The Kansas City Butcher - Robert Berdella

The crimes of Gacy, Dahmer, and Nilsen pale in comparison to the level of brutality Berdella’s victims suffered. Berdella’s crimes spanned three years, and at least 6 young men died, all of which were buried in his yard.

Robert Berdella Jnr. was born on January 31, 1949, in Cuyahoga Falls, Kansas. His father, Robert Snr, was a devout Catholic and raised the family in a strictly religious household. Robert Snr. would often emotionally and physically abuse the boys, often beating them with a leather strap. Robert Jnr was an intelligent child but a loner, rarely playing outside with other children his own age. He wore thick glasses from the age of five and had a speech impediment. He was largely unathletic due to him being diagnosed at a young age with high blood pressure. As his father valued sports and physical education, his oldest son's lack of athleticism was seen as a failure, and he would often compare him unfavorably to his younger brother.

At school, Robert Jnr performed well academically but was often the recipient of bullying. He was aloof and seldom socialized with his school peers. During adolescents, Robert Jnr realized he was homosexual, but initially kept the secret closely guarded due to the strong religious beliefs of his family. During his teenage years, Robert Jnr became more confident and developed a rude and condescending attitude, particularly towards women.

On Christmas Day 1965, during a family holiday Robert Snr passed away from a heart attack, he was only 39 years old. Not long after his father’s death, Berdella’s mother remarried. To Berdella this was perceived as a betrayal to his father and as a result, he withdrew and immersed himself in solitary activities such as painting, coin collecting, and writing to foreign pen friends.

In the summer of 1967, Berdella graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School with excellent grades. He relocated to Kansas City and enrolled in the Kansas City Arts Institute with the goal of becoming a college professor. At college, Berdella became a strongly anti-authoritarian. By his second year, he was dealing drugs. Eventually, Berdella was expelled from the Institute due to his art projects which included boiling a duck and chicken live for the sake of art. These weren’t the only cases of animal torture that Berdella took part in, he also experimented with drugs and sedatives on a dog.

At the age of 19, Berdella had his first run-in with the law when he attempted to sell methamphetamines to an undercover police officer. he was released after posting a $3,000 bond and would later plead guilty to the offense and was handed a five-year suspended sentence. Only a month later, Berdella and two other students were arrested for possession of marijuana and LSD. On this occasion, Berdella could not post bond, and he spent five days in jail.

Throughout the 70s Berdella would associate with male prostitutes, drug addicts, petty criminals, and runaways. These individuals he would typically befriend, then try to help free them from their drug addictions and general lethargic or criminal lifestyles. In retrospect, Berdella claimed he became increasingly frustrated with many of these men’s ignorance in his help to steer them away from their unhealthy lifestyles. Berdella also began to sell arcane items of antiquities and art as additional income from his house. By the mid-70s he had several contracts and opened a booth at the Westport Flea Market. He sold primitive artworks, jewelry, and oddities. By the early '80s, Berdella had relocated his business to a store located within a building. Berdella also struck up a friendship with a young man named Jerry Howell whose family lived in the apartment above the store.

By the summer of 1984, Jerry Howell had turned 19 and became Berdella’s first victim. Berdella supplied Jerry with alcohol, valium, and acepromazine until the young man passed out. He then injected Jerry with a heavy tranquilizer before binding him to a bed upstairs in the house. Berdella raped, tortured, and violated the young man with foreign objects for the next 28 hours, while the youth pleaded to be released. Berdella would later state that he attempted CPR on jerry Howell just after he died, but was unsuccessful. He dragged Jerry Howell’s body to the basement where he suspended it about a cooking pot to allow the blood drain from the corpse. The next day Berdella took chef knives to dismember the body but found that he was unable to cut through the bones, so instead, he used a chainsaw. He placed the body parts into garbage bags and put them in the trash for the garbage crew to dispose of. Later Berdella would explain to officers investigating Jerry’s disappearance, that he drove the young man to Mirriam and had not seen him since.

On April 10th, 1985, a former lodger returned to Berdella’s Charlotte Street home, looking for a place to stay. Berdella agreed and the 23-year old Robert Sheldon moved in. Two days later, Berdella felt like Sheldon was an inconvenience and just as he did with Howell, Berdella drugged Sheldon and held him captive for his sadistic pleasure. Berdella claimed that he had nothing against Sheldon, but was able to use him to “express some of the anger and frustration that I had toward other people on”. Sheldon endured three days of torture before Berdella strangled him with piano wire. With each new victim, Berdella’s brutality increased and he devised new sadistic methods to torture his victims. He would swab their eyes with bleach, inject drain cleaner in their throats, insert needles under fingertips, use electrocution, and experiment with hypodermic needles in their muscles.

