HERBERT THE PERVERT; THE I-70 STRANGLER

         HERBERT, THE PERVERT; THE I-70 STRANGLER 

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INTRODUCTION

        Herbert Richard Baumeister (April 7, 1947 – July 3, 1996) was

 an American businessman and serial killer. A resident of the 

Indianapolis suburb of Westfield, Indiana, Baumeister came under 

investigation for murdering over a dozen men in the early 1990s, 

most of whom were last seen at gay bars. Police found the remains

 of eleven men, eight identified, on Baumeister's 

property.Baumeister died by suicide after a warrant was issued for

 his arrest. He was later linked to a series of murders of at least 

eleven men along Interstate 70, which occurred in the early 1980s

 to the early 1990s.

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EARLY LIFE

         Herb Baumeister was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 

7, 1947, the oldest of four children born to anesthesiologist Dr. 

Herbert Eugene Baumeister (d. November 12, 1986) and Elizabeth 

Baumeister (née Schmidt; d. April 7, 2013). Baumeister's

 childhood was reportedly normal, but he began exhibiting 

antisocial behavior by the onset of adolescence. Friends later 

recalled his urophilia and how he used to "ponder what it would be

 like to taste human urine." He also enjoyed urinating on teachers

' desks and playing with dead animals. In his teens, Baumeister's 

behavior caused his father to have him submit to mental 

examinations. He was subsequently diagnosed with paranoid

 schizophrenia and antisocial personality disorder, but did not

 receive further psychiatric treatment.

         In 1965, Baumeister attended Indiana University for a 

semester before dropping out, but returned in 1967. In 1972, 

he attended a semester at Butler University. As an adult, 

Baumeister drifted through a series of jobs, marked by a strong 

work ethic but also by increasingly bizarre behavior. 

Baumeister married Juliana "Julie" Saiter in November 1971, a 

union that produced three children. Saiter later said they

 had been sexually intimate only six times in over twenty-five 

years of marriage and never saw her husband nude. Six months

 after his marriage, Baumeister was committed to a psychiatric

hospital by his father for two months; his wife said he was 

"hurting and needed help."He established two successful stores

 and that included a Sav-A-Lot thrift store chain in Indianapolis in

 1988.

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HERBERT THE PERVERT/ "THE I-70 STRANGLER"

       The I-70 Strangler is the nickname of an unidentified serial 

killer who murdered at least twelve boys and men in the 

Midwestern United States between 1980 and 1991. All of the 

victims' bodies were discovered in areas along Interstate 70 (I-

70). Though officially unsolved, it is believed that deceased 

businessman Herb Baumeister, a suspect in over a dozen 

homicides in Indiana, might have been the perpetrator.

THE MURDERS

       The killer would choose young boys and adolescents as 

victims, whom he met in popular gay bars and other similar 

establishments within a four-block radius in Indianapolis. All of the

 victims were later found naked or partially clothed near I-70, 

often dumped in rivers, streams and ditches in the rural 

countryside. Each had been strangled to death.

In total, 12 men were recorded as his official victims:

    1. MICHAEL PEATRY: (age, 15) was discovered naked in rural 

Hamilton County, Indiana on June 16, 1980. Despite his young age, 

he was a male prostitute who spent most of his time around

 Indianapolis' gay bars. He was reported missing on June 7, but

 three days later, he was observed in different parts of the city

 riding along in a stranger's car. The cause of death was

 established as strangulation; no traces of drugs or alcohol were

 found in his blood.

    2. MAURICE TAYLOR'S (age, 23) topless corpse was found in

 July 1982 in the Weasel Creek in rural Hamilton County outside

 Atlanta. While his cause of death couldn't be definitively

 established, the coroners suspected that he had been strangled.

 Taylor was a vagrant who lived in the boiler room of an apartment

 complex in Indianapolis, and due to his financial difficulties, he 

offered sexual services around the gay bars. He remained 

unidentified for eight months, since his mother, who was detained

 in a mental hospital, was unable to file a missing persons report.

   3. DELEVOYD LEE BAKER (age, 14), an 8th grader, was found 

semi-nude near a river in Hamilton County. While investigating his 

death, police located witnesses who stated that Baker was last 

seen on the evening of October 2 in downtown Indianapolis, 

boarding a blue van driven by a young white man with a bushy

 moustache. The boy's parents told police that he had been riding 

his bike to the city center on the evening of his disappearance, 

from where he called home at 10:30 PM to inform them that he 

was going to be late because he wanted to go to the cinema. This

 statement concerned Baker's parents, who knew that he had no

 pocket money on him. It was later established that Baker and a 

16-year-old friend had been cruising the Indianapolis gay bars for

 the last three months, and according to his friend, he and Baker

 prostituted themselves for $20–23 per night. Due to several

 differences in comparison with other victims (being the youngest

 and only black victim), Baker's homicide was considered to be

 unrelated by some policemen.

