EP19: High Heel Homicide
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All right, welcome back to another episode of Psychopedia. I am your co-host, Tank Sinatra, here with my co-host, Investigator Slater, and our special guest, as always, Cash Money, laying on the floor, bringing a real chill vibe to the loft. He's perfect. The murder loft.

It's all I think of when I come here now. Murder, murder, murder, murder, rape, kidnapping, abuse. Yeah, it's like... It's kind of dark, man. Well, we've done so many episodes up here now, and I'm not up here aside from that. I used to be in here a lot, smoking cigars, watching UFC. So then we should really trick the space out, like psychopedia vibe. Yeah.

You want to, like, get exhibit on it? Yeah. Hey, dog, I heard you like true crime, so we spat our blood all over the walls. Yeah, man. Yeah, that would be cool. That would mean we're going to be doing video. Fine. Well, we are. Like, I'm twisting your arm. I thought it was, like, a challenge. Wasn't that the point? Let's go. Yeah, yeah. We really spruce it up in here. So I learned something about Investigator Slater today that I want to share with the audience, and that is that you play baseball. Oh, I love it. I love it. I'm a true New Yorker. I can see that. Did you not know that I played softball? No. Like, what?

No? Okay. Well, I did. And I love it. Really? And you're a Mets fan like me? Yes, sir. M-E-T-S. Mets. Mets. Mets. Dude, something happened at a Mets game.

I've been to two Mets games since I was 10. Two of them are in the last month. When I was a little kid, they used to go, da, da, da, da, da, na, na, na, na, na, charge. And I used to go, why are they saying my name? Like, I legitimately thought they were saying George. Oh, no.

I did not tell my son about that. He thought the same thing? He thought the exact same thing. He goes, are they saying George? And I was like, I texted my dad immediately. I was like, you're not even going to believe what just happened. Oh, wow. It's that generational pass down situation that we always talk about. Oh, yeah. A hundred percent. You pass that down to him. So strange. So weird. I almost, I felt like I willed it to happen. Maybe. Maybe.

Maybe. I mean, I don't want to feel like I'm in that much control over somebody's thoughts. No, but you know, in the womb, it was passed down. Possibly. Yeah. I mean, maybe even before that, because I was young when that happened. Right. And it stuck with me. It's really cute. It'll stick with him too. Yeah, for sure. So listen, thanks for listening. We're thrilled to have you here. You little thrill-seeking freaks. Our little psychos.

You little freaks, you little true crime addicted freaks. Also, side note, by the way, first of all, if you have a problem with us talking, I don't know, like, what are you doing here? This is what we're doing is talking. I got a message or a comment from- I saw the comment and I saw your reply. 17 minutes to get the episode going. And I went back and listened and I was like- Seven minutes. You're right. I mean, it's not two minutes, but listen-

We got some warming up to do here. Imagine you hadn't seen your friend in three months and you sit down to lunch with them and they just go, what?

Get to it. Yeah, get to the point. I don't have time for this bullshit. You have to... You need a warm-up. You gotta ease into it. Even Cash is like, I like what's happening. You need an appetizer before the entree. Yeah, like get ready to eat. Right. Get ready to... Feast. I don't even know what today's case is about. I have zero expectations in that I'm assuming it's going to be a brutal, devastating, horrific...

in which people's lives were altered for the worse. Sadly, all of the above. Because it's true crime. But this is what I wanted to say. Based on a true story, have you started watching that yet? No. You are going to lose your mind. On Peacock, right? Yeah, you're going to lose your mind. Okay. If anybody hasn't seen it,

I mean, you were the main character in the show, kind of. Because there are two characters, husband and wife. The wife is pregnant. They're in dire straits financially. They're like trying to figure out what's going to happen. And then they find out that there's a serial killer in their neighborhood. And then they find out that they know him. Okay. Instead of turning him in, they start a true crime podcast about it.

That's the premise? Yes. I love it. No. Oh, you're going to lose. And then they go to like CrimeCon. Oh, yeah. We're going to CrimeCon, by the way. I forgot to tell you. I think we should have like a booth there rather than just like attend. Where is CrimeCon? It's going to be in Florida, I believe. We'll see. When is it? October? There's no we'll see. We're going. Who's we? You and I. Psychopedia. Anybody who wants to meet us.

When is it? I think it's in November or October. That would be a nice time to go to Florida. Any time would be a nice time to go to CrimeCon. Well, I'm not going to Florida in July, August, September. You will if that's when CrimeCon is taking place. I will not.

I just, I mean... So dedicated to the podcast. So dedicated to my life. I can't go down there with that heat and the humidity. I can't handle it. It's not like you have this head of hair you have to worry about frizzing up like some of us. No, I have internal organs that are boiling that I need to worry about. It's so hot.

I can't handle it. It changes my personality. The heat and humidity really gets me upset. Then maybe you should stay home. I would like to be the opposite of a snowbird, in which case I go up north during the summer and come back down here for the winter. Right. That's what I may wind up doing with my life. Sounds thrilling. Yeah. Later, not now. But without further ado. I like that rendition. Yeah, without further ado, why don't you just...

jump into it. And I know I said I had no expectations, but I kind of do. And I'm a little worried. I mean, you are literally on the edge of your seat right now. This seat is built to be sat on the edge of. It's a different seat than I've been sitting on because that one was squeaking. It was. And I would hear it every time I listened to our episodes and I just didn't say anything. So let us know if you heard the squeaking. If not, then I'm going to go back to that because it has arms on it. And this one has no arms. All right. Okay. You ready? I am.

In 1944, a five-year-old boy was exploring a junkyard in Webster, South Dakota, when he stumbled upon an intriguing item. The moment his eyes fell upon the object, a wave of fascination washed over him, igniting an unfamiliar and powerful sensation. He's in a junkyard, you said? Yes. And what year is it? 1944. Prime junkyard time. Yes, and he was five, so everything was just new and exciting, but nothing new.

as new and exciting as this item that he found. This item possessed a unique design featuring an angular sharp point on one end and a narrow tapered opening on the other. Its surface gleamed with a glossy smoothness adorned with miniature rhinestone clips and dainty straps that seemed to call out for an intimate connection with his own flesh. I could see why people like this podcast. Yeah? Yeah, that was... That was a sexy description. That was riveting. Ha!

Can you write me a review on Apple? Holy shit. Adorned with a dainty African rhinestone. I don't even know what I just heard. You felt it. Maya Angelou situation. People don't remember what they say. Just remember how you made them feel. This podcast, you make me feel almost every episode different.

You compare me to somebody incredible, like Maya Angelou just here. I think Winston Churchill you called me one week. And then it's fantastic. You're good for my ego. Egopedia. Clutching his newfound treasure with a sense of adoration, the young boy remained oblivious to the profound and devastating consequences it would soon unleash upon his life and, tragically, the lives of countless others.

