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Robert Ben Rhoades, who is considered to be one of the most notorious serial killers of all time, inspired the fictional character of the truck driver Peter Hillborough in the 2021 film Midnight in the Switchgrass.
Although the Houston-born truck driver had been convicted of three murders, the FBI believed that he was kidnapping, torturing, raping, and killing many more women, according to People. When Rhoades was caught, he admitted that he had been doing this for the past fifteen years.
According to ABC News, he was convicted only in 1994 and sentenced to life without parole at Menard Correctional Center in Chester, Illinois, where he continues to serve his sentence.
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Who is Robert Ben Rhoades and where is he now?
Robert Ben Rhoades was born in Iowa in 1945 and was associated with the Marine Corps after high school. He went on to attend college but eventually dropped out and started working different jobs at supermarkets, restaurants, and warehouses before becoming a long-haul truck driver.
It was on April 1, 1990, when an Arizona police officer, Mike Miller, noticed Rhoades' truck parked by the side of the road with the hazard lights on and a naked woman bound in the sleeping cab, that his crimes began to be unraveled.
Rhoades was arrested for kidnapping and the woman, who was visibly injured, said that he had picked her up from a truck stop near Phoenix, Arizona, and shackled her while she was sleeping, reports People. This led to further investigations where authorities learned that Rhoades was detained for a potential kidnapping before too when a woman escaped and reported against him, although she did not press any charges.
Moreover, further investigations revealed a briefcase with items of torture in Robert's truck that he used on his victims. It also led to Rhoades' first known victims, 24-year-old Patricia Walsh and her husband, 28-year-old Douglas Zyskowski. According to AOL, the couple were hitchhiking in Texas when Robert Ben Rhoades picked them up and killed Douglas, and tortured and raped Patricia for many days before killing her and dumping her body in Utah.
A month after this incident, Robert picked up a runaway couple, 14-year-old Regina Walters and her boyfriend, Ricky Lee Jones, and did the same thing to them before dumping Regina's body in Illinois. When the authorities started an investigation, they were led to his apartment where they found the photographs of both Regina and Patricia that Robert kept.
Where is Robert Ben Rhoades Now?
As per The Cinemaholic, Robert Ben Rhoades was arrested in 1994 and he pleaded guilty to Regina’s murder and was convicted of first-degree murder in Illinois. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
A few years later, he was supposed to be tried for Patricia and Douglas’ murders. However, the families of the victims wanted both the murders to be tried at the same time, which could not be possible in Utah. Thus, the prosecution dropped the charges and sent him to Texas for the trial.
It was only in 2012, that Rhoades pleaded guilty to killing the couple and was given another life sentence. Although the authorities believed that he was responsible for the murder of many more women, that could not be exactly determined because of his extensive travel.
Robert Ben Rhoades remains incarcerated at the Menard Correctional Center in Randolph County, Illinois with a life sentence and no possibility of parole.
Catch Midnight in the Switchgrass on Netflix now.
