FBI believes several serial murderers operate amidst long-haul truckers.
In the United States, there are numerous active serial killers who are truck drivers on the road, according to former FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi in his new book. This book is creating a buzz with its discussion of unsolved murder and missing persons cases. Figliuzzi, who worked for the FBI for years and left as deputy director for counterintelligence in 2012, has penned a new book titled "Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers."
The book centers on the approximately 850 unsolved murders in the US, which are assumed to be linked to truck drivers. To conduct his research, he followed several truck drivers, hung out at rest stops, and slept in truck cabs. He also conversed with experts and professionals who are trying to catch the culprits of these heinous crimes on the country's highways.
Figliuzzi suggests that behind these unresolved cases, there's an unsettling truth: The majority of serial killers are truck drivers. While "over the years, several truckers have been convicted of serial murder," approximately 25% of the cases in a related database remain unsolved, according to his interviews in the book.
One killer who was eventually arrested is Robert Ben Rhoades, colloquially known as the "Truck Stop Killer." After being discharged from the military with dishonor, Rhoades worked as a trucker since the 1970s. It took several decades before he was finally apprehended and convicted for multiple murders and missing persons cases in various US states.
Rhoades transformed part of his truck into a mobile torture chamber, where he detained some victims for several weeks and continuously tortured and abused them. One of his victims was 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters, whose last picture showed her in a black evening gown and high heels, with her hair cut short, her face terrified, and her hands raised as if pleading for mercy. The image was found at Rhoades, along with pictures of other victims.
Walters ran away with her friend Ricky Jones in February 1990, and was picked up by Rhoades. According to forensic findings, she had to watch as the trucker killed her friend before being held captive in the mobile torture chamber in the truck. Rhoades regularly assaulted and tortured Walters at truck stops, piercing her with fish hooks, cutting her hair, and shaving her pubic hair. Eventually, the trucker strangled the girl in a barn. He then called Walters' father.
The Truck Stop Killer was arrested on April 1, 1990. The police found a woman being held captive in the man's mobile torture chamber after they searched his truck. Rhoades was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the investigating authorities presume he killed between 1975 and 1990, around 50 people.
The FBI established a special unit in 2004 known as the Highway Serial Killings (HSK) Initiative. This unit specifically investigates crimes committed on highways, primarily by long-distance drivers.
The victims, as per the FBI, are predominantly women, with many of them being drug addicts or prostitutes. Many have experienced sexual assault or abuse, family tragedies, suicides, drug abuse, or early exposure to prostitution. The progress of online meeting arrangements for activities has complicated the work of the investigators. "You can't solve what you don't know," says Figliuzzi.
The perpetrators exploit the job's inherent mobility. The investigations were more complex owing to victims' disappearing in one state, being slain in another, and being found in yet another. Currently, the unit manages 200 active cases and about 450 suspects. Given the four million semi-trailer trucks in the United States, this represents a very small percentage, notes the author. The fact that long-distance drivers are the leading group of serial killers, in his opinion, can be linked to the "isolation of the job."
Many truckers may also be predisposed to being loners who avoid conversation about their work and desire control, according to the expert. A confidential poll of truck drivers revealed that 10% drink daily, 20% drink five or more drinks at a time, and 44% display the symptoms of a severe depressive disorder. "Isolation and the absence of human interaction can intensify the desire to kill if - and I want to be cautious here - this predisposition already exists," says the expert.
