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Lust Killer:
Jerry Brudos (1983)

Ann Rule
(as Andy Stack)

Lust Killer is one of Ann Rule's earlier true crime books. It contains perhaps one of her most frightening characters, a man who had a fetish for women's high-heeled shoes and undergarments and a true hatred for women. This female killing spree happened in Oregon forty years ago but is still as fresh as if it happened yesterday. 

Jerome Henry Brudos, better known as Jerry Brudos was a serial killer and a necrophiliac also known as "The Lust Killer" and "Shoe Fetish Slayer".

Brudos was born on January 31, 1939 in Webster, South Dakota. He was the second son of Henry and Eileen and brother to Larry. Jerry was an accidental birth and his parents preferred a daughter over a second son.

When Brudos was five, his family was living in Portland, Oregon. At this time Brudos became fascinated with women's high-heeled shoes. He found a pair of open-toed high-heeled shoes in a junkyard while playing alone and wore them home.  His mother scolded him repeatedly for wearing the shoes and eventually burned them.

A year later his family moved to Riverton California and Brudos entered the first grade. His teacher wore high-heeled shoes and kept two pairs in the classroom. Brudos took the second pair of shoes and hide them so that he can take them home. A classmate snitched on him and he confessed to his attempted theft. The teacher became very angry which embarrassed him and he left the classroom. 

Brudos failed the second grade most probably due to his health. He had the measles, sore throats, swollen glands and laryngitis during this time.  He also complained of frequent headaches that often left him unable to see clearly. School officials thought that eyeglasses might solve these problems. However, the eye doctor did not find a significant need for glasses. His headaches persisted, and eventual his IQ was tested which came out to be within the normal range.

Brudos’s family moved again.  This time to Grants Pass, Oregon, where Brudos's neighbors had several teenage girls and he began to sneak into their house with the girls' brother and played with girls’ clothes. At this time Brudos’s shoe fetish expanded to female undergarments.

At sixteen, Brudos began to go through puberty. His mother again showed her disgust for anything sexual in nature. She shunned him for having a natural wet dream and forced him to wash his stained sheets by hand after his nighttime "indiscretion"s. Brudos began to have bizarre fantasies. He fantasized that he would capture a girl, force her to obey his commands and beg for mercy. His family moved again to Corvallis, Oregon. Brudos continued his habit of stealing women’s shoes and undergarments, and used them to enhance the pleasure of masturbation.

When Brudos turned seventeen, he lured a seventeen-year-old girl to his car. Brudos drove her to a deserted farmhouse where he beat her profusely. A couple notified the police of what had happened but Brudos claimed that he had stopped to help the girl himself and was not the attacker. The Oregon State Police found women's undergarments, photos, photo equipment in Brudos' house and car. The police eventually obtained a confession, and Brudos was arrested for assault and battery. He was committed to Oregon State Hospital for evaluation and treatment. While hospitalized Brudos was allowed to attend high school during the day. Brudos was diagnosed as "borderline schizophrenic" and it was found that his sexual fantasies revolved around his hatred and revenge against his mother and women in general. Brudos remained hospitalized for approximately nine months and was eventually discharged and deemed not to be a danger to society.

After graduating from high school, Brudos tried his hand at college and technology school but eventually gave up. He then joined the Army but was eventually discharged because of his "bizarre obsessions".

After being discharged from the Army, Brudos moved back to Corvallis with his parents, but was forced to live in a shed. One night while running an errand, he became excited by a young girl and followed her home. He strangled her until she was unconscious and then stole her shoes. He slept with the shoes to inflate his ego.

By the time he was twenty-one, he obtained his FCC license and began working at the Corvallis radio station. While working at the radio station, he met his future wife, Darcie Metzler, who was 17 at this time. The two started dating but Darcie’s parents did not approve of their relationship. Darcie gave Brudos the kind of attention that he had not experienced before. The two were married within a few months time.

In 1962, their daughter, Megan, was born. The couple moved quite often for the next five years because Brudos was not able to keep a job but they finally settle in Portland where he got a job as an electrician. Darcie got pregnant again, and Brudos was very excited about the prospect of having a son. But his excitement was dampened when Darcie would not allow him to be present during the birth of their son, Jason. He became deeply depressed and regressed back to shoe and undergarment theft. His first victim was a woman in Portland whom he followed home. He waited for her to fall asleep and broke into the house attempting to steal her shoes. She woke up and he choked her until she passed out, raped her, stole her shoes, and fled the scene. Soon after this, Brudos started making his wife walk around the house naked while he took photos of her. He also began posing himself, in her underwear.

