00:00:04
- MALE NARRATOR:
On the 1st of April, 1990, Arizona State Trooper
Michael Miller pulled
00:00:10
to the side of Interstate 10
in Casa Grande to inspect a parked truck. When he peered through
the windows of the cab,
00:00:19
he couldn't believe what
he saw, the face of a petrified woman
chained up like an animal.
00:00:27
He immediately handcuffed
the truck driver and put him into his patrol car. - I think he was probably
thinking,
00:00:35
"How am I gonna get
out of this one? What do I do now?" - NARRATOR: Michael didn't
know it yet,
00:00:52
but he'd apprehended
a cold-blooded serial killer, Robert Ben Rhoades. - He is without doubt one of
the most dangerous men
00:01:03
ever to have stalked
the American highway. - NARRATOR: For over a decade
Rhoades had been raping,
00:01:09
torturing, and killing
vulnerable women across the country, but he'd
remained completely undetected.
00:01:18
- I think that Robert Ben
Rhoades is probably the most evil person I've ever met
in my life,
00:01:23
and I've met a lot
of evil people. - NARRATOR: The police
were only just discovering
00:01:27
the gruesome crimes of
Robert Ben Rhoades, one of the world's most
evil killers.
00:01:33
- ♪ - NARRATOR: When 66-year-old
Robert Ben Rhoades pleaded guilty
to the murders
00:01:59
of Douglas Zyskowski and
Patricia Walsh in March, 2012, it took his official tally of
victims to three.
00:02:08
But investigators suspect
he's killed dozens more. It's believed that the
long-distance truck driver
00:02:16
was active from the
mid-1970's, preying on vulnerable
hitchhikers and sex workers
00:02:22
across America. - Rhoades' victims were
people who would readily get into his truck, he wouldn't
have to coerce them to do so.
00:02:31
He's looking out for people
who are vulnerable, he's looking out for people
who need help
00:02:36
from truck drivers
and motorists, so these are individuals
where he already has the access and he already
has the opportunity.
00:02:45
- NARRATOR: It was a routine
check of his parked trailer by an Arizona State
Trooper in April, 1990
00:02:53
that led to Rhoades' dark
secrets being revealed. The truck driver's horrific
crimes may have been
00:02:59
discovered accidentally
but it would take the ingenuity of three detectives
across two states to help
00:03:06
bring this serial killer
to justice. Detective Michael Sheeley
first heard the name
00:03:13
Robert Ben Rhoades while
investigating a murder in Illinois. - DET. SHEELEY: He had been
a truck driver for a long time,
00:03:22
and it gave him a great deal
of opportunity to find victims at local truck stops
along the interstate,
00:03:27
hitchhikers,
which we know were victims, so he had a great deal
of opportunity for such a predator as he was.
00:03:34
And that's exactly the words
that he is, he was a predator. - NARRATOR: FBI Special
Agent Bob Lee worked
00:03:41
with Michael to find out more
about Rhoades. - He not only kidnapped
women but he kept 'em
00:03:48
and tortured 'em for as much
as two or three weeks at a time. And that made him a
special kind of evil,
00:03:59
as I saw him. - NARRATOR: A decade after
Rhoades had been imprisoned for murder in Illinois,
Texas Ranger Brooks Long
00:04:07
uncovered two more victims
of Rhoades. - I would say that he had
the ability to be mister,
00:04:15
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was able to coerce people
to trust him and gain confidence in his
good-old-boy,
00:04:23
laid-back attitude,
but once he had their trust and their guard was down
then you saw the real
00:04:30
Robert Ben Rhoades
come into play. - NARRATOR: The story of
this transient killer begins
00:04:36
in November, 1945. Robert Rhoades was born
in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he was mostly raised by
his mother,
00:04:45
as his military father, Ben, spent a lot of time
overseas. - So there are periods of time
when Rhoades' father
00:04:55
is away from the family
home and I think there's a sense in which he perhaps
misses him.
00:05:00
There's a sense in which
that the family feels incomplete and there's
a longing for an attachment
00:05:05
to his father. But when his father returns,
he's quite brutal, he's quite violent towards him.
00:05:11
So I think he did feel this
conflict about his relationship with his father all the time.
00:05:17
- NARRATOR: It was a
relationship that soured further when Rhoades was a teenager.
00:05:23
- DR. YARDLEY: When Rhoades was
16, his father was convicted for sexually assaulting
a 12-year-old girl.
00:05:29
So his father was essentially
an abuser and this behavior was a reflection of a
misogynistic value system
00:05:38
that he had, that women
and girls were there to be used and abused, that they
served a function for men.
00:05:45
And I think that was
something that would have cemented itself in Rhoades'
mind.
00:05:51
- Ben was an Army veteran
and a firefighter, could hardly be a more
upright member of the community.
