Jerome “Jerry” Brudos could be listed as a rather disturbing fellow to say the least, he was a sexual deviant and necrophiliac (please don’t let me explain that one). His signature was to remove a foot or breast off the victim. He froze one of the feet from a victim and would remove it to dress it up in high-heeled shoes. The severity of his psychopathic tendencies has led him to be cited by forensic psychiatrists in those cases where the killer is motivated by lust.
At five he discovered his shoe fetish, he found a pair of black patent leather, open-toe high-heels. His mother found him dressed in them and burnt them. His hatred for her most likely set in at this point.
He continued with what seems to have been the harmless fetish but it escalated when the family moved to Oregan. At 17 he held a woman at knife point and ordered her to remove her clothes whilst he photographed her, he was then arrested and committed to Oregan State’s Hospital mental ward, disagnosed with “early personality disorder” but he went on to collage and then to the military in 1959. Seven months later he was medically discharged.
His habits of hit and run attacks on women continued, he would pull off their shoes. Despite the strange and violent life he did get work as an electrician and married a 17 year old girl that he got pregnant. He would persuade her to walk round the house nude with high-heels on as he paraded around in her underwear. They had two children and settled in a Portland suburb.
She was unaware of the continued hidden life, 1967 he started to break into homes and a woman found him rooting through her clothes. She was choked until unconscious, raped and then he fled. Not long after this his habits turned fatal, he killed a 19 year old girl, Linda Slawson who knocked on the door as a saleswoman. He killed her and froze one of her feet, he weighted her body and then dumped it in the nearby river. She was reported missing by her parents and her car was found two weeks later but as there were no records of her calls the police had little to go by.
The second killing was 16 year old Stephanie Vikko, her remains were found in a wooded area nine months later. Jan Whitney was the third victim, her car had broken down and he got her in the car, strangled her and then drove her back to his garage where he had necrophiliac sex with the corpse and cut off her right breast. She was kept in the garage for a couple of days before dumping her in the same river as he had previously. The fourth victim was Karen Sprinkler who went missing in 1968, her mother alerted the police when she failed to show up and her car was found. He had abducted her, raped her, strangled her and cut off both breasts. He had taken photo’s of her dressed up and then performed necrophilia on her before dumping her in the river.
The fifth and final kill was a month later, he posed as a Police officer and lured in 22 year old Linda Salee from a shopping mall to his car. She had gone to get a birthday present for her boyfriend and failed to show. Three weeks after she was reported missing, a fisherman in the Long Tom River in western Oregon hooked onto something large. They fished up her body that had been weighted down with a transmission box from a car. The autopsy showed the cause of death as strangulation. A few days later they found Karen Sprinkler and then in 1969 Sharon Wood was in her company basement car park, a man tried to hold her up at gun point and told her not to scream. She did as ordered and gave him the high-heels.
Because of the age of all of the women targeted the police looked to the students for leads, one told them she had dated a man with a very keen interest in the case. It was Jerry Brudos. He was put under surveillance and then take in only to be released a few days later. After a woman identified him as trying to drag her into his car they again brought him in. When they did a body search showed him to be wearing women’s under clothing. When he was questioned he immediately confessed. One of the photo’s used for evidence also had his reflection in the mirror. After it became clear an insanity plea was not going to work he pleased guilty, at this time Oregon had no death penalty.
His wife was pulled in for investigations but after an acquittal she changed her name and moved with her two children. The Oregon court had turned down his appeals and finally after 37 years in prison he was found dead from natural causes on 28th March 2006. The only explanation ever provided for kills, “letting off steam.”
Personally I prefer gaming…
Investigations into the unknown and weird 