeks ago.
Nice.
And then I messaged her literally within a few hours.
She's like, I'm on episode 24 now actually.
So she's clearly been listening a lot.
So thank you Christina for the lovely words and for listening.
And we're glad that you are here.
Thank you for being here.
Absolutely.
So today's case is actually a request from another listener.
And this request dates back to February of this year.
Oh my goodness.
So it's an oldie but a goodie.
And one of our listeners requested it.
I read the whole message back in the day back in February.
So if you want to listen to the whole message, read it there.
But I will be sure to mention the name in our post when we do post this because she said
that was okay.
But without further ado, today we are going to be talking about one Gerard John Schaefer.
Gerard Schaefer?
Yes.
I don't think I know this one.
I didn't know this one either.
Okay.
But I will say it's fucking horrendous.
Where's he from?
He is from Wisconsin.
Wisconsin.
Yes.
So American guy, we are going to be talking about him today via request and let's get
into it because this is going to be a doozy of a case.
Okay.
Content warning, this episode contains depictions of child abuse, violent sexual fantasies,
extreme animal cruelty, assault and murder of minors, sexual tendencies, negative idolations
of race, and talk of cannibalism.
If this is not the episode for you, we encourage you to find another episode.
Remember, your mental health is very important to us and we love you.
Love you.
Bye.
What is that?
Content warning.
So yeah, there's a lot going on.
Are you sure this is one person?
That's a lot.
It's a lot.
And he just had a lot of internal shit going on.
Yeah.
And we'll obviously get into all of that, but let's get into when Jar- Jar- Jar- Jar-
Okay, well, that's awful.
Off to a great start.
His name is Jarard.
Okay.
So we're going to get into when he was born.
Jarard John Schafer was born on March 26, 1946, and Nina, Wisconsin, was in Washington.
He would be the first of three children born to Jarard John Schafer Sr. and Doris Marie
Runis Schafer, with a sister named Sarah and a brother named Gary.
Hmm.
Oh, always a Gary.
Always a Gary.
Jarard Sr. was a traveling salesman for Kimberly Clark, who were known for their toiletries
and household items at the time, and mom Doris was a housewife or a stay-at-home mom.
Although Jarard was born in Wisconsin, he would be raised mostly in Nashville, Tennessee,
as his dad was frequently moving the family due to his job.
The family would move yet again while Jarard was still young, locating this time to Atlanta,
Georgia, where Jarard would attend Marist Academy, a private Catholic school.
Okay.
Pretty religious-based family.
Mm-hmm.
Ultimately, the family would relocate once again, this time to Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
in 1960, where they would remain permanently for their main duty.
Okay.
George Charles.
Still a lot of moving for a young kid.
Still a lot.
In 1960, I mean, he was born in 46.
46, yeah.
So he's 14, and he's moved like four times.
Yeah.
That's gotta be a lot, a lot.
And having to make new friends every time and having-
You can't really keep in contact, especially now.
There's no cell phones back then, you know?
It's not the 1920s.
Yeah.
It wasn't.
He had the pen pal.
Yeah, exactly.
It was probably hard for him.
Jarard would later describe his childhood as, quote, troubled and turbulent, quote, mostly
due to the frequent moves due to dad's job, like I said, but also due to his father actually
being very verbally abusive and an alcoholic.
Okay.
So Jarard Sr. was noted as being verbally abusive to the children and his wife alike
throughout the kid's upbringing.
And although Jarard Sr.'s job would keep him out of the house often, it also caused
him and his eldest son, Jarard Jr., to have a tumultuous relationship, because they didn't
get to see each other, and when they did, he was-
Yeah.
So Jarard Jr. always thought that his father favored his two siblings, and he resented
him for the frequent belittling and favoritism.
Well, what an interesting thought, because you're literally named after the guy.
Yeah.
And he thinks that he favors his siblings.
Well, do you think that maybe he thought in a way because he was his namesake, he would
be treated better?
I think that might be the case.
Yeah.
Or maybe it's like, oh, you only named me that because I was your firstborn, but you
clearly don't like me or whatever.
Or firstborn son.
Ugh.
Yeah.
So due to this difficult relationship with his father, Jarard Jr. would become close
to his mother while growing up, as one does.
Doris was the opposite of Jarard Sr. and she was known as being extremely protective of
not only herself, but the children as well, especially when it would come to these abusive
arguments.
So she would get in the middle sometimes, you think?
Yeah.
He would either be yelling at her and she would defend herself verbally, whatever, or
yelling at the kids and she would defend them, I think, is what it came down to.
And I mention this because I feel like we really commonly hear that if the father is
abusive, the mother is also either an addict or neglectful or something, like in these
cases.
Or just ignores it.
Exactly.
I think it's not there.
Yeah.
So kind of wanted to mention that the mom in this particular case was really defensive
of her children.
So although Jarard had a better relationship with his mom, he also sometimes thought that
she favored her other children as well over him.
And while some people would refer to the Schaefer's children's childhood as, quote, idyllic,
end quote, Jarard would refer to himself as the quote, illegitimate product of a forced
marriage, end quote.
Ooh.
That's heavy.
That is heavy.
Like, yeah.
Like, he's like, they didn't want me.
They didn't even want me.
Yeah, exactly.
And now I'm essentially the cause of them being together.
He might think that.
And he's like, they're probably still together only because of the kids.
And now it's like my fault that they're in this tumultuous relationship.
That's such a hard feeling to go through.
For like a teenager or a kid, I don't know when.
He said that later, but you know what I mean?
He probably felt that way when he was younger.
He would also later speak about his problems with both of his parents, stating that they,
quote, never had a good relationship, end quote, that his father was, quote, always critical,
end quote, and his mother was, quote, always on my back to do better, end quote.
So it's like he can't win.
Like, he's like, no matter what I do, I can't please them.
Yeah.
I'm not their favorite.
Yeah, I'm never going to, it's never going to be solved because I am the problem.
Yeah.
I know.
It's awful.
But due to the fact that Gerard's seniors seem to favor his daughter, Sarah, Gerard
Jr. would later admit that this flip made him, quote, want to be a girl, end quote.
Oh, okay.
Gerard Jr. would also struggle with suicidal thoughts before the age of 12, stating, quote,
I wanted to die, end quote, and telling psychiatrists, quote, I couldn't please my father.
So in playing games, I always got killed, end quote.
So like they would role play or whatever, and he would always be the one to like die.
That's like kind of like Randy's stare when Randy's stare would have those homework assignments,
those essay assignments, and he would always write him as kind of this main character and
he would always end up dying either by suicide or, you know, death by cop or something like
that.
Yeah.
So kind of similar.
Not being able to please his father, Gerard would continuously try and he would pursue
outdoor activities such as like hunting and fishing and even develop the liking for
gun collecting because these were things that like his dad was into.
Gerard Sr. would partake in these activities with Jr. so it made him feel closer to his
father when they were able to hang out.
At the age of 12, Gerard stated that he, quote, discovered women's panties for the first time
and he would begin to masturbate while wearing them himself.
Okay.
At 12, by the way.
I don't know if you heard me say that.
I said thanks.
Yeah, I did.
I think I'm listening to you.
Thanks, I'm listening.
On this age as well is when Gerard first began experimenting with masochistic bondage stating,
quote, I'd tie myself up to a tree, struggle to get free and I'd get excited sexually
and do something to hurt myself.
End quote.
Whoa.
Remember he's 12.
That's heavy.
I know I said that like three times but just let everyone know.
How do you, how do you, I'm sorry but like at 12, how do you come up with stuff like that?
Well you have to, I have seen it.
I have seen it somewhere, right?
Yeah.
As it usually goes with these cases, what Gerard was partaking in would not continue
to satisfy him and he would begin to escalate his fantasies stating, quote, I would fantasize
about hurting other people, women in particular, end quote.
You think he had like a hatred for women because of his sister?
I think he was extremely jealous of his sister, yeah.
So it's more like a, yeah, it's not that he's maybe necessarily attracted to women
as much as he hates women.
I don't think it's like a mommy complex either.
I think it's like, I think it's a jealousy thing at the end of the day.
And he said that he like wanted to be a girl because he thought that's what would make
his dad like pay more attention to him.
I don't think he actually really wanted to be a female.
It's interesting.
I know.
So he would also admit about this time that he had an extreme obsession of death to the
point where it was all he could think about.
He would say about this preoccupation that it got to the point that he quote, didn't
know what was fact and what was fantasy, end quote.
So it's like ingrained somewhere.
It's ingratiated into his thoughts and his memory.
Yeah.
And just that's something that is just a part of him now.
Exactly.
And it reminds me of the mental breakdown that we did.
It would have come out the day before this episode about how your brain can like really
trick you into believing.
Yeah.
Like anything.
Placebos or yeah.
Yeah.
So now we're back in 1960 when the family first moved to Fort Lauderdale and they would
quickly join the local yacht clubs and country clubs around town.
Okay.
And they were well off.
They were.
And I think that they also really liked the idea of people knowing that they were well
off.
I see.
Yeah.
The same year that they moved when Gerard was just 14, he would meet a young girl by
the name of Cindy and the two would quickly begin dating.
I was gonna say Cindy Lou who?
And he was 14.
So they couldn't.
I mean, because it could have come here.
They need to get a parent's permission and I'm pretty sure.
Right.
They would continuously date over the next three years, but their relationship was hardly
passionate as they came to a specific agreement.
Well, Gerard would say that it was an agreement.
Not sure about Cindy.
Okay.
In this relationship, when the two would engage in sexual activity, every single time Cindy
would perform in scripted scenarios in which she would demand that Gerard quote, rape her.
End quote.
It's like a rape fantasy.
Yeah.
But I'm pretty sure it was all him and she's like, yeah, I'll do this.
Like if you want.
If that's what gets you off, I guess.
Yeah.
Now Gerard would attend St. Thomas Aquinas High School of Roman Catholic Co-educational
College Prep School where he would recall quote, not being a part of any clique, end
quote, and he would prefer to pursue his interests alone, defining himself as a loner of sorts.
Okay.
I'm a loner, Jody.
I'm a rebel.
No, no, Jody.
It reminds me of Randy Starr or Ellie Roger, you know.
His family and peers would describe Gerard during this time as a quote outdoorsman, end
quote, who was wanting to become a forest ranger in the future.
That also sounds like Randy Starr.
This just sounds like Randy Starr.
But it's like, he's an outdoorsman.
What is he doing?
He's, yeah, he's out there fucking with animals.
Yeah.
Is he actually like into hunting for like sport or like from eating?
Or is he like putting dogs heads on spikes?
Yeah.
As a quote unquote prank, a neighborhood prank.
I'm just pranking him.
It's an innocent neighborhood prank.
With the seemingly innocent comments made by Gerard's peers, others in school would also
describe him as quote weird and out of it, end quote, even stating that he would quote
practically stand on his head to see up a girl's skirt.
What?
Yeah.
I'm sorry I interrupted your end quote, but wow, that's extreme.
That's so gross.
It's like, don't be that obvious.
Yeah.
Like what are you doing?
