THE ELECTRIC TOWER SERIAL KILLER

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Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Welcome to Inside the Criminal Mind podcast, where we analyze some of the most
notorious criminal cases with psychology and criminologycombined. Here's your host, doctor Carlos.

(00:31):
Welcome back, folks. Well,today we're gonna be talking about the
tower maniac known as Rene's Phone,Fermino Gomez. He's a resilient serial killer
and he's got some similar traits thatwe've seen with other serial killers. He
targeted prostitutes. Now, a couplethings here before we get started. You

(00:51):
know, a lot of times I'lltarget individuals that are harder to find,
that are unfortunately not noticed as missinga lot of time. So sometimes these
prostitutes, especially in rural areas orunderdeveloped countries, and this is what happened.
This happened. This happened two thousandand five to twenty fifteen. A
lot of times they're going to betheir parents are going to be they're not

(01:15):
going to know who know who theparents are. Sometimes sometimes their parents are
going to be addicted to drugs unfortunatelywhatever it may be, but they're not
going to be as aware, notnot all of them, of course,
I don't want to overgeneralize, butthe target these individuals that they believe most
of the time won't be noticed.Police forces won't ever get a call about
them missing or anything of that nature. And especially we're talking about fifteen ten

(01:41):
to fifteen years ago in Brazil.One of his signatures is he left their
bodies underneath a high voltage electrical tower. So we'll take a look at that
and why that is. He operatedin the city of Maringa, Parana between
the years two thousand and five,possibly around two thousand and one. According
to Odira the audio, which isO diary, he's considered by the States

(02:06):
police to be among the deadliest serialkillers. So I want to expand a
little bit of widely targeted prostitutes.We don't have a lot of background information
about him, but his mother wasa prostitute. But first of all,
I was looking at Zero Coast ingeneral, they targeted prostitutes for a couple
of decades, I mean centuries.Actually, Jack the ripper, who supposed

(02:28):
he has never been caught, terrorizedLondon and he that's what he targeted.
It was prostitutes. The Long Islandserial killer another uncought murderer or serial killer
who last disappeared. Last confirmed victimI think it was in September twenty ten.
And with the way he did washe advertised sex work on Craigslist.
Other killers apprehended who did the samething was Butcher Baker. Robert Hanson said

(02:51):
he thought prostitutes were evil. Nowthis is another one. If they had
this delusional fantasy. Obviously a lotof them are sadistic and violent. They're
trying to pure the world, maybebecause their own mother was a prostitute,
or something to do with their father, whatever it may be. And there's
sexual abuse here going on, physicalabuse, and they're trying to purge this

(03:12):
out of their conscious mind right andtheir unconscious mind. So what they'll do
is they'll target these individuals as proxiesin the sensor sarrogates, trying to eliminate
them. The soul called Torso killEr. You might have heard her him,
Richard Contingham. He professes to haveacted on a sociopathic, sadistic sexual
impulse. Again, sometimes a lotof these serial killers will have their mothers

(03:32):
will have sex in front of themwith other men, and this develops a
very distorted sexual fantasy. But thesex work or serial murder victim isn't just
a stereotype. It's a dominant demographicreality. According to his studies, twenty
two percent of confirmed US serial murdervictims between nineteen seventy and two thousand and

(03:53):
nine, so almost forty years we'reknown prostitute, so one fifth, and
those numbers are climbing. In thelast decade we're forty three percent. The
scent of the victims were sex workers. You got to remember prostitutes make up
less than a half percent of thenation. It's a dangerous profession to get
into, as some would argue,being a prostitute increases your chances of being

(04:13):
murdered by two hundred times. Whydid they target them, because again,
they believe the police won't look ashard for a missing sex workers as they
will for a more respectable victim.Now this is true. Now respectable I
put in quotes, and this istrue, especially twenty thirty years ago.
It's becoming a lot less like that. But still it was like that for
many years ago. That's why youhave a lot more serial killers. My

(04:35):
belief is in the seventies, eightiesand tooth in the nineties. One of
reason is it was a lot easierto get away with it. There was
a lot less communication between law enforcement, local and federal, a lot less
technology, no DNA. There wasa lot of stuff going on that made
it much easier for them. Iknow. Robert Kolker I think I wrote

(04:56):
in a book about multiple police departmentsfailed to investigate the disappearances of several sex
workers who remains were later discovered buriedone another on Oak Beach in Long Island.
The Long Island serial killer became nationalnews, bringing immense pressure on the
Suffolk County Police Department investigating the case. That's usually what happened, something like
that will trigger it. So thismakes it very complicated when you're looking for

(05:26):
serial killers who target prostitutes. It'sbecause they're not looked. They're not missed
a lot of times by family membersfor whatever reason, so it's hard to
know that they're missing. They're muchmore vulnerable population, especially those who don't
work from a brothel but instead ofgo to secluded locations with what they call
their john's or their customers, whateveryou want to phrase it as. And

(05:49):
because of the nature of their work, there's always an obvious sexual component and
often a key motivator for serial murderers. About sixty percent of all male serial
killers sexually involved with their victims insome way, whether it's living or dead.
Unfortunately, and prostitutes are a veryvery vulnerable target. See, if

