The Raven Knocks
True Crime/Missing Persons/Cold Cases- I decided to begin a podcast regarding true crime because I feel like some of the victim's story never gets told due to it being to graphic or not admissible in court. I also think that Justice is lost in some of these cases and it's not right. I hope I can be a voice for the ones who lost theirs and perhaps make this world a slightly better place, and have you thinking more cautiously.
The Raven Knocks
Remake of The Shoe Fettish Killer (Sorry Guys)
What drives a seemingly ordinary individual to commit acts of unspeakable horror? Join me, Amy, your guide at The Raven Knox, as we explore the deeply unsettling journey of Jerome Henry Brudos, the infamous Shoe Fetish Killer. From the shadows of his childhood marred by an emotionally abusive mother who longed for a daughter, to the early beginnings of his disturbing obsession with women's shoes and clothing, we investigate the sinister evolution of his psyche. This episode offers a gripping exploration of the factors that contributed to his macabre legacy, challenging us to confront the chilling realities lurking behind closed doors.
Venture into the dark world of Jerry Brudos' heinous crimes, where acts of violence and terror left an indelible mark on the late 1960s. Through the lens of police investigations and survivor accounts, I recount the harrowing experiences of women who encountered the Shoe Fetish Slayer, from a 24-year-old woman's courageous escape to the grim fate of Linda Saley. Discover the chilling details of Brudos' abductions and murders, and the relentless pursuit of justice that ultimately led to his capture. This narrative serves as a haunting reminder of the dangers that loom in the shadows.
Finally, unravel the twisted tale of the Fetish Slayer, as we dissect the motives and actions that fueled his notorious reputation. Engage with this captivating story of crime and tragedy, and consider the lessons it imparts about human nature and the darkness that can reside within. I invite you to connect further by liking, sharing, and subscribing, and reaching out through our website or email. Join us as we shine a light on this macabre chapter of history that continues to captivate and horrify listeners.
Hey guys, welcome to the Raven Knox. This is Amy, your host, and this episode is basically a re-recording. I was listening on my way to the dentist office today and apparently I uploaded the wrong episode. Well, it's the right episode, but it was my editing version and so I'm going to have to redo it. It's the shoe fetish killer. Unfortunately, jamie won't be with me on this one, though If you want to hear it with her, then you'll need to go to YouTube and look at it on there.
Speaker 1:But just note that the contents of this recording may contain graphic material, including death and torture. An explicit language may be used. The opinions are of my own and may be offensive to some listeners. Right or wrong, they are my opinions and we all have them. And if you do not agree, just ignore them like an adult and move on. Listener, discretion is strongly advised.
Speaker 1:Jerome Henry Burdos was born on January 31st 1939 in Webster, north Dakota, to Eileen and Henry Burdos. When Burdos was born, his mother was very disappointed because she wanted to have a baby girl, because she already had a son. Everyone knew that, including the kids, as she would let them know. Often she would emotionally and physically abuse Jerry, as she would constantly remind him of how much she loved his older brother. His mother was a homemaker and his father had a steady job, although I couldn't find out what he did for a living, but they did live pretty modest. I do know that the jobs he did have were mostly seasonal and they moved around a lot. His father had a very short fuse but was seldom abusive toward the children. His mother, on the other hand, was overbearing, straight-laced woman who gave all of her attention to her eldest son. He hung the moon and no one else mattered.
Speaker 1:Jerry got really close to a neighbor, a female close to his mother's age. He longed for a mother so badly and she was very fond of him and would later go on to say that he used to fantasize that that was his mother. She was the total opposite from his mother. She was very compassionate, loving and gave him attention. The neighbor suffered some pretty serious illnesses and soon she was unable to allow the kids in the neighborhood to come visit this totally devastated Jerry. He was totally lost. It was like he finally had a mother and then she was taken away. If that wasn't enough, his only close friend had died of tuberculosis. Jerry was sick a lot. He often complained of migraines. He had average grades in school, even though he missed a lot. His brother was very popular and had excellent grades. It seemed he could never live up to his brother. You know, you would think if she wanted another child like her oldest, maybe if she treated them like she did the other, she might have gotten her wish. Well, not the girl part. In high school he thought his mother would be proud when he became the secretary of the youth club, but she wasn't impressed. Due to his father's seasonal employment, they had to move around a lot. They finally settled down in Salem, oregon. They had a pretty decent farm complete with animals.
