Larry Eyler: Indiana Serial Killer
Larry Eyler was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana on December 21st 1952 to George Howard Eyler and Shirley Phyllis Kennedy. He was the youngest of four children.
Crawfordsville is a lovely town northwest of Indianapolis. It is the home of Wabash College. When I lived in Indianapolis I would drive through there on the way to Turkey Run State Park and Shades State Park on the weekends.
Even though Crawfordsville looked a lot like Mayberry, Larry Eyler and his siblings did not have an idyllic childhood. Their father was a violent alcoholic. Their parents’ marriage ended in divorce in 1955. Their mother struggled financially. She worked numerous jobs but it was never enough. She married three more times in a search for love and security for her family. The children suffered abuse under two other violent stepfathers. One stepfather punished Larry by holding his head under scalding hot water. His mother married a fourth and final time in 1972.
As his mother struggled in those years to provide food and housing as a single mother; the children were left with babysitters. When money was tight, they were left in the care of the oldest child who was ten. The children were sometimes placed in foster care but were later returned to their mother when she was back on her feet.
Imagine if high quality child care had been universally available. Imagine if the members of this family had been given access to free mental healthcare and counseling. Imagine how much crime and suffering could be prevented if the United States had what so many other countries in the world had in those years.
Larry Eyler struggled in school. He and his siblings were very poor. They were teased because of this.
Larry acted out at school and home. It’s probably not surprising considering the chaos and insecurity of his childhood. His mother sent him to a home for difficult children in 1963 for a time. This only heightened his anxiety and feelings of abandonment.
Larry was later placed in a Catholic Boy’s home in Ft. Wayne. He stayed there for six months before he was returned to his mother.
Not every person who goes through severe abuse becomes a killer. Not every killer suffered severe physical abuse as a child. But, Larry Eyler seems to have broken under the weight of the physical abuse and psychological trauma that he suffered.
Larry Eyler also struggled in his teens with coming to terms with his homosexuality. Larry eventually left high school but completed a GED.
He worked in Indianapolis for a while. He became a regular in the gay bars there.
He went to Indiana State University in Terre Haute for a short time in 1974. He met a professor of library sciences there. Professor Robert David Little would offer Larry Eyler a room in his home. Eyler claimed their relationship was platonic. Eyler would also later claim that Robert David Little was his accomplice in some of the murders. Professor Little later denied those accusations in court.
If only Larry Eyler had sought psychological counseling at this point in his life. The prevailing culture and society in the 1970’s shunned those who sought mental health care then. Men were expected to just be tough and unemotional. Society paid a heavy price for that attitude.
Eyler worked weekdays on a painting crew in Illinois. That is seasonal work and not necessarily five days a week throughout that season. He would have been traveling to various cities and towns in Illinois. He also worked Saturday nights at a liquor store in Greencastle, Indiana. Greencastle is about halfway between Terre Haute and Indianapolis.
How did he become known as “The Highway Killer” and also “The Interstate Killer” ? When did the killing start? We think it began in 1978.
1978- Eyler picked up 19 year old Craig Long off 7th street in Terre Haute. Craig was hitchhiking. Eyler pulled a knife, handcuffed him and attempted to rape him. Craig fought and was stabbed in the chest. Craig Long managed to successfully pretend to be dead. He was able to then flee and make it to a nearby house and get help.
As the young man was receiving first aid; Larry Eyler approached the house and offered the handcuff key to the deputies. He tried to pass the incident off as a consensual encounter gone wrong. Thank goodness the police did not believe him. He was arrested. Knives, whips and other devices were found in his truck.
Despite everything that happened; Larry Eyler managed to escape serious charges. Eyler’s friends paid his bail. In fact, Robert David Little offered Craig Long a check for $2,500 if he would drop the charges. Craig Long took the check. The charges were dropped in November 1978. Craig Long was probably eager to put all this behind him and move on. I don’t think anyone can blame him. This was a very traumatic event. Just about anyone would have taken the money and moved on.
Eyler had a room in the home of Robert David Little in Terre Haute. But he also had a long term boyfriend in Illinois. The two men fought often. They were often frustrated with each other. Larry Eyler acted out his anger with John on the men and boys that he abducted. John Dobrovolski of Illinois was in an ongoing relationship with Larry Eyler. He was also married with children and foster children.
On October 12th,1982 Craig Townsend was taken from Crown Point, Indiana. Miraculously, he survived this attack by Eyler. He had been drugged, assaulted, viciously beaten and left for dead in a field. It was a cold night and he suffered from exposure. He was comatose when found. But, he survived.
