Morbid - Episode 111: Robert Ben Rhoades AKA The Truck Stop Killer

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

Robert Ben Rhoades used his job as a long haul truck to satisfy his sexually sadistic needs. While passing through various states, he thought he could pick up a hitchhiker here or a sex worker there and no one would notice if they disappeared. He was wrong. Luckily, his reign of terror came to an end but not before he inflicted pain and suffering on countless women. Check out our sponsors! Embark Right now, Embark has an exclusive offer you can’t get anywhere else! Go to Embarkvet.com now and use Promo code MORBID to save 15% off your Dog DNA Test Kit. HelloFresh Go to HelloFresh.com/morbid10 and use code morbid10 during HelloFresh’s New Year’s sale for 10 free meals including free shipping. Some sources mentioned https://www.gq.com/story/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012 https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/serial-killer/alberta-woman-recognizes-herself-in-photo-from-robert-bed-rhoades-truck https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/02-29-96/cover.htm https://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Prey-Alva-Busch/dp/0786002212 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's ANGI, or download the app today. Hey Weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Alena. And this be morbid. It's fucking huge. And guys, this one is gonna be a rough one. Yeah. Should we tell them what to this? Yeah. we should.

A lot of people are like, are you still doing this? Because we didn't know that we were doing it, and then things got a little discombobulated. Yeah, because we released our collab with For Suu, Love You Caleb and Bri. And we released that earlier in the week, and then so it kind of threw off our schedule for doing these. Right, right, right.

So, we are still doing right now, this very episode, Robert Ben Rhodes. Dun dun dun. AKA the truck stop killer. Ooh, truck stop killer. I know nothing about this case. This case is brutal. I do hate to break it to you.

We have a couple things to talk to you about first. Sorry about it. You haven't been cleaned in your room lately. The dishwasher's flour. I'm sorry. Sorry mom. Didn't it sound like I was like, we got a few things to talk to you about first. Sorry about it. You haven't been cleaned in your room lately. The dishwasher's full. Sorry. Sorry, Mom. Didn't it sound like I was like, we got a few things to talk to you about.

It did. When you're parents, you're now. We're getting scolded. We're disappointed in you. You guys, we actually just want to tell you if you didn't listen to the Listener Tales episode because you don't like them or like whatever your problem is with the Listener Tales,

we did announce that we have an Alabama show coming up. Huntsville, Alabama, we are coming. We're going to be all up in you. Whoa. That was one way to put that. We are. Roll tide baby. Roll tide. Fots and balls. Put in balls and we're all in up in you. We are gross. It's gonna be great. There's so many euphemisms. Okay, well, if you want to check out that show, which I bet you don't know, you can go to our website, www.morbidpodcast.com. Alaina is a fucking brilliant kabob. And you're like a meat stick. I sure am. And she put a fucking link to like this link tree that our manager created for us. It's beautiful.

All of our shows are right there with links to the tickets. It's fucking so organized. It's all there. So you just go to morbidpodcast.com and it is all laid out there and I'll be adding any future date because you know, we're gonna add future dates, I sure hope. If you guys buy these tickets, we'll add future dates. Yes, please.

And they'll all be there right on the homepage. So go check that out because we want to see all your faces there. And we want to sell out because it makes us feel cool. Come on, Bama, let's do it. Bama, baby. So yeah, definitely do that. And we are going to begin shouting out older patrons,

older patronuses. Our OG patrons. Our OGs. Next week we are like putting together, we decided to put together like a little spreadsheet to help us out. Yes. To figure out who's been shouted out, who has, and we're starting with the older ones. So next week we're going to start doing that again, so hang tight older potrona's, we come before you. We are also going to be organizing our goodies to send out to you guys

for the first of the year, you know, the first month of the year. So, you know, we should do, let's take a little picture tomorrow and post it as like a teaser to let you know what's going to be in your little goodies. But not everything, just like a little teaser. Yeah, just a little teaser. So, stay tuned for that, Petronis' and Petronis' bonus will be coming soon. We're just trying to figure out what we want to do for one. And yeah, that's all the business. Adoo. I think we should get to Robert Ben Rhodes because this dude is a monster seems like inadequate.

Why are you bullying murderers? I know, I'm sorry, I'm gonna bully the shit at a Robert Bener actually. I just want to put that out there guys. So if that offends you, this might not be the one for you. But this is similar. It's not as bad as the toy box killer. Oh, is it on the same wavelength?

It's on the same content. Like toy box killer adjacent. Yeah. And so I just want to put a little trigger warning here. There are going to be mentions of rape. There's going to be some somewhat detailed explanations of torture and sexual sadism. So if that kind of stuff is something you don't want to hear, you know, maybe you don't want to listen to this one, but I will also, I'm going to try to let you know before I'm going to go into something really gnarly,

so maybe you can just hit the skip button. Trigger warning. But yeah, I just want to let you know that if, you know, that's not your bag. Some people, this is just a little too much. We totally understand, but this is a rough one. So for all you people that are still here, let's begin.

In the early morning on April 1st 1990, Officer Mike Miller, who was an Arizona State Trooper, noticed a big truck, like a big truck, a truck, a truck, you know, a big old truck. It was parked kind of oddly on the curb outside of Interstate 10 in Arizona. This truck had it, has it's like hazard lights on. Okay. So that indicates, you know, that indicates that something's wrong. A hazard. Um, in Toffessor Miller, it indicated that he was likely having some mechanical issues. And, you know, perhaps this trucker needed assistance. It'd be in the police man he was. Yeah, he's like, I am helping citizens. Um, so those hazard lights and this trucker's mistake of throwing them on at that moment was

probably the thing that saved a woman's life and most likely Countless others that would have met a grizzly end. Oh my god. I'm so happy. I'm so happy But you know bad things happened before this but I do love when someone gets saved Yeah, and the honest and it's like these cops like did the right thing You know, I mean like they followed what they saw and this guy and we'll get into this a little further, Robert Ben Rhodes was known to be a very charming and very manipulative series. Like a Bundy deal. Very much a Bundy deal. And he was also a sexual sadist like Bundy. He was kind of very much like Bundy. And like he couldn't get off without the the girl being in horrible amounts of pain and fear either. So, yeah, he's not an awesome guy.