Don't be that obvious.
Put mirrors on your shoes.
You're in a Roman Catholic school.
Like what?
No, mirrors on your shoes.
You should give me people ideas over here.
I'm sorry, don't do that.
That's gross.
Gerard would also be noted as frequently upsetting the nuns by questioning the religious practices
and even once wrote an essay that scientifically challenged the virgin birth of Christ.
He also looked up their skirts.
Seriously.
Now being a peeping Tom was not helping Gerard's image at school and although he was seeing
Cindy, other girls remember feeling very negatively about him.
A former classmate of Gerard's by the name of Barbara Kralik stated about Gerard quote,
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.
End quote.
That is so uncomfortable.
She's just saying that he was seeing on his head.
I know I was cracking jokes, but in all seriousness, I cannot imagine walking around like a school
campus and feeling that uncomfortable.
Even like you have to like the skirt is the uniform.
You have to wear that.
So there's no getting around that.
And then you have to like hold it down when you walk because of some creepo.
That's so gross.
Seriously.
Oh, it's disgusting.
Now even with these fellow students having their strong opinions of Gerard, he was actually
considered to be a very promising student by his teachers.
A look into a yearbook from St. Thomas would show that Gerard was on the varsity football
team during his sophomore and junior years, although no one remembers him joining the
team or playing at all.
So I don't know how he got that to happen.
He played dress up and ran into the photo.
Or he like bribed the journalist guy like that's a yearbook.
It's like one of those days that I was on the team.
Yeah, like one of those where he's on one knee with like his helmet, you know, in the
field.
One of those shots.
And it's like a parent paid page where like they put it in there.
Gerard, best quarterback.
Yeah.
I just go to fuck.
I never signed play once.
So with Cindy, is it just that she likes that he's weird?
Or is it?
I actually don't know.
She kind of, I don't know.
I didn't know.
I didn't hear anything with Cindy.
I don't know Cindy.
Yeah.
My opinion, I think that she just kind of went along with it.
Maybe she was into the sex.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Or maybe she just wanted a high school boyfriend.
Yeah, exactly.
You know?
And maybe she felt bad for him because he was weird.
There you go, clearly.
So speaking of sports, Gerard was also known to have been really good at golf, although
he would never pursue this.
Although he also was in the yearbook.
Pepper in there.
He also did tennis and he did bowling and he did whatever.
In the spring of 1964, during his senior year, Gerard would meet a 17 year old girl by the
name of Sandy Stewart at a school dance.
Cindy had actually broken things off with Gerard earlier this year.
So they were already broken up.
Good job, Cindy.
Sandy would later refer to Gerard as a quote dazzling young stranger.
Oh, quote.
Who swept her off her feet and became her first love with his impressive relationship
with her parents.
Okay.
So he's a promising young man.
He's a promising young suitor.
Yes, suitor.
That's my daughter.
Finally chosen a suitor.
Is that Aladdin?
Okay.
I was thinking Malrat.
I love that movie.
Sandy also stated that Gerard had extremely good manners and would go out of his way to
make their time together special.
He was really romantic.
Aw.
Right?
It seems like a catch.
Yeah.
Well, he's going to butter her up and her parents.
Yeah.
Real quick.
Gerard had taken Sandy on an excursion to the Everglades at one point and actually tried
to encourage her to engage in hunting with him.
Oh.
Sandy remembered that Gerard seemed amused when she could not bring herself to kill an
animal for sport but did not really think anything else of it.
She's like, okay, that's kind of weird.
He thought it was funny that she didn't.
That she didn't want to do it.
I feel like, I don't know, I guess you never felt that way hunting with Casey though.
We were like, I'm not going to do this.
I mean.
You have to get over a hump.
No, definitely.
But there's been, I mean, Billy, not Billy, it's dozens of times that I've gone with
Casey on a hunt and I haven't hunted.
Oh, really?
I just sat there.
I just watched.
I just sat there.
Yeah.
I definitely couldn't do that.
Like, I would cry.
I would be a beetle a few weeks ago and I bawled my eyes out.
It's mostly like with us.
It's not that I don't want to hunt or I'm like not willing to.
I just, I'm not as experienced as everyone else.
So I don't want to like slow them down or like ruin an opportunity for them.
So I just kind of like hang out.
Yeah.
If it's just me and Casey, like I'll hunt every time.
Yeah.
No, I just couldn't do that.
But I don't, I mean, I definitely, other than stepping on the beetle because Cliff was
really nice about it.
But I have been in situations where, you know, I'm with like a dude I'm dating or something
and I'm like, oh my God, it's so sad.
And they're like, ha, ha, ha.
That's so funny.
Like, oh no, that's not that you're not that it's cute that I'm crying.
It's just cute that I'm crying.
Not that it's like, ha, ha, you have empathy towards creatures.
I don't know.
Well, maybe there's a reason I'm not with those guys anymore.
That's very true.
And also like, if anyone knows me personally, like, you know, I have like the most empathy
for living creatures.
I'm an animal lover through and through and I get so sad when I see like animals being
treated a certain way.
However, like I understand, I have a different understanding of like hunting than like someone
else might, you know.
Anyways.
But that's a little bit about us.
So Sandy would refer to Gerard as a quote, sensitive and enthusiastic lover and quote,
who was eager to please enthusiastic.
He's an enthusiastic lover.
Oh yeah.
I know he's always eager to please.
He's a 17 year old guy.
After graduating Gerard would travel with Sandy's family and would become very much
a member of her family in their eyes.
However, it was all a cover up for his true internal thoughts that he had been battling.
Struggling with his feelings, Gerard would consider joining the priesthood despite his
relationship with Sandy.
He would apply to St. John's Seminary but was quickly rejected.
He would later, he's got a reputation for looking up skirts.
Yeah, exactly.
He would later comment on this rejection stating quote, they said I didn't have enough faith.
I didn't think it was fair end quote.
Like well what have you done to really prove yourself?
Yeah.
Like you went to Roman Catholic high school.
Yeah.
Because you were probably like forced to go by your parents.
What else have you done to like devote yourself to this religion?
Yeah.
You know?
Not looking up skirts.
Yeah.
Or engaging in premarital sex.
A bunch.
A lot of stuff.
You know?
So after the rejection and many years of attending Mass daily, Gerard came to the conclusion
that he had been quote, under a certain Catholic mind control thing, end quote, and decided
that he was going to distance himself from the church.
So pendulum's going to swing the other way completely.
Of course.
Guarantee it.
Because he's not being accepted because he's trying to go all out without doing any work.
Yeah.
So now he's like fuck it.
Like I'm not doing it at all.
Yeah.
I'm not going to be accepted by the church so I won't accept the church.
Exactly.
After the death of Gerard, in the year of 1964, Gerard would enroll in Brownward Community
College, where he began as a social studies major, but quickly changed his focus to teaching.
Gerard would become a fishing guide in the Everglades for a short stint around this time
as well, and he would continue indulging in his preferred activities such as hunting
and fishing on the side in his freedom.
I'm never going to let it go.
A neighbor of Gerard's named Gary Hainline, I think it's Hainline, was one of many people
that noticed that Gerard was not hunting the usual game you would see someone pursue.
Like deer or what else would you do?
Gary stated, yeah, deer, birds.
In Florida, I'm not really sure, alligators maybe.
Hogs.
Gary stated that Gerard, quote, enjoyed shooting things you can't eat.
Songbirds, land crabs, that sort of thing, end quote.
Oh, it's not a hunting thing.
It's under the guise of hunting.
Absolutely it is.
He's not hunting for sport.
He's not hunting for food.
He's hunting because it gives him permission to shoot an innocent animal.
And kill it.
Ugh, I'm so gross.
Gerard was known to have played tennis occasionally with Gary's sister, Lee, and some sources
suggested that the two may have been a casual couple at one point, although this was never
confirmed and he was also still seeing Sandy at this point, so not sure.
Just wanted to put that in there.
However, Gerard would later admit around this time that his relationship with Sandy was
beginning to feel more like therapy than romance.
I'm sure she wanted to talk about her feelings, you know, like people do in a relationship.
Like, so how'd your day go?
God, woman, get off my car.
God, what do I have to tell you?
This being the case and with Gerard spending more time with Lee, Gerard was known to have
been inappropriate towards her on several occasions.
This again, the neighbor's sister.
It is said that Gerard would creep around her house at night and masturbate while she
undressed.
Oh, that's only just a little creepy.
Just a tad.
It was just a little unusual.
Yeah, it was just a little weird.
I wasn't sexually assaulting her.
I was just masturbating while I was watching her without her knowledge.
So fucking gross.
No.
I watched a video the other day of this couple having sex on a Ferris wheel and they got
arrested for like an decent exposure because there were minors that saw it happen.
There was like, I think two 18-year-olds, a 17-year-old, a 16-year-old or something
I thought, or a 15-year-old that I don't remember.
But like, the officer was asking them, what did you see?
Did it, because they are saying that she just bent over to pick up a pack of cigarettes
and he jokingly came up behind her and like, hummed her twice, you know?
And this is like, in another thing or whatever, like a little, what is it called?
Just the pods, you know, on a Ferris wheel.
And when the girls went to go look or whatever when they were like, side by side or underneath
them or whatever it was, the officer asked, what did you see?
Did you see like, his genitals or whatever?
And she said, I saw it going in and out.
Oh.
It's disgusting.
Disgusting.
I mean, I don't really think I really thought that, but apparently one of them had a traumatic
past.
So it was traumatizing, you know?
There's no, and they just thought that they were just having a fun all time and like,
do they not fucking think?
I guess not.
Anyway, so in this case with the dude masturbating by the window, it's like, he might not think
that he's doing anything technically inappropriate, but that's traumatizing.
Yeah, it's a huge evasion of privacy.
Absolutely.
It's disgusting.
Ugh.
I mean, it's not only Lee that he was doing this and crossing the line with, and whenever
he was questioned about these actions later, Gerard would refer to these women as taunting
him and calling them quote, sluts and whores, end quote.
Do you think it's terrible?
Because they're changing in the privacy of their bedroom.
Literally.
That's awful.
Because they are changing in the privacy of their bedroom.
I bet he thinks that ankles are like a huge thing too.
It's a good turn on.
Probably a foot person.
So Gerard would begin to express his true feelings about women to Sandy, frequently crying out
in anger about his urges to kill women that aroused him.
So he's like upset that like women, like he's attracted to women.
He's upset that he's attracted to women.
Okay, that makes sense.
Sandy would also often witness violent altercations between Gerard and his father and had to hear
stories from Gerard about him and Cindy's role playing in their relationship.
Ew, okay, no, this isn't going to last long, right?
Please don't tell me they get married.
So Sandy, knowing way too much and becoming increasingly uncomfortable, decided to break
things off of Gerard.
Okay, good, gosh, I couldn't deal with that.
No way.
Oh my gosh.
So Gerard did not take this well at first, obviously, and he would continuously call
her and even like show up unannounced, showing like stalking behaviors.
But he would eventually give up and leave Sandy alone for good and nothing bad happened.