(06:10):
you target people who aren't sex workers, you have to have a scheme.
This is what they would call moreof an organized type of a killer.
You're gonna have to try to Usuallythe psychopaths will do this. They'll feign
injury to garner sympathy like Ted Bundleused to do, or spend a week
stalking their victim to detect vulnerabilities intheir habits, to know when they're coming,
when they're going, who's around,what kind of safe what kind of
protection do they have around them,what kind of access do they have to

(06:34):
this individual. But again, whenit comes to targeting prostitutes, it could
be as simple as negotiating a feefrom across the car window and nobody knows.
So that's just kind of an ideaof what I'm talking about here.
We go back to this serial killerfrom Brazil and see what he does.

(06:58):
Now, Rody's is his name.Rony was married, a father of two
children, worked as a security guard. Now this is his dad, so
his mother, actually, no,this is him. He was a father
of two children, worked as asecurity guard and freelance salesman. His mother,
who was a prostituto, was murderedin the town of Campo Mudaua when
he was seven years old, afterwhich he began living near electric towers.

(07:20):
There's the connection, right, Sohis mother, who was a prostituto,
was murdered in the town of Compowhen he was seven, after which he
began living near electric towers. Hehad already had previous convictions for fraud and
bank robbery. He was forty yearsold at the time of his arrest,
so he had been killing at leastsince he was twenty five. So could
have been schizophrenia, could have beensome kind of psychotic disorder. Possibly doesn't

(07:43):
have to be, but it couldbe there. We'll look at some of
the cases here. Police were alreadyworking on the possibility of a serial killer
in the area, having mapped alldebts and similar circumstances over a number of
years. But it wasn't. Itwasn't. It was only after finding the
body of Mara Santos on July twentyseven, twenty fifteen, did they arrive
at Rony's after finding traces and videoimages that put him at the crime scenes,

(08:05):
so because se how technology really kickedup the discovery of this crime or
of this criminal. In a statement, the killer, in addition to detailing
some deaths, claim he had killedfive other women, but police believe the
number of victims is actually even higher. After the arrest, other women testify
and confirmed that Roni's had attempted tokill other prostitutes. Ronis just found guilty
for six murders and concealment of thecorpses. Investigators Fan Marrow Josian's DeSanto's body

(08:33):
or closed three modern three kilometers awayfrom the where the body was. Now
we know what this a lot oftimes can indicate, right, So they
have separate they have the point ofcontact of the victim, where they murdered
the victim, and where they disposedthe body. Taking that close away.
Obviously there was some kind of angerbecause he left them naked. So remember

(08:54):
this is kind of a weird wayof looking at it, but there was
no respect there for that victim atall, So he really had an anger
towards person. According to the examination, the suspect had a blue vehicle whose
bumper was damaged. The pieces thatwere in the authority's possession fit perfectly in
the damaged section, and they foundpieces next to the body. In addition

(09:16):
to traffic cammer had caught the caron the day in place where the woman
was killed. Again you can seetechnology how it to save the day.
It was with these indications that thepolice requested the arrest. When arrested,
Ronny said that after agreeing to gowith Mara, he followed her into a
dark street. There they took theirclothes off inside the car, but the
two had a disagreement over the useof a condom, after which Mara had
tried to take away the keys ofthe vehicle. Fearing arrests. Ronny's checked

(09:39):
for any nearby traffick in case shebegan running naked, before eventually strangling her
to death. So it doesn't soundlike he necessarily had a plan to kill
her. Maybe he did, maybehe didn't. They don't kill everybody.
After ensuring she was dead, Roney'sclaimed to have followed a corn farmer to
a nearby high voltage tower where heintended to leave the body, which was
the zambo for a while, butas they saw a movement of vehicle was

(10:00):
near the scene, he changed hismind. So this is what disrupted his
m. Right, his signatures wasdisrupted here. That's why he was going
to drop her off. For thisreason, he only left part of Marrow's
clothes there before driving for about amile to another farm. Again, this
is satisfying some part of his fantasy. What it is, we don't really
know yet. At least maybe we'renot going to find out where he arranged
the body and prayed asking for forgivenessfor his act and the victim, so

(10:24):
leaving the victim in a cornfield wherehe arranged the body. Now this change
is my original comment about not havingrespect for her, because even though he
left her naked, it seems thereason he left her naked is because he
couldn't take the body there. Sothis is where it changes on us,
right, folks. And look thiscase, I'm actually just reading as I
go along with you and doing ananalysis here. I didn't get as much

(10:46):
time to do background, so I'mlearning with you as we go through the
case. And it's very fascinating becausehe changed his m and when he changed
his m there was a certain respectthat he had for the victim because he
actually prayed over and ask for forgiveness. So more than likely This is one
of those Angels of Mercy type things. Regarding the choice of victims, Ronie's

(11:07):
claimed that they were selected at random. He also clarified details, such as
to avoid being scratched, which couldleave traces on the nails, he laid
on the car seat in such away as to hinder the victim's reaction.
He stalked his targets. He generallykilled prostitutes who refused to do what he
wanted, so there was obviously anotherclear example of control which we always see
a lot of times with these kypeof cases. He stalked them, so

