Doctors Who Kill

by Davis, Carol Anne; Davis, Carol Anne

  In August, he was released from the hospital and came home to Cynthia, who found that Bobby Joe had become sexually obsessive and now demanded intercourse at least twice a day. Within months he was discharged from the army on medical grounds so now had endless time to fuel his sexual fantasies. During this period he also used high levels of amphetamines.

  Later that year, he was arrested in Dade County, when the daughter of an officer alleged that he had raped her, but the charge was later reduced and he was put on probation. His female probation officer found him very difficult to help as it was clear that he had problems being around women, but he moved to Tampa, was given a male officer, and was perfectly civil to him.

  By late 1974, Cynthia had given birth to the couple’s first child, a son, and Bobby Joe was paying his way through college, studying to become a radiologist. The couple had frequent arguments about money and he began to hit her. She promptly hit him back. The following year they had a second child, a daughter, but the situation was far from happy. The Longs moved house frequently and seemed to be perpetually dissatisfied.

  The still-sexually frustrated Bobby Joe read the newspaper one day and realised that answering the classified ads would give him access to strangers, some of whom would be women. He began to answer such ads, showing up at the house pretending that he wanted to buy the goods for sale, then raping the woman if he found that she was alone.

  The paramedic

  The rapist continued to study Radiology at college during the day, but also did X-ray related work in the local hospital’s radiology department at night. In the autumn of 1979, he graduated with an associate degree in X-ray technology. That November, he started work as an X-ray technician at a hospital in Miami Beach. He often made passes at the nurses and would grab them whenever possible. Some of the patients also found his manner disturbing and, the following year, he was dismissed. In the same time frame, Cynthia filed for divorce.

  In 1981, police arrested him for making obscene phone calls to a twelve-year-old girl, and he was sentenced to two days in jail and six months’ probation.

  Domestic violence

  Bobby Joe rented a room in a flat with a woman, but, in October 1981, she went to the police and said that he had raped her. A fortnight later, he viciously attacked her. When he was eventually found guilty, he inundated the legal system with complaints until he was given a new trial.

  In January of 1982, he went home to live with his parents, who were back in West Virginia. One night, the couple were ambushed by two men, who tied them up at gunpoint and stole their possessions. Bobby Joe watched the mugging through a crack in his bedroom door. He consoled them that night, but ignored them on many other nights and was clearly restless and unhappy. He trained as a diver but couldn’t find a diving job and was clinically depressed.

  Further medical work

  In February 1983, Bobby Joe’s spirits rose when he was given a position as an X-ray technician at a hospital in Huntingdon. His employers were impressed with him, as was one of his female co-workers, whom he dated for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, his lust overwhelmed him again and he began to tell female patients to strip, even when their particular X-ray didn’t require this. He was fired within the month.

  By the summer, Bobby Joe had found a technician’s post at a hospital in Florida. He was only required to work weekends, which gave him ample time to answer classified ads during the day and rape the luckless women who answered the door. He began to date a nurse who was a born-again Christian and she persuaded him to go to church. (His maternal grandmother was a devout Baptist so he was familiar with religious belief systems.) He regularly gave her expensive jewellery that he had taken from the women he attacked.

  Numerous rapes

  On 6th March 1984, Bobby Joe called at a house that was for sale in Port Richey and, when a 21-year-old woman answered the door, he forced her into the bedroom at gunpoint, tied her up and covered her eyes with surgical tape. He insisted that she fellate him, then he cut off her clothes, gagged her and tied her to the bed before raping her. He explored the property, identifying valuables, raped her again, and then fled with her jewellery and silverware. It’s possible that he raped over a hundred women in this way; goods from numerous houses would later be found in his home but some of their owners couldn’t be traced and others appeared to be too embarrassed to admit being victimised.

  Murder unpunished

  On 27th March 1984, the serial rapist picked up a twenty-year-old woman, Artis Wick, in Tampa. Known to hitchhike, she had left her apartment to buy cigarettes. Bobby Joe bound, raped and strangled her. (It would be nine months before her skeleton was found and he was never charged with this crime.) At the end of the month, he left his job without giving any notice, but continued to give his girlfriend necklaces and rings.

  The following month he abducted a woman in her car, forcing her to drive at gunpoint. Realising that she would probably die if she drove to his preferred destination, she deliberately crashed the vehicle. He was arrested and scheduled to attend court later that year.

  The first known murder

  On 10th May 1984, Bobby Joe picked up a beautiful young Asian woman, Ngeun Thi Long, who was trying to hitch a lift home. It was sheer coincidence that she and her killer shared the same surname. She probably introduced herself by the Western name that she tended to use, Lana Long. The high-spirited twenty-year-old had worked as a go-go dancer but had plans to study Art at university. Her friendly manner and fit body ensured that she found it easy to get lifts.

