Robert Lee Bennett Jr. - The Handcuff Man

Bob Bennett Jr.

For the most part, Bob Bennett Jr. seemed to come from a pretty normal, stable, loving family. His mother, Annabelle (a homemaker) frequently volunteered for the red cross. His father, Bob Sr. (an attorney) was rather successful at work and helped raise a lot of money for the Boy Scouts. The family often traveled for pleasure. Sometimes with serial predators, we find that their childhoods were filled with physical or emotional neglect, economic hardships, and physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Their parents are sometimes alcoholics or drug addicts, unstable, neurotic, or superstitious. These arguments lead us to believe that maybe a genetic component is responsible for the predators behavior, or perhaps it is due to early childhood trauma associated with these things. However, with the case of Bob Bennett Jr. none of these seem to apply. Bob Jr. was adopted when he was twenty-two months old, so there is no way of knowing if he had been exposed to any abuse during the first two years of his life.

The Bennett family seemed to be a close knit, loving family. As a child, Bob Jr. (and his father) were very active with the Boy Scouts, and had a paper route. When the weather was rough, the father would help the son by driving his route in the family car. As a teenager, Bob Jr. is remembered as being outgoing, involving himself with many school organizations such as the Glee Club, the school chorus, the science club, and the school newspaper. His college years were much the same. He received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Denver in 1969 before moving on to the University of Virginia where he received his Master's Degree in Political Science. While at the University of Virginia, he was arrested once for indecent exposure - other than that, his record was spotless. In 1974, he received his law degree from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and he began working with his father at the law firm of Davis, Murphy, & Bennett. So far, there has been nothing that would indicate Bob Jr. would ever become anything other than a model citizen but that is about to change.

Bob Jr. forcefully picked up someone who he believed was a male street hustler but who in reality was a police officer working undercover trying to arrest those hustlers. Backup officers quickly rescued their undercover officer and picked up Bob Jr. on a kidnapping charge. By the time he came to trial he had pleaded to a severely lesser charge of battery and received a relatively small fine.

His next major brush with the law would come not long after. Bob Jr. picked up a man traveling from New York and offered to pay the man to have a drink with him. The man did, and the two had sex in Bob Jr's car. When the two went to Bob Jr's summer cottage, the man panicked and after grabbing Bennet's keys got in his car and drove away. He quickly crashed. The man, however, refused to cooperate with the police investigation, explaining that he wanted to keep his dealings with Bob Bennett Jr. private. Other law enforcement personnel also wanted the investigation dropped. According to the Journal Constitution (Atlanta) this was because Bob Bennett Sr. was on the Civil Service Board which handled police promotions. The police handled this situation by convincing Bob Jr. to move away from that area. He moved to Atlanta where he got a job at another prestigious law firm.

During that episode, Bob Bennett Sr. stated publicly that the only reason he tolerates his son is because his wife loves him (the son) so much, and he loves his wife.

The Drinking Game

Atlanta's Piedmont Park was known as a place where gay men would hang out. This is where Bob Jr. met one of his victims, a tall, slender man by the name of James Crowe. Bennett asked Crowe if he ever drank alcohol and when the man replied in the affirmative, Bennett told the guy he would pay the man fifty dollars for every shot he drank. After the first drink, the man became tipsy. Bennett drove the man to a nearby trailer park and began to play with him sexually. Crowe managed to escape from Bennett, however he refused to receive medical attention because he did not want his family to know he had been hustling, and since he did not like doctors.

In retrospect, investigators now believe this was Bob Bennett Jr's game. He would meet a gay male hustler and try to get him to drink some vodka. He explained a few times that he was doing a research project on the effects of alcohol. The alcohol was spiked and the hustler would quickly loose consciousness. Usually they awoke to find themselves handcuffed. Sometimes he would try to have sex with his victims. Sometimes he would put cigarettes out on them or try to burn them with flammable liquids. Many of his victims received severe burns, often resulting with amputations.