He also made the right decision, Sandy, good for you.
Especially at a young age that might not be easy to do.
Absolutely.
Now, during his first year enrolled in college, Gerard would open up to his creative writing
professor, Dr. Neil Crispo, stating that he wanted to join the army because he, quote,
would like to kill things.
I even like to shoot at cows now, end quote.
At cows?
Yeah.
I gotta go, Gloria, we got cows.
Remember we were talking about that recently?
It's like some people join the military just because they will give you a gun and let you
shoot it.
Yeah.
And you don't have to do like anything else.
Oh, that's not a fair statement.
But people do that for the mindset of like, I want to shoot a gun.
But a cow?
I know it's awful.
What the fuck is a cow doing?
Nothing.
Just fucking grazing.
Just sitting there.
Yeah.
Mowing.
Probably drinking water.
Probably eating some grass.
Poor little cow.
I know.
Gerard would later admit, however, that he was not only killing livestock, but he was
also engaging in bestiality after they died.
No.
And I didn't really want to put this in here, but I just will, that it was essentially like
he was like decapitating the animals and then like using-
No, no, no, no.
Okay, that's enough.
That's enough.
Thanks.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I think we all know what that means.
Reason being, is that he's a sick fuck.
Yeah.
That's like the point of saying all that.
I'm sure if this is the Patreon exclusive episode, there would probably be a little bit more
detail.
I appreciate the not detail in this moment.
Not ready for a Patreon again yet.
So he said this to his fucking one of his college professors.
What?
By the way, yeah, he opened up to his professor.
That's what I was telling him.
He was like, I want to join the military because I'm shooting at cows and by the way, having
sex with their carcasses.
Their heads.
Yeah.
So, regardless of this conversation, Gerardo was actually not reported by the professor.
It was like, this guy's funny.
He should be a creative writer.
Have you been to the psychology department?
Seriously.
So, Gerardo was actually able to return to campus in August of 1965.
I can't even believe that.
Where he would complete one more semester before leaving to travel with quote, sing out 66.
Sing out?
This is the musical group of the moral re-ram-ment movement.
Sorry.
And I'm going to explain what that is because I had to look it up.
So this movement was initiated by Frank Buchman, an American Lutheran who founded the first
century Christian fellowship in 1921, which would become to be known as the Oxford group.
I'm not sure if you've heard of the Oxford group.
This would become transformed under his leadership to the moral re-ram-ment, which strived to
maintain that the practice of high morality in public and private life is the key to world
betterment.
That was like the theme of what they were trying to get across.
Anyway, they had a singing troupe which Gerard decided to join in and travel with.
So they were traveling across America trying to present their ideas to new people.
Yeah.
So again, he's trying to say that he still believes in this kind of thought.
Right?
Well, this is not so much religious, but more of like a movement, like a political movement.
Okay.
But now he's like apparently he can sing.
Like it's like he's just trying anything to like fit.
Oh, I can sing now.
Yeah.
I used to be a football player, but now I can sing.
Yeah.
So, I'm going to be a future movie star, Glenn Close.
Although Gerard was much more interested in Martha or Marty, Louis Fogg, a fellow student,
two years his junior.
I like it that you use that phrase.
Yeah, two years his junior.
But yeah, I thought that was interesting.
Glenn Close, like what the fuck?
Yeah.
Hi.
She's a friend.
She's in a hook.
She's in the, dude, that's in the boo box.
Yeah.
She's in a lot of stuff.
I was looking her up because I was like, low key thought she was a guy when I read the
name that was like, wait, she's really blue eyes.
The two would quickly begin dating.
So this is Marty and Gerard, Martha, Marty.
Oh, that's a great name for a girl.
Yeah.
It's with an I to M-A-R-T-I.
So they would quickly begin dating over the summer and Gerard was even planning on joining
the group's European tour so that he could spend more time with her.
Although he would contract the measles and he would eventually lose touch with Martha
during this time.
Huh.
Marty, excuse me.
She kept traveling and he was sick.
After he was back in good health, Gerard would return to college in September of 1966.
And the following year in 1967, he would achieve his associate's degree in business admin and
would apply and enroll in Florida Atlantic University in January of 1968 where he would
seek his B.A. in education.
So F.A.U. is the college.
Around this time, young men were being drafted to assist in the Vietnam War and Gerard had
been avoiding being called due to the fact that he was in college full time with good
grades.
However, his change of program and schools proved to be a lot harder than he originally
thought and his grades began to slip.
Uh-oh.
Gerard would be called to report for his army physical in April of 1968, but he would not
plan to attend the physical and instead would write up a suicide note, leave it in his dorm,
and run away.
What?
So he's like, if they think I'm dead, then they're not gonna draft me.
But like, why wouldn't he want to go?
He loves guns and he loves killing things.
So I guess it was like, maybe not his style.
Like the Vietnam War was not what he was trying to get into.
Yeah.
It was like the regular like reserves.
Yeah.
I don't know.
But it was interesting that he was like, I want to join the military because I want
a gun.
And then when the opportunity literally presented itself, he was like, well, I don't want to
die is probably what he thought.
Exactly.
I don't want to die.
And I'm sure he's hearing all this stuff around everywhere about the ongoing war.
It's scary.
I feel like if you really wanted to go to school that I feel like that would just from
January to April, that's not a long time.
It's not like two semesters worth.
I mean, he was probably just not even attending class.
Probably not.
And again, he had gotten his associates in business admin and now he's pursuing education.
It's much different courses.
Yeah.
So he's probably overwhelmed maybe in over his head.
Yeah.
I just feel like that would be a really good motivator to not be drafted.
Yeah.
It certainly would for me.
Yeah, for sure.
And Gerard's roommate at the time by the name of Jerry Webster found the note and went to
track Gerard down.
He would find Gerard at their favorite shooting range and asked him what was going on.
He's like, Hey, by the way, you are the suicide note and you're here.
Yeah.
So what's going on?
What's up?
Gerard explained to his roommate and friend, same person, but roommate and friend.
Jerry and Jerry.
Yeah.
Like from the movie Soul.
That quote, he did it to help him get the deferment end quote.
Dr. Raymond Killinger would refer Gerard for emergency psychiatric testing on May 17th,
1968.
Yeah.
The test would reveal that while Gerard had no true suicidal urges, his quote, psychological
disorganization is severe and his frustration level low end quote.
Oh, that's kind of heby a little bit.
Lacking empathy, frustration level low and psychological disorganization is severe.
Severe.
He can't think clearly.
Clearly.
In no situation.
Yeah.
In an organized fashion.
But the fact that he is not frustrated by that, that's no empathy.
That's part of that personality kind of schizo typo.
What were you talking about?
The like psychopathy versus or psychopathy versus you know, sociopathy.
And like at this point in my personal opinion, I'm not a professional, my personal opinion,
this is where they should have said, you okay, we need to take steps to treat this before
it gets out of hand.
Because we know how to treat that.
Well, maybe they didn't in the sixties, but we know what we can do moving forward now
that we have a clear diagnosis.
And if we have this left untreated, we don't want something negative to happen.
Right.
Like we always say like not everyone with diagnoses like this are going to go on to do
something like this.
But getting treatment is like the best option because things like this don't just go away
on their own.
Yeah, I feel like treatment was a little rough back then.
I'm pretty sure these two girls, you know, people with mental disorders like LSD and
shit.
Shock treatment or something.
Yeah.
Well, maybe not shock treatment, but yeah.
So we know that Gerard had been experimenting with wearing women's underwear in the past
when he was in his preteen years.
And actually it seems like he was also doing it up to this point as well.
He would later claim that this was also another tactic to keep him from being drafted was
the wearing women's clothing.
So he was trying to make other people feel uncomfortable.
I think he was trying to not be allowed into the army because it was like really don't
ask, don't tell maybe in the back then.
I think he was like, oh, if I'm like kind of outlandish with like my views or like my
dress.
Yeah, my identity or my sexuality or orientation.
Gerard would, however, receive a quote, one why deferment for quote, mental, moral or
physical reasons.
Okay.
So he got a deferment and it was meant for mental reasons essentially.
But it was called one why, which I've never heard of that.
One why.
Maybe one year.
I don't know.
Yeah, right.
Right.
Yeah, let us know.
Although Gerard claims that he was quote, very open about it and quote, referring to his
wearing women's clothing.
Nobody at FAU were called ever being the wiser, even his roommate.
They were like, never saw that.
Never saw that.
Never even had anything.
Don't know where that came from.
Yeah.
The claim that Gerard tried to use this to avoid war only came way later when police
searched his mother's home and found photos of Gerard dressed in lingerie.
He was like, oh, those are from the war.
Exactly.
He's like, oh, I only did that because of this and that and the other.
Meanwhile, while all of these things are going on with Gerard, his parents' 22 year long
marriage was crumbling.
You don't say.
Yeah, shocker.
Gerard's senior had been heavily drinking and seeing multiple other women around this
time or for a while.
And he would ultimately lose his job in May of 1968 and things would only get worse from
there.
Doris would file for divorce on July 2, 1968, and Gerard's senior would move out.
After hearing about this, Gerard Jr. would quit his construction job and leave for a
hunting trip to Michigan.
So he's like, on the drop of a hat, something's going wrong in my family.
My parents are getting divorced.
I'm quitting my job.
I'm going hunting.
He wants to blow off steam.
Yeah.
That's what he does.
Yeah.
Which is interesting that his frustration is typically low.
Yeah, exactly.
But is it because he's engaging in activities like this that kind of create that?
He has an outlet.
Yeah.
Now, once his hunting trip was over, Gerard would return to Florida.
But this time, he was not alone.
Gerard and his now-fiancé, Marty, would arrive in Florida and announce their surprise engagement.
Marty, come on.
She had gotten back at some point during this time.
They reconnected and they got engaged within a few weeks.
The two would quickly get married in December of the same year, 1968.
So they announced their surprise engagement around the beginning of August, like late
July, they're married in December.
They turn around in a circle.
They're like, surprise we're engaged.
Surprise we're married.
Surprise we're a baby.
Exactly.
Gerard and Marty would move in with Gerard's now single mother and would both return to
FAU to study in January of 1969.
Being closer to the end of his degree, Gerard would be assigned as a student teacher at
Plantation High School on February 27th.
But he would quickly be removed from the school after persistent efforts to, quote,
impose his moral and political views on the students, end quote.
This place is called Plantation High School.
Literally doesn't have to say that.
And they kicked him out because he's trying to impose his moral viewpoints and political
standpoints on the children.
Are you kidding me?
Tell me it's not called that anymore.
Did you Google it?
I didn't.
Do you want to look it up?
Yeah.
Let's pause.
LOL, it's called Plantation High School because it's in Plantation, Florida.
LOL.
I was like, damn, I'm a dick.
I mean, I understand that you can't rename the entire city, but you could probably rename
it Rainy in the School.
You could.
But also, this is a perfect example of what we're talking about in the most recent mental
breakdown about if you don't know something, look it up.
If you're wrong, admit that you were wrong and accept the truth and do better.
Yeah, exactly.
