The Killer Cop

Gerard John Schaefer had already been dismissed by the Wilton Manors police when the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in Florida hired him as a deputy in June 1972. Weeks later, on July 21, he gave two teenage hitchhikers, Nancy Trotter and Paula Wells, a ride near Stuart. The next morning he picked them up again and drove them to a remote wooded area by the Indian River near Hutchinson Island, restrained them, and threatened their lives. When he was called away on police business, both girls got free and reached help. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in December 1972 and received a one-year jail term.

While he was out on bail in that case, 17-year-old Susan Place and 16-year-old Georgia Jessup disappeared from Fort Lauderdale on September 27, 1972. Their remains were found on April 1, 1973, in Oak Hammock Park in Port St. Lucie. Days later, a search of his mother’s home turned up hundreds of pages of violent writings, weapons, and belongings investigators tied to missing young women.

In September 1973 a jury convicted Schaefer of both murders, and he was sentenced to two life terms. He was suspected in many more deaths. On December 3, 1995, fellow inmate Vincent Faustino Rivera stabbed him to death in his cell at Florida State Prison.