Deep within his subconscious, however, he may have sensed the transformative power it held, as its allure was simply undeniable. What he held in his then-innocent grasp was a captivating, black patent leather stiletto high heel. Whoa.

Little did he know that the seemingly innocuous object would become the catalyst for a twisted existence defined by darkened desires and an insatiable compulsion to indulge in unspeakable acts of perversion and brutality. This little boy? Yeah. From Stiletto? Yeah.

Wow. Oh, yeah. That's all it takes. The path he would tread was marked by a series of heinous crimes, including abductions, rape, murder, dismemberment, and necrophilia. Poor fucking kid. You're going to go on to hear in his early childhood...

you're actually going to feel for him. At least I did. Yeah. I'm not going to tell you how you're going to feel, but I felt for him. And it's almost difficult to like, remember when you hear his backstory, who he turns out to be, because it is a very sad beginning for this little boy. Yeah.

This is the chilling tale of Jerry Brudos, an infamous American serial killer who earned the ominous name of the shoe fetish slayer. He's also known as the lust killer, but that doesn't pack the same punch or work as well with my intro. So we're going with the shoe fetish slayer. And it's not as linguistically pleasing. No, it isn't. The lust slayer? No, no, no. The lust killer. Oh, the lust killer? Yeah. Which I'm not even sure why that was...

Like a sign to him? Lust killer? I mean, it won't make sense to you now, but at the end of the case, I think you'll agree. Maybe they were all crimes of passion? The shoe fetish layer is like spot on. Okay. All right. Pop quiz. So let's, as always, start at the beginning. Eileen and Henry Brudos were an unhappy, mismatched couple living in South Dakota raising a son named Larry.

When Eileen discovered that she was pregnant again, both she and her husband were less than thrilled, as neither one of them particularly wanted a second child. Eileen's one glimmer of hope was that the baby would be a girl, an outcome that she fervently prayed for the nine months of her otherwise unwanted pregnancy. So when Eileen's baby came out on January 31st, 1939, having red hair, blue eyes, and most notably a penis, Eileen

she was tremendously and unabashedly let down. Red hair and a penis? What a fucking let down. As time went on, Eileen's initial disappointment with the birth of her baby boy, whom she named Jerome, Jerry, Henry Brudos, intensified into blatant hostility, evident disgust, and an overwhelming sense of hatred. This animosity towards Jerry was palpable and grew stronger with each passing day.

Throughout Jerry's upbringing, Eileen exhibited controlling and harsh behavior towards him while maintaining an affectionate and supportive demeanor towards his older brother, Larry. So sadly, by the time Jerry reached the age of about five, he came to the painful realization that he was genuinely unloved. Sad realization for a little boy, yeah.

The Brutus family led a somewhat nomadic lifestyle. They relocated to numerous farms across South Dakota, California, and Oregon, changing their residence like at least a dozen times during Jerry's very young upbringing, which is a lot. Yes. That's a lot on a kid. Yeah. Ultimately, they settled down near Salem, Oregon, and it was in this location that Jerry was afforded the freedom to independently explore his surroundings as well as delve into the treasures of a nearby and aforementioned junkyard.

And upon laying eyes on those stiletto heels... Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Sorry to jump in. How old was he when he was in the junkyard? Five. So they moved 12 times by the time he was five? I don't think it was the full 12 by the time he was five. I think it was just during his childhood, like a total of 12. But they had moved around several times when he found the shoes. Oh my God, yeah. And different states too. That's a lot. It is a lot. You get...

You give a kid a different blanket to sleep with. It's like, give me a minute to adjust here. A different brand apple juice? Yeah. They notice? They're not okay. No. Wow, that's a lot. Yeah. So upon laying eyes on those stiletto heels, Jerry experienced a sensation of pleasure quite possibly for the first time in his life.

Deprived of affection, warmth, and reassurance from his parents during his upbringing, the sheer joy and comfort he felt in that moment was like a hit of a euphoric drug. And he needed more. From finding the shoes? Yeah. Did he know what they were? He knew it was a shoe, but his mother didn't own any shoes like that. So for him, it was a novel experience to lay his eyes on this like exquisite looking high heel. And look,

A typical person likely would see a high heel at age five and not be so totally consumed in the way that he was. So you know that there's something else going on. Yeah, true. He took those patent leather beauties home with him. And from that point on, life was never the same. So weird. Pop quiz number one. Good timing. Once five-year-old Jerry got home with his new high heels, what did he do? Stuck his dick in them.

A, rub his penis on the shoes. Word. You've been around the block now, Tank. Yep. B, attack his mother with the pointy heel. Or C, parade around the house wearing the shoes for all to see. Stuck his dick in it. No. Oh, fuck. I have been betrayed by my own brain and outed.

Paraded around in them? Yeah. Yeah. With great enthusiasm, Jerry gleefully put on the high heels and paraded around his home. In 1944, too. Yeah. I mean, they were not having that. No. He was reveling in the way that they made him feel. However, his moment of joy was abruptly shattered when Eileen noticed the shoes and lost her shit.

Yeah. Instead of embracing the occasion as a joyful expression of self-discovery for Jerry, which never would have happened in 1944, he became the target of his mother's rage and condemnation.

Eileen berated him, hurling insults and calling him wicked and evil. She demanded that he immediately return the shoes to the junkyard. But there was absolutely no chance that Jerry was ever going to give up these high heels. So he instead hid the shoes underneath his bed and would cherish them in secret. And he would admire them whenever he could and whenever he thought his mother wasn't looking.

They became his hidden treasure and like his forbidden pleasure. Hidden treasure and forbidden pleasure? Mm-hmm. So he's already being taught that whatever he is and who he is is shameful. Yes.

However, Jerry's clandestine affair with the shoes came to a dramatic end after Eileen stumbled upon them once again. Her reaction this time was even more severe than it had been the first time. And what she did next served as a catalyst for transforming Jerry's simple passion for shoes into a lifelong dangerous fixation. He could have been Steve Madden. He could have, man. Yeah, he wound up fucking Ted Bundy.

Eileen took the heels outside, lit a match, and set them ablaze. But what she really did was ignite an inferno inside Jerry that would irrevocably transform the trajectory of his life while causing an untold amount of devastation.

The moment Eileen set the shoes on fire marked the definitive beginning of the shoe fetish layer. Out of the ashes, he rose. A fucked up phoenix. Out of the melted patent leather. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big ROAS man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend.

My friend's still laughing at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com slash results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com slash results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Due to frequent relocations, which we discussed during his childhood, Jerry had limited opportunities to form meaningful friendships. He was a little bit of a

His closest friend, a girl his age, tragically succumbed to tuberculosis. The only other friend he had growing up was an elderly neighbor who provided him with genuine warmth and companionship in stark contrast to his own mother, right, who hated him and didn't hide it.

Unfortunately, both the little girl and the kind old lady passed away around the same time, leaving Jerry with a profound sense of abandonment and loss. Yeah, so then she sets his shoes on fire. It's like setting your puppy on fire. Right, exactly right. And crucially, in addition to feeling abandonment and loss, he felt anger. Yeah. Following that pivotal moment in time, Jerry's fascination with shoes underwent an exponential surge.

