Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

Throughout each of his murders committed in his house in Kansas City, Missouri, Robert Berdella kept detailed notes and photos of his victims, with each horrific ordeal lasting weeks at a time before he moved onto his next prey

December 1988 kansas city, Robert  Berdella finally confessed to kidnapping and raping,  torturing and then killing six men , four and a half years after the murder of his  his first victim.

To him they weren’t living, feeling and breathing individuals , they were just literally just pieces of meat and he would do with them what  he wanted.

he took hundreds  of photos and  kept vivid detailed notes ,to document his macabre acts.  using every increasing twisted methods to cause unimaginable pain and suffering.

This was not a spree killing , this was not  somebody out of control of their actions, this is somebody who knows what he’s doing, know’s what he wants to do  and does it . that is the definition of evil.

after murdering them  he dissected  his victims  with such precision ,he become known as as the kansas city butcher.

and he would cut the bodies up  with a butcher knife and a chainsaw and then put them in the trash.his dark fantasies sick mind and horrific torture of six men that sometimes lasted weeks at the time, makes robert berdella one of the world most evil killers.

april the 2nd 1988, kansas city missouri, a man wearing nothing but a  dog collar was found in the street, he was taken to  a house nearby where he plead for police to  be called .

a police investigation  revealed a  horrific series of murders  that took place at the hands of  one man, who systematically and methodically kidnapped and tortured young vulnerable men before killing them.

” Bordella is evil ,because he took advantage of the week and he just performed  so many unpleasant acts on them while they were alive, for bordella it’s more than just killing,it’s cruelty”

-Dr stuart hamilton

 

after claiming his first victim  in 1984, he went on to murder five more men ,each time  increasing the level of pain and suffering that he caused  them.

 

“Berdella  had a complete disregard for human life and i think  what he was always aiming for was to create this compliant docile sex slave and some of his victims he treated them so bruttally that they died as a result of him trying to deprive them of all of their sensations”

-Dr elizabeth yardly

Rick holtsclaw was the  assistant prosecutor for the sex crimes  unit in kansas  city.

” he  would prey on those who where down and out or needed some help. he would befriend them or take them  in and that’s how it would begin “

-rick holtsclaw

but berdella’s crimes would go unoticed for years untol one day , one of his victim managed  to escape and call  for help .

Troy cole was the lead detective on the case.

” we decided to bring in backhoe  to dig up that one  particular spot where it looked  like it  might have had a grave marker to it  and sure enough on the second scoop of the backhoe  it pulled up a human head  and that was the first time that i’ve realized we had a homicide investigation and it was probably going to be a big investigation “

-troy cole

Until this point berdella  was seen as an upstanding member of the  local community ,

roy  orth was a seargeant with  the kansas city police department

” robert was a member of the Arts community in kansas city missouri,a former student of the kansas city art institute ,he was involved in his neighborhood,crime watch probram,and as i remember,was even appointed advocate for juveniles through the kansas city missouri juvenile juxtice system”
– roy orth

This seemingly normal member of the kansas city community went from being an upstanding citizen to an infamous serial killer.
berdella documented the torture and the murder of his victims for a couple of different reasons ,firstly, he wanted to relive and revisit that sense of power he felt when he was doing these thing.
but secondly he wanted to create an archive. he wanted history to remember him and remember the horrendous things that he’d done.

This killer story begins in 1949,robert andrew berdella Jr wa born on january the 31st,the first of two sons.
he was raised in cuyahoga falls , ohio , in a strict catholic household.his father works at the ford motor company.his mother was a homemaker so there were very much the traditional american nuclear family .

Berdella was a shy intelligent child who struggled to fit in at school . he was bullied by his peers did stand out as different, he wore very thivk glasses ,he went to the algebra club, he collected stamps.
so there was that sense in which he always felt that isolation from his peer group

In his mid-teens,his world was turned upside down.
berdella’s father died of a heart attack when he was 15 and this did have quite a significant impact on him.
because his mother remarried and she went on toset up another home with somebody else and berdella really did feel a sense of rejection here ,he was part ofhis mother’s past .
the world had moved on and he was left behind.

around the same time berdella had been working part -time.there’s a particular incident that berdella later recalls that is potentially significant.berdella claims that he was raped when he was an adolescent at a resturant where he worked.
Berdella never reported the incident to the police

in 1967 after graduating high school berdella enrolled in kansas city Art imstitute.at this time he’d began exploring his sexuality.

