FBI Studies Long-Haul Truckers: Ideal Job for Serial Killers

Bill Mattocks

Bill Mattocks

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-serialkillers5-2009apr05,0,2434292.story

The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the last three decades.

Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago while helping police link a trucker to a string of unsolved killings along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma and several other states. After that, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative to track suspicious slayings and suspect truckers.
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Wow, never really that about that. Makes sense though.
 
I'd expect that a job that puts a killer in numerous places where he's not known, and gets him out of town right after, would give some advantages. If memory serves me, authorities believed a trucker was behind quite a string of killings across the South over a number of years.... don't recall seeing an arrest.

But I think the only reason the FBI is letting on about this publicly is to hope some current killers get worried, make some mistakes or stop killing. With the advent of surveillance cameras all over, GPS systems built in and computerized record keeping..... serial killers will need to visit some job fairs to find employment more suited to their true vocation.
 
And let the fear-mongering begin.

So, when are law enforcement agencies gonna put their beady eyes on members of travelling circuses.

You just know you can never trust a clown.
 
Scott T said:
And let the fear-mongering begin.

So, when are law enforcement agencies gonna put their beady eyes on members of travelling circuses.

You just know you can never trust a clown.
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Ya know, LE is in the "damned if you do damned if you dont situation" of either researching and investigating stuff like this and then being accused of "fear mongering" or NOT doing it an then being asked why they are "not doing their jobs".

If it was discovered that the FBI knew that LH Truckers were responsible for a disproportionate number of murders but failed to "warn the public" then I can just imagine the press...
 
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Its a shame that fear-mongering had to be brought up, because the article is not a puff piece full of histrionics. Its a detailed look at the crimes the FBI has been able to solve.

Plus there's a cool snippit about someone putting a BG in a choke... ;)
 
Archangel M said:
Ya know, LE is in the "damned if you do damned if you dont situation" of either researching and investigating stuff like this and then being accused of "fear mongering" or NOT doing it an then being asked why they are "not doing their jobs".

If it was discovered that the FBI knew that LH Truckers were responsible for a disproportionate number of murders but failed to "warn the public" then I can just imagine the press...
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My experience is from having worked in this particular industry throughout my 20's. Like the screaming tirades about how 'All tractor-trailer rigs are death-traps' were all the rage of the 90's, which has been proven (I'll have to make an effort to track down the studies sometime as I read them in books) to be a load of bull. Now some idiot wants to look at LH truck drivers specifically because they are deemed transients to the public at large. Also bull.

Under that criteria let's also look at the aforementioned circus clowns and other carnies, stumping politicians and their aides, military personnel who travel extensively, travelling televangelists and their entourages, etc.

Do that, and I'll be all for it.

It's not the LE agencies that I'm accusing of fearmongering. It's those with the IQ of rabid weasels, including those in the media, who'll latch on to this as some kind of cause celebrè, just like they did with their safety 'issues'.
 
Except in this case LHTruckers ARE being arrested in serial crimes and bodies ARE being found in locations that point to truckers as possible suspects. Dont let you prior occupation cloud your thinking.

Try reading the article with your "beady little eyes" .
 
Not to mention all the drug and human trafficking associated with tractor trailers as well....:cool:

Since the program began, more than two dozen killings have been solved, authorities said.
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The bottom line on this task force is not that ALL truckers could be serial killers, but rather that the FBI had discovered that serial killing truck drivers could be responsible for a significant fraction of unsolved killings and were worth creating a task force. And a quick browse of the net already shows a bunch of people mocking the FBI for how long it took them to make the connection...

Just cant win...
 
No matter what field you look at, you're going to find rapists and murderers. I just read that a former US serviceman is facing the death penalty for the rape of an Iraqi teen and then murdering her and her family.

Are you going to support a blanket warning concerning military personnel too?
 
Archangel M said:
Not to mention all the drug and human trafficking associated with tractor trailers as well....:cool:



The bottom line on this task force is not that ALL truckers could be serial killers, but rather that the FBI had discovered that serial killing truck drivers could be responsible for a significant fraction of unsolved killings and were worth creating a task force. And a quick browse of the net already shows a bunch of people mocking the FBI for how long it took them to make the connection...

Just cant win...
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Well not all serial killers could be truckers either... a serial killer could just as easily cruise the freeways/highways of this country in their car/van/suv and pick up people and disposing of them when they're through. When I hitchhiked cross country from Dallas to Utah I was picked up by both cars and semi's ... I had the good fortune of not running into druggies or psychos... but I was lucky that time. Am not sure if I'd try it again.

But the idea has merit and yes, why didn't anyone think of it way way before now is a good question. It's pretty logical. CSI-Vegas did an episode of a husband/wife team kidnapping and killing women in their tractor-trailer.
So someone in Hollywood thought of the idea. Maybe an profiler agent caught that episode and went *ding!*
 
Any rational investigators had better consider transients if a local suspect doesn't become a firm reality pdq. Of course, it is not only truckers. I encountered a serial killer in the military who had a very specific way of killing women (you will forgive my not detailing this here)..... when caught it was determined that there were unsolved murders of that MO in localities where he had previously been posted.

Looking hard at transient suspects applies not only to murderers, either. There was a particularly evil child molester who'd been suspected but never charged at a prior post. He did it again where I was, and better be sure I nailed him at a General Court Martial.
 
Did you guys know studies show the ideal job for a hacker is a computer programmer? Spooky, isn't it considering what I do for a living.

Deaf
 
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