00:05:57
So imagine the shame that
would have fallen upon him for his arrest for sexually
lascivious behavior.
00:06:05
- I think another important
thing when we look at his father's conviction is his
father's response to it.
00:06:11
So, he takes his own life
shortly after he's convicted of this crime. And in this case, suicide is
the ultimate act of control,
00:06:19
it's the ultimate way of
saying, "I'm not gonna take "responsibility for my own
actions, I'm gonna decide
00:06:24
to opt out of this whole
thing altogether." - GEOFFREY: Was it that
that made the change
00:06:32
to Rhoades' character? Was it that that flicked
the switch? - NARRATOR: Rhoades was
a college dropout who'd also
00:06:42
failed in becoming a police
officer. He went through numerous
jobs and two failed marriages,
00:06:48
never seeming to settle. By the late 1970s, though,
he'd found the job that would define
his murderous career.
00:06:57
- DR. YARDLEY: Eventually
Rhoades finds a job that suits him down to the
ground and that's the job
00:07:02
of a long-haul truck driver. So here he has
long periods of time when he's unsupervised,
he's off the grid,
00:07:10
he doesn't have to answer
to anybody. And here he gets the chance
to spend long periods of time
00:07:16
on his own, ruminating,
fantasizing, and I think this is a very dangerous
period in his life.
00:07:24
- NARRATOR: At the age of 41,
Rhoades married his third wife, Deborah. But his sexual perversions
would eventually lead
00:07:33
to their separation. - BOB: Their relationship,
she was disillusioned when the marriage went on
because Rhoades wanted
00:07:42
to go to a swinger club here
in Houston. That was something that
she didn't want to do,
00:07:47
but he kept pushing
the envelope and pushing the envelope. - DR. YARDLEY: Rather than just
accepting that and saying,
00:07:54
"Okay, that's fine." He pointed to her and said,
"Well, clearly, there's a problem with you,
you need to loosen up."
00:08:01
So this is showing me that--
that his relationships, if you'd call them that,
with women, they weren't based
00:08:07
on mutuality or respect,
or love or affection, they were simply a way of
him getting what he wanted.
00:08:14
- GEOFFREY: Deborah
admitted, subsequently, how badly she'd been abused
by Rhoades, the man who
00:08:22
thought nothing of
handcuffing her to the bed or raping her so badly
that she feared for her life.
00:08:28
But it's undoubtedly true that...that form of sexual abuse was the signature that was
to develop throughout
00:08:42
Rhoades' crimes. - NARRATOR: Rhoades had an
uncontrollable sexual appetite. Working as a long-distance
truck driver presented him
00:08:52
with the perfect opportunity
to act out his aggressive sexual perversions on
strangers he would meet
00:08:59
along the road, with or
without their consent. - I think it's important to
emphasize here the term consent,
00:09:08
'cause there are
people who will consensually engage in this kind
of behavior, but when it came to Rhoades
he didn't care whether people
00:09:15
consented to it or not,
he wanted to do this, and whether or not people
were happy with that
00:09:21
was just completely
disregarded. - NARRATOR: In February, 1990,
a distressed young woman
00:09:27
flagged down
passing motorists, she claimed she'd been
abducted by a truck driver
00:09:32
and kept hostage for
two weeks. - DR. YARDLEY: She was subject
to torture, sexual assault,
00:09:39
and rape, and she actually
had a leash around her neck when she was found by
passing motorists.
00:09:45
So this was a victim of
Rhoades, this was somebody who had luckily managed
to escape with her life.
00:09:55
- NARRATOR: The police
drove the young woman across Houston looking for
Rhoades' truck.
00:10:02
- BOB: And they immediately
started searching for it and they found it. But when they brought
Rhoades out to the car
00:10:09
for her to look at him,
she just looked down, would not identify him,
said, "That's not him."
00:10:18
- NARRATOR: It was an
opportunity to stop Rhoades that sadly wasn't taken. - BOB: Later that day after they
let him go, she told 'em
00:10:28
that that was him but she
was too afraid to identify him even though there were
two police officers
00:10:34
by her side. She had been completely
terrorized and traumatized during the two week ordeal.
00:10:42
- GEOFFREY: Rhoades is such
a terrifying man that he puts literally the fear of God
into this young woman.
00:10:48
Now, that must have even
further confirmed Rhoades' absolute sense of
invulnerability.
00:10:57
It must have even further
inflated his already over-inflated ego. - NARRATOR: A chance to
put Rhoades safely
00:11:06
behind bars had been missed. For now, he remained free
to stalk the highways. By the Spring of 1990
the 44 year old had been
00:11:16
living as a sexual predator
and a murderer for over a decade,
but nobody had any idea.
