The Truck Stop Killer

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Discretion is advised. This is tinned, red, it murdered, closure rise

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and imagine It's the nineteen eighties,
a time of big hair, lots of

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hairspray, neon lights, and the
lure of the open road. The American

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highways stretch out before you like a
ribbon of freedom, beckoning you to embark

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on an adventure. But not all
journeys lead to happily ever afters Some take

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you straight into the clutches of evil. And that's where our story begins.

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With a seemingly ordinary trucker named Robert
Ben Rhodes. On April first, nineteen

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ninety, an Arizona State trooper stumbled
upon a scene straight out of a horror

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movie. A tractor trailer parked on
the highways shoulder revealed a chained and terrified

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young woman inside. The driver of
that tractor trailer was Robert Ben Rhodes.

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He tried to downplay the situation,
but the trooper's instincts prevailed. Rhodes was

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swiftly arrested, and his subsequent search
uncovered a disturbing possession, a twenty five

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caliber pistol. The routine traffic stop
would soon expose Rhodes as one of America's

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most notorious serial killers and sex offenders. Inside his rig, Rhodes transformed the

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very essence of freedom into a rolling
chamber of horrors, hooks, chains,

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restraints, and a sound proof box
hidden away in the sleeper cap This monster

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had turned his truck into a mobile
torture chamber, a hellish place where his

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victims would suffer unimaginable torment. Rhodes
possessed this sickening ability to blend in his

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appearance, changing his name and even
altering his accent. This diabolical charade allowed

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him to remain hidden, preying on
innocent souls without arousing suspicion. His crimes

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went unnoticed, and a web of
terror spun across the vast expanse of the

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American highways. Robert Ben Rhodes,
born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in

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nineteen forty five, had a relatively
normal childhood, despite his parents strained relationship.

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Raised by his mother, he received
loving care and a stable upbringing.

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This sets him apart from other serial
killers who often experienced troubled childhoods. During

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his high school years, Robert Rhodes
participated in a range of extracurricular activities like

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football, wrestling, choir, and
the French Club, making him a well

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rounded teenager. However, his life
took a devastating turn after graduating from Thomas

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Jefferson High School in count Bluffs in
nineteen sixty four and joining the US Marine

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Corps. On what should have been
a proud day for Robert, his moment

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was shattered when he was arrested for
assaulting a twelve year old girl on that

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very same day. The weight of
the situation proved unbearable for his father,

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leading him to take his own life
before Robert's trial. This event deeply affected

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Robert's mental well being, leaving a
lasting impact on his life. After being

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involved in an alleged theft, Robert
Rhodes was dishonorably discharged from the military around

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nineteen sixty seven or sixty eight.
Determined to find a new way to make

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a living, he struggled through various
jobs until eventually becoming a trucker. During

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the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties,
Rhodes went through three marriages and had a

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child with his first wife. It
was during this time that he developed an

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obsession with BDSM, influenced by a
TV series that promoted the use of torture

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for a heightened sexual pleasure. He
attempted to engage in BDSM with his wife,

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but she refused. He resorted to
forceful measures. He subjected her to

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severe torture and sexual abuse, which
led to her decision to leave him.

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Rhodes was a sexual sadist. He
kidnapped women, tortured and raped them for

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weeks before killing him. What is
known about him in the nineteen eighties is

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murky. That's a quote from Vanessa
va Selka, who miraculously escaped his death.

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Grip explained in a blog post years
later. In the summer of nineteen

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eighty five, somewhere near Martinsburg,
Pennsylvania, the body of a young woman

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was pulled from a truck stop dumpster. Vanessa just hitched a ride and was

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sitting in a nearby truck waiting for
the driver to pay for gas so that

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they could leave, when a man
from the restaurant ran out started yelling to

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everyone to stay away. A small
crowd gathered around the dumpster. In the

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rain, word filtered back that the
dead girl was a teenage hitchhiker. Out

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of fear, Vanessa started to have
doubts about her driver, thinking what if

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it's him, but it was all
in her head. The ride turned out

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to be fine. Several days later, though, heading south on I ninety

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five through the Carolina's, Vanessa got
picked up by another trucker. He must

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have seemed okay, or she wouldn't
have gotten in the truck with him,

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she said. Out on the road. Though he changed, he stopped responding

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to her questions. His bearing shifts, He grew taller in his seat,

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and his facial muscles relaxed into something
both arrogant and blank at the same time.

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Then he started talking about the dead
girl in the dumpster and asked her

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if she'd ever heard of the Laughing
Death Society. We laugh at death,

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he told her. Moments later,
Rhodes pulled the truck over near some woods,

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brandishing a hunting knife. In a
desperate plea, Vanessa repeated that he

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had a choice and he didn't have
to do this. Miraculously, as though

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spellbound, Rhodes uttered one single word
run without looking back. Vanessa fled into

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the woods and hid. When she
saw the truck leave, she emerged,

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hitch hiked south, and kept the
incident a secret for years. A couple

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of others after her, however,
were not so lucky. After he was

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arrested in Arizona in April of that
year, nineteen ninety, he confessed to

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the murders of newlywed's Patricia Walsh and
Douglas Zikowski. The couple had left Seattle

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in November of nineteen eighty nine and
were hitch hiking to Georgia preaching the Christian

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Gospel. The truck Stopped Killer picked
them up in Texas and killed Zawalski immediately.

