Al de Valkaner (Police Officer) (2:51)

Bob Radella. He is. He is personification of evil.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (2:56)

This is part two of the Bob Berdella story. And it's here, right here, that his pattern becomes undeniable. I'm James Buddy Day. This is unmarked it's nearly a year before Bob acts again. His second victim is a man named Robert Sheldon, a young drifter who stays with Bob in April of 1985 and never leaves

Detective Troy Cole (3:24)

Bob. He had known Sheldon off and on for a couple of years. They'd been acquaintances. Sheldon had spent time in and out of his house, and that was victim number two.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (3:36)

In his confession, Bob admits that he doesn't know much about Robert's background, only that he was from California. He claims to have given Robert small jobs and various ventures and let him stay at his house. When I ask Sergeant Cole, he tells me it took them months to track down Sheldon's family and they declined to take part in the investigation. They offer no details about Robert's life. Some family tragedies are best dealt with privately, according to Bob. On April 10, he invites Sheldon over to his home. Sheldon has a fever and requests antibiotics from Bob. But instead Berdella administers a sedative. His journals begin at 8pm and continue until 12:45am as Bob documents difficulty keeping his victim asleep.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (4:24)

The sound of the Polaroid camera was enough to kind of rouse him, just enough to open his eyes a little.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (4:32)

When we went to Kansas City, we spent an entire day going through boxes of photos and digitizing all the files for the first time. Now, I've seen a lot of disturbing crime scene photos in my day, but nothing like Bob's Polaroids. And it shows how devoid of empathy a serial killer truly can become. This is not someone who's ignoring the suffering of others. This is someone who truly cannot fathom it because they're so consumed by their own ego. For the next six days, Bob keeps meticulous records. In fact, on one page I found he has continuous notations beginning at 11:45pm and continuing for a full 24 hours without a break. But by Monday morning, April 15, Bob faces an unexpected crisis. His former roommate, Paul Cooper is still doing handyman work for Bob. And on that morning he arrives at the house unannounced to fix the roof. Sheldon is being held directly below where Cooper is working.

Al de Valkaner (Police Officer) (5:37)

I was getting down off the ladder. I was just finishing up. Get down, walk to the side of the house. There was Bob. He was running to his car. And if you knew Bob, he didn't run anywhere. He was never in a hurry to go anywhere. And he's a very slow moving fella. And he's a bigger, bigger guy, very out of shape, wouldn't have done a day's exercise in his life. I found out in the police department Much later, months months later that he had. He freaked when he saw me on the other side of that window because that's where he had the second victim tied up to the bed on the other side of that window.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (6:16)

In his confession, Bob tells police that he kills Robert Sheldon with Paul working outside.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (6:22)

I talked to him briefly and told him I had to run into the house and take care of something and I'd be right back out.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (6:33)

This is one of the rare moments where Bob openly acknowledges that he caused a victim's death himself. Psychologically, this is striking. For a psychopath, the concept of guilt does not register the way it does for the rest of us. It doesn't integrate into their emotional world. And Bob is no exception. He constantly externalizes the blame, pointing to circumstances, substances, or the victim's own condition. Anything to avoid recognizing the simple reality that he was responsible at that point.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (7:05)

I then went downstairs and. And knowing he was dead, I kept the one door shut to that room and then went down and dealt with Cooper. He came in for a while and got some, you know, some water or something to drink. We talked for a while.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (7:22)

In his confession, Bob confirms for detectives that it was Sheldon's skull they found in Bob's upstairs closet.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (7:30)

I at one point thought that I might get around to reconstructing the jaw of the skull, possibly using it or selling it.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (7:40)

Bob's next act is only 60 days later. But unlike the others, it's not premeditated. In another bizarre turn, a victim walks right into Bob's backyard during a storm on June 22, 1985. Bob's dogs begin to bark furiously. Bob investigates, and he discovers a young man named Mark Wallace.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (8:04)

He had been doing yards in the neighborhood for several years, and I just started using him to take care of my yard.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (8:13)

