TERROR ON THE STRIP: BOBBY JOE LONG

Article BY LORI BELL

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A serial rapist terrorizes Tampa, Florida’s red light district, murdering women at random and tossing their bodies aside. The killing spree doesn’t stop until one of his victims gets away and leads law enforcement right to him.

In Tampa, FL on March 28, 1984, 21-year-old prostitute, Artis Wick, stood on a dark street corner. A man pulled up in a car and invited her to get inside. The man picked her up with the intentions of having sex, but ended up raping her.

Unsatisfied from the rape, he strangled her and left her for dead. Artis Wick’s body would not be found for eight months. The city of Tampa had no idea there was a vicious killer on the loose.

On North Nebraska Avenue, on May 10, 1984, exotic dancer Lana Long finished her shift at a popular gentlemans club, and started walking down the street. The area is known for prostitution and strip clubs.

She was walking alone and offered a ride. She accepted the ride. While driving to a nearby bar, the man pulled off on the side of the road and produced a knife. Lana began to struggle with him. He tied her up and strangled her.

Seventy-two hours later, on Mother’s Day, two young boys playing in a field made a sickening discovery. Lana Long’s decomposed body. The police found Lana face down. Her hands were behind her back, bound, and they found a ligature mark around her neck.

It was obvious to police that she had been strangled to death. They also noted that her legs were spread about 5’1” apart from heel to heel. The police were left confounded by who could have possibly committed such a heinous crime.

The killer left behind two key pieces of evidence. During their crime scene investigation, they noted carpet fibers on Lana’s legs, as well as tire tracks nearby. Those items are collected and sent to the FBI lab for further analysis. Law enforcement treated Lana’s murder as an isolated incident, but her killer was already on the hunt for another victim.

On Kennedy Blvd. On May 26, 1984, Michelle Simms, a 22-year-old former beauty queen walked the asphalt turning tricks to support her cocaine habit. Michelle encountered a stranger walking along Kennedy Blvd. .

The man offered Michelle $50 to get into his car. She accepted and the two drove off. A mile down the road, the driver pulled over and threatened Michelle with a knife. He then tied her hands behind her back and drove to a more desolate location.

The man violently raped Michelle and began to hit her on the head with a club. She was strangled, and he cut her throat as well. It was a slow escalation in the level of violence. Michelle’s body was found the next day, May 27, 1984, in a secluded lovers lane area.

Her body was laid out, she had ligatures around her neck, and her clothes were hung in a nearby tree. The ropes that were used in the strangulation were all cut the same length. It was a little more planned out than just a random, sporadic see a girl, track her down, rape her, and kill her.

As detectives processed the crime scene, they found hair fibers that belonged to a Caucasian male, and fresh tire tracks in the sand. It was a 360° roll that gave a very distinct tread pattern. They found out that it was, in fact, consistent with the tread pattern from the previous murder.

In addition, they found more red carpet fibers. These were identical to the carpet fibers found at the other crime scene. They had an unknown killer on the loose in the area. This caused tensions to rise, especially among the female population.

In Tampa, Florida on June 8, 1984 Elizabeth Loudenback, a shy 22 -year-old who worked on an assembly line, left the mobile park where she lived to take a walk. A friendly stranger pulled up and offered her a ride.

Once she got in, the driver pulled a knife. He then took her to a nearby orange grove where he attacked her, tied her up, brutally raped her, and moments later strangled her. Two weeks later on June 24th, a citrus worker found Elizabeth.

Her body was so badly decomposed that it only weighed 25lbs. including clothes. Police were kind of thrown by this one due to the fact that her body was decomposed, fully clothed, and she wasn’t bound. They were looking at an MO which was dissimilar to the previous murders.

She was not a drug user or a prostitute as was found in the other cases. Unlike the others, her ATM card was taken from her, and subsequently used at various banks. Police were not sure if this particular murder was related to the others.

Police questioned Loudenback’s boyfriend after he failed a polygraph. He became the prime suspect until September 1984, when the crime lab reported back its analysis on Elizabeth’s clothes. They found red fibers which were similar to the red fibers that were found at the previous site.

They were definitely looking at an established serial killer pattern which was emerging. There were three bodies, and there were going to be more.

On Hillsborough Avenue on September 30, 1984 18-year-old Chanel Williams was on the street hooking. She was walking toward a nearby hotel to check on a fellow prostitute when a mustached man picked her up in his car.

They drove east before pulling over by the entrance of a cattle ranch. The man proceeded to rape her. When he was finished raping her he strangled her. But because of her resistance he reached for his gun and shot Chanel in the head.

