The Stakeout | 3

Summary

Felonious Florida: The Stakeout | Episode 3 Summary

Release Date: June 21, 2024

Introduction

In Episode 3 of Season 5 titled "The Stakeout," host David Schutz delves deeper into the chilling investigation of the notorious Pillowcase Rapist, one of Florida's most elusive serial criminals. This episode meticulously unpacks the relentless efforts of Detective Dave Simmons and his team as they navigate the complexities of a case that has spanned nearly three decades.

Case Background

The story begins in the aftermath of New Year's 1984, detailing the harrowing experiences of Eileen Lear, a victim who faced repeated assaults by the Pillowcase Rapist. On December 28, 1983, the rapist broke into Eileen's locked apartment, leaving behind a menacing message: "You fuck good." (01:03). This marked an escalation in his pattern of targeting specific victims with calculated precision.

The Stakeout Operation

Detective Dave Simmons (04:33) spearheaded an innovative decoy operation aimed at trapping the rapist. By placing undercover officers resembling previous victims inside their apartments, Simmons hoped to lure the assailant into a controlled environment. Despite the meticulous setup involving over three dozen officers, the pillowcase rapist remained undeterred, continuing his spree in new locations across a 500-square-mile area of South Florida.

Victim Profiles and Experiences

1. Eileen Lear
   Eileen demonstrated remarkable resilience. When confronted with the possibility of relocating for the stakeout, she insisted on staying in her apartment, believing her presence was crucial to the operation's success. "I wasn't scared because I knew the cops were right here in the apartment," Eileen stated at [09:56].

2. Catherine's Tragedy
   Catherine's assault on August 16, 1984, stands out due to its severe brutality. Unlike previous victims, she lived with her husband, who was away on a night shift. On that fateful night, Catherine was attacked while alone, leading to a traumatic ordeal that left lasting scars. "He tied my wrists to the legs of the bed and then he had this pillow over my face," Catherine recounted poignantly at [26:20].

Investigation Insights and Progress

Detective Simmons and his team built a comprehensive profile of the rapist despite the absence of direct evidence like fingerprints or clear eyewitness accounts. They identified key characteristics:

• Physical Description: Mid-20s, approximately 5'9" tall, athletic build, fair yet suntanned complexion, light brown or dirty blonde hair, and shoe size 10 to 10.5 (16:06).
• Behavioral Patterns: The rapist meticulously surveiled his victims, targeting specific apartments and showing a propensity for returning to the same locations.
• Forensic Clues: Blood typing revealed the assailant had a rare subtype of type O blood, narrowing down potential suspects significantly (17:22).

Psychological and Emotional Impact

Dr. Lenore Walker, a criminal psychologist, emphasized the profound and enduring trauma experienced by the victims. "The impact on a rape victim is profound," she noted at [29:17]. Catherine's journey of recovery underscores the long-term psychological effects, as she shared, "I spent my whole life trying to heal from what happened to me," at [30:34].

Key Clues and Breakthroughs

One of the most significant breakthroughs came from forensic advancements in blood typing. Although DNA testing was not available, the identification of a rare blood subtype provided a critical lead in narrowing down the suspect pool (17:49). Additionally, shoe print analysis offered further insights, although it did not directly lead to the perpetrator.

Expanding the Investigation

The investigation took a broader scope as similar assaults emerged in Broward County. Detective Simmons collaborated with northern detectives to link these cases, confirming the same rare blood subtype in additional victims (32:52). This expansion highlighted the rapist's mobility and adaptability, complicating the hunt.

Climactic Developments

As 1985 approached, the rapist's actions grew increasingly violent. On May 30, Detective Simmons received distressing news of a victim found decapitated, marking a potential escalation from sexual assault to murder. "She had been decapitated, her head placed back on her body," Simmons described at [34:13], signaling a dire turn in the case that would be explored in the subsequent episode.

Conclusion and Ongoing Efforts

Despite the failure of the decoy operations, the relentless pursuit by Detective Simmons and his team exemplifies the dedication required to tackle such a formidable adversary. The episode concludes on a suspenseful note, setting the stage for the next installment where the gravity of the situation intensifies with the possibility of the rapist evolving into a murderer.

