Police officers are meant to serve the
public and protect citizens, and that's exactly what the majority of them do.
But there are some cops out there who
grossly abuse their positions of authority for their own gain. Even more
disturbing, however, are the law enforcement officials who commit truly heinous
acts (either on the job or off), utilizing their specialized training to evade their
capture. And, throughout world history, society has seen several instances of
cops who tortured people, officers found guilty of multiple rapes and assaults,
and even serial killer cops who score as high on the sadism scale as murderers
like the BTK Killer [Bind-Torture-Kill ~ Dennis Rader].
The rapists, tortureres, and killer
cops on this list were all convicted of some very vicious crimes.
Jon Burge, Prolific Torturer
It all happened in Chicago. Where else
could a man like Jon Barge
succeed for decades as a police detective? The Windy City has had numerous
issues of corruption among its elected officials and law enforcement agencies,
not to mention a storied history of organized crime. Barge is a quintessential
hard-nosed, by-any-means-necessary cop who implemented methods of
confession-coercing torture that would make Al Capone proud, including the use
of a cattle prod, cigarette butts, and hot radiators, to burn victims, plus
non-lethal suffocation via a plastic bag, electroshock therapy, and
electrocution of genitals. Worse yet, the torture seemed almost exclusively
doled out to African-Americans. Barge was suspended in 1991, pending an
investigation, and was finally stripped of his badge in 1993. However, he did
not see any jail time until 2010. His sentence for committing torture and false
arrests for ten years? Four and a half years in a federal prison, of which he
only served three. As of this writing, Barge is a free man.
Randy
Comeaux,
Six-Time Rapist
Randy Comeaux, a former deputy with the
Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Department in Louisiana, was convicted of six rapes
in 1999, though police believe it is highly likely he was responsible for up to
nine more crimes in the area. Comeaux's assaults began in the 1980s and ended
sometime in 1995. His victims said that the deputy would give them
"helpful tips" during the attacks, like advising them to lock certain
windows at night. Comeaux was ultimately caught through advanced profiling and
investigative techniques, specifically the use of computers to triangulate an
approximate location of the perpetrator's address, and DNA testing methods that
were not available at the time of the crimes. It turns out Comeaux lived almost
exactly in the middle of the triangle, and DNA extracted from saliva on a
cigarette butt left at the scene of a crime was a match. This story was
featured in an episode of Forensic Files.
Christopher
Dorner,
Rampage Cop
Christopher Dorner's case is a knotty
one. It all began in 2007 when Dorner made allegations of excessive force
toward fellow LAPD Officer Teresa Evans. At the time, Evans was Dorner's
superior in charge of overseeing the completion of his probationary training.
Dorner claimed that Evans repeatedly kicked a suspect in the face. An
investigation found no significant evidence of this claim, and Dorner was fired
for falsifying testimony. In 2013,
after a lengthy appeals process, Dorner published a "manifesto" to
his Facebook wall. The utlining a plan to kill 40 specific law enforcement
personnel and their families, including Randal Quan, who had acted as Dorner's
defense attorney during the investigation. Dorner argued that his
termination from the force was in response to his reporting excessive force,
which had effectively angered the higher-ups. True to his words, Dorner began
his killing spree by murdering Quan's daughter and her fiancee. He would go on
to kill four more people and wound three others during a nine-day rampage and
manhunt that ended in a standoff at a cabin in northern California. Dorner
comitted suicide during this standoff.
Details thus far may seem cut and dry,
but here's where things get a bit twisted: during the manhunt, LAPD officers
wounded several people, as they opened fire on trucks that resembled Dorner's.
An investigation was launched, and the offending officers were penalized for
using excessive force. Which of course raises the question: were Dorner's
initial claims of excessive force actually justified? Was he indeed wrongfully
terminated? While answering yes to either of these questions does not validate
Dorner's actions, it does call into question the supposed innocence of those he
initially accused.
Daniel
Holtzclaw,
Serial Rapist
This is one very, very bad cop. Former
Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty of 18 charges,
including "sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy and rape," reported
CNN'S Michael Martinez. Holtzclaw committed these crimes while on-duty, targeting
one of Oklahoma's poorest neighborhoods, and assaulting exclusively black
women. While his defense resorted to victim-blaming, the evidence against
Holtzclaw was overwhelming, and the jury sentenced him to 263 years in prison.
