Gerard John Schaefer, Jr was an admirable sheriff’s deputy in Martin County, Florida. No one suspected him of even hurting a fly, that was till his true colors were shown and he was convicted for two murders and privately boasted while he appealed against his conviction, both in writing and verbally, that he had murdered more than 30 women and girls. Schaefer was born in Wisconsin and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the first of three children born to Catholic parents, Gerard and Doris Schaefer. There it was where he attended Marist Academy until 1906, then he and his family packed their things and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was there sibling rivalry bloomed, he didn’t get along with his father and he believed that …show more content…
These girls were also tied to a tree at some point and had vanished while hitchhiking, similarities to the treatment of the two teenage hitchhikers from July of the year prior, which led police to obtain a search warrant for the home in which he and his wife shared with Schaefer’s mother. Schaefer’s bedroom was a goldmine of evidence for officers, there they found personal possessions of the victims, such as jewelry, diaries and teeth from at least eight young women and girls who have vanished in the recent years. They also found lurid stories Schaefer had written, full of descriptions of the torture, rape and murders of the women, who he referred to as “whores” and “sluts”. Leigh Hainline’s, the neighbor he would spy on in his teenage years, jewelry was also found, linking him to her disappearance in 1969. Though he was never charged in the connection of her case: her skull was found in April of 1978 with multiple bullet holes in Palm Beach County at a construction site and identified on month later. In October of 1973 he was found guilty and charged with the murder of Place and Jessup and received two life sentences. It was found that a few weeks after Jessup and Place were killed, two 14-year-old hitchhikers named Mary Briscolina and Elsie Farmer vanished on October 23rd 1972, leading authorities to believe that Place and Jessup were not Schaefer’s final victims. Jewelry belonging to one of the girls was eventually found in his room and their bodies were later