Shoe Fetish/Lust Killer Jerry Brudos Part I

 Jerome Henry "Jerry" Brudos (January 31, 1939 – March 28, 2006) was an American serial killer and necrophile known as the Lust Killer and the Shoe Fetish Slayer who committed the kidnap, rape, and murder of four young women between 1968 and 1969 in Salem, Oregon. He is also known to have attempted to abduct two other young women.

All of Brudos's murders were committed inside either his car or the basement or garage workshop of the two homes in which he resided during the period he committed his murders. Each victim was killed by strangulation; several victims were photographed before and/or after death, and three of his victims underwent post-mortem dismemberment. Brudos is known to have engaged in acts of necrophilia with his victims' bodies and to have retained selective body parts — invariably the severed breasts or feet — of three of his victims to both demonstrate his domination and to satiate his sexual fetish for women's feet, lingerie, and shoes.

Sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment, to be served at the Oregon State Penitentiary, Brudos died of liver cancer while incarcerated at this facility in 2006.

Brudos became known as the "Lust Killer" due to the primal motive behind his crimes; he also became known as the "Shoe Fetish Slayer" due to his lifelong shoe fetishism.

Early life

Childhood

Jerome Henry Brudos was born in Webster, South Dakota, on January 31, 1939, the younger of two sons born to Marie Eileen (née Alldridge) and Henry Ervin Brudos. His mother had wanted her second child to be a girl and was very displeased that she gave birth to another son; she would frequently emotionally abuse and belittle her younger son, making no secret of the fact to Brudos she had wanted a daughter as opposed to another son. By contrast, Brudos's mother doted on her older son, James.

The Brudos family lived a modest and pious lifestyle; Brudos's father typically held casual and often seasonal employment, whereas his mother was a homemaker. Although Henry was a short-tempered individual, he was seldom physically abusive toward or emotionally critical of his children, whereas Marie was a harsh, matriarchal and prudish individual who reserved the majority of her denigration for her younger son. As a direct result of his lacking of maternal acceptance, as a young child, Brudos formed a close friendship with a neighborhood woman of a similar age to his mother. This individual was both compassionate toward and accepting of him throughout his visits and Brudos later confessed to occasionally fantasizing she was his true mother; however, the woman suffered from diabetes and her declining health forced her to cease permitting visits from him or other neighborhood children. Shortly thereafter, a female childhood friend the same age died of tuberculosis, leaving Brudos inconsolable.

Brudos was an unremarkable and sickly child with few friends and who frequently complained of throat pains and migraines; he typically achieved average grades as opposed to his academically achieving and popular brother. At high school, Brudos remained an unremarkable individual to his peers and teachers alike. He seldom engaged in extracurricular activities, although he is known to have been the secretary-treasurer of a youth club in his early teens.

Largely due to Henry Brudos's seasonal work, the family frequently moved home — typically around the Pacific Northwest — throughout Brudos's childhood before permanently settling in Salem, Oregon. This property was also located upon farmland.

Fetishisms

Brudos harbored a lifelong shoe and foot fetish; he later recollected his fascination for women's shoes and feet sourced from an incident when he, aged approximately five years, observed the teenage daughter of a family friend lying asleep on his bed, having been allowed to do so by Brudos's parents after she complained of feeling unwell. According to Brudos, he was "transfixed" by the sight of the girl's high-heeled shoes and attempted to pry them off her feet; the girl awoke and simply told him to leave the room. On another occasion at age five, Brudos discovered a pair of leather high-heeled shoes with a rhinestone-studded clasp while exploring a local junkyard. Brudos took these shoes home, and then slipped them on his feet to show his mother. In response, Brudos's mother shrieked he was "wicked" and ordered him to remove the shoes and return them to the junkyard. Upon learning her son had secretly retained the footwear and that he frequently secretly wore them, Brudos's mother severely beat him before burning the shoes in his presence.

Two years after this incident, Brudos attempted to steal the high-heeled shoes of his first grade teacher; when caught, Brudos confessed to his actions although when asked why, he claimed not to know why he had attempted to steal the footwear. By the onset of puberty, Brudos had also developed a fetish for women's underwear and lingerie. According to Brudos, he was introduced to the practice of viewing, fondling and smelling female underwear by a neighborhood boy with several older sisters and with whom he occasionally sneaked into the girls' bedrooms to perform these acts, which invoked deep erotic feelings within him which he initially failed to understand. As a teenager, Brudos would steal underwear from female neighbors upon moments of opportunism, some of which he would later wear.

