USA - Freeway Killers 2
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[00:00:00] August 29th, 1979. A routine day at a Union 76 gas station in Long Beach took a horrifying turn. Behind the station, nestled amidst the trash and debris, lay a gruesome discovery. Two trash bags and a cardboard box. Their contents, a macabre puzzle yet to be solved. As the authorities peeled back the layers of this chilling mystery, the truth unfolded in a wave of horror. dismembered remains of a young English tourist, Keith Anthony Jackson.

His body, a grotesque mosaic of fragments. told a tale of unspeakable violence. Only his head, torso, and left leg were ever recovered. The rest of his body disappeared without a trace, leaving only the devastating reality of the cruelty he endured. The discovery of the remains left investigators perplexed.

[00:01:00] For over a decade, bodies of young men had been found along Southern California's highways, With many of the murders linked to Patrick Kearney, the notorious Trash Bag Killer. But by the time Keith Jackson's body was uncovered, Kearney was already behind bars.

There was another sinister clue however. Similar to the body of Marine Eddie Moore, who was murdered in 1972, Keith's body was found with a sock in his rectum. What did this mean? Had they missed something? Was there a copycat on the loose? Or were they facing an entirely new, yet equally twisted predator?

It wasn't until the 1980s that the term serial killer became widely recognized, largely due to the growing media coverage of infamous murderers like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and David Berkowitz, also known as the son of Sam. At the time, [00:02:00] The concept of a serial killer seemed like a uniquely American phenomenon, with the public gripped by stories of these horrific crimes.

While the United States does have a high number of serial killers, it's now clear that they exist across the globe. Some suggest that the American media's focus on such crimes has amplified the perception of their prevalence in the U. S.

But research shows that serial killings occur worldwide. In fact, the US accounts for about 67 percent of documented serial killers, but countries like the UK, South Africa, and Russia have also produced their share of notorious figures.

During the 1970s and 1980s, over 100 young men lost their lives along California's freeways, their deaths attributed to a series of transient killers. Some of these victims have been identified, while others remain nameless to this day. Many were marginalized individuals, runaways, hitchhikers, or people living on society's [00:03:00] fringes, and their disappearance often went unnoticed by the broader public.

The crimes were underreported at the time, overshadowed by more sensationalized cases. The causes of death varied, some victims were shot, others strangled or beaten. Despite the range of methods, these killers had one thing in common, their ability to evade law enforcement by exploiting gaps in communication between jurisdictions. In part one, we delved into the horrifying crimes of Patrick Kearney and William Bonin. Both men terrorized Southern California in the 1970s, preying on vulnerable young men. By the early 1980s, both killers were incarcerated, seemingly bringing an end to their reign of terror along the freeways.

However, despite their arrests, the killings did not stop.

More bodies turned up. Raising an [00:04:00] uncomfortable question. Was there yet another serial killer out there? On January 27th, 1983, a 21 year old hitchhiker named Eric Church vanished without a trace. Last seen alive in Orange County, California, Church was headed north towards Sacramento.

His body was tragically discovered, discarded, along Interstate 605 the following day. An autopsy revealed that Church had been subjected to a horrific ordeal. He had consumed a lethal combination of alcohol and Valium and had been subjected to sexual assault. Rope marks on his wrists indicated a desperate struggle against his captors.

Ultimately, Church succumbed to the combined effects of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Then. Again. Still more carnage. On February 12th, 1983, a night of revelry turned into a [00:05:00] nightmare. Two young friends, Jeffrey Nelson and Roger Duvall, left their friend's house in Buena Park, California, with plans to grab a bite to eat. Little did they know, their innocent outing would lead to tragedy.

Hours later, their bodies were discovered in two chillingly similar locations. Jeffrey Nelson, his body emasculated and bearing the marks of strangulation, was found dumped along the Garden Grove Freeway. bound, sodomized, and strangled, was discovered discarded on a mountainside near Mount Baldy.

Both victims had been drugged with a lethal combination of alcohol and propranolol. And in a chilling twist, both had traces of potato skins and grapes in their stomachs, suggesting that they shared a last meal together before their horrendous ordeal.

In May 1983, police pulled a man over for erratic driving. [00:06:00] What they discovered inside his car turned a routine stop into a full blown homicide investigation. In the passenger seat of the Toyota Celica was the body of 25 year old Marine Terry Gambrill, who had been strangled with his own belt.

The driver of the car was a clean cut, eloquent man named Randy Kraft.