Notable Quotes

• "I wasn't scared because I knew the cops were right here in the apartment." — Eileen Lear [09:56]
• "He tied my wrists to the legs of the bed and then he had this pillow over my face." — Catherine [26:20]
• "The impact on a rape victim is profound." — Dr. Lenore Walker [29:17]
• "She had been decapitated, her head placed back on her body." — Detective Dave Simmons [34:13]

Final Thoughts

"The Stakeout | 3" masterfully captures the intensity and complexity of the investigation into the Pillowcase Rapist. Through detailed narratives and expert insights, David Schutz presents a compelling account of a case that has left an indelible mark on Florida's criminal history. As the season progresses, listeners are left eagerly anticipating the next developments in this gripping true crime saga.

Transcript

[David Schutz]

Wondery subscribers can binge all episodes of Felonious Florida Season four early and ad free right now. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. This episode contains graphic language and descriptions of sexual violence that some listeners may find disturbance. It's just after New Year's 1984. Inside Eileen Lear's darkened apartment, the woman waits. It was here just over a month ago that Eileen was attacked and raped by Miami's elusive pillowcase rapist. And it was here just a few days ago that he returned broke in. While Aileen was away, he had rummaged through her apartment, taken a shower, and scrawled a vulgar, terrifying message on her fogged up bathroom mirror.

[Eileen Lear]

When I get out of the shower and I look at my mirror, I could see that he had written a message that said, you fuck good on my mirror. So then I'm standing there in the bathroom thinking, oh my God, he's here now. He's here again.

[David Schutz]

He seemed fixated on Eileen. She was the only one of his 15 victims so far that he had come back for, and he seemed to know how to get into her apartment, even though all her doors and windows were locked tight. He'd been stalking her.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

He knew what her schedule was and she'd be away from the apartment at that time.

[David Schutz]

So the woman sits in the apartment south of Miami, listening and watching. She looks just like Eileen. Same hair color, same height, close in age, but she's actually a decoy, an undercover police officer. On the streets around Eileen's apartment building, a half dozen other officers watch from the shadows, whispering over their radios and hoping that the pillowcase rapist will come for Eileen a third time and fall into their trap.

[Cassie Depechel]

Hey, I'm Cassie Depechel, the host of Wondery's podcast, Against the Odds. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who live to tell the tale. This month we're bringing back a fan favorite season. In 1914, former President Teddy Roosevelt mounts a dangerous expedition to map an unexplored river in the Amazon known as the river of Doubt. He, his son Kermit, and the rest of their team face dangerous rapids, hunger, and even murder from within their ranks. They have no idea how long it will take to reach the end of the river. And as each day passes, the perils of the jungle bring them closer to death. Follow against the odds on Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge the entire season ad free right now only on Wondery Plus. Start Your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify Today.

[David Schutz]

From the South Florida Sun Sentinel, this is Felonious Florida, the podcast that leads you into the dark side of the sunshine. I'm David Schutz, and for the past year I've been investigating the attacks of the so called Pillowcase Rapist, one of Florida's most notorious serial criminals. This is episode three of our six part series, the Stakeout. The holiday season of 1983 was one of anxiety and pressure for Detective Dave Simmons. The Pillowcase Rapist had become more active than ever, striking at least once a week between Thanksgiving and the end of the year. And Simmons was the investigator leading the frantic effort to find and stop him. The suspect was targeting a concentrated part of the county south of Miami and even specific buildings. Simmons knew that the rapist was watching his potential victims and waiting for the right time to strike.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

He was obviously spending a lot of hours surveilling victims before he would go in and actually rape them. He would, for example, harass one woman who was the person that visited you five days ago in a brown Pontiac. So he had been watching this victim for several days.