On January 26, 1968, Brudos committed his first murder.  Linda Slawson was selling encyclopedias door to door and Brudos convinced her to come down to his workshop. He hit her with a two by four, and then strangled her to death. Brudos then sent his family out for hamburgers so he could play with her corpse. He dressed her up like a doll in clothes he had been collecting and cut off her left foot bearing a high-heeled shoe and put it in the freezer. He faked a flat tire and dumped her corpse in the Willamette River.

In July 1968, Stephanie Vikko was reported missing in Portland. In November of 1968, Brudos found himself another victim, twenty-three-year-old Jan Whitney. Her car had broken down and he offered to give her a ride. He then took her home and hung her in his garage. Once she died, he anally raped her and spent hours playing dress-up with her corpse. He decided to keep her and hung her from a hook in the garage ceiling. A few days later he went away for Thanksgiving with his family. Upon returning, he discovered that a car had smashed into his garage, leaving a hole in the corner. Luckily for him the police officer that inspected the damage did not look inside very well. Brudos decided to get rid of the body in the Willamette River that night, but not before slicing off one of her breasts as a keepsake.

Brudos waited approximately eight months before approaching nineteen-year-old Karen Sprinkler, in a department store parking lot in March of 1969. He took her home and victimized her for quite some time. He raped her, forced her to pose for him, and eventually, hung her. Brudos proceeded to rape the corpse repeatedly before slicing off both breasts and dumping her in the Long Tom River. Two young girls informed the police that a large man dressed in drag was on the parking garage roof where Karen's abandoned car was found on the day Karen went missing.

A month later in April 1969, Brudos attacked Sharon Wood in a parking garage at Portland State University. Sharon attempted to fend off his attack by biting his thumb until it bleed. He beat her unconscious but an oncoming car caused him to flee the scene of the crime. Police failed to make any immediate connections between these events.

Between 1968 and 1969, Brudos bludgeoned and strangled four young women. The only initial evidence was witness sightings of a large man dressed in women's clothing. In the garage of his Salem, Oregon home, Brudos kept trophies from his victims, expressly two pairs of amputated breasts that were used as paperweights and the left foot of Linda Slawson which he used to model the shoes he collected. After committing a murder, he would dress up in high heels and masturbate.

On April 22, 1969, Brudos attempted to abduct fourteen-year-old Liane Brumley in his car but she escaped.

The next day, April 23, 1969, Brudos struck for the last time. Brudos, who was posing as a police officer, approached twenty-three-year-old Linda Salee. He told that she was being arrested for shoplifting. Brudos had a fake police badge and she believed him. He took her back to his garage where he strangled and raped her. She died while he was raping her. He again kept the body and continued to violate the corpse. This time, however, he did not cut off her breast because she had pink nipples and he thought "nipples should be brown". Instead of removing them he attempted to make plaster molds out of them but he couldn't get a good cast so he threw her corpse in the river.

On May 10, 1969, Linda Salee's bloated corpse was found floating in the Long Tom River. The body had been weighed down by an automobile gearbox. The coroner found that she had been strangled with a surgical thread and had been in the water for at least 2 weeks.

Two days later, on May 12, 1969, police divers found a second body close to the location where Salee was discovered. It had been weighed down by an automobile cylinder head, and had been in the water for approximately 2 months. It was the body of Karen Sprinkler. She was found fully clothed but when the clothes were removed, it was discovered that both her breasts had been cut off and replaced with scrunched up brown paper and a bra from his collection of undergarments had been placed over her mangled chest. She had also been strangled.

After the discovery of the bodies, police started to investigate and their inquiries eventually led them to a strange guy that was hanging around the local college. On May 25, 1969, police caught up with Brudos. Over the next few days, the police found that he had been in a mental institution years earlier for sexual deviation. They also noted that he had lived near a young girl, Linda Slawson, at the time of her disappearance months earlier. Upon further investigation, police also learned that Brudos had attempted to abduct a fourteen-year-old girl at gunpoint just a month prior.  

