By Joshua Laing
It was July 1972 when a patrol car was flagged down by two terrified teenage girls. They’d been abducted, they said, one of them promised freedom if they could decide between themselves which one deserved to die.
These two girls told a shocking tale, and it was through them and what they endured that one of the most perverted, disturbed serial killers in American history was brought to justice. Had they not been able to free themselves from the bonds placed upon them, Gerard John Schaefer might well have carried on killing indefinitely.
The most terrifying part of this story isn’t necessarily the atrocious deeds committed by Schaefer. It was that the greater majority of his heinous crimes were committed while he was a police officer, sworn to protect the very community he was slaughtering.
Born in Wisconsin on March 25, 1946, Gerard John Schaefer was the first of three children. He was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, until the family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1960. Until this point, he had attended the Marist Academy.
His relationship with his father was an unpleasant one of abuse and absence, described by Schaefer as ‘turbulent and conflictual.’ He openly favoured Schaefer’s sister, which strained the relationship further. He would later repeatedly refer to himself as an ‘illegitimate child,’ and further describe his father as ‘flagrantly adulterous’ and alcoholic.
The blatant favouritism of his sister birthed a toxic cesspool of turmoil in young Schaefer. He decided, after years of constant verbal abuse, that he wanted to be a girl. He also decided, disturbingly, that he wanted to die. Schaefer even managed to find grim imaginings in childhood games, fantasising about his death: ‘I always got killed. I wanted to die… I wanted to be killed.’
These unhealthy fantasies continued to grow and develop further as a teenager. He began tying himself to trees, before he would arouse himself and begin to intentionally hurt himself. His masturbatory fantasies centred almost exclusively around hurting other people – most often, hurting women.
He developed an obsession with women’s underwear, and became known as a peeping tom. He began spying on his neighbour, a young girl named Leigh Hainline. Hainline, according to Schaefer, would also ‘tease’ Schaefer by undressing for him with her curtains open. She disappeared in 1969. Schaefer’s implication in her disappearance would be discovered many years later.
Schaefer also began killing animals for pleasure and cross-dressing. The cross-dressing, it was later speculated, could have been part of his attempt to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Despite all his hang-ups, Schaefer graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in 1964.
Schaefer sought counselling in 1966, seeking relief from his sexual and homicidal desires. These attempts were unsuccessful. The voices Schaefer said were ‘telling him to kill’ proved too strong. In an attempt to find direction, he attempted to join priesthood. When he was turned away for ‘lacking sufficient faith,’ he was incensed enough to withdraw from Catholicism entirely.
Still seeking direction, Schaefer enrolled in the Florida Atlantic University. He married Martha Fogg during the course of his university, and found employment as a teacher in 1969 at the Plantation High School. Shortly after he was hired, his employment was terminated for what the principal described as ‘totally inappropriate behaviour.’ This included attempts by Schaefer to instil ‘American values’ on students by imposing his own moral and political views.
In 1970, Martha filed for divorce. After just two short years of marriage, she cited ‘extreme cruelty’ as her reason. After this, Schaefer decided to take a holiday. He spent time in Europe and North Africa, before returning home with his eyes set on a career in law enforcement.
Schaefer applied to departments all across Florida. Although disheartened when Broward County rejected him after a failed psychological evaluation, he was eventually hired as a patrolman by the Wilton Manors Police Department in late 1971. That same year he married his second wife, Teresa Dean.
Things didn’t improve for Schaefer after this, however. Despite receiving a commendation for his integral role played during a drug bust in March of 1972, he found himself fired by the Wilton Manors PD just a month later. Two stories have been provided over the years explaining this termination. The first, by Chief Bernard Scott, stated that Schaefer ‘didn’t have an ounce of common sense.’ The second, provided by ex-FBI Agent Robert Ressler reported Schaefer’s tendency to run female traffic violators through the police system, obtain their personal information, and solicit sexual favours from them.
At the end of June, 1972, he found a job with the Martin County Sheriff’s Department. He and Martha moved to Stuart, Florida. Again, less than a month later, he made the fateful self-described ‘dumb mistake’ that would cost him his job, his freedom, and ultimately his life.