[David Schutz]

The rapist returned to Eileen's apartment on December 28 was a frightening escalation that put Detective Simmons and his team on edge. But this case was relentless. And before the day was over, the Pillowcase Rapist would strike yet again. It was a little more than eight miles from Eileen's apartment in a neighborhood called Fontainebleau. It's just southwest of Miami International Airport. A 25 year old woman had just come home from her job as an airline ticketing agent. At her request. I'm not using her name or voice. Unlike the previous victims, she wasn't single. She lived in her small first floor apartment for a year with her new husband. He worked a night shift, so he wasn't home. On the night of the 28th. It was about 8:30pm the woman started boiling eggs in the kitchen. Then she crossed the hallway to her bedroom, took off her uniform and went into the bathroom. As she showered, she heard a noise. She describes it as two bumps. And she thought she noticed the bathroom lights flicker. She thought maybe it was a neighbor or maybe a door slamming somewhere else in the building. In any case, she didn't think much of it at the time and she was rushing to catch the start of her 9 o' clock TV shows. She dried off, then walked out of the bathroom and turned into the dark hallway. That's when somebody grabbed her from behind. The intruder pushed the woman down onto the hallway floor and jabbed something sharp into her stomach. She screamed, and he covered her mouth with his hand, threatening to kill her if she didn't keep quiet. He forced her at knifepoint into her bedroom. He pushed her face down on the bed and covered her head with a blanket. He asked if she had any money or jewelry as he rummaged through her dresser. And he asked when her husband was coming home. It's an unsettling question. If he knew she was married, it meant he'd been stalking her. She told him her husband would be home any minute now, and he carries a gun. It was a lie that she was desperate to frighten off her attacker. He returned to the bed, turned her over, and covered her face with a pillow. He held her down as he raped.

[Catherine]

Her.

[David Schutz]

And when he was done, he warned her again to keep quiet, then jumped over her bed and disappeared out the window. The Dec. 28 attack in 1983 followed the same serial pattern as most of the others, and once again, the victim never had a chance to see her attacker's face. But this is an important case to remember as you listen through the rest of the show because the attacker left behind new clues, and one was particularly important. It wasn't much help at the time, but four decades later, it would make this the single most significant attack in the entire investigation. The newest case, so close on the heels of the others, hammered home the urgency of the hunt for the pillowcase rapist. And so, in the days that followed, Detective Simmons and his team scrambled to put together the risky decoy operation.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

We thought it might be wise to put female detectives inside the apartments of some of our prior rape victims and ask them if they would vacate their place for a week or two and let us surveil their apartment with our decoy detective inside and our detectives outside to try to catch him in the event he might come back a second time. Of course, we had to get permission from our supervisors because it was going to require a lot of personnel to be detached from other units to come in and do the surveillance for us.

[David Schutz]

Simmons selected five of the most recent attacks.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

We first get permission from the previous victim to do the operation. Whether she'd be willing to vacate her apartment for a week or two, whether she had a place to go where she could stay in the meantime and bring her clothes with her so she could continue her life.

[David Schutz]

The first and most obvious place to lay a trap was at Eileen Lear's apartment. Detectives asked her to hand over the keys, but Eileen Is resilient and determined. So she wasn't easy to convince. Not because she didn't want to leave her apartment. In fact, in spite of the terror she was forced to endure, she wanted to stay.

[Eileen Lear]

I wanted desperately to be here Because I knew if there was any. I knew it was a long shot, first of all, to pick a night or two out of the blue and expect that the guy's gonna be here. I never felt he was sitting outside my apartment every night, you know, so I. I knew it was a long shot, But I also knew if I wasn't here, I just had the sense he wasn't an unintelligent person and he would know if it was another woman here, as opposed to me. So I do remember asking them to, please. I was even willing to sign a waiver, Let me be here. And I wasn't scared because I knew the cops were right here in the apartment. You know, if they were down the block, I wouldn't have offered, but knowing they would have been in the apartment, yeah, to me, it made me perfect sense.

[David Schutz]

But detective simmons and his team didn't agree and insisted that she would be safer away from the operation.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

Then we took pictures of the victim physically, what she looked like, how tall she was, to try to match her as best as close as we could with a detective who looked like her. And then we matched her with a detective either in our office or from other districts who volunteered to assist us in the effort.

[David Schutz]

Five or six additional detectives were chosen for each of the stakeouts.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

The other detectives were assigned to the outside in cars and bushes and just to maintain very quiet radio communication with one another in the event that anybody came close to her apartment, Either a door or window. After that, we allowed the victim to vacate. She gave us the keys to the place.