Caught in the storm, Mark Wallace had remembered Bob's shed and he ducked inside.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (8:19)

I found him out in my back tool shed hiding from the rain. I invited him in the house to dry out and get warm. We talked for about an hour. For the most part, he talked. He was very drunk and very depressed. I drugged him and then further drugged him to make him captive.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (8:42)

He begins writing in his diary at 11:30pm writing toolshed, followed by the notation six or seven beers. Bob invites Mark inside and offers him pills. He says they're for anxiety. They're not. Wallace is held for two days, during which Bob documents everything. Bob notes his frustration. The substances he's giving aren't having the effect they usually do. Mark keeps waking up and trying to free himself.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (9:13)

He was saying that the notation I have here is please untie. As I remember, he was also saying to let him loose.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (9:24)

After 48 hours, Bob claims he steps away for about 30 minutes. When he returns, Wallace has passed. After Bob sets to work, he tells investigators it was garbage day. The next day, June 24, he dismembers his victim in the upstairs bathtub to ensure he won't miss the pickup. Four months later, Bob targets a customer who frequents Bob's bizarre bazaar. His name is James Ferris. Bob later tells police he'd known Ferris for about a year and a half. James, like several of Bob's victims, struggled with addiction and periods of homelessness. He'd stayed at Bob's house before and they had remained in loose contact.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (10:09)

He presented himself basically as somebody that nobody would really miss or look for.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (10:17)

Unlike his previous victims, Bob plans the abduction in advance. On September 26, 1985, Bob arranges to meet Ferris at a local bar on Independence Avenue.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (10:29)

He came into my house upon his own, was at the time very drunk, took some Valiums on top of that, and then I drugged him in the food that I gave him for supper.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (10:41)

Berdella holds Ferris for two days, continuing the same pattern he's used before. And at one point, he begins using a car battery to administer electric shocks. He's escalating the level of abuse as he goes. At 11:30pm of the final day, he records giving Ferris a dose of a dissociative drug. His next note reads, gag loosened. No resistance to retiring. Thirty minutes later, Ferris is unresponsive. Bob records the time of death at 12am with a chilling notation that reads 86. Bob's fifth victim, a man named Todd Stoops, is remarkable because just like Bob's first victim, Jerry Howell, police conducted an investigation. They identified Bob as the prime suspect but did little.

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Narrator / James Buddy Day (12:35)

Like the others, Todd struggles with addiction but was not estranged from his family.

Detective Troy Cole (12:40)

He had known Todd off and on for a couple years. Todd and his wife Lisa had lived with Berdella for a period of time. In exchange for living there, he would do favors for Berdella. He would do errands, cut the yard, whatever Berdella needed done.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (12:57)

When we recovered the files for Todd Stoops and Jerry Howell, the only two victims who were investigated, we found something remarkable. Todd Stoops was interviewed by police during the investigation into the disappearance of Jerry Howell. And incredibly, the interview took place inside Bob's home. In the report, Stoopzz openly shares his suspicions about Bob. He accuses him of killing Howell and drugging other men. He even mentions the locked room filled with, quote, bizarre sexual paraphernalia. It's the very same room detectives would later identify as the torture room. If the investigator had simply walked upstairs in 1984, he may have stopped Bob altogether. Instead, on June 17, 1986, Stoops is seen for the last time in Liberty Park. Bob picks up Stoopzz and takes him home. Bob detains Todd Stoops the same way he's done several times before. He lures him to the house, gives him substances without consent, and keeps him inside for a full two weeks. By this point, Bob has developed his perverse system. Over time, the victim's health declines. Bob claims that he tries to nurse him back to health.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (14:19)

I gave him 3ccs of penicillin in the buttocks with a light reaction to keep him from getting worse or possibly dying.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (14:33)

During a routine check, Bob discovers that Stoopzz has died.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (14:37)

I went up and started packing him to set out in the trash.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (14:42)

After the murder, Bob returns to work at Bob's Bazaar Bazaar, where he encounters his final victim, a Wichita man named Larry Pearson. Pearson's skull would later be found by police buried in a bucket in Bob's backyard. Like the others, Larry battles homelessness and addiction, estranged from his family, but has some contact.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (15:06)

What he told me about his family was that they were mostly foster brothers and sisters. Bea did have a couple of real brothers or sisters that he didn't really keep up on. Or know where they were at.

