Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - "The Killer Cop" Gerard John Schaefer Pt. 1

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

Obsessed with moral power and control, Gerard Schaefer was a police officer in Florida who targeted teen hitchhikers in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Schaefer spent his youth nursing deviant sexual... urges, taking solo hunting trips to indulge in self-inflicted rope torture and animal necrophilia. But the most damning evidence of his descent into brutality may be the hellish fantasies he recorded in his journals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of rape, extreme violence, necrophilia, bestiality, and murder. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. A gentle breeze swept through a tranquil Florida wood. Besides some rustling leaves, the only thing that disturbed the quiet was a young man trudging through the underbrush. Gerard John Schaefer stopped his hike at a healthy-looking tree and eyed the mudd around it, animal tracks. He'd been following them for some time now. He crouched behind the tree and lifted the shotgun in his hand. He was done walking. Now he'd wait for whatever might
Starting point is 00:00:46 emerge from the quiet woods. He waited a long time, but he didn't mind. That was part of the thrill of the hunt, one of his greatest passions. The isolated quiet of the woods was even more enticing to him, because here he could do whatever he wanted. Then a song bird landed on a branch above him. He stared at it curiously. It was small, definitely not the kind of game that he could eat, but Gerard wasn't hunting for food. He had other plans for his prey. He waited until the bird took flight and pulled the trigger. His aim was true when the bird fell out of the sky dead. Caught in a wave of euphoria, Gerard left out of the bush and hurried over to his kill.
Starting point is 00:01:34 He stared at the lifeless animal for a long time, letting his anticipation grow. The bird's life was over, but for Gerard, the fun had just begun. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're taking a look at the violent life of Gerard John Schaefer, also known as The Killer Cop.
Starting point is 00:02:13 I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. In today's episode, we'll follow Gerard Schaefer as his violent sexual fantasies grow with age. His desires darken while he chases authority and control, and the women around him pay the price. Next time, we'll hear about the mistakes Gerard made while pursuing his twisted urges. Eventually, the awful truth he hid behind a police badge is revealed. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify.
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Starting point is 00:05:20 The written word is a powerful force. Putting an idea down in ink, cements it in physical form. It's there on paper where idle fantasies become reality. That might be the reason Gerard John Schaefer turned to writing when he wanted to bring his darkest dreams to life. He filled pages upon pages with secrets he couldn't share with anyone else. By the time Gerard lost track of fact and fiction, these notebooks acted as a blueprint. There, in his frantic scroll, was a gruesome map of his journey, from its humble beginnings
Starting point is 00:05:51 to its nightmarish end. From the time he could talk, life was synonymous with guilt and anxiety for Gerard. He was born in the spring of 1946 in Nina, Wisconsin. The town was quiet. a summer resort destination on the shores of Lake Winnebago. His parents, Doris, and Jerry were newlyweds. But it's possible that pregnancy pushed the couple into marriage prematurely. At the time, a hasty wedding was often preferred over the social stigma of having a child out of wedlock.
Starting point is 00:06:23 Still, even if they had been a perfect match, they didn't get to spend enough time together to figure that out. Jerry worked as a traveling salesman for the Kimberly Clark Corporation and was constantly on the road. Growing up, Gerard and his younger siblings, Sarah Jean and Gary, didn't see their father much. One week out of the month, if they were lucky. While Jerry was traveling, life seemed fairly normal for Gerard. He was a curious, loving child who got along with his siblings, at least at first. When Gerard was still young, he felt like his parents favored his sister over him. He became increasingly jealous when his mother doted on little Sarah Jean,
Starting point is 00:07:03 and things were even worse when his father was home. Jerry could hardly spare a hug for his eldest son, and yet he treated his daughter like she was a flawless angel. But if Sarah Jean was an angel, then Jerry saw Gerard as a little demon. He demanded unrealistic perfection from his son at every turn. From hunting to sports to chores, Gerard always felt short in the eyes of his father. The boy took away a twisted lesson from his father's criticism. him. His young mind started to believe that if he'd been born a girl, his parents would have loved him more.