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However, he held Walsh prisoner for
more than a week, during which

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time he tortured and raped her repeatedly
before shooting her to death. After torturing

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her with fishhooks and other assorted instruments, Rhodes took one final set of photos

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of Walsh just before killing her with
a baling wire garat. Afterward, he

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threw her body in a barn off
of Interstate seventy in Illinois, where it

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was found in September. By then, the truck Stop Killer had been in

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custody for about five months, but
the book on his reign of terror was

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hardly closed. Again. In twenty
fifteen, law enforcement agencies shared a photo

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taken by Robert Rhodes inside his truck
in nineteen eighty five, seeking to identify

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the young woman in the picture.
Pamela Millikan from Saskatchewan recognized herself in the

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photo and came forward. Millikan revealed
that she had been hitchhiking to find her

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brother in Winnipeg when she ended up
in rhodes truck. Rhodes explained that he

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took the photos of his passengers as
a precaution against potential robbers. Millican recalled

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a sign in the truck that read
cash, grass or ass No one rides

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for free, and realizing that she
had no money, she knew what was

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expected. They had a consensual sexual
encounter, and Rhodes dropped her off at

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a bus depot in Winnipeg. Of
course, many were not as lucky as

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Millikan or Vanessa, and while the
truck stop killer will never see the light

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of day, we may never know
how many lives he took. Now,

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I know what you're probably wondering,
How did someone this sadistic manage to evade

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capture For so long? This same
question haunted law enforcement. Rhodes left behind

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a trail of shattered lives and broken
dreams, but the puzzle pieces seemed scattered,

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lost in the abyss, until one
brave survivor, who had miraculously escaped

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his clutches, found the strength to
speak up. Her courage unlocked the door

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to the truth, bringing rhodess reign
of terror crashing down. Robert Ben Rhodes,

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the truck stop killer, was convicted
for the Walters murder in nineteen ninety

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four and sentenced to life behind bars
in Illinois, where he remains today.

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That is ten minute murder for today
Brief and Bingeible True Crime. I'm Joe

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the host, and I really appreciate
you listening to this episode today. I'm

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going to answer one quick question that
was emailed to me because I want to

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save some time to mention something new. The first to the email, Joe,

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I'm curious, what is one thing
you think is funny? But it's

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probably only funny to you. Julie
in Baltimore. First of all, thanks

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Julie for the email, and I
appreciate you listening. But I recently learned

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that some of y'all abbreviate your city
be More, and I think that's adorable,

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and that sounds like I'm making a
joke, but I seriously love that.

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Okay, the question, it was
so specific that it really made me

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think, and it took me a
little time. And the thing I think

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is funny that probably no one else
does photos of pregnant women for reasons unknown

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to me. They like to hold
their baby bumps almost cradle it. And

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when I see that, I kind
of chuckle to myself, like, here

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they go again, why are they
doing that? Now? For the record,

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if it pleases the court, I
don't have a problem with it.

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I just think it's kind of funny. All right. If this is your

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first time listening to Ten Minute Murder, please subscribe now so that you can

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catch up on all the back episodes
and never miss any of the new ones.

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Connect with me on social media.
See the visuals of what we talk

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about here in the podcast. It's
nothing gross and it's nothing graphic, but

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you will see the places and the
faces of everything that's involved in the actual

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podcast. Now, this is where
I wanted to talk about something new there

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apparently is this new app, this
new social media platform. It's called Threads,

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and I heard about it literally today, the day that I'm recording this

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episode. I think it came out
today. Actually, maybe it didn't.

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Maybe I've just been oblivious to it
before, but Threads is new. In

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a little bit that I've dabbled around
on it, I've found that it seems

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to be a lot like Twitter,
but better. So I've got an account

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there and I would encourage you to
go sign up for Threads. They don't

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sponsor this, by the way,
obviously they don't sponsor this, but it

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seems like it's going to be a
pretty cool thing, and I think that

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there are going to be a lot
of people that flock to it from Twitter.

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Away from Twitter too, Threads,
So get in while they getting's good.

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My dad used to say that I
don't know exactly what it means,

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but I think it applies. Here
in the show notes of this episode,

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you'll find a link to where you
can follow me on Threads. I've also

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put one on Facebook and Instagram.
Maybe I can't remember if I put one

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on Instagram. I just did it
a few minutes ago, so I you'd

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think I remember, but I didn't. But I'm sure if you type ten

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minute murder into Threads, it'll pop
up. You'll see it there anyway.

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Thank you so much for listening to
the episode today, and I hope you

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have a great night, a great
morning, wonderful afternoon, whatever it is

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that you're doing, or if you're
beinging onto the next episode. I'll talk

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to you soon