Speaker 1:Jerry said he was about five years old when some friends of the family came over to visit and they had a teenage daughter. She wasn't feeling so well so they had her lay on his bed in his room. He saw her and he noticed her shoes. She was wearing high-heeled shoes and he was totally hypnotized. He tried to take them off of her feet but she woke up and told him to get lost.
Speaker 1:Once at a junkyard, still about five years old, he recalled seeing a pair of leather high-he Shoes with Rhinestone Studded Clasps. He took them home and put them on to show his mother because he thought she would be pleased because she always wanted a girl and he had some girl shoes. But his mother told him he was wicked and to take them back where he found them. To me he seemed so desperate for his mother's love and to give her what she wanted. He was willing to become what she wanted a girl. But that's just my thoughts. Soon his mother found out. Not only did he have high heels, but he also had women's clothing. Jerry was secretly wearing the clothes, but his mother caught him and you'll see wearing the clothes. But his mother caught him, and you'll see. He gets caught every single time, poor guy. She beat him severely and burned the clothes and shoes and she made him watch. When he was in first grade he attempted to steal his teacher's high-heeled shoes, but again he was caught. He said he didn't know why he had taken them when they asked him about it.
Speaker 1:When Jerry reached puberty, his shoe fetish expanded to include women's underwear and lingerie. His neighborhood friend had several sisters and he would sneak into the sister's room, take their underwear and him and Jerry would take turns sniffing them. This gave him intense feelings he had never had before and he didn't understand those feelings. I kind of worry about the brother, though. He's sniffing his own sister's underwear Kind of gross. When he was in his mid-teens, whenever he got the opportunity to steal underwear from his female neighbors he did so and he would also wear them.
Speaker 1:Jerry, still at puberty, had not learned of sex, but he did see a schoolgirl naked. He became obsessed With his hot, severe acne. He was very shy around girls. He finally figured out how to masturbate, but he could never climax. He could only climax through wet dreams. And again his mother saw staining on his sheets and was livid and refused to wash his sheets. He had to have been embarrassed on that.
Speaker 1:After seeing the the school girl naked, he began stalking women in the neighborhood and taking pictures of them. He continued to steal lingerie, underwear and shoes and eventually he began to fantasize on forcibly possessing a woman. When he was 16 he dug a tunnel underground and a small room close to his home. The room was to enact his fantasies within his mind and he spent numerous hours creating this, to hopefully enslave a captive. But no girl would ever visit his dungeon. But he did talk a girl into visiting his bedroom. He quickly exited the room, only to return wearing a mask and holding a knife. He forced the girl to remove all of her clothes and then he took pictures of her and then fled. A few minutes later he reappeared wearing his original shirt, with his hair a mess, a scuff mark on his cheek, and told her that an intruder had locked him in the family barn at Knife Point.
Speaker 1:Jerry began a pattern of abducting girls his age or younger by Knife Point and forcing them into his barn, have them stripped naked and photographing them. He would lock them up in a corn crib, take off and then come back wearing different clothes, with his hair different, and explain that he was Ed Burdos, jerry's twin brother, and pretended to be in shock at what happened and to be all concerned. He would then tell them that his twin Jerry was in therapy and this was going to set him back a bit, before pleading with the girls not to tell anyone, promising to destroy the pictures and the camera. And the girls never reported him.
Speaker 1:In April 1956, Jerry talked to a 17-year-old girl into going on a date. He drove to a deserted road, made her undress and she told him no. He then drug her out of his car and proceeded to beat her, breaking her nose. A young couple just happened to be driving by and heard a girl screaming, and they intervened. Jerry claimed that the girl had fallen from the car, which is bullshit, then changed his story and said that she had been attacked by some weirdo that he overpowered. So now he's the hero.
Speaker 1:The couple didn't believe him and they drove them both to the police station, where he confessed but stated that his only intention was to intimidate her into undressing so he could take pictures of her. Like that's okay, he stated he had never done this before and he had just lost his temper. He was arrested for salt and battery. They also searched his bedroom and found an extensive collection of female clothing and numerous Polaroids photos of teenage girls, and they were able to identify one of those girls and when they called her, she told them everything that happened. He was charged with assault and battery. The police sent him to juvenile and he remained there for nine months. He was charged with assault and battery. The police sent him to juvenile and he remained there for nine months. He was only allowed to leave to go to school.