[David Schutz]

The decoy operation was on. In Eileen's apartment and four others nearby, Officers watched from inside and outside. The minutes and hours ticked by. They repeated the operations again the next night, then the next, For a week. The traps were set. But the pillowcase rapist didn't surface. With more than three dozen police officers assigned to the decoy operation, it became impossible to sustain indefinitely, and the plan had to be abandoned.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

We just thought to do with. We had given it our best effort, and looks like our suspicions didn't come true. And he may not do it again for a while.

[David Schutz]

And he didn't. As far as investigators know, the pillowcase rapist never returned to any of his victims apartments again. But he did keep attacking at new apartments. And that was allowing detectives to learn more and more about him, including one microscopic detail that would become the biggest clue yet in the case.

[Anna Richardson]

The town of AGDA in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex. But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn. The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption. His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant. Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

I am the Archangel Michael.

[Anna Richardson]

The whole town has been thrown into.

[David Schutz]

Chaos as the mayor is unable to carry out his duties. I would like to address you all. Legal proceedings have been initiated.

[Anna Richardson]

Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Chic for the mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption and magic. Binge all episodes of the mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad free right now on Wonder. Start your free trial in Apple podcasts, Spotify or the Wondery App.

[David Schutz]

We acting bad, bad, bad, bad. We ain't trying to hurt nobody.

[Jesse Weber]

For decades, he was untouchable.

[David Schutz]

I've gone from Harlem to Hollywood.

[Jesse Weber]

But now it's all coming undone.

[Catherine]

Sean Combs, the mogul as we know it is over.

[David Schutz]

He will never be that person again.

[Catherine]

Even if he's found not guilty of these charges.

[Jesse Weber]

I'm Jesse Weber, host of Law and Crimes. The rise and Fall of Diddy. The federal trial, a front row seat to the biggest trial in entertainment history. Sex trafficking, racketeering, prostitution, allegations by federal prosecutors that span decades, and witnesses who are finally speaking out. The spotlight is harsher, the stakes are higher, and for Diddy, there may be no second chances. You can listen to the rise and fall of the federal trial exclusively with Wondery. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Spotify or Apple podcasts right now.

[David Schutz]

Although the decoys failed to catch the Pillowcase Rapist, Detective Dave Simmons and his investigators were beginning to build a profile of the suspect. None of the victims had ever seen his face and he never left any fingerprints, but witnesses were able to provide bits and pieces.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

We knew through putting together all of our cases in a composite way, approximately how tall he was. We knew his race, of course. We knew his speech patterns. We knew he didn't speak with an accent. He spoke with grammatical error in his speech. We knew he wore a plastic digital watch sometimes because we saw that on a couple of cases.

[David Schutz]

They knew he was athletic and had a fair but suntanned complexion, indicating he may be an outdoor worker. He had light brown or dirty blonde hair, medium in length, and they knew his approximate shoe size, because in the dirt outside the bedroom window of the Dec. 28 victim, investigators found a sneaker print.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

We knew his type of sneaker that he wore. We went shopping at shopping centers to match tread designs.

[David Schutz]

The specific sneaker type didn't lead to any breaks, but it did tell investigators he wore a 10 to 10.5 shoe. That, combined with the other clues, could be helpful in narrowing down potential suspects. And then came the crucial clue. In 1984, DNA testing was years away and DNA databases still a decade off, but advances were being made in blood typing, and the timing couldn't have been better for the pillowcase rapes investigation. In most, though not all, of the attacks, the rapist had left behind semen, Giving forensic investigators something to test.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

Well, we had a system abo blood system, and then they would break it down even further if they could, which we were able to do in this case.

[David Schutz]

The tests easily determined that the rapist had type o blood. Unfortunately, so does 40% of the population. But innovative new testing found that he had a rare blood subtype Found in just a small fraction of people.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

They were able to determine that the assailant in all of our cases that we had sufficient specimens Was such that less than 1% of the population had it. It was type o. But then there's pgm subgrouping characteristics, and he had a very unusual blood type, which was helpful to us in terms of counting in or counting out cases.

[David Schutz]

The rare blood type of the suspected pillowcase rapist Would become one of the most important tools in the early years of the investigation.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

It's not nearly as detailed as DNA, but it was quite helpful at the time, Especially when we had developed suspects. We were able to quickly eliminate them if we could talk them in to give them a blood sample.

