Robert Frederick Carr III admitted in 1976 that he had killed four young people earlier in the decade: two 11-year-old boys, Todd Payton and Mark Wilson; a 16-year-old girl, Tammy Ruth Huntley; and a 21-year-old woman, Rhonda Holloway. He was caught that year in Florida while attacking a woman, according to United Press International and the journalist Sarah Weinman. After his arrest he traveled with police to retrace his movements so that the bodies could be recovered. He was spared the death penalty and given concurrent life sentences for the murders of the two boys and the girl. He spent the rest of his life in a Florida prison and died there in 2007, at 63.
The reference work Contemporary Authors, in its entry on the Miami crime reporter Edna Buchanan, describes him as an automobile salesman who scored well on intelligence tests and who left his family in 1971. It says he then spent about five years moving around the country, and that he often won the trust of the women he later assaulted through his personal charm.
Little is on record about the people Carr admitted killing beyond their names and ages. UPI named them in 2007 as Todd Payton and Mark Wilson, both 11, and Tammy Ruth Huntley, 16, whom he confessed to kidnapping and murdering, and Rhonda Holloway, 21, whose body was later found in Connecticut. Three of the four were children. UPI also reported that he confessed to offenses against more than a dozen other boys and girls. Writing in 2019, Weinman said that in the decades since, the people Carr killed and harmed had faded into the background of his story, while he himself had been overshadowed by the serial killers who came after him.
Carr was arrested in Florida in 1976. UPI reported that he was caught while trying to assault a woman, whom it described as a housewife, and Weinman gives the same account. The detective who arrested him, David Simmons, later told reporters that in a career of 33 years Carr was the most dangerous predator of children, and killer, he had investigated.
Once in custody Carr confessed in full, first to the police and later to Buchanan, according to Contemporary Authors. Weinman writes that he then re-created his travels across the country with police so that his victims' bodies could be dug up.
Buchanan covered Carr's trial for the Miami Herald. Weinman reports that he was spared the death penalty and received concurrent life sentences for the murders of Mark Wilson, Todd Payton and Tammy Ruth Huntley. The death of Rhonda Holloway, which Carr admitted, was not among the three murders for which he was sentenced.
After his sentencing Carr asked Buchanan to work with him on a book, Weinman writes. She agreed, reasoning that a complete account of his crimes, told in his own voice, might comfort the families of his victims and help prevent similar killings. The result, a book titled with his surname and told from his own account, was published by Dutton in New York in 1979, according to Contemporary Authors. It was Buchanan's first book, and Weinman says it was built from more than 120 hours of interviews with Carr.
Weinman notes that it is not clear whether the victims' families found any comfort in the book, and she judges it an uncomfortable read because Carr so plainly enjoys recounting what he did. Buchanan gave most of her proceeds to victims' rights groups. Carr, for his part, assigned 5 percent of his share of the royalties to a 12-year-old boy who had been tried for murder; his lawyer explained that Carr related to the boy.
Contemporary Authors describes the book as one that some readers regarded as a rare look inside a criminal's mind. Weinman reports that reviews were mostly positive for that reason, but that Carr was unhappy with how it was received. He sent Buchanan so many angry, rambling letters that she alerted the prison.
Buchanan later told Contemporary Authors why she thought men like Carr agreed to talk. Criminals, she said, often like having their stories told; for many it is an ego trip, and they are glad someone is interested. The police want the details of the crime, she said, while a reporter wants to know what made the person who he is, where he came from, what he thinks and what he was like as a child. People in jail, she added, are bored and like having someone to talk to.
UPI reported that Carr had been held at a state prison in Union County, Florida, since 1976. He died in prison in 2007, at 63. UPI reported that he was buried in a prison cemetery because no one came forward to claim his body.
His arrest: UPI says the woman he was attacking when he was caught was a housewife; Weinman describes her only as a woman.
1971: Leaves his family, by the account in Contemporary Authors, and begins about five years of travel around the country.
1970s: The killings of Todd Payton, 11, Mark Wilson, 11, Tammy Ruth Huntley, 16, and Rhonda Holloway, 21, which Carr later admitted.
1976: Arrested in Florida while attacking a woman; confesses and leads police to the bodies.
1976 onward: Held in a state prison in Union County, Florida; sentenced to concurrent life terms for the murders of the two boys and the girl after being spared the death penalty.
1979: Dutton publishes Edna Buchanan's book about Carr, drawn from his own account.
2007: Dies in prison, aged 63; buried in a prison cemetery when no one claims his body.