Speaker 1:The hospital concluded that he suffered from depression, schizotypical personality disorder, which is a cluster personality disorder characterized by thought disorder, paranoia, social anxiety, derealization. They said he was not grossly mental ill or suffering from delusions. His fantasies revolved around a hatred he harbored toward his mother and women in general. After the nine months he was returned back to his home with his parents and I'm sure his mother was really proud of him. Now he graduated high school and two years later he joined the army where he became a communications technician. He was good at what he did, but his fellow soldiers would say that he was a fantasist. He would fantasize all the time about a relationship with a beautiful Korean girl who apparently would sneak in his room at night.
Speaker 1:In 1959, he was discharged because he was psychologically unfit for military and again he moved back in with his parents. He began working at a radio station as an engineer. His co-workers described him as proficient, mild-mannered, but he was very unmotivated. He just did his job and left. He had no interest in moving up in the company. At home he was able to sleep in the spare room, but when his brother returned to college he had to sleep outside in the shed.
Speaker 1:One day Brito saw a lady wearing revealing clothing and this excited him. He began to follow her to her apartment and he broke into her apartment and strangled her until she was unable to fight. He took her shoes and he fled. A few days later he saw another lady wearing high heel shoes and he tried to do the same to her, but she fought back. So he fled with only one of her shoes. He kept her shoes in the shed and he would sleep with women's clothing. Now, he never got caught for these two offenses.
Speaker 1:Not long after he met a 17 year old girl named Ralphine. A friend of Berto's introduced them, as Berto's was very shy. On September 30, 1961, she became pregnant, so they married, which was the thing to do when one found themselves in that situation. They lived in Portland but moved into a small house in Salem. They ended up having a daughter and a son. In his spare time he fixed cars to make some extra money. He was always good to Ralphine, but he would ask her to do odd things like clean the house naked, except he wanted her to wear high heels and he would photograph her a lot when their daughter became a toddler. This would stop happening, because kids need lots of attention, and that is where Ralphine's attention went more toward her small children than Birdos and his weird requests. Birdos had gained some weight and his physical appearance repulsed her, but she never told him. They remained married, although their sex life suffered because of the kids and his physical appearance.
Speaker 1:In 1967, berto secretly followed a young, attractive woman wearing high-heeled shoes to her home. He would wait until dark before he broke in and again he strangled her until she could no longer fight. He stated a naked woman lying limp beneath him at his mercy would make him so aroused. And then he actually raped the woman while she was unconscious, then leaving with her heels. The next year he was arrested for stealing women's clothing, and at the time he was wearing women's capris, high-heeled shoes and women's panties. His victims were murdered to satisfy his fetishes. He would dress them up, he would pose their body in suggestive poses, then he would masturbate over them while caressing their feet. Some victims were subjected to necrophilia and three were mutilated after death. He kept their body parts to fuel his fetishes and to relive the event. He really got off on his dominance with his victims. Once he was finished with them, he would take their bodies, weigh them down with a car part and he would throw them into the Williamette River. His wife and children were never allowed in his garage. This is where he kept their shoes, panties, clothes, his trophies.
Speaker 1:Once a young girl by the name of Linda Slauson, who was only 19 years old, was going door-to-door selling books. She had accidentally mixed up an address and ended up at his house. She had thought she had an appointment there to show books. Brudeudo said that she was mistaken, but he pretended to show interest in the books that she was selling. He lured her into the basement and when Linda sat down and began to set her books out for the display, he beat her over the head with a piece of wood. Then he strangled her to death with his hands. He hid her body under the stairs. He asked his mother if she would take his daughter to lunch and when she did, he proceeded to rape Linda's dead body. He dressed and redressed her in different lingerie and different shoes and would continue to rape her and take photos of her. As he would pose her body, he took a hacksaw and removed her left foot and put it in the back of the freezer which was in the basement. He would later get this foot out of the freezer and relive the moment while masturbating. He said he threw her body off of a rail somewhere, but he couldn't remember where. I call bullshit on that.
