Gerard John Schaefer | Serial Killer Documentary

Gerard John Schaefer (March 25, 1946 - December 3, 1995) was a serial killer from Florida, USA. He was imprisoned in 1973 for murders he committed as a policeman. While he was convicted of murdering "only" two victims, he was suspected of many others. Schaefer frequently appealed against his conviction, yet privately boasted — both verbally and in writing — of having murdered over thirty women and girls. Born in 1946, Gerard Schaefer was raised in Wisconsin until 1960, when he and his family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Schaefer did not get on well with his father, who he believed favored his sister. In his teens, Schaefer became obsessed with women's panties and also became a peeping tom, spying on a neighbor girl named Leigh Hainline. He would later admit to killing animals in his youth and also cross dressing, although at other times he claimed the latter was solely to avoid the draft into the Vietnam War (which he did indeed managed to escape.) After graduating high school in 1966, Schaefer studied at college, during which time he got married. In 1969 he became a teacher, but was soon fired for "totally inappropriate behaviour", according to the principal. After being turned down from the priesthood, Schaefer turned to law enforcement as a career, graduating as a patrolman at the end of 1971, at the age of 25.