“he’d realized that he was certaimly gay and it was pretty apparent to him that his father would not have approved of that “
-Geoffrey wansell

by 1969 berdella had begun to experiment with drugs , he quit college after tutors failed to understand his twisted art projects often nvolving live animals.
he may been a bit nerdy to at and a bit strange ,but he was clearly talented.

in need of a job berdella put his talents to a new use .berdella started working as a short shef and quickly rose.
he develope quite a good reputation in the local community as people were talking about the food that he was making.

and he bought his own house, he had quite a bright future,he really was a figure that commanded respect in the local community
by his mid-late 20s berdella had also developed a passion for collecting and this hobby soon became a business in its own right.

he was obviously a good chef but it wasn’t his only talent.he also collected Art ad anticquities.this was a man of quite considerable taste working at some of the best resturants

and at the same time operating a boutique :called bob’s Bazaar Bizarre selling art and antiquities .the boutique became berdella’s full-time.

and began to out rooms in his home to help makes ends meet . some of the lodges were vulnerable young men who´d received a bed in return for carrying out jobs around the house and at his antique shop.
people who´d ran away from home, young gay men, couples,,rather a sort of benevolent figure as far as the local community concerned and entirely upright .and straightforward. citizen.

in 1984 berdella´s behavior began to get bizarre.

his house had become literally a warehouse of all sorts of odd objects.
this man who previously had been sort of pillar of the local community, it was becoming increasingly odd and he also began to despise the young man who came seeking shelter.

in march that year age 35 berdella been a relationship with a 19 year old male,former sex worker jerry howell.
berdella knew his dad who also had a stall in the flea market so jerry hang around with his dad,so,berdella knew both of them well.

jerry had issues with drugs , he’d had some issues with the criminal justice and berdella was seen to be this trusted figure , so when berdella offers to help him ,he offers to lend him money , jerry takes them up on this ,he doesn’t pay it back though.

On july the 5th 1984 ,he picked jerry up from the flea market  to help with some jobs but jerry was more interested in getting loaded .

Berdella gave him drugs and alcohol and  they headed home but getting increasingly frustrated with jerry  using him but  berdella  gave  jerry some some stronger  medication that caused him to pass out.

when the victim became virtually unconscious berdella would inject him with drugs,giving him absolute control of the body , he would then  repeatedly rape the victim over a very  extended period .in this case  27 hours.

When he returned from work the torturing continued, he’s not o nly sexually assaulted, he is struck witha metal ruler.

he’s given a cocktail of drugs ,before he’s even killed , so we have a mixture of somebody whos going to be confused what’s going  on ,they’re going to be confused by the drugs  the’they’ve been given and then he’s being physically and sexually assaulted , it’s just a horrific way to die.

The following night,jerry was dead.

berdella had meticulously detailed  the torture and  murder . in extensive notes  and photographs

One of the things berdella did immediately after jerry had died was to note down and describe precisely what he did with the body.which effectively was to drain it of blood and then  dismember  it.and wrap it up in garbage  bags.

He kept  a detailed  record because in many ways that was the  kind of character that he was .he took pride in his work.he was completely cold and isolated interested only in his own satisfaction which make it  more chilling.

 Berdella bagged  up the remainse with all the instruments he´d used and dumped it in the trash which was picked up the the next morning  .

On july the 8th jerry’howell’s  father contacted the police. jerrys father reports him missing and berdella is interviewed by the police in relation to this and  berdella  says “well  i dropped him at 7-eleven” the convenience store

and at this point  in time, why wouldn’t the police believe berdella ,he’s this upstanding figure in the  community,he’s not somebody who would appear to have a reason to lie,so unfortunately this case goes  cold.