Yeah. Yeah.

the female in his life, treating him like shit. Yeah. So he's getting all kinds of mixed signals here, or really one signal from females. And it ain't good. He was abandoned by war. You were abandoned by indifference. I doubt anybody will know that. I think she said orphan. He was orphaned by war. You were orphaned by indifference. Yes. That is your link.

I'm so good at that. For those who don't know, I Heart Huckabees was a transformative movie for Tank and I, and also my husband. I don't think your wife was so into it, right? No. The best movie out there. Yeah. Like hands down. Yeah.

When Jerry entered first grade, he entered his new classroom and surreptitiously stole a pair of high heels that his teacher kept in a drawer in her desk. Oh, he's on to some shit. Right. He concealed the teacher's shoes under a pile of blocks in the play area of the classroom because his goal was to take them home with him at the end of the day. Unfortunately for Jerry, another student witnessed his actions and narked him. Oh my God. I know. It was probably a woman too. Could have been. Right? I don't know.

Confronted by the teacher about his actions and questioned why he would desire her high heels, Jerry blushed deeply and ran out of the classroom, totally, totally embarrassed. This humiliating incident added to the growing list of negative experiences surrounding an item that otherwise brought him such immense pleasure.

Every single time he exposes himself to the thing that he loves the most. Just likes high heels. He has like a totally contrasting experience happen simultaneously. Yeah. The perplexing pattern of conflicting emotions continued to manifest in Jerry's life.

he found himself trapped in a cycle of tumultuous and simultaneous emotions and reactions, right? Where moments of excitement and curiosity were swiftly followed by overwhelming feelings of shame and embarrassment. Given his young age, Jerry lacked the mental and emotional capacity to process these complex emotions or to even like distinguish them as being separate. Like I can have this passion for this item and people can react the way they react, but they're unrelated.

Or I don't have to like feel any way about my shoes because they reacted that way. You're saying he didn't do that. Correct. Yeah, of course. He's too little. Too young.

Throughout Jerry's entire life, women held the position of power and exerted control over him in various ways. His mother, who was unpleasable, displayed coldness and cruelty towards him, and she made it clear that she adored Larry, his brother, while harboring an equal measure of hatred for Jerry, right? His teacher reprimanded him and embarrassed him. The two other women in his life who he cared about left him.

As a result, Jerry found himself oscillating between episodes of depression and rage, deeply affected by this betrayal and lack of stability with respect to women. Now, during Jerry's adolescence, his fixation extended beyond women's high heels to include ladies' underwear. Panties, if you will. Obviously.

He began pilfering panties, bras, and girdles. Stop saying panties. I did that on purpose. I'm sorry. It's a word, man. He started pilfering panties, panties, and panties. Tank hates that word. Pilfering panties. He began pilfering underwear. Thank you. Bras and girdles that were hung out to dry on clotheslines in the neighborhood. So he would steal these undergarments and then bring them home and

and would indulge in the private pleasure of the soft fabric and the erotic sensual designs. I mean, listen, if I'm a neighbor, no shade, whatever, I mean, people are going to do what they're going to do, but if I found out that there was a little six-year-old kid running around the neighborhood stealing women's underwear and hoarding them... He's an adolescent by this point, but yes. Up to... The older he gets, the weirder it is. It's just like...

I would have some concerns as well. Oh, I mean, absolutely. Yeah. This is what I'm saying is that you can feel bad for him on one hand for like the loss he suffered and the hatred he feels from his own mother. I mean, in the face of what he's probably done, like she set your shoes on fire, did get a grip. The scale starts to like shift and you start to favor hating him very soon. He overreacted. Correct. Correct.

At age 16, something happened for the first time that had a pretty significant impact on Jerry's life. Pop quiz. I like know they're coming now. I think I might get really excited and then I project and I think you pick up on that. Yeah. What happened for the first time that had a pretty significant impact on Jerry's life?

A. Jerry experienced violent fantasies while spying on the girls next door hanging their underwear on clotheslines. Okay. B. Jerry had a wet dream. Okay. C. Jerry saw his mother wearing a pair of high heels for the first time and experienced a weird set of confusing emotions. He saw his mom wearing high heels? No. He had violent fantasies staring at his neighbors? No. He had a wet dream? Yeah. So what is... Well, I'll tell you what.

This wet dream in and of itself was not a bad thing, and it probably was quite nice, let's be honest. But it was Eileen's reaction to finding his semen-stained sheets that did a number on him because she scolded and berated him and forced him to wash the sheets by hand and to sleep without sheets that night as punishment. Semen demon. Semen demon rears its ugly head again.

He, of course, was made to feel that his, quote, nocturnal emissions, as he referred to it. That's what it's called, right? I mean, that's what he refers to them in later interviews. It's so clinical. Yeah. You know, he was made to feel that they were abnormal and wrong.

At the age of 17, Jerry had already cultivated a deep-seated animosity and distrust towards women. He no longer wished to be the subject of the whim of females with their unpredictable and unreliable nature. Consequently, he began formulating peculiar fantasies on which he sought retribution against all women as a means of exerting control and power. So,

So he's starting to turn the tables, right? Taking power or perceived power away from women and putting it in his possession. Yeah. He wanted total domination over women or at the very least one woman to start with.

During the summer of 1955, Jerry Brudos devised a plan. He dedicated days of work to excavating a concealed tunnel into the side of a hill on the farm that they lived at

with the intention of hiding and enslaving a girl. Wow. But his motivation was not driven by thoughts of sexual assault or servitude, rather by the anticipation of witnessing a girl plead for mercy, an aspect that particularly appealed to his twisted desires. Yeah, that's not a great motivation. So listen to what he did.

Jerry approached a girl from his neighborhood, someone whose underwear he had previously stolen. Hey, I know this is weird. You know me from the whole underwear thing. But I just wanted to...

He concocted a deceitful story claiming that he was working undercover on behalf of the police to catch the culprit responsible for the lingerie thefts. This is what he's telling the girl. Does she know that he stole? The girl knows that her underwear was stolen. Okay. But she doesn't know that he was the one who stole it. And how old is he at this point? 17. So when he approached her to say...

the police asked me to help them find the perpetrator. Yeah. Right? She was like really actually pretty, I'm not going to say desperate to find the perpetrator, but in the books that I read about this, like all of

All of her underwear was disappearing. She was pissed. Yeah. So she was very, very like willing to help the cops and Jerry go undercover to find the culprit. Imagine you went into your drawer every day and there was underwear missing and then all of a sudden there was no underwear. Yeah. If someone came to you and they were like, hey, we're going to help you find it. Do this. You'd be like, yeah, yeah, whatever. I don't care. You're four. You're a cop. Doesn't matter. You need to find the underwear. Right.

