On July 21, 1972, Gerard John Schaefer made the worst mistake of life by picking up two hitchhikers: Pamela Wells (17) and Nancy Trotter (18). The girls trusted Schaefer partly because of his job as a local deputy. Unfortunately, their trust was misplaced. Schaefer agreed to take the teenagers to the beach, but instead Hutchinson Island off State Road AIA. He then tied the two girls on a tree with nooses around their necks. Schaefer told the girls he would return before leaving them in the tree. I’m not completely sure why Schaefer left the girls, instead of simply killing them. I suspect he was motivated by a sadistic desire to create fear and despair. Regardless of Schaefer’s motivation, leaving the girls was a mistake, and it cost him. 

Miraculous, Pamela and Nancy managed to escape. Schaefer attempted to remedy the situation by claiming he was simply trying to scare the teenagers out of hitchhiking in the future. Since not everyone in Martin County was an idiot, Schaefer lost his job and was charged with false imprisonment and two counts of aggravated assault. I wish this was the end of Schaefer’s story but tragically it isn’t. 

A couple of months before his trial, Susan Place (17) and Georgia Jessup (16) disappeared. Tracking the license plate of the man last seen with the girls led the investigators back to Gerald Schaefer. Not long after, the bodies of the girls were found on Hutchinson Island. The same Hutchinson Island where Schaefer had left his last his victims. According to the detectives investigating the case, the two girls had been “tied to a tree and butchered.” 

While searching for evidence in a spare bedroom in Schaefer’s mother’s house, investigators discovered possible trophies from previous victims. The evidence suggested that Schaefer could have been committing murders since 1969. Among the trophies were newspaper clippings, I.D., and jewelry. Despite the possibility that Schaefer was responsible for other murders, he was only charged with the murders of Susan Place and Georgia Jessup. 

Later, he would team up with Sondra London, a former ex-girlfriend, to publish a book called Killer Fiction. The Police would argue that this collection of short stories was simply his way of bragging about real murders, but this cannot be proven.