The investigation into Kraft's life revealed a nightmarish pattern of torture, murder, and depravity. you recall, we covered the case of Randy Kraft in Evidence Locker, Episode 3.

Unlike Kearney, who killed quickly, Kraft took time with his victims. He often drugged them with alcohol and sedatives, rendering them helpless as he carried out his diabolical acts. His victims bore signs of prolonged torture, burns, mutilation, and sexual assault. Kraft's distinctive method became evident when investigators found paper tissue residue in the nostrils of two victims, [00:07:00] a technique often used in the military to prevent bodily fluids from escaping after death.

Additionally, the insertion of socks into the victims' rectums was theorized to serve the same purpose, ensuring that the bodies remained clean while being transported to their final disposal sites. Perhaps most disturbing of all was the discovery of a notebook in Kraft's car, which contained a cryptic list of phrases and locations.

This was his scorecard. A sickening tally of his victims. Investigators linked Kraft to at least 16 murders, though the true number may be as high as 67. Kraft was a different breed of killer. Calculated, methodical, and chillingly organized. His intelligence and outwardly unremarkable appearance allowed him to blend in easily with society.

But his crimes were anything but ordinary. [00:08:00] Prosecutor Bryan Brown even called him 'abnormally normal'. A grim description of a monster masquerading as an ordinary son, friend, and co worker.

Randy Stephen Kraft was born on March 19, 1945 in Long Beach, California. He was the youngest of four children in a family where his father, Harold, was distant and uninvolved, while his mother, Opal, doted on him, compensating for the lack of paternal affection. Despite some early childhood accidents, Kraft excelled academically, joining advanced classes, playing the saxophone, and becoming active in school clubs.

He even majored in economics at Claremont Men's College on a full scholarship, though he began living a double life, frequenting gay bars while keeping his sexual orientation hidden from his family. In his early 20s, Kraft joined the Air Force, where he served at Edwards Air Force Base, [00:09:00] but the pressure of hiding his homosexuality led him to come out to his superiors, resulting in his discharge on medical grounds in 1969.

He returned to Southern California where he immersed himself in the local gay scene, engaging in increasingly risky and violent sexual behaviors. By the 1970s, Kraft was driving along California's highways, offering rights to young men, many of them Marines, before drugging, torturing, and murdering them.

Among Kraft's victims were three men we mentioned in the previous episode, Richard Allen Keith, Ronald Young and Scott Michael Hughes. Their bodies were all found along California's highways at the height of Kearney's killing streak and may have mistakenly been attributed to him.

One has to wonder if the killers ever unwittingly crossed paths, driving past each other, each with a victim in their car. This, of course, [00:10:00] is only speculation. But ultimately, Kraft's arrest in 1983 marked the end of a killing spree that spanned more than a decade. However, halfway across the country,

there was yet another elusive criminal, who became known as the Highway Killer. Larry Eyler was a truck driver, traveling across multiple states, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Eyler's early life laid the foundation for the troubled and violent path he would later follow. Born on December 21st, 1952 in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Larry was the youngest of four children in a deeply dysfunctional family.

His father George was an alcoholic who physically and emotionally abused Larry, his siblings, and their mother, Shirley. By 1955, the strain on the family had reached its breaking point, and Larry's parents divorced, leaving his mother to struggle alone to support the [00:11:00] children. Shirley worked long hours and multiple jobs to make ends meet.

The Eyler children were often left in the care of babysitters, foster families, or even their older siblings. four separations and the brief reunions with his mother brought him closer to her. But the damage was undeniable. The constant instability, the lack of attention and the unrelenting abuse from the man in his mother's life scarred him deeply. By 1957, Shirley remarried, but the cycle of domestic turmoil continued. This second marriage, like her next two, was short lived, marked by alcoholism and abuse. One of Larry's stepfathers reportedly disciplined him by holding his head under scalding water.

As a teenager, Larry Eyler showed signs of erratic behavior. leading his mother to place him in a home for unruly boys. This devastated him, [00:12:00] and within weeks he pleaded with Shirley to let him return home. Shortly afterward, psychological evaluations revealed that Eyler was of average intelligence, but deeply insecure.

He harbored a profound fear of abandonment, an issue that the psychologists traced back to his chaotic home life. As Larry Eyler entered puberty, he realized that he was gay. And despite his internal conflict, he came out to his family. At school, he still pretended to be straight and even dated a few girls, but the relationships were never physical.