Puberty

By the onset of puberty, Brudos had still not learned of the act of sexual intercourse, although he became obsessed with viewing a naked female peer; however, he was markedly shy around girls in his neighborhood and at school. Moreover, his height and severe acne further decreased his confidence in his ability to appeal to girls. By approximately 1953, Brudos — still oblivious to the act of intercourse — had begun to masturbate. He later claimed to fail to ejaculate during the act of masturbation as a teenager, although he frequently experienced wet dreams. Whenever his mother discovered semen stains on his bed sheet, he was punished and forced to wash his own sheets.

First offenses

Brudos began stalking local women in his early teens — several of whom he discreetly photographed. He also stole and retained numerous items of lingerie and footwear. However, none of these initial offenses were violent in nature, although by his mid-teens he had begun developing violent fantasies of forcibly possessing a woman.

At the age of sixteen, Brudos dug an underground tunnel and alcove close to his family home; this alcove was created to symbolically enact the developing fantasies within his mind regarding captive women, and he spent numerous hours within this lair at age sixteen mentally hoping to entrap a captive. Although no women were confined at this location, Brudos did lure a neighborhood girl to his bedroom to facilitate his sexual fantasies at age sixteen. Almost immediately upon luring the girl to his bedroom upon innocuous pretenses, Brudos exited the bedroom, only to reappear minutes later wearing a mask and brandishing a knife. He forced the girl to strip naked before proceeding to take several photographs of her before fleeing. Minutes later, Brudos reappeared wearing his original shirt and with his hair in disarray and a minor scuff mark on his cheek, claiming the intruder had locked him in the family barn at knifepoint.

Within a year of this first known violent offense, Brudos had established a pattern of abducting girls his own age or younger — typically at knifepoint — and forcing them into a barn upon his family farm before ordering them to disrobe before photographing them. He would then lock these girls in a corn crib before reappearing several minutes later, wearing different clothing and with his hair combed in a different fashion; he would then release the girl, explaining he was "Ed, Jerry’s twin brother" and feign shock at her account of her ordeal before asking, "He didn't hurt you, did he?" Brudos would then claim his twin brother "Jerry" was "in therapy ...this is going to set him back a bit" before pleading with the girl not to inform anyone of her ordeal and promising to locate and destroy the camera "Jerry" had used. None of these girls were subjected to physical sexual assaults beyond tentative fondling, and all apparently agreed, as none are known to have informed authorities of these experiences.

Arrest

On one occasion in April 1956, Brudos persuaded a 17-year-old girl to accompany him on a date. Upon driving the girl to a deserted road he ordered her to undress; the girl refused, whereupon Brudos dragged her from his car and proceeded to beat her, breaking her nose. The girl's screams and the general altercation attracted the attention of a young couple driving by, who stopped and intervened. Brudos lamely claimed the girl had fallen from the car before changing his story to claim the hysterical girl had been attacked by "some weirdo" he had overpowered. His story was not believed, and the couple drove the two to the nearest police station, where Brudos admitted attacking the girl but claimed that his intention had been to simply intimidate her into removing her clothes in order that he could photograph her. He denied having ever committed any previous acts of this nature and insisted his temper had simply gotten the better of him.

Arrested upon charges of assault and battery, a subsequent search of Brudos's bedroom revealed his extensive collection of female clothing plus numerous Polaroid photographs of teenage girls, one of whom they were able to identify. The girl was contacted, and revealed her ordeal at the hands of "Jerry's twin brother" the previous August. Brudos was remanded in custody, to be referred to the Polk County Juvenile Department.

Psychiatric evaluation

Brudos was treated as a juvenile offender and sent to undergo psychiatric evaluations within the Oregon State Hospital. He entered this facility on April 16, 1956, where he remained for nine months while permitted to leave the facility to attend high school. While at this facility, Brudos was subjected to a range of evaluations; these tests concluded he was a depressive individual who suffered from a schizotypal personality disorder but was not grossly mentally ill or suffering from delusions. Furthermore, the doctors at this facility concluded Brudos's sexual fantasies revolved around a hatred he harbored toward his mother and women in general.