Just do better from here on out.
Perfect example.
Now, I mean, clearly they know that the school is called Plantation, so they know they better
do better.
So the principal of this school would ask Gerard to leave in just a few weeks in, citing
quote, totally inappropriate behavior, end quote.
I don't understand why he would pursue education other than to be around girls.
No, absolutely.
And he is trying to, again, impose his moral political views on the students.
He just wants that sense of power.
He doesn't really want to educate people on the school system and the curriculum.
He wants to educate people on what he thinks is right.
Right.
So being kicked out of his student teaching program left Gerard without a job for several
months, although he was applying and having no luck, and he would spend a lot of his downtime
in the Everglades or just at home.
Having all of the free time in the world to overthink, Gerard would quickly spiral with
thoughts of his failure as a priest and now a teacher.
He would later admit that during this time, he frequently found himself, quote, convinced
that indecent women and prostitutes should be destroyed for the welfare of society,
end quote.
What a thought.
For the welfare of society.
Again, your brain can make you believe fucking anything.
No empathy for the people.
No, not at all.
That he's presuming, first of all.
He's making assumptions.
Yeah.
And second of all, even if he is talking about people in sex work, like, you don't have a
job, bro.
Yeah, literally.
You're hanging out in the Everglades.
Why don't you get off your ass and do something?
He's putting like every single woman in a box and saying like, you guys are all hoarsed
or whatever.
Like he was saying.
You're all hoarsed.
Hoarsed.
Yeah, it's definitely like an Elliot Roger.
Yeah, for sure.
He only saw women as a thing, not people.
Gerard's parents would finalize their divorce in September of 1969.
And at the same time, Gerard would return to Florida once again to start the new semester.
Three days after Gerard began school on September 8th, news was circling about a missing woman
that Gerard knew from his past.
Lee Hainline, Gerard's old neighbor's little sister, had married a man by the name of Charles
Bonadise on August 21st, 1969.
Their relationship was known as being tumultuous from the beginning with frequent fights between
the two.
When police began to look into Lee's life, they found out that Gerard had offered her
$20,000 at one point in exchange for her joining the CIA.
What?
He was like, I'm going to give you this money so that you join the CIA?
Yeah, he's like, join the CIA.
Like I guess he was like, do me a favor.
Here's the all me.
I'll pay you and I'll get you a good job or something.
I don't know.
Whoa.
It's very strange.
That is strange.
I think Charles, hearing this, laughed it off and told her to just forget about it.
On September 8th, again, three days after Gerard returned to school, Charles came home
to find a note from Lee stating that she had gone to Miami.
Lee would never return and her car would later be found in a Fort Lauderdale parking lot.
What?
That is very strange.
Yes.
Trying all options, Gary would phone Gerard and ask if he knew anything about Lee leaving
to Miami.
Gary is the brother, right?
Gary is the brother.
Gerard told Gary that Lee had called him and told him that she was leaving Charles and
asked Gerard for a ride to the airport where she was planning on catching a flight to Cincinnati.
Okay.
So, okay.
Like why are you calling him and asking him for it?
Go ahead.
Sorry.
She said, she left a note saying she was going to Miami but then said she needed a flight
to Cincinnati.
She left a note for her husband saying she was going to Miami.
Now Gerard is saying that she called Gerard and saying can I meet you in Miami and can
you take me to the airport because I'm going to Cincinnati.
Yeah, exactly.
But at the same time, you did say that her and her husband had kind of a bad relationship,
right?
Yes.
Okay.
Gerard would agree, this is his words, that he would say, oh I agreed to take her to
the airport but Lee never called me back to give me the details of what time.
So I never saw her.
It would make more sense had he dropped her off.
Yeah, exactly.
Or at least in the area.
He's like, I dropped her off at the airport.
That would be like a good alibi.
Yeah.
I don't think, I don't know if they had security cameras then.
That's true.
I think they probably did.
And so I'm thinking like, well if you say that you just dropped her off like down the
street from the airport and then she walked.
That's true.
I mean do your due diligence here, right?
But like.
Lee's dumb.
And I think it would make sense for her to tell her husband that she went to Miami but
then flew somewhere else so that he doesn't go looking for her in Miami.
If she really wanted to leave him for good.
But why would she call, I guess she'd call Gerard because he's close to Miami maybe.
Yeah.
But like she could call Gerard's mom.
Yeah.
Like she knows her, you know?
Did Gary know that it was Gerard or he just brought it up in conversation?
Well he was like, if she's in Miami she might have like reconnected with Gerard because like
obviously like he knows that he's down there.
Yeah.
So he was just trying all lines of communication.
He's like, let me just ask anybody.
Right.
And where was she living with the husband?
This was in.
They were in Georgia?
No, they were in Fort Lauderdale like with like where they were, Gerard grew up and all
that stuff.
Oh, okay.
And I think that Gary was really just trying all avenues because he was like, I don't know
what the fuck else to do.
Maybe she called Gerard.
Right.
So anyway, he called her, he called him, excuse me, Gerard would say, oh, you know, the whole
thing with the airport.
Well, Charles, thinking that his wife actually left him, filed for divorce in the following
October 10th, 1970.
You can, yeah, claims that was an abandoned man.
Lee would never be heard from again and nothing else would ever come up regarding her disappearance.
Is this still a cold case?
Oh my God.
I know.
That's awful.
It's awful.
And we'll talk a little bit more about it later.
Four months after being let go from his internship, Gerard would successfully apply for and receive
a second teaching internship at Strandhand High School.
He would begin teaching geography on April 2nd, 1970, and his fellow teachers would quickly
take notice of his poor performance, stating that he was arrogant and quote, very limited
and quote on the subject knowledge that he taught.
That's that Dunn and Kruger.
Yeah.
That's him thinking like, oh, I just know everything about everything.
So college is going to be a breeze.
Exactly.
And it's like, again, like I said, he's not interested in teaching a curriculum.
He just wants to, people to listen to his point of view and agree with him.
Just seven weeks into this internship on November 11th, 1969, Principal Richard Goodhart
made the decision to remove Gerard from his position, stating quote, I told him when he
left that he'd better not let me hear of his trying to get a job with any authority over
people or I'd do anything I could to see that he didn't get it.
Oh.
He knows.
Yeah.
He can see right the fuck through him.
You're a phony.
That guy's a phony.
He, Gerard would drop out of school citing marital problems as the reason.
And years later, he would tell psychiatrists that he was barred from teaching quote, because
they only wanted black people end quote.
Oh my God.
Just pulls it out of fucking nowhere.
Again, it's, I love that now this is the second time, right?
So the panty thing, not his fault, right?
He's trying to stay out of the army.
There's lots and hoors, yeah.
You're talking about the wanking it off with the neighbor not knowing.
Wanking it off.
No.
With the panty thing to not go into the army.
No, yeah.
And then now that like, it's everybody, it can't possibly be the fact that he's not
equipped to deal with this job.
Yeah.
Never his fault.
Everyone else around me is the asshole.
Yeah.
For sure.
It's not that I'm not smart enough is what he's trying to say.
Yeah, I know, absolutely.
Okay.
Ready?
Yes.
On December 18th, 1969, 22 year old Carmen Marie Halleck had lunch with her sister-in-law
and was discussing a date she had planned for that evening.
She explained to her sister-in-law that she was meeting a teacher who would offer her a
job involving, quote, some kind of undercover work for the government.
Oh no.
Ugh.
She explained that this guy told her the position included international travel and, quote, lots
of money, end quote.
You know what I'm realizing right now?
That's probably why Gary called his brother, Gerard, to ask about Lee is because remember
he offered Lee that money to go to the CIA thing.
Duh, that makes sense.
So I bet the husband was like, well let me call Gary and see if his brother knows.
Maybe she took him up on the offer for the money or something, you know?
Gary and Gerard aren't brothers.
I'm sorry.
No, you are brothers.
Gary and Lee, I'm sorry.
I said that wrong.
But you know what I'm saying.
Yes, I get what you're saying.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So yeah, I didn't even think about that.
So Carmen, with her sister-in-law, is telling her that this guy offered this job, it's
a lot of money.
It's the M.O., that's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
The next night, Carmen was scheduled to work a shift as a cocktail waitress, but she would
never arrive for her shift.
She would not be seen for multiple days, and once she was not heard from on Christmas day,
her family would use a spare key and enter her apartment in search of her.
Upon entering, they came upon the bathtub completely full and her dog unfed.
A few days later, Carmen's vehicle would be found in a nearby parking lot, and her body
would never be located.
Oh my gosh.
That's awful.
I can't imagine, first of all, not knowing what happened to your loved one, but like,
still not being able to have some kind of closure.
Like after all these years.
Like have them home.
That was in 1970, by the way.
Gerard would argue his removal from school and petition FAU administrators to change
his records from withdrawal to quote, incomplete, and asked if he would be able to remain studying.
Like you're the one that fucking dropped out.
Yeah.
And now you're asking for a second chance?
I have marital problems.
He's like, it's too hard.
It's like.
I tripped on a rock yesterday.
Yeah, seriously.
The couple would, that's a couple, the college would agree, and Gerard and his wife would
both return to school at FAU.
Although they were both together around this time, Marty would ultimately file for divorce
on May 2nd, citing Gerard's quote, extreme cruelty, end quote.
So who knows what was going on behind closed doors with them.
Yeah.
Oh gosh.
So Gerard would react to this divorce by going to Europe and North Africa on a month-long
trip.
That's like a theme too, is him experiencing bad news and then running away.
Yes.
Keep that in mind, by the way.
He went to Europe and North Africa for a month-long trip.
Okay.
By October 1970, Gerard would take a job as a security guard at Florida Light and Power
in order to make tuition money.
Okay.
While working there, he met Secretary Theresa Dean, and the two would quickly become engaged.
Okay.
Hi.
Theresa, see you.
It would be almost a year later, in August of 1971, that Gerard would graduate from FAU
with his degree in geography, and he and Theresa would get married.
According to Gerard, his second marriage was much better than his first.
He would say that Theresa was very willing to comply with his sexual demands and also
shared his passion for fishing.
Oh wow, that's all I need.
That's what my online dating profile says.
Yeah.
I'm not allowed with my sexual demands.
And I love fishing.
Second to the demands.
Not being able to pursue his career as a teacher and having a good time at his security job,
Gerard decided to pursue a career with law enforcement.
Why?
Now, we're going to assume at this point he's responsible for the disappearances of both
Leah and Armin.
So just keep that in mind.
They haven't been kind of closed, like the case is kind of, they haven't closed, but
there is a little bit of circumstantial stuff that we'll talk about later.
On September 3rd, 1971, Gerard would get a job with the Wilton Manners Police Department
and was sent back to Broward County Community College, or I think it's Broward Community
College, to the school's police academy.
He would graduate from this on December 17th, 1971, and would fall into his six month probationary
term at the job.
Three weeks into Gerard working this new job, another woman would disappear.
Belinda Hudgens was a 22 year old cocktail waitress who was married to a man that was
a known drug addict.
