American serial murderer Jerry Brudos was found guilty of killing four women in the late 1960s. Jerry was born and raised in South Dakota, where his mother physically abused him since she had wanted a girl child when Jerry was born. His troubled upbringing carried over into adulthood, where he developed into a sexual predator and deranged serial killer. He was charged with stripping a girl off forcibly when he was only 17 and taking pictures of her while she was naked. After that, he led a typical life for a few years. But in the late 1960s, his primal instincts went mad with passion and anger. Early in 1968, he killed his first person before starting his deadly rampage. The motive for each murder seems to be sexual in nature. It seems that he engaged in necrophilia by killing and raping his victims’ corpses after being unable to have intercourse with them while they were still alive. For his atrocious actions, he was given three consecutive life sentences in jail in 1969. He was housed at the “Oregon State Penitentiary,” where he passed away in 2006 from liver cancer.
Early Childhood & Life
In a relatively typical household, Jerome Henry Brudos gave birth to Jerry Brudos on January 31, 1939, in Webster, South Dakota. He was the younger of the family’s two sons. Even though he was the family’s youngest kid, his parents never showed him enough affection.
Jerry’s mother mistreated him since she preferred a daughter as her second child. After years of physical and psychological abuse, his mother’s behavior had a negative psychological effect on him, causing him to grow up to be a cruel and awkward person.
He had an odd obsession with women’s shoes. He was busted stealing his teacher’s shoes when he was in nursery school. Along with that, he also started to have an insane infatuation with women’s underwear. He later admitted in prison that he used to frequently take the underwear of his female neighbor. He spent a lot of his teenage years visiting psychiatric hospitals as a result of his bizarre behavior.
He frequently pursued young females his age while he was a teenager. Then, after robbing them of their shoes, he would flee. He had reached the heights of terrible craziness and was developing into a sex-crazed madman. He abducted a girl when he was 17 and threatened to kill her if she did not indulge his sexual desires. Then he made her strip while taking pictures of her.
According to other stories, she wasn’t his first victim, and he even beat her severely. He spent some time in the psychiatric ward of the “Oregon State Hospital,” yet he was able to finish his education while he was incarcerated.
According to reports, after graduating from high school, he briefly served in the army before being dismissed due to his odd behavior. Later, he went to work as an electronics mechanic. At the age of 22, he wed in Oregon and went on to have two kids. He appeared to have changed and his irrational, obsessive phase was passed.
He persisted in his mad ways nonetheless, stealing women’s undergarments whenever he had the chance. His happy marriage was only a front, and as he neared his 30s, his lust got more and more insatiable.
The Offenses of Jerry Brudos
He “loved her shoes” enough to pursue a woman to her home in May 1967. He stormed into her home and savagely raped her before strangling her. He took some of her shoes with him when he left her home. Even though this was one of his very first offenses, he was not connected to it until years later, while he was in jail.
On January 26, 1968, there was yet another event, which was even creepier this time. He pretended to be interested in buying books from Linda Slawson, a saleswoman for encyclopedias and asked her to his home. Unaware of the misery she was going to experience, the woman visited his house since she was unable to discern his evil intentions.
She was killed when Jerry struck her in the head. He then covered her corpse in female underwear. After that, he hacked off her left foot with a hacksaw and stored it in the freezer, frequently attempting to fit it into the women’s shoes he had gathered. After using the corpse to indulge his fantasies, he dumped it.
He kidnapped Karen Sprinker, a 19-year-old university student, from a parking lot in May 1968 and took her to his house. He raped her, killed her by strangling her, and then had sex with the dead body as well. Then he took both of her breasts out.
He gained a frightening level of self-confidence from not being caught for this crime, which motivated him to commit the next heinous act in November 1968. Jan Susan Whitney, a young woman who was traveling home for Thanksgiving, was the victim this time. Jerry offered to help her after she had automobile trouble. He then had sexual contact with the corpse after strangling her to death in his automobile.
Jerry had other obsessions besides necrophilia. He dressed the corpse and returned it to his workshop. He photographed her before bringing her severed breast with him in keeping with his custom of photographing his victims and keeping one of their body parts with him.
Linda Salee became his next victim in April 1969. The identical sequence of events occurred again: he kidnapped her, took her to his house, raped her, killed her, and then played with the corpse.
Conviction after trial
Jerry Brudos committed one error in his murders: he dumped the bodies in a river. His preferred location for body disposal was the nearby Willamette River. Salee’s body floated away and was discovered in the Long Tom River while being supported by a large auto component. The authorities eventually discovered Sprinker’s remains as well.
Further investigation by the police at “Oregon State University” revealed evidence of a man who appeared to be a war veteran and frequently called up female students to ask them out on dates. One of the students actually accepted to go on a date with him, and she later told the authorities that he had made threats to kill and strangle women. To catch Jerry, the police made the decision to put up a “honey trap.”
He was questioned by police, who also searched his house for possible evidence. Many pieces of evidence were uncovered that demonstrated Jerry’s complicity in the crimes. A nylon rope that he most likely used to strangle his victims was also discovered, along with pictures of the victims. In May 1969, he was detained.
On June 28, Jerry was sentenced to three consecutive lives in prison after entering a guilty plea to three first-degree murders. Jerry’s wife moved to a different city after filing for divorce.
Jerry’s obsession with women’s shoes persisted when he was incarcerated, and he frequently requested women’s shoe catalogs, claiming they acted as erotica for him. In 1995, his application for parole was turned down.
Jerry passed away from liver cancer in prison on March 28, 2006.
In the first season of the Netflix series “Mindhunter,” two episodes were devoted to him.
Jerry Brudos Net Worth
Jerry is one of the wealthiest and most well-known criminals. Our investigation of Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider revealed Jerry Brudos’s $5 Million net worth.