Police officers are meant to serve the public and protect citizens, and that's exactly what the majority of them do. But there are some cops out there who grossly abuse their positions of authority for their own gain. Even more disturbing, however, are the law enforcement officials who commit truly heinous acts (either on the job or off), utilizing their specialized training to evade capture. Throughout world history, we've seen several instances of cops who tortured people, officers found guilty of multiple rapes and assaults, and even serial killer cops who score as high on the sadism scale as murderers like BTK (Dennis Rader). The rapists, tortureres, and killer cops on this list were all convicted of unsettling crimes.
Sadistic Criminal Cops Who Were Arrested for Heinous Crimes,
Gerard John Schaefer, Torturing Cop
Pulp writer Jim Thompson wrote of a remorseless deputy sheriff in his 1952 novel The Killer Inside Me, apparently based on a particularly unnerving police officer Thompson encountered in real-life. However, even the writer's fictional creation isn't as brutal and sadistic a figure as Gerard John Schaefer, who was only convicted of the torture and murder of two teenage girls (but very likely killed far more than that), all while serving as a deputy for the Martin County, Florida sheriff's department . Even more bizarre: while in prison, Schaefer began a relationship with true crime writer Sondra London who published several volumes of Schaefer's fiction. What did he write about? Deranged cops torturing and killing women and girls.
Randy Comeaux, Six-Time Rapist
Randy Comeaux, a former deputy with the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Department in Louisiana, was convicted of six rapes in 1999, though police believe it is highly likely he was responsible for up to nine more crimes in the area. Comeaux's assaults began in the 1980s and ended sometime in 1995. His victims said that the deputy would give them "helpful tips" during the attacks, like advising them to lock certain windows at night. Comeaux was ultimately caught through advanced profiling and investigative techniques, specifically the use of computers to triangulate an approximate location of the perpetrator's address, and DNA testing methods that were not available at the time of the crimes. It turns out Comeaux lived almost exactly in the middle of the triangle, and DNA extracted from saliva on a cigarette butt left at the scene of a crime was a match. This story was featured in an episode of Forensic Files.
Mikhail Popkov, AKA the Werewolf
The monstrous nickname "the Werewolf" suits Mikhail Popkov, a former Russian police officer who used his uniform and cruiser to prey upon intoxicated women. Providing them with a false sense of trust and safety, Popkov would lure these women into his car, drive them out to the woods, and then viciously attack them with "a slipknot, knife, awl, screwdriver or an axe which he used up to 17 times on some victims," wrote Siberian Times.
Following his attack, the Werewolf would sexually assault his victims, then kill them — though in some cases it is believed that he murdered his victims first, then engaged in necrophilia. Popkov eventually confessed to 24 of the murders, claiming that the only reason he ceased his activity was because he was impotent from syphilis and could no longer enjoy murder on a sexual level. Police suspect Popkov is responsible for at least five other killings, though the number could be far higher than that.
Craig Peyer, Sexual Predator and Murderer
While former California Highway patrolman Craig Peyer only ever committed one murder, his 1986 killing of Cara Knott, a student at San Diego State University, was the violent culmination of sexual misconduct and gross misuse of authority. During his trial, it was revealed that Peyer had forced numerous women to pull over along the same stretch of highway where he eventually killed Knott. It was reported by nearly two dozen women that Peyer, while not hostile, made romantic or sexual advances, in some cases stroking their hair or shoulders. There had even been a few complaints called into Peyer's station, but they were dismissed due to his reputation and record. It is believed Peyer snapped when Knott reacted negatively to his advances and even slashed him across the face with her fingernails when he attempted to grab her. He bludgeoned Knott to death with his flashlight and dumped her body below an abandoned bridge. As of this writing, Peyer is still in prison, and will not be eligible for parole until 2027.
Christopher Dorner, Rampage Cop
Christopher Dorner's case is a knotty one. It all began in 2007 when Dorner made allegations of excessive force toward fellow LAPD Officer Teresa Evans. At the time, Evans was Dorner's superior in charge of overseeing the completion of his probationary training. Dorner claimed that Evans repeatedly kicked a suspect in the face. An investigation found no significant evidence of this claim, and Dorner was fired for falsifying testimony.
