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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Weyborg Thun. A fair warning. This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence and serial murder. If you do not wish to hear such content, consider yourself warned.
We stay on the American asphalt tonight. Inside the cab of the large truck, thundering down the road, we sit alongside a man with a grim and arrogant look on his face. In his wake, an unknown number of young women have been left for dead alongside the highway, like discarded road litter. Families destroy. Young lives cut short.
and an extreme lust for domination, torture, and murder sated. That is, only until it rises again inside the truck-stop killer, Robert Ben Rhodes. I am, dear listener, constantly trying to improve the content I deliver to you.
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Last week I ended the episode by introducing you to more details of the man Robert Ben Rhodes. Who he was as a person, aside from a psychopathic sadistic serial killer. As mentioned, he could be very charismatic if he wanted to.
In the episode, I explained how he kidnapped and murdered Regina K. Walters and Ricky Lee Jones, tried to abduct Vanessa Vasilka and kidnapped, tortured and raped Shana Holtz. Two kills does not a serial killer make. And as mentioned, Rhodes has admitted to at least three murders. He is suspected of perhaps as many as 50.
So, let us now explore these additional murders, some more details into Rhodes, and how he ended up getting caught and convicted. The Peterbilt semi-tractor rig was pointed toward Tucson in the dark early morning hours of the 1st of April, 1990.
Arizona State Trooper Mike Miller wondered if the trucker was having difficulty because the rig, its hazard lights flashing, stood parked on a curb off Interstate 10, just at the city limits of Casa Grande. Those lights nagged at Officer Miller. His decision to stop that morning came just in time.
As Miller opened the Peterbilt's cab, he could not imagine the utter depravity he was about to find, nor could he know that blood had spilled well beyond Arizona's borders. Subsequently, the details of two separate kidnappings in different states emerged, gradually fitting like transparencies over a savage homicide in yet another state.
Then, evidence was tagged for destruction in Arizona, would be salvaged, and yield crucial information. Officer Miller took his flashlight and walked around the truck, looking for the driver. He noticed some commotion within the rig, so he stepped up on the runner to look inside the sleeper cab. His breath caught when he saw a nude woman shackled and chained to the cab wall.
She screamed frantically when she saw him, and Miller saw a man scramble through the curtains, separating the sleeper cab from the front seats. Trying to maintain calm as the woman kept screaming, Miller quickly got to the driver's side of the truck and ordered the man out. He complied, calmly assuring Miller everything was all right. The man also informed Miller he was carrying a gun.
Most police officers will tell you that it's the quote-unquote good guys who, without being asked, tell police if they're carrying a weapon. Officer Miller didn't immediately understand what he had on his hands. According to him, the trucker in front of him was very smooth and charming. If it hadn't been for the loud, desperate screams coming from the chained-up woman, he might have let the trucker go.
Officer Miller quickly knew he needed backup. Therefore, he went by the book. He took the trucker's wrists and handcuffed them behind his back. Then, secured him in the back seat of his patrol car. With the man out of the way, Miller returned to the woman and saw how she had been badly wounded. She bore mean red welts on her body and cuts on her mouth.
She had a horse bridle strapped around her neck and a long chain padlocked to the horse bit. Her hands and ankles were handcuffed, and seeing all this, Miller called the city of Casa Grande for backup. Miller tried to cover the young woman's nude body until help arrived. He couldn't console her, as she was terrified the trucker would return. She knew about what Rhodes had in him, and soon Miller learned it too.
The trucker had managed, Houdini-like, to get his hands down to his feet and bring them up so that the cuffs were now in front of him. In that amount of time, he had also unfastened the seatbelt. Unnerved, Miller realized the trucker could have killed him, climbed back into his rig, and disappeared into the sparse but anonymous traffic on the I-10.
Miller was thus very relieved when Officer Robert Gygax of the Casa Grande Police Department pulled up behind him and properly secured the trucker before he could do any harm. Gygax freed the woman with the handcuffed keys Miller managed to find inside the trucker's pocket. They drove the terrified and wounded woman to the Casa Grande Police Station. At the station,
27-year-old Katie Ford, not her real name, finally began to feel safe. Finished having her injuries photographed, she readily gave information about her attacker, who had by then been identified as Robert Ben Rhodes of Houston, Texas.
In a videotaped interview, Miss Ford told Detective Rick Bernhardt that Rhodes had picked her up at Rip Griffin's truck stop, just north of Phoenix. She often hitched rides in order to visit friends, she said, adding Rhodes had been very polite at the truck stop. Now,
Whether Ms. Ford claims of using truck stops in order to catch rides to visit her friends, or if she was a prostitute using the truck stops as her place of employment, is not known. What is known is that she had been asleep in the passenger seat of Rhodes' truck when he stopped the truck, shoved her into the sleeper cab, and shackled her.
having completely shackled miss ford to his sleeper cab rhodes had taken out his torture items from a briefcase she had been tortured on and off in the time since he picked her up earlier that day long red welts from a vicious whipping covered her chest and back
During the torture, Rhodes had told her his name was Whips and Chains, and she correctly took this to mean this was his CB radio nickname. He also told her he had been doing this for 15 years. Detective Barnhart asked if she had been raped, and noted that Ford hesitated, before stating she had been rescued just in time.