Then officers received a tip-off  from one of berdella’s previous borders todd .

one of jerry’s acquaintances ,who  was also known to berdella  actually tipped off the police that thought that berdella may have been involved or at least given  jerry a hot shot injection.

but there was no body . nobody knew where jerry was.Berdella was put under  surveillance but no evidence was ever found.

jerry’s father always thought that  berdella had done something to his kid , he  just couldn’t prove it.and he was  very suspicious of him.jerry ‘s body was never  discovered

Berdella had developed a sick taste  for torture and murder and   after getting away with  his first crime , he began to look for ever increasing horrofic ways to get his  sexual kicks.

nine months after he tortured and murdered his first victim,19 year old jerry howell . robert berdella took his next victim.

April  1oth 20 year old  drug addict robert  sheldon appeared  at berdella’s  door looking for somewhere to stay  after an argument with his girlfriend.

shortly after he set  foot inside berdella put his  sadistic  plan into action.  he keeps him for  four days.automatically you know that this is going to be somebody who’s in distress. 

he starts to escalate his cruelty with this victim ,he injects drain  cleaner  into his eyes .he fills ears with caulking material .

there’s damage to the hands from piano wire

,he´s hitting him with arubber metallet all of this things are acts of cruelty and they would not kill you. it’s subduing the victim

He did some horrendous things  to him,but the thing that really stood out was the  tattoo that he gave this victim on his shoulder

he was almost branding this man saying”you are mine , i own you and  i  possess you “

like he had with his first victim ,berdella documented his methods by writing intricate notes .this time he went one step further and including himself in the photographs with his tormented vitctim.

he wanted an absolute record of  everything he’d done.it was a certain amount of pride, there is no doubt whatever that  was in his mind ,he documented it because he was  proud of it .

On the  14th of april , berdella arrived home to find a workman  he knew on his roofs of his property.conserned that he´d be discovered, he decided to kill robert .He becomes quite  paranoid because he knows this  guy .

so  berdella takes matters into his own hands and he goes and places a plastic bag over  the head of his victim, essentially ending his life.

Berdella began his ritual act of cutting  up his victims body  piece by piece.

dismembering a body is not the easiest thing in the world to do,but if you have some knowledge ,like a surgeon or a chef then you can quite effectively dismember a body  and thats make it easier to disposal

this horrific expertise in chopping up  bodies .later earned berdella the nickname

kansas city butcher in keeping with  his obsession with collecting this time bit  berdella decided he wanted to keep a souvenir of his actions

berdellas  second victim robert, he dismembered the body and cut of the head.but this time he didn’t put it all into black garbage bags and put  it  out for the garbage  truck.

he kept the head first in the freezer in  his house. and he later buried it in the garden where it decomposed as a kind  of throphy of the killing.

and this is really significant because thehead is what gives somebody their identity,it’s what makes them a human . 

by keeping the head ,berdella wants  to be able to say “i’m the  one that has de-personalized this individual ,i’m the one  that’s dehumanized them”

Berdella had now tortured and murdered two people without  being caught .

The following june ,just two months after his  last murder,he struck again.

mark wallace ,a young man  who had helped out around berdella’s house ,he’d moaned the lawn for him a few times and berdella discovered him intoxicated in his  shed one  day.

he invited him into his home and so begins the process of torture as have been the case in with previous victims

20 year old mark wallace was gagged and injected with a cocktail of  drugs to sedate him before  he was  restrained and raped .

marks was berdellas third victim and again , we have with this the escalation and the experimentation, we have  injection of drugs ,he’s used  a rubber mallet agan to strike the victim

but now  he’s applying electric shocks

When berdella returned from work that evening he found mark trying to free himself.berdella sedated  him again before continuing to rape and torture his victim.

it’s almost as if he has a compliant victim and he’s thinking what  will this do?electric shocks are rarely fatal but they can be tremendously painful.

On the 23rd of june 1985 ,he wrote, 7 am no signs of life. mark died  as a result of torture and in previous cases  seen this happen before.

once again berdella lived up to his alter ego of the kansas city butcher.

with three local men now missing ,rumors amongst kansas  city sex workers began to spread.

