The Shoe Fetish Killer: Jerome Brudos

A childhood obsession with women’s shoes grew into a deadly compulsion that claimed four innocent lives in Oregon.

The Date That Ended Everything

The young woman stared at her date in shock. The man sitting across from her had just asked the most disturbing question she had ever heard: “How did you know I would bring you back home and not take you to the river and strangle you?” When he claimed it was just a joke, she knew better. Something was deeply wrong with Jerome Brudos.

That uncomfortable date in 1969 would lead police straight to one of Oregon’s most twisted killers. Within days, investigators would discover a secret room filled with horrifying evidence of murder, mutilation, and a disturbing obsession that had consumed a man’s entire life.

A Childhood Without Love

Jerome Henry Brudos entered the world in South Dakota in 1939 as the second son to parents who desperately wanted a daughter. His mother never forgave him for being born male. She reminded him constantly that he was unwanted, a burden she never asked for. While his older brother received attention and care, Jerome was ignored and left to entertain himself.

The neglected boy found solace in unusual places. During one of his lonely explorations of a local junkyard, five-year-old Jerome discovered a discarded women’s high-heeled shoe. The sight of it fascinated him in ways he could not understand. He took the shoe home and hid it in his room, the beginning of an obsession that would define his entire existence.

By elementary school, Jerome had begun sneaking into neighbors’ homes to steal women’s shoes and underwear. The thrill of taking these forbidden items consumed his thoughts. He even attempted to steal his teacher’s spare shoes from her classroom, though he was caught and punished. The discipline did nothing to stop his compulsions.

First Taste of Violence

As Jerome grew older, his fixation grew darker. At seventeen, he attacked two young women. He forced one teenage girl to remove her clothes at knifepoint while he photographed her body. The traumatized victim was too ashamed to report the crime. The second young woman was braver and told authorities what had happened.

Jerome was sent to a mental hospital for treatment. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia and pointed to his mother’s cruel treatment as the source of his hatred toward women. After nine months of confinement, he was released on his eighteenth birthday. It was a decision that would cost innocent women their lives.

Jerome returned home and finished high school before enrolling at Oregon State University to study mechanical and electrical engineering. His attendance was so poor that the school expelled him. He then joined the Army but was quickly discharged for what officials termed “bizarre obsessions.”

A Marriage Built on Secrets

Working at a radio station, Jerome met seventeen-year-old Darcie Metzler. Despite her parents’ disapproval, the couple married in 1961 and settled in a suburb of Salem, Oregon. They soon had two children together. To outsiders, Jerome appeared to be a normal family man.

Behind closed doors, however, his behavior remained strange. He demanded that his young wife clean their house completely naked except for a pair of high-heeled shoes. Jerome also built a workshop attached to their home that was strictly off-limits to everyone else in the family.

Jerome claimed to suffer from severe headaches and blackouts. The only thing that seemed to help was prowling the neighborhood at night, stealing shoes and women’s underwear from clotheslines and homes. Local women reported being knocked down by an attacker who stole nothing but their shoes, though no one could prove Jerome was responsible.

The First Murder

On a cold day in January 1968, Jerome committed his first murder. Linda Slawson was going door-to-door selling encyclopedias when she knocked on the Brudos home. Jerome pretended to be interested in her products to get her inside, then strangled her to death. He kept Linda’s body in his secret workshop for several days, dressing her in different outfits and taking photographs. Before disposing of her body in a river, he cut off one of her feet to use as a model for trying on high-heeled shoes.

The murder unleashed something terrible in Jerome. He could not stop killing. His next victim was University of Oregon student Jan Whitney, who was driving home for Thanksgiving when her car broke down. Jerome happened to be passing by and offered help. When he could not get her car started, he offered to drive her to the nearest telephone. Once she was in his vehicle, he strangled her.

Jan’s body joined Linda’s in Jerome’s workshop of horrors. He dressed her corpse in lingerie and high heels, photographing her from different angles. Before dumping her body, he cut off part of her chest to keep as a gruesome trophy.

In 1969, Jerome killed two more young women: Karen Sprinker and Linda Salee. Both suffered the same fate as his previous victims. Their bodies were taken to his workshop, dressed up like dolls, and eventually weighted down with car parts before being thrown into local rivers.

The Bodies Surface

Jerome’s killing spree came to an end when a fisherman discovered Linda Salee’s body floating in the Long Tom River near Corvallis, Oregon, on May 10, 1969. Two days later, police divers found Karen Sprinker’s body in the same area. The weights Jerome had tied to the corpses had not been enough to keep them submerged permanently.

Detectives began questioning Karen’s fellow students at the University of Oregon. Several young women revealed they had received phone calls from a man claiming to be a lonely Vietnam veteran looking for a date. Only one student had agreed to meet him. She told investigators about the strange question her date had asked about taking her to the river and strangling her.

Police convinced the student to arrange a second meeting with the mysterious caller. When Jerome arrived expecting to find his date, he found detectives waiting instead. He denied knowing anything about the murders, and police initially released him. However, something about Jerome bothered the investigators, and they decided to dig deeper into his background.

Meanwhile, other detectives were reviewing cases of women who had been attacked in the area. When they showed photographs of possible suspects to one victim, she immediately identified Jerome Brudos as the man who had assaulted her.

Armed with this information, police obtained a search warrant for Jerome’s home. On May 25, 1969, they entered his forbidden workshop and discovered a chamber of horrors. Inside the locked room, they found nylon rope, photographs of his dead victims, and the trophies he had collected from each murder. Among the evidence was a paperweight made from human flesh and an extensive collection of women’s shoes and undergarments.

Behind Bars Forever

Faced with overwhelming evidence, Jerome confessed to all four murders on the spot. He pleaded guilty in court and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Even behind bars, his obsession continued. Jerome regularly wrote to shoe companies requesting their latest catalogs. Prison officials could not stop him from receiving the materials, as women’s shoe catalogs were not on the list of banned items.

When Jerome was not studying pictures of shoes, he spent his time filing appeals to overturn his conviction. None of his legal challenges succeeded. He remained imprisoned until his death from liver cancer in 2006 at the age of 67.

The case of Jerome Brudos revealed how a childhood obsession, fed by years of neglect and abuse, could transform into something monstrous. His secret workshop contained evidence of crimes that shocked even experienced investigators. The four young women he murdered never had a chance once they encountered the man whose twisted fantasies had consumed his entire life.

Source: Weird Darkness, Troy Taylor
Cover Photo: CVL Nation

NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is not an AI voice. (AI Policy)