Over the next 3 years, four more young men fell victim to Berdella’s sadistic pleasure. In June, Mark Wallace took shelter from a thunderstorm in Berdella’s house within an hour he was dead. In September 1985, Berdella abducted James Ferris and submitted him to 27 hours of torture that included repeated administration of 7,700-volt electrical shocks to the shoulder and testicles. In 1986 Ted Stoop a drug addict and male prostitute was lured to Berdella’s house with the promise of $13.00 for sex, Stoop was held captive and tortured for three weeks before succumbing to septic shock from a ruptured anal wall. Berdella’s fifth victim, 20-year old Larry Wayne Pearson, survived six weeks before Berdella bludgeoned him into unconsciousness with a tree limb, then suffocated him until he died.. Pearson had bit Berdella’s penis, before screaming he could no longer take the torture. Berdella dismembered Pearson then eventually buried him in the backyard.

Berdella’s final victim was his undoing. March 29, 1988 Berdella lured 20-year old male prostitute, Christopher Bryson to his house. Upon arriving, Berdella struck Christopher with an iron bar and took the unconscious man upstairs, binding him to the bed. Christopher endured the same torture as Berdella’s victims, only this time Berdella would swab Christopher’s eyeballs with ammonia and tell him “The only things you need to think about are you, me, and this house”. By the fourth day, Christopher Bryson was able to escape. Berdella had inadvertently left a book of matches within reach, Bryson burnt the rope that bound him, before jumping out the second-story window, wearing nothing but a dog collar. In the street, Bryson was assisted by a meter reader who helped him to a house where the occupant rang the police. Bryson stated to the police he had been held against his will by the occupant of 4315 Charlotte Street, who had subjected him to four days of repeated sexual abuse, humiliation, and torture. Bryson further divulged that this individual had also shown him polaroid images of men who appeared to be deceased, with the explanation these had been previous individuals he had unsuccessfully attempted to "collect" as his sexual slaves. That afternoon Berdella was arrested on charges pertaining to the sexual assault on Christopher Bryson.

Once the officers obtained a formal search warrant, they discovered evidence to corroborate Christopher Bryson’s statement. Investigators discovered the bedroom on the second floor was found to have burnt ropes attached to the posts at the foot of the bed. Also in the room was an electrical transformer, plugged into a wall, and with wires leading to the bed. A metal tray containing syringes, small bottles apparently containing prescription drugs, swabs, and eye drops were also close to the bed. Searching the entire property, investigators also found a human skull in a closet, a decomposing head in the backyard, several vertebrae in a closet in the hallway, and several human teeth in two envelopes. It was later revealed that the skull in the closet belonged to Robert Sheldon and the head in the backyard belonged to Larry Wayne Pearson. A hacksaw and a miter saw were discovered in the basement of the property, and a chainsaw was also found to be soiled with bloodstains, flesh, and pubic hairs. Luminol tests revealed that the floor of Berdella's basement, and two plastic trash barrels, were extensively bloodstained.

Stashed in various locations around the house a total of 334 Polaroid pictures and 34 snapshot prints of various male individuals were also found these images depicted Christopher Bryson and several other individuals both in life and in death, and many of the images had been taken as the subjects had been tortured. The search also uncovered numerous restraining and sexual devices; pornographic literature; hypodermic needles; and a book devoted to the creation and remedies of narcotics. Atop a chest of drawers in one bedroom, officers discovered a stenographer's pad containing the detailed torture logs he had maintained for each victim, several newspaper clippings regarding Jerry Howell, and both the wallet and a driver's’ license belonging James Ferris.

On July 22nd, 1988, a grand jury indicted Berdella with the murder of Larry Wayne Pearson, he pleaded guilty to the charges and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. August the same year Berdella pleaded guilty to the assault on Christopher Bryson and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, he also received another 7 years for one count of felonious restraint against Bryson. As to the other 5 murder charges, Berdella initially pleaded not guilty but agreed to a plea bargain that would see him avoid the death penalty. In exchange for his confession, the prosecution agreed not to seek the death penalty. A graphic and detailed confession was provided to the prosecution in December 1988. Five further consecutive life sentences without parole were imposed upon Berdella. In Berdella’s testimony to the prosecution, he claimed: "The Collector” a movie he had first seen in 1965, had left a major impression on him and after his first victim it became the motivating force in the actions he exhibited against his victims.

On October 22, 1992, Berdella complained of chest pains to prison staff and was taken to hospital, 2 hours later he was pronounced dead by a heart attack. Berdella was 43 years old.