In 2013, after a lengthy appeals process, Dorner published a "manifesto" to his Facebook wall. The utlining a plan to kill 40 specific law enforcement personnel and their families, including Randal Quan, who had acted as Dorner's defense attorney during the investigation. Dorner argued that his termination from the force was in response to his reporting excessive force, which had effectively angered the higher-ups. True to his words, Dorner began his killing spree by murdering Quan's daughter and her fiancee. He would go on to kill four more people and wound three others during a nine-day rampage and manhunt that ended in a standoff at a cabin in northern California. Dorner comitted suicide during this standoff.
Details thus far may seem cut and dry, but here's where things get a bit twisted: during the manhunt, LAPD officers wounded several people, as they opened fire on trucks that resembled Dorner's. An investigation was launched, and the offending officers were penalized for using excessive force. Which of course raises the question: were Dorner's initial claims of excessive force actually justified? Was he indeed wrongfully terminated? While answering yes to either of these questions does not validate Dorner's actions, it does call into question the supposed innocence of those he initially accused.
Drew Peterson, Two-Time Wife-Killer
Thirty-year police veteran Drew Peterson — who had already burned through two wives — began killing his exes as well as divorcing them. Peterson was convicted of beating and drowning his third wife Kathleen Savio in 2004, several months after divorcing her in 2003. He pretty much immediately married Stacy Cales. No one suspected him of the murder until 2007, following the mysterious disappearance of Stacy, who it is believed Peterson killed and hauled away in 50-gallon container. The pastor at Stacy's church apparently testified that Peterson had confessed the murder of Savio to Stacy, and that she provided a false alibi for her husband on the night Savio died.
Gennady Mikhasevich, Volunteer Killer
Gennady Mikhasevich served in the Voluntary People's Druzhina, a volunteer police force in the Soviet Union. He assisted in the investigation of several rapes and killings that took place between 1971 and 1985. Unbeknownst to his fellow volunteers and members of the regular police force, the crimes were not random and unconnected as many believed, but were in fact perpetuated by one man: Mikhasevich. When Nikolay Ignatovich, a young investigator, began sharing his serial killer theory, Mikhasevich sent an anonymous letter to police in hopes of derailing their investigation. However, as the letter was handwritten, investigators compared it to writing samples of people in the area, and matched the letter to Mikhasevich's hand. He was executed in 1987.
Jon Burge, Prolific Torturer
It all happened in Chicago. Where else could a man like Jon Barge succeed for decades as a police detective? The Windy City has had numerous issues of corruption among its elected officials and law enforcement agencies, not to mention a storied history of organized crime. Barge is a quintessential hard-nosed, by-any-means-necessary cop who implemented methods of confession-coercing torture that would make Al Capone proud, including the use of a cattle prod, cigarette butts, and hot radiators, to burn victims, plus non-lethal suffocation via a plastic bag, electroshock therapy, and electrocution of genitals. Worse yet, the torture seemed almost exclusively doled out to African-Americans. Barge was suspended in 1991, pending an investigation, and was finally stripped of his badge in 1993. However, he did not see any jail time until 2010. His sentence for committing torture and false arrests for ten years? Four and a half years in a federal prison, of which he only served three. As of this writing, Barge is a free man.
Manuel Pardo, the Death Row Romeo
Manuel Pardo, alongside his partner Rolando Garcia, was found guilty of robbing and murdering at least nine drug dealers in Florida during the 1980s. Pardo was unrepentant about his crimes, asserting that the people he killed were the "scum of the earth" who had "no right to live." After his imprisonment, Pardo became known as the "Death Row Romeo," because he began correspondence with several women, many of whom he convinced to send him money. Pardo was executed in 2012.
Daniel Holtzclaw, Serial Rapist
This is one very, very bad cop. Former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty of 18 charges, including "sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy and rape," reported CNN'S Michael Martinez. Holtzclaw committed these crimes while on-duty, targeting one of Oklahoma's poorest neighborhoods, and assaulting exclusively black women. While his defense resorted to victim-blaming, the evidence against Holtzclaw was overwhelming, and the jury sentenced him to 263 years in prison.