You believe anything when you're desperate. So the girl shows up at Jerry's farmhouse. And when she arrives, she hears Jerry call up, come on up. So she proceeded upstairs. Suddenly, a masked individual emerged, forcefully grabbing the girl from behind and brandishing a large knife. He demanded that she strip naked under the threat of the knife against her throat.

the masked assailant proceeded to photograph her using a camera equipped with a flash attachment, directing her on how to pose, undressing fully, and how to contort her body. After finishing the roll of film, the masked perpetrator left the room while the girl hurriedly dressed herself. Then, suddenly...

Jerry appears, breathing heavily, asking if she was okay because, oh my God, there's some masked freak outside who just attacked me, Jerry, and locked me in the barn and I just now managed to break free. Are you okay? What the fuck? So the girl is not a fucking idiot and she knew that the masked assailant and Jerry Brudos were one and the same. Yeah. Yeah.

So she legged it out of there as fast as she could. How dumb is this guy, first of all? Listen, he's, something's off, obviously, but he is, you can't think other people are that dumb unless you're that dumb.

So the fact that he just came running out like it was a Superman Clark Kent situation where, of course, he's not going to know. It's just me. You know, I was attacked, too. Exactly. That's why I'm out of breath. Oh, my God. I feel like that's such a, like, he's 17 at this point, but I feel like that's something a much, much younger kid would do and, like, thinking that adults would believe it. Like Tommy Boy with the door. What did you do? What'd you do? What'd you do?

Yes. That's so good. So the girl never reported what happened because she was genuinely afraid of him. Who would believe her? He'd be like, all right, take her to the hospital.

Eight months later, in 1956, Jerry managed to lure a 17-year-old girl into his car. He drove the girl to an abandoned farmhouse in a very remote location and demanded that she strip for him while he photographed her. When she refused, Jerry dragged her out of the car and beat the shit out of her. He broke her nose and then focused on pummeling her face and breasts with his fists. He punched her in the tits? Yeah.

Yes, Tank, he did. He's taking out his aggression towards women. Oh, fuck. I was just thinking what a weird place to punch somebody. Yeah, it's a little telling. Wow. The fact that he could not control this woman into doing what he wanted absolutely infuriated him.

Amazingly, however, during the assault, a car happened to be driving by. And I say amazingly because this really was a very remote location. In Oregon, right? Yeah. And the car swerved into the driveway of the farmhouse where the assault was taking place and they intervened. Oh, nice. Jerry claimed that the girl on the ground who he was beating up fell out of the car and she was hysterical because she was scared from the whole ordeal.

The girl was unable to speak because her mouth and her nose were so swollen. Oh, my God. But she frantically shook her head no at the couple and pleaded for help with her eyes. The couple promptly contacted the Oregon State Police, and Jerry essentially confessed to his actions.

Some sources I read indicate that he's arrogant, that he thinks even if I confess to what I did, nothing's going to happen. Like I'm always going to be able to pull one over the police. I'm always going to be smarter than the person I'm talking to. I'm not so sure. I mean, I know he's technically like an arrogant person and there's definitely a lot of like research to support that.

But you keep bringing up the fact that like he doesn't seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer. Yeah. I'm with you on that. Like, I just don't think he's very bright. Yeah. No, I don't think. But stupid people can come off as arrogant because they think everyone else is stupid because they're stupid. You know? Yeah. Good point. I just made it up right now. Very, very deep. Yeah.

So the Oregon State Police at this point are on the scene, right? They're talking to Jerry. He confesses.

They also do a search of his bedroom and uncover a substantial collection of women's undergarments as well as high heels, along with a trove of photographs featuring his initial victim. Incriminating. Very much so. In the spring of 1956, Jerry was arrested for assault and battery and subsequently committed to Oregon State Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

The psychiatrist faced a perplexing challenge in reconciling the image of a socially awkward, acne-ridden teenage boy who was blushing during conversations with them with the profile of a sadistic sexual predator. The doctors found it difficult to arrive at a definitive diagnosis at this point because Jerry didn't exhibit clear signs of being like grossly mentally ill and he didn't display symptoms like hallucinations or delusions or anything like that.

And while he possessed reasonable intellectual functioning, according to what they could see, his judgment was questionable, to say the least. However, there was no identifiable mental condition for which a definitive cure existed. The provisional diagnosis of Jerry Brudos at this stage... Especially back then. ...was exactly right. Yeah. This guy might be full of fucking poltergeists. I don't know what the hell's going on with him. Gotta exercise those demons. This guy's full of semen demon. Yeah.

You got to bloodlet him and fucking put leeches on his neck. I was just going to say that. Yeah. So what they did diagnose him with was adjustment reaction of adolescence with sexual deviation and fetishism. Adjustment reaction of adolescence with sexual deviation and fetishism? Yeah. I can't believe I just remembered all that. I swear to God was just thinking that like, God, you have a really good short-term memory.

It's gone. Oh. I couldn't do it again. What is a Justin react? Fucking shit. What does adjustment reaction mean? Oh, man. You should have just left it. A Justin Timberlake? What? It basically just meant that he was an adolescent experiencing fetishism.

And he was having an outlier experience that you don't typically see in adolescence. He was also given the additional diagnosis of borderline schizophrenic reaction, which was a very, very hot diagnosis of the era. But it's also one that hasn't been recognized or used since 1980. It was a hot diagnosis. It was. It was like ADD. Being given out all willy-nilly like. Yeah. Jerry was required to report to...

and sleep at the mental health facility every single day after school for a period of nine months. He was in high school? Yeah.

Oh, man. So, pop quiz based on your reaction. How did the kids at North Salem High School react to the fact that Jerry reported to a mental institution every day after school? They made him homecoming king, obviously. A, he endured relentless teasing, particularly from the girls, which only fueled his desire for revenge even more. B, they were terrified of him and treated him like royalty to avoid his wrath.

C, they hardly noticed his existence at all. C. Yeah. That would be the most hurtful one for someone like that. Exactly. Nailed it. The absence of self-worth, which can come at that age when people literally don't even notice your fucking existence, along with social isolation, low self-esteem, considering yourself to be a reject or an outsider, it can place certain individuals in a subcategory that is...

susceptible to engaging in criminal behavior. Isn't that so weird that it kind of, I guess, ends for the most part in high school, middle school, high school is where it's most prevalent. But like that whole idea of like, she knows who I am or he knows who I am. Like, yeah, dude, you fucking, you've been in school together for 12 years. Right. Just because they don't talk to you doesn't mean they don't know who you are. Right. True. I can't even imagine saying something like that or caring like, wow. Wow.

He knows who I am. You know what though? This cool guy. Can I like play devil's advocate there? Yeah, because I'm about to change my mind too, so go. When we see reviews, we feel seen and heard and appreciated and like we feel like our people are out there and it feels good. Well, even more specific, I remember when Jon Favreau followed me

I felt like he knows who I am. Yeah. So I don't think that that feeling ever goes away. I think that it becomes less important and it doesn't sort of like maybe motivate your life.

