Creep of the day: The Mannequin Man
Better known as the I-70 Strangler (though I have never known him as that)
This blurb from a podcast sums Herb Baumeister up well
https://insomniacpodcast.com/episode/case-1/
Herb lured young gay men back to his large home at Fox Hollow Farm when his wife and kids would go out of town to visit her family, which was often. The men would eventually be led to an indoor pool area where Mannnequins were randomly placed surrounding said pool ....and Herb would offer them alcohol, drug them and strangle them under the guise of sexual play.
In 1994 a man named Tomy contacted police to tell them about a guy who frequented gay bars calling himself Brian Smart. He was suspicious of the guy after he had almost killed Tony during an erotic asphyxiation encounter in the mansion. Tony thought this guy killled his friend. This set off an investigation and Herb became the suspect.
Authorities are still searching the farm for remains. They have found more than 10,000 pieces of remains. It is believed that he burned the bodies and pulverized the bones. In 1996 authorities found the remains of at least 25 people. There are likely more on the 18-acre Indiana property. Herb shot himself on July 3rd 1996. 8 men were identified from the remains in 1999 and they believe he is responsible for at least 9 bodies found in ditches and roadside dump sites across Indiana and Ohio.
One of his children found a skull in the yard before he was caught and he told his wife it was a medical specimen belonging to his late father. Even when people who live with serial killers say they didn't know...there are signs. Hind sight is always 20/20, but a medical specimen in the yard from his father doesn't make a lot of sense. A lot of people will delude themselves because the truth is too scary to handle.
This blurb from a podcast sums Herb Baumeister up well
https://insomniacpodcast.com/episode/case-1/
Scour the web for the tale of the I-70 Strangler, and the mannequins are always a footnote. You’ll undoubtedly hear about Herb Baumeister’s several murders, or the boys he cultivated then lured home. You’ll find the makeshift graveyard beneath the drainage pipe — just like his neighbor did — where rib cages peeked out from an unkempt lawn. The tale is filled with such horror that it’s easy to overlook the mannequins. And yet they deserve their own story: Baumeister spent days arranging and rearranging these life-size playthings around his pool; building a silent cocktail party — an audience to witness and admire the acts he couldn’t tell anyone about.
Herb lured young gay men back to his large home at Fox Hollow Farm when his wife and kids would go out of town to visit her family, which was often. The men would eventually be led to an indoor pool area where Mannnequins were randomly placed surrounding said pool ....and Herb would offer them alcohol, drug them and strangle them under the guise of sexual play.
In 1994 a man named Tomy contacted police to tell them about a guy who frequented gay bars calling himself Brian Smart. He was suspicious of the guy after he had almost killed Tony during an erotic asphyxiation encounter in the mansion. Tony thought this guy killled his friend. This set off an investigation and Herb became the suspect.
Authorities are still searching the farm for remains. They have found more than 10,000 pieces of remains. It is believed that he burned the bodies and pulverized the bones. In 1996 authorities found the remains of at least 25 people. There are likely more on the 18-acre Indiana property. Herb shot himself on July 3rd 1996. 8 men were identified from the remains in 1999 and they believe he is responsible for at least 9 bodies found in ditches and roadside dump sites across Indiana and Ohio.
One of his children found a skull in the yard before he was caught and he told his wife it was a medical specimen belonging to his late father. Even when people who live with serial killers say they didn't know...there are signs. Hind sight is always 20/20, but a medical specimen in the yard from his father doesn't make a lot of sense. A lot of people will delude themselves because the truth is too scary to handle.