The male sex workers of kansas city  had  developed qute a wariness of robert berdella . he developed  something of a reputation at this time for being  aggressive with people

for wanting tie them up,wanting to aggressively rape them ,so there was definitely a sense in which this guy was somebody to steer clear of. this guy was potentially dangerous .

Bordella  was well known for haunting what you might  describe as gay bars as a gay community but he was also very well known for wanting to be in complete control.

he did  not have have a good reputation and many of the people that came into contact with him warned each other in in that really quite small community

despite his reputation some still trusted him.

On 26th  september 1985 walter james ferris a married man and a aquaintance of berdella turned up  at his house.once he set foot inside his  fate was  sealed.

walter james ferris  asked berdella wheter he could stay at his house  and in this, berdella sees another  opportunity and so begins a process again of torture and of absolutely hoorendous pain and discomfort.

Berdella found new ways to inflict  more suffering to his victim.with  berdellas fourt’s  victim  we’ve got another development of the behavior , we’ve still got electric shocks that he’d used on his previous victim.

we’ve got  injection of drugs .we ‘ve got  sexaul assault 

and one of the things  he uses with his victim is ketamine, ketamin is a  tranquilizer,it is used therapeutically but  it´s known that it can  cause horrific hallucinations and it has to be used  very carefully in a therapeutic enviroment so potentially we’re  looking at all sorts of  horrible hallucinations, added to the horrible things that are actually happening to  them.

it is a horrific set of circumstances that one cannot even really begin to imagine .

yet again berdella  documented each and every step 

Berdella by now  was escalating his torture.extraordinary things were done to  these poor men and yet againe there was an  exact record of what he could survived.part of reason for that was berdella wanted to see how  much a human body could take.

what it could accept,he wanted to test everything to it’s limits as he wanted to see how far he could take that ,could he take more?in less than 24 hours walter was dead.

walter james ferris died at around midnight, the day after he was captured by robert  berdella. berdella disposed of walter’s body in the usual fashion ,so he dismembered it in his bathtub and he  put the pieces of walter’s body  out with the trash.

days after his  disappearance walter’s wife reported him missing to the police.his wife  and mother suspected  berdella,because the last time walter left the house  he said i’m going over to  berdella’s and  he was never seen again.

for the secon time in approximately 15 months berdella was question and put under surveillance. but investigators  quickly hit a dead end.

the missing person unit did an investigation,they did their best to further the investigation along  but they were just unsuccessful ,there was not  enough evidence  to charge him  ,they went to his house,they tried to buy drugs undercover from him ,there were  various things they did to try to make a case ,they were just not unsucessful.

in just over a year berdella had  detained savagely tortured and killed four men. each murder  he committed inreased in brutality as his dark imagination seemed to knwo no limits.

yet  he continued the pretense of an upstanding if  eccentric member of the local  community and police had no reason to link him with the disappearance of his victims.

the police had no suitable cause to search the house ,so as far theywere concerned berdella was simply helping police with their inquiries,they had no  concrete whatever against berdella at that point.

June the 17th 1986 berdella selected his next  victim in the red light  district of kansas  city .he picked up 23 year old casual sex worker and  drug addict Todd stoops.

berdellas next victim  todd had already had contact wtih him over a number of years, indeed has  suggested to the police that berdella might have been guilty of killling  his first victim with an injection . which was never proven.

berdella was actually attracted to todd and todd  and his wife had  actually spent some time living in robert  bedella’s house  in exchange for sexual favors that todd provided to berdella with his wife’s knowledge

so this couple ,they were very vulnerable and berdella took advantage of that vulnerability.

when todd needs money for drugs berdella  sees another opportunity here.as soon as todd stepped foot inside berdella began his deadly routine.

over a period of two weeks he subjected him to a ferocious series of attacks.

if what happened to walter was horrific ,he manage to outdo himself with todd so we have a nearly fortnight of  captivity with torture,whipping  ,sexual assault again,all sorts of horrific physical acts to degrade  to cause pain, but he also once again organized he’s planning 

He thinks injection drano into the eyes will blind his victim,which it does , makes its more difficult to escape.he injected into  the voice box to stop him screaming

The larynx is also called the voicebox. It is in the neck, above the windpipe (trachea) and in front of the gullet (oesophagus).