Only 11 days later, on October 23rd 1982, Eyler abducted, beat and murdered 19 year old Steven Malcolm Crockett.
On October 30th, 1982, Edgar Underkofler Jr. disappeared from Illinois. He was an Air Force Veteran originally from New York. He was found in March of 1983.
John Johnson was a bartender.
John Johnson disappeared on November 1st, 1982 and was found in Lowell, Indiana.
William Lewis was a 19 year old. He was picked up by Larry Eyler while hitchhiking. He was found buried in a field near tiny Rensselaer, Indiana. (Rensselaer is between Lafayette and Valparaiso.)
On December 19th, 1982, Steven Ray Agan disappeared from Terre Haute, Indiana.
Dr. Pless finished the Steven Ray Agan autopsy and immediately went to the autopsy of John Roach.
Dr. John Pless was struck by the very similar injuries. 21 year old John Roach had been found in Putnam County Indiana near the 38 ½ mile marker on I-70. That’s near the Putnamville off-ramp. John Roach had also been subjected to extreme violence.
(A year later, in 1984, Regina J. Pierce would be found murdered close to that same spot along I-70. She was from nearby Monrovia. Her murderer has never been caught. Although, I think she knew her killer.)
The victims of Larry Eyler also included 22 year old David Block from Illinois. He disappeared on December 30th, 1982 but wasn’t found until May 7th, 1984.
Ervin Gibson, of Chicago, was another victim.
Daniel Scott McNeive was found in Hendricks County, Indiana in May of 1982.
Eyler confessed to murdering a sex worker known as “Cowboy”. His body has never been found. His identity is unknown.
Richard Bruce was also a victim of Larry Eyler from Effingham, Illinois.
Jay Reynolds of Lexington, Kentucky was found in Madison County, Kentucky.
Jimmie Roberts of Chicago was found in Thorn Creek.
Some of Eyler's victims were white and some were black. All were male and physically fit. Eyler bound, tortured, and stabbed them. He nearly always left them with their pants and underwear pulled down. Some were also disemboweled.
The gay community in Indiana was paying attention in 1982 and early 1983. They saw a pattern. They saw these murders and disappearances as very possibly the work of one serial killer. A newspaper of the gay community, The Works, sponsored a hotline for tips and a reward for information that would lead to the identity of the killer. They worked with police in both states. In the midst of the AIDS health crisis and ongoing homophobia; the gay community stepped up to do what they could to stop this murderer. The newspaper’s tip line helped tremendously.
A Task Force was established and the tip line and cooperation of the gay community proved invaluable.
One tip was from a former boyfriend of Eyler’s. He voiced his suspicions about Eyler and told police where he worked and lived. He provided the team with Eyler’s connection to Professor Robert David Little. The Central Indiana Multi-Agency Investigation Team worked with the FBI and many other local and state agencies. Investigators took a look at Eyler. They found the 1978 arrest in Terre Haute.
Larry Eyler was in Lowell, Indiana on September 30th, 1983 and was stopped by police for a traffic violation. He had a young male hitchhiker with him. The recent murders were on the minds of the police. They detained and questioned Eyler. His truck was searched -before- police read him his Miranda rights and before they had permission or a warrant to search Eyler’s truck. To say that this was a big mistake is a huge understatement.
Boot prints and tire impressions had been left at the murder scene of victim Ralph Calise just a month prior.
29 year old Ralph Calise was murdered August 31st 1983. Those prints were compared to the boots and tire impressions collected from Eyler at the Lowell, Indiana September 30th 1983 arrest. They appeared to be a match. It seemed like a conviction would be a slam dunk.
Investigators still wanted to look at Robert David Little as an accomplice. After a search warrant was obtained; investigators combed through Robert David Little’s home in Terre Haute. Phone records were also obtained. One thing the task force found was that Eyler would often call Professor Little collect. The dates, times and cities that he called from often matched up with the disappearances and subsequent murders of victims.
On April 8th 1983, Gustavo Herrera had been murdered in Chicago. Eyler called Little from a pay phone near Cook County Hospital. He had cut his hand, presumably while stabbing Herrera. He sought medical care for the cut. That was just one instance of Eyler being in the area when a murder happened.
There were so many more instances like that. If Eyler was not the murderer then he must have been the murderer’s chauffeur. Nearly every murder matched up with a phone call.
Eric R. Hansen was 18 and went missing from downtown Milwaukee on September 27th. His torso was found in a plastic bag in a wooded area in Kenosha, County Wisconsin and finally identified on October 11th.