Release

Upon completion of his evaluations, Brudos returned to live with his parents. An average scholar, he graduated 142nd out of a class of 202 students from Corvallis High School in 1957. Two years later, in March 1959, Brudos joined the army, where he trained as a communications technician. Although he became highly skilled in this profession, his military service was largely unremarkable and he gained a reputation among his fellow soldiers as something of a fantasist who repeatedly claimed to be in a casual sexual relationship with a "beautiful Korean girl" whom, he stated, sneaked into his bed every evening.

Brudos was discharged from the army in October 1959, having been classified as psychologically unfit for military service. He moved back into his parents' two-bedroom home in Corvallis, Oregon, and soon found employment at a local radio station as an electrical engineer. To his colleagues, Brudos was an eminent, proficient and conscientious employee who conveyed a mild-mannered demeanor, yet seemed to lack any ambition to advance himself despite being a licensed broadcast technician.

Throughout the years Brudos resided with his parents, his mother allowed him to sleep in the second bedroom while his older brother was at college; when his brother returned home, he was forced to sleep in a shed at the rear of the property.

Further offenses

On one occasion in approximately 1960, Brudos observed a young woman wearing revealing clothing; he discreetly followed this woman to her Salem apartment, where he strangled her into a semi-conscious state before fleeing with her shoes. This woman was not raped. Shortly thereafter, Brudos observed another attractive young woman wearing high-heeled shoes. He attempted to overpower and strangle this woman; however, this individual fought back, and Brudos fled the scene with only one of her shoes. He retained the footwear of both women in the shed — frequently sleeping with the attire. Brudos was not arrested for either of these offenses.

Marriage

Approximately one year after gaining employment at the Corvallis radio station, Brudos became acquainted with a 17-year-old girl named Ralphene Schwinler. He became acquainted with Schwinler via a teenage boy who — being an amateur electronics enthusiast — frequently visited the radio station to observe and question Brudos as to aspects of his work and who had jokingly remarked about his shyness around female employees. According to Brudos, he had jokingly remarked to the youth to find him a girlfriend; to his surprise, the teenager agreed and took him to Schwinler's home.

On September 30, 1961, Brudos and Schwinler — one month pregnant at the time — married. The newlyweds initially resided in Portland, Oregon, before relocating to a small house in a suburb of Salem in the summer of 1968. Their marriage ultimately produced two children: a daughter, Theresa (b.1962) and a son, Brian (b. 1967). To supplement the family income, Brudos occasionally repaired vehicles in the family garage.

Brudos was never physically or emotionally abusive towards his wife, although in the early years of their marriage he insisted she frequently walk around the house and perform housework naked save for a pair of high-heeled shoes, often as he photographed her before engaging in intercourse. For several years, his wife acquiesced to these proclivities, and Brudos is not known to have committed any sexual offenses during the early years of their marriage.

Recidivism

By the mid-1960s, Theresa Brudos was a toddler — thus demanding more physical attention and nurturing from her mother; as such, Ralphene had begun to refuse to participate in the nude household high-heel modeling, photography and sexual rituals should her daughter view her parents. Furthermore, Brudos had begun putting on weight; his wife would later state that, although she never informed her husband, his physical appearance had begun to repel her. As such, although Ralphene remained loyal to her husband, the two engaged in intercourse increasingly infrequently, with his wife devoting more of her time to her daughter and social activities with female friends, and Brudos spending increasing amounts of time either working about the house or in his garage workshop, devoting focus upon various electronics projects.

In May 1967, as his wife was in hospital giving birth to their second child, Brudos discreetly followed a young woman wearing attractive high-heeled shoes to her home; he waited until nightfall before entering her apartment, whereupon he proceeded to choke her into unconsciousness.

Brudos would later state his intentions upon entering this household did not initially include rape, but the sight of a young, attractive woman lying limp and at his mercy beneath him aroused him to such a degree he did rape her unconscious body before fleeing from her apartment with her high-heeled shoes. The following year, Brudos was arrested by Corvallis police while on the grounds of an Oregon State University women's dormitory. He was charged with stealing women's clothing, and was wearing pedal pushers, high-heeled shoes and women's underwear at the time of this arrest.

Murders

Between 1968 and 1969, Brudos abducted and strangled four young women and attempted to abduct a minimum of two others. Three victims were murdered in the basement or garage workshop of Brudos's home, and one inside his vehicle.