00:11:23
His veneer of lies was about
to come crashing down. On the 1st of April, 1990,
a State Trooper named
00:11:30
Michael Miller spied a truck
on Interstate 10 in Casa Grande, Arizona. - MICHAEL: I observed a truck
parked on the side of the road
00:11:42
with its emergency lights on
but he had no triangles out. So I went up alongside of
the truck, well I pulled behind
00:11:50
the truck, had my lights
activated to go up and check on the driver
of the truck
00:11:55
and see what his situation was. - NARRATOR: Armed with
a flashlight Michael took
00:12:01
a look through the windows
of the truck. - MICHAEL: I saw some lights in
the back of--in a sleeper berth,
00:12:08
and peered in the window
of the driver's side of the truck. And I shone my flashlight in
and I heard--a woman
00:12:16
started screaming. And what I saw was a
woman, well, it looked like she had a horse bit
in her mouth.
00:12:23
- NARRATOR: Shocked to see
a woman with a metal restraint strapped to her
mouth, Michael was even
00:12:29
more surprised when a man
appeared out of the darkness of the cab. - The driver came sliding
out of the sleeper berth
00:12:37
and then came on down
to the pavement and put his hands up against the side
of the truck.
00:12:43
And he said, "That's okay,
officer, everything's fine. "We are consenting adults."
00:12:48
And I still heard screaming
coming from inside the truck. And he said, "I've got a gun
in my rear pocket."
00:12:58
And I patted him down
and felt it, took it out and put it in my pocket,
and then handcuffed him,
00:13:03
took him back to my
patrol car. I think he was probably
thinking, "How am I gonna get
out of this one?
00:13:09
What do I do now?" - NARRATOR: With the man
seemingly restrained Michael headed back
to the truck.
00:13:16
- MICHAEL: And when I got back
up there and looked inside, I saw a completely naked
female.
00:13:22
And I took a blanket that
was there and covered her up, told her that she was okay,
that the police were
00:13:29
taking care of it, and that
the driver would not bother her anymore. - NARRATOR: But had
Michael waited a minute more,
00:13:36
the man in his car,
Robert Ben Rhoades, would have been free. - When I went back to my
patrol car and Mr. Rhoades
00:13:45
had got his handcuffs in
front of him and he was in the process of trying
to get a key in his pocket
00:13:51
to get his handcuffs off. And if he'd have done that
he'd have been gone, he'd have fled the scene.
00:13:58
- NARRATOR: Robert Ben Rhoades
was arrested and taken to Casa Grande
Police Department.
00:14:15
- NARRATOR: Detectives
wanted to know more about the man who's home address
was over a thousand miles away
00:14:20
in Houston, Texas,
under the jurisdiction of FBI Agent Bob Lee. - BOB: He had been arrested
the night before
00:14:29
and they asked me to get some
background information on Rhoades since he lived
in Houston at the time.
00:14:36
- NARRATOR: The young
girl had been through a traumatic ordeal
at the hands of Rhoades.
00:14:41
- When the victim was
interviewed by the detective, she tells him
that Rhoades agreed
00:14:50
to give her a ride. And she said that she
fell asleep and when she woke up he had her chained in the
sleeper compartment
00:14:59
and was starting to take
her clothes off. He had his truck modified,
he had put some anchors
00:15:06
on both sides of the sleeper
where he could put handcuffs attached to a chain
on her feet,
00:15:12
and the same thing
with her hands. But she also said that,
you know, "I was going
to see the President."
00:15:20
It makes you wonder
what her grip on reality is, and then you take that back
to the allegation she's made,
00:15:30
and is that a credible
statement? - NARRATOR: The mental
state of the distressed woman
00:15:40
meant there was a chance
that Rhoades could walk free. - I think Rhoades believed he
was going to get away with this
00:15:47
because he very
deliberately chose victims who were vulnerable. This particular victim has
some mental health issues,
00:15:54
she experienced delusions,
but the police were very good at their jobs there
and they observed that
00:15:59
this woman's story never
changed, it was consistent, and that was what mattered.
00:16:04
- BOB:
Some of the things that helped corroborate her statement, she said that
when Rhoades approached her,
00:16:09
she was fighting,
trying to get away from him, and she said,
"I bit him on his shoulder."