On January 5th, 1972, Belinda's husband and her two year old daughter reportedly watched
her get into a vehicle with a strange man at the wheel and she was never seen again.
When questioned by police about her disappearance, Belinda's husband stated that she, quote,
had her own lifestyle and did what she wanted to do, end quote.
So she might be a sex worker.
Yeah, and I think that he was like, it wasn't uncommon for her to just get in the car with
someone I know.
While in Wilton Manners, Gerard proved himself yet again to be poorly suited for the job
he was doing.
Chief Bernard Scott would tell reporters, quote, he used poor judgment, did dumb things, I
didn't want him around, end quote, before letting Gerard go just six months into this
position.
So do you think along with disorders there might be some type of developmental disorder?
I could see it, yeah, maybe.
But I don't know if it's necessarily like he's lacking the skill, I think he just lacks
the effort.
You know what I mean?
Like, he knows how to do it.
I just feel like he doesn't want to fucking do it.
He doesn't want to work hard.
It just sounds like a defiant disorder of some kind, but just into adulthood.
What would that be?
You know, that's what I mean.
I don't know.
It might be like a comorbidity with something else that he has.
His colleagues would actually also refer to Gerard as quote, badge happy, end quote, and
obsessed with running traffic tickets.
Like he just had to have the superiority like other people.
Oh, I believe that.
Yeah, ex FBI agent Robert Ressler, by the way, have you heard that name before?
I heard Ressler, yeah.
Would state that Gerard would pull women over just to ask them on dates.
What?
Like he would literally like pull?
Is that hey baby?
Yeah.
Like that's so disgusting.
You can go that fast on the way to my apartment.
Here's my address.
Years later, detectives actually suggested that one of the women who was never publicly
identified vanished shortly after being pulled over by Gerard.
Oh my God.
That is terrifying.
It reminds me of mom.
Yeah.
Like it's like, no, our mom got pulled over when you were a little right and if I'm not
mistaken, you were in the backseat with Cameron and dad, all three of y'all are just you and
dad.
I think it was me and dad.
My mom was driving and she went to this neighborhood that we live next to and the cop pulled her
over, claimed that she was speeding.
She wasn't.
He saw dad in the backseat, gave her a warning and then that guy was later arrested for soliciting
sex from single women in their cars by themselves.
Yes.
Gross.
Yeah.
We had this big old like travel van.
So and with curtains, you know, like from the nineties.
And so, yeah, that makes sense.
Like when you're walking past, you wouldn't see it.
There's no one else in the van.
Yeah.
Even see into the van.
Yeah.
Like dad was sitting in the back.
Yeah.
Scary.
But it's still creepy.
So with all this shit that Gerard's doing at work, Chief Scott was ready to fire him
on March 16th, 1972, but Gerard actually surprised him by winning a commendation for a drug arrest,
ultimately saving his job.
Having the spotlight on him did not stop Gerard from making dumb mistakes while on the job,
and he was called into Chief Scott's office on April 19th.
According to Chief Scott, Gerard begged for another chance, quote, almost with tears in
his eyes, end quote.
And he ended up not letting Gerard go that day either.
He was just like, oh, give me 24 hours.
He's crying.
He wouldn't use my chair.
The following day, actually, Chief Scott found out that Gerard had actually applied for a
different job with the Broward County Sheriff's Department and fired him on the spot.
He was like, fuck you then.
You're gonna apply for the job?
You're begging to keep this one?
Like seriously?
God.
Unfortunately for Gerard, his new application would not work out for him either, as he would
fail the mandatory psychological exams.
Okay, here we go again.
Another red flag.
Another red flag with law enforcement that can do something about it, and they're not.
And they're not gonna.
I mean, it's not their job to get him into treatment, but still, they have the knowledge
that he's not psychologically fit.
And so does the military, right?
Yeah, exactly.
And the professor, the college repressor.
Gerard would apply to many other departments around the area, and each would call Chief
Bernard Scott for his opinion.
Bernard stated, quote, I told them I would put on a uniform and walk the streets myself
before I would have him back, end quote.
He's like, do not hire him.
Do not hire him.
On June 30th, 1972, Gerard didn't be hired by Sheriff Richard Crowder in Martin County.
A standard background check showed no criminal record for Gerard, and upon applying, Gerard
would include a glowing letter from Chief Bernard Scott, stating that Gerard was a star employee
and one of the best he had ever seen.
Bullshit.
Of course, this is falsified by Gerard.
It's like everyone knows he's experiencing whatever he's experiencing except for him.
Except for him.
And again, that's that lack of, what is it, like low frustration a little bit about psychological
disorganization?
Yeah.
It's just, he doesn't get it.
It's just all over the place, and there's not one linear thought that's like, maybe
I shouldn't be doing this.
Or maybe my experiences all have one thing in common, me.
Me, exactly.
If you're a common denominator, you're the problem.
And it's like, if he's not willing to change anything, this is going to keep happening.
But he just lacks that self-awareness.
Yeah, absolutely.
And now that we know that this letter was falsified, obviously, it actually wouldn't
be found out by the department until a month later.
So he was able to work there for a month.
The thinking that he had this glowing review from his last chief.
I'm sure that they were like, there's no way this guy has a glowing review.
Let me look into this.
Yeah.
And at this point, again, we know that Gerard has had some victims, but nobody else was
the wiser about what was going on behind the scenes, because there's been no found
disappearing women, you know?
Yeah, no evidence linking him to anything.
Around this time, Gerard explains that he grew tired of killing single victims, and
he wanted to move on to, quote, doing doubles.
End quote.
Doing doubles?
Like to women or men and women?
To women.
He stated about this, quote, 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 very lively discussions about which of the victims will get to be killed
first.
When you have a pair of teenage bimbalinas bound hand and foot and ready for a session
with a skinny 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,
end quote.
That is some sadistic shit.
Sinister as fuck.
Like that takes some thought.
So clearly he is able to have a linear thought.
Yeah, exactly.
Just when it pertains to anything that interests him.
And it's like fucking terrible empathy in those sentences.
And the thing that makes my stomach churn about that statement is that it's probably
a little bit of truth behind it.
And he's using it to get under your skin and tell you, this is what happens when I have
the control and people are terrified.
Yeah.
And that grosses me out.
Over something that you can say.
Like he can say that and know that it has control over people's minds.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like when I read that I was like, what the fuck?
Like what the fuck?
Disgusting.
While there is not a specific timeline to show when Gerard began killing two victims
at one time, he is thought to have been linked to the 1966 disappearances of 21 year old
Nancy Leichner and 20 year old Pamela Nader.
The two women would disappear from a picnic they were having at the Ocala National Forest.
The case is still unsolved to this day.
On December 29th, 1970, so a few years prior to Gerard getting the job with the phony letter
recommendation, nine year old Wendy Stevenson and nine year old Peggy Ron would vanish from
Pompano Beach.
The following day, a clerk at a nearby convenience store would report a man that was buying ice
cream for two young girls on the previous afternoon.
Ew, that's so creepy.
So creepy.
The clerk positively identified the two girls as being Wendy and Peggy and described the
man they were with as in his 20s, about six feet tall and around 200 pounds.
The girls are still classified as missing to this day, although Gerard would be publicly
accused of these crimes on his later hearing.
Okay.
But, cool case.
I didn't realize we were in LA.
Yeah.
Many years after his incarceration, Gerard would write in a letter, quote, I am annoyed
by all this murder talk.
Peggy and Wendy just happened along at a time when I was curious about fishes craving for
the flush of young girls.
Fish referring to Albert Fish.
That was not the part of the quote I was adding that in.
Oh my god.
Quote, I assure you these girls were not molested sexually.
I found both of them very satisfactory, particularly with sauteed onions and peppers, end quote.
He is like fish.
He's trying to emulate fish.
I think he's trying to, I don't think this is true.
I think he's saying it for the shock factor.
Yeah, I agree.
Because there is nothing else that indicates that he engaged in cannibalism besides this.
One fucking sentence.
Which is very eerily similar to the Albert Fish letter.
No, absolutely.
Yeah, it's disgusting.
He said I assure she died a virgin.
Yeah.
You know?
Like I don't fucking care about that or whatever.
Like fuck you.
I only just wanted to eat a fish.
Literally, fuck you.
She'll dread.
Now we're back to the present time, so this is on the afternoon of July 21st, 1972.
Gerard came across two female hitchhikers, Nancy Ellen Trotter, 18, and Paula Sue Wells,
17, while he was on official police duty.
Gerard would pick the pair up and drive them to their intended destination in Stuart, Florida.
Gerard warned the two young girls of the dangers of hitchhiking, and during their conversation,
he came to realize that neither of the girls were Florida natives, and they intended to
hang out at Jensen Beach on the following day.
Oh, that's so scary.
But he's a police officer, you would think.
Yeah.
That you could trust a police officer.
And these girls are 18 and 17.
It's true.
Like, you know, again, they're young, never had probably maybe any run-ins with the law
at this point.
Yeah.
I mean, you know.
And they're not native of Florida.
He knows that now, so he's like, they're gonna not know their way around.
Yeah, I just mean that there's no reason to, like, distrust him.
Yeah, no, of course, in their eyes.
Yeah.
Upon hearing their plans, Gerard suggested that he drive the two girls to the beach the
next day, to which they agreed.
The following morning, Gerard met the girls exactly when and where he said he would.
But this time, he was not in his police uniform and instead in regular clothing.
It's like I'm off duty.
He was also driving his own vehicle, but he explained to the girls that he was indeed
still on duty just working undercover.
Oh, okay.
I'm just gonna leave.
Because regular police officers just do that.
Just do that.
Well, he can't bloody his uniform.
Yeah, I know exactly.
For his car.
Shortly after the girls got into the car, Gerard began driving the wrong direction,
telling them he wanted to show them, quote, an old Spanish fort, end quote, on New Hutchinson
Island.
I would jump out of the car.
Well, it's probably locked.
While on the way to this destination, Gerard would warn the girls once again about the
dangers of hitchhiking, telling them they could be, quote, sold into white slavery,
end quote.
I also hate that on top of this, this guy's a fucking racist.
No, literally.
It's like the worst.
He's like the worst of every fucking thing.
He's the worst part.
He's probably the worst human.
Yeah.
Almost as soon as he said this, Gerard would stop the vehicle and handcuffed and gag both
girls.
It was not clear which girl he took out of the vehicle first, but what we do know is
that Gerard grabbed one of the girls and took her to a large tree, subsequently tying
her legs to the trunk of it and binding a noose around her neck.
The noose was attached to a branch tall enough that it forced the girl to have to stand up
all the way, like on a platform to not be strangled.
Gerard then took the other girl to a different tree a short distance away and tied her up
extremely similarly.
So again, both girls found themselves having to stand on narrow branches in order to keep
their body weight up to avoid being strangled.
Gerard then informed both girls that he intended to sexually assault them and then murder them.
At this same moment, Gerard received an urgent radio dispatch telling him to report to the
station immediately.
Gerard told the girls, quote, I gotta go, end quote, but not to, quote, try to run away
because I'm not gonna be very far down the road, end quote.