These are  not the acts of Madman ,these planned deliberate actions of somebody who knows what he’s doing and why  he’s doing it.

bertella  took  extensive photographs of the torture and the demise of todd. berdella felt that todd was a significant victim for him ,

he felt that attraction to him and it wouldn’t suprise if he’´d be been  at the center of quite a lot of fantasies  he had about having a sex slave.

On july   the 1st 1986 todd died of septic shock from an infection caused by the injuries he had  received .

like his previous victims  berdella dismemered  todd’s body and put his remains to be picked up trash collectors.

On the3rd of june 1987 a little lessa year later  the kansas city butcher saw his next  opportunity

Larry pearson was a  sex worker who needed some bail bond  many , so  robert berdella says to  him ”  i will bail you out  i’ll  give you the money as long you come and stay in ohio for a week with my family .so larry agrees to do this .

when they   arrive back from this vacation berdella takes him catchingonce again we have this   escalation of behavior, it started with cruelty it´s escalating and escalating , now we have a victim  kept for six weeks, tortured  sexually assaulted despite constant torture  larry fought back

larry didn’t know what to do ,he knew he wanted to survive as best he could  until finaly, in what  must have   been utter despair larry bit  bordella’s  penis during oral sex.

the njury to berdellas penis was so  severe he went to hospital.

Berdella calls a taxi and while  he´s waitng for the taxi  he kills  his victim.when his dead  berdella hasthe sense to try and keep the  property cool, to slow down the decomposition to reduce smelss produced,

once again this are all unconscionable acts, but  they are planed.they are deliberately under taken, this is somebody who is in control of what he’s doing.

when  berdella returned from hospital he dismembered larry’s body ,bordella was so angry at the injury that had been casued  to him that he was  determined to take out the maximum  punishment revenge on the man hwo had the temerity to acctually  hurt him.

 it was the first time anyone had tried to hurt him.and yet again he  dismembered the body and  yet again  cut off the head 

only this time he went out  into the garden dug  up roberts head  put larrys in  the same hole and proceeded to bring  robert´s head  into the house clean it up ,take the teeth out put them into  envelopes and put the skull which was all the remained at that point into a closet . in the uptairs in his house.

heads  are very very significant for berdella and the head  of larry is  a very impotant one because this the tuy eho has come closest to berdella’s fantasy having six  slave.

he´s the guy who survived for six weeks ,he survived the longest and i think  he wants commemorate that. But berdella’s  barbarous nature was far  from satisfied.

on marsh the  29 1988 he  picked up 22 year old male prostitute  christopher bryson and took  him back to his  house

Christopher wandering the streets when robert berdella picks him up and he offers  abeer and they drive around in his car  for a while . berdella then says we’ll come back to my house and you can have  a beer there.” so christopher agrees and they go back.

He was  brought  home to provide sexual favors for bordella and was told to  go up upstairs as soon as they got here . as bryson mounted the stairs and started walking up  ,he was struck from behind  and rendered  unconscious .

with his victim sedated and held captive  berdella  began he´s deadly ritaul. once  again he is tortured.he is assaulted,he his given bleach in the eyes but this time it swabbed onto the eyeballs rather than injected in.

that would probably be even more painful, there are many nerves anding on the globe of the eye which react  very badly to the bleach.

Repeatedly electrocuted, raped and injected with a cocktail of  sedatives .

christopher remained a submissive captive  for  four days

but on the morning of april the 2ndapril when berdella  had left  for work christopher had manage to set himself free.

he find some matches and he actually managed to burn trough the ropes berdella had strenged with.and he flees the house  wearing  only a dog collar.

he must have been an extraodinary site , a naked man wearing  a dogcollar. he runs across the street.he meets a meter reader who´s going to a house, they ‘d knocked on the door, the house owenr  is astonisched.0pens the door astonished won’t let  christopher into ther house but does call the police.