00:16:23
- BOB: And he had a bite mark
on his shoulder. The case didn't go to trial,
Rhoades agreed to enter
00:16:30
a guilty plea
on a plea bargain and got a reduced sentence
on it. - NARRATOR: In December 1990,
Rhoades was sentenced
00:16:38
to six years for the kidnap
and sexual assault of the young woman. While Rhoades was in
custody Bob had begun
00:16:47
to unearth the past of the
45-year-old truck driver. - Well, the first thing I did
was check our national database
00:16:55
for his criminal
history and I found he was a suspect in a previous
kidnapping. I called the Houston Police
Department and spoke to
00:17:07
a detective in the Sex Crimes
Unit and obtained his report. - NARRATOR: The report told
the story of the woman
00:17:15
who was raped and kidnapped
but refused to identify Rhoades in February 1990. Bob was now aware of
two cases where women
00:17:24
had slipped through the grasp
of Robert Ben Rhoades. But he was certain that
searching the trucker's
00:17:31
apartment would uncover
any darker secrets. - I talked to the apartment
manager, after she saw
00:17:41
in the paper that he had
been arrested, she went up to his apartment to take
a look and told me that
00:17:48
she saw women's garments
all over the apartment. He also had chains and
handcuffs and there was
00:17:58
a white towel that had
a lot of blood on it. There were some racks
where he could, uh,
00:18:05
chain somebody to. - NARRATOR: The apartment
bore all the hallmarks of a sexual predator.
00:18:13
- I found a stack of
photographs, I think they were in his dresser drawer,
and it showed a young girl
00:18:21
who was in various stages
of dress, he had a lot of nude pictures of her,
he had pictures of her
00:18:28
chained up. And I could tell that he had
held her for a while because on some
of the photographs she had
00:18:36
some bruises but over time
the bruises were changing color, so that told me that
she had been captive
00:18:45
for at least a week or so. - DR. YARDLEY: So, they knew
that, at the very least,
00:18:50
he has definitely harmed
other women and at worst, killed them. But they didn't have any
actual cases to connect
00:18:56
this evidence to. So this was the beginning
of a very long investigation. - NARRATOR: The pictures
of the young girl preyed on
00:19:05
Bob's mind. - BOB:
I tried to identify the girl. I carried a picture with me and everytime I went to
a different police department
00:19:15
I'd show it to the officers
to see if any of them recognized her, did they
have a missing person case
00:19:23
or anything like that. - NARRATOR: In September 1990,
over 800 miles away, in Bond County, Illinois,
reports of the discovery
00:19:33
of a body landed on the desk
of Detective Michael Sheeley. - So I went out to this
rural community and met
00:19:40
with the Sheriff out there
and he had told me that a local farmer was gonna
donate this particular barn
00:19:48
to the fire department
to burn down. And he was making a
last-minute inspection and had found what he
believed to be the remains
00:19:55
of a human body. - NARRATOR: The badly
decomposed body was found up in the hayloft and it was
clear the victim
00:20:03
had been murdered. - DET. SHEELEY: It was very
apparent that there had been a wire garrote made,
a ligature if you will,
00:20:10
to place around
the victim's neck. And it's our belief that she
was bound and handcuffed
00:20:16
over a large beam that
raised her hands up, and it's our belief that he
placed the wire around
00:20:22
her neck then he continued
to squeeze that with this broken piece of board
throughout and then
00:20:27
strangled her to death. - And he twisted this ligature
at least 16 times, according to the medical
examiner, so he would not only
00:20:36
have enjoyed torturing her,
but he would have enjoyed watching her die. - NARRATOR: A forensic
anthropologist believed
00:20:45
that the body had been
in the barn for about six months. - The other thing he did
is that he gave us
00:20:51
gender identification,
said it was the body of a young girl. He gave us an age range
between 14 and 16 years old.
00:20:58
He gave us hair color,
which we thought would assist in the identification
early on.
00:21:03
What was alarming was
we had approximately 950 missing female girls
that fit her profile
00:21:11
and fit the time of death. So it became overwhelming
initially. - NARRATOR: Michael sent out
details of the victim
00:21:19
to missing persons
departments across the country. A detective in Pasadena, Texas,
soon got back to him.
00:21:28
- DET. SHEELEY: She contacted
me and she said that her victim, a runaway identified as
Regina Kay Walters,
00:21:34
her family had received an
anonymous telephone call after her disappearance
saying that she had been
00:21:40
left in a barn. - DR. YARDLEY: Regina's father
receives a call on his unlisted number,
00:21:46
so this is a number that
isn't publically available, Regina's one of the few
people who actually know it,
00:21:52
and he doesn't recognize
the caller, but the caller tells him that
he knows where Regina is,
00:21:57
that she's in a barn,
that he's cut her hair. And when her father asks,
"Is she still alive?"
00:22:03
the caller hangs up. - DET. SHEELEY: So immediately
a lot of red flags, this really sounds like
this could be our victim.
00:22:11
And so I asked if she had
dental records. - NARRATOR: The dental
records confirm that the body
00:22:17
belonged to Regina Walters,
who was just 14 years old. Detectives could finally put
a name to the face
00:22:25
on the shocking photographs
that had been found in Rhoades' apartment. - Well, the photographs,
to identify the young person
00:22:34
would have been impossible
for me from being out there, but the barn
that she entered,
00:22:40
I knew every square foot
of that barn. I had seen that barn
for days and days and so the minute I saw
the photographs
00:22:47
of her entering the barn
and going into the barn loft, and the
beams, it just gave you
00:22:51
that eerie feeling that--that, that's exactly what had happened
here in the end.