Detective Troy Cole (15:23)

Berdella had known Larry for a period of time, and Larry had been. He had been put in jail for some misdemeanor offense. I don't remember what it was, but Bob had posted bail, put up bond and gotten him out, and agreed to let him live at the house with him for a period of time until he could get back on his feet.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (15:42)

Bob's relationship with Larry Pearson is perhaps the strangest chapter of all. Before killing him, Bob takes Larry to Ohio to visit Bob's mother and stepfather.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (15:54)

Larry's the only one that I took up to see my family.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (15:58)

During the trip, Bob, his parents and his victim go to see a movie.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (16:04)

I think on a Tuesday, my mother, Larry and myself went to a movie. He went up and sat in the front, and at that point my mother asked me, who is this person? Apparently, the night before, he had sat up with my mother and stepfather and told them a story about when he was out in California.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (16:27)

When questioned by his mother, Bob says that Larry is simply a friend who he's helping out. And according to Bob, she accepted that explanation.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (16:37)

My parents long ago stopped trying to figure out the relationships within these people were.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (16:45)

After they return to Kansas City, Larry sleeps on Bob's couch for about two weeks.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (16:51)

Larry Pearson had been staying at my house the summer of 87, and after a couple weeks, I then drugged his food one night.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (17:03)

By the sixth week of captivity, Bob describes Pearson as becoming quiet and silent, subdued. It's later speculated that Pearson may have developed Stockholm syndrome. Though Bob disagrees, Bob believes that Larry is lying about being compliant. That belief comes to a head during a confrontation in which Pearson suddenly fights back, injuring Bob severely. Bob is rushed to the hospital after suffering a bite to his genitals, an injury serious enough that doctors fear it may be partially detached.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (17:36)

I was admitted into the emergency room. The first doctor gave me something for pain. Later, an internist came in and explained they were going to have to keep me for a couple of days.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (17:51)

This presents a major problem for Bob. Larry is still restrained at the house. This is an interview we conducted with Al de Valkaner. He was the only other cop alongside Sergeant Troy Cole, who was sitting in the room when Bob confessed.

Al de Valkaner (Police Officer) (18:07)

He was hurt more than worse than he thought, and they wanted him to stay. And he told them, I got these puppies and there's nobody that can come take care of them. I need to go home. Ultimately, he talked them into putting him in a taxi cab. The taxi cab drove him home.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (18:23)

He goes inside, feeds the dogs Then goes upstairs and kills Pearson, all while the meter is running.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (18:30)

They didn't want me to drive myself, and I just got back in the cab, went into the hospital, and they operated on me.

Detective Troy Cole (18:40)

I think he was hospitalized for about three days, as I recall. After being released from the hospital, he goes, takes the body, puts it in the bathtub, puts it out for the garbage as he had all the rest of them.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (18:54)

It's more than a year later when Bob picks up the hitchhiker, Christopher Bryson, and holds him captive before Bryson's escape leads to Bob's arrest. On July 22, 1988, Bob Berdella is arraigned for the murder of his final victim, Larry Pearson. It marks the first official homicide charge against him. And at a preliminary hearing, Bob does something no one expects. He offers to plead guilty. Here is Detective Troy Cole, who explains what happened next.

Detective Troy Cole (19:27)

Berdello's lawyers had contacted him and they wanted to work out a plea agreement and that Berdella would plead guilty to murder and if we didn't go for the death penalty, and that he would tell us about all the victims and what happened to the victim, how they were disposed of, give us all the details in return.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (19:50)

But Bob has conditions. He'll only confess if the tapes are destroyed. The confession is transcribed, and the documents are sealed in the prosecutor's office. After discussion with the victims families, authorities accept Bob's terms. Here again is Al Davalkenaer describing what the confession was?