Speaker 1:Susan Whitney was driving home from work when she ran into Burdos. She had broken down and he told her that he could fix her car, but she would need to come to his home so he could collect the right tools. She also had some hitchhikers in the car, and they came along too, as he promised to go ahead and drop them off where they wanted to go, and which he did because his ultimate goal was to have her alone and all to himself. He took her back to his home and Burdos asked her, before she got out of the car, to close her eyes and describe how to tie a shoelace without opening her eyes or using her hands. She did so, and that is when he strangled her with a luggage strap. Then he proceeded to rape her. He then carried her into the garage so he could dress her up, put on different shoes and rape her corpse. He then hoisted her up to the ceiling of his garage for two days and would play with her whenever he could get away from his wife. He cut off one of her breasts and was using it as a paperweight, but the epoxy failed to do its job, so he had to think of something else to do with it. He ended up stuffing the breast with sawdust and he pinned it to a wooden board. That's weird. A car crashed into his garage two days after he had killed her and had knocked the hole in the wall. Now the hole was toward the bottom of the wall, but I bet his butt was puckering. An officer came and observed the damage but because of the dust and the debris he never saw the body. And it's not like the police are automatically looking for somebody hanging in somebody's garage, you know. So he later removed her body, tied it to a railroad iron and she was thrown into the river along with the severed foot he has collected Because it was decomposing and it was starting to stink. Now, if the cops would have looked in the garage and called him, they could have saved four other women.
Speaker 1:Karen Sprinker was 18 years old. Karen Sprinker was 18 years old. She was a college student studying chemistry at the Oregon State University when she was kidnapped by gunpoint outside of a store. She was on her way to meet her mother, but she never showed Burdos again, was dressed as a woman and he was driving the family station wagon. When he saw her wearing a miniskirt and high heels, he parked his car and when he got out she was gone. But he eventually found her, held a gun to her and forced her into his station wagon. He promised if she cooperated he wouldn't hurt her. She said she would do whatever he asked if he wouldn't kill her. He asked if she was a virgin and she said she was, but she was on her period. But that didn't matter. He raped her anyway. He made her dress up and pose in different high heel shoes as he photographed her. Then he tied her hands behind her back, took a rope, threw it over the rafter, put it around her neck and began to lift her off the ground, he stated she kicked a few minutes and then went still. He then proceeded to let her back down as he would engage in necrophilia. He cut off both of her breasts and made plastic molds of them. He took a part of a car engine, tied her to it and disposed of her also in the river.
Speaker 1:A 24-year-old girl ran Burtos in the stairwell basement where he tapped her on the shoulder. When she turned around she was looking down the barrel of the gun. I couldn't imagine that he tells her to be quiet and he tried to restrain her, but she was fosty and she fought him back. She kicked him, bit him, twisted his wrist, attempted to turn the muzzle away from herself and back on him, while biting his hand very deeply. This caused him to slam her head into the concrete floor, but he fled.
Speaker 1:The very next day a 15-year-old girl was forced by gunpoint and this day he was driving a green Volkswagen. He told her that he wanted her to come with him and he promised not to hurt her if she would cooperate. And when she had one request that he let go of her coat. They walked by a lady who was in her front yard and she made a run for it. Burtos fled. She called the cops and told them about the man and what he was driving. She stated he was six foot tall, around 200 pounds and had worn dark glasses. They went around to the local sex offenders but none matched. Now, back then you got to remember they didn't have a database.
Speaker 1:Lisa Saley was a secretary and a part-time student when Brudos kidnapped her from the shopping mall late one afternoon in April 1969. He was kidnapping women in broad daylight like he had a set of balls. She had just went birthday shopping for her fiance and was walking to her car when she was approached by a male claiming to be a police officer. He did produce a badge, which was fake, but she didn't know it at the time. He informed her that she was being arrested for shoplifting. She tried to tell him that she had paid for everything and that she even had receipts, but he ordered her to his car. Once in the car he told her that she was being held for ransom. He took her home to his garage.
Speaker 1:Now he thought his wife and children were out visiting relatives when he told her to follow him. As he went through the yard toward the house, suddenly Miss Sweet Little O' Ralphine opened the door and informed him that supper was ready. They both froze and I'm sure his butt puckered once again. She was behind him and I'm assuming that Ralphie never saw her because she never said anything. He told his wife he would be inside in a few minutes and she went back inside. Then he ordered Lisa into his garage. He then tied her up with a cord and went to have dinner with his family.