And so these police officers did the right thing. They followed like what was actually happening instead of listening to this asshole, try to charm them. Right, right, right. Which they could have. So officer Miller doesn't see anyone in the truck or around it. So he uses a flashlight and he scans the perimeter of the truck. No one's in the cab and no one's in the nearby woods that he could see. So suddenly as he passes the cab,

he hears some weird noises. And he's like, huh. So he steps up on like the little like foot step thing on the sides of trucks. Yeah. And he wants to get a better look. So he flashes this flashlight into the darkness of the sleeper cab section of the truck. Okay. And apparently long haul truckers have sleeper cabs that can be like really customized for their, you know, like exhausting and nomadic lifestyle. Like cool last little bumps.

Yeah, like there's beds back there, there's kitchens, they can put TVs back there. Oh shit. Like I had no idea about this until I looked all this up and I didn't know that. If you look at pictures online of some of these like sleeper cabs, they're like bad ass. Remember like Pimp My Ride? Yeah, this is like Pimp My Sleeper Cab. I had no idea about this until I looked all this up. I didn't know that. If you look at pictures online of some of these like sleeper cabs, they're like bad ass.

Remember like Pimp My Ride? Yeah, this is like Pimp My Sleeper cab. Pimp My Truck. Pimp My Sleeper cab. Pimp My Sleeper truck. And it's, I mean, some of them are really cool. I believe it. So, because I mean, if you think about it,

long haul truckers, like that's a job. There's a whole fucking show about that on the Discovery Channel. There is, you're right. I think there is, yeah. I think it's called Longhull Truckers. And also, I just want to put out there too. This is going to seem like it's giving truckers, like a kind of a bad name, but I just happens to be a shitty trucker. Well, and I just want to say like, the vast, vast majority of Longhull truckers are perfectly

wonderful human beings who have never hurt somebody. Sometimes they even beep if you do that motion up there. Hey, exactly. It's even beep if you do that motion, not them. Hey, exactly. It's like there's, we know you're good people. I know truckers. We have listeners who are truckers who listen to the show while they're trucking. I had a friend who her dad was a trucker. So we just want to, I mean, I just want to put out there that I know a lot of really great

truckers, but obviously like any line of work and especially a line of work where you're kind of like nomadic and able to go through different states and stuff pretty unnoticed. Is it a be a moral easy if you're a bad person to take advantage of that and that's what happened here. Well, this particular rig did not have a cool comfy lounge vibe or anything like that. It wasn't a Pimp My Sleeper Cab situation. Hashtag in my sleeper cab. Well, I guess for Robert Ben Rhodes, it was a Pimp, my sleeper cab situation. Hashtag in my sleeper cab? I guess for Robert Ben Rhodes,

it was a Pimp, his sleeper cab situation. What officer Miller saw when he illuminated the sleeper section with his flashlight? Was a woman. Was a naked woman? Oh no. Wearing shackles and chain to a wall on the back of the truck.

When she saw the police officer, she started screaming at the top of her lungs. Yeah. And he could see that she was gagged with something. He just couldn't see what it was at the time. Now immediately a man comes out of the darkness of the back of the truck and came into the front of the cab. And behind him, he closed some curtains. These curtains acted as a separation

between the front of the truck and the sleeper part. So he closed them behind him, like, oh, nothing to see here, officer. A partition, if you will. Exactly, like a a makeshift wall like in a dorm room. So as he closed the curtains he hid the woman behind him and she's still screaming. Good. And immediately officer Miller is like uh get the fuck out of the truck. Yeah I got to know what the and so this guy, this trucker, he does, he gets out of the truck without a fight. Okay. And in fact he told the police officer, he does, he gets out of the truck without a fight.

Okay. And in fact, he told the police officer that he had a gun on him. So he was like, he offered the information. In a Tucson weekly article, the officer Miller said, quote, he was so smooth, yet that woman was terrified. I didn't know what I had on my hands. That must be so fucking wild as a police officer, right?

Cause you're like, wait a second, you just never know what you're gonna wake up with. And that's the thing. Like this is probably like, you know, I don't know what day of the week this was, but like, let's say Tuesday. Just a Tuesday night. And you're just like, shit, this is just my Tuesday.

And now this whole time, this trucker is telling the officer that this was a consensual, albeit somewhat freaky, shared experience between the two of them. Then why is she screaming so loudly? When he's like, you know women, bro, she's just crazy, and I don't know, maybe it took it too far, but this is consensual as fuck, and everything's fine. And he's like, nah, the screaming indicates non-consensual.

Well, that's so, so Officer Mike is like, yeah, I don't think so. But like, something in his brain is also being like, you know, people like different things. Maybe so. But like something in his brain is also being like, you know, people like different things. Maybe this is just like just a consensual thing and they both like this whole like rape scenario and maybe that's just what they like. But he's like, I can't just be like, okay, bye.

So, Officer Mike really isn't buying this at all. So, he handcuffs him behind his back. He puts him in the back of the cop car and he buckles him in the cop car because he's like, you're not going anywhere. Okay. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill? Or are they made to kill? I'm Candice D'Long and on my podcast, Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon music. I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal

masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings Breaking down Lori Valow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder. I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes to your morning routine. Hey, Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music Exclusive Podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Hey there, fellow podcast listener, it's Elena.

And Ash! And we're taking you back to the days before streaming services. Whoa! You know when you would come home from high school and it was only a few hours until that TV show everyone was watching was about to come on. Well, in 1999, that show was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In our podcast with Wondery, the re-watcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we take it back to 1999. So get out your knee high boots and paste that poster of Angel on the wall. It's time to enter the Buffyverse. Some of you avid morbid listeners already know what we've gotten store.

Hey, wear nose. Join us as we sway our way through Buffy's drama, action and romance Episode by episodes. Lazy. Follow the rewatcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and add free on the Amazon music or Wondery app. Follow the rewatcher Buffy the Vampire Slayer wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and odd free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da This woman has a fucking horse bridal around her neck and a horse bit in her mouth. What is a horse bit? I'm sorry. It's what you put in horse's mouths and strap around the back of their heads so that they like...

Can like communicate with the rider better, like the rider will pull on it to get them to do certain things. Oh, okay, that makes sense. You saw... Yeah, you know. So she had a horse bit in her mouth and like bridal, like literally strapped around her head. And she's not a horse, so there's no need to communicate with her about what. And I can confirm she was not a horse bit in her mouth and like bridle like literally strapped around her head. And she's on a horse, so there's no need to commute to shape it that way.

