Robert Berdella
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| Robert Berdella | |
|---|---|
 Berdella being booked |
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| Background information | |
| Born: | January 31, 1949 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio |
| Died: | October 8, 1992 |
| Cause of death: | heart attack |
| Penalty: | Life imprisonment |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 6 |
| Span of killings: | 1984 through 1987 |
| Country: | U.S. |
| State(s): | Kansas City, Missouri |
| Date apprehended: | April 2, 1988 |
Robert Berdella (January 31, 1949 – October 8, 1992) was an American serial killer in Kansas City, Missouri who raped, tortured and killed at least seven men between 1984 and 1987.
[edit] Crimes
Berdella was apprehended in the spring of 1988 after a victim he had been torturing for a week jumped naked from the second story of his house and escaped. Berdella had detailed torture logs and large numbers of Polaroid pictures he had taken of his victims. He claimed that he was trying to "help" some of his victims by giving them antibiotics after torturing them. He tried to gouge one of his victims eyes out, all 'to see what would happen'. He buried one victim's skull in his backyard, and put the dismembered bodies out for the weekly trash pickup. The bodies were never recovered but left in the landfill.
He claimed that the film version of John Fowles' The Collector, in which the protagonist kidnaps and imprisons a young woman, had been his inspiration when he was a teenager.[1]
[edit] Death
Berdella died of a heart attack in 1992 after writing letters to a minister claiming the prison officials were not giving him his heart medication. His death was never investigated.[citation needed]