So he's like, he has to leave them there.
Like, he is on duty and he just got a call.
He's like, I have to go, don't fucking move.
Does he have his uniform with him?
Oh my god, how does he do this?
Nearly two hours later, Gerard returned to the scene of the crime to see both of the
girls missing.
What?
He would immediately return to his house and phone his station, asking to speak with Sheriff
Robert Crowder.
He informed his boss, quote, I've done something very foolish.
You'll be mad at me, end quote.
What?
Okay, this is wild already.
What's gonna happen?
Gerard then went on to explain to Robert that he had taken it upon himself to teach two
young girls, quote, a lesson, end quote, on the risks of hitchhiking.
But he claimed that he, quote, overdid the job, end quote, stating that he abandoned
the two girls in the Swampland area of Hutchinson Island.
He's like, I just dumped them out there telling that exactly.
He's like, I just dumped them out there and told them that hitchhiking is dangerous and
I was teaching them a lesson.
Yeah, I was gonna come back for them, but now they're missing.
Robert and his lieutenant, Melvin Waldron, immediately headed towards Florida State Road
A1A, where they came across a partially gagged teenage girl with her hands behind her back,
attempting to swim down the river.
Oh my gosh, with her hands behind her back?
Yes.
I'm sorry, if I was threatening to be sexually assaulted, murdered, I'd probably do the same
shit.
Absolutely.
That and then some.
And I felt my, saw my escape route.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
My escape opportunity, absolutely.
What does he think is gonna happen when they find the girls though?
Yeah, exactly.
They're just an idea.
Yeah.
Idiot.
The officers pulled over to see the girl getting out of the water by the bank and attempting
to like get their attention.
Like they kind of saw each other at the same time.
Upon her moving the gag from her mouth, the girl identified herself as Nancy and told
the officers that her friend was somewhere in the forest.
Officers informed her that Paula had been located already by a trucker and was already
safe in custody.
Oh my gosh, that is so scary.
The two girls would be taken in for questioning where they both explained their situation.
Both girls stated that they managed to escape by grinding their bindings and loosening their
gag slowly.
The entire time while doing this, they were able to maintain their balance on the narrow
branches that they had been put on.
Those are badass bitches.
Bad bitches alert.
Like if they had slipped at any point, they would have died.
Oh my gosh.
And then, oh my god, I'm not even gonna know that.
Can you imagine like just, and then being there with your friends?
With your friend, I know exactly.
Oh my god, it's so, it's heroic what they did.
Both girls were able to provide a detailed description of their attacker and his vehicle
before formally identifying Gerard Schaefer as the perpetrator.
Lock his ass up.
When questioned, Gerard stuck to his story that he had overreacted in a lesson he was
trying to teach the girls.
However, his story would obviously not be believed and he was immediately dismissed from the
force and placed under arrest.
Robert Crowder instructed his officers to charge Gerard with false imprisonment and aggravated
assault.
Two weeks after his arrest, Gerard would post his $15,000 bail, which would be the equivalent
of about $110,000 today.
Due to making bail, Gerard would be released while he awaited trial that would not be scheduled
until November 5 months later.
He would return home where he lived with his second wife, Teresa, and her and her parents
would recall Gerard not acting any different.
In fact, they believed his claims that he was just trying to teach the girls a lesson.
They were like, oh, he obviously didn't do anything wrong, he's not broken up about it,
he's not freaking out.
Yeah.
Remember, low frustration.
Low frustration.
He's not worried about it at all.
He's just going to get out of this pickle.
While awaiting trial, Gerard got and worked a job at Quick Check.
On September 27, 1972, again while still awaiting trial, Gerard would abduct two teenage friends,
Susan Carol Place, 17, and Georgia Marie Jessup, 16.
Are you still going to commit crimes like this?
The two were attending an adult education center in Florida, Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale,
and Gerard just so happened to be there that day as well.
Gerard would introduce himself to the girls as quote, Jerry Shepherd, stating that he
was from Colorado and that he intended to return home following a trip to Mexico.
It's just interesting because not only was his college roommate named Jerry, but his
said his last name was Shepherd and that's super close to Gerard Schaefer, Jerry Shepherd.
He didn't do much work there.
Yeah, he was like, no, I totally said that my name was Gerard Schaefer.
They just didn't hear me right.
The afternoon of the disappearance, Susan's mom remembered coming home to find her daughter
cleaning her room with Georgia sitting in a chair hanging out with her.
She also noticed an older man in the room as well, who the girls introduced to her as
Jerry.
Susan told her mom that the three of them were planning on going quote, to the beach
and to play guitar, end quote.
And although Susan's mom was suspicious, Jerry assured her that his intentions were
pure.
Even so, she made sure to write on the license plate of his vehicle while the three took
off.
Good mom.
So, he's in his early 20s and the girls are 17 and 16.
And he's like 20, almost late 20s?
He's 20, yeah, 26 at this time.
So, he's not in his early 20s, he's in his mid 20s, but still 17 and 16 are young for
him to be hanging out there.
That's a 10 year age gap.
Yeah, exactly.
That's a very significant time in your life, you know?
Definitely.
On top of being a little suspicious about this guy's age and all that jazz, Susan's mom
was actually already kind of thinking in the back of her mind that her daughter was planning
on running away.
Okay.
And she was also kind of worried like, oh my god, I hope she doesn't like run away with
this guy.
He's a strange dude, yeah.
Yeah.
But while they were saying goodbye, Susan assured her mom that she would be gone, quote, just
for a little while, and quote, and would keep in touch.
Okay.
The girls would leave the house around 8.45 p.m. and when she hadn't heard from her
daughter in four days, Susan's mother contacted Paula's mom who said that she had assumed
her daughter had run away after not hearing from her since the 27th.
There must have been some history there with behavioral behavior or something.
It was at this point that both girls were reported missing to the Oakland Park police.
Susan's mom provided police with the license plate number she wrote down and the plate
was traced to an entirely separate model of vehicle that belonged to a St. Petersburg
resident who did not resemble Jerry Shepard and who also had an alibi for the night the
girls went missing.
Without having any more leads and not getting anywhere with the Jerry Shepard name, by the
beginning of 1973, the case had become cold.
That's that.
That's that for now.
On October 26th, 14-year-old Mary Alice Briskolina and 13-year-old Elise Lena Farmer went missing.
Elise's family reported her missing the following day, while Mary's family did not report her
for a week, assuming that she had run away from home.
The two had vanished while hitchhiking to a commercial boulevard restaurant from a motel.
Friends and family of the girls were questioned following their disappearances and police
were informed that the two girls frequently visited an apartment rented by the older sister
of Mary's boyfriend and that a man they were called by the name of Gary Shepard was hanging
around a lot.
Gary now this time?
Yeah.
It's always a Gary.
They also stated that this man had claimed to be a quote ex-Wilton Manners police officer
and quote.
Why would you say that?
Because they were literally telling them her whole life.
Like why?
Why would you say that?
Three months later, on January 11th, 1973, 19-year-old Colette Marie Goodenough and
Barbara Ann Wilcox, also 19, disappeared while hitchhiking from Sioux City, Iowa to Florida.
Her last name's Goodenough?
It's literally Goodenough.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Both of the women were last seen alive in Biloxi, Mississippi.
During the time of the disappearance, Gerard was out awaiting trial still and he was known
to have made many long distance phone calls from CD Rapids, Iowa to his Florida home shortly
before the girls went missing.
What?
So he was like there.
How was he allowed to travel?
I don't understand.
Because he's an ex-police officer.
That's Hollywood.
Sure.
In December of 1972, Gerard appeared in court in relation to the abductions of Nancy Trotter
and Paula Wells.
His attorney had offered a plea bargain that he strongly suggested Gerard take.
This plea deal would mean that Gerard would plead guilty to just one charge of aggravated
assault for which he would receive a sentence of one year in jail with the possibility of
parole after just six months.
Tell me he filed a non-guilty plea.
Following his release, he would be on probation for three years if he took the plea deal.
Gerard would agree to this and on December 22nd, Judge D.D. Smith stated to Gerard,
quote, it is beyond the court's imagination to conceive how you were such a foolish and
astronomical jackass as you were in this case.
Man.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Well, I was thinking that his narcissism would just not allow him to accept it.
He would go through a non-guilty plea.
I could see that.
The judge would allow Gerard's formal sentencing to be postponed until the holidays were over
and Gerard would begin his sentence in Martin County jail on January 15th, 1973.
Yeah, that was just for everyone's convenience.
Yeah, for sure.
Upon leaving court on December 22nd, Gerard told several reporters, quote, I made a stupid
mistake.
There was no sex involved.
No one was hurt.
End quote.
He had to say that.
Yeah.
No one, there was no sex involved and no one was hurt.
I'm sorry, not sex rape.
There was no rape involved and no one was hurt because you got a fucking dispatch call.
Yeah.
What would have happened if they didn't call you?
It's the only reason that those girls were alive.
Stupid.
In March of 1973, Susan Places mother Lucille discovered a letter signed by one Jerry Shepard
in her daughter's bedroom.
She would follow the address on the letter and speak to the building manager.
Jerry Shepard had registered at this property under his real name, Gerard Schaefer.
Oh well.
Upon hearing this and learning that this man had recently been sent to jail for an abduction
and attempted murder of two young girls, her and her husband Ira drove around the county
looking for a similar license plate.
While driving around, Lucille realized that the police may have been searching for the
license plate match in a different county.
Upon relaying this new information to police, they discovered the plate actually belonged
to a blue-green Dotson registered to a Gerard Schaefer and his address matched the return
address on the letter.
When questioned in jail, Gerard denied ever encountering Susan or her parents, even though
he was identified via photograph by a Wilton Manners personnel.
On the afternoon of April 1, 1973, a father and son were searching for discarded cans
when they discovered the extremely decomposed bodies of two people in a hole in Oak Hammock
Park, Florida.
Both victims had been bound and murdered, with their spinal cords severed at the lumbar
and cervical sections.
The bodies would be identified as those of Susan Place and Georgia Jessup by Medical
Examiner's Department Dr. Richard Sovron.
Shortly after the bodies were identified, Gerard was informed of the discovery and he would
immediately request the representation of a public defender, being one Elton Schwartz.
Due to the location of the bodies and the similarities in the murders and abductions
that Gerard was already doing time for, police were able to obtain a search warrant for Gerard's
house and vehicle, as well as the home of his mother because he was living there.
Inside a locked bedroom at Gerard's mother's home, police found 300 pages of personal stories
that Gerard had typed out over the years.
These pages included details of kidnapping, torture, sexual assault, and ultimately murder
of a number of teenage girls and young women whom he commonly referred to as, quote, whores,
sluts, and harlots.
When he's talking about murdering them, he's referring to the most of those things.
He's a murderer.
Yeah.
What does that make you?
Monster.
Jesus.
Also included in these writings, Gerard stated that he would commonly force his victims to
drink beer or wine while they stood balancing on various items, hoping not to be strangled.
Because they would fuck up their balance.
Terrifying.