And I can confirm she was not a horse, so this did not make any sense. Good. There was a chain attached to this thing around her neck and it was padlocked. She also had bruises and cuts everywhere. Some that looked like they had started to heal, which indicated that this was a long experience for her. There were also long whipping lashes all over her chest. Ouch.

So Officer Miller is trying to calm her down, but she is literally inconsolable. And she's probably in so much pain. She's in complete panic at this point, because at this point, she just wants out of there. Yeah. Like, this is her moment and she wants, and she's trying to make it fucking clear that something has gone awry. So can you imagine like you can already hear this dude being like no, no, no, officer, everything's fine.

In your head, you're probably like, he's gonna leave me here. Like he's gonna leave me here. And now I've just screamed to get this guy's attention to now the troubles, what's gonna happen? I can't imagine. So officer Miller tries to put something around her to cover her naked body Almost sweet. I always gives me so much comfort when I love when we do the

Will like do that in these situations and happen in other cases like Jessica Chambers Yeah, and it's like so caring to try to just like preserve someone's dignity in these situations like it's nice That that will be like someone's first thought. Yeah, I agree with you. So any who, this woman is clearly not in a consensual situation. No, but she can't be cut down yet because they're trying to find the keys to unlock her. Oh, and I bet they're with the fucking dude. Well, so she's literally losing her shit.

Just panic, just angry. And she probably can't talk about that. She can't talk. It's like in her mouth, like to, you know, it's like gagging her literally, like probably ripping up her mouth. They said she had like blood around her mouth, so it was obviously like tearing at the sides of her mouth.

Oh my God, ow. And she's just screaming and they're like, we're gonna get you out of here. I promise, but like we don't have anything to break this right now. So he goes back to the car after radioing for backup and he discovered that the trucker had got his hand cuff hands in front of him now and has managed to unbuckle his seatbelt in an attempt to leave the car.

Holy shit! Yeah. So officer Miller is like, no way fuck ass and fixes that situation. He's like, oh no. I wonder how he even did that. Well, and he said later, he was like, all I thought of later was, what if I'd stayed in the cab with her for a couple more minutes and he had gotten out of there Killed me got back in that car and we never would drove right off He was like that could have been the end. Oh, it would have just yeah, so now

So he then checks this truckers pockets and boom fine I knew they were with him They also found out that this guy's name was Robert Ben Rhodes. Okay. By now, Officer Robert Guygax of the Casa Grande Police Department had arrived as his backup. Officer Miller gave the keys to him while he stayed with Rhodes who tried to escape, you know, from which mountain. And Officer Guygax unshackles the woman who we're gonna call Miranda because I've seen different names for her. And most of these things are like,

this is not her real name. So I don't think she wants to be named. I decided to call her Miranda. I like that. I just like that name. They brought her to the Casa Grande Police Station and they talked to her about this experience with this monster.

She's, she's, She was able to provide a lot of information to the person interviewing her, which was Detective Rick Barnhart. She said she had been hitchhiking, roads picked her up at a truck stop, somewhere north of Phoenix. She said he was super charming, very sweet, not threatening at all when she met him. She even felt so comfortable that she fell asleep while we were driving. That's something. And that's when shit changed. Right. He suddenly stopped the truck, dragged her into the sleeper cab and shackled her immediately.

Oh my God. Like ripped off her clothes and shackled her. Oh God. This is when the torture began. Oh. He had a, and again, little trigger warning. We're going to talk about some like rapy things. He had a rape kit, which is a common thing that perverted maggot mounds carry with them like Ted Bundy

Sexual sadists usually start out with like kind of a crude kit Mm-hmm And then as they do these things longer and longer you see that their kit becomes more and more like refined You know, I hate that it's called like a kit like he like needs it Yeah, and it was literally in a briefcase So this is like his work. Oh, and this is such a thing with the sexual status guys because they take very You know, they take pride in their kid I really just have to point out like so quickly because I can't stop thinking about it

How ironic it is that he's a trucker in his last name is Rhodes. Oh, I know. I just really wanted to say that It honestly it made for really good, true crime books about him. Yeah. Like, the, you know, the road to this or something like that. But, yeah. So roads had a very well-kept rape kit, which indicated that he had done this for quite some time. Yeah, he's like prepared and true.

And it was in a brief case, like I said, and it was full of horrifying items, according to the Tucson Weekly article, Detective Barnhart said, quote, he took good care of the contents of that briefcase. There were alligator clips, leashes, handcuffs, whips, pins, and dildos. Pins? It was just very well cared for, and everything was placed neatly. I knew I had a serial rapist because of all of that and I suspected he might have also killed someone. Wow. And yes pins because one of the things he liked to do that we'll mention later is he liked to just stick pins in his

victims over and over. And again this is rough. Most of the time he liked to stick them in the breast area, the nipples and the groin and vagina. Yes, and he also used fish hooks. Yes. He had tortured Miranda endlessly for hours with this kit. Oh my God. Rhodes had told her once he began his torture that he was called whips and chains.

This was also his CB radio handle on the Veriana. Like, hey, I'm whips and chains She said he informed her that he got off on pain and torture and that he had quote been doing this for 15 years 15 years. Yep Also when I heard that his CB radio handle was whips and chains I just thought of joyride that movie that is so underrated, guys. Can we watch that? See the people walker. R.A.P. That was like one of my favorite movies. Go watch Joyride if you haven't.

Candy King. Candy King. So good. All right, so it was noted in photos taken of her injuries that again, this is rough. Her nipples and labia had been punctured with something sharp. Oh, and they asked her, have you been raped?

And she was very hesitant to say, which I understand, like that's common. It's hard to say, yes, I've been raped. Yeah. And she kind of said, like, yeah, not really. She just kind of hesitated to say it. And by looking at the evidence photos, I'm pretty clearly having.

She was definitely raped in some capacity. I think she was just too in shock and too traumatized. Maybe an iris. Yeah, and just it's not that you should be embarrassed, but there's so many. There's such a feeling of shame that comes with it like innately, you know. So they understood why she didn't come out of it. Right. Right. Now, when they went to speak to roads, it was around 3 a.m. and they couldn't imagine what they were going to discover. But let's take it back, shall we? Oh fuck you.

Robert Ben Rhodes is thought to have killed at least 50 women. 50? But people also think it could be up in the hundreds. I mean, yeah. He only confessed to three murders. Really? The FBI says that they have good reason to say that while he was active, he had killed up to three women a month.