Roy orth was a sergent with the kansas  city police departement when they  receive  the call 

” chris had  been severely physically  abused and was asking for help,district officer  got there found this was probably going to be  some kind of an unlawful restraint,abduction situation and called the sex crimes child abuse unite and our detective rewsponded”

– roy orth

 

rick holtsclaw was the assistant prosecutor for the sex crime unite in kansas city.

” roy  orth call me and said we need you and i said  you don’t need me today ,  and he said , no  i’m telling you we need you on this one.

he may  have told me briefly what it was that  we had someone who had escaped  naked with a dog collar,it became evident that they were going to need some assistance

so i went to the home on that saturday afternoon and began the the investigation.getting search warrants that’s how it began.”

-rick holtsclaw

In just over a three-year period berdella had held .brutally raped, tortured and killed six men and got away with it .

Unknown to the  police they were about to uncover the shocking crimes committed by sadistic serial killer, robert berdella.

Troy cole was the lead detective in charge of the case

” i first became aware of him april 2nd 1988,i was working in the homicide unit .it was a saturday, and i was called out  in regards of  a sodomy, a guy alleged that he had been kidnapped and held captive for a number of days, and i was the duty seargent which meant that i handled the homicides ,ther robbery and the sex crimes for that particular day.

christopher managed to escape  and flag down a passerby,that’s what brought us to the residence.

-troy cole

The traumtized victim recounted his ordeal and gave the police  the name and adress of his captor.

when berdella arrived home that evening the police were waiting for him .

when berdella drove uo to the house ,investigators asked him for identification and he produced it,he said ” i live here and ” and at thet point he was immediately arrested for  investigation of sodomy.

beretta was brought  downtown  and  asked to  sign a  consent to search the resident so the police could futher the investigation .

he refused ,he said  that  he rather talk to his attorney.so at that point  he was booked into the city jail and investigators  prepared to get a search warrant.

 with christopher’s testimony police were  able to pbtaine a warrant to search for berdellas property the same day.when  they firte went up to  kick the door they could hear large dogs in the background so they called animal control out .

Immiedate reaction was the house was filthy  ,had a stench ,the  odor was horrible, clutter and dog feces everywhere on of the worst house troy cole had walked into .using the information that christopher had given them ,officers  search berdellas property for  the room he held his victim captive.

they  initial thougth was to tryto find the room to  verify  christopher’s story.so they go upstairs and after a brief  period of time they found the room christopher had described.they found the bed that he had described and it had  restraints tied to the bedpost.so the police  were pretty sure at this point christopher’s stoy maybe had some legitimacy.

There was a device underneath the bed  ,plugged into the wall , it appeared  to be an electic train transformer

and there were jumber calbe clips on the ends of it so  berdella could attach them to different parts  of somebod’s  body and then increase the electrocution level by turning the transformer selector.

In searching of the rest of the house officers discovered berdellas most prized collection. they  discovered several hundred , probably two to thre hundred polaroid photographs that he had  taken, some of the people  in the photographs were  in obvious signs of being tortured

eventually police were able to find detailed torture notes that berdella  had kept on several people .six in fact and  reviewing those pictures probably the most telling was one of the young men that was hanging  suspended upside down from a steel I- beam and police later learned it was the basement of berdellas home .and this person appeared to be deceased.

as  the police combed the property they  discovered more and more evidence of berdella’s horrific crimes.

a short time later  police found a skull in  a closet which appears to have been probably fairly recent. the  officers gather the evidence,the following day  ,a pathologist was called in.

they had called in a doctor to examin the skull that was in the closet and he said that in his opinion that skull probably was less than two years  old,but it would obviously require further examination.

so at that point  investigators  sort of cataloged what we could find in the house,it looke like it might have some evidentiary value to it.

