When a state trooper found a nude woman chained up and terrified in the cab of Robert Ben Rhoades's vehicle, he inadvertently stumbled upon a sadistic serial killer who had been using his job as a long-haul truck driver to find vulnerable victims for years. Upon searching Rhoades's vehicle, officials found he had converted his semi-truck into a mobile torture chamber, allowing the middle-aged husband and father to torment and abuse women as he crisscrossed the United States.
When they visited his home, they uncovered a number of disturbing photographs, taken right before he murdered one of his teenage victims - photos that are perhaps even more disturbing than Rhoades's mobile torture chamber. It was clear Rhoades had been using the relative anonymity of the nation's highways to spread terror throughout the nation.
Highway Horrors: Robert Ben Rhoades, The Trucker With A Mobile Torture Chamber,
He Was Caught When Police Discovered A Woman Chained Up In His Truck
On April 1, 1990, a state trooper made a shocking discovery when he stopped to investigate a semi-truck that was parked off Interstate 10 in the city of Casa Grande, Arizona. Inside the cab of the truck was a woman, chained to the wall and screaming, with only a pair of slippers on her feet.
The officer saw that the truck's driver, 44-year-old Robert Ben Rhoades, was also in the vehicle, and he was able to handcuff the middle-aged man and place him in the back of his patrol car. The 27-year-old woman, who had been restrained by both her hands and ankles, was freed by the officer, and once at the police station, she told the officers the horrifying story of how she'd ended up shackled inside the truck and covered in red welts and lacerations.
He Tormented The Family Of One Of His Victims
After torturing Regina Kay Walters for at least two weeks, Robert Ben Rhoades decided to torment the 14-year-old's family by calling her father both at home and at work to taunt him about his missing daughter. Approximately one month after Walters went missing, her father received anonymous phones calls that were eventually traced to cities in Texas and Oklahoma where law enforcement officials later determined Rhoades was working at the time the calls were made.
The caller told Walters's father he'd cut his teenage daughter's hair, and when the authorities searched Rhoades's apartment, they found Regina Kay Walters's notebook with her father's phone numbers written inside.
He Had A Briefcase Filled With Sex Toys And Instruments Of Torture
In Robert Ben Rhoades's truck, authorities recovered a briefcase filled with sex toys and torture devices which the hitchhiker said the trucker had used to abuse her over the course of several hours. Inside the briefcase, officers found dildos, alligator clips, handcuffs, leashes, and whips, as well as pins which Rhoades had used to pierce the young woman's nipples and genitals.
An FBI agent who reviewed the contents of the briefcase dubbed it a "rape kit," and he claimed it was one of the most "refined" kits he'd ever seen, leading him to conclude Rhoades had been torturing and abusing victims for a very long time. When officials searched the trucker's apartment a few days later, they discovered evidence that caused officials to believe Rhoades was even more dangerous than they had assumed.
One His Victims Escaped, But She Was Too Afraid To Identify Him
After kidnapping the 18-year-old woman in Houston, Texas, Robert Ben Rhoades cut off her hair and shaved her pubic hair, just like he did with Regina Kay Walters. Also like with Walters, he tortured and raped the Texas teenager for two weeks, but the 18-year-old was able to escape because the middle-aged trucker failed to fully fasten her handcuffs when he chained her inside the cab of his truck. Seizing the opportunity to escape from her captor, the teenager ran from the vehicle and reported the terrifying ordeal to the police.
Incredibly, the officers were able to locate Rhoades, but when they asked the teenager if he was the man who had abducted and assaulted her, she was too frightened to confirm he was her attacker. The young woman, who had been brought face to face with the person who had tortured her for weeks and threatened to kill her, didn't think the law enforcement officials would be able to protect her from Rhoades. Consequently, the trucker was released, free to kidnap, rape, torture, and murder additional victims.
He Tortured Some Of His Victims For Weeks
While reviewing the images of Regina Kay Walters, the officers noticed her head had been shaved. By analyzing the amount of regrowth visible in some of the pictures, as well as the bruises on her body, they were able to determine Walters had been held captive by Rhoades for at least two weeks.