Wow. And he was active from 1975 to 1990. That's literally like one a week and like maybe a week off. Yeah, exactly. Now, he was born November 22nd, 1945, and Council Bluffs, Iowa. I think that makes him a Scorpio. There's not a lot known about his younger life, like, which I guess is a good thing, because the fuck it really fucked up though.

It wasn't. Really? Well, yes. Okay. There's a fucked up part that makes you feel like, okay, what else was happening here? But like, by all accounts, it was a pretty tip-no-all childhood for the most part.

Oh, okay. I mean, there's always something. Yeah, I mean, there's a big something here. Nine out of 10 times. Yeah. There's typically something. I think there's more hidden behind the veil here. So he was raised mostly by his mother, Fey Rhodes.

He was one of four siblings. He was the second oldest. He had a, you know, pretty standard upbringing. He was popular in high school. No problems. Played football, was into wrestling, French club and Glee club. Oh, so you know. Glee, you know, yeah, Glee club, you know, Robert Benz and Glee. SNM by your honor. He did. He totally did. That was funny. Before it was even a thing. Har Har. When he was 12 years old, his father Ben. Yeah. At 16 years old, Robert was arrested for tampering with a vehicle. That same year, he was arrested for fighting.

So, all was not perfect. Okay. 1964, around age 18 or 19, he entered the Marines. Uh-huh. This is when the normal childhood shit, like, goes awry. Okay. That same year, 1964, his father Ben Rhodes was arrested on charges of pedophilia. Oh, okay. He was charged with raping a 12-year-old

girl. Oh. Ben Rhodes was fired from the council bluff's fire department. He received a suspended sentence. He went out on parole. Then a second girl came forward. Oh, shit. Yeah. That's when a municipal court judge put out a warrant for his arrest and two days later, he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in Fairmount Park. What a pussy way out. So he didn't even get to be charged or arrested for it. None of that.

He didn't get to face the music. What is straight up pussy? Yeah. That's a big pussy. Later in life Ben said his father was violent and gave the impression that he may have been the victim of his father's sexual abuse but never comes out and says it. Okay. And it seemed like later he was like he was definitely violent. He definitely wasn't like a really good dad. Yeah. So but not again not a lot has come out about this. Right. But psychologists have looked at what he did to these women

and have like, postured that maybe he was like, switching the roles a little bit because you will find out later that he did things like he cut their hair, really short and stuff. Oh. Almost making them look like boys. Boyish. Yeah.

And so it seems like maybe he's like taking back the power. Okay. That was maybe taken from him when he like boys. Yeah. And so it seems like maybe he's taking back the power. That was maybe taken from him when he was younger. Sure. And making them into versions of himself. Oh, okay. But that's like a deep psychology kind of like dive into it. That's like my favorite part of truth. I love that stuff.

Yeah. If I can find some of the articles that I was looking at in the psychology journals about this, I'll definitely post them so people can look. It's interesting. Cool. He was dishonorably discharged from the army after he committed armed robbery. Oh, Robert was. Okay. He tried to do some college, but he ended up dropping out. Same Z. He tried to be a cop. He didn't say that. Same Z. He's not good. He moved back to council bluffs. He got married and had one son. Oh, no. Yeah. Luckily, he, I didn't seem to have a whole lot to do with his child. And that's probably in the child's best interest. Yeah.

It's a bummer, but also great. Yeah. So he became a long-held truck driver after attempting to work different things like supermarkets, restaurants, like just like any kind of job. He was super into the swinger and BDSM scene. Okay, live your life. And live your life. You should have just kept it there, bro. And he used the name Whips and Shains as his BDSM name. Cool. And he liked, you know, but the thing was that bothers me because it's like, live your life

do you sure? But he tried to like force his wives into it and his wives were not into it. like, live your life, do you? Sure. But he tried to like, force his wives into it and his wives were not into it. Yeah, if you're not into it, yeah. It's not allowed. It's like, that's not okay. Right. So consent.

Yeah, exactly. So people, like on the road when he became a truck driver, they thought he like got a reputation for being kind of creepy. Okay. Like sex workers and like, swingers clubs, even like that he frequented, were like, yeah, no, like this dude's weird.

He was like too aggressive, it seems. Yeah, it's like, there was just something off about him once they got to know him. They said initially, he came off as this like very charming, very sweet. Like when he was younger, he was like relatively good looking, you know, I mean, like he was a very unassuming. Right.

But then it got uncompth. Well, and even other truckers stayed away from him because they were like, yeah, I don't know, some's off there. And that says something. And then rumors began to circulate among like, you know, hit shikers and sex workers and like, what truckers referred to as lot lizards, which were any women that were around truck stops, basically like, that's a horrible name. It's a horrible name.

You're a lot lizard. Yeah, a lot lizard. Like, I'm chilling. Fuck lizard. Yeah, a lot lizard. Like I'm chilling. Fuck off. There's a Starbucks in there. I'm chilling. So rumors started circulating among them that he possibly had like a sex dungeon in his truck like the cab and they were right. Go around.

Like we said, he took that whips and chains neck name and he used it as his CB handle. And he also was known as Dusty. That was his other CB handle. How many dusty within a chain? But I think it's just like, that's yeah, cause like you think of Joy right? It's like candy cane. Yeah, I don't even know what the other ones are. I'm sorry if you're name is dusty, but I would. I wouldn't mind it to be dusty. But Dusty is probably like one of the like super chill ones. Like, yeah, Joy right? It was like Rusty now

I would love for my name to be Rusty now. That's fucking like I'm gonna give you tetanus Stay away from me leave me alone. I'll give you tetanus. I'm Rusty nail So in 1972 he divorced his first wife bomber. He married two more times. Oh shit So also bummer if you didn't know who he was, you'd be like, he's just looking for love. Yeah. But no, he was just a dick. All of his wives said he was a manipulative asshole. Right. Like that's why he was just blowing through. Oh, shame. He had a very unique truck. It was this like white like very pristine truck. It was a sleeper cab because again, he was a long

hot trucker, but he had converted it into exactly what he needed. He needed a mobile torture chamber. Who doesn't? I mean, don't we all. Yeah, but we can't all have it. It was like the toybox killer situation where he personalized the truck to hold women for weeks at a time, could be assaulted and tortured before eventually being murdered and dumped. That's horrible. Yes. So, there was a GQ magazine article written by a woman named Vanessa Vaselka. Vanessa Vaselka, that's her name.

