Herb Baumeister
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Herbert Richard "Herb" Baumeister (April 7, 1947 - July 3, 1996) was an American serial killer from suburban Westfield, Indiana outside of Indianapolis. He was the founder of the successful thrift store chain Sav-a-Lot in Indiana.
A closeted homosexual with a wife and family, Baumeister secretly frequented gay bars in Indianapolis. He often brought men back to his $1 million Westfield estate, known as Fox Hollow Farm, and murdered them by strangulation. The bones of seven of these men were found unburied in the woods behind his home. Baumeister's young son even found a human skeleton in their backyard, which Baumeister denied knowing anything about. Baumeister's wife Julie described him as a loving and devoted husband and father.
After the police began to catch on to Baumeister's murders, he escaped to Toronto, where he committed suicide. In his suicide note, he described his failing marriage and business as his reason for suicide. He did not confess to the murders of the seven men found in his backyard.
In addition to his seven murders at his estate, Baumeister is also strongly suspected of killing nine more gay men, the bodies of whom were found in rural areas along the corridor of Interstate 70 in Indiana and Ohio between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio. Julie Baumeister told authorities that her husband made as many as one hundred business trips to Ohio during the life of his Sav-a-Lot business.
The A&E Network television series The Secret Life of a Serial Killer aired an episode about Baumeister in 1997.
