The ShroudedHand series on Robert Berdellas has one of the darkest and most horrific subject matters imaginable. The torture and graphic violence and rape is described accurately with barely any detail spared, and itβs fascinating and horrifying. This is definitely a series that leaves some open questions and speculations on the strange aspects of the case. What are your thoughts on Robert Berdellas and how did he evade suspicion for so long?
https://preview.redd.it/792erlkvu8z61.png?width=248&format=png&auto=webp&s=caa11e20464f1dab1d0ad5ff687c540d0140e5c2
Born: January 31, 1939 (Aquarius)
Known As: Kansas City Butcher, The Bondage Killer, The Collector
Robert was born into a Catholic family. Robert suffered from severe nearsightedness and so, at the age of five, Robert was given thick glasses to wear. Robert did well in school, although his teachers had difficulty teaching him. He was often bullied bu other school mates and it was likely due to Robert's large glasses.
Robert eventually discovered in his teenage years that he was gay. He kept this a secret for many years.
In 1967, Robert began to study at the Kansas City Art Institute. His dream was to become a college professor. During his time at the institute, he began torturing animals, including a dog, chicken and duck. It was also at this time that he began selling drugs and drinking. When he was nineteen, he was arrested for possession of marijuana and LSD. Robert was released five days later due to lack of evidence.
Robert was eventually expelled from school after he murdered a dog. Robert said he murdered the dog for the sake of his art.
By the time that Robert was thirty-two, he was openly gay.
In 1982, Robert rented his own booth at the Westport Flea Market. This store was named Bob's Bazaar Bizarre, and Robert sold art, jewelry and antiques. Sometimes Robert would not make enough money for his needs and would often invite young men to live in his house for a short time to help with bills.
While working at the Flea Market, Robert became friends with another booth owner, Paul Howell and his younger son, Jerry.
On July 5, 1984, Robert killed his first victim, Jerry Howell. According to Robert, he plied Jerry with alcohol, valium and acepromazine until Jerry became unconscious. Robert then injected Jerry with a heavy tranquilizer before tying and binding Jerry to a bed. Jerry was bound to the bed for approximately twenty-eight hours.
During the period of captivity, Robert would drug, torture, rape and violate Jerry with foreign objects.
Robert stated that Jerry "either asphyxiated on his own vomit, or the combination of the gag and medicines were too strong for him to be able to catch his breath."
Robert stated that he tried to perform CPR on Jerry after he had died. After no luck of brining Jerry back, Robert moved Jerry's body down to the basement where he tied Jerry up from the ceiling above a large b
... keep reading on reddit β‘I recently read Rites of Buriel by Tom Jackman. A very well written book from the early 90s, it lays out the crimes of Berdella and the how the police eventually caught him. He killed 6 men in the mid to late 80s.
This case distressed me though. The levels of torture he inflicted on his victims is a terrifying thought and some of the photographs provided in the book help pain the whole ugly picture, and one night I had actually a nightmare i was electrocuted awake to find myself in a horrible house hearing the Berdella speech.
Having had a fascination for the criminal mind I find I've become desensitized to reading about such things, but this case shocked me in how much it got to me.
Has there been any cases that really got to you and why?
Also please feel free to drop some book recommendations in the comments as well, always looking for new reading material.
Or am I completely making that up? Also might be another podcast with two female hosts that my gf listens to, but I canβt figure it out.
Any help would be great, said gf canβt remember either, haha
Iβm having a hard time finding the documents of his itinerary of his tortures. Just looking to read them for research any body have an idea where to find them?
I literally just finished this episode a few minutes ago, and Iβm honestly shocked I havenβt heard about this psycho like weβve heard about Ted Bundy and other βheadlineβ serial killers?? The acts of ted bundy were atrocious but I didnβt think it could get THIS much worse. This episode and the one about Joachim Kroll are on a level of s i c k that i didnβt know could even exist.
As i was reading the wiki page about berdella, i thought about something i hadnt really took into consideration before. The page said the berdella's father, who was a deeply religiou man, often beat his children with a leather belt. Now, by no means am i blaming anybody but berdella himself for his actions, but, how many serial killers do you belive were directly influenced by the actions of others to commit their crimes, and do you think there is a direct correlation between berdella's crimes and the events that took place in his childhood?
βBerdella would later stress to investigators he had been extremely physically attracted to Stoops, and this victim was held captive for two weeks before he died, with him gradually increasing his captive's terror to make him a cooperative and incapacitated sex slave. Berdella used electrical shocks through Stoops's closed eyes in an attempt to blind him and injected drain cleaner into his larynx to try to silence his screaming.
During the second week of his capture, Stoops asked Berdella for a soft drink and sandwich. When Berdella refused, Stoops burst into tears.