So in 1985, Vanessa was a young girl hitchhiking across country. She remembers now that she was sitting in a truck waiting for the trucker who had initially picked her up to pay for gas. She noticed commotion near a dumpster and discovered that people had found a deceased body of a young teenage girl in it. As she was there. Spook. So there was all this craziness the police showed up. Somebody around her said it was a young teen girl who was murdered while hitchhiking. Oh geez. So immediately Vanessa's like, oh fuck, what if this trucker that picked me up as a guy who did it? Like we don't know. Yeah you

don't know. But inexplicably she decided that was crazy and she just stuck with them. Oh. Now despite what you're like, oh, she would happen, it turned out to be a very nice trip for her. Okay, good. She's in the truck. This trucker was not Ben Rhodes. Oh, okay.

She said they drank diet coaks. They listened to Bruce Springsteen. They ate snacks all the way to Ohio. She told GQ Magazine that she was pleasantly surprised that he didn't even try to have sex with her. That's always a plus surprise. Which is nice. What a world. Wow. That you're like, he didn't even try to do it. This prince charming did not even try to rape me. Everybody has standards, Alina. What a guy. So that's really sad. That's like, wow, she's pleasantly surprised. So days later, after she was dropped off from that nice experience, she was picked up on I-95

in Carolina, and she was hitchhiking again. This guy was tall, built, and very clean cut. He wore a button-down shirt that was rolled up over his very toned biceps. Was it Ben Rhodes? And he just really didn't fit the trucker description. It was Ben Rhodes, wasn't it? It was totally Ben Rhodes.

Thank you. She also noted that the cab of his truck was extraordinarily clean. OK. I feel like poor truckers are going to get bad ass rep as messy monsters here. But you're like fucking busy. But they're long-aw truckers.

They have a lot to their exhausted. I'm long hauling. I'm sure there's not a lot of time to pristinely clean your cab. Well, by the way, Ben Rhodes could do it. Yeah, I mean, Ben Rhodes apparently is my side-touch hair. So initially, he was very charming and nice. He gave her no indication of threatening behavior. While driving suddenly his demeanor changed. Awesome. Like as soon as he picked her up, he was like, hey, girl, get back in this car. It's fun. I don't think that's cool. Let's just hang out. It's going to be fun.

And then as soon as they started driving, and the doors are locked and everything's in, he's like, all of a sudden, he suddenly stopped answering questions and just had a look in his eye that frightened her. So he brought up the woman who had been found dead in the dumpster. Oh.

And what she had said about the first truck or the really the nice one was that they didn't speak of that girl at all. Because he probably was like, I'm not going to kill you and we don't need to talk about somebody that died while hitchhiking while you're hitchhiking. Exactly. So he was probably trying to be respectful and be like, I'm not going to freak this girl out. Right.

But like so about that murdered hitchhiking team that they just found in a dead man. And while Ben Rhodes is like, so about that murdered. And Ben Rhodes is a fucking turd. Well he's a sadist. So he brings up the woman and she's like, oh, okay. And then he says, do you know about the Laughing Death Society? We laugh at death. I mean, how fitting.

Fucking dark. You know about the Laughing Death Society? We laugh at death. I'd be like, who the fuck? I'd be like, that's dumb. That's dumb as fuck. And then he would the fuck? I be like, that's dumb. The dumbest fuck. And then he would have just murdered him. You're dumb.

So they pull over in a wooded area. No thing. And he suddenly pulls out a knife. And he tried to force her into the cab of the truck. Oh, God. Now, according to the GQ article written in her words, she said she repeatedly tried to, and this is smart.

She repeatedly tried to tell him, this is your choice. Like she kept saying it, this is your choice. You're choosing this. That is really smart. And she said, you don't have to do this, but this is your choice. Yup. I won't go to the police if you don't hurt me,

but this is your choice. She kept repeating that. And then she said, he looked at her and just said, run. Ooh, I know. I mean, you just got shot. You look like a damn spider. Right down my damn spider. I mean, I just got. Damn, spotted and then right down my damn spot. I just got chill saying that he literally. She said, if somebody told me to run, I'd be like, well, I need to know if you're going

to chase me because should I set a pace or like, should I kind of find out the gate? Like I get shin splints pretty easily. Is this like a 300 meter dash or we run an marathon? Like how far? I mean, should a landmark work? Is there a landmark where I could stop? Should I use some of those gel packs that people use that just like get a burst of energy? Do you have any doctor's shoals in the back? It's like, no, he's just said.

Okay, I'll just go. He just said, run. Oh, hey, hey, hey. And she ran. Because I'd be like, do you want to change? She said she did not even think twice. She just fucking ran. She was like, and I ran.

I ran so far away. Did she get away? This is why we can laugh about this. She got away. OK, OK, OK. She escaped and ran into the woods where she hid until she saw him pull away. Oh, man, oh, man.

Which, first, I mean, we are joking because this was a happy ending, obviously. But that's traumatizing as fuck. Yeah. But like, do you think she ever hitchhiked again? I don't know, actually. I want to know. But actually, you know what? She did, because she said she waited until he pulled away, and then she had to hitchhike again. She walked back onto the road and had to do it again. Wow. So, I mean, I don't know if she got into another truck, but maybe, but either way, like, in the GQ article, which I'll post in the show notes,

is so amazing. It's so well-neurysurched. I mean, she goes into all the other things about this case. She did a lot of research. She talked to FBI agents like, because she fucking Vanessa. She was with this dude. She did the damn thing.

That's wild. And she's a badass to survive her all right tell me more um so in the late 1980s and 18 year old girl this one's real rough so just putting that out there okay she does live though okay I want to put that up thank you 18 year old girl kind of the same situation her name was Shauna Holtz um she asked him she asked Robert Ben Rhodes for a ride. On the road, she said she fell asleep, and this is when he pulled off into a secluded area. She woke up and started panicking because she was like, what the fuck?

And he hit her in the head and then dragged her at gunpoint into the back of the sleeper cat. Oh my God. He shackled her hands and legs. He spread them, spread eagle to chains hanging from a bar on the ceiling. Ooh! He stripped off her clothing and forced a horse's bit into her mouth,

and around her head and neck the horse bridle. He tortured her for weeks. Oh my god. She was almost naked the entire time, and he would stick her with pins all over. Ow. He used fish hooks to suspend her and pierce her with them. Ow. He would shackle her to the side of the trap in the standing position for hours and just periodically whip her with a legitimate whip. Jesus Christ. After he got off from her terror and pain, like after he, like, ejaculated from this, he

would let her sleep only to wake her up and violently rape her. Oh my God. Yeah, and she's an 18 year old girl. This is like the shit that you see on criminal minds and it's so hard to wrap your brain around the fact that this happens. Oh yeah. This isn't just like someone's dark corner

of like their brain, we're like their storytelling. This shit happens. This is real life. This is, these are things that people are living with right now. And it's horrible that it's so hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that like a human can do that to a human. Oh, it's so hard to wrap your brain around that. It's a totally different kind of human.

