Gerard John Schaefer
Gerard John Schaefer Jr. was an American murderer and suspected serial killer, known as the Killer Cop, the Hangman and the Butcher of Blind Creek, who was convicted of the 1972 murder and mutilation of two teenage girls in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He is suspected of up to twenty-six other murders.
Described by prosecutor Robert Stone as "the most sexually deviant person" he had ever encountered, Schaefer was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment at his 1973 trial, to be served at Florida State Prison. He was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate while incarcerated at this facility in December 1995.
Schaefer became known as the "Killer Cop" as he was a sheriff's deputy in Martin County, Florida, at the time of his initial arrest. He also became known as the "Hangman" due to his favored practice of binding restrained women to trees with a hangman's noose around their neck prior to their torture and murder.
Early life
Gerard Schaefer was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, on March 26, 1946, the first of three children born to Gerard John Schaefer Sr. and Doris Marie Schaefer. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mother a housewife. Schaefer was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and, later, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended Marist Academy until his family permanently relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1960.Schaefer later described his childhood as "troubled and turbulent," largely due to the frequent family relocations, his father's alcoholism and his father's frequent verbal abuse of his wife and children. Although the elder Schaefer's occupation resulted in his being frequently absent from the household, he had a difficult relationship with his older son, who resented the frequent belittlement and believed his father favored his sister over himself and his brother. By contrast, Schaefer was close to his mother, who was extremely protective of her children.
As a child, Schaefer preferred outdoor pursuits. By his adolescence, he had developed an interest in nature. His primary interests as a teenager included collecting guns, hunting and fishing—activities that he and his father occasionally pursued together when his father was at home. Although hardly a classic loner, Schaefer's classmates at St. Thomas Aquinas High School recall him "not being part of any clique." He frequently pursued his interests alone, leading his family and peers alike to view him as an "outdoors man" who held aspirations to become a forest ranger.
Adolescence and high school
By his teenage years, Schaefer developed erotic fantasies of hurting women whom he deemed worthy of his contempt. These fantasies gradually evolved into his developing a penchant for sadomasochism and bondage, and deriving pleasure from inflicting pain upon himself—occasionally as he wore women's underwear—until he achieved orgasm via autoerotic asphyxia. Typically, these sexual rituals involved Schaefer tying himself to a tree in rural locations. These fantasies would increase in terms of frequency and intensity with time, gradually dominating many of his waking hours.Schaefer also became a peeping tom in his mid-teens and is known to have developed the habit of cross dressing. Although he dated in his high school years, several female classmates viewed him with disdain. One former classmate, Barbara Krolick, later recollected: "I can't remember him being friends with any of the guys. He was always on the outside looking in. As a matter of fact, the only thing I really remember is that I always had to tuck my skirt under my legs because would practically stand on his head to look up a girl's skirt."
Schaefer was considered a promising student by his teachers; contemporary records reveal his being a member of the varsity football team during his sophomore and junior years, and he is known to have been an excellent golfer. He graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in June 1964 and briefly worked as a fishing guide in the Everglades before enrolling at Broward Community College.
College years
Schaefer initially enrolled as a social studies major at Broward Community College in September 1964 before switching his focus to teaching, in which he achieved average grades. Upon completion of his sophomore year at Broward, he applied for and was accepted for scholarship at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he began his studies in 1968 with aspirations to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in education.Marriage
In December 1968, Schaefer married his fiancée, Martha "Marti" Louise Fogg, a fellow FAU student two years his junior whom he had met at Broward, and with whom he had briefly toured in her patriotic singing troupe Sing-Out 66, which offered an alternative to the contemporary hippie movement. The couple rented a property on SW 22nd Street in Fort Lauderdale, although their relationship soon soured both due to Schaefer's incessant demands for sex and his spending much of his free time hunting. The two divorced in May 1970, his wife citing Schaefer's extreme cruelty as the reason for their separation. Shortly thereafter, Schaefer formed a brief relationship with a physically disabled woman whom he encountered at a Fort Lauderdale mental health clinic, although the couple soon separated.Career
Teacher
In March 1969, Schaefer successfully applied for a student teaching internship at Plantation High School. He began this position on September 23, primarily teaching geography. However, he was fired on November 7 for refusing to accept advice from his superiors and for continually attempting to impose his own moral and/or political opinions upon his students, which had led to the school receiving numerous complaints from parents. Shortly thereafter, Schaefer unsuccessfully applied for a student teaching position at Boca Raton Community High School.Four months later, in March 1970, Schaefer successfully applied for another teaching internship. This application was accepted, and he began teaching geography at Stranahan High School in April. Contemporary progress reports indicate Schaefer performed poorly at Stranahan High, with his superiors noting both his arrogance and his "very limited" knowledge of the subject he taught. Seven weeks after Schaefer commenced this teaching position, the principal of Stranahan High informed him of the school's decision to withdraw him from the internship by May, after which his career as a student teacher formally ended.