Chanel’s decomposing body was found a week later face down, underneath a fence. She was African-American, which was slightly different from the others. The other interesting and unique characteristic of this murder was the fact that was found shot, not strangled or cut.

After evidence collected during the crime scene was analyzed, it was determined that she had red carpet fibers on her legs. This connected her to the other unsolved murders.

In Tampa, FL on October 14,1984, Karen Dinsfriend, a 22-year-old prostitute and cocaine user, worked her usual street corner. She was approached by a man who wanted to exchange money for sex. The man took her to an isolated area, bound her wrists with a bandana, beat and raped her, then strangled her to death.

Startled by dogs barking nearby, the killer wrapped Karen in a blanket, dumped her in his trunk, and waited for a more opportune time to get rid if her body. One week after finding Chanel’s body, investigators located the body of Karen Dinsfriend.

What linked this particular case to the others was the fact that red carpet fibers were found on her legs. As the body count continued to rise, police were no closer to finding the killer. A task force was going to be formed to catch this serial killer.

Women were being killed in a similar manner, and the backgrounds of the women were similar. Police were going to concentrate a lot of their focus on the prostitution strips which were prevalent in the Tampa area.

The homicide division of the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Department worked 24/7 on the case. Even assigning undercover female detectives to walk the killer’s hunting grounds. But he slipped away and killed again.

On Halloween 1984, police came across the mummified remains of a young woman in a ditch. The body belonged to a 22-year-old prostitute, Kimberly Hopps, but they don’t identify her for weeks. It appeared as though Hopps had been dead for nearly a month, and she likely died from being strangled with the black cloth choker she wore around her neck.

She had been raped and strangled very violently and again the same red fibers found at the scene. Six months, six bodies, each connected by red fibers found at the crimes scenes. Yet police didn’t seem any closer to identifying a suspect. But the killer was about to slip up.

In Tampa, FL on November 3, 1984, 17-year-old Lisa McVey finished a double shift at the local Krispy Kreme. She hopped on her bike and traveled down a deserted, but familiar road. Suddenly she was plucked from her bicycle. As she began to fight she felt a gun being placed against her head.

Lisa was blindfolded, thrown into a car, and was subsequently kicking and screaming for help. She desperately tried to look out from under her blindfold. She was able to locate a knife between the seats in the car.

Lisa was ordered to perform a sex act. She was then tied up and driven away from the area. She was driven around and even though she was blindfolded, she was able to make out the vehicle. Lisa noticed the word Magnum on the dash, and saw red carpet in the vehicle itself.

They drove around for awhile before the kidnapper stopped the car. Lisa was taken out of the car, still blindfolded, to what she believed was the attacker’s apartment . During the next 27 hours she was brutally raped, while being held hostage.

At one point, Lisa’s abductor removed her blindfold, and she caught a glimpse of his face. She tried to gain as much information about the location as she could. Throughout the entire ordeal she was able to keep a level head .

She placated her attacker to the point that it seemed like he was almost taking a liking to her. At one point he took a shower with her. He washed her hair in a manner that she later described as being almost as if she were his girlfriend.

At 3:00 am the next day, Lisa’s attacker tells her to get dressed. To her shock, he took her out to his car and told her he was taking her home. He drove a few blocks from her house, told her to take care, and drove away.

Once released, Lisa rushed home and told her parents she had been abducted by a white male in his 30s with a mustache and dark hair. She provided the same descriptive information of her assailant to police. She also told them that he drove a dark red Dodge Magnum with a red interior.

But, since Lisa was left alive, police did not link her rape to the murders plaguing the Tampa area. Only two days after her release, police found yet another body. On November 6th a woman was horseback riding on her ranch and found severed body parts scattered throughout a field.

The body belonged to 18-year-old Virginia Johnson. It appeared as though she had been dead for two weeks. The body was basically just bones, but a leash was still attached to her neck, and red carpet fibers were found in her hair. The police realized they still had a serial killer on the loose.

Virginia was last seen on Nebraska Avenue. She was walking to the Alamo Lounge where she waitressed. It was the same area frequented by murder victims Karen Dinsfriend and Lana Long.

A few days later, 21-year-old dancer, Kimberly Swann was reported missing by her family . Swann danced at Sly Fox Lounge on Nebraska Avenue . She was last seen driving on Dale Mabry Highway. To the horror of her family and friends, her body was found on November 12th.