He stated that he frequently returned to the scenes of the crimes for weeks and even months
after the murders to commit necrophilia or to extract teeth from the skull.
I might have left out necrophilia in the content warning.
I'm very sorry.
Well, sorry.
You know?
The content warning was adouzi enough.
I don't think this is very surprising.
Everything under the sun.
But this is what he wrote.
This isn't...
He's like de- he's like journaling essentially.
He's journaling.
Okay.
You're like fantasies, right?
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Okay.
Also at the home, police located 11 bags filled with guns, live and spent ammunition, 13 hunting
knives, sections of ropes, and soft-core porn magazines.
Soft-core porn.
Yeah.
That's hilarious.
Like, like Playboy.
Multiple photos of women before and after death were located as well, although it was
hard to identify any of them because the photos were really poor or they just didn't have
their faces.
On top of this, there were photos of Gerard and various types of lingerie, like we said
earlier.
Lee hand-lined Bonadise jewelry would later turn up at Gerard's mother's home as well,
the neighbor's sister.
But unfortunately, she would again never be located and Gerard would never be convicted
of her disappearance.
So was he saying like he's like not doing...
Well, we haven't gotten there yet.
I'm sure we'll get there, but he claims he has nothing to do with her disappearance,
but why the fuck was her jewelry at the house?
When Gerard's stash of souvenirs was seized in 1973, police would recover two of Carmen
Halleck's gold-filled teeth and a shamrock pin identified by her family.
That's the one that was telling her sister-in-law about the date.
Her teeth?
But she would never be found either.
Oh yeah, she just gave me her teeth.
Yeah, exactly.
That's not funny, the life that's given.
During the search of both homes in 1973, police located an address book containing the name,
address, and phone number of Belinda Hutchins' husband.
She was the one that a husband and two-year-old saw her getting into an unknown car.
Days later, her husband would identify Gerard's car as the one that took Belinda the day she
went missing, but she would never be recovered.
Elise Farmer's skeletal remains would be found on January 17, 1973 at a construction site
near Plantation High School.
Near the high school?
Mary Briscolinas' remains were found on February 15, about 200 yards away from Elise's.
The two girls were found with their legs spread apart, and Mary had been beaten brutally on
her head with one blow proving to be fatal.
Several of her fingernails had also been detached from her fingers showing signs of
a brutal struggle.
Elise had also been bludgeoned to death.
Not a fingernail person.
I know me either.
Following a search of Gerard's home in April, Mary's relatives would identify a piece
of jewelry that belonged to her.
Although Gerard was never charged with these crimes, he would admit to them in a letter
later titled, quote, Murder Demons, end quote.
I don't understand, like, I mean, I understand that's circumstantial and there's no real
evidence, but like, come on, fuck off.
He's admitting to it.
So I have the letter.
Oh, you've admitted some of it.
In the letter, written on April 9, 1991, he stated, quote, What crimes am I supposed
to confess?
Farmer?
Briscolina?
What do you think Murder Demons is?
Fiction?
You want confessions, but you don't recognize them when I anoint you with them, end quote.
Anoint you?
When I anoint you, because I'm God.
First of all, I'm God.
And second of all, I know a big word.
Remember you didn't get into the priest's shit?
You can't anoint someone.
The skeletal remains of Colette Goodenough and Barbara Wilcox were discovered in January
of 1977.
Both victims had been bound together and were still attached together when found.
It's that Gerard was the perpetrator of this crime was found in his mother's home as well.
But again, never convicted.
He wasn't convicted of that one?
This evidence included Barbara's driver's license and Colette's passport, diary, and
book of poems.
So he stole her personal shit.
Gerard would later boast about victims, quote, on three continents, end quote, but no bodies
were ever found or linked to him overseas.
So that was the Africa and the Europe trip.
Yeah, I remember why I said that earlier.
I remember that.
Furthermore, teeth and sections of bone later identified as belonging to at least eight victims
were also recovered from the property.
There was extensively more evidence found at Gerard's home that could all be found online
and pointed to him as the perpetrator of at least two more victims.
So what was he charged with?
I'm getting there.
Georgia Jessup's purse was found in the possession of Gerard's wife, Teresa.
Georgia Jessup.
Yeah.
Remember?
Yeah.
Teresa would explain to police that her husband had given her the purse in quote, about November
end quote of the previous year, two months after their girls went missing.
She thought it was a gift.
That's so disgusting.
Can you imagine?
It's so gross.
Around April the following year, Teresa explained that Gerard had tried to persuade her to discard
the purse with the explanation that police may try to use the item, quote, to make up
some kind of evidence, end quote, against him.
Yeah, I have no involvement in this crime.
But that purse I gave you was a gift, you might want to get rid of that because they
might be able to use that.
Yeah.
There might be.
Who's to say they can't use my shoes or my watch or whatever?
The purse specifically?
The purse specifically.
Upon learning this, Gerard's brother-in-law gave up the purse to police.
Here you go.
He told you to get rid of it?
Okay, we'll get rid of it into the fucking hands of the police department.
The hands of the police department.
It's no longer in the house, I told you.
Yeah, exactly.
I got rid of it.
By May 1973, police had gathered enough physical and circumstantial evidence to link Gerard's
Schaefer to nine murders and unsolved disappearances between 1969 and 1973.
The same month, a list of 28 murdered or missing girls potentially linked to Gerard was also
released.
That is a lot.
At a press conference held on May 14, chief investigator, Lem Brumley Jr. stated to the
media, quote, in terms of scope and bizarreness, end quote, the case was the biggest that he
had encountered in his career.
On May 18, 1973, Gerard Schaefer was formally charged with first degree murder for the killings
of Susan Place and Georgia Jessup, and was held without bond to a wait trial.
Good, thank God.
Following being formally charged, Gerard was transferred to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee
to undergo 30 days of psychiatric examinations.
He would be returned to St. Lucie County Jail on June 20.
As a result of the evaluations, Gerard was diagnosed as suffering from paranoia, psychosis,
and acute sexual deviation.
The results also suggested that he saw himself as, quote, an eliminator of women he deemed
immoral, end quote, but nonetheless mentally competent to stand trial.
So he knew what the fuck he was doing.
At Circuit Court on June 21, District Attorney Robert Stone argued before Judge Cyrus Pfeiffer
at Trowbridge that Gerard was sane and competent to stand trial, while Gerard maintained his
innocence stating that the accusations against him were, quote, a mistake, end quote, and
saying that he was confident he would be exonerated.
What?
How is he thinking?
How is all this shit in your house a mistake?
Oopsies.
Whoopsies.
Well, just let that shit there by accident.
Yeah, exactly.
He was cleaning up the streets, and he was walking around just collecting trash and discarded
items.
It just happened to be connected to 30 women.
Yeah, exactly.
On September 17, 1973, Gerard Schaefer stood trial for murder.
At the time of the murders, capital punishment had been declared unconstitutional by the
state of Florida, so the prosecution went into the trial seeking a life sentence.
Gerard would plead not guilty on all charges, and was known as staring coldly at the witnesses
as they testified against him.
Oh, God.
I can't imagine sitting across from, like, a perpetrator like that.
Oh, yeah.
And on top of this, he was also known as smiling at any witness that testified on his behalf.
So like, the prosecution goes up and he's staring at them, and then the defense comes
up and he's like, hey, buddy, how's it going, friend?
In his opening statement to the jury, Stone Shaler, one of the main prosecutors, stated
that the physical and circumstantial evidence against Gerard would prove his guilt without
a doubt, and that the state expected the jury to return, quote, a verdict of guilty of murder
in the first degree as to both counts, end quote.
The defense asked to hold their opening statement until the state had rested its case and permission
was granted, which I've actually never really heard of that happening.
So it was going to be all prosecution, then all defense.
Yeah, they're like, we want to know what you have before we go into the argument, or lack
thereof.
Multiple people testified during the trial, including Susan Place's parents, Nancy Trotter
and Paula Wells, his first two victims.
Well, that we had you got charged with.
Following an entry into evidence of a manuscript written by Gerard in which he had detailed
how to, quote, properly execute, end quote, women, Stone announced that the state had
presented their whole case.
Following this, Gerard's defense attorney, Elton Schwartz, would immediately call for
Gerard's acquittal, stating that the prosecution's case was fully circumstantial.
The court would rule against this.
Yeah, good.
Like, duh.
The defense's strategy was to discredit witness's testimony regarding the identification of Gerard.
Wait, what?
So they were essentially saying, oh, the two people that you got, your witnesses that you
actually got convicted of their crimes, they misidentified you.
They're just not remembering, right?
And they're just wrongly assuming that he's the guy when it's not even him.
Even though he's been found guilty of that crime.
Yeah, or maybe it was others, like the mom of Susan, other people like that.
Oh, I see.
I'm not sure exactly who, but that's essentially what he was doing.
Eye witnesses just in general.
Yeah.
Okay.
So the first thing goes with Georgia Justice Purse being in Teresa's, what's it called?
Possession.
Possession, thank you.
They even had a witness, the defense did, who stated that he always carried a purse similar
to the one identified by Georgia's parents.
So that, like, this is like, well, that's a really common looking purse.
Yeah, anybody can have that purse.
Like what?
Yeah, obviously there's more than one purse made.
Oh, but it has their ID in it.
Sorry.
And her DNA on it.
Yeah.
And along with other witness testimony continued until the defense closed their case.
In closing arguments, Elton Schwartz stated to the jury, quote, ladies and gentlemen,
they have got the wrong man.
And I hate to think of that because somebody did this, but I don't believe it was Gerard
John Schaefer, Jr. and quote.
Like he's out there.
We're not doing our due diligence and finding the real perpetrator for these crimes.
Oh my gosh.
Like I know that's your job, but like, come up with a better answer.
Seriously.
Like get some like actual evidence that he's not guilty and maybe we'll listen, but-
I had a better angle with the whole he's trying to clean up the streets thing.
Yeah.
Just happened to come across this woman, these women's gold teeth.
Yeah.
So Elton would request that the jury return a verdict if not guilty, obviously.
In the prosecution's closing argument, Stone referenced a comment made by a colleague earlier
in the trial regarding Gerard being the quote, prosecutor, judge and executioner, and quote,
in the murders.
He added to this quote, I submit to you one more word, God, because he decided whether
he was going to let them live or die.
He became God and quote.
And I believe that I think that he thinks that he is just-
He has executioner.
The power.
Yeah.
The jury deliberated for five hours before returning with the verdict of two counts of first degree
murder.
Upon receiving this verdict, Gerard proclaimed his innocence stating quote, that's the role
of the dice, I had a good defense, but I'm innocent, end quote.
Obviously, you didn't have a good defense because you just got found fucking guilty of
two counts of murder.
That was the crappiest defense I've ever heard.
It just wasn't him.
That's the only- the defense is that it's just not you.
Yeah, it's just not you and you're just remembering wrong.
Yeah.
Sentencing began on October 3rd, where the defense argued that Gerard should be involuntarily
institutionalized under the 1971 Baker Act rather than life imprisonment.
I would be down for that.
Yeah.