On July 21, 1972, Schaefer picked up 17-year-old Pamela Wells and 18-year old Nancy Trotter. On duty at the time, he told them that hitchhiking was illegal in Martin County – it wasn’t – before returning them to the halfway house they were staying at. He organised with them to meet the next morning, when he was off duty, and take them to the beach. When he turned up, he did not take them to the beach. He instead took them to Hutchinson Island, off State Road AIA.
Once they arrived at Hutchinson Island, Schaefer pulled a gun on the girls. He told them he was going to sell them as ‘white slaves’ to a sex-slave ring, making sure he got himself a good profit. He then dragged them into the woods, bound them at gunpoint, and began his torture.
The girls were balanced, standing on the roots of a tree, with a noose slipped about each of their necks. If they slipped or lost balance, they would hang. He continued for a while with his psychological torment, before abruptly leaving. He told the girls he would return later to kill one of them; in his absence, they were to decide.
In his absence, instead of deciding which one was going to die, the girls freed themselves. They managed to navigate their way back to the highway, and flagged down a passing police car. They identified their attacker, a feat made easy by the fact that Schaefer had given them his name. It was some hours later when he returned to find his ‘catch’ had disappeared and panic set in.
Schaefer raced home and phoned his sheriff. Sheriff Richard Crowder was fed a confession of sorts by Schaefer, twister and contorted as possible in an attempt to see him emerge from the horrific situation in a positive light. ‘You’re going to be mad at me,’ his rant began. ‘I’ve done something foolish.’
Crowder order Schaefer to the station, where he retold his tale as one of dutiful care – he had attempted to scare the girls out of hitchhiking, to protect them in the future. Crowder bought none of it, firing Schaefer on the spot. He also slapped Schaefer with charges of false imprisonment and two counts of aggravated assault. He was released on a $15,000 bond.
Schaefer faced court in November of 1972 for the abductions. He bargained his charges down and was subsequently convicted of just one account of aggravated assault. Schaefer, labelled a ‘thoughtless fool’ by Judge DC Smith, was sentenced to a year’s jail, with a further three years’ probation to follow. His sentenced began on January 15, 1973.
Two months after he posted bail, in September of 1972, Schaefer committed another atrocity. He tortured and killed Susan Place, 17, and Georgia Jessup, just 16-years-old, before burying their bodies in shallow graves in Oak Hammock Park in Port Saint Lucie, Florida.
Susan’s mother reported to police that the girls had been hanging around with an older man. This man, who had promised to take the girls to the beach to play guitar, identified himself as ‘Gerry Shephard,’ and drove a blue-green Datsun – the same car Schaefer drove. Despite Susan’s mother promptly giving police this information, in addition to the exact license plate of the car, in the immediate aftermath of her daughter’s disappearance, it wasn’t until March 25, 1973 that police finally ran plates. Gerry Shephard’s blue-green Datsun was registered to Gerard Schaefer.
Schaefer, already in prison for his first charge, denied any connection to the girls, and given the lack of evidence nothing more happened. This changed in April, 1973, when three men collecting aluminium cans on Hutchinson Island detected a foul odour. They investigated and made a sickening discovery. The grave Schaefer had dug was so shallow that animals had easily dug up the remains, and what hadn’t been devoured had turned into a fetid soup in the Florida heat. Four days later they were positively identified via dental records.
Detectives were able to ascertain some crucial evidence from the remains and the surrounding area. Place had been shot in the jaw, and it was determined that both girls had been tied to a nearby tree and then butchered. Policed obtained a search warrant for the house Schaefer shared with his mother and wife. What they found inside was both horrific, and far more than they expected.
Police found hundreds of pages of stories penned by Schaefer inside his bedroom. These elaborate stories were comprised of the rape, torture and murder of women, referred to almost exclusively as ‘whores’ and ‘sluts.’ Accompanying these stories were graphic sketches depicting the murder and mutilation of women. In addition to this, police found an abundance of possessions that rang warning bells.
Schaefer had countless items from a plethora of missing women. Included in his collection were jewellery, diaries, and even teeth, linking him directly to at least eight young women and teenage girls, all having gone missing in recent years.
Also recovered from Schaefer’s was a collection of newspaper clippings focused on missing woman from as far back as 1969, and the I.D.’s of missing hitchhikers Collette Goodenough and Barbara Wilcox, both aged just 19. They had last been seen alive on January 8th, a week before Schaefer was jailed in Martin County. Their remains were eventually located in 1977, but no cause of death could be determined and no charges were filed.
