What Serial Killer Jerry Brudos' Childhood Was Really Like

Jerome "Jerry" Brudos was a serial killer with nicknames such as "The Shoe Fetish Slayer" and "The Lust Killer." He killed four women in Oregon in the 1960s and was finally arrested for his crimes in 1969. He was one of the killers featured in Netflix's "Mindhunter."

Like most serial killers, Jerry Brudos had a tough childhood. According to ATI, Brudos had an especially tough relationship with his mother, who reportedly resented him since his birth. Henry and Eileen Brudos, Jerry's parents, had an older son named Larry. When Eileen became pregnant a second time, she hoped for a daughter but instead gave birth to Jerry. Eileen was hostile and overbearing toward Jerry, but she was a loving mother to her older son Larry.

According to Biography, Brudos' fascination with shoes began at 5 years old. He found a pair of high heels from a junkyard and brought them home, only for Eileen to call him "wicked" for wearing them. Jerry's mother destroyed the shoes and that purportedly sparked his shoe fetish.

After the incident with the high heels, Jerry was caught trying to steal his nursery teacher's shoes. As Jerry grew older, he started stalking girls, knocking them out, and stealing their shoes, as reported by The Famous People. He had a growing collection of stolen shoes and even started stealing undergarments in his early teens.

Brudos' actions escalated when he was 17 years old. He abducted a teenage girl at knifepoint and forced her to strip, so he could take photos of her. Authorities caught Jerry and sent him to a psychiatric facility where he stayed for months. Reports from the hospital showed that Jerry Brudos had a hatred for his mother that he took out on his victims, as reported by Thought Co.

Although Brudos was capable of violent behavior, doctors at the psychiatric facility decided that it was only caused by his immaturity, and they let him free not even a year later. Brudos continued his violent ways, and he went even further by torturing and murdering his victims. Despite this, he seemingly lived a normal life, even marrying Darcie Metzler. He was arrested in 1969 and was sentenced to life imprisonment (via NY Daily News). Jerry Brudos died of cancer in 2006 at 67 years old.