So at this stage, there's no denying that Jerry crossed into the realm of being a full-fledged sexual predator. He beat up this girl. He essentially abducted a girl, forced her to strip, photographed her naked. He is escalating. 100% a sexual predator. Absolutely.

After he graduated from high school, Jerry attended Oregon State University for a very short time and then Salem Technical Vocational School before joining the Army on March 9th, 1959. However, he was discharged from the Army within one year of joining and was deemed not fit for service.

The official reason for discharge was, quote, bizarre obsessions. Yeah, I mean, that was way before Don't Ask, Don't Tell. So if you're strutting around on high heels during basic training, you are out. What really got him kicked out of the army was he claimed that there was a Korean woman breaking into the barracks every night and seducing him. And he had no choice but to beat her up to get her off of him. Oh. So. Was there a woman? Nope. Nope.

Once back home with his parents, he began working as a commercial electrician. So after the army, he moves back home into that place. With his parents? Yeah, that he's really just, they want him even less at this stage in life. He also began to test the waters in terms of preying upon women to act out his sexual desires and need for control. One night, he trailed a woman back to her apartment and choked her out in front of her doorway. He didn't kill her. She was one of the lucky ones. But he did steal her shoes. Okay.

Then he slept with her shoes out in the shed, which is where his mother now required he sleep. And as he gripped those shoes, he felt a surge of power thinking about how he obtained them. Not long after that incident in 1963, now 23-year-old Jeremy met a 17-year-old girl named Darcy Metzler. Darcy, by the way, is also sometimes referred to as Ralphine. I think her name met...

may have actually been Ralphine, but she changed it to Darcy because she ended up marrying Jerry Brudos. Wow. Jerry was enthralled by the idea of having a woman that was duty-bound to engage with him sexually whenever he wanted and without the work of actually having to seduce her.

Nine months after their marriage, the couple welcomed a baby girl named Megan. It was during this period that Jerry began experiencing severe headaches and what he called blackouts. To alleviate the pain and discomfort caused by these debilitating headaches, Jerry resorted to what he termed raids. These involved prowling the neighborhood and...

pilfering panties and shoes. Why didn't the guy just have a drink or something? Yeah, it's not his outlet. It's not his thing. It's not his choice. That's a crazy outlet to have. He also enforced a very strict rule in the house. Darcy, his wife, had to be completely naked at all times. Ha ha ha ha!

Did you ever see the Seinfeld episode? I was just going to say, even when opening a jar of pickles? I was just going to say, I'll never forget that. At first, Jerry Seinfeld, in that episode, he was like totally stoked that he had this girlfriend who was like naked all the time until he saw her open a jar. There's good naked and there's bad naked. Exactly. Yeah. So she was completely naked all the time, doing housework, taking care of the baby. The only thing she was allowed to wear...

High heels. Hair of high heels. Of course. Now, it may raise questions as to why Darcy complied with these bizarre demands. However, upon examining Darcy and Jerry's relationship, it becomes evident, at least to me and my unprofessional opinion...

that it was marked by psychological abuse. Jerry exercised a significant level of coercive control over Darcy. And Darcy, being much younger than Jerry and having grown up with an authoritarian German father, was conditioned to be submissive and unquestioning, making her a vulnerable target for Jerry's manipulation. That's probably what she liked about him. I don't know if it's what she liked or if it's what she was used to. Well, one and the same. I mean, like, that's probably what drew her. It is. So in later interviews...

Jerry said something along the lines of, this is what our marriage was based on. She gave me what I needed, which was somebody I could control. And I gave her what she needed, which was somebody to control her. Yeah. Whether you like it or not, your actions are, they tell everything. Yeah.

While Darcy lived her life in the nude under Jerry's thumb, he would photograph her in very kinky poses. Such a weird mental image. Well, it's about to get a lot weirder. Pop quiz. What strange situation did Jerry have Darcy engage in while he took her picture? A. Darcy sitting completely naked on their toddler's tricycle. B.

B, Darcy sliding down a handrail completely naked. C, Darcy rubbing mayonnaise on her naked breasts and genitals.

Well, American Pie hadn't come out yet, so I'm going to say no to the mayonnaise. Wasn't that apple pie? No, it was whipped cream, but still. No, Varsity Blues was the whipped cream. Varsity Blues, yeah. Okay, either way, we're talking about the 60s. He made her sit on the tricycle because that's the funniest one. Yes. Yeah. He directed Darcy to ride Megan's tricycle naked with her butt spilling over the little tiny seat and her breast draped over the handlebars.

He also directed her to sit on the floor completely naked with nylon stockings pulled over her face so that her features were distorted and grotesque.

I don't even know how you would go about asking someone you love to do that. I know. I feel like it's hard enough for like healthy couples to like suggest something kinky in the bedroom. That's like not like that at all. Yeah. This is like fucking next level. He doesn't care at all. No, no. She's not a human to him. Correct. Correct. I think you're right about that. Yeah. Or actually, actually, I'm going to go back on that.

She is a human and she is humiliated and she isn't comfortable. And he likes that. Yeah. But then something happened in 1967 that broke the peace in the house and unleashed the true monster within Jerry. Yeah.

Darcy was pregnant again and all Jerry wanted was to be present in the delivery room at the time of his son's birth. He was convinced it was a boy just as his mom desperately wanted him to be a girl. It's like history repeating itself. Only he desperately wanted to have a boy. Yeah. And the thinking behind that is that he was hoping to experience some kind of psychological rebirth of his own by witnessing the birth of his son. Yeah. But Darcy didn't allow Jerry in the delivery room.

She claims that she didn't want Jerry to see another man, quote, playing with her. Okay. Okay. Because that's what doctors do, as we know. But I think what's probably more the case is she's not comfortable around him. Yeah, probably. Jerry was enraged that he missed the birth. So he went downtown in Portland, stalked a woman wearing high heels, followed her home, broke into her apartment, and waited for her to fall asleep.

Then he choked her out. But rather than just stealing her shoes and leaving like he had done with the first woman he choked out, he took a giant horrific step further. Yeah. So it was the woman's helplessness that really aroused Jerry this time. And he was met by the strongest erection he'd ever had.

So she was dead, like unconscious because he was starting to recognize how helpless she was. Yeah. And that got his juices flowing. Yeah. So he raped the unconscious woman before then stealing her shoes. Oh, okay. Still stole the shoes. Still stole the shoes. But this time he took that step and raped her.

His behavior was escalating now in more ways than one. Not only was he now sexually assaulting women, but the way in which he started to carry himself changed, as did his physical appearance. Pop quiz. After Darcy commented on Jerry's recent weight gain, pointing out the new roles he had around his waist and under his chin, what did Jerry do? Go on keto.

A, choke out Darcy. Okay. B, photograph her perceived imperfections to punish and humiliate her. Or C, stuff his pudgy body into women's undergarments in front of Darcy. What? So he, the first, what was the first one? Choke her out. Choke her out. I mean, that's typical if he did that. Okay.