00:22:55
And so, we were onto
this case. - NARRATOR: Two photos
of Regina in particular were difficult to look at.
00:23:05
- DET. SHEELEY: He had
chronologically photographed her. The most telling for us
was how he had taken
00:23:11
photographs and staged
her death, and had staged them during the course
right before he killed her.
00:23:18
- And looking in her eyes
and looking at her face, you can tell that she's
terrified and at that point
00:23:26
she's just minutes from
being killed. When you see a photograph
like that you have to...
00:23:33
control your emotions,
it's a piece of evidence that you're looking at. You have to realize what
your goal is, your goal is to
00:23:42
take this piece of evidence,
tie it to someone, and be able to put
that person in jail.
00:23:49
- NARRATOR: The story of
how Regina Walters ended up in the truck of Robert Ben
Rhoades is a tragic one.
00:23:58
- Regina had a boyfriend,
Ricky Jones, and she and Ricky decided
to run away one day.
00:24:05
They were out on the
highway hitchhiking and Rhoades stopped his
truck and picked them up,
00:24:13
and took off with her, um, and that's the last
that she was seen. - She's just really a beautiful,
young, almost just
00:24:24
totally normal 14-year-old
girl with just a little rebellion streak. And unfortunately she made
the wrong decision.
00:24:31
- NARRATOR: Rhoades kept
Regina prisoner in the makeshift torture chamber
of his truck for two weeks.
00:24:38
It's widely believed that
he disposed of her 18-year-old boyfriend,
Ricky, almost immediately,
00:24:45
he was never seen again. - She was the prize
and the boyfriend was just surplus to requirements.
00:24:52
- NARRATOR: While the
investigation into Regina's murder continued,
Rhoades remained in prison
00:24:58
for kidnap and sexual assault. But by early 1992
he was due out on parole. - So the clock was ticking
for us to make a case
00:25:07
against Rhoades. - NARRATOR: Detectives
in Texas and Illinois had been working together
to build the case
00:25:13
against Rhoades. If they didn't charge him
soon, the dangerous killer would be released.
00:25:20
Finally,
they had enough evidence. - The District Attorney
in Bond County, Illinois,
00:25:29
issued an arrest warrant
for Rhoades for the murder of Regina Walters just prior
to him being released
00:25:37
from prison in Arizona. And Detective Sheeley
flew out to the prison to serve him with the
arrest warrant and to bring him
00:25:47
back to Illinois to face
the charges. - NARRATOR: Detective
Michael Sheeley remembers
00:25:55
meeting Rhoades in the
Arizona prison and confronting him with
the evidence linking him
00:26:00
to Regina. - DET. SHEELEY: He was cold,
he was calculated, he didn't have any trouble
looking you square in the eye
00:26:08
and saying he's not involved. We provided him with the
arrest warrant for murder,
00:26:13
still no reaction,
nothing at all. And so I had a 8x10
photograph of Regina and I put it on the table
in front of him,
00:26:21
turned it around, and I said,
"This is your victim." And it was the first time
any emotion out of him,
00:26:27
but it wasn't an emotion
of sorrow or an emotion of something that he had
done, it was--he was angry.
00:26:35
And he got up and said that
the interview was over, he wouldn't speak to us
any longer.
00:26:40
- NARRATOR:
At a court hearing on the 11th of September, 1992, Rhoades agreed to a plea
bargain,
00:26:47
he admitted
to murdering Regina Walters so he wouldn't have to face
the death penalty.
00:26:52
- DET. SHEELEY:
The courtroom was packed, a great deal of spectators, there had been a lot of interest
in this case
00:26:58
because there
was now speculation that he was a serial killer. - DR. YARDLEY: He didn't just
plead guilty,
00:27:03
he plead guilty with a smile, he was reveling in the trauma
that he created. And for me that shows that
he was still very much
00:27:11
the sexual sadist that he'd
always been, this is somebody who hadn't changed
whatsoever.
00:27:16
And I think he enjoyed
the opportunity to relive the details of these killings. - NARRATOR: Regina Walters'
family couldn't travel
00:27:23
all the way from Texas
to Illinois to be in the courtroom,
but Michael Sheeley made sure
00:27:29
he conveyed their feelings
to the killer. - DET. SHEELEY: As he was
beginning to exit the courtroom
00:27:35
I just became overly aware,
if you will, that there was no one there on behalf
of Regina and so I mentioned
00:27:42
to him in a very small, faint
voice as he began to pass me, that it was certainly my
pleasure that I was gonna
00:27:49
get to send him to prison
for the rest of his life. And he was really upset
at that comment
00:27:56
and told me to "Get [bleep]." And so, maybe not as
professional as I should have been, I returned and
told him where he was going
00:28:09
I was hoping that was gonna
happen to him. So that was my last real
conversation with
00:28:14
Robert Ben Rhoades and
looking back at it, I'm kind of glad that that's
what I told him.