Eyler was charged with murder in the September 30th 1983 arrest. However, all the evidence collected in the Lowell, Indiana arrest was eventually deemed inadmissible. They searched and collected evidence pertaining to a murder not to the crime of solicitation. They had told Larry Eyler that he was being detained on solicitation charges. They had not asked for permission to search his vehicle. Police had gotten Eyler’s signature on a Miranda waiver. But, had not informed him that they suspected him of murder. They had only informed him that he might be charged with solicitation. Police felt the hitchhiker might have been a sex worker.
Meanwhile, bodies were found in an abandoned farmhouse in Lake Village, Indiana on October 18th-19th, 1983. All four victims suffered extreme violence. All four were found with their pants and underwear pulled down below their knees. This had been typical of the other prior victims found in Illinois and Indiana.
1984-
Due process under the law is part of our Constitution in the United States. Every person in our country is to be guaranteed the right to a fair trial. The arrest in Lowell was shaky. The things Eyler was accused of were potentially going to lead to the death penalty. The prosecution had to be spot on.
Now that nearly every piece of evidence was thrown out; prosecutors were scrambling. The phone records from Little’s house were also tossed. Eyler’s defense wanted him released on bond. This was granted.
So, Eyler was released on bond on February 6th 1984, (paid for by Robert David Little). One condition of his release was that he had to remain in Illinois. Robert David Little then helped Larry Eyler get an apartment in Chicago. He bought all the furnishings and paid the rent.
Eyler might have gotten away with all the murders but he just couldn’t stop killing. He was in an apartment now in a city. There were eyes everywhere. But, Eyler could not stop killing.
Daniel Bridges was 16 in 1984. He was the youngest of 13 children and the family was very poor. On August 19th 1984, Eyler lured the boy into his apartment. Daniel Bridges had known another victim, Ervin Gibson. The two boys were sex workers in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Daniel Bridges had been interviewed a couple of months before his murder by documentary filmmakers and had spoken of Larry Eyler. He was wary of Eyler but still, he was somehow abducted or drugged or lured into the apartment.
On August 21st, 1984, a janitor discovered Daniel Bridges' dismembered body in six different trash bags.
The janitor called the police. Other janitors at the complex had observed Eyler placing the bags in that dumpster on the previous day.
Eyler’s apartment was searched with a proper warrant. They found blood splattered on the floor, baseboards and other areas. An attempt had been made to clean and repaint but an enormous amount of blood evidence was collected.
Daniel Bridges’ bloodstained jeans were found in Eyler’s closet.
Eyler was convicted of the murder of Daniel Bridges. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
In 1988 Eyler appealed the conviction. He blamed the murder on his longtime and very generous friend, Professor Robert David Little.
In Vermillion County, Eyler was being looked at for the murder of Steven Agan. When informed that he was about to be indicted; Eyler cut a deal. He pleaded guilty and avoided the cost of a trial and saved himself from the death penalty.
Little was also tried in the Agan murder. Despite some very compelling testimony that indicated possible guilt…Robert David Little was acquitted in April 1991. I lived in Terre Haute around that time and attended Indiana State University then. Eyler and Little dominated the newspapers and the television news.
Shortly before Larry Eyler’s death he confessed to his lawyer. He admitted to the murders of 20 additional men and boys in Indiana and Illinois. He still maintained that Robert David Little had killed Daniel Bridges. He maintained that he only dismembered and disposed of 16 year old Daniel Bridges’ body. He also said Little was an accomplice in five of the murders.
Eyler’s life ended March 6th, 1994 at the Pontiac Correctional Facility in Pontiac, Illinois. He died of acquired immune deficiency complications. At that time; the treatments that are available now were not there.
His victims are still being identified. John Brandenburg Jr. was found with other victims near Lake Village, Indiana on October 18th, 1983 under an oak tree but only identified in 2021 using genetic genealogy.
William Lewis was identified in December 2021. He was from Peru, Indiana. He was found in Jasper County on October 15th, 1983.
Keith Bibbs was found on October 18th, 1983 in the same spot as John Brandenburg Jr. near Lake Village at the abandoned farmhouse. Keith Bibbs was identified in 2023.
People often talk about the traits of serial killers. They look at their childhoods. The dissect the details. But, many countries have already cracked the code on crime prevention. The countries with the least crime have free or inexpensive high quality universal childcare. They have fully funded schools. Their teachers are paid well. They have free universal healthcare. These countries have free college education and job training. Yes, sometimes violent crime still occurs. But, it is much rarer in these countries. Preventing crime is no mystery.
The loss of all these young men and boys is incalculable. One can only hope that they rest in peace. One can only hope that their families have found some peace although the pain can never be truly healed.
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