On May 30, 1969, Brudos attempted to flee with his family, but he was quickly arrested. As the evidence mounted Brudos was, in June 1969, eventually charged with three counts of first degree murder for the murders of Jan Whitney, Linda Salee, and Karen Sprinker. He changed his plea of NGRI (not guilty by reason of insanity) and plead guilty. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences (no death penalty in Oregon). He was not charged with the murder of Linda Slawson as her body was not found.  

Twelve woman went missing in Brudos' area during the time he was free, so an ongoing investigation was attempted to uncover the whereabouts of the other missing women.

Brudos was in the Oregon State Penitentiary for 37 years where he died on March 29, 2006, at the age of sixty-seven from liver cancer.

Ann Rule's Full Length Bestsellers
with Case Background
 

• Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal(2007) - Tells the story of a Georgia dentist named Bart Corbin, and how two women, a beautiful dentistry student named Dolly Hearn, and Bart's wife, Jennifer Barber Corbin, found themselves fatally involved with Corbin over the course of two decades.

• Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer-America's Deadliest Serial Murderer (2004) - This is the extraordinary true story of the most prolific serial killer the nation had ever seen -- a case involving more than forty-nine female victims, two decades of intense investigative work...and one unrelenting killer who not only attended Ann Rule's book signings but lived less than a mile away from her home.

• Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (2003) - An idyllic Hawaiian wedding held the promise of a wonderful future for handsome, athletic Chris Northon, an airline pilot, a confirmed bachelor-turned-devoted family man; and Liysa, an acclaimed surf photographer, loving mother, and aspiring Hollywood screenwriter. But few, including Chris, had seen Liysa's other side -- her controlling behavior and dark moods, her insatiable hunger for money and property. And no one anticipated the fatal outcome of a family camping trip in an Oregon forest. Liysa soon revealed herself as a victim of domestic abuse that culminated at the campsite, where she shot Chris in self-defense. But crime scene evidence led detectives to wonder if Liysa was a killer, not a victim.

• Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (2001) - Although happily settled securely in a loving second marriage, and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila never truly escaped the vicious enslavement of her ex-husband, multi-millionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer -- and a violent, controlling sociopath who subjected Sheila to unthinkable abuse in their marriage, and terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge. Shelia had said, "If anything ever happens to me... find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story."

• And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer (1999) - On a June evening in 1996, 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, secretary to the governor of Delaware, vanished without a trace following a restaurant rendezvous with her secret lover of more than two years: Thomas Capano. One of Wilmington's most prominent and respected figures, a millionaire attorney and former state prosecutor, "Tommy" was a charming, soft spoken family man. But in the weeks and months that followed Fahey's disappearance, investigators would gradually uncover the shocking truth: Capano was a steely manipulator driven by power and greed -- and capable of brutal murder.

• Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, A Mother's Sacrifice (1998) - Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life: her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, three perfect children, and an opulent home in an exclusive Kansas City suburb. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion.

• Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (1995) - When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

• Everything She Ever Wanted: A True Story of Obsessive Love, Murder, and Betrayal (1992) - For their wedding portrait, petite Pat Taylor and handsome Tom Allanson posed as Rhett and Scarlett.  Less than two months later, their dream exploded in terror and murder: their beautiful home mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom was convicted of the brutal slaying of his mother and father. Pat's only brother had died in a puzzling suicide, her grandparents-in-law were poisoned with arsenic, and no one -- from her wealthy employers to her own children -- was safe when Pat Allanson didn't get her way. It took Georgia lawmen more than two decades to stop her for good -- if indeed they have.

• If You Really Loved Me: A True Story of Desire and Murder (1991) - David Brown was a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown unfolded revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. Did David Brown convince his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him?

• Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (1987) - A shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood.

• The Want-Ad Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death--using want ads to lure his young female victims.

• The I-5 Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1984) - As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all--a star athlete, good looks, and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

• Possession - A Novel (1983) - Joanne Lindstrom's camping trip to Washington's Cascade mountains goes terribly awry, leaving her husband dead and Joanne's only hope for survival in the hands of a twisted stranger. (This is Ann Rule's only novel. Based on a real Northwest Case.)  

• Lust Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - To his neighbors, Jerry Brudos was a gentle man whose mild manner contrasted with his awesome physical strength. To his employers, Jerry was a fine worker. To his wife, he was a good husband. And to the Oregon police, Jerry Brudos was the most hideously twisted killer they had ever unmasked.

• The Stranger Beside Me - Ted Bundy: The Classic Story of Seduction & Murder (1980) - Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.

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