I like to think that he stuffed his chubby body into undergarments and made her look at them. I'm so happy to tell you that that is exactly what he did. It is. Yeah.

He put on a bra, girdle, garter belt, and gigantic stiletto heels and pranced around in front of Darcy after she called him fat. They were basically stilts. Also, just side note, I'm not a huge fan of the word girdle either. Oh, God, Tank. Listen, this podcast, we're going to talk about like sexual things. Yeah. Things that are just sexual in nature. I can't help it. Panties, girdle. This is going to be part of the vernacular.

I'm going to need you to be okay with that, buddy. People don't really wear girdles anymore, so I'm safe most of the time, but not... They wear Spanx. It's the modern day girdle. Spanx is fine. Then say Spanx. Okay. No, I'm kidding. You don't have to do anything. Just voicing my displeasure with these words. Girdle. I'll make a mental note, all right? Girdle.

Following an uncomfortable silence after Jerry paraded around in women's underwear in front of his wife. Girdle. With zero words exchanged between the two of them, by the way. I mean, what could they say? What can be said? Yeah. He then marched back into the bedroom, got out of the women's clothing, put his clothing back on, and then acted like nothing happened. And Darcy, in an attempt to maintain peace and to avoid bothering Jerry, convinced herself to just

push the image aside and to just prioritize her children moving forward. What can you do at that point? What are you going to say? You looked great. Yeah. You really pulled that off. I was surprised. I didn't think you'd be able to do it, but... Little did she know that Jerry had actually been regularly donning women's lingerie beneath his clothing, possibly seeking a transformative experiences that like would align with a gender that his mother really wished he had. So it's sort of this like...

looking for his mother's approval type of psychological thing.

Mind fuck. The mind is a crazy place. Yeah, it is. I love it. It's so dark. It doesn't have to be dark, but when it is, it is fascinating. Even if it's not dark, it's still interesting. It is. It is. I mean, I go into like serious, serious rabbit holes when I research these cases because like the level of complexity of the psychology involved is, for me, that's what's the most interesting element of true crime always. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Well, I mean, some people, it's like a horror movie. Like they want to hear the gruesome acts of the actual like, you know, murders. But I think they want to hear that because they can't even imagine going there. Actually going there. Everyone has crazy thoughts because we've all seen movies and read newspaper articles and probably listened to true crime podcasts. So your brain is like filled with these ideas. But doing it is a totally different story. Yeah.

Then on January 26th, 1968, Jerry's behavior escalated further and he earned himself the new status of homicidal maniac. It was right before his birthday. Yeah. Good memory. Here's where the case takes a very, very dark turn.

When Linda Slauson, an attractive 19-year-old woman, arrived on Jerry Street wearing high heels selling encyclopedias... Oh, she had no idea. Jerry managed to persuade her that the person with whom she had a scheduled meeting was in fact him.

When she entered his home, he led her into the basement, indicating that his mother and children were occupying the main floor and he didn't want them to disturb her sales pitch. Once below ground, Jerry cracked Linda over the head with a two-by-four, causing her to collapse unconscious onto the floor.

Overcome with exhilaration, Jerry knelt beside Linda, his breath rapid and excited, and proceeded to tightly grip her neck. With each squeeze, he could feel the delicate bones in her neck give way under the immense pressure of his big hands until the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest ceased altogether.

And in that moment, Jerry was consumed by a euphoric sensation as if it were like some type of fantasy materializing into reality.

But then he was startled out of his happy place by the sound of footsteps overhead. He wouldn't be able to truly engage in all of the depraved acts he had planned with his mother and his children right upstairs. It was too risky. So he devised a plan to get them out of the house. He marched upstairs with a $5 bill and told them to go out for hamburgers. He then instructed his mother to knock on the floor when she got back and

so that he could come upstairs to get the cheeseburger that he asked for her to bring back for him. But really what he was doing was setting up a system so that he would know when they got back. By the time Jerry returned back to Linda's body, he was trembling with anticipation. To Jerry, she looked like a doll and he was more than ready to play. He began by undressing her body.

And much to his delight, Linda had been wearing beautiful undergarments, including a blue bra, a slip, a girdle, sorry, and beneath the girdle, bright red underwear. Panties. I wasn't going to say it, even though that's what I planned to say originally. Women used to wear a lot of underwear, huh? They did. You know what? I always think about that, too. Like, when you see old shows, they've got, like, the stockings...

with clips on a garter belt above the underwear, underneath the girdle. It's like crazy. Stockings, garter belt, girdle, panties, bra, cummerbund, girdle, slip. Yes. Like how, how that was. Crazy, I know. Take forever. Just go commando, ladies. So this woman, Linda, and her choice in undergarments was truly made to order for Jerry. Yes.

He removed all of the beautiful lingerie one by one, not to savor the view of Linda's naked body, but rather to fondle the undergarments themselves. With meticulous enthusiasm, he methodically dressed Linda's lifeless body

over and over again. So he would dress her up and then undress her and then dress her up and then undress her. That's a lot. It's a lot. And in the midst... She's dead, right? She's dead, yes. Oh my God. In the midst of this otherwise perfect scene for Jerry, he hears a knock on the ceiling. His mom was back with the burger. Come get your cheeseburger, you little freak. So he goes upstairs. He eats the damn cheeseburger.

And then goes back in the basement to carry on. And this is definitely a clear indicator of somebody with psychopathy. Yeah. The fact that he can switch gears like this and be one person so believably in one moment and then somebody else entirely like that is wild. You could eat at a time like this.

When he returned downstairs, he continued dressing Linda's body up in various satin and silk panties and bras that he had stolen previously. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to take pictures of Linda because he didn't have any film. He wasn't expecting her. She showed up on his doorstep selling encyclopedias. Bummer. So he was not prepared. So after dressing Linda's body up for hours and hours, Jerry did something else. Pop quiz. Pop quiz. Fucking know they're coming. Did Jerry A...

Simulate breastfeeding? No.

That's what I would have done. You don't even react like that. I made that up. Like you're so like, I'm so you're so just non-reactive to this. You're so, yeah. I mean, I know who I'm dealing with at this point. He put her on the couch and watched TV with her. No, he raped her. Nope. Cut off her foot. Yep. Wow. That is not the one. Obviously I thought it was as it was my last choice.

So Jerry cut off Linda's left foot at the ankle, slipped it into one of his high heels that he'd squirreled away previously, and then placed it into a freezer in the basement. Then he drove the rest of Linda's body to the Willamette River, weighed it down with a car engine, and dropped her into the dark water, never to be seen again. Wait, hold on a second. How did he get the body out of the house?

It's spewing blood because the leg is cut off. And where the fuck did he get a car engine? Do you know how heavy a car engine is? He's an electrician. Okay. And he has parts that he tinkers with. Yeah, but an engine is like 1,500 pounds. I know. I don't know. I have no answer to how or when he obtained the car engine with which he weighed down her body, but he had one and he did it. He probably could have done it with like a cinder block. I mean, a car engine is...