Starting point is 00:07:38 This jealousy was the beginning of Gerard's lifelong bitterness toward women. Things got worse as he grew older. Before Gerard reached grade school, Jerry's job transferred him and his family to Nashville, Tennessee. It was likely a big change, going from a secluded lake town to a bustling city. But it seems that Jerry didn't try to make the transition any easier for his kids. He still traveled constantly. And when he was a run, he was a little bit of a little bit of around, the already distant father pulled even further away. As it turned out, Jerry's life on the road wasn't all hard work, sales, and gas station meals. He had developed a serious drinking habit.
Starting point is 00:08:15 Not only that, but he was an inveterate womanizer, too. It seems Jerry had no problem hinting at, or perhaps even admitting to, his infidelity in front of his wife and kids. It was like some kind of messed up game to him, and while we can't be sure how this affected the family as a whole, Gerard's feelings toward women soured even more. It wasn't just that his father taught him to dismiss older women and lavish praise on young girls. His mother's overprotective attitude was teaching Gerard something too, resentment. He knew she loved him, but she was absolutely suffocating.
Starting point is 00:08:51 From the outside, it's possible she clunk to her children because they were the only comfort she had. As a housewife to an absent, adulterous man, she must have been terrified that her kids would abandon her too. But the pressure Gerard felt from her constant presence manifested in bizarre ways. By 1958, the family had moved again, this time to Atlanta. The first couple of years in Georgia seemed normal, at least by the Schaefer's standards, but soon 12-year-old Gerard developed a disturbing new hobby.
Starting point is 00:09:23 For reasons he didn't fully understand, he started tying himself up with ropes. He made the knots just loose enough so he could still escape, but tight enough that it was a struggle. While he was bound, he fantasized about people torturing him. It was more than a strange, harmless game of imagination. The make-believe pain gave Gerard extreme sexual pleasure, a symptom of masochism. Vanessa is going to take over in the psychology here and throughout the episode.
Starting point is 00:09:52 Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Massacism is the tendency to be the tendency. to derive sexual gratification from one's own pain or humiliation. There are many theories about the causes of masochism, but one in particular seems to relate to Gerard. According to a 2004 study published by Alliant International University,
Starting point is 00:10:15 there's a correlation between masochistic men and their experience with their mothers. It's known as the martyr mother phenomenon. Some mothers sacrifice, or claim to sacrifice, their own happiness for the sake of their children. As a result, they may resent their kids as they grow more independent. The study found that some men feel deep-rooted guilt for any pain they might have caused their mothers. That's why they learned to turn that agony on themselves instead. Doris's reasons for staying married to her cheating alcoholic husband were no doubt complicated.
Starting point is 00:10:49 But when it came down to it, she may have tolerated his behavior for the same reason she married Jerry in the first place, to provide a better life for her kids. As Gerard got older, it wouldn't be surprising if she felt some misplaced resentment, which would have confused and distressed him. He then found release for these feelings in his torture fantasies. It's hard to know for sure because Gerard mostly kept his emotions to himself, and the Schaefer's had plenty of other things to deal with. A year or two after Gerard started tying himself up,
Starting point is 00:11:20 the family once again followed Jerry's job to a new state. In 1960, Gerard arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On the outside, this move seemed to make some positive impacts on the 14-year-old. Gerard spent lots of time outside, developing a love for hunting and fishing. He also found a passion for collecting guns, a hobby that would continue his entire life. Around the same time, he also became interested in Catholicism. Perhaps he was looking for some kind of guidance or a structure in his life. Or maybe there was something about the suffering of Christ that mirrored his unresolved feelings toward his mother.
