This homicidal Martin County, Florida, deputy sheriff, though convicted in 1973 of only two mutilation murders, is believed to be responsible for at least thirty killings. A sadistic sex-beast by nature, Schaefer would lure young women off the roads with the help of his badge to torture, mutilate and murder. He enjoyed tying his victims to trees and leaving them there while he went to work as a police officer. Teeth, jewelry identification papers from several missing young women were found in a closet in his mother's house in Ft. Lauderdale
These are the victims that I can find linked to Schaefer:
-17-year-old Susan Place and 16-year-old Georgia Jessup had vanished from Fort
Lauderdale.On April 1, 1973, hikers found human bones near Blind Creek, on Hutchinson Island. The
two teenage victims were identified by dental records on April 5. Susan had been shot in the jaw. The
crime scene indicated the girls were tied to a tree and butchered. Based on the M.O. and Lucille
Places testimony, Schaefer was the only suspect in the case.Police searched Schaefers mothers
home on April 7. The objects seized from his room included: a purse owned by Susan Place (Schaefer was convicted of these 2 murders)
Leigh Hainline Bonadies. Bonadies was last seen on September 8, 1969 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Gerard John Schaefer was
named as the prime suspect in Bonadies' disappearance when authorities found her gold locket in
Schaefer's possession at the time of his arrest in the 1970's. Schaefer was never charged in
connection with Bonadies' case. Bonadies' remains were found in the subdivision of Boca Del Mar
which was under construction at the time in Boca Raton, FL in January 1978. She was positively
identified in 2004.
The next to vanish from Broward County was Carmen Marie Hallock, a 22-year-old cocktail waitress.
When Schaefers stash of souvenirs was seized in 1973, police recovered two of Hallocks gold-filled
teeth and a shamrock pin identified by her family. Her body has never been found.
Belinda Hutchens was another 22-year-old cocktail waitress On January 5, 1972. In 1973, the search of Doris Schaefers home revealed an address book
containing the name, address and phone number of Belindas husband. No other trace of her was found,
no charges were ever filed.
At some point, Schaefer tired of killing victims singly. Doing doubles, he later wrote, is far more
difficult than doing singles, but on the other hand it also puts one in a position to have twice as much
fun. There can be some lively discussions about which of the victims will get to be killed first.
We cannot know when Schaefer started doing doubles. Seven years after the fact, his name was
linked to the disappearance of 21-year-old Nancy Leichner and 20-year-old Pamela Nater, Pinellas
County residents who vanished on a 1966 picnic in the Ocala National Forest. The case remains
unsolved and both women are still missing.
A better case exists for Schaefers involvement in the murders of 9-year-old Peggy Rahn and
8-year-old Wendy Stevenson, in Pompano Beach. Both vanished from the beach on December 29,
1970. The girls remain missing
and Schaefer was never charged, though prosecutors publicly accused him of the crime in 1973.
Schaefer denied the slayings publicly, but later confessed in a letter dated April 19, 1989.
19-year-old Iowa residents Collette Goodenough and
Barbara Ann Wilcox left Biloxi, Mississippi, hitchhiking to Florida. No trace of either girl was seen
until April, when searchers found evidence of their fate in Schaefers stash. Among the items retrieved
were Barbaras drivers license, along with Collettes passport, diary and a book of poems. Skeletal
remains of both victims were found at Port Saint Lucie in January 1977, but no cause of death could
be found and no charges were ever filed.
October 23, 14-year-olds Mary Alice
Briscolina and Elsie Lina Farmer were added to the missing list Farmers skeletal remains were found on January 17, 1973 (eight days after Schaefer went to jail), at
a construction site near Plantation High School. Briscolina was found on February 15, 200 yards
away. (Both girls were identified by dental records.) Following the April search of Doris Schaefers
home, Farmers relatives identified a piece of jewelry taken from the murdered girl.Schaefer was never charged with those murders, but he later admitted the crimes, in a letter referring
to one of his published stories, titled Murder Demons.
On Sunday, December 3, prison guards found Schaefer slaughtered in his cell. His throat was
slashed and he had been stabbed 42 times around his head and neck.
Schaefer was serving time for the murders of Susan Place & Georgia Jessup.
I have listed 13 victims of Schaefer. I have been reading about his crimes for years and have more information but was trying to shorten the post as much as possible. He claims to have commited murders all over the United States and even in other countries while traveling. How many unsolved cases are out there that may have been commited by him? I will try to put together information on his MO and post it.