All of Brudos's victims were abducted and murdered in order to satisfy his need to both dominate and possess attractive young women and to satiate his sexual fetishes. Following the act of murder, each victim was subjected to a ritual of dressing in differing lingerie and footwear during which Brudos would arrange her body in suggestive and provocative positions prior to photographing her body and engaging in masturbation — often while staring at and/or caressing the victim's feet and ankles after dressing the body in differing lingerie and footwear. Each victim was also subjected to acts of necrophilia and three were mutilated after death, with Brudos retaining the severed body parts to fuel his fetishes in addition to expressing his dominance. All were disposed of in the Willamette River, although their shoes and underwear were retained and stowed within the household garage, which Brudos's wife and children were forbidden from entering without first announcing their intention via an intercom he had installed.

Linda Katherine Slawson

Slawson was a 19-year-old door-to-door encyclopedia saleswoman from Aloha, Oregon, whom Brudos encountered as he worked in his yard on January 26, 1968; she inadvertently entered his property having confused his address with a neighbor's on the belief she had an appointment with the homeowner to potentially sell an encyclopedia. Upon hearing the reason for Slawson's visit, Brudos feigned interest in purchasing a set of encyclopedias to lure her to the basement of his home. As Slawson sat on a stool and began advocating the sale of her encyclopedias, Brudos bludgeoned her about the head with a section of wood, and then manually strangled her to death before concealing her body beneath the staircase to the basement. He then asked his mother to take his daughter from the house to purchase hamburgers in order that he could engage in necrophilia with Slawson's body.

Upon undressing the young woman's body, Brudos discovered Slawson was wearing attractive red lingerie; this inspired him to retrieve a box of women's underwear and footwear he had accumulated, typically via theft, and repeatedly dress and redress her body in differing footwear and lingerie in addition to engaging in repeated acts of necrophilia — photographing much of the process. Hours later, Brudos severed Slawson's left foot from her body with a hacksaw; he retained this severed appendage in the rear of the family freezer (located in the basement) with view to both future usage of modeling his extensive collection of high-heeled shoes and to fuel his masturbatory fantasies. He also retained the two encyclopedias Slawson had hoped to sell him as keepsakes.

Brudos later bound the remainder of Slawson's body to a heavy cylinder head and discarded her body "over a rail somewhere" in Marion County, adding he could not recall the precise location.

Jan Susan Whitney

Brudos encountered Whitney, a 23-year-old motorist, as he drove home from a job in Lebanon on November 26, 1968. Brudos later insisted this murder — much like Slawson's — was a crime of opportunity; he had simply encountered Whitney as he drove home from work and observed three individuals standing beside a broken-down Rambler alongside Interstate 5 between Salem and Albany.

After inspecting Whitney's car, Brudos claimed he could fix her vehicle, but would need to drive her to his home to collect the necessary tools. Whitney and her traveling companions — hitchhikers she had previously picked up — agreed to accompany him, upon the promise the two hitchhikers would first be driven to their intended destination. The two hitchhikers entered the rear of Brudos's vehicle, and Whitney the passenger seat.

After driving the two hitchhikers to their intended destination, Brudos drove Whitney to his home, which he then entered while remaining parked in the driveway — ostensibly to retrieve the necessary tools to repair Whitney's car. Brudos then discreetly entered the rear of the vehicle as Whitney remained seated in the passenger seat; he then asked her to close her eyes and describe how to tie a shoelace without opening her eyes or moving her hands. Whitney agreed to the challenge; Brudos then strangled her from behind with a leather luggage strap before raping her body inside the vehicle. He then carried her body into his garage workshop where he dressed her body in differing footwear and lingerie before repeatedly engaging in acts of necrophilia with her corpse.

Whitney's body was left hoisted from the pulley in the workshop ceiling for two days, with Brudos later admitting to violating her body whenever he "felt the need". Her body was also dressed in differing lingerie and repeatedly photographed. Brudos also severed one of her breasts with view to usage as a paperweight, although this idea was abandoned when he noted the epoxy hardener failed to fully set. Brudos instead stuffed the breast with sawdust before pinning the organ to a wooden board.

According to Brudos, two days after Whitney's murder, a car crashed into his garage, knocking a hole in the wall. A responding policeman had looked into the resultant damage, but due to the dust, debris and darkness and the fact the hole was at ground level, failed to observe Whitney's mutilated and suspended body. That evening, her body was tethered to a section of scrap railroad iron and thrown into the Willamette River along with Slawson's severed foot, which had by this stage begun to decompose.