Starting point is 00:11:57 Whatever the reason, Gerard appeared to be thriving. He was active in his high school sports teams and earned decent grades. He even dated. Gerard's height, sun-kissed brown hair and blue eyes attracted a lot of attention. And despite his father's constant attempts to beat him down, he grew pretty confident in himself. Still, there was always something distant about him. A few girls might have found it mysterious, but a closer look hinted at a more sinister truth. For instance, Gerard's hunting and gun hobby seemed relatively normal for a boy in Florida at the time.
Starting point is 00:12:33 What wasn't normal was that he killed all kinds of animals, even ones he couldn't eat. His hunting buddies suspected he just enjoyed the thrill of taking a life, and that wasn't the half of it. When Gerard was out hunting alone, he occasionally became fixated on the animals he shot down. Seeing a lifeless creature aroused him. Sometimes he reportedly violated the animals. animals' bodies. According to a 2019 study published by the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, the appeal of necrophilia comes from domination. A corpse is completely helpless to defend itself or deny sexual advances.
Starting point is 00:13:14 In some cases, this behavior is closely linked with a desire to inflict pain and humiliation on a victim. It seems Gerard's massacism had evolved. Now, he didn't just want to hurt himself. He wanted to hurt others. Coming up, Gerard blurs the line between fantasy and reality. They say time heals all wounds, but sometimes time can do anything but. Welcome to Cold Cases, the new Spotify original from Parcast.
Starting point is 00:13:50 I'm Carter Roy. Every Monday, join me as I revisit the clues and miscues of some of the most elusive criminal cases in history. from burglary and arson to kidnappings and murder. Each episode of cold cases explores the many types of crime, the many ways they remain unsolved, and how long it takes to find the answers, if ever. Will justice be served? Only time we'll tell.
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Starting point is 00:15:29 Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scyptown. scheduled procedures with anesthesia if you're nursing pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking Zepound with a sulfonal urea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-99 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. Now back to the story. By the summer of 1964, 18-year-old Gerard John Schaefer had already shown some disturbing sexual behavior. He started collecting violent pornography and imagined himself torturing women. It's likely that during this time, he also began to contemplate
Starting point is 00:16:17 what it would feel like to take a human life. Still, it didn't seem like the self-proclaimed Catholic thought these urges were anything to be ashamed of. Rather, they were exciting new avenues of pleasure to be explored. At school, nobody knew about the true depth of Gerard's violent urges, but some of his young classmates did notice something was off about him when it came to women. One fellow student later said she had to tuck in her dresses because Gerard would practically, quote, stand on his head to look up a girl's skirt. At some point in high school, he started dating a classmate named Sandra.
Starting point is 00:16:54 According to her, he was the perfect boyfriend, handsome, athletic, polite, everything a teenage girl could ask for. But she did remember a single incident that bugged her years later. One day, Gerard told her that his neighbor and classmate Lee Hainline deliberately left her curtains open at night. He said she did it on purpose, so he would see her changing clothes. Whether or not Lee actually did this is unknown, and to Sandra, it didn't matter. What she remembered most was Gerard's intense anger at the situation. His usually sky-blue eyes clouded over as he vowed to put a stop to it somehow.
Starting point is 00:17:32 The difference in how Gerard treated Sondra versus Lee demonstrates the way he thought about women. Criminal psychologist Brianna Fox said that by this time, Gerard only saw women as either virgins or whores. People like Sondra and his mother were pure and deserved his love and protection. His interest in Catholicism, along with his teachings of absolute right and wrong, likely contributed to a sense of moral superiority. And he thought girls like Lee, who he saw as immoral, didn't deserve. to be on this earth. Eventually, Sondra graduated, went to college, and broke up with Gerard. Without a loving, chaste girlfriend to Dodon, the high schooler dove deeper into his sadistic
Starting point is 00:18:15 fantasies. At some point in the early 1960s, Gerard took a lonely walk out into the woods. There, he had the privacy to tie himself up, violate animals, and carry out whatever his twisted urges called for. Perhaps not for the first time, Gerard tied a noose and slipped it around his neck. Then he leaned forward, letting his body weight drag him down so the rope would choke him. Gerard found the practice called autoerotic asphyxiation to be extremely pleasurable. He liked the idea of being trapped. A few times, he almost didn't make it out of his noose.
