Jerome Brudos biography

Synopsis

Troubled Childhood

Serial killer Jerome Henry Brudos was born on January 31, 1939, in South Dakota. Known as the Lust Killer, Jerome Brudos murdered several women in the Salem, Oregon area in the late 1960s. His family moved around a few times while he was growing up, spending time in Oregon, California, and South Dakota. The youngest of two boys, Brudos had a strained relationship with his overbearing mother.

Brudos discovered a pair of high-heeled shoes in a junkyard when he was five years old, marking the beginning of his fascination with women’s footwear. When his mother found him wearing the shoes, she took them away and destroyed them. His fetish for women’s shoes continued to grow, and he later stole women’s underwear from neighboring homes. As he grew, he developed a dark fantasy life, which involved violence against women. Brudos began acting on these disturbed thoughts.

Violent Fetishes

At the age of 17, he threatened a teenage girl with a knife and forced her to take off her clothes. Brudos then took photos of her naked body. (Some reports also indicate that he also beat her, while others indicate that he assaulted another young woman who rejected him.) For his crimes, he spent some time in Oregon State Hospital’s psychiatric ward, but he was still able to attend school during the day.

After high school, Brudos eventually became an electronics technician. There are some reports that he also spent time in the military, but was discharged for his bizarre obsessions. Around the age of 22, Brudos married and moved to Portland, Oregon. The couple had two children. Despite this seemingly pleasant domestic life, Brudos continued to explore his fetishes, sneaking into other people's homes to take women's underwear.

Brudos is believed to have attacked a woman in 1967. In May of that year, he targeted a woman because he liked her shoes and followed her home. Brudos went into her house after she went to sleep. After strangling her to the point of unconsciousness, he raped her. He then left, taking some of her shoes with him. Brudos was not connected to this crime until much later.

On January 26th, 1968, Linda Slawson, a young encyclopedia saleswoman, paid a visit to Brudos's home. He pretended to be interested in buying a set, but he had more sinister intentions. Brudos later admitted that he hit her in the head and then strangled her to death. After her death, he kept the body for a time, dressing it up in women’s undergarments. Brudos also removed one of her feet so that he could put high-heeled shoes on it from his collection.