      4. MICHAEL ANDREW  RILEY (ages, 22) disappeared on May 28,

 1983, after visiting 'The Vogue Theater' (other sources claim it 

was 'The Broad Ripple'), a nightclub in Indianapolis. He was last

 seen with an unfamiliar man, with whom he later left. Riley's nude

 body was later found in a ditch in Hancock County, southeast of 

Greenfield, on June 5. The autopsy determined that he had been 

strangled, with the perpetrator likely using a towel or similar 

fabric.

      5. ERIC ALLEN ROETTEGER (age, 17) vanished on May 7, 1985,

 with his shirtless body found a few days later near a stream in

 rural Preble County, Ohio, east of Lewisburg. According to his

 parents, Roettger was planning to attend interviews for a summer

 job on the day of his disappearance, but didn't attend any of them.

 His friends and relatives denied that he was gay, and later 

research indicated that Roettger had many friends and

 acquaintances who were drug addicts or drug traffickers. 

Witnesses claimed that they had seen Eric at a bus stop in the 

early morning of May 7, but instead of waiting for the bus, he

 accepted a ride from a passing car. When found, he had an 

apparent burn mark on his left shoulder, and had been strangled 

with a rope.

    6. MICHAEL ALLEN GLENN (age, 29) body, clad only in his 

underwear, was found in a ditch near Eaton, Ohio in August 1986. 

He lived separately from his parents in a trailer park located on the

 outskirts of Indianapolis and worked as a handyman, so the exact 

date of his disappearance couldn't be established. Strangulation 

marks, possibly from a rope, were found on his neck. He was 

identified three years after his discovery with the help of 

fingerprinting.

     7. JAMES ROBBINS (age, 21) went missing on October 15, 

1987, at around 10 PM, shortly after leaving his mother's home in

 Indianapolis and walked to the southern part of the city. Two days

 later, his naked corpse bearing strangulation marks was found in

 a ditch in rural Shelby County, near I-70 south of Gwynneville. 

While investigating his murder, police located two witnesses who

 gave conflicting information: one claimed that they had seen a red

 Jeep Wrangler Renegade near the crime scene, while another said

 that the car was a Chevrolet Blazer.

     8. JEAN PAUL  TALBOT (age, 26), like the previous victims, was

 found strangled to death in May 1989. His body had been dumped

 near a stream in Defiance County, Ohio.

     9. STEPHEN ELLIOTT(age, 26)'s corpse, clad in his underwear, 

was found in August 1989 in rural Preble County, Ohio, again near

 I-70. He had been strangled, presumably with a rope. Elliot's

 father told police that when his son came out as gay in 1979, he 

then left the family household and became involved in prostitution,

 developing an alcohol addiction.

    10.Clay Russell Boatman (age, 32), a licensed practical nurse, 

disappeared in August 1990, after leaving his Richmond apartment

 to visit Our Place, a local gay bar. His body, showing signs of 

strangulation, was found in a ditch by a group of children near

 Eaton, Ohio. When interviewed about his life, Boatman's family

 denied that he was homosexual.

    11. Thomas Clevenger, Jr. (age, 19) vanished without a trace at

 the end of August 1990, and his semi-nude corpse was later found

 at an abandoned railroad track near Greenville, Ohio. Clevenger

 grew up in a poor neighborhood of Indianapolis, and due to his 

rocky upbringing, he starting committing crimes and drinking at an

 early age. At age of 14, he attacked and then stabbed his deputy

 headmaster, and during his school years, he was diagnosed with

 an intellectual disability, because of which he had problems 

reading and writing. Shortly before his death, he engaged in 

prostitution near gay bars to earn money, a fact denied by his 

mother and sister.

12. OTTO GARY BECKER'S (age, 42) body was found in a ditch next

 to a gravel road in rural Henry County, Indiana on October 7,

 1991. While investigating his murder, police found several

 witnesses who claimed to have seen Becker in a car with two 

other men earlier that day, driving north on I-70 near Indianapolis.

 According to them, one of the men was holding Becker down while

 the other was driving. The witnesses were taken to the police 

station and shown photographs of various criminals convicted of

 kidnapping and murder charges in the state, but none of them was

 matched to the alleged abductors.