00:28:19
- NARRATOR: With Rhoades
behind bars, investigations continued into possible
victims of the killer.
00:28:25
There were many missing
persons who fitted his MO. - BOB: Rhoades would target
his victims, generally people
00:28:34
that either had mental
deficiencies or heavy drug users that he
picked up hitchhiking.
00:28:42
He referred to 'em as
lot lizards, these are, as he described, women
that hang around truck stops
00:28:50
to take care of the truckers
or to swap sex for rides somewhere. - GEOFFREY: He is so itinerant,
he literally crosses state line
00:29:01
after state line
after state line all over the United States. They aren't to know it,
but when they climb into
00:29:08
the cab of Rhoades' truck,
their lives have changed forever. - NARRATOR: In 2003,
11 years after Rhoades
00:29:19
had been imprisoned for
the murder of Regina Walters, Texas Ranger Brooks Long
began investigating
00:29:25
the disappearance of two
hitchhiking newlyweds, Douglas Zyskowski
and Patricia Walsh,
00:29:32
who had been missing since
January, 1990. - They were both from
Seattle, Washington.
00:29:38
They had basically given up
their personal belongings and were traveling to the
East coast of the United States
00:29:44
primarily for religious reasons. The family searched
extensively for them, but then the remains of
Douglas were located
00:29:54
around 1990, but there was
not a formal identification of it being Douglas Zyskowski
00:29:59
until 1992
through dental records. So, there wasn't much
to go on, there was no witnesses, there were
several suspects but nobody
00:30:08
was actually linked to the
crime. - NARRATOR: 28-year-old
Douglas' remains had been
00:30:13
discovered in Crockett County,
Texas. Brooks wanted to look at
the ballistic evidence
00:30:19
that had been found
at the scene. - Mr. Zyskowski was shot
multiple times in the head.
00:30:26
He was shot with a Jennings
J-22 semi-automatic handgun, this information
was obtained by not only
00:30:32
the projectiles removed from
his head but also the casings that were left behind on
the crime scene that were
00:30:37
collected by law enforcement. So what was unique about
the ballistic information
00:30:43
was that the ammunition
used in the murder of Mr. Zyskowski
was very rare. - NARRATOR: This tarson
branded ammunition
00:30:53
had a noticeable T on the
casings, this fact had initially ruled Rhoades out
as the potential killer.
00:31:01
- BROOKS: The reason he was
eliminated at that time was simply because the
ammunition that was
00:31:09
seized from Robert Ben
Rhoades was marketed under the name
of Armscor. - NARRATOR: Brooks contacted
the Casa Grande police
00:31:18
to take a closer
look at the ammunition that was found in Rhoades
truck when he was arrested
00:31:24
for kidnap
back in April, 1990. - And when he called me
I asked him to open the Armscor box
and to describe the head stamp
00:31:34
on the casing. And he said it's a T. So that was the first clue
that this is the guy,
00:31:43
most probably is the guy,
and we need to put efforts and resources into this,
because that all matched.
00:31:50
- NARRATOR: With a possible
link between Rhoades and Douglas secured,
Brooks gathered
00:31:55
all the information he had
on the killer and concentrated his efforts towards connecting
Rhoades to Douglas'
00:32:02
24-year-old wife,
Patricia Walsh. - She's probably out there
somewhere and they may not even know who she is
because Douglas had no
00:32:11
identification, he had no
clothing, Regina Kay Walters didn't have any identification,
she didn't have any clothing.
00:32:19
So when you looked at those
two situations, what I started doing was looking
for a red-headed female
00:32:27
in her mid-20's that was
probably naked and would have been shot with a
Jennings J-22 handgun
00:32:34
with tarson ammunition. - NARRATOR: Brooks
received word of a possible unidentified body in
Millard County, Utah.
00:32:44
- So after I obtained that
information, I reached out to the Millard County
Sheriff's Office and inquired
00:32:52
as to the status of that case. And what I was told by
their Chief Deputy was, "We haven't solved it
and the skeletal remains
00:33:04
are actually inside our
evidence vault." So I was able to tell him,
"I know who that victim is,
00:33:10
and I also know who
killed her." - NARRATOR: Brooks was
right, dental records revealed
00:33:15
that the remains belonged
to Patricia Walsh. - Millard County had
projectiles and had casings
00:33:23
that matched, the same gun
that killed Douglas Zyskowski killed Patricia Candace Walsh.