Starting point is 00:18:54 But once he reached safety, he felt an incredible rush of adrenaline. It wasn't long before he wondered how it would feel to try to. it on someone else. Despite these extreme habits, nobody had noticed the full extent of Gerard's secret life. In 1964, he graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School as a well-liked and respected student. While college was the next step for most of his classmates, Gerard took a different route. He didn't want to be like all the other students. He felt he was destined for something special. So he applied to St. John Viani College Seminary in Miami. The boy, who dreamed about killing for sexual pleasure also apparently wanted to become a priest.
Starting point is 00:19:37 It's not clear why Gerard was so interested in the church. Deep inside, he might have yearned for someone to save him from himself, but it's more likely that he had some narcissistic tendencies that were just beginning to come to light. It's no surprise that a 2017 article published in behavioral medicine found that narcissists have fantasies about being important and possess a need for admiration or special treatment. And as a 1986 paper published in pastoral psychology pointed out, someone with these characteristics might be enticed by the idea of appearing morally superior to those around them, which could be why, after a successful four years of high school, Gerard wanted a career in moral authority. However, the seminary didn't accept Gerard. Rather than
Starting point is 00:20:27 be upset, the young man shrugged the rejection off. He saw it as their mistake. stake and their loss. He had a backup plan anyways, one that would position him as a big fish in a small pond. So he moved on to greener pastures. He applied to Broward Junior College and was accepted. Immediately he enrolled in far more courses than most students take, arrogantly assuming he could handle the load. But college turned out to be much harder for Gerard than anticipated. Each semester, he dropped multiple courses he had signed up for, only to enroll in the same sky-high number of credits the following term. He might have thought the subject matter wasn't the right fit because he skipped around from
Starting point is 00:21:08 social studies to education. When that proved futile, he tended to blame his professors and anyone but himself for his failures. After a while, it seems his frustration started to mount. The gruesome urges that followed him throughout puberty became more powerful, and the compulsion to take out his anger on someone else grew stronger. To cope, Gerard Jodd down his sexual fantasies. He took a creative writing course in college and considered himself an excellent writer, though his teacher's evaluation suggested he wasn't actually very skilled. Still, with a newfound outlet for his feelings, Gerard released some of the most horrific ideas he could think of. From a first-person perspective, he penned hellish stories about kidnapping women,
Starting point is 00:21:54 hanging them from trees, and torturing them. He also seemed turned on by the idea of women urinating or defecating on themselves from fear. The terrifying stories always ended with Gerard murdering the women and then violating them. While his latest obsession might have satisfied his sexual urges, it didn't do anything to make him a better student. In 1968, Gerard left Broward and enrolled in Florida Atlantic University. There he seemed to fare slightly better.
Starting point is 00:22:25 At least his grades went up. And for the second time, he pursued education. He apparently decided he wanted to be a teacher, another common authority figure, but as always, it wasn't just about academics. Because during his first year at the new school, Gerard met a woman named Martha Louise Fogg. Martha, who went by Marty, was intelligent and devoted to her studies. She also loved writing, which might have drawn Gerard's attention. Overall, she was a bright, independent, driven person.
Starting point is 00:22:55 That meant Martha met Gerard's standards as a pure, chaste woman, Within a year he proposed marriage, and Martha, charmed by the confident blue-eyed scholar, eagerly accepted. Things were looking up for Gerard. But not everyone in his life was so lucky. A few months after his engagement, he visited his mother in Fort Lauderdale. At one point, his father burst through the door, blind drunk. This wasn't unusual. What was strange was that Jerry had brought home his girlfriend, whom he planned to introduce to his wife.