Massively heavy. Yeah. It worked, though. Obviously. Okay. That's a fucking car engine. That was so visceral. You, like, came out of your chair at me. Obviously.

For a period of about eight months, Jerry continued to take his trophy foot out of the freezer to have it model various heels that he'd steal and collect. And this trophy was kept in a freezer inside like a secret place and

that his wife was never, ever allowed to go. And if ever she needed to get into the freezer, she would have to tell him first. And he's got her sitting on tricycles naked, so she's not going. She's doing it. She's asking for the freezer, like no problem. The habit of keeping trophies from kills is a habit that is almost universal among serial killers.

Trophies will have different purposes for each killer. Some may use it to relive the moment. Others may keep trophies as a form of bragging rights or self-gratification. Others may take them to feel closer to their victim. But overall, trophies act as a reminder to the events that passed. Following the murder and dismemberment of Linda Slauson, about eight months later, Jerry committed another absolutely brutal crime against an innocent young woman. Mm-hmm.

Jan Whitney was a 23-year-old student at the University of Oregon. Right before Thanksgiving in 1968, on November 26th, Jan decided to visit some friends in Eugene, Oregon, and her car broke down on Interstate 5. Jerry offered to drive Jan back to his home with the excuse that she could use his phone to call a tow truck. Once in the car, Jerry strangled Jan with a leather strap and raped her.

How he did it was he wrapped the leather strap around her neck and then he closed it in the car door until it strangled her to death. Then he brought Jan's corpse back to his home and hung her body from a pulley he rigged up in his garage.

For the next several days, Jerry kept Jan suspended in the air while he proceeded to dress her up, photograph her, and rape her on repeat. She's dead. Yeah. Afterwards, Jerry decided to cut off a piece of her body just as he'd done with poor Linda Slauson, but he did not opt to cut off a foot this time. Pop quiz? What did this vile piece of shit do to poor Jan's body?

A. Cut off a breast to use it as a paperweight. B. Gruesomely remove her eyes before storing them in ice trays in the freezer. And fucking her eyeball. Suck it. Suck it. C. Cut out her tongue to use for continued sexual gratification. Oh my God, it's one of those. Yeah, I'm afraid so.

Cut off her breast to use as a paperweight. Eyes out or cut off her tongue? Cut out her tongue? Fuck, I don't know. They're all so bad. Cut out her tongue. No. Okay, so you came up with that one. That's weird. Cut her eyes out. Nope. She cut her breast off to use as a paperweight? Yes.

Yes, he did. The paperweight is what threw me off. I know. It's just, it's stranger than fiction. I mean, it's going to destroy the paper. That's where your mind went? Yeah, because it's... Well, what he really did was he cut off her breast and he made a resin mold out of the breast with which he then made a paperweight. Oh, well, you didn't say that. I probably would have guessed that. Okay. Bullshit.

And he'd served his purpose. Exactly. And in the research I did, it kept saying how after having eight months with the foot, it just didn't do anything for him anymore. Like he was over it. Had his fun. Right.

So several additional women went missing in the Portland area in or around 1968, 1969 in connection with Jerry Brudos. And I'm unable to provide comprehensive details for each victim within the confines of one episode. But I do believe it's important to mention and honor each victim a little bit by acknowledging and remembering their names, at least.

Karen Elena Sprinker was a 19-year-old freshman at Oregon State when Jerry abducted her at gunpoint from a parking lot outside a department store in 1969. At the time of the abduction, Jerry was fully dressed in women's clothing. So, like, he's escalating in that realm as well. Yeah. He took Karen to his garage, forced her to model and pose in his collection of undergarments while he photographed her. He raped her and eventually hung her by her neck from a pulley until...

until she died. And Jerry got off hearing the tapping of Karen's high heels on the ground and on the walls as she struggled to breathe. I've seen a photograph of Karen while she was still alive, but after she had been raped and forced to pose naked, and the look on her face is... Haunting. Haunting. She looks like a deer in headlights. It's heartbreaking.

Jerry then raped Karen's dead body on several occasions and cut off her breasts to make paperweights. Afterward, he tied her body to a six-cylinder car engine using a nylon cord and threw her remains into the Willamette River.

Linda Salih, 22 years old, was abducted from a shopping mall parking lot on April 23rd, 1969. Brudos brought her to his garage where he raped and strangled her and then fucked about with her corpse. He decided not to amputate her breasts as they were too pink. I don't know what that means. Making a mold out of it. And instead did the following.

He put hypodermic syringes at the sides of her rib cage and then attached them to electrical nodes. Then he applied an electrical current to the body in an attempt to make the body jump. She was dead? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

So basically he was trying to bring her back to life, which of course didn't work. Obviously. And all he did was burn the body. Yeah. Afterward, he tied her remains to a car transmission with a nylon cord and threw it into the river. There was actually one more victim, a woman named Sharon Wood, but incredibly she survived. Oh my God. He had tried to abduct her at gunpoint in a parking lot and she fought him off.

The killings were always adorned with specific items like women's underwear and shoes, perhaps transforming Jerry in those moments into the girl his mother always wished that he was.

The mutilation of the corpses exhibited both his hatred of his mother's rejection and possibly an aversion toward the women's sexual characteristics that he could never fully assume. And his psychopathic behavior was truly chilling as he'd hang his victims and observe their demise while simultaneously watching cartoons.

He had this detached predatory dispassion like a cat toying with a lifeless mouse after it killed it. Yeah. Fortunately, we're coming to the end here. In May of 1969, the case took a turn. The discovery of Linda Salih and Karen Sprinker's bodies in the river were discovered by a fisherman, which then, of course, prompted an investigation.

The police questioned students at a nearby university campus about any encounters that they may have had with a suspicious individual. And one student provided crucial information about Jerry. So it turned out that Jerry had been repeatedly calling the dorm and asking to speak with random women using common names, knowing that somebody in the dorm likely had that name. Wow. So one time he actually arranged for a date with a woman by doing that.

So they're out on a date and Jerry made a very bizarre, creepy comment. She went out on the date? Yeah. This guy had riz. He had some game. Yeah.

And he made a comment to her, something along the lines of, how'd you know I wasn't going to kill you and dump your body in the river? Which immediately set off alarm bells because she, of course, had heard about the bodies that were recently discovered in the river. Yeah. So when the police came and started asking the girls in the dorm questions,

about whether or not they'd seen anybody suspicious. Yeah. This woman was like, holy shit. Yeah. So they set up a sting operation and the woman arranged to have a second date with Jerry, but really the police were waiting for him. She must've been so fucking nervous. Oh my God. What a fucking beast. So impressed by this woman. This was like so long ago too. Yeah. You know?