[David Schutz]

The details they compiled on a suspect Were enough to bring to the media and ask for the public's help to identify him. Striking while some of his victims slept, the rapist would be masked, or, in at least two cases, would cover his victim's face with an event. Because of this, police can only say they believe the man to be in his mid-20s, about 5ft 9 inches tall and athletic. Simmons himself took to the airways to warn about the danger to the public.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

He's threatened to kill most all of his victims, at least recently, and shown the apparent ability to carry out those threats by producing sharp instruments.

[David Schutz]

The goal, of course, was to shake out tips that might generate new leads in the investigation. But publicity in an ongoing serial case is a gamble. Too much heat and the suspect could move to a new hunting ground, one where investigators aren't so hot on his trail. And in the summer of 1984, that's exactly what happened. It's August 16, 1984.

[Catherine]

I'd had a really great, happy day that day.

[David Schutz]

That's Catherine. She asked me not to use her last name.

[Catherine]

I met with my ex sister in law and resolved some issues I had with my brother. And it was a gorgeous day. We had a nice lunch.

[David Schutz]

Katherine is somebody who's familiar to many longtime journalists in South Florida. She worked at one of the newspapers there as a librarian, doing research and scouring through news clippings, basically doing many of the things that computers and the Internet do for reporters today. That day was a scorcher in South Florida. But Catherine took a break from work to have lunch at a waterfront restaurant.

[Catherine]

And I didn't go to lunch very often, you know, either. I didn't have enough money to go to lunch very often, but so going to lunch was a special thing.

[David Schutz]

Catherine was 30 years old. She'd just landed a new job and she was still settling into a new apartment. It was so new that she didn't even have a phone yet. So she made her calls from the office.

[Catherine]

And before I left work, I called this new guy that I was going out with and we talked and I was pretty happy about that.

[David Schutz]

It was a Thursday, and Catherine was looking forward to traveling north to Orlando to spend the weekend with a group of close friends.

[Catherine]

It was one of the happiest days I ever had in my life.

[David Schutz]

Katherine's childhood was a rocky one, and she'd struggled to get over years of physical and emotional abuse. But lately, things were going really well. After work, she stopped to get some cash for the weekend and picked up sodas from a convenience store. She arrived home at about 9pm and.

[Catherine]

When I opened the door, I noticed that my cats, my kittens, had broken a vase. It was a vase that a friend of mine who was a potter gave me. Yeah, I really loved it.

[David Schutz]

And Catherine loved her cats too. Misha and Macavity. But she was pretty angry about the vase and let them know it and.

[Catherine]

Was yelling at my cats. And I keep thinking maybe I left because I was yelling at my cats. Maybe I left the. Left the door unlocked.

[David Schutz]

As she scurried around her apartment to clean up the mess. Catherine didn't know that an intruder had already slipped inside, lurking in the dark and listening to her talk to the cats. She put away the cans of soda she'd bought at the store and turned on the tv.

[Catherine]

I was mad at myself that it wasn't off, because if I'd. If it had been off, I could have seen his reflection in my tv. But since the TV was on, Judge Wapner was on and I couldn't see.

[David Schutz]

She said, judge Wapner, for those who were around for 80s TV, you know, she meant the People's Court.

[Catherine]

And I wish I hadn't had the TV on. But that's another thing you kick yourself about. I gone into the bathroom and changed into a kind of cherry cloth one piece thing and was brushing my teeth and talking to my cats about the great phone call I had with my new boyfriend. You know, blah, blah, blah, that I was going to be going out of town. You know, I was just talking to my cats and they were sitting in the bathroom with me and I was brushing my teeth.

[David Schutz]

She left the bathroom and turned into.

[Catherine]

The hallway and I think I must have been going back toward the kitchen because that's when I felt a knife at my throat. And this guy goes, you're crazy. I'm crazy because I've been talking to my cats.

[David Schutz]

I guess he had Catherine from behind and pushed her into the bedroom. She could see his tanned forearm, but nothing else.

[Catherine]

For a second, I thought somebody was playing a joke on me. When I realized it wasn't a joke, my heart started pounding so, so strongly. I had a hard time hearing him. I've never, ever felt my heart pound like that.