Her body had been dumped under an overpass. When police arrived at the scene they found Kimberly laying face down with her legs spread apart. On November 13th ,1984, the FBI crime lab confirmed that red fibers collected from the Lisa McVey kidnapping case matched the red fibers retrieved from all of the murder victims.

Police took a closer look at Lisa’s statement. They eventually located the Dodge Magnum, pulled it over and began a search. The owner appeared to be cooperative. He allowed law enforcement to take a picture of him.

With no concrete evidence at the time, law enforcement authorities let the driver go. They then took the photographs of the driver back to Lisa. She identified the person in the photos as her attacker, Bobbie Joe Long.

Bobby Joe Long was born in West Virginia in 1953. At the age of two his parents divorced and he moved to Florida with his mother. Bobby Joe and his mother had a strange relationship from the very beginning.

They would share a bed together till he was 13 years old. His mother worked at a bar called Big Daddy’s , and she was gone all hours. His mother brought home a different man almost every night. That was a resentment towards his mother that he would harbor for the rest of his life.

As a result of all this, Long began to gather an outward hatred towards women. Making matters worse, Long suffered several head injuries throughout his childhood. He suffered not only the emotional distress of his mother, but also physically incurred brain injuries when his brain was still in the developmental stage.

Long was also born with an extra X chromosome known as Clynefelters Syndrome. As a result he grew breasts at a young age which obviously made him feel insecure. As a teenager he became kind of a bully. He had a very aggressive attitude.

One shining moment took place in January 1974 when Long married his high school sweetheart, Cynthia Bartlet. Their wedded bliss was short- lived. In March of 1974, right after their marriage, Long got into a motorcycle accident which almost killed him.

Long suffered severe brain trauma as well as trauma to his shoulders and legs. He was in the hospital for several months. Much of that time he spent in a comatose state. While he was recovering, hospital personnel noticed severe personality changes. A vastly shorter temper and an insatiable appetite for sex.

Once he left the hospital he lost his job and ended up spending much time at home where he lashed out a lot at Cynthia. He became very abusive both emotionally and physically towards his wife. At one point she became so frustrated with the situation, that while he was sleeping she placed a gun to his head.

She couldn’t shoot him, but she realized that after the incident there was no possible way she could stay with him. In 1980 they divorced. Many people believed that this was the triggering point for Long that would lead to a life of violence .

In November 1984, authorities in Hillsborough County, Florida hunted down Long. He was the prime suspect in the murders of at least eight women. The lone survivor of the eight month killing spree identified the 31-year-old unemployed x-ray technician out of a photo line up. Had it not been for her description he might have carried on his violent acts for years to come.

In Tampa, Florida , on November 16,1984, cops geared up to move on Long. He was located at a local movie theater and arrested. Long was transported to Hillsborough County Sheriffs headquarters for questioning.

During the post-arrest interrogation he confessed to murdering eight women. Long expressed no regret, no remorse, and said that he would kill whenever he had the urge to do so. Long dropped one final bombshell on detectives.

He told them that the prior to the murders, he committed dozens of rapes across the state of Florida. He was dubbed the Classified Ad Rapist because his MO was to answer ads in the newspaper where he could single out women and show up at their house.

If a woman answered the door alone he pulled out a gun, then beat and violently raped them. Shortly afterwards he moved onto homes with for sale by owner signs. This was another method he used to single out and find prey.

Because the statute of limitations had expired, no charges were filed against Long in the serial rapes which occurring all the way back to 1974. It was reported that Bobby Joe Long had committed more than 50 rapes before moving onto the next level of violence.

On November 16th , the same day Long was apprehended, police discovered a body floating in the Hillsborough River. It belonged to Vicki Elliot, a 21-year-old waitress, who Long had murdered eight weeks prior. Elliot brought the body count to nine.

Six days later investigators found the body of Artis Wick, the woman authorities believed Long murdered first. Eventually Long struck a plea deal with the prosecution. He agreed to plead guilty to eight charges of murder and to the rape and kidnapping of McVey.

When all was said and done, Long received 692 years, 39 life sentences, and two death sentences for his crimes. Following his incarceration, Long gave a series of TV interviews where he seemed genuinely remorseful, as if he had come to terms with the destruction he caused.

In his words; “All the victims, all of them, talking about a lot of lives, just gone right down the tube cause of me. And it’s Not a good feeling, I’m not proud of anything I’ve done. And the worst thing is I don’t understand why.”

Long obviously hated women, hated his mother, and started killing. It’s very tragic all those women are dead and he still lives. Bobby Joe Long remains on death row at Union Correctional Prison in Raiford, Florida. No date has been set for his execution.