Starting point is 00:23:28 he apparently thought everyone should be friends. Doris was blindsided during what had been a happy moment with her son. And after 22 years of putting up with Jerry's disrespect, she'd finally had enough. In 1969, she was granted a divorce on the grounds of, quote, cruelty, chronic drunkenness, and adultery. For Gerard, this change was jarring. His entire life he'd watched his mom tolerate his dad's behavior. This marriage had been the source of so much resentment. resentment, admiration, and even guilt toward his mother. And now it was over.
Starting point is 00:24:05 It's possible the stress of such an immense change caused Gerard to take refuge in his toxic compulsions. But this time, it seemed like his fantasies weren't enough. He reached out to Lee Hainline, the neighbor he once vowed to put a stop to in high school for undressing with her curtains open. At that point, Lee was 25, married and working as a server. Since high school, she'd been described as unhappy and had dealt with eating disorders. But to Gerard, she wasn't the type of woman who deserved sympathy. The same month as parents got divorced, Lee allegedly called Gerard and asked for a ride to the airport. It's unclear how much time, if any, they had spent together after graduation.
Starting point is 00:24:46 They did still know each other, though. Lee had reportedly sent Gerard a telegram about a week beforehand. It's not known what the message said, but no response was given. Instead, later that day, she left a note for her husband explaining that she'd be back soon and exited the house. But she didn't come back that day, or the next. She vanished without a trace. When Lee disappeared, nobody thought to point fingers at Gerard. But years later, a small golden locket, with Lee's name engraved in cursive, would be found in his home.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Though he would never be convicted of her murder, it is widely thought that she was his first victim. In the weeks following Lee's disappearance, Gerard's behavior was undeniably erratic. He had a student teaching job at Plantation High School, but he was causing rampant issues there. Gerard often taught wrong or inappropriate information to his students. On one strange occasion, he told the kids that George Washington smoked pot. No amount of complaining or reprimanding changed his attitude. Gerard either insisted he was right or claimed he was simply expressing his opinions. hit an obvious sense of superiority the other teachers hated.
Starting point is 00:25:59 By the end of 1969, officials at the high school finally had enough. They fired their problematic student teacher. The dismissal infuriated Gerard. Somehow, he couldn't see that he'd done anything wrong, which is exactly why Gerard needed to find a way to take back control. Coming up, Gerard earns a police badge. Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection at Sephora. Sprits on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with Hefresco Paraiso.
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Starting point is 00:27:23 Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor. this promotion. Now back to the story. In November of 1969, Gerard John Schaefer was fired from his first student teaching job. The rejection was infuriating, and unlike when he was refused a spot in the seminary, this time he didn't have a backup plan. The frustration was immense, and he may have looked for someone to take it out on. Just over a month after Gerard was terminated, a 22-year-old cocktail waitress named Carmen Marie Halleck disappeared from her home. When a friend went to check up on her, she found the bathtub filled with water.
Starting point is 00:28:06 It was as though Carmen had vanished in the middle of her morning routine. We don't know what happened to Carmen, and once again there was no immediate reason to suspect Gerard of any wrongdoing. He did know of Carmen because she dated one of his former roommates, but they weren't very close. However, someone saw Carmen at a restaurant with an unknown man a few weeks before she disappeared. This man was never identified as Gerard, but what he wrote in his journal at the time was enough to hint at a possible connection. In one of his next private stories, Gerard described a young woman with Auburn hair wearing a black dress and heels. It was the same outfit the witness saw Carmen wearing on the mystery
Starting point is 00:28:48 date. In his journal, Gerard wrote about kidnapping the unnamed woman under the pretense of a date. He drove her to a deserted road, then blindfolded and handcuffed her. Next, he wrote, that he put a pillowcase over her head, like a prisoner slated for execution. He placed the woman on a ladder, posing her in a ladylike manner, while he tied a noose around her neck and threw it over a tree branch. He then tied the other end of the rope to his car and drove off, yanking the ladder out from underneath his victim, so she would hang. For the next few pages, Gerard wrote graphically about sodomizing the dead body of his victim multiple times over the course of a night. He spilled plenty of ink about how interested he was in her decomposition. In his journals, he drove home after the murder, then came back to the scene periodically to poke and prod.
