John Boyer

                                                                       (John Boyer)

A few excerpts from an article from the AP (via Yahoo) about a truck driver who was a serial killer:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Long-haul trucker John Boyer's gray beard and round face give him a grandfatherly appearance, but when he opens his mouth, he seethes with anger toward women. This hatred had murderous results, authorities said, as he picked up prostitutes around the Southeast, killed them and dumped their bodies near interstate highways.....

Boyer has pleaded guilty to killing a woman in North Carolina and faces murder charges in slayings in Tennessee and South Carolina. His most recent confession came last month. The similarities of the cases and the apparent lack of remorse from Boyer have investigators encouraging their counterparts along highways around the Southeast to review unsolved killings and missing person files. Even his own attorney in the North Carolina case felt uneasy around him and wondered what else he might have done.

Boyer's attorney in the North Carolina case said he felt uneasy around his client. "It wouldn't surprise me if there's other stuff out there," said H. Lawrence Shotwell. "I have absolutely nothing other than a gut instinct on that."

You rarely hear of a serial killer who is so overt with his hatred; usually when they're up on charges they try to hide their true character behind a mask of congeniality. And while there have undoubtedly been plenty of lawyers who have been scared of their clients before, I've never heard of one who has wondered aloud what other murders his client might have committed. (Remind me not to hire Attorney Shotwell when I'm up on charges.)

The investigator was chilled by the hatred toward women from a man who had never been married and lived with his mother near Augusta, Ga. A woman who answered the phone Friday at a listing for Boyer's mother denied knowing him.

Usually when a serial killer hates women that much it's because his own mother mistreated him. So why was Boyer still living with his mother? And does that account for the seething hatred?

Darlington County, S.C., Sheriff's Capt. Andy Locklair immediately got the same impression when he stepped into an interview room to question Boyer about a killing in that state. The first thing Boyer said to him was: "What b---- are you here about?"

Locklair confronted Boyer earlier this month about the death of 34-year-old Michelle Haggadone. Her body was found in April 2000 beneath pine straw at a parking area on Interstate 20 near Florence, about 30 miles from the truck stop where Boyer had picked her up. Boyer immediately denied killing Haggadone, lashing out at Locklair and an investigator with him.

"He said he had slept with a lot of prostitutes and a lot of them were detectives' daughters or prosecutors' daughters," Locklair said. "He just tried to get the upper hand from the start."

That actually is typical sociopathic behavior, aggressively trying to demean others and get them on the defensive, though it rarely happens under these circumstances. It reminds me of the corporate sociopath I once knew who would go on about how ugly a certain black person was in front of another black, or about how ugly a Jewish woman was in front of other Jewish people. Maybe Boyer figures he has nothing to lose at this point.

In any case, it's pretty plain that this is one very bad customer.

Although the article doesn't mention it, Boyer's full name is John Wayne Boyer. He is now 54, so he was born in either 1956 or 1957, when John Wayne was at his box office peak. I know of only two other people who have been named after the movie star. John Wayne Gacy, the infamous serial killer who operated in the Chicago area in the 1970's, was born in 1942 (Wayne made his first movie in the late 1920's). And John Wayne Bobbitt is most famous as a victim, when his wife Lorena cut off his penis, but both before and after that he was known to have assaulted various women; he was born in 1967. 

Being named after the star of "Stagecoach" doesn't seem the ticket to a well-adjusted life.