Gennady
Mikhasevich,
Volunteer Killer
Gennady Mikhasevich served in the Voluntary People's Druzhina, a volunteer
police force in the Soviet Union. He assisted in the investigation of several
rapes and killings that took place between 1971 and 1985. Unbeknownst to his
fellow volunteers and members of the regular police force, the crimes were not
random and unconnected as many believed, but were in fact perpetuated by one
man: Mikhasevich. When Nikolay Ignatovich, a young investigator,
began sharing his serial killer theory, Mikhasevich sent an anonymous letter to
police in hopes of derailing their investigation. However, as the letter
was handwritten, investigators compared it to writing samples of people in
the area, and matched the letter to Mikhasevich's hand. He was executed in
1987.
Manuel
Pardo,
the Death Row Romeo
Manuel Pardo, alongside his partner
Rolando Garcia, was found guilty of robbing and murdering at least nine drug
dealers in Florida during the 1980s. Pardo was unrepentant about his crimes, asserting that the people he killed were
the "scum of the earth" who had "no right to live." After
his imprisonment, Pardo became known as the "Death Row Romeo," because he began correspondence with several women,
many of whom he convinced to send him money. Pardo was executed in 2012.
Drew
Peterson,
Two-Time Wife-Killer
Thirty-year police veteran Drew
Peterson — who had already burned through two wives — began killing his exes as
well as divorcing them. Peterson was convicted of beating and drowning his
third wife Kathleen Savio in 2004, several months after divorcing her in 2003.
He pretty much immediately married Stacy Cales. No one suspected him of the
murder until 2007, following the mysterious disappearance of Stacy, who it is
believed Peterson killed and hauled away in 50-gallon container. The pastor at
Stacy's church apparently testified that Peterson had confessed the murder of
Savio to Stacy, and that she provided a false alibi for her husband on the
night Savio died.
Craig
Peyer,
Sexual Predator and Murderer
While former California Highway
patrolman Craig Peyer only ever committed one murder, his 1986 killing of Cara
Knott, a student at San Diego State University, was the violent culmination of
sexual misconduct and gross misuse of authority. During his trial, it was revealed
that Peyer had forced numerous women to pull over along the same stretch of
highway where he eventually killed Knott. It was reported by nearly two dozen
women that Peyer, while not hostile, made romantic or sexual advances, in some
cases stroking their hair or shoulders. There had even been a few complaints
called into Peyer's station, but they were dismissed due to his reputation and
record. It is believed Peyer snapped when Knott reacted negatively to his
advances and even slashed him across the face with her fingernails when he
attempted to grab her. He bludgeoned Knott to death with his flashlight and
dumped her body below an abandoned bridge. As of this writing, Peyer is still
in prison, and will not be eligible for parole until 2027.
Mikhail
Popkov,
i.e., the Werewolf
The monstrous nickname "the
Werewolf" suits Mikhail Popkov, a former Russian police officer who used
his uniform and cruiser to prey upon intoxicated women. Providing them with a
false sense of trust and safety, Popkov would lure these women into his car,
drive them out to the woods, and then viciously attack them with "a
slipknot, knife, awl, screwdriver or an axe which he used up to 17 times on
some victims," wrote Siberian Times.
Following his attack, the Werewolf
would sexually assault his victims, then kill them — though in some cases it is
believed that he murdered his victims first, then engaged in necrophilia.
Popkov eventually confessed to 24 of the murders, claiming that the only reason
he ceased his activity was because he was impotent from syphilis and could no
longer enjoy murder on a sexual level. Police suspect Popkov is responsible for
at least five other killings, though the number could be far higher than that.
Gerard
John Schaefer,
Torturing Cop
Pulp writer Jim Thompson wrote of a
remorseless deputy sheriff in his 1952 novel The Killer Inside Me, apparently
based on a particularly unnerving police officer Thompson encountered in
real-life. However, even the writer's fictional creation isn't as brutal and
sadistic a figure as Gerard John Schaefer, who was only convicted of the
torture and murder of two teenage girls (but very likely killed far more than
that), all while serving as a deputy for the Martin County, Florida sheriff's
department . Even more bizarre: while in prison, Schaefer began a relationship
with true crime writer Sondra London who published several volumes of
Schaefer's fiction. What did he write about? Deranged cops torturing and
killing women and girls.
Even those who swore a public oath to
protect the innocent, can fall under the grasp of easy money, and rash emotions
to commit crimes; most often with disastrous results,
As always, stay safe !
-Bird
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