Position of the thoracic vertebrae (shown in red).

on was a bag of what appeared to be human vertebrea that it were wery clean,obviously theýd been boiled out  ,bleashed, almost looked like plasticpolice also  found the skull that  was obviously human and hadn’t been bleached out yet.

the  police returned to  berdellas home the next morning.and they left no stone  unturned.berdella keps dogs in the backyard in an enclosure and looking at the backyard the grass was  noticeably greener , in couple  of areas which caused policee to think that possibly tthere were something else in there.

at that point police decided to bring in a backhoe to dig up that one particular spot where it looked like it might have a had a grave marker to it.

On the second dig there was a sucking sound , as it dug in and lifted out  ,the investigators stopped the man immediately and looked,there was a human jaw that had been pulled up

and they stopped and eventually they found the full human skull, what it appeared that  berdella  was doing was once he dismember his victims he collected the skulls and would clean by buyring  them in the backyard

and after the’d been out there for whatever time he felt necessary,digging  back up and then  clean them up and boil and bleach them

When police extended  their search to  berdella’s shop in the bazarr , they found a macabre window display.there was  a display of human skulls.

“i think there were two , i cant’ remember now”

-roy orth

 

and initially these were so clean that they apparead to be plastic but it was later determined that they were also berdella’s victims

Berdella’s obsession with  his crimes and  brazen behavior where his undoing.

but the police still had a mammoth task to overcome.the biggest challenges early on were identifying all these people that were in the polaroid photographs. police had no idea  when they started the investigation who any of them were.

of the 200  they were not  all  facial shots , there some body parts and people invarious  stages but we needed to identify the skull that was found in the closet.and they needed to  identified the human head that we dug up in the backyard.  so those were  police biggest challenges

by may 1988,using  berdella’s photos detailed notes and  dental records the police identified two skulls  as belonging to …….

 his  second victim robert

On august the 3rd  1988 at jackson county  circuite court  berdella stood before the circuit court  judge alvin randall . charged with the first degree murder of larry Pearson.

The state decide that they’re going to pursue a prosecution for the murder of larry first . but before they get very far, Berdella actually confesses, he pleads guilty.

everyone was stunned. strategically it was a great move on the defense,because at that time kept the state from filing a death penalty charge against him.everyone was suprised.

he pled guilty because he was scared of the death penalty and felt like they were  going for the  death penalty and  at that point  he started working out  a deal with his attorney to let´s try to cut a deal to save my life.

as the  prosecution prepared to take berdella to trial for the murder of his second victim robert sheldon , he made a plea bargain.

part of  the guilty plea was that berdella sat  down with his to defense lawyers and also with mr hall and mr reader the prosecutor and the assistant prosecutor from the murder division.

and they spent two days under oath on record and he would lay out what he did to these victims.from the 13th to the 15th of december

berdella fully confessed to all six murders.they spent three days with berdella over in the jackson county jail

and he was very matter- off-fact in describing all the murders basically he didn’t show any remorse, he enjoyed reliving and decribing what he had done to the victims.he got a charge out of it and  detectives  said  it was  a pretty compelling three days.

Berdella is incredibly proud of these murders of this project of this extended experiment that he’s been conducting and he really  does enjoy reliving this  and telling people to appear to want hear about it.

by revealing the  true horror of his crimes to the authorities he avoided the death penalty

On the december  the 19th 1988 at jackson  county circuit berdella was sentenced.

berdella receives two life stentences for first -degree murder and four  conditional life sentences for  second degree  murder.

but less  then four years later on october the 8th 1992 berdella died in missouri state penitentiary from a heart attack. he was 43

More details

An exterior shot of Berdella’s home.
Local millionaire Del Dunmire bought the place and had it torn down in 1993

Police excavate the yard of a man who was charged with sodomizing a hitch-hiker
he allegedly held captive for five days. On Sunday, police found what appeared
to be a human skull in the yard.

A Kansas City police officer throws a shovel-full of dirt while digging beneath the porch
of a house in midtown Kansas City owned by Robert Berdella. Authorities have already
found human bones and a skull buried on the property, along with photos in the house
showing young men being tortured.

Yearbook photo of Jerry Howell and a photo taken by Robert Berdella while Howell was in his captivity.Kansas City Police Department