On July 20, 1985, serial killer Richard Ramirez broke into a house in the middle of the night and saw Max and Lela Kneiding sleeping in their bedroom. He turned on the lights, approached their bed, and kicked it hard. The couple awoke to Richard yelling, ‘’Rise and shine, motherfuckers!’’ He then swung his machete at Max, attempting to behead him, but it only left a deep gash in his neck. He afterward swung his machete at Lela but missed. Realizing the machete wasn’t sharp enough to kill them quickly, he pulled out his .22 caliber and shot Max in the head once, ending his life instantly. He then fired at his wife’s face three times and she died as well. Richard proceeded to stab at their lifeless bodies with the machete, then ransacked the house for any valuables. He was out of there in thirty seconds.
“The ‘lead-crime hypothesis’ posits a direct correlation between crime and lead, or as you put it, ‘More lead, more murder.’ What’s the connection? During the post-war period, an enormous amount of lead was in the air from mainly two sources: Leaded gas, which everybody used for decades, and heavy industry like smelting… Many studies connect lead exposure to a particular kind of frontal cortex damage that leads to heightened aggression… The higher the lead exposure, the greater the brain volume mass, and reduced brain volume has been linked to higher levels of psychopathy.”
Herb Baumeister was a serial killer who operated in Indiana and possibly in Ohio, although his true motives will forever remain a mystery. Herb was said to have had a perfectly normal upbringing, but on the onset of adolescence began exhibiting antisocial behaviors such as playing with dead animals and urinating on his teacher’s desk. He was soon diagnosed with schizophrenia, although never received any treatment for it. In the 70s he got married and had three children of his own. Also in that decade he was committed to a psychiatric facility by his father. In the late 80s he founded a successful thrift store chain in Indianapolis called ‘’Sav-A-Lot’’. In the early 90s, police began investigating the mysterious disappearances of gay men who were all eerily close in age, height, and weight. Every lead resulted in a dead end, that is until a man contacted investigators to report that a man who goes by ‘’Brian Smart’’ and frequents gay bars had killed his friend and attempted to kill him as well. Police were able to track down the identity of ‘’Brian Smart’’ who turned out to be Herb Baumeister. When they informed him that he was a suspect in the men’s disappearances and asked to search his property, he refused to let them. In 1996, Herb’s wife filed for divorce and gave police permission to search their 18-acre farm while Herb was on vacation. It was then that police unearthed the bodies of eleven men. Herb is also suspected to be responsible for the murders of nine other men whose bodies were found along the corridor of Interstate 70 between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.
Police never had a chance to arrest the killer, as he had fled to Ontario, Canada, and shot himself in the head. He left a suicide note behind describing his failing marriage and business as reasons for why he killed himself, but nowhere did he mention the eleven men that were buried on his property. It seems that the answers his family, police, and the victims’ loved ones had been seeking were taken to the grave with him.
