On this day, Sept. 17, in 1973, former Deputy Sheriff Gerard Schaefer goes on trial in Florida for abducting and killing hitchhikers.
Police began investigating Schaefer, 26, after two teenage girls said Schaefer picked them up in his patrol car, handcuffed them and threatened to sell them into slavery. Schaefer left them balanced under a tree with nooses around their necks. When Schaefer discovered that the girls were gone, he telephoned his boss to say he was only trying to teach them a lesson.
Later, the bodies of two teenagers were found tied to a tree. Police searched Schaefer’s home and found the possessions of eight missing women, including one victim’s teeth.
Schaefer was convicted of two murders.
In 1995, Schaefer was fatally stabbed by his cellmate.
— Scott McCabe