(11:28):
he was very organized. He wasable to think more clearly enough to be
able to do that. He followedthe cases on TV, so he definitely
was paying attention to a lot.All of the women's bodies could be found
in the area of the tower locatedin Estrada de rose Aia. This obviously
fulfilled his fantasies too. He gotprobably satisfaction from seeing them trying to find

(11:48):
him, and the place was tooovercrowded, he would dispose of the bodies
elsewhere. He killed, normally bystrangling or asphyxiating the women, leaving their
bodies naked and belly up, alwaysin the middle of the plantation and under
electric towers. Now, I don'tknow if he prayed for over all of
them or not. In this case, he did pray for her, at
least he says he did. Hedid kill a nineteen year old whose body

(12:11):
was discovered in December seventh. Ronisdid not admit to this murder, but
the victims film was found to bea possession of one of the killer's friends.
What was the motive? According toall this, he had a hatred
of protestutes because his mother was oneand had also been murdered without the perpetrator
being arrested, which caused him severetrauma. And I don't think it was
the lack of the arrest enclosure.I think it was the fact there's a

(12:35):
lot of other things going on.After her death, he began living near
electrical towers, so it almost couldsee he might be doing some kind of
ritual right and killing these individuals thatwere Sarah adversions of his mother. There
were prostitutes, and then he wouldif he continued to do that mo if
it was accurate, where he wouldput him in an electric tower where he
was almost like an homage reliving this, and he might have even wanted to

(13:01):
be caught. I'm really speculating here, but he might have wanted to be
caught, like he was hoping thatthe person who killed his mother was caught.
This could be a possible reason,and maybe there was a conflict.
There's different selves of us anyway,as human beings. We have different personalities
that fight all the time, right, And if you have trauma, you're
fragmented into various selves, so youcan have a self of anger deriving from

(13:24):
certain things that can get triggered.This is probably what happened when the prostitutes
refused to have sex with him.That part of the self triggered, and
all of a sudden, that angercame out, the violence and aggression came
out. So we can see psychologicallyhere this whole thing play out pretty easily
in a sense that we've seen thispattern before. He hated the fact that

(13:48):
his mother was a prostitute. Whoknows what else was going on in the
house, whether it was a stablehouse or not, whether there was nurturing
in the home. These are usuallyprotective facts, so I'm guessing there wasn't.
And the reason I say there wasn'tis because a lot of times when
you have an individual like this whosuffers this level of trauma, emotional abuse,

(14:09):
neglect, the protective buffers can createthe protective factors can create a buffer
to help them live much more normallyin life, which this individual didn't.
And so there's other Usually there's acombination, actually always a combination of factors.
It's not just that the mom wasa prostitute. That's not going to
do it. It's going to beother things too. I'm assuming possibly immertional

(14:31):
abuse neglect, that could have beenprenatal alcohol, drugs use as well,
that could affect the neurodevelopment of Ronie'sbrain. None of this is to justify
it, but all to explain itand hopefully create prevention programs in the future.
Intervention programs. A lot of studiesshow that if you drink alcohol or
do drugs while you're pregnant, thiscould affect a neurodevelopment, especially in that

(14:54):
first trimester, very powerful moment intime where you're developing a a lot of
those neurons and connections, especially thatprefundal cortex area where control controls your impulses,
helps you anticipate consequences, makes moraljudgments. Also the highway connection between
the prefunded the cortex and the megalawhere the Amiguala hijacks the pre fund of
cortex under stress and threat. Soyou got a lot of different factors playing

(15:18):
here. I'm guessing he probably hadall the above. We don't know necessarily
because we don't know much about it. We don't know if he had a
father, if you ever knew thefather. We don't know if he was
abused or not right now. Definitely, a lot of the murders were personal,
and the way he strangled them,I don't know if you watch them
die or not. That's another aspectof it. It's really important to understand

(15:39):
it, to see if he actuallywatches the victim die, that's going to
be something he else that derives pleasurewith and sadism. We don't have a
lot, but hopefully I gave youenough to kind of get you an understanding.
And again I'll go back again.I thought originally he was ashamed of
these people, which he still mightbe. But if he really truly prayed
over that last victim, if he'sactually being honest, we don't know sometimes

(16:02):
because sometimes they're a psychopath, whichhe could be considering his behavior prior to
this. If he is a psychopath, he might just be looking for a
more lenient sentence. So I don'tknow necessarily how it works in Brazil.
What we do know in Brazil hewas sentenced and I think I believe it
was twenty one years. He wasconvicted for six murders. It will face

(16:26):
more trials during summer of twenty twentyfor different murders. He was sentenced for
twenty one years and four months forone case. I don't know how much
longer he's going to be in there, so he's in at least to his
sixties. And I don't know howBrazil works in the sense of letting them
out earlier good behavior or whatnot,or I have no idea, but for
right now, that's our case fortoday. Thanks for listening everybody. Hey,

(16:48):
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