John Gerard Schaefer
The Killer Cop
This homicidal Broward County, Florida, ex-policeman, though convicted in
1973 of only two mutilation murders, is believed to be responsible for at least
thirty more killings. A sadistic sex-beast by nature, Schaefer would lure young
women off the roads with the help of his badge to rape, torture, mutilate and
murder. He enjoyed tying his victims to trees and leaving them there while he
went to work as a police officer. Teeth, jewelry and clothing from several
missing girls and young women were found in a trunk in his mother's attic.
He once gave his wife a suede purse that belonged to one of his victims. As he
was convicted for first degree murder of two teenage girls, Schaefer's wife
divorced him and became engaged to his defense attorney. Not the resentful type,
Gerard retained the attorney to continue handling his appeals.
Gerard also considered himself a bit of a novelist, publishing while in prison a
collection of lurid tales of sex and gore that he marketed as a mail-order book
called Killer Fiction.
Oddly, Sondra London, an old high school girlfriend who helped Gerard with his
writings, subsequently became engaged to Danny Rolling, another sadistic killer
awaiting execution for killing five students in Gainsville. On December 3, 1995,
Gerard was found dead in his cell at the Florida State Prison in Starke. He had
been stabbed numerous times around one eye and slashed across his throat.
His sister, Sarah Schaefer, claimed that her brother was murdered because of
information he had obtained on the murder of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old
Hollywood, Florida, boy who's abduction and murder led to changing the
legislation on missing children. Coincidentally, Gerard had befriended serial
killer and cannibal Ottis Toole who once claimed he killed young Adam but later
recanted. Authorities believe Gerard's death was linked to money he collected
for his activities as a jailhouse lawyer.