Among the macabre jewellery collection was jewellery that once belonged to Leigh Hainline, Schaefer’s teenage neighbour who would ‘tease’ him through her window. She disappeared in 1969 from Fort Lauderdale, leaving her husband a note telling him she was taking a short trip to Miami. Her Skull was later found in a construction site in Palm Beach County, almost a decade later in 1978. Identified a month after its discovery, her skull was riddled with bullet holes.
Further links drawn from the jewellery in Schaefer’s house linked him to the disappearance of Mary Briscolina. The 14-year-old had disappeared from Broward County with her 13-year-old friend in October, 1972. Their remains were located in 1973, but charges were not filed as again, no cause of death could be determined.
Arguably the most crucial piece of evidence recovered from Schaefer’s home was Susan Place’s purse. This, coupled with her mother’s identification of Schaefer as the last man she saw with her daughter and Jessup, saw Schaefer charged with first degree murder of the pair. He was convicted in October, 1973, and received two life sentences.
Police stated that Schaefer was linked to at least 30 further cases of missing women and girls, and it is still unknown whether Place and Jessup were Schaefer’s final victims. In 1972, just weeks after the murders of Place and Jessup, two 14-year old girls disappeared after hitchhiking. Their bodies were later recovered, and jewellery belonging to them was located in Schaefer’s home.
After his convictions for the murders of Place and Jessup, Schaefer spent quite some time in the court system. He appealed the conviction, even going so far to claim that he had been framed. He exhausted all his appeals, 20 in all, to no avail. He then began filing frivolous lawsuits. He attempted to sue true crime writer Patrick Kendrick, for describing him as ‘an overweight, doughy, middle aged man who preyed on victims who were psychologically and physiologically weaker than him.’ He also tried suing authors Sondra London, Colin Wilson and Michael Newton, as well as former FBI agent Robert Ressler for describing him as a serial killer.
As part of her defence against the lawsuit, London provided over 500 incriminating pages of handwritten correspondence from Schaefer. The judge dismissed Schaefer’s complaint without further ado. London provided Newton and Wilson the same correspondence and their lawsuits were dismissed as well. Kendrick’s suit continued until Schaefer met his demise in prison.
Schaefer had a bizarre relation with Sondra London that continued until his death. They saw each other briefly during his incarceration, and she assisted him in publishing his letters and stories, but after his failed lawsuit he began threatening her and continued to do so until his death. He also continued to write letters to Kendrick, threatening to have a hit executed on him and adding, ‘I would hate to see something happen to your family.’
On December 3, 1995, Schaefer was found stabbed to death in his cell. Vincent Rivera, a fellow inmate, was convicted of the murder in 1999. 53 years and 10 months was added to the life-plus-twenty years sentence he was already serving for a double homicide. Rivera never confessed to the crime, nor was a motive given. He did, however, reveal circumstances in correspondence he sent to Sondra London.
Rivera claimed had been an ear-witness to the prison murder of Frank Valdez at the hands of corrections staff. Valdez had been beaten by corrections staff on two separate occasions. Rivera wrote a complaint about the first beating, and was still in the adjoining cell when he was beaten the next time – this time, to death. Staff claimed Valdez had killed himself, a claim Rivera actively resisted and rejected. He filed multiple grievances and appeals.
It was after this that he found himself accused of Schaefer’s murder. He had apparently barged into Schaefer’s cell, slashed his throat, then gouged his eyes out and spit in the sockets.
Schaefer’s sister came forward with her thoughts on the matter. She told reporters that Schaefer’s murder was a cover-up in relation to his attempts to verify Ottis Toole’s confession to the slaying of Adam Walsh. Toole had made the confession and then quickly retracted it, and Schaefer was apparently attempting to verify it.
Sondra London postulated that his murder was most likely due to Schaefer ‘snitching’ on fellow inmates. In the lead up to his death, Schaefer had repeatedly had faeces hurled at him. His cell had also been set alight twice.