Starting point is 00:29:43 The tale ended with Gerard dumping the woman in a canal and stealing her soiled underwear as a souvenir. This story could have been a piece of disturbing fiction, a terrifying writing exercise born of a sexually deviant mind. But, like Lee's gold locket, Gerard somehow came into possession of a shamrock pin that once belonged to Carmen. Not to mention, he had two of her teeth as well. His collection of souvenirs was growing, and he wasn't slowing down. Because he loved the sense of total domination and control he felt while imagining he was a murderer. It was a feeling he couldn't get anywhere else in his life. Following Carmen's disappearance, Gerard seemed to be spiraling.
Starting point is 00:30:28 His sexual habits, once confined to solo hunting trips, now haunted his every step. If he walked down the street at night and saw a sex worker, he became overwhelmed by an urge to kill her. When these compulsions hit him, he needed an outlet. Many times, he found release by dressing in women's clothes and torturing himself to If any part of this intricate sadomasochistic ritual was interrupted or disturbed, Gerard's anxiety would rear its ugly head. He couldn't shake his nervousness and distress until he got an opportunity to try again. It's unclear how often he did these things, but the urge seemed to be on his mind constantly. The preoccupation with torture and killing was so strong that it distracted him from nearly all other facets of life. His career was no exception. Shortly after losing his first student teaching job, he landed another position at Stranahan High School. This arrangement, however, was even worse than the last one.
Starting point is 00:31:28 He was rarely on time and continued to teach his students incorrect information. He only lasted about six weeks at Stranahan before the school board terminated his contract. Once again, Gerard didn't take the rejection well. This time, though, he didn't seem like he was out to hurt anyone else. Instead, the now 24-year-old wrote a suicide note. Someone else found it, likely his wife Marty, because she immediately arranged for her husband to be psychologically evaluated. Outside of this incident, it's not known what their relationship was like,
Starting point is 00:32:01 but Gerard was given to taking long, hunting trips that kept him away from home. On top of that, he couldn't hold down a job, and now she realized he had mental health issues. Still, she stuck by her husband. while Gerard saw psychologist. The professionals that spoke with him wrote that he was immature, had poor ego control, and was aggressive and rebellious. Based on his delusional superior attitude,
Starting point is 00:32:27 they also decided Gerard was confused about his self-image. That made truly connecting with people nearly impossible. This, in turn, might have fed his internal sense of superiority over others, creating a vicious cycle. For an entire year, Gerard went to therapy, though it's unquestionable. though it's unclear how open he was with his psychologist. To the best of our knowledge, he didn't receive an official diagnosis or medication at this time. Then, at some point in 1970, his personal life became even more complicated.
Starting point is 00:32:59 Marty had finally had enough of her husband. Though she never discussed what the final straw was, it's not hard to guess. So after a year of marriage, she filed for divorce. Though the rejection must have stung, Gerard had his own spin. in on the breakup, as always. He told people they just weren't sexually compatible. He claimed he eventually kicked her out for not satisfying him in bed. Then, despite the fact that he was single and unemployed, Gerard decided he needed a vacation. He wanted to get as far away from his failed marriage as possible. First he went to Europe, then North Africa. It's unclear how long he was
Starting point is 00:33:37 gone, but it seemed like he kept himself pretty busy. Unfortunately, no one really knows how Gerard spent his time abroad. He told one person he worked as a bodyguard for a jewel salesman. Someone else thought he protected a drug trafficker. In yet another version, Gerard bragged that his job was killing sex workers for some kind of merchant. It's unclear which of these, if any, were true. They were odd things to boast about, but Gerard seemed to want to be extraordinary and unconventional. He loved retelling stories that made other people uncomfortable, including violent and sexual imagery, Yet somehow he never said quite enough to draw suspicion. When he finally got back to the States, Gerard stayed in the dilapidated house in Fort Lauderdale for a while.
