Victims 21-23 Date apprehended August 21, 1984 | Name Larry Eyler Country United States | |
 | ||
Born December 21, 1952 ( 1952-12-21 ) Crawfordsville, Indiana Cause of death complications from AIDS Other names The Highway Killer
The Interstate Killer
The Highway Murderer Conviction(s) Murder,
Aggravated Kidnapping Span of killings March 22, 1982–May 7, 1984 Died March 6, 1994, Pontiac, Illinois, United States | ||
Criminal penalty Capital punishment | ||
Larry Eyler Documentary
Larry Eyler (December 21, 1952 – March 6, 1994) was an American serial killer convicted and sentenced to death in Illinois for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of 15-year-old Daniel Bridges.
Contents
- Larry Eyler Documentary
- Case history
- Conviction in the Daniel Bridges case
- Other potential victims
- References
Active in the Midwest, before his death he confessed to 21 further homicides of young men and boys he had committed between 1982 and 1984 in five separate states. While awaiting execution, Eyler died in 1994 of AIDS-related complications. His defense attorney, Kathleen Zellner, posthumously released his list of victims.
Case history
Eyler, a house painter, was described by some members of the gay community in Indianapolis, Indiana as a good-looking person with a "hot temper", who "projected violence during sex acts". After being charged with the 1982 murder of Steven Agan, 23, in that city, Eyler confessed to authorities in a plea bargain.
Eyler was believed to be involved in additional murders of young men during the next two years. Two of Eyler's victims, who were discovered in 1983 in Newton and Jasper counties, Indiana, are unidentified as of 2016.
Conviction in the Daniel Bridges case
Daniel Bridges was a 15-year-old boy whose dismembered body was discovered on August 21, 1984, in a garbage dumpster in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago's far North Side. One of 12 children in his family, Bridges lived in the same neighborhood as Larry Eyler, and knew Eyler. Danny while on his way to meet relatives nearby, accepted a ride from Eyler. Danny though never made it to his nearby relatives as Eyler (according to relatives) bound Danny to a chair, beat, raped, killed him and dismembered his body.
Eyler was charged with murder, aggravated kidnapping and unlawful restraint. He was convicted in July 1986 of Bridges' murder and sentenced to death.
At the time of Eyler's death from AIDS, he was awaiting his execution. He was represented by attorney Kathleen Zellner, who had made an appeal disputing the conviction in the Bridges' murder. This was pending in the Illinois Supreme Court. The appeal maintained that one of Eyler's trial lawyers, David Shippers, had a conflict of interest as he had received $16,875 from a prosecution witness, Robert David Little. Little and Eyler had long been associated. Eyler had claimed that Little was the one who had killed Bridges. After Eyler's death, Zellner confirmed that she would proceed with filing the appeal to clarify various legal issues.
Other potential victims
The book Freed to Kill (1990) explored Eyler's potential connection to multiple murders and missing young men in Indiana and Illinois, resulting in investigations being reopened in several jurisdictions.
After Eyler's death, his defense attorney Kathleen Zellner revealed the names of 17 males whom Eyler had confessed to murdering and four who he said were murdered by an unidentified accomplice. That person was later revealed to be Robert David Little, an older college professor and longtime associate.
According to Zellner, Eyler had made the list of victims around three years before his death, in an effort to obtain a plea bargain. The prosecutors did not agree to the plea bargain. Later, Eyler allowed his lawyer to release the list.