Barnhart doubted that, because her injuries were severe, and the photos revealed her nipples and labia had been punctured with sharp objects. As we know, dear listener, those sharp objects were fishhooks. Before the interview ended, Ford told Barnhart that Rhodes got off on the torture, ejaculating as the torture reached its crescendo of blood, screams,
and terror. It was about three a.m. at night, as Detective Barnhart prepared to question Rhodes. The detective looked over some of the evidence, especially the well-stocked briefcase. There were alligator clips, leashes, handcuffs, whips, fishhooks, pins, and massive dildos. It was very well cared for, and everything was placed neatly.
Because of this trove of evidence, he knew he had a serial rapist on his hands, and possibly a killer. Robert Ben Rhodes entered the interview room while a video camera was rolling. He had a calm, arrogant look on his face as he stretched out comfortably on the couch and yawned. He spent a long time explaining how the woman they had found in his truck was quote-unquote not playing with a full deck.
that he was tired and never had the time or inclination to screw around while on the road. Still, with a calm look and a conversational way about him, Rhodes went on to explain the term lot lizard, or women who loiter around truck stops. That's what that woman is, he claimed.
Detective Barnhart sensed Rhodes was trying to act chummy with him when he chortled that you just don't get involved with the women at truck stops, and he went on to say, and I quote, unless you want your dick to fall off, you know. But Detective Barnhart was no amateur rookie. He knew he had something sinister on his hands, and he wanted an explanation for the woman's injuries. He conducted the interview carefully.
frequently asking if Rhodes wanted to stop. Rhodes kept talking, like an experienced damage control expert, all around the subject. Finally, he made a crease in the couch with his hand and said, and I quote, I took you up to the point where I stopped the truck. Now, I'm not gonna cross that line. I stopped the truck.
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Real Noom user compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, the typical Noom user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a family man with three kids, I know firsthand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care. But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable. For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh.
For others, it might be an eating night. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.
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Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. Barnhart photographed Rhodes' injuries on his arm and flank after Rhodes asked if a lawyer would allow that.
After Barnhart left the room, Rhodes took a deep drag on his cigarette and winced as he patted the bite wound on his left flank that Miss Ford had managed to give him. Rhodes acted very normal during the interrogation. He had a knack for persuasion and it disturbed Detective Barnhart. Rhodes acted as if this nasty business of the shackled woman in his truck had been her own doing.
that it had been his bad luck to offer the crazy woman a ride. If there had not been so much physical evidence, including a live, screaming victim, it would be easy to imagine Rhodes talking himself out of lots of questionable situations.
As Rhodes was being booked for aggravated assault, sexual assault, and unlawful imprisonment, Barnhart sent a teletype nationwide and faxed a letter to a superior court judge in Florence, Arizona, to detain Rhodes, at least until some information came in. Then, Barnhart called the Houston Police Department, since Rhodes lived there.
It was not long before Detective R.E. Bomar called Barnhart to relate the details of a similar kidnapping in Houston, a kidnapping in which Rhodes was involved. This was the Shana Holtz case I detailed in Part 1 of this expose. That case never went anywhere because the victim seemed too iffy to the authorities. Both of Rhodes' victims were known to be especially vulnerable.
Either they had had emotional upsets at the time they were abducted, were very young and naive, or had physical afflictions. Two victims in two different states, both with similar tales of unbelievable torture at this man's hands, it was enough to prompt Detective Barnhart to immediate further action, called the Phoenix FBI office.
and from there the growing file on Rhodes went to the Houston FBI office, where Special Agent Bob Lee got the case. When Lee reviewed the two kidnapped victims' accounts of the methodical torture they endured and viewed the contents of Rhodes' briefcase, it was the most refined rape kit agents had ever seen. He saw a classic profile of a sexual sadist.
Sexual sadists start off with a limited rape kit, as we call it, explained Lee. Because his kit was so refined, the FBI knew he'd been doing this for a long time. Lee immediately wanted to search Rhodes' Houston apartment, since sexual sadists often keep journals, photos and other items to help them relive their exploits.
He found out the apartment was leased only to Rhodes, but Rhodes' apartment manager was nosy and had entered his apartment. What she told Agent Lee made him more determined to get a search warrant. She had seen handcuffs, whips, bondage magazines, and women's clothing strewn all over the floor.