Al de Valkaner (Police Officer) (20:11)

Bob Rudella, he is personification of evil. Bob was not afraid of anything, if he was afraid of anything. He was afraid of getting caught when he was going through the logs. And we're at this point, we're probably midway through the second day, and we would try to move him on. You know, we try to try to get to. Okay, we know what that means. Let's talk about this. And he would stop. He was very polite, and he would stop and he would answer your question, and then he would go right back to where he left off. There's just absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was getting gratification by reliving these events by reading those logs and relating those stories.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (20:57)

Ironically, detectives say that the DA quietly planned to go back back on the deal by entering the entire confession into evidence, making it public. This would have allowed reporters to gain access as soon as Bob's plea was entered. But that's not what happens. Like so many parts of Bob's story, his plea deal is bizarre. On the night of November 29, 1980, eight days before Bob's court date, Kansas City experiences one of the most dangerous, devastating disasters in its history. A construction storage shed containing £25,000 of ammonium nitrate explodes. A massive blast shakes the city. Moments later, a second, even larger explosion detonates. It destroys a responding fire truck and kills six firefighters. The tragedy triggers a citywide emergency response. A full investigation launches immediately, and the task force sifting through the mountain of evidence at Bob's house is dissolved overnight. Sergeant Troy Cole is reassigned immediately. The result? The city's attention shifts entirely to this new disaster. The Berdella case, once the biggest story in Kansas City, vanishes from the headlines. And when, when Bob finally appears in court, the hearing is quick and quiet. With the media focused elsewhere, almost no reporters show up. Bob pleads guilty and is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The DA submits the confession as evidence in Bob's guilty plea. It's now officially part of the public record, but it goes almost entirely unreported. This again is Tom Jackman, one of the few Kansas City reporters who actually stuck with the case, later writing a book about it. Probably at that time, the transcript probably hadn't been made. I think that his plea was shortly after the confession. And, you know, at that same time, Sergeant Cole was leading the investigation into the next big case. These are the two biggest criminal cases that ever happened in Kansas City. Both happened in 1988, within eight months of each other.

Detective Troy Cole (23:11)

Other.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (23:12)

In restoring Bob's confession, in looking through his journals, through his logs, through the case files, I kept coming back to one question. Why? Why did he do it? And detectives actually ask him this during the confession. What was going on in your mind when you carried all this out?

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (23:32)

It will always be a question on my mind. I think at this point, I was insulating myself from my own emotions. I just didn't deal with it. It's like it didn't happen.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (23:50)

A non explanation about a man who cataloged everything except the truth about himself. But that's the thing about Berdella. To us, these crimes are unthinkable to him, Their names in a log.

Bob Berdella (Confession Voice) (24:03)

I'm not going to sit here with my finger to my chin and say, nobody understands me.

Narrator / James Buddy Day (24:09)

In a final irony, shortly after his conviction, Bob Berdella dies in prison. And we've uncovered another shocking revelation from sources who are close to the situation. They claim Bob endured constant harassment from the other inmates and even guards. They allege that during his final year, his medication was tampered with and withheld, contributing to the health crisis that ended his life. Ironically, the circumstances surrounding Bob's death echo the same patterns of control and neglect that define the crimes he committed in life. If you go to our social channels, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, you'll see additional content about this episode, more phone calls, insights and interviews, and we'll be posting daily from the last decade of our true crime reporting. This season on Unmarked, you'll hear exclusive audio and interviews, calls and content, including the last interview with Charles Manson. We're opening our archives one case at a time. Subscribe to Unmarked so you don't miss what we reveal next. This episode of Unmarked is produced by John Nadeau, edited by Dave Alderson, and our additional producers are Jesse Demaray and Steve McClellen.

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