As long as he's never getting out.
Exactly.
And he's getting treatment.
The following day, Gerard Schaefer was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences to be served
in Florida State Prison.
The judge was like, no.
No.
Fucking no.
No, he's got- he's had too many chances.
Because he has been found sane.
Yes.
Gerard once again claimed his innocence before requesting that he be sent to a psychiatric
hospital.
Now he's trying to play the I'm Crazy card.
Yeah.
Because it's out of convenience now.
Of course.
Susan- Susan Plays' mother expressed her satisfaction at the sentencing by stating to reporters,
quote, At first I thought I'd like to see him dead, but I think people suffer more with
confinement.
Death is the easy way out.
Just as long as he's never on the streets again, end quote.
Originally, Gerard would have had the possibility of parole after between 14 and 19 years served,
but his date was revised in May 1979 to indicate the likelihood of parole in 2016.
Okay.
Gerard would appeal his conviction, stating that he had never been indicted by a grand
jury and requested a new trial.
The appeal was rejected in 1974.
Gerard would maintain his innocence in prison, filing 19 appeals total, all of which were
denied.
He's just gonna keep trying.
He also developed a reputation in prison as an aloof, sketchy guy who may have been
an informant.
So-
So everybody thought he was an informant?
Yes.
He got into writing and also tried to sue a writer who described Gerard as, quote, worse
than Ted Bundy, end quote.
He's like, fuck you, I know worse than Ted Bundy, I'm doing the Lord's work.
Yeah, honestly.
That's what he thinks, I mean, not honestly.
In response to this letter threatening to sue, the writer responded that there was no
reason for him to be intimidated by, quote, a middle-aged pale and doughy wimp who prayed
on victims that were physically and psychologically weaker than him, end quote.
That's not funny.
It's not funny, but the doughy is hilarious.
Got me.
But it's really funny though, because this guy's like, Gerard, you're worse than Ted Bundy.
Gerard's like, yeah, I mean, I don't intimidate anybody, you doughy wimp.
Doughy pussy.
He was a middle-aged too, which is funny.
This is non-threatening.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
He's like, yeah, you can't do anything.
Well, I mean, it's true.
He prays upon young girls.
He's physically and psychologically weaker than him.
That's so true.
Yeah, or people that are used to sex work or people that do this as a career or a job,
and just, yeah, he's specifically targeting people.
Of course.
And we see that a lot too, people that target certain communities because they think it'll
be easier to get away with.
But the funny is that for him, it's in the subconscious.
He doesn't see himself that way.
He sees himself as this big alpha male figure.
You know, like when he's just a doughy wimp.
On December 3, 1995, Gerard John Schaefer was stabbed to death on the floor of his
cell.
What?
He had over 40 stab wounds on his face, head, neck, and body, and his throat was also slashed,
his right eye destroyed, and several ribs fractured.
Too good for him.
His body was discovered by a fellow inmate who informed COs.
32-year-old fellow inmate Vincent Foskina Rivers had killed Gerard over an argument
over who was going to get the last cup of hot water from the dispenser.
What?
This argument reportedly happened days before the murder, and Rivers was ultimately convicted
of Gerard's murder in 1999 and received an additional 53 years and 10 months added to
his sentence.
He was already serving life plus 20 years for double homicide.
I was gonna ask if he was a lifer, and that's why.
He actually never confessed to Gerard's murder and the true motive behind his death remains
unknown.
Yeah, it could have been another...
Well, I mean, he's already been there for life.
Maybe he took the rap for the guilt or blame or sorry for someone that was maybe getting
out soon or something.
Yeah, I don't know.
Well, I mean, Gerard wasn't probably the easiest person to get along with, I'm assuming.
And I was gonna add in as well, it was widely believed that he was killed for being a prison
informant as there was numerous acts committed against him in the year prior to his death.
He had been assaulted before.
I could see that.
They're like, okay, he used to be a former cop, there's gotta be some good in you somewhere,
and they play that angle.
Exactly.
Well, included in these multiple attempts to hurt him in the past, he actually got fecal
matter thrown at him, and his cell got set on fire multiple times.
It was like lightest fucking bed on fire and his fucking clothes and shit.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, it might have also been the fact that he was a cop.
Yeah, I think that people really played into it.
They just assumed.
Upon hearing of Gerard's death, Georgia Jessup's mother stated, quote, I've always believed
he was going to get this.
I just wish it had been sooner rather than later, end quote.
The judge who presided over his murder trial stated, quote, he's finally gotten the death
sentence he ultimately deserved but couldn't be given, end quote.
Oh, I know it's a baby's.
Police were in the process of getting more evidence together to convict Gerard of further
murders while he when he was killed.
Sheriff Robert Crowder would later recollect the case in 2009, quote, I think the case
just made law enforcement more aware of the existence of serial murderers.
It made us aware of things to keep in on when we have a crime like this, where there is
the potential for it being one perpetrator and multiple victims, end quote.
In reference to the victims, a fellow panelist at the meeting that Sheriff Crowder spoke
at stated, quote, the victims are not the only victims.
The victims are also the families.
The victims are also the law enforcement who worked these cases.
None of those people who worked this were ever the same, end quote.
So I mentioned earlier a couple of victims that were likely related to Gerard, but there's
a couple more that I'd like to mention as well.
On January 18th, 1970, 19-year-old Merid Ellen Malarick and 18-year-old Karen Lynn Ferrell
were last seen alive leaving a cedar in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Their bodies were discovered on April 16th, and although an inmate with an extensive history
of writing false confessions claimed to have committed the murders, the validity of the
confession was disputed.
And the evidence pointed directly at Gerard, but he was actually formally cleared as a suspect,
not sure why.
He was cleared in 1982.
On February 29th, 1971, 13-year-old Deborah Sue Lowe was last seen walking to her middle
school.
Her textbooks would later be found in a trash can, just one block from her home.
Her body was never found, however, her family strongly believes that Gerard was responsible
for her disappearance because he had actually worked with her dad at one point.
It was like frequently in the home.
Yeah.
That's creepy.
On March 19th, 20-year-old Bonnie R. Taylor was last seen.
It is known that she was stopped for a speeding violation by Gerard shortly before her disappearance,
and there is not any more information on this case as far as I know.
That's in 71, I think.
On August 11th, 1971, Leonard Joseph Master, 46, was last seen alive at a bar in Riviera
Beach.
His body was discovered on Hutchinson Island on January 3rd, 1973, close to where Gerard
had bound and threatened Nancy Trotter and Paula Wells.
Leonard's body was found without hands, and no direct evidence exists to pin Gerard for
the murder.
However, Gerard was known to have referenced his murder at one point following his conviction.
Okay, so that's the only reason why they suspect him.
I was going to say it's totally out of the MO.
It totally is, and I don't know if he referenced it because he took something from it, maybe,
and used it in one of his future murders.
I don't know.
But that's all they had to say about that one.
Interesting.
22-year-old Elizabeth Renee Wilt was traveling to Florida from Fayetteville, Arkansas when
she was last hurt from.
She had sent her stepfather a letter dated August 30th, postmarked in Miami Beach, where
she indicated that she was quickly going to return home.
Her body would never be found either.
At the end of 1972, 15-year-old Suzanne Gale-Poole would go missing two days before Christmas.
Partial skeletal remains were found on June 16th, 1974, bound to a mangrove tree in a
swamp land.
The remains would not be identified of being that of Suzanne's until May of 2022, via genetic
genealogy.
Woah.
The circumstances surrounding her disappearance led investigators to believe that she may
have been a victim of Gerard's, as he was temporarily released from court one day prior
to her disappearance.
So if anybody listening has any information on any of those cases, obviously you can call
your local police department.
I don't have a direct line, but definitely reach out if you have any information.
If you're interested in watching a documentary of Gerard's full life and everything, I mean,
I was pretty detailed here, but if you want to watch the documentary, he was featured
in episodes of Married with Secrets, Killer Cops, and Investigations Discoveries Most
Evil, and his diagnoses again just to remind everybody include paranoia, psychosis, and
acute sexual deviation, as well as suspected antisocial personality disorder, which I'm
sure you were thinking of earlier.
Yeah, yeah, well we talked about personality disorders, some narcissism in there too.
Yeah, but that is the wild, requested case of Gerard John Schaefer, and thank you so
much for requesting that.
Yeah, absolutely, that's what I was gonna say.
Thank you for requesting that because that is a doozy.
Huge doozy.
A hugey.
A huge doozy.
A doozy doozy doozy.
Yeah, that's a lot.
How's that for the case before the con?
Gosh, that's a good one right before the con.
Gosh, a lot of content there.
A lot of content, and I know that when the episode was suggested by our listener, she
said that it's also suspected that he had gender dysphoria.
I personally didn't get that in my personal opinion because what we kind of talked about
with it kind of seemed like it might have been like a cover up for like the army or
things like that.
I don't know if that's necessarily true and he wasn't ever diagnosed with that, but
I did just want to pepper that in there as well.
I think that the, you know, with us discussing the, and again we're not here to diagnose,
but I think with the hatred towards like maybe his sister or wanting to be seen as more,
or recognized as maybe more sensitive, and to I think that maybe in watching his father
participate with his sister, maybe he's like, I wish I could be that sensitive and vulnerable
with my dad, but I can't.
Like I'm expected to be this like man.
And maybe that's where a lot of that alpha stuff comes from, but that he's trying to
still maintain some type of connection to his sensitive, like to be vulnerable and be
sensitive and maybe that's where the underwear thing came from.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
He definitely had a lot going on up there and I don't know, I mean it's just like a,
it's a really sad kind of story, like all the way around, like of course for the victims.
But I mean, I don't want to say he had like a bad, bad childhood because we've seen
worse cases, but with the constant verbal abuse in the house with the alcoholism, who's
to say there wasn't any sort of under predisposed underlying mental disorder that trauma caused
to present.
Yeah, exactly.
He clearly had a lot of mental issues.
Trauma is trauma, abuse is abuse.
And I do definitely think, especially after talking about that Donan Kruger and talking
about how he clearly was inept in many cases and is like pursuing, being a police officer,
pursuing college or being an educator, he self-sabotaged because he wasn't capable of
the follow through.
And I find that very interesting that he didn't realize how inept he was when it came
to things like that.
It was everybody else's fault.
And then again, that low frustration you talked about.
Yeah, I've never really heard that term described, but it makes sense.
Like as soon as I heard it, I was like, oh, I know exactly what that means.
He's found things that work for him to create that dissonance or that distance from being
uncomfortable.
And that's something that was probably very much nurture.
Yeah.
So.
Absolutely.
Well, thank you guys for joining us.
Thank you again for the requested case.
I actually am doing another requested case for my next case in two weeks.
And when you hear this, the next day we'll be having that new mental breakdown coming
out.
And that's also a requested mental breakdown.
Oh, that's a great question.
So I'm doing a lot of listener requests for the week before the con.
So thank you guys so much for joining us.
And we hope you liked these long episodes.
That one was a doozy and a half.
So we will see you guys soon.
Yes.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Love you.
Bye.