It is. It's not even a human. No. Well, it gets worse. To go to the bathroom, he would go somewhere secluded, like when she had to go to the bathroom. Right. And he would bring her out naked on all floors and a leash and collar. Oh my God. And he made her go to the bathroom in the all-forged position like a dog. Oh my God. After almost a month of this, he took her to his apartment suddenly in Houston. Oh God. That would be horrifying. This is weird where he let her bath and eat. And then he raped her. Uh huh.

He then took her back to the truck and he left her in the truck unshackled, telling her, be a good girl. And then he went to do something. Like I like a local brewery for work. Okay. He was whole, to me, because she was like, what the fuck? Because there's also stories where it's like, oh, she got out of her shackles, because he didn't, you know, he didn't,

like close them all the way. Right. But she says that's not the case. He didn't shackle me. He just told me, be a good girl. So to me, he was hoping that he had instilled so much fear in her, that she wouldn't have broken her.

That she would willingly stay unshackled just out of pure fear. Like he thought he had that much domination over her, that he could just go be a good girl. And she'd just stay there. Right. Well, she ran like a bad bitch. Yeah, good. She went straight to the police, brought them straight back to the truck. Oh my God.

Um, which he brought them back to the truck. She was like, here's the truck. What? Like, here it is. Well, yeah. No, no, no, no, I'm saying like good for her, but like, at least all the truck and like, there's still more after this. Oh, yeah.

So like, yeah, duh. Well, she showed them. I'm like, yeah, she showed them the truck. I'm like, no, I get that. But when it came down to charges, she wouldn't press charges. Because they said she wouldn't even look at him. She was looking down at the ground while they were standing there. Must have been so scared.

She wouldn't identify him and she said she was so terrified that even the police wouldn't be able to save her. She said there wasn't enough police around. He was going to, like, he would have taken me again. Oh my God. And she was like, I just, I just said, like, I don't know, I don't know. And so in later, she was like, no, fuck you. That was him, like, right. So they didn't, the police don't know. And so in later she was like, no, fuck you, that was him like, right.

So they didn't, the police didn't press it, but also she's 18 years old. And they didn't search the truck. Oh. So they just, she was like, no, I'm mistaken. And they're like, all right. And she's, you know, at 18 year old hitchhiker. So they're like, what if it's her word against his?

Oh, that's like a heartbreaking. But she got away, but he was free to kill. Right. And now it's pissed off. I bet exactly. So November 1989, he's he's 44 years old at this point. He killed for the first known time. Okay. This is the first time he had minutes to, yeah. But they think he began at nine in 1975.

Okay. So this is when they think he picked up 24 year old Candice Walsh and Douglas Sykowski. They were newlyweds. They had just left Seattle in November and they were hitchhiking to Georgia where they were going to do some like missionary work and like Christian missionary work. They're pure AF. They are pure AF. That's when Rhodes picked them up in Texas.

He killed Douglas immediately. Oh wow. Which he does in the two instances that we know of him killing. We know he dispatches the man right away. Because they're just an obstacle at this point. They're like, all right, I'm just gonna. I'm just assuming he like probably shoots them and then that's it. I can't imagine how hard because then you're like, oh my God, that's what is going to happen to me. I imagine the fear and just feeling of hopelessness. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. You just got married.

You just got married. And so he killed him immediately. He dumped him along interstate 10 in Ozone, Texas. He was found pretty quickly in Texas, but he wasn't identified until 1992. Oh wow. Candace was kept for seven days. Oh.

She was tortured. She was raped repeatedly. And he killed her by shooting her multiple times and then dumped her in Miller County, Utah. Oh my goodness. Her body was found in October 1990 in Central Utah by deer hunters. Oh. Can you imagine? No.

Like whenever I hear of that, I'm like, damn. But she was not officially identified until 2003. Oh, wow. And they had to use dental records. Oh. So one of the people that worked on this case said, quote, her body was found months later. So she was probably kept alive for a while. Okay.

Now, by this time, his fourth wife, Deborah, who he married in February of 1990, says that she met him during this time. When she met him, he was dressed as an airline pilot. And it was, it took like a long time for him to admit that he was not an airline pilot. That's like that movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh, catch me if you can. Yeah, yes.

It was a walk away. He tried to bring her into the BDSM stuff. She was into it. She was into it. A busy that day. In fact, she said at one time at like some swingers party, he brought her into a room where he had drugged an unconscious young woman who was lying on the bed.

And then he proceeded to rape this young woman in front of his wife. Oh. So after that, that's when Deborah was like, I'd like a divorce. It's a little weird. I don't know if I'm into this. At this point, sex workers, hitchhikers, they were banding together because there was just all these missing women and dead women turning up. Right. A lot of them were getting, like, they were seeing other people get into his truck and then they would never see him again. So now they were like looking out and being like, yeah, we're not getting in his truck. So April 1st, 1991, this

is when things came to a crashing halt, but also when the horrors came into better focus. So that's when they discovered Miranda back of his track from the beginning. So after he had been interrogated, after being caught with Miranda screaming in a sleeper cab, officers were able to secure a warrant to search his apartment in Houston on April 6. They found women's makeup, women's clothing, they found bondage porn in paraphernalia, they found all kinds of weird tools that looked like torture tools, white towels everywhere. One was saturated with blood. Ooh.

I found in several sources that there was a Santana album poster on the wall that looks like a lion, but when you look closer, it's just a bunch of faces screaming in pain. Oh. And knowing what kind of sexual satisy is, that's just like really unsettling. That is very unsettling. And it's in a lot of different sources. So I think it's just one of those things. It's just like, just leaves you the heaps. That's like a very good like movie. It is. It is. That'd be like good in a movie. That that reminds me of like a Buffalo Bill kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. The most unsettling thing they found, however, was photographs. Oh.