00:33:29
So that was linked. Then the timeline on the
records, we were able to determine that Rhoades
was traveling westbound.
00:33:38
So what made sense
was is he eliminated Douglas Zyskowski first. - DR. YARDLEY: Douglas was
essentially just a barrier
00:33:47
because Patricia
was what Rhoades wanted. So he killed Douglas, he
dumped his body very quickly
00:33:53
but he kept Patricia alive for
seven days and he tortured her and he raped her before
he eventually killed her
00:34:00
and disposed of her body. - NARRATOR: In 2003,
13 years after her remains had been found in Utah,
00:34:09
Patricia Walsh
had been identified, another innocent
victim of Robert Ben Rhoades.
00:34:17
- Patricia must have been
absolutely terrified during the days that she spent
with Rhoades.
00:34:22
And I think during this time
she probably tried to placate him, she probably
tried to plead with him
00:34:28
and interact with him,
but there would be absolutely no reaction to that from
Rhoades because this guy
00:34:35
was, essentially, a killing
machine, he wasn't affected by other people's trauma
or emotion.
00:34:41
He got off on people's fear. And I think the more afraid
that Patricia was the more he enjoyed it.
00:34:48
- NARRATOR: Investigators
still needed to find some hard evidence
that linked Rhoades
00:34:53
to the newlywed hitchhikers before they could prosecute him
with their murders. - BROOKS: So, now became an
analysis and comparison not only
00:35:03
for DNA under Douglas
Zyskowski, now there was analysis to be done
and comparisons relating
00:35:10
to Patricia Candace Walsh. And what had happened
on that is eventually there was a match that was located
on a white towel that was
00:35:20
seized from Robert Ben Rhoades'
truck that was matched to the DNA of
Patricia Candace Walsh.
00:35:28
So there was an affirmative
link. The MO, the timeline,
these things fit. Rhoades was in custody,
he was in jail
00:35:38
in the state of Illinois. - NARRATOR: By March, 2012
Rhoades had served 20 years for the murder of
Regina Walters.
00:35:46
But he was due to be
released. Now investigators needed
to convince a grand jury
00:35:52
that he was guilty of two
more slayings before Rhoades was freed. Once again,
the clock was ticking.
00:36:00
Texas Ranger Brooks Long
needed a jury to indict Rhoades based on the new facts
he'd uncovered.
00:36:09
- BROOKS: The Crockett County
Grand Jury returned two indictments for capital
murder on Robert Ben Rhoades
00:36:15
for the murder of
Douglas Scott Zyskowski and Patricia Candace Walsh
based on the evidence
00:36:21
and the information that
was presented. So essentially he was
extradited and detained
00:36:27
in the state of Texas. And as we were preparing
for trial, he plead guilty to both cases and received
multiple life sentences.
00:36:36
- NARRATOR: The killings
of Douglas and Patricia took the number
of Rhoades' known victims
00:36:41
to at least three. After working as a truck driver
for over a decade, he'd honed his method of murder.
00:36:49
- DET. SHEELEY: I think that
Robert Ben Rhoades preyed on people that--
I think we coined the term later
00:36:55
as disposable. He looked at people that had
some checkered history, people that he believed
wouldn't immediately
00:37:03
be missed, and so I think
he systematically profiled his victim, if you will. And I think he was very
good at it.
00:37:11
And unfortunately there's
a lot of those folks out there and Rhoades knew that. He had an endless supply
of people that he could
00:37:17
prey on and he did. - GEOFFREY: As far as Rhoades
is concerned, any woman hitchhiking or working in
a truck stop is fair game,
00:37:29
And after all,
who's gonna miss them? It is a perfect combination. If you would devise a
fictional serial killer
00:37:39
Rhoades would be a very,
very good example. - NARRATOR: Brooks Long
continued his search
00:37:45
for victims of Rhoades. There was one obvious
person to start with, Ricky Jones, the 18-year-old
boyfriend of Regina Walters.
00:37:56
- After the work had been
done to identify who the killer was relating to
Douglas Zyskowski
00:38:04
and Patricia Walsh, then
there was resources put into myself and trying to locate
Ricky Lee Jones.
00:38:12
Because as I reviewed the
file and reached out to officers and witnesses in
that case, it was obvious
00:38:20
that he had never
been located, his remains had never been
found. - NARRATOR: Ricky had
been missing since early 1990.
00:38:27
Evidence found in Rhoades'
truck when he was arrested in Arizona
just weeks after that
00:38:33
suggested that he could be
the killer. - During the course of the
search that was done by the FBI
00:38:39
there was a
notebook that was found, a very, very alarming
notebook where Rhoades
00:38:45
had kept information. In that information, in that
notebook, was phone numbers and family names,
there was even a notation
00:38:54
with a drawing of a knife
with appeared to be, like, blood drops and it said, "Ricky's dead,
Ricky Jones is dead."