Speaker 1:Lisa was able to untie herself from the cords, but this had taken some time and by the time she got untied he came back into the garage. So she almost made it out. She fought him as hard as she could as he put the leather strap around her neck. She scratched him and kicked him as he pulled her off of her feet. Once she passed out, he raped her as he strangled the life out of her. He then hung her from the rafters, just like he had with the other ones, except this time he placed a needle into her ribcage, beneath each armpit, in which he ran an electrical current to animate her body. He was very disappointed because this didn't work. It just burned her skin. It failed to make her jerk. So his new experiment failed. He kept her for 24 hours before tying her to a gearbox and again tossing her into the river. He created a mold of her breasts, but with with her he didn't remove them. He didn't like the color of her nipples. Apparently they were a little bit too pink.
Speaker 1:On May 10, 1969, two men had decided to go fishing. They discovered a lot more fish that day when they spotted a body floating in the river. She was bound and bloated. She was wearing a coat and it was weighed down by a gearbox with copper wire twisted, kind of like the electrician's twist wires. The body was later identified as Linda Saley. The medical examiner was unable to tell if she had been raped due to the composition, but she knew she had been strangled. The police decided to search the river. Two days later they recovered another body. It was the body of Karen Spinker. She was discovered about 20 yards from the first body. She had been weighed down by a cylinder head and the same copper wire in the same manner was used. The medical examiner concluded that her cause of death was strangulation or smothering and both of her breasts had been removed. She was wearing the same clothes she had disappeared in, but she was also wearing a bra that was entirely too large for her and he had stuffed it with paper towels. The police assumed their murderer was either an electrician or a mechanic. It's a no-brainer.
Speaker 1:The police venture out to the junkyards to see if they could get a lead on where the car parts had come from, and they also interviewed the victim of the family and friends. When they began to interview Karen's fellow students, they came upon a lead. It seems a man had been calling female students asking for a date. He stated he was a veteran and he was lonely and just wanted company. Most girls blew him off, but one girl felt sorry for him and decided to go. She stated to the cops that he was a white male in his late 20s to early 30s. He was slightly overweight, had blondish, red hair that was starting to thin and he had freckles. He was driving an older dirty station station wagon and the car had children's clothing in it.
Speaker 1:She said she did not enjoy the date and apparently Burdos noticed it, as he told her that he understood why she may feel uncomfortable because of the murders that had taken place. When he took her home he asked her why she agreed to go out with him and she told him that she was just curious. He then asked her how she didn't go out with him, and she told him that she was just curious. He then asked her how she didn't know that he wouldn't take her to the river and strangle her. Can you imagine meeting, just having met someone, and they ask you that question? I don't think I could get away fast enough. I'm hoping that that caused her to rethink her decisions going forward.
Speaker 1:Now the cops told her if he had ever contacted her again to call them before she'd done anything. And it was only one week later that he did in fact call her and ask her out to go out with him again. But this time cops were waiting for him at the agreed meetup place where she was supposed to meet Bertoz he was arrested and as he was walking toward the spot, thinking that he was going to go on his date he had no idea that that would be a date he would remember. He told the cops his correct name and age but gave them a fake address. Now they had to let him go because they had no evidence to hold him. A background check revealed that Burdos had a history of physical and sexual violence toward women, and a search of the vehicle database revealed his actual address, and it just so happened to be close to where Linda Slauson had been alive. He only lived blocks away from the mall where she had been abducted. Even though he didn't drive a Volkswagen, they concluded that his mother did and they verified that she had allowed Burdos to borrow her car.
Speaker 1:On the day of Linda's abduction, on May 29, 1969, the cops had enough to hold him. On the abduction of Gloria Smith, he was detained by the state highway patrol as they had pulled him over and found Ralphine at the wheel and Burdos was in the very back of the station wagon hiding under a blanket. Like that would be red flags for me. I'm like, what are you doing, hiding in the back of the car, like what have you done, done? But it was back in the 60s back then and apparently he had quite a bit of control over her. Once at the police department he called her and asked her to destroy all the evidence in his garage, which she told him she would not do. That they brought Gloria in. Now, remember, this is the girl that had him let her go over coat and you know she made a run for it. She identified Burdos as the man who had held her at gunpoint. So they got a search warrant for his property and eight days later they searched it.