These were photos of a very young girl like in her early teens. She had short dark hair and she looked terrified and was crying in most photos. Some photos she was in various stages of undress and some she was nude. She was also shackled up and restrained in every photo. She also always had a choke chain around her neck with a place for a leash to clip on. This is when agents realized she was with him for a long period of time because Rhodes' signature thing he did was cut the hair on the head and also shaved the pubic hair. Whenever he kept someone like, you know, Shana, those people, they always had their haircut

and pubic hair shaved. That's so awful. These photos showed that there was regrowth in various photos, and that meant it was weeks of torture for this young girl. There were also bruises specifically around her breasts that could be seen fading in the series of photos over time. Oh my God. Roads had been sentenced to six years for the kidnapping of Miranda at this point.

That's it. Yes, but don't worry. I'm not, but like, damn. I'm not. Do you want to get six years for kidnapping somebody? Yeah. That's it. Yes, but don't worry. I'm not, but like, damn. I'm not. Do you only get six years for kidnapped somebody? Yeah, that's ridiculous. I mean, that's ridiculous. I'm with the judicial system. Judgeshwar Shrishdram. In 1992, a farmer in Illinois was doing a thorough search of a decaying old barn and a huge

fields. It was one of his properties. Uh- properties. And he was planning to have it demolished, so he wanted to make sure there was nothing in it before he did that. I guess what there was. He went up in the loft and found a young woman dead. Oh. This woman was 14-year-old Regina K. Walters. So young.

She had been strangled with bailing wire that was attached to a wooden beam like eight grott. She was strangled far past the point of death. Walter's had been reported missing when she was last seen in Pasadena, Texas in February of 1990. She had been hitching with her boyfriend, Ricky Lee Jones. They were trying to run away together to Mexico.

Oh. And they had taken a ride from Robert Ben Rhodes. Right, and it didn't go well. Detectives thought back to the photos they found in Rhodes' possession at his apartment. The ones of the young girl with the short hair and it took it her. She looked like Regina Walter's,

but Regina had long thick hair and this woman had short crop hair. So detective showed one of the photos to her father, like one of the ones that they like covered things and made sure it wasn't horrible. Detective showed one to her father and he said that's definitely her. So he had kept her for so long that her hair had grown back.

Yeah. And what did you say she was 14 when she was found? Well, the thing was her hair was still crop short when she was found, but Regina K. Walters had long hair. Okay. Okay. So they were like, is this her? Because this doesn't look like her. He was able to specifically point to birth marks on her neck to prove that that was her. Oh my god. That the girl found in the barn and the girl in the photos was Regina. And that's probably when they kind of figured out that that was like something he did. Yeah. He's like, cut the hair. Yeah, because now they're seeing a pattern. Oh, um, so now they know that

the woman who they found murdered in the barn in Illinois is Regina K. Walters, and this is now confirmed to be the woman in terror in his photos. Apparently he had called Regina's father, what anonymously to taunt him about her over a month after she went missing. He called him and said, quote, I made some changes. I cut her hair. Oh my god. Can you imagine? No. He then told him she's in a barn, in a loft, in a barn. And when her father asked if she was okay, he just hung up the phone. That makes me want to cry. He also called her mother and asked, at one point, ask her to meet him somewhere and she showed up and he never showed up and like kept calling them and like taunting them about her. I mean obviously murder and in of itself is like the most horrific thing ever but it's oh there's

almost something more horrific about when they when they call the family because these this this these parents are have a missing child like you are the devil. This man is calling saying I have your child and here's her name here's she is, like he knows who she is. So you're sitting there being like, what's happening to her? Oh, my God. And I don't know if this person is. Oh, my God. Yeah.

These calls were traced and checked against road trucking logs and they matched the areas. Right. Later they would discover Regina's journal was in Rhodes' possession. It had the name and number for her father and this is what Rhodes used to call them. Oh my God. But what really sealed the deal was an infamous series of photos that can be found online. This is actually what made me think of this case.

The photo show Regina in and around the barn that she was found dead in. She's wearing a black dress. Oh, is that the one that we posted? Yeah, that's the one that I showed you too. She's wearing black heels that are too big for her short crop tear. She also has a choke chain around her neck,

and she looks terrified. Yeah, she does. And is often shown holding her arms out like in a defensive position to keep her away from him. These photos were taken right in the moments before she was murdered. Oh my God. So experts compared these photos with those from the crime scene in Illinois,

and we're able to conclude it was the same barn. There was also one of the experts in this case was saying, you know, these guys often tell their victims what's going to happen to them. And I'm sure in those photos, she was being told what was going to happen to her. Oh, wow. And that's why her face is in such despair. Putting yourself there, like figure it, like ugh. The worst part about these photos,

and if you look them up, you'll see, in the barn, first of all, it's broad daylight. Yeah, yeah. And second of all, you can see houses in the background. Oh my God. And you just wanna yell at her, like run. Like just run. She might have tried.

I think one, she was probably too traumatized and scared. In like week. And two, two week. Yeah. And three, he might have had a gun. Right. It's like, I just want to yell at her like just run. And I don't mean week like she was like doing week to run.

I mean like, she probably wasn't eating and stuff like that. Like feeding down over weeks. Right. Yeah, like that's. I didn't want anybody to miss and shoot. Yeah, like that she was a weak person. Yeah, that's not an event. But no, it's like, it's just you see like, just hope behind her, you know what I mean?

The picture and you're just like, I have a picture around. Yeah, well any, the broad daylight is like, it's so scary. And do you think of that horror happening? In daylight. Like, I think, I don't know if I was listening to a podcast about this or if I read a article but somebody was saying that they couldn't stop thinking of the people in those houses just living their lives without making lunch or like without knowing this and in Regina sitting there maybe seeing those houses and being like those people are just living. Right. And I'm about

to die. And I'm about to lose my life. In the most horrific way I ever oh God this is so sad it makes me want to cry a lot So her boyfriend Ricky Lee Jones was killed almost immediately like Douglas right not a lot is known about him or Regina really But everyone knew that they were hopeless lean love and they were planning to run away together because young love is very overwhelming So what they found was that he had cut her hair on her head and shaved the pubic hair of all his victims. Once they made these connections through all the victims, they notified Illinois to inform them we have this condition. Look for this. So in early 1992 Illinois state attorney was finally like

sure let's do this. So he was basically convinced to take a plea deal okay then Rhodes was and agreed to plead guilty for the murder of Regina sure he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole thank god so they analyzed his truck logs and the FBI put them against skeletonized bodies of women found along the roots he traveled across the country he hits hit states like California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, and those are just some of the states he hit. And that's crazy because you think like California on literally

the opposite side of the world and then Florida And that's crazy because you think like California on literally the opposites out of the world and then Florida right there. Or not the world, the country. I'm not the country. Yeah. Well, and it's like he hit all of those states and more. That's so scary. He could have been throwing in every state.

