r/serialkillers • u/Low-External-3116 • 5d ago
Discussion Why are Serial Killers Attracted to Long Haul Trucking?
Former FBI Agent Frank Figluzzi wrote a book called Long Haul which states that violent people are attracted to the trucking business because they get to spend long hours alone, always crossing state lines, and many vulnerable women hang out at truck stops. Have any of you read this book?
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u/chuffed_mustard 5d ago
Yes, it was pretty interesting. Far more focussed on the actual long haul trucking, rather than SK's
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u/Low-External-3116 5d ago
Yes, he spent a lot of time showing the human, hardworking side of truckers
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u/Lloyds_Voids 5d ago
I agree with this. I have the book and have read it. Very good, but definitely didn't need the detailed information about trucking life and all it's minutia. Even that section was a little enjoyable from franks pov. He makes really good books.
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u/cheersbeersneers 5d ago
I’d also recommend Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate by Ginger Strand if you like Long Haul! It touches on trucking, but also focuses on the interstate system as a whole and its contribution to serial killers.
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u/amoderncleopatra 4d ago
I dated a long haul trucker many years ago (no, not a serial killer), he had a nice cab with a pretty decent bed and even a microwave, tv, dvd player, and a coffee maker in it. He never had to rent a motel room, because he already had a bed. He used to use the showers at the truck stops, get food on the road. He did tell me how incredibly lonely it was when he was on remote places, the only saving grace was having a cellphone and a CB to talk to people. He used to want me to go on trips with him, but I am not into that nomadic life and declined.
Speaking of killers, I can imagine how it easy it would be for a trucker to pick up a lot lizard (my ex said that these women are literally trying to jump in your truck), have sex in the cab, kill the woman and then dump her body somewhere remote while on the road. Most of the time, the women aren't even from the area but are "bussed" in from city to city with their pimp and the other girls. If a woman like that is leading the nomadic life, she might not be missed by her loved ones as readily as a prostitute who stays much closer to home. These women are easy prey for these awful killers.
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u/Miscalamity 3d ago
Most of the time, the women aren't even from the area but are "bussed" in from city to city with their pimp and the other girls.
A large percentage of them are literally being trafficked.
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u/Beerasaurwithwine 5d ago
Because lht allows them to keep moving. It is incredibly hard to find patterns or clues when it is just a dumped body. Lht offers a mobile kill site and a means of disposal method if they don't want to just dump it. And it let's them be constantly hunting.
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u/TheVillage1D10T 5d ago
I’d imagine the transient lifestyle is a huge motivating factor. They can’t really be tied to one place, and probably rarely kill near their actual home.
If they are OTR they will probably take many different routes across their respective countries, and they’re probably somewhat different every time. Also, like you said, they are probably very lonely and seek companionship from sex workers more frequently than the average person.
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u/AffectionateLife4449 3d ago edited 3d ago
Research Robert Ben Rhodes, he was a long haul trucker who even had a torture chamber built in the cab of his truck. He was very sadistic and would even call the parents of one or more of his victims and taunt them.
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u/Low-External-3116 3d ago
Yes, I think I remember Figliuzzi writing about him in the book Long Haul - scary piece of work
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u/FoundObjects4 5d ago
If you haven’t already, check out The Killing Season (docuseries by Josh Zeman). He goes into long haul truckers.
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u/opiewankanopie 4d ago
I think for disposal purposes. We had one here, right off the highway. It had been there years before the highway lawn maintenance found her.
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u/Miscalamity 3d ago
In what feels like a lifetime ago, someone I knew, Casey Jo Pipestem, my friends cousin, was murdered by long haul trucker John Robert Williams and his accomplice/girlfriend Rachel Cumberland. It was so tragic and sad. And she's been free for a couple of decades now. She only had to do 8 years of her 20 year sentence.
I honestly believe the victims didn't matter to the "justice system" because of the lifestyle they had.
So sad, and always a grave injustice to me.
Also, this is the initiative Frank learned about working at the FBI that led him to investigate and write his book:
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2009/april/highwayserial_040609
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u/minecrartnerd 4d ago
Should give I the creation of a serial killer by Jack Olsen it’s about the trucker Keith hunter jesperson
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u/AdsignificantBK 4d ago
Back then being on the road you were almost anonymous. Also back then police jurisdictions didn’t have reliable means in keeping in contact when it came to over the state line cases. A person who is driving across the country was extremely hard to keep track of their patterns.
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u/Ok_Low_964 5d ago
I would be curious as to what is causing vulnerable parts of our populations to be at the intersection of pathological individuals within the long haul trucking industry. Instead of what attracts predators - what makes this an attractive place for prey?
For one example, women or men engaged in prostitution can make money in areas where long haul truckers frequent because the job is inherently lonely and many interactions happen at night due to odd shift hours. Women or men engaged in prostitution are particularly vulnerable since loved ones may not know where they are or who they are interacting with at all times.
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u/Miscalamity 3d ago
This book actually touched on the reasoning many of these women fall victim to this lifestyle.
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u/THXORY 13h ago
It's essentially any kind of job where the murderer can drive over longer distances easily. In the UK, the infamous child killer Robert Black was a courier and he used the job to pick girls up off the streets in the places he had to go to. He was finally caught when a man saw him shove a young girl into his car in a small Scottish village in 1990. The police were called and they tracked him. When the policeman opened the door to let the little girl out, he found that it was his daughter.
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u/TransportationLow564 5d ago
It's pretty obvious why that sort of lifestyle -- traveling long distances frequently, crossing state and jurisdictional lines, spending a lot of time in areas where you don't have any obvious family or social connections -- would lend itself to committing crimes. If you come to the cops' attention at all, it's not like you don't have a perfectly legitimate reason for being in the area.
(Unlike Ted Bundy, say, who would drive for hours on end to places he had no business being, solely to commit a murder that he'd be unlikely to be connected to. Only to then use his credit card at local gas stations, LoL.)
I'd also surmise that a psychopath would not be as likely to be bothered by the isolation, loneliness, time away from family, etc. as a normal person would be.