Officials also spoke with an 18-year-old Texas woman who described being abducted by Rhoades and raped and tortured over the course of two weeks, indicating the trucker liked to abuse his victims for extended periods of time. However, like the woman discovered by a state trooper in Arizona, Rhoades didn't get the chance to murder the Texas teenager.
He Documented His Crimes With Photographs
After Robert Ben Rhoades was arrested for kidnapping and assaulting the 27-year-old woman a state trooper found chained and screaming inside his truck, law enforcement officials searched his apartment in Houston, Texas. In Rhoades's home, they discovered a number of disturbing items, including makeup, women's clothing, a blood-covered towel, bondage magazines, whips, and handcuffs.
The authorities also found several photographs, including pictures of Regina Kay Walters that appeared to have been taken in the abandoned Illinois barn shortly before she was killed. In some of the images, the 14-year-old is nude, and law enforcement realized Rhoades had shaved Walters's pubic hair. In other photos, she's clothed, wearing a black dress and high heels, and the teenager appears extremely frightened and upset.
He Went By The Nickname "Whips And Chains"
The hitchhiker also told police that while Robert Ben Rhoades was subjecting her to horrific acts of abuse and torture, he told her his nickname was "Whips and Chains." Officers later discovered this was the name Rhoades, who had been involved in BDSM for years, went by when he used his CB radio to communicate with his fellow truckers.
Law enforcement eventually learned that in addition to BDSM, Rhoades was a swinger who regularly had sexual liaisons with other married people in his hometown of Houston, Texas.
He Murdered A Couple Who Were On Their Honeymoon
Eventually, law enforcement discovered Robert Ben Rhoades was a serial killer, in addition to being a sexual sadist who enjoyed torturing women and girls. His first known murder victims were 28-year-old Douglas Zyskowski and his wife, 24-year-old Patricia Walsh, a couple he'd picked up as hitchhikers at the end of 1989 near El Paso, Texas. Walsh and Zyskowski had recently gotten married, and they had decided to travel from their hometown of Seattle, Washington, to Georgia.
They were both deeply religious, and they had intended to preach about Christianity when they reached the east coast. However, shortly after they accepted a ride from Rhoades, the middle-aged trucker shot Zyskowski and dumped the 28-year-old's corpse near a Texas highway.
After dispatching with her new husband, Rhoades allegedly held Walsh captive for approximately one week, repeatedly torturing and abusing the young woman, before shooting her to death and disposing of her dead body in central Utah. Sadly, while the remains of both Zyskowski and Walsh were discovered shortly after they were murdered, it took years for both of them to be identified and returned to their families.
He Had A Torture Chamber In His Truck
After she was rescued from Robert Ben Rhoades's vehicle, the woman told law enforcement that she had met the middle-aged husband and father at a truck stop, and he had agreed to give her a ride to her destination. However, she fell asleep shortly after climbing into the vehicle, and when she awoke, she found Rhoades had placed restraints around her wrists and ankles.
To her shock and horror, she realized Rhoades had converted the cab of his truck into a mobile torture chamber, equipped with chains, shackles, and handcuffs to help him restrain his victims. He even had a horse's bridle, which he had placed around the young woman's neck to immobilize and control her. Rhoades whipped her repeatedly, causing red welts to appear all over her chest and back, and he had a briefcase in his truck, filled with toys and tools her used to sadistically torture and abuse the hitchhiker.
He Tortured And Murdered A 14-Year-Old Girl
Approximately one month after killing Patricia Walsh, Robert Ben Rhoades picked up 18-year-old Ricky Lee Jones and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Regina Kay Walters, not far from their hometown of Pasadena, Texas. According to law enforcement officials, almost immediately after he picked up the hitchhiking runaways, Rhoades killed Jones and dumped his corpse in Mississippi.
As with Patricia Walsh, the trucker didn't murder Walters right away. Instead, police suspect he held the teenager captive for at least two weeks, subjecting her to sickening acts of torture and rape, before he strangled her to death with a garrote and dumped her corpse in an abandoned barn in Illinois. However, before he killed the 14-year-old, Rhoades took several haunting images of Walters that the authorities eventually recovered from his home.