Seeing himself as religious, Eyler struggled to reconcile his sexual orientation with his faith, causing significant conflict within himself over the years.. In his 20s, he appeared to become more comfortable with his sexuality and immersed himself in Indianapolis gay community, frequenting bars and engaging in casual relationships with men however, his internal struggles continued.

Some of his partners reported that Eyler [00:13:00] averted his eyes during intercourse and shouted profanities such as BITCH and WHORE, leading some to believe he was imagining his partners were women. Other partners later described Eyler as having a sadistic streak that surfaced during sexual encounters. He was known to inflict harm on his partners, often bludgeoning them and making shallow knife wounds, particularly on the torsos.

In August 1978, when Eyler was 26, an incident took place in Terre Haute, Indiana, that should have raised a massive red flag. Craig Long was stabbed in the chest after refusing the sexual advances of the man who had picked him up.

, Long pretended to be dead and managed to crawl to a nearby farmhouse where he was found and treated by paramedics. While they tended to him The man responsible for the attack unexpectedly arrived at the scene. His name was Larry Eyler. And he claimed the stabbing [00:14:00] had been an accident. However, a search of Eyler's vehicle suggested otherwise. Inside, police discovered a disturbing collection of weapons and tools, including a sword, hunting knives, tear gas, and handcuffs.

Items typically associated with abduction and violence. Casting doubt on his claim that Craig Long's stabbing had been an accident. Still, Eyler only received a slap on the wrist for this crime. He only had to pay $43 for court fees. And so, Eyler was free to embark on his killing spree, which spanned which spanned from the early 1980s until his capture in 1984. Unlike Kearney, Kraft, and Bonin, Eyler's victims were spread across state lines, making it difficult for authorities to connect the dots at first. He was dubbed the Highway Killer. or the Interstate Killer, due to his tendency to leave his victims near highways, sometimes hundreds of miles apart. [00:15:00] Eyler's first known murder occurred in 1982, but it's believed he may have begun killing as early as 1981.

His victims were mostly young men, many of whom were hitchhikers or runaways. Like Bonin, Eyler did not work alone. His partner in crime was his housemate, Robert David Little. Little was a 38 year old library science professor Eyler had met during his time at Indiana State University in 1974. Their relationship was platonic, with Eyler considering Little a father figure.

Despite their frequent outings within Indianapolis' gay community, Little, a socially awkward and unattractive individual, struggled to form friendships or find romantic partners. To alleviate Little's loneliness, Eyler would often bring young men to their home for sexual encounters involving both himself and Little But even that didn't provide satiety. [00:16:00] Eyler had a diabolical killing career and his hunger for blood and violence seemed to know no bounds.

Between October and December, five young men died at the hands of Larry Eyler. They were killed in various locations across Illinois and Indiana. According to Eyler, he was spurred on by Little, who was a keen photographer and documented the torture and murders. A week before Christmas of 1982, Eyler would later claim Little suggested they "do a scene,"

meaning commit a murder for sexual pleasure, while Little photograph the event with his Polaroid camera, they lured 23-year-old Steven Agan who agreed to participate in a bondage session for money. Eyler eventually testified that Little instructed him to stab Agan while photographing the scene,

and also personally stabbed Agan before ordering Eyler to finish the murder. Little allegedly kept Agan's undershirt as a trophy [00:17:00] and expressed dissatisfaction with the murder, claiming it had happened too quickly. Agan's body was found in woodland near Indiana State Road 63.

The crime scene investigation revealed traces of human flesh on the walls of a nearby abandoned farm building, suggesting Eyler had suspended Agan there while inflicting numerous stab wounds.

Before the year was over, Eyler committed two more murders, that of John Roach and David Block. Another seventeen bodies, or parts of bodies, were discovered before the fall of 1983. Some victims were identified and others remain unknown to this day. The scene discovered near an abandoned farmhouse in Lake Village, Indiana, in October 1983 alludes to the callous disregard Eyler had for human life.

The partially decomposed bodies of four victims were found. These bodies were haphazardly buried around an oak tree, with limbs protruding from their shallow [00:18:00] graves. Each victim had been stabbed over two dozen times with a large blade. As investigators across state lines began connecting the gruesome murders of young men, suspicion gradually began to zero in on one suspect, Larry Eyler.

Though he hadn't yet been formally implicated, the pieces of his life and the growing evidence painted a macabre picture. The turning point came on September 30th, 1983, when Eyler was pulled over in Lowell, Indiana for what seemed like a routine traffic violation. He wasn't alone. Next to him sat a young hitchhiker.