00:39:05
- NARRATOR: Brooks sent
out information to police departments, he was
desperate to locate Ricky.
00:39:12
- We didn't get anything
back from these agencies, but as I, on my own,
started searching
00:39:18
unsolved homicides and
looking at various databases online I essentially came
across a young white male's
00:39:27
remains that were found
in Mississippi. I then reached out to
law enforcement and it was unfortunate because
we were able to obtain
00:39:36
some teeth from the remains
in Mississippi and we were able to obtain samples,
biological samples
00:39:45
from Ricky Lee Jones'
biological mother, and those were compared
and they were matched.
00:39:51
So we knew that we had
located Ricky Lee Jones, the bad part about that
was that the remains
00:40:00
could not all be located,
so Robert Ben Rhoades has never stood trial
for the abduction
00:40:06
and murder of Ricky Lee Jones simply because there was
a lack of evidence. - NARRATOR: Despite not
being able to link Rhoades
00:40:14
to the crime, it is widely
believed that he did kill the 18-year-old before
murdering Ricky's girlfriend,
00:40:21
Regina Walters. Investigators believe Rhoades
is responsible for the deaths of many more innocent people.
00:40:29
- DR. YARDLEY: This is a case
that is--is unresolved. It's a case that's incomplete.
00:40:34
There are going to be many,
many families across America missing relatives who've
been murdered by this individual
00:40:41
and they deserve justice. - DET. SHEELEY: I think during
the course of the investigation,
00:40:45
initially, we believed that
it was probably in the neighborhood
of probably 10 to 15.
00:40:52
But as the investigation grew
and the FBI spent a lot of time with it,
the behavioral science unit
00:40:58
spent a great deal of time
and effort, and they had actually linked him up
to approximately 45 homicides
00:41:04
throughout the United States
that not only fit his profile, but fit his timeline as well,
as a truck driver.
00:41:13
- BROOKS: I don't think there's
any doubt that there's other victims and there's other
crimes that can be linked
00:41:20
to Robert Ben Rhoades. I think that science and the ability to link
potential suspects
00:41:30
through DNA are somewhat limited
in this case because of his
MO and what he would do
00:41:36
with those victims. But as other agencies become
aware of Robert Ben Rhoades, hopefully
some of this information
00:41:45
will get back to the right
investigator, or officer, or even family member
that might be able to listen
00:41:52
and say, "Hey, why don't
you look at this guy?" - NARRATOR: Whatever
the true number of victims,
00:41:58
there could have been many
more had it not been for a chance encounter
on the side of the I-10
00:42:04
in Casa Grande, Arizona
in April, 1990. - The most striking moment
in the case is that wonderful
00:42:14
Arizona highway patrol
officer coming upon this rig with its hazard lights flashing,
climbing up,
00:42:22
looking through the window,
and seeing a young woman trapped in the cab who starts
screaming.
00:42:28
That was the moment in
which finally Rhoades' extraordinary run of killing
came to an end.
00:42:39
- And had that officer not
gone to check on that truck, he could well be killing
people right now.
00:42:45
- I had a phone call from
her many, many, many years ago, she--she
thanked me for--
00:42:53
for saving her life. I said, "Well, hey,
I was just doing my job. "You enjoy your life
and have a good one.
00:42:59
I'm glad you have a life
to have." - NARRATOR: Robert Ben
Rhoades remains safely
00:43:04
behind bars at the Millard
Correctional Center in Illinois. He will never be released
from prison.
00:43:12
- DET. SHEELEY: I think that
Robert Ben Rhoades is probably the most evil person I've ever
met in my life
00:43:17
and I've met a lot
of evil people. - GEOFFREY: I hesitate
and always have hesitated
00:43:22
to use the word 'monster' but
Rhoades certainly deserves to be called a monster.
00:43:26
- BROOKS: I dealt with many
murderers, but of all of those, the one that stands out,
as far as the lack of emotion,
00:43:33
the lack of remorse,
he wins the prize by far. There is no feeling to this
man, there is no inkling
00:43:43
of remorse, there's no inkling
of anything. The only regret he has is
that he got caught.
00:43:50
- NARRATOR: Robert Ben
Rhoades is a cold-blooded sexual predator who preyed
upon vulnerable women
00:43:56
for his own self gratification. He would chain his victims
in his truck and torture them
00:44:02
before disposing of their
lifeless bodies in the most callous manner. Only Rhoades knows exactly
how many people he has killed
00:44:12
and his reluctance
to give closure to the loved ones of his victims
undoubtedly makes him
00:44:18
one of the world's most evil
killers. - ♪ ♪♪ - [swishing sound]