  She got into the amicable-looking Bobby Joe’s car and he drove her to a wooded area and forced her to strip. He tied her up and drove to an even more secluded area where he placed her on her stomach, raped and beat her. During the rape, he strangled her to death with a rope. Afterwards, he posed the body, pulling her legs apart so violently that he tore some of her ligaments.

  Three days later, two teenage boys found her decomposing corpse in a pasture and contacted police. Detectives found red fibres on the twenty-year-old’s lifeless body, probably from the carpet in the killer’s car. The field also included tyre tracks but, other than that, they had no clues.

  Another rape

  A fortnight after murdering Lana, Bobby Joe answered a classified ad where the advertiser was selling bedroom furniture. He went to the house in Palm Harbor, ascertained that the woman who showed him the furniture was home alone, and then hit her, tied her up and raped her. He also stole her jewellery.

  The second known murder

  On 26th May, Bobby Joe struck again, picking up former beauty queen Michelle Denise Simms on the Tampa Strip, the red light district in Florida where he found most of his victims. The 22-year-old had a cocaine habit, which she financed through prostitution. Bobby Joe posed as a punter, then stripped and bound her in his car. He drove her to a field and viciously raped her, but she put up such a fight when he attempted to strangle her that he finished her off with a knife, slashing through her jugular. He also used the blade to cut her face. After the murder, he threw her clothes around the field and left her wearing just her earrings and an anklet. It’s likely that he stopped for refreshments as he apparently left an empty beer bottle at her feet. Michelle’s body was discovered by a horrified construction worker the following day.

  When police again found red fibres and tyre tracks at the scene they called in the FBI, who confirmed that this was the same killer. The bureau also found semen stains that showed A and B blood types, plus a head hair from a Caucasian male.

  Another rape

  Three days after he’d murdered Michelle Simms, the killer answered a classified ad in Pinellas County and raped the female house owner before making off with her jewellery, but his unhealthy lust wasn’t sated for long.

  The third known murder

  On 8th June, he noticed 22-year-old Elizabeth Loudenbeck, a shy factory worker, who was out for a walk. Although she didn’t normally accept lifts from strangers, she was taken in by Bobby Joe’s good
looks and superficially gentle manner, but within minutes of getting into the car, he’d produced a knife and told her to undress. Bobby Joe raped her in the car, drove to an orange grove in Brandon and sodomised her before making her put her clothes back on. After strangling her with a rope, he dumped her body underneath some shrubs. Finding her Cashline card and PIN number in her purse, he emptied her bank account. It was over a fortnight before her decomposing body was discovered and, as she was clothed and unbound (unusually, Bobby Joe had taken the rope with him), her murder was not initially linked to that of Ngeun and Michelle. Later, the FBI found the same red fibres on the corpse that had been found on the previous two victims, and realised that the killer had struck again.

  The medic from hell

  A week later, Bobby Joe started a new job as an X-ray technician at Tampa General Hospital. Now he could again feast his eyes on women as they undressed for mammograms. In the same time frame, he went to court for the attempted abduction of the woman who had crashed her car in a desperate bid to outwit him. Incredibly, he was only given probation and ordered to pay $1,500 for the damage to her car.

  Another brutal rape

  That summer, Bobby Joe went to Miami on holiday and picked up a prostitute, raping her and taking photographs of her degradation. He left her naked, beaten and shell-shocked, miles away from home.

  The fourth known murder

  On 27th September 1984, the X-ray technician was sacked. Co-workers later said that he was good at his job but that he sexually harassed the female staff and insisted on talking about sex to the male staff. He told one colleague that he ‘liked bad girls and enjoyed fucking them in the ass.’

  Three days after he lost his job, Bobby Joe offered a lift to eighteen-year-old Chanel Devon Williams. Using the same approach he’d taken with his previous victims, he drove her to a remote location – in this instance, a cattle ranch – where he tied, beat, sodomised and partially strangled her. Chanel struggled so valiantly that he finished her off with a gunshot to the head. A week later, her naked body was found and police again identified the red fibres found in the previous murders, yet they still had no idea who the serial killer was.

  The fifth known murder

  Later that autumn, on 7th October 1984, Bobby Joe killed again, picking up a prostitute called Kimberly Kyle Hopps, who offered him sex for $30. He took her to a darkened area under a bridge, where she was stripped and raped like his previous victims, although he strangled her with her own collar instead of using his trademark rope. He threw her corpse into a ditch but it wasn’t found until the end of the month.

  The sixth known murder

  Bobby Joe claimed his next victim less than a week later, picking up 28-year-old Karen Beth Drinsfriend. Karen had good looks, a high IQ and a rampant drug addiction. She had spent time in jail for everything from grand larceny to heroin possession and her baby had been given to foster parents. Now she made a living from selling herself.

  Karen asked Bobby Joe for the exact amount she needed for a fix: $47, and he readily agreed to the price. However, once she was in the car, he turned on her and tied her up. He drove her to a remote location and dragged her from the car, raping her from behind whilst jerking on the rope around her neck. After he’d finished strangling her, he posed the body, pushing up her sweatshirt to expose her breasts.