The traffic stop quickly escalated when police searched Eyler's truck, uncovering disturbing items, nylon rope, a knife, and handcuffs. Authorities wasted no time in linking him to the series of murders plaguing Indiana and Illinois. They found more alarming clues, including evidence linking Eyler's boots and tire tracks to the murder scene of 28 [00:19:00] year old Ralph Calise, whose mutilated body had been discovered near a tollway in Illinois.

The brutality of Calise's murder, along with the repeated stabbing of several other victims, mirrored Eyler's past behavior. It seemed like an open and shut case. And on October 27th, police felt confident enough to formally charge Eyler with Calise's murder. The growing pile of circumstantial evidence, from phone records to gas station receipts, placing him near the crime scenes made it clear that he was no stranger to these killings.

Investigators believed Eyler was responsible for many of the murders that had haunted the region for months, if not years. However, justice would prove elusive. Despite the mounting evidence Eyler's, defense team led by attorney David Shippers pulled out all the legal stops.

They argued that police had overstepped their bounds. Eyler had been detained [00:20:00] without probable cause after the initial traffic stop. and his constitutional rights had been violated during the searches that followed. They fought to suppress nearly all the evidence, including the tire tracks, boot prints, and even the murder weapon.

In a stupefying decision on February 1st, 1984, Judge William Block ruled in favor of the defense. Although he acknowledged Eyler's connection to the murder scenes, he concluded that the methods used to obtain key evidence were unconstitutional. It was ordered that all the physical evidence against Eyler had to be thrown out.

Eyler, the man law enforcement believed responsible for the deaths of at least 20 young men, was released from custody on February 6th, 1984.

His bond had been reduced to just ten thousand dollars. A sum easily covered by his family and close friend and alleged accomplice, Robert [00:21:00] Little. As Eyler walked free, the frustration among investigators was palpable. They had been so close to convicting the man they believed to be the infamous Highway Murderer.

But now, as a result of procedural missteps, he was back on the streets. And there was not much they could do to stop him. As predicted Eyler killed again. His final downfall came in 1984 when he was arrested for the murder of 16 year old Daniel Bridges. Daniel was the youngest of 13 children and a neglected child.

He turned to prostitution and was picked up by Eyler, who took him into his Chicago apartment. Later, janitors witnessed Eyler throwing a bunch of plastic bags in a dumpster of a neighboring block of apartments. They thought it was a mere case of illegal dumping. And when they went to have a closer look, they found the boy's mutilated body in several bags.

The janitor was able to [00:22:00] identify the man who dumped the bags as Larry Eyler, which led police straight to his door. This time, Eyler implicated Little in exchange for leniency during his trial. He confessed to the murders, providing grisly details about his killing spree. He was sentenced to death and spent the remainder of his life on death row, where he died of AIDS related complications in 1994.

Before he died, however, Eyler made a full confession, admitting to more than 20 murders across multiple states, which his lawyer revealed posthumously.

Traveling back to California, after Randy Kraft's arrest in 1983, the string of freeway murders in Southern California also came to an end. Yet the horrors unleashed by Kraft, Kearney, and Bonin left a lasting scar on the state.

For years, they had transformed California's highways into their personal hunting grounds, embodying the darkest facets of human nature. [00:23:00] Their crimes would continue to haunt the collective memory for decades to follow. Each of the four serial killers, Patrick Kearney, William Bonin, Randy Kraft, and Larry Eyler, had been apprehended at some point before their final arrests, only to be released back into society.

This failure to recognize the severity of their crimes proved disastrous. Sexual predators, particularly those with violent tendencies, are notoriously resistant to rehabilitation. Despite clear warning signs, law enforcement's decision to release these men enabled them to continue their killing sprees, costing the lives of countless young men.

Kearney, for instance, had been questioned multiple times before his arrest, while Bonin and Eyler both had prior convictions for sexual assault, but were set free, allowing them to murder.

Their combined body count reached staggering numbers, well over 100 confirmed [00:24:00] victims. Freeway Killer Patrick Kearney, also known as the Trash Bag Killer, was meticulous in his method of disposal. He would dismember his victims and discard their remains in trash bags. To recap, Kearney ultimately confessed to 32 murders, though it is suspected that his actual number of victims could be higher.

His calm, calculated approach masked a violent and dark inner life.