Speaker 1:On May 26, 1969, the cops entered his garage. They found an abundance of women's lingerie, high-heeled shoes and a list of phone numbers to a fraternity house that housed female students. They also found a large stack of Polaroid pictures of young women, some alive, some deceased. Several showed a deceased woman hanging from the rafters with a mirror under her body, but the mirror captured him also, as he was taking the picture, one of the females in the picture the police knew, and it was a picture of Karen Spinker. She was standing nude, with the exception of high-heeled shoes and a look of terror on her face. A severed breast that had been coated with epoxy was also found on the living room mantel. At this point I cannot help but wonder why his wife allowed it, and if she had questioned him on this. I mean, if my husband came in and said, oh look, I have this boob, I'm going to put it right here I'd be like wait a minute, what are you doing with a boob, weird? They also found copper wire that had been used to bind the victims that they had pulled out of the river. They put Bertoz under surveillance. Now I'm not sure why it took so long to arrest him, but I do appreciate the fact that they waited, because he can only be tried once for a crime.
Speaker 1:Burdose was questioned again pertaining to what they had found in the garage and his connection to the crimes. They had identified three of the women. At first he denied everything, but he then told them all they had was circumstantial evidence and began to explain his fetishes. He said the erotic fetishes were deeply ingrained in his mind and how it majorly impacts his daily life. By early June Burdose provided a full confession to four murders. He said there was something wrong with him but he just didn't know what you think. He denied hating women but said killing them helped let off some steam. The psychiatrist that interviewed him stated he was unable to achieve any satisfaction from natural intercourse and the motive for his crimes were lust and he knew that when he abducted his victims that he was going to kill them.
Speaker 1:On June 4th 1969, they officially charged him for the murders of Linda, jan and Karen. Burdose was claiming that he was not guilty due to reason of insanity. The doctors evaluated him, stated that he was in fact totally sane and was competent to stand trial. His trial was set for June 30th. On June 29th he changed his plea to guilty to three counts of the first-degree murder and he was sentenced to three consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole. But why not all four? Why was he given the option of parole? Of course he appealed as much as the law would allow, but every appeal was denied.
Speaker 1:He swore that his wife didn't know anything about the crimes and she was indicted for the first-degree murder of Karen Spinker. Apparently, a witness saw her assist Burgos in moving a body on the date of her disappearance, which makes me wonder. If that were true, why didn't they report it then? Ralphine denied this and other witnesses refuted this in her trial in September 1969. Shortly after his arrest, ralphine denied this and other witnesses refuted this in her trial in September 1969. Shortly after his arrest, ralphine was arrested for abandoning accessory to murder in one of the crimes, despite her stating her innocence. Their children were placed in state care at that time and they questioned her daughter, who was seven years old at that time. At trial she was acquitted of all charges in October of 1969 and regained custody of her children. At that point she changed her name and relocated to a different state.
Speaker 1:Since Burdose was a sex offender, he had his fair share of sexual assaults, but he refused to name his assailants. He was a model prisoner and had many jobs within the prison and was permitted to have mail order catalogs showing women modeling high-heeled shoes and underwear like right up his alley. Yeah, that kind of pisses me off too. On June 21st 1955, he was told, after being denied parole, that he would be spending the rest of his life in prison. His psychiatrist stated that Burdos was having a psychopathic personality, noting his callousness and lack of remorse. When asked if he had any remorse or if he felt sorry for his victims, he stated he cared for them about as much as he did that piece of paper, as he wadded that paper up and threw it in the floor. He died of liver cancer while incarcerated on May 28, 2006. He was 67 years old and the longest incarcerated inmate of 37 years in the Oregon Department of Corrections. In all, again, he was charged with the kidnap, kidnap, rape and murder of the four women between 1968 and 1969, but he was also known to abduct those two other women. Now it's untelling how many that they didn't find as far as evidence is concerned.
Speaker 1:But that, my ravens, is the sick and twisted story of the she fetFetish Slayer. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please like, share and subscribe and tell all your friends Also. You can find us on our website at wwwsouthernsassproductionscom. You can also get me at theravensknock at gmailcom. That's two ways you can get in touch with us. We are also on Facebook, on all platforms, and until we meet again, ravens, please avoid all rest stops and stay safe.