And there are bodies and all those states and missing women. So today they're still trying to connect him to these, but many of these missing women and murdered women have been attributed to him. Wow. But most of the families didn't want to go through trials because he was already in jail forever and didn't want the pain. That's awful. They were like, he's in jail without the possibility of parole. Why am I going to put our whole family through this pain again? Like like let's just let him rot mm-hmm So they think he killed it like I said earlier between 1975 and 1990 He could be pretty prolific if they can attach more to him in 2005 he was brought back to Utah to face charges for the murders of Douglas and Candace

Oh, holy webs sure but after a year there he was brought back to Illinois in 2006 and then extradited to Texas, where there were able to try him for all the murders together instead of making Candace and Douglas's family go through multiple trials in multiple states. So in 2012, on March 30th, he was sentenced to a second life term for her murder. Wow. Good.

And exchange for them not seeking the death penalty, because they could have. So he will literally never get out of jail, because even if for some crazy reason, Illinois let him out of prison, Texas would imprison him for life. Right, right. He's currently in the Menard Correctional Center

in Chester, Illinois. Uh-huh. So this is just a crazy story. Another survivor found out that she survived a ride with him by seeing one of the photos he took of her way later in life on Facebook. What? So the photo was circulating online asking who she was. Did she not remember? They were trying to identify, well nothing happened, nothing crazy happened to her. She just took a ride from him. Oh, okay. In 2005, she was like, oh shit, that's me.

So her name is Pamela Milliken. She was the woman in the photo that circulated around Facebook and actually survivor Vanessa Vicellka was shown this photo by an FBI agent while she was researching to do that GQ article. So it was just like a casual photo? Yeah, well, there were like, here's a photo we found in his possession.

Right. And the photo is innocuous by itself. It was found on the role after Regina K. Walters photos. Uh-huh. In it, it's just Millican in the truck passenger seat. And she's like lightly smiling. And her eyes are kind of like tired and sleepy. She's probably just like, this is fucking weird.

Yeah. And she just kind of looks like, oh, okay. She said she had been hitchhiking to visit her brother in Winnipeg and Rhodes picked her up. She said she handed her bags in while she hopped up. She said he was very friendly, very unassuming. The only weird thing he explained away pretty neatly. So just as Milliken was turning around to climb up into the passenger seat, she says the driver took her photo and she said,

what did you do that for? And he said, well, I'm going to take your pick. If you rip me off, I can tell the cops that you stole from me. So she was like, okay, like that was science, I guess. And he also pointed to a sign on the dashboard that apparently was kind of common in trucks at that time. And it said cash, gas, grass, or ass, no one rides for free. Oh. So she said she didn't have any of those things except one so they had consensual sex in the back. Okay. She said she then dropped her off at her destination. And that was it. But she was like, it was definitely Robert Benrods. I mean her photo was in his possession. Yeah. Definitely. Now a couple of little tidbits at the end, one of his wives said that he

would often become aroused when she was suffering. In fact, she was hospitalized with lupus and he was super turned on by that. What? Yeah. Yeah. Both, both the surviving victims, uh, Vanessa and Shauna said he placed a white towel underneath them before he began torturing them every time. That's very strange. Like very into white towels. It's really weird. And they said they found a ton of them in his apartment.

Right, you had said that. Um, while he was being transferred between prisons, he was able to get the phone number of a waitress while in shackles. What? That's how charming he was. Like honey I'm gonna call you from jail. Like what? He ended up having a stroke in prison. Good. He now looks like a supervillain. So like he doesn't look anything like he's still alive. He didn't die from the stroke. He's alive. He has a stroke and it just it's it paralyzed to half his face.

So he has kind of like a scary pop I look at this moment. Ah, but I'm glad I did that to him. Good, I'm glad I did that to him. I was gonna say, but honestly, if anybody deserves it, he does. Yeah, 105%. So, that is the story of Robert Ben Rhodes. That was insane. The truck stop.

That was like a huge bummer. It's a big old bummer, but at least he's serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole. I wish this is going to sound so crazy. It's crazy. But I totally wish that they could somehow keep you alive for two lives, for two whole lives, so that you had to serve both. That would be kind of nice.

If anybody could figure that out, just like, yeah, because he's close to 70, he's had a stroke. Yeah. I'm pretty sure he's probably gonna kick it soon yeah but I don't like all we can hope is that it's long and drawn out and suffering super hope so because one thing we definitely know is that I mean he he loved long drawn out suffering so you know what maybe he'll like get off on his own death yeah maybe he will I hope he doesn't I hope so but I hope't. I hope so either. I hope so either. It's like it's it is. But unfortunately, it's like Regina K Walters that the way she died with the

a carot made of bailing wire is a very slow and torturous death and just her whole entire experience. Her whole experience. The photos are some of the most, and they're not graphic as in like, gory or anything. They're just scary. They're the most disturbing thing. Because it's unfortunately your mind tries to put together the pieces and you just, you don't want them to. And her face is just pure terror. I got to go watch Gilmore Girls. Yeah. It's no good. This was heavy. So hope this was everything everybody could have hoped for and more sorry that it was so grizzly. But we had to cover it.

You got to do these people justice. Yeah, I got to do it. So I hope that I did this case justice. Unfortunately, there's not a ton about the victims. Or I would have gone a little further into them. It's just not a lot of information about them, but the best I could. You did great, sweetie. So, I'm doing amazing.

So, stay tuned next week. We're going to shout out some patronesses. Yeah. And, yeah, so. In the meantime, hit us up on Instagram at morbidpodcast. Follow us on Twitter. A morbidpodcast send us a dream mile. morbidpodcast at g on Twitter a morbid podcast send us a dream I'll morbid podcast at gmail.com join the Facebook group morbid colon a true crime podcast group I hit up our website where you can find all of our merch live dates for tours and fun facts about us

Woo-hoo morbidpodcast dot com Uh, don't need to the patreon. We'll show you what at some point. Yeah, patreon.com slash more of a podcast. Ooh, we hope you're listening, and we hope you. Keep it weird. I'm 100% not doing much. Not so weird that you become a murderous truck driver. Yep, not so weird that you don't just drive your truck. Just fucking drive, man.

Let's drive. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.