Freeway Killer Randy Kraft, also known as the Scorecard Killer, ~Palmer,~ whose precise and detailed list of victims became key evidence in his prosecution, was another highly methodical killer. Often involving torture and mutilation in his crimes, Kraft's cruelty was systematic. He is believed to be responsible for as many as 67 murders.

His educated background, good job, and seemingly stable life stood in stark contrast to the horrors that he inflicted. In many aspects. [00:25:00] Kraft and Kearney were quite similar in the ways they executed their crimes. All the time, maintaining a facade of a clean cut, respectable, day to day life. William Bonin is probably the perpetrator mostly linked to the alias of the Freeway Killer. Bonin was called the most arch evil person who ever existed by the prosecutor at his first trial. He was responsible for the rape, torture, and strangulation of at least 21 victims.

Though authorities again believed the actual toll was much higher. Unlike Kearney and Kraft, Bonin frequently worked with accomplices to carry out his gruesome acts. His troubled and abusive upbringing may have set him on a path of extreme violence, differentiating him from the more controlled methods of Kearney and Kraft.

While Larry Eyler's confirmed victims are primarily found in the Midwest, his travels and activities may have extended as far as California. Some investigators have [00:26:00] speculated that Eyler may be linked to unsolved cases in the state. Particularly those involving young men who were found murdered in similar circumstances.

This suspicion never went beyond speculation though, and unclaimed victims in California bearing the same signs were presumed to have been Bonins. Despite their different backgrounds, Kearney and Kraft shared notable similarities. Both came from relatively stable homes, and led outwardly successful lives, but struggled with their sexuality in an era of intolerance.

Each had long term, but troubled relationships, often going on long drives following domestic disputes during which they would seek out their victims. In contrast, Bonin's and Eyler's chaotic childhoods and need for accomplices set them apart, showing a far different psychological profile.

Three of these predators prod the streets at a time when California was reeling from a [00:27:00] surge in violent crime. Alongside Kearney, Kraft and Bonin, other serial killers, such as the Hillside Stranglers, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi were terrorizing the region, abducting, torturing, and killing young women. Just like the toolbox killers, Lawrence Bideker and Roy Norris.

Even the still unidentified Zodiac Killer continued to taunt the public with his cryptic messages. And the Zebra Killers were also striking fear into communities with their racially motivated attacks. Unfortunately though, there are even more than this. The sheer volume of violent crime in California made it difficult for authorities to connect the dots between these transient killers.

This played a significant role in shaping modern law enforcement's approach to handling serial crimes.

At the time, these killers were able to exploit gaps in communication between law enforcement agencies across different cities, counties, and states, allowing them to move undetected as they carried out their crimes. This period [00:28:00] exposed critical weaknesses in the system, particularly when it came to tracking and identifying patterns of violence that spanned multiple jurisdictions.

The lack of shared databases meant that crucial information, such as victim profiles, forensic evidence, and investigative leads, often stayed confined within local police departments.

Serial killers who operated across county or state lines like Kearney and Bonin could evade capture for longer because police departments were not able to easily share or compare case details. For example, in Bonin's case, his crimes spanned multiple counties, which slowed the investigation until a task force was created to address the growing number of freeway murders.

The law enforcement community recognized the need for a more unified system to streamline investigations and share critical information. This era of high profile serial crimes led to the development of several key initiatives and systems aimed at improving coordination between different agencies. One of the most significant [00:29:00] changes was the creation of shared databases, such as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, or VICAP, established by the FBI in 1985.

VICAP was designed to track and correlate information on violent crimes, particularly those involving serial offenders, across jurisdictions. Law enforcement agencies can now input details of unsolved cases, compare them with others, and identify patterns that might point to the same perpetrator. Since 2022, Patrick Kearney has been serving his 21 consecutive life sentences at Mule Creek State Prison.

Randy Kraft, convicted in 1989, remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison, the same facility

where fellow Freeway Killer, William Bonin was held until his execution in 1996. Bonin spent nearly a decade on death row before becoming the first person in California to be executed by lethal injection. It is rumored that [00:30:00] during their time on Death Row together, Bonin and Kraft, awaiting their fates, would sit and play bridge, each trying to outsmart the other.

But for those who lived through the terror, the fear never fully dissipated, and for the families of the victims, the pain and the loss are immeasurable. Despite the arrests and executions of these killers, The scars they left behind will never fully heal. Southern California, once a land of sunshine and promise, had become a place of nightmare.

A killing field where trusting the wrong person could cost you your life.