The manager also told Lee that a woman claiming to be Rhodes' wife had recently visited, saying that Rhodes had just called her and instructed her to clear everything out of the apartment. Lee got the behavioral science expert from FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, to explain to a judge the reasons he needed a search warrant. Thanks to this, the search was granted. And so it was.
That on the 6th of April, 1990, agents swarmed into Rhodes' apartment while other agents tracked down his wife. The agents removed all the bondage material, women's clothing, makeup, and a bunch of white towels, one of which was saturated with blood. Rhodes liked his white towels.
Both kidnapped victims related that he placed a white towel beneath them before starting his sexual torture. On one wall was a large poster, a blow-up of a Santana album cover that looks a lot like a lion, but on closer examination reveals many faces of contorted agony. Agents also seized photographs.
Many of a young teenager with very short hair in various stages of undress, always shackled and handcuffed. She must have been with him for some time, Lee realized, because some of the photos revealed old bruises near her breasts and shaved pubic hair in various stages of regrowth. In some photos, she had a vacant stare, while in others, she looked tearful and scared.
The photos were, of course, those of Regina K. Walters, and Agent Lee had to wait a year before the farmer, who had come to inspect the barn one last time before burning it down, discovered Regina's decomposed body in the dilapidated barn loft. By October 1991, another FBI agent named Young looked over some of the photos in Agent Lee's file on Rhodes.
He saw the red welts on Forge's back and chest. Her hair was dark brown and long. The other kidnapped victim in Rose's file, though, had short, clipped head hair. Astonished, Young saw that her pubic hair was freshly shaved, just like the late Regina Walters had been.
After linking Rhodes to Regina Walters, Agents Young and Lee worked together. They notified Illinois, since Rhodes had to be tried for the murder of Regina in Bond County, where her body had been found. However, it wasn't until early 1992 that the Bond County, Illinois, state attorney was convinced there was sufficient evidence against Rhodes.
In September 1992, Rhodes was shown all the evidence against him by his court-appointed attorneys, who wanted to negotiate a plea agreement in order to spare him the death sentence. Rhodes became convinced the case against him was solid, so he pled guilty to killing Regina Walters and received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
But Regina was far from the only girl who had not survived her encounter with Rhodes. His trucking log had been analyzed at the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, VICAP, at FBI headquarters in Quantico, and skeletonized bodies had indeed been found in areas where Rhodes traveled.
Reflecting on the comment Rhodes had made that he had been quote-unquote doing this for 15 years, investigators looked more closely into his trucking records. They discovered that the murderous trucker had traveled extensively from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the east coast of New Jersey.
He specifically traveled through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the
Virginia, Georgia, and Florida. Suddenly, the many missing persons, unidentified bodies, and unsolved homicide cases in each of those states took on a new meaning. Law enforcement agencies began to share information about similar crimes and victims more generously than at any time before the incident.
Since the Rhodes case broke, there have been many missing persons and unsolved homicide cases that have been attributed to Rhodes. Authorities suspect that possibly as many as 50 human beings were killed by Robert Ben Rhodes in the period between 1975 and 1990. One of these was an unsolved case in Millard County, Utah.
One of his roots led right through Millard County on Interstate 15, close to the time when Patricia Candace Walsh, 24 years old, and her husband, Scott Zukowski of Seattle, Washington, had started hitchhiking to Texas to preach the Christian gospel. Somewhere along the way, they disappeared.
Zyskowski's body was eventually found near El Paso, Texas, but Patricia's body was discovered by two hunters in rural Miller County, Utah. At the time, she was completely unknown to the hunters and authorities, and her remains were listed as a Jane Doe.
She had been sexually tortured and her remains were so ravaged by the sun and desert conditions that they were partially mummified. It wasn't until 2003 that the female victim in Millard County was finally identified. She was indeed Patricia Candace Walsh. Rhodes had probably killed her husband quickly after picking the pair up, in order for the husband not becoming a problem later.
when he started to torture Patricia. In February of 2005, charges in the 4th District Court of Utah were filed against Robert Ben Rhodes for the murder in the first degree and aggravated kidnapping. The first degree murder charge could bring Rhodes the death penalty. At first, the victim's family is asked that the case be dropped, as they did not want to go through all the gruesome details over again in a courtroom.
and Rhodes was in any case already serving a life sentence without any possibility of parole. The authorities in Utah acquiesced to this, but there is a famous slogan for the great state of Texas. Don't mess with Texas. The Texan prosecutors did not intend to let Rhodes off, and charged him. On the 30th of March, 2012, a plea agreement was reached.
The by then 66-year-old Rhodes agreed to waive any rights to appeals and parole, and in exchange admitted to killing Patricia Candace Walsh and Scott Zukowski. He was once more sentenced to life in prison without a chance of parole.
And, as of 2019, he is still serving his life sentence in Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois.
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And so ends the saga of the truck stop killer, Robert Ben Rhodes. Next week I will give you a fresh new Serial Killer Expo say. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned.
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