Further Reading for The Highway Killer/ The Pillow Pyro

Freed to Kill: The True Story of Serial Murderer Larry Eyler

Fire Lover: A True Story by Joseph Wambaugh

Info:

1980s Midwest America, a killer was prowling he highways targeting hitchhikers and male sex workers. Bodies were found mutilated and hacked to pieces discarded in rural locations, sometimes buried with strange ritual trappings. It was a while before police could put together the pieces that they were dealing with a singular killer, and given that it was the 80s members of the gay community were too traumatized by years of harassment from the police to come forward with any information.

The highway murders took place across 4 states and 14 counties from Wisconsin to Kentucky, this expanse is what held up the search for the killer as communication between the states was slow. Between 1982 and 1984, twenty-one murders were found to have been committed by one man, Larry Eyler.

Eyler, born in 1952 in Indiana, was the youngest of four children, born to an alcoholic father known to emotionally and physically abuse his wife and children. When Larry was 2, his parents separated and with lack of money his mother was forced to put her children in foster care. She then rolled through 3 more marriages, her children were back with her but again her husband was an unruly alcoholic who both physically and emotionally abused the family.

When he reached puberty it was known to Eyler that he was gay, he soon became known in the gay community as socially awkward and unattractive, however those who engaged in sexual encounters with him said that Eyler had a sadistic sexual streak.

Eyler is one of those crazy stories where he was arrested and let go, arrested again, and then finally confessed to the murders…

The Pillow Pyro.

John Leonard Orr wanted to be a police officer but failed the entrance exam, from there he became a career fireman. Los Angeles in the 1980-1990s was plagued with fires, causing millions of dollars in damages and taking four lives. Orr was investigated for the arsons for months, he even found a tracking device that the police had placed in his vehicle. After Orr was found to be present at a suspicious fire in Dec 1991, he was arrested.

Orr has been described as the worst American serial arsonist of the 20th century. His daughter went on to testify for the defense keeping her father from the death penalty, years later however she came to believe he was guilty of the crimes and cut off all contact with him. Her story was chronicled in the book linked above.

Episode 72

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