[Dr. Lenore Walker]

Think about the most shocking true crime stories you've ever heard. Now imagine discovering that behind them lies a medical mystery so disturbing the government tried to keep it hidden for decades. On Medical Mysteries, we dive deep into unexplained medical cases that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about the human body. And in our episode called A Medical Mystery, we teamed up with Declassified Mysteries to expose how one patient's symptoms led to the discovery of dangerous government experiments and suspicious deaths. From hospital rooms to classified files, this story reveals dark secrets that powerful institutions naturally never wanted you to find. The episode is available now on both Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries and Redacted Podcast feeds. Listen to A Redacted Medical Mystery on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget, you can listen to this episode and more of your favorite Wondery podcasts ad free by joining Wondery.

[Cassie Depechel]

It'S all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast Morbid.

[Eileen Lear]

We're your hosts.

[Cassie Depechel]

I'm Alina Urquhart.

[David Schutz]

And I'm Ash Kelly.

[Cassie Depechel]

And our show is part true crime partners spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group with a touch of humor. Shout out to her Shout out to all my therapists. Throughout the years there's been like eight of them.

[Eileen Lear]

A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing.

[Cassie Depechel]

That mother is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us.

[Eileen Lear]

And love to cozy up to a.

[Cassie Depechel]

Creepy table, detail the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Way Back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondery plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[David Schutz]

Catherine was terrified as the intruder shoved her to the bedroom floor. She had no idea what his intentions were other than mocking her for talking to the cats. He'd barely said a word. He tied her wrists to the legs.

[Catherine]

Of the bed and then he had this pillow over my face and first of all I couldn't breathe. And then he said something to me and I got angry and I said, I can't hear you. I was terrified that if I didn't hear him and I didn't do what he did, said that he would kill me. So I yelled, I can't hear you. And then I thought, oh great, he's going to kill me because I yelled at him.

[David Schutz]

He kept the pillow over Catherine's face as he yanked off her nightgown and raped her on the floor. After she listened as he walked toward the kitchen and the next thing Katherine heard was a popping sound.

[Catherine]

I thought that he had a kit and he was going to take a knife out of it and kill me and my cats. When I heard that pop.

[David Schutz]

It wasn't anything like that, but it was a chilling demonstration of callousness.

[Catherine]

And you know, I was tied up. I was. I'd been raped. I was still lying on the floor and he just took a soda pop from my refrigerator and drank it and looked at me while I was lying there tied up and raped.

[David Schutz]

The rapist went through Catherine's wallet and he taunted her by jangling her car keys. Then he vanished. Catherine isn't sure how he got in or out. After a few moments, she was able to free her hands but she didn't have a phone and didn't know any of her neighbors. So she was forced to make a risky decision.

[Catherine]

I had to go out of my apartment and knock on a total stranger's door to ask them if I could use the phone to call the police. And I'm thinking, this could be the guy that killed just sent this to me. But I had no choice. I mean, the other thing would be go downstairs and go to a payphone. That would have been worse.

[David Schutz]

Her neighbor was stunned at the sight of Catherine at his door. He let her in to use the phone, and the police arrived within minutes. They took her to a hospital where a rape kit was done and samples were taken, and the long road to recovery began for Catherine.

[Catherine]

Since then, all I've done for many, many years is piece myself together, and then, you know, and stress. I have very low tolerance for stress. If things get too stressful, I fall apart. And I just worked. But anytime anybody came up behind me, I would jump.

[Detective Simmons]

The impact on a rape victim is profound.

[David Schutz]

Dr. Lenore Walker is a pioneering women's advocate, criminal psychologist, and professor emeritus at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida.

[Detective Simmons]

I've worked with all kinds of victims, and the ones who have been raped are the most seriously damaged for a long, long time. Short term, of course, is the humiliation and the fear that never leaves you. Trauma, all kinds of trauma, sits in the midbrain area. And if you can't move that trauma, the memories of that trauma, into the memory center in the other part of the brain and the thinking part of the brain or the cortex of the brain, you never have a label on it. And so it constantly haunts you long term. I mean, I've treated people that two, three, four years, and they can still have memories. And some women, it never goes away. They always have it.

[David Schutz]

The trauma haunted Catherine for four decades.