Police officer
Shortly after the termination of Schaefer's teaching career, he vacationed in Europe and North Africa before returning to Florida, where he briefly worked for the Wackenhut Corporation as a security guard as he pondered his next career move. In September 1970, Schaefer applied for a vacancy within the Wilton Manors police department. He failed to disclose the fact he had twice been fired from student teaching positions within the previous year, instead falsely claiming to have acquired two years' experience as a research assistant at FAU and to have recently returned to the U.S. from Morocco. Schaefer's previous work history was not verified, and he was formally inducted into the Broward County Police Department in September 1971, graduating as a patrolman at the end of the year at age 25.In January 1971, seven months before Schaefer began his career as a police officer, he met a 19-year-old secretary named Teresa Dean while still working as a security guard. The two soon became engaged, and married in Fort Lauderdale on September 11 that year. According to Schaefer, his second marriage was more harmonious than his first. His second wife willingly acquiesced to his frequent sexual demands, and also shared his passion for fishing in locations such as the Florida Keys.
Schaefer's tenure with the Wilton Manors police lasted only six months. Although he earned commendation from his superiors, on one occasion relating to his conduct during a March 1972 police raid on a drug house, his general performance was considered poor. He was dismissed from his position when his superiors discovered his habit of stopping cars driven by female motorists who had committed minor traffic infractions, then entering their license plate numbers into a database to obtain further personal details about them before contacting them to request dates.
Shortly before this dismissal, Schaefer had begun searching for a better-paying law enforcement position elsewhere. He began his service as a deputy with the Martin County sheriff's department in June 1972, having forged a letter of recommendation from Wilton Manors endorsing his application. A standard background check revealed he had no criminal record.
Abductions
On the afternoon of July 21, 1972, Schaefer encountered two teenage hitchhikers named Nancy Ellen Trotter and Paula Sue Wells while on official police duty; he drove the pair to their intended destination of Stuart, although he cautioned the girls against the perils of hitchhiking. Upon learning neither girl was native to Florida, and that the two intended to travel to Jensen Beach the following day, Schaefer proposed to drive them to the location. The girls accepted his offer, and agreed to meet him at a bandstand on East Ocean Boulevard at 9:15a.m. The following morning, Schaefer arrived at the bandstand at the prearranged time. On this occasion, he was not wearing his uniform and was driving his own vehicle, although he convinced Trotter and Wells he was still on duty, having been switched to plain clothed, undercover duties and thus driving an unmarked vehicle.Shortly after the girls entered the vehicle, Shaefer deviated from their intended route on the pretext of showing the girls an "old Spanish fort" near Hutchinson Island. En route, he again briefly lectured the girls against accepting lifts from random strangers and the dangers of being "sold into white slavery" before stopping the vehicle close to a dilapidated shed deep inside a remote wooded area, where he handcuffed and gagged the girls. He then took one victim to a large cypress tree close to the Indian River, tying her legs to the trunk just below her knees before binding a noose around her neck, which he affixed to a branch in such a manner as to force her to stand upon the exposed roots to counter the pressure from the noose. Schaefer then took the other victim to another tree a short distance away where she too was bound in a similar manner in which she was forced to stand upon a narrow exposed tree root as a makeshift, sloping plinth to counter the pressure from the noose around her neck. Both were informed they were to be raped and murdered.
At that moment, Schaefer received an urgent radio dispatch informing him to immediately report to the police station. He left both girls bound and standing upon their plinths, vowing that he would soon return and exclaiming to one of his captives, "I gotta go!" Both girls were warned not to "try to run away, 'cause I'm not going to be very far down the road", with Schaefer claiming he was to confer with the individual he intended to sell them to.