  The seventh known murder

  The X-ray technician’s next victim, at the end of October, was eighteen-year-old Virginia Lee Johnson, who’d turned to prostitution to support her drug addiction. After she got into Bobby Joe’s car, he tied her up and took her to a lonely field where he raped and strangled her, using a heavy shoelace and a fabric rope. When her corpse was found after a fortnight in the sun, it was badly decomposed and had been partially eaten by animals. She was eventually identified by the heart-shaped pendant she often wore and by her dental records. By this stage, each kill was giving Bobby Joe less of a buzz than the previous one, and he was soon out hunting again.

  A terrifying abduction

  On 3rd November, at 2.30 a.m., he was cruising around when he spotted a beautiful seventeen-year-old, Lisa McVey, cycling home from her late-night job at a restaurant. Bobby Joe parked, pulled her from her bike and manhandled her into his car at gunpoint, where he forced her to strip and fellate him. During this act he warned her to keep her eyes closed. Afterwards, he blindfolded her and drove around for a while, before taking her to his apartment, where he attempted to sodomise her and then raped her. Bobby Joe showered with the petrified teenager before blow-drying her hair and complimenting her on her appearance. He took her into his bed and raped her repeatedly throughout the night and during the following day.

  During this period, he seemed to want the girlfriend experience, asking her about her job and her family. He made her a sandwich and urged her to rest. Twenty-six hours later, he drove her to a parking lot, told her how much he liked her, and released her. The shell-shocked teenager removed the blindfold, got her bearings and ran home to her father, who called the police.

  Lisa had seen Bobby Joe in the moments before he first blindfolded her and was able to give a good description. She also described his voice, his build, his age range, car and gun. She was able to describe his apartment in similar detail, as he’d removed the blindfold after she’d been there for a while, though he warned her not to look at him.

  By now, police from several forces had established a task force to catch the killer. They were convinced that their quarry was the man who had abducted and raped Lisa McVey.

  The eighth known murder

  After setting Lisa free, the X-ray technician resumed his murder spree; Kim Marie Swann, aged twenty-one, was his penultimate murder victim. Bobby Joe picked up the pretty blonde dancer in early November and subjected her to a terrible ordeal, putting a leash around her neck and repeatedly tightening and loosening it. Rope burns on her body testified to the desperate struggle she’d put up. He beat her about the head and she lost control of her bowels, after which he lost the desire to have sex with her. When she was dead, he forced her legs as far apart as they would go. Her body was found on 12th November, and the police estimated that she’d been dead for two or three days.

  The ninth known murder

  In late November, the body of 21-year-old Vicky Elliot was found and she became known as Bobby Joe’s last murder victim, but she had actually been murdered much earlier, on 7th September. That night, the radiographer saw the pretty and petite young woman walking to her late-night shift at a coffee shop. A nice girl and a reliable employee, she was about to start training as a paramedic and was an asset to society. Bobby Joe offered her a lift and she accepted, keen to get out of the dark and the cold.

  Within minutes, Bobby Joe attempted to tie her up but, she pulled a pair of scissors from her bag and managed to stab him in the chest. Enraged, he beat and tied, raped and strangled her before dumping her body on a dirt road. As a further act of humiliation, he pushed the scissors up her vagina until they lodged in her pelvic cavity.

  Arrested

  Meanwhile, detectives were closing in on the unemployed X-ray technician. In mid-November 1984, they followed a red car that fitted the description Lisa McVey had given them. They pulled Bobby Joe Long over and asked to see his driving licence, casually explaining that they were looking for a robber. Now that they knew his name and address, they let him go.

  They were able to ascertain that Bobby Joe had made a withdrawal from a cash machine at the time and place where Lisa McVey had been dumped, and that he had a record for abduction and rape. Armed with this information, they quickly secured a search warrant and FBI assistance. As he left the cinema the following afternoon, they arrested him.

  Detectives talked to Bobby Joe about his earlier rape conviction and the recent abduction of Lisa McVey, and the killer soon admitted taking and raping the teenager. He said that she was a good kid and that he regretted attacking her. He was comfortable talking about this case – after all, he’d been arrested
for rape before and this had had limited consequences – but when the police began to question him about the murders he looked dismayed and said that he might want legal help. Detectives told him that fibres from his stair carpet had been found on several of the bodies, as had his hair, adding that he was an intelligent man who must know that this was overwhelming evidence. Flattered by their words – and perhaps tired of killing – he confessed to everything. He also told them where to find Vicky Elliot’s corpse.

  Later that night, he phoned his ex-wife Cynthia and told her about the murders, asking her to tell their children that he was dead.

  Trial

  Awaiting trial, the serial killer was examined by six mental health experts who all agreed that he had known what he was doing, that he was sane. However, they found that there was mental illness on both sides of his family and believed that his unhealthy upbringing, coupled with later head injuries, had left him at an increased risk of committing antisocial acts against women. That said, he was found competent to stand trial.