Ultimately, this marked the end of Jerry Brudos' reign of terror. Good. Because upon confronting Jerry, the police grew more suspicious in speaking with him with every word that came out of his mouth. First, he provided them with a false address. Then when they found his...

real address, they discovered the same stuff that he was using to wrap the women around the machinery before dropping them in the river, they found in his garage. Yeah. They also found a disturbing collection of women's high heels, 40 pairs, to be precise, as well as a large quantity of underwear and explicit photographs of the women he abducted. Oh, so yeah, you're fucking, this guy is dead to rights. And...

the nail in his coffin, when he would photograph the women, on some occasions there'd be a fucking mirror behind the women. So his reflection, he's literally putting himself in the center of the crime. I told you, he's not arrogant. He's dumb. Yeah, I'm in agreement. I think he might be both. True.

On June 28th, 1969, Brudos entered a guilty plea for three counts of first-degree murder involving Karen Sprinker, Jan Whitney, and Linda Salee. As a result, he received three consecutive life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Penitentiary.

Yeah. Penitentiary. I'm struggling with the word. It's fine. It is what it is. You're not a prison person. No. No, but I do work in the field. I should be able to pronounce it. We're going to send you to the penitentiary. Shut up. What the fuck is that? I thought I was going to jail. Sounds like a place where you go look at birds or something. Fuck off, man.

Throughout his time in prison, Jerry maintained collections of women's shoe catalogs in his cell. This guy just can't stop. No, he actively corresponded with major companies and requested that they send him shoe catalogs, indicating that this was his preferred form of pornography. Yeah. Psychiatrist Michael H. Stone, who was largely recognized for refining the concept of psychopathy...

classifies Jerry as possessing a psychopathic personality, obviously, and emphasizes that Jerry's lack of remorse and his callousness in relation to his crimes makes him like the worst type of psychopath. While Jerry presented himself as a diligent family man on the surface, his true nature as the shoe fetish slayer ran deep beneath that facade. If the shoe fits...

Nicely done. That was lazy, but I'm glad you liked it. I liked it. Michael Stone, the psychiatrist I just mentioned, created a scale known as the gradations of evil consisting of 22 levels that serve to classify and measure degrees of evil. The scale ranges from level one representing minimal or no malice to level 22 representing the highest level of evil.

Jerry Brudos was assessed and assigned a rating of category 18 on this scale. That's pretty high. Yeah. So the classification of evil begins with crimes that have a relatable human element, like crimes of passion or self-defense. And then as the scale progresses, it incorporates personality traits that can predispose individuals to violence, like hotheadedness, a temper, narcissism.

Why was he not a 22? I'm just curious. Okay.

Oh, good question. I don't know. Because this is, even according to Michael Stone, almost as bad as it gets. Right. How much worse could it get? Yeah. I think prolonged torture. With him, for the most part, the women were dead before he inflicted like the mutilation to their bodies and the rapes. I think if they had been alive, like the toy box killer. That's what I was just thinking of. The toy box killer would be a 23. Right. Yeah. It'd be off the charts. Yeah. Going to leave off here with this.

Marion County Detective Jim Burns recalled a conversation with Brudos that he had after Brudos was arrested and incarcerated, and he asked Jerry, do you feel some remorse, Jerry? Do you feel sorry for your victims, for the girls who died?

Brudos then picked up a half piece of paper that was rolled up on the table, wadded it up into a ball and threw it on the floor whereupon he replied, I care about these girls as much as I care about that piece of wadded up paper. Wow. Dramatic. Yeah. So he's a piece of shit. He did die in prison on March 28th, 2006 from liver cancer. And at the time of his death, he was the longest incarcerated inmate.

in the Oregon Department of Corrections, serving a total of 37 years. Wow. And that is the case of the shoe fetish slayer. Shoe fetish slayer or the lust killer, if you will. If you will. So now that you've heard the case,

I feel like lust killer does not suit him as well as she fetish layer. Yeah, I mean, they're both... Why lust? What am I missing here? Why lust? Because he got sexual gratification from these women. I guess for me, lust isn't sexual gratification. Like, I feel like it's more like...

whimsical, romantic, it's lustful. It just doesn't work. Yeah. I mean, lust can be defined a couple of different ways. Okay. Webster dictionary. Yeah. You're fucking damn right I am. Lust can be dark for sure. Yeah? Oh, yeah. All right. I guess I'm missing the definition here. No. I mean, it's a big word, obviously. Lust or love. Love is even bigger. But lust...

Listen, is it as good as the shoe fetish layer? No. Does it not fit at all? No. It definitely fits a little bit. Okay. This guy had a lot of... Also, you can have lust for all kinds of things, I think. This guy had a lust for some weird shit. Yeah, he did. Or, you know, for just the fact that he became giddy when he realized how much he was going to be able to dominate these women because they were unconscious is...

That says a lot. Yeah, just the meshing, right, of his hatred towards women, yet his deep-seated desire to please his mother, right, taking on these typically assigned female characteristics by wearing the underwear and the shoes, having that just terrible coercive relationship with his wife, obviously, just everything he did to those women. And after they died, like defiling their bodies, he's just such a

Wild, wild human being. Yeah. This was a good case. Yeah. This was a good-ass case. See, now you said it for real. This was a good-ass episode. Clank. Drop the mic. Mic drop. No, it was. It was interesting. There was a lot going on here. And it wasn't... I know... I mean, I probably shouldn't even say this because I'm going to come across as...

a psychopath, but it wasn't as bad as some of the other ones we've done as far as the details go, even though, yeah, he cut off her foot. Like, yeah, there was some, I mean, now I'm going back. There was some weird shit in there. Yeah. I mean, just to your point, a lot of the defiling happened after they died, which is terrible because necrophilia is horrendous, but at least they were not alive when they were dismembered. Yeah. You know, no, that, that does take the sting out of it a little bit, I guess. Yeah.

They were dead when he was raping them. It's more like this guy is just twisted and sick and bizarre and was dealing with... Things happen during your childhood all the time to kids. It affected him, obviously, in the most extreme way possible. Right, right. And, you know, I do believe, obviously, with people having this level of sickness to them, or whether it's sickness or whether he's just a bad apple, right? That mad versus bad association.

I think that somebody with this nature is born with it. And then of course, coupled with a traumatic upbringing during those formative years, he was just, it was a cocktail for disaster. He was probably never going to be great. I doubt that. Yeah. Yeah. He wasn't going to be great. Even if he had a great mother, he would have been like, there would have been something off. Right.

Maybe he would have stuck to just, you know, sticking the pages of a shoe catalog together. Maybe. Gross. Yeah, that was pretty gross. Sorry. All right, well, listen, here comes that intro music. I can hear it in my head. The intro music. Again. Thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Keep those reviews coming. We love them. Keep telling people about the podcast, please. It helps us. It makes us feel good. It does. Thank you, everybody, for listening. And thank you for all of your messages on Insta and your reviews and just being part of this journey with us. Yeah, you're part of our team, you little psychos. Bye. Bye.