Starting point is 00:34:24 He dated women fairly consistently. For a few weeks, he even invited one of his girlfriends to live with him. This woman, though we don't know her name, had some sort of physical disability and didn't have voluntary control over her limbs. Patrick Kendrick, a journalist and author who studied Gerard's life, suggested his girlfriend's condition was part of Gerard's attraction to her. It might have fed into his obsession with control. Whatever the true reasons were, Gerard clearly wasn't interested in caring for this woman. He abandoned her to go on his hunting trips and left a housemate to take care of her.
Starting point is 00:35:00 After a few weeks of this, he ended the relationship. Gerard seemed to be solely interested in having a girlfriend when it suited him. The same was likely true for most other people in his life. it was as if no one else was real, or at best they were made for him to exploit. The flippant treatment of his new girlfriend was disturbing, but at least it wasn't violent. By all accounts, Gerard focused on his love life in the first half of 1970. It's unclear if he took any lives at this time. Perhaps he was able to satisfy his urges with masochistic rituals alone.
Starting point is 00:35:34 And he definitely had plenty of other issues to distract him. Mostly he was desperate for money. At the end of his rope, Gerard finally got a job as a security guard for the Wacken Hut Corporation. There, he discovered for the first time that he liked being a protector. People had to listen to him and respect his orders. He wore his uniform around whenever he could, standing tall at 6'1 and flashing his company logo. When a cashier at his local store, a small, delicate woman named Teresa Dean noticed him. She couldn't tear her eyes away.
Starting point is 00:36:08 Once Gerard picked up on Teresa's crush, he started asking her out and bringing her gifts. He loved the way that she looked at him, like he was brave and noble, a real man. Gerard eventually decided he was capable of more responsibility than just security work. The job was fine, but he wanted total power. And now he knew where to look. In late 1970, he submitted his application to be a police officer for the city of Wilton Manor, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale. It took an entire year before Gerard got an official reply.
Starting point is 00:36:44 His application was accepted. First, he needed to complete the educational program through Broward County Police Academy, but he was already well on his way to winning a real badge. Excited to have his life back on track, Gerard proposed to Teresa Dean. By that point, she was totally smitten. To Gerard, it seemed like Teresa was the woman he'd been searching for.
Starting point is 00:37:07 She was far less demanding that his first wife. And it made her happy to run affairs at home while her husband worked or went on his trips. In return, he whisked her off on romantic weekend getaways all around Florida. That is, when he wasn't off hunting. This was the life Gerard had always dreamed of. He was close to getting a position of power and had a doting wife to boot.
Starting point is 00:37:32 Not to mention, he also had the time and privacy he needed to continue carrying out his. masochistic sexual rituals. In his twisted mind, Gerard had it all, but he'd give it up in a second to feel the ecstasy of real murder. That was something he could never let go of. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with part two of the killer cop, Gerard John Schaefer, when Gerard's violence and treachery is finally exposed. For more information on Gerard, amongst the many sources we use, we found American Ripper,
Starting point is 00:38:20 The Enigma of America's Serial Killer Cop, by Patrick Kendrick, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify Originals for Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Stay safe out there. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast.
Starting point is 00:38:42 It is executive produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Michael Motion, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Nick Johnson, Trent Williamson, and Carly Madden. This episode of serial killers was written by Kit Fitzgerald, edited by Terrell Wells and Kate Murdoch, fact-checked by Amelia Malars, researched by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood,
Starting point is 00:39:05 and produced by Travis Clark. Serial Killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hi, I'm Carter Roy, host of the Spotify original from Parcast, Cold Cases. From burglary and arson to kidnappings and murder explore the many types of crime, the many ways they remain unsolved, and how long it takes to find the answers, if ever.
Starting point is 00:39:36 Catch a new episode of cold cases every Monday. Listen free only on Spotify. Want to hear something spooky. Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snakelight lifted its head out of the water.
Starting point is 00:40:04 Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat.
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