This theory holds the most weight; Schaefer had told London multiple times that his position as a ‘death row law clerk’ allowed him to access confidential information from prisoners that found their way to the prosecutor’s office. This information was then used against inmates at trial. Schaefer’s classification officer told London that this was why Schaefer was being repeatedly targeted, and Schaefer’s last attempt to curry favour with authorities had seen him ‘snitch’ on a well-respected prisoner.
The official statement by the prison claimed Rivera had killed Schaefer in an argument over a cup of coffee. After attending the trial and debriefing Rivera, London declared this story implausible due to several lesser-known facts: a full palm-print of blond was found on the wall of Schaefer’s cell and when the results came back that it belonged to neither Schaefer or Rivera, it was thrown out rather than presented to the jury. Schaefer’s body was found covered in boot prints, and expert testimony at Rivera’s trial concluded that the sole patterns not only matched the standard issue corrections officer’s boots, but that prisoners were forbidden from wearing those boots as well.
Schaefer’s death came at quite the inconvenient time. Broward County homicide detective and homicide chief Tim Bronson were about to bring charges against Schaefer for 3 more unsolved slayings.
Schaefer and Sondra London had dated in high school, and reconnected after his conviction for the Place and Jessup murders. A true crime writer, she spent significant amounts of time interviewing him in prison.
She collected and published a volume of his short stories and drawings in 1990, titled Killer Fiction. Two years later, she published a follow-up called Beyond Killer Fiction. Schaefer’s graphic descriptions of the torture and murder of women were written in first-person perspective, often from the point of view of a rogue police officer. Police and prosecutors were certain that these stories were actually first-hand accounts of his heinous crimes, but had no grounds to do anything due to their ‘fictitious’ labelling.
In private letters, he unveiled himself further. ‘What crimes am I supposed to confess? Farmer? Briscolina? What do you think “Murder Demons” is? You want confessions but don’t recognise them when I anoint you with them and we’ve just gotten started.’ This particular excerpt comes from a letter, dated April 9, 1991, talking about one of his short stories, titled Murder Demons.
After Schaefer’s death, London published a revised edition of Killer Fiction. This edition included stories and articles from the first two books, plus an additional collection of letters to London, wherein Schaefer confessed to the murders of 34 women and girls. He also expressed his joy in impressing fellow inmate Ted Bundy.
London stated that she had kept these additional letters to herself as during the time of correspondence, Schaefer was threatening to sue anyone who labelled him a serial killer and fiercely proclaiming his innocence. Despite this, he stated in one letter that his killing began in 1965, at the young age of 19. In another, he bragged of cannibalising two schoolgirls, nine-year-old Peggy Rahn and eight-year-old Wendy Stevenson. The girls disappeared in 1969. Despite these private confessions, he had publicly asserted his innocence until his death.
Schaefer brought his lawsuit against Schaefer in 1991, after she ended her collaboration with him and repudiated his story of merely being a ‘framed ex-cop’ that penned lurid fiction. When she stated he was indeed every bit the serial killer his writing boasted, Schaefer threatened her life and attempted to sue her.
No longer worried about being sued by Schaefer, law enforcement officials made their opinions on his known. Bill Hagerty, ex-FBI, called him ‘one of the sickest,’ while Shirley Jessup, Georgia Jessup’s grieving mother, stated she would like to send a present to Schaefer’s killer.
Although he no longer poses a threat to anyone, his brutal demise will ensure that just how many murders Gerard Schaefer, the Killer Cop, ever committed. The one sure thing, however, is that it is certainly more than the two convictions he died with.
Editor's note: this article ran in Serial Killer Magazine and is reproduced as written. The convictions match this archive's record. Gerard John Schaefer was convicted in October 1973 of the first degree murders of Susan Place and Georgia Jessup and received two life sentences; the roster records those two convictions and between eight and thirty further deaths linked to him but never charged. The article is careful about that distinction and the reader should be too. The thirty four murders he claimed in letters to Sondra London are his own account, made by a man who had spent years suing people for calling him a serial killer, and no court tested them. Ottis Toole appears here only as the source of the Adam Walsh confession, which he made and then retracted, as the article says. Vincent Rivera was convicted in 1999 of killing Schaefer in his cell; the alternative explanations set out here are London's and Rivera's, not findings. One sentence in the original names Schaefer as the party he sued rather than London, and is left as printed.