On June 27, he ruptured Stoops's anal wall with his fist, causing bleeding and discharge. Towards the end of Stoops's captivity, he tried to feed his captive ice cream and soup, although Stoops "wasn't able to keep anything down". By the final day of his captivity, Stoops was so weak Berdella later stated he had been unable "to breathe in a sitting position.β
On July 1, 1986, Stoops died; a forensic pathologist later testified that the ruptured anal wall caused septic shock which proved fatal.[5]:271β
Killing Jerry Howell I met Paul Howell on a beautiful spring day in Kansas City, Missouri... It was at a flea market on the outskirts of KC-MO... Seeing as how it was Memorial Day weekend, the place was surprisingly dead. The massive building was PACKED with everything you could imagine. Anything from vintage clothes to firearms to car parts... I was overwhelmed by the amount of amazing wares that filled the place. I was with an ex-lady friend who I'd brought to KC for her birthday. I was in town to play the Westport Roots Festival the night before. She wanted to search for SKULLS for an art project. While browsing the vast amount of items present, I was approached by one of the proprietors. He was a midsize man with gray hair in his mid 70's. He greeted me with a handshake and omitted that friendly Midwest demeanor that I grew up around and love so much. He introduced himself as Paul and we immediately engaged in conversation. Paul assumed due to my shitty tattoos that I'd done some time, so he began to talk about his storied history of run-ins with the law. I'd heard KC was a hard town in the 60's and 70's... He confirmed this rumor and began giving me first hand accounts of violence, police brutality, gang warfare, and mob activity back in the day. It turns out Paul had come from a rough background where he made his living hustling and had very little opportunity for education. In fact, he barely knew how to read or write... He also had a history of violence and crime that he continued to tell me about over our hour long conversation... Paul divulged a very personal story of how the KCPD once took him in on a warrant. He told me about how a young trainee officer grabbed his head from the back and slammed it into the concrete jail floor, spiting his head open "like a watermelon". Several officers then drug Paul's body into a holding cell, beating him to the point of near death. He was hospitalized and laid in critical condition for days. After this brutal event, the district attorney's office in KC at the time was set to make Paul into their star witness in their campaign against police violence. HOWEVER, at the last minute on the steps of the court house, Paul walked away... He was a MAN OF HONOR, and because of that he refused to ROLL ON ANYONE, even cops. From that point on, the KCPD looked out for Paul... Many actually became close friends of his and helped him out of situations where he otherwise would have surely gone to jail. This relati
... keep reading on reddit β‘
Robert Berdella was definitely very sadistic which entertains me to no end with serial killers, I have read a few different bio's on him, all online, and when talking about what he did they give a few examples of the torture he brought to his victims but always mention that he kept torture logs of what he did to his victims day by day. I have looked online a little and cannot find them, does anyone know if they are available to be viewed anywhere online or off?
Hey guys , I am trying to find a good book or documentary about Robert Berdella, a killer operating in Kansas City int he late `80s who killed at least six young men ,and is suspected in killing two more.
My mother happened to frequent the Westport flea market that Berdella had a stall in during the years he was active, and even now remembers a generally creepy feeling she got from him whens he saw him there. If anyone can recommend a good source, I would really appreciate it!
Part of his plea deal to avoid the death penalty was to explain in graphic detail exactly what he did to who. Reporters and whatnot were barred entry, only people allowed that weren't part of the preceeding were family of the victims. I wanna get my hands on those transcripts
When I was five, we (myself and family) lived in a BAD neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri in 1984-1985ish. My parents let me walk around and play by myself as long as I didn't go more than three blocks away.
After school, I would go to my friend's house on the next block. Across from her house was an overgrown property with a chainlink fence. There were so many trees, shrubs, and weeds, it was difficult to even make out the house there.
At that age, I was terrified of dogs, and this large sounding one would bark at me when I walked by. Each time, a man's voice would say, "It's okay. He doesn't bite. You can pet him if you want to." Each time, I would say, "I'm not allowed to talk to strangers," and dash across the street to my friend's house.
After we moved out of that area and back to the east coast, that man was featured on the news. They had just arrested the Kansas City Butcher after one of his victims got free and was running naked on the roof and screaming for help.
All of his victims were male, but I can't help but think there are some parallel universes in which I did stop to talk and saw or heard something I wasn't supposed to.
Edit: I left a couple things out due to time constraints earlier.
I read somewhere that in Robert Berdella's property were bones from 60+ victims. They only got him for six(?) because they couldn't make full, matching skeletons from the assortment. Police thought it was a multi-generational thing within his family.
He had a booth at a flea market that my dad frequented. He sold all sorts of oddities, mostly made of... bone. Super glad my dad never made a purchase.
Hi! So, I've been a commenter on this sub for a while now and figured I'd lend some unrequested advice to people. I think it's important that we continue to educate ourselves and grow from our mistakes. If anyone has any objections or ideas about what I've wrote, I'd love to hear them. I'm just a correctional treatment specialist with a degree in Criminology. I want to make that clear as I don't want to come off as an 'expert' in the field of serial killers.
The debate about serial killer typology.
There's plenty of serial killer typologies out there that vary from one to another. I think it's important to address that these categories only explain the actions of serial killers and not why they committed the crimes. Therefore, they're not as important to explore, and the ones that are available suffice. I'll explain the primary two typologies, one from the FBI and the other is the Holmes & Holmes typology.
The FBI Typology is fairly simple; it has two categories, which are organized and disorganized. However, serial killers can be a mix of the two. This specific categorization helps law enforcement find similarities in crime scenes with known offenders.
Organized offenders are categorized as psychopathic, meaning they are aware of the severity of their actions. These murderers plan, select their victims and attempt to avoid detection. These are methodical killers, which means they will follow the media or insert themselves into the investigation.
Disorganized offenders are labeled psychotic, which includes mental illness and the inability to understand their criminality. Think Richard Chase.
This specific typology was invented by the Behavioral Science Unit, specifically Hazelwood and Douglas. There has been a lot of pushback on this typology because organized offenders categorize essentially all serial killers and the disorganized typology is rare to find. Additionally, psychopathy is not far from being psychotic; the dichotomy of these mental health characteristics is flawed.
---------------------------------------------------------
The Holmes & Holmes Typology includes four categories, which is visionary, missionary, hedonistic, or power/control killers.
Visionary = People who are typically mentally ill, usually schizophre
... keep reading on reddit β‘I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Do your worst!
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
They were cooked in Greece.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies π
It really does, I swear!
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
but then I remembered it was ground this morning.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale
Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments
BamBOO!
Theyβre on standbi
A play on words.
Pilot on me!!