[Catherine]

I spent my whole life trying to heal from what happened to me.

[David Schutz]

Catherine's rape on August 16, 1984, had all the marks of Miami's pillowcase rapist, but with one alarming difference. Catherine's apartment was 40 miles north of downtown Miami in the city of Pompano beach in Broward County. What's more, there were at least three other similar rapes in Broward so far that year. Detectives from up north called Detective Simmons down in Miami.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

I got a call from a couple detectives in Broward county who said that they had some rape cases in their jurisdictions in Broward that they thought might be our guy. So I visited them.

[David Schutz]

The first Broward case Simmons looked at was in Deerfield beach on February 4th at about 4:30 in the morning. One morning, a man entered a first floor apartment through an unlocked sliding glass door. A 17 year old girl woke up to a hand over her mouth and the man telling her to shut the fuck up. He held a sharp object to her and threatened to kill her mother, who was asleep in another bedroom. He tied her up with a phone cord, raped her, then fled. She was his youngest victim. On June 24th 4th, a Fort Lauderdale woman was awakened shortly after midnight by a man on her bed holding a knife to her throat. He told her, if you see my face, it's all over. He raped her, tied her ankles and wrists with a vacuum cleaner cord, took $300 from her purse and fled. And on July 23, three weeks before Catherine was raped, a woman in an Oakland park apartment was grabbed from behind by an intruder as she walked from her kitchen to her bedroom. He dragged her at knife point to her living room, threw her on the floor and covered her face. He pulled off her clothes and raped her. Detective Simmons knew what the four attacks meant, but he had to be sure. He went back to the Broward detectives.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

And I said, have you run the blood work in your case yet? And they said yes.

[David Schutz]

The attacker in all of the Broward cases, including Catherine's, had the same rare subtype of blood. The pillowcase rapist was no longer just a Miami problem. He was moving north. The pillowcase rapist was managing to stay just steps ahead of Detective Simmons and his investigators. He kept up his attacks now spread out across a 500 square mile area of South Florida. Before the end of 1984, he'd attack at least twice again in Broward county, including raping a woman in the city of Tamarack, just feet away from where her five year old daughter was sleeping. And as 1985 rolled in, the rapist was showing no signs of slowing down. Then on May 30, Detective Simmons got a call that could be his nightmare scenario. Officers were on the scene of an apparent sexual assault in a neighborhood the pillowcase rapist had hit many times. It looked like his work and the type of victim he preferred to target. Except this time the victim was dead and the scene was gruesome.

[Detective Dave Simmons]

She had been decapitated, her head placed back on her body.

[David Schutz]

Simmons headed to the scene to confront the possibility that the pillowcase rapist had become a killer. That's on the next episode of Felonious Florida.

[Catherine]

Foreign.

[David Schutz]

Thank you for listening to this episode of Felonious Florida. Please support the show by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can listen to more episodes on the Wondery plus app online at feloniesflorida.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. This season was reported written and produced by me, David Schutz editing by Robin Webb and Gretchen Day Bryant sound design and production by Sean Pitts Web design by Carbell Multimedia with illustrations by John DeLuca soundtrack by DeWolfe Music sound clips courtesy of the Miami Dade Police Department and the Wolfson Archives at Miami Dade College. Special thanks to retired Detective Sergeant Dave Simmons for his assistance with our reporting. This show is a production of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, a division of Tribune Publishing. Felonious Florida was created by Lisa Arthur and Juan Ortega. Follow Felonious Florida Season 4 in the Wondery app. You can binge the entire series early and ad free right now by joining Wondery and the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[Unknown]

Before the Internet ruled our lives, AOL brought America Online with email and Instant messenger. By 2000, AOL was so powerful it bought media giant Time Warner. This was a deal that was supposed to bring us into the future, revolutionize media, but instead it became one of the messiest corporate disasters in history. So what went wrong? The dot com crash? Culture clashes? Or something deeper? Business wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business and how they shape our world. Because when your flight perks disappear, your favorite restaurant chain goes bankrupt, or new tech threatens to reshape everything overnight, you can bet there's a deeper story behind the headlines. Make sure to follow Business wars on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can binge all episodes of Business the AOL Time Warner Disaster early and ad free right now on Wondery.