The victims were usually reluctant to press charges, not wanting to call attention to their sexual orientation or the fact they were hustlers. This left them to usually deal with things on their own.

In the case of James Crowe, he returned to Piedmont Park a few weeks after he was attacked, this time with another hustler who had a lot more experience and was willing to help the guy out. At one point, Crowe spotted Bennet's car and commented to his companion about the man. The companion apparently told Crowe the man had a bad reputation and called him The Handcuff Man.

The Handcuff Man

In the winter months of 1982, Bennett picked up a hustler standing on a street corner and paid the hustler to have a few drinks with him. They had a few drinks in Bennett's car before heading off to a local gay bar to have a few more. The next thing the hustler knew, he was coming to after somehow being knocked unconscious, wearing only his pants, but now he had two cigarette burns - one on his belly, the other on his arm.

In September of 1982, Bennett was arrested for the armed robbery and murder of James Lee Johnson. The charges would later be dropped because of insufficient evidence. Sandra, however, began divorce proceedings. Even though her husband was let go, she pressed forward with the divorce anyway. Three gay male hustlers appeared at the divorce trial testifying that they believed Bennett was the man they called The Handcuff Man, and the result of the trial ended largely in Sandra's favor.

In 1983, Bennett was barred from a restaurant and bar called the Gallus, which was known for its mostly gay clientele. He signed a waiver saying he understood he was being kicked out and could be arrested if he ever set foot on Gallus property again. This came about after a local hustler fingered Bennett as a man who liked to pick up and hurt male hustlers. In 1984, Bennett picked up a young man standing on the street corner (who was just waiting for the bus) and tried to play the drinking game with him. Although the youth did not know what it was exactly, he decided something was fishy and asked to be let out of Bennet's car. Bennett let the guy out unharmed. In 1985, Bennett picked up a hustler and asked him to try on a pair of handcuffs. When the hustler refused, he demanded out of the car, and noticed the car door's locking mechanism was missing and the door handle was covered with duct tape. Somehow the hustler managed to climb out through the window while the car was moving and managed to received only a few minor injuries from the fall.

Also in 1985, Bennett approached a hustler named Max Shrader. He asked Shrader to become aroused while he drove around the block. Max did. Bennett asked him if he wanted a drink of vodka. Max drank from the bottle which Bennett explained was vodka with a little Coke in it. Almost instantly, Max knew the vodka had been spiked with something other than Coke, but was unsuccessful in defending off Bennett's attempt to pull in into the passenger's seat. Bennett drove Shrader to a secluded area where he took the hustler's clothes off, doused his legs and genitals with a flammable liquid, and set him on fire before driving off. Nearby, people heard Shrader's screams and called police.

In June, 1986, the Handcuff Man struck again. Two hustlers were standing outside on a street corner. He called to one of them and asked if he wanted to play his drinking game. The man told him to hold on a moment, while he said something to his friend. His friend took down the driver's description and his license plate number. The two males drank while driving around town before stopping at a bar. The handcuff man persuaded the hustler to put on a pair of shorts, insisting that he would be more comfortable. The shorts didn't have any pockets so the hustler had to leave his wallet behind in his own jeans. The following memories the hustler has were quite blurry. He remembers having a few drinks, and then his companion seemed to want to get away from him. He followed the man out to the car and tried to get his wallet back. He reached through the passenger door but the car took off. He called to a nearby man that he had been mugged. He couldn't remember removing the pocketless shorts or his shirt. He passed out but woke up long enough to later give his name, address, and directions to someone who had stopped to help the guy. He woke up again at a doughnut shop and was able to identify the man who had been apprehended by two guys who had been alerted to what had happened, including another man who said the guy had mugged him.

February of 1991 found Gary Clapp sitting on the sidewalk outside a Tampa Salvation Army waiting for a free dinner when a man approached him and asked if he would help out with a drinking experiment. Since there was money involved, and he was hard pressed for cash, the man accepted. He doesn't remember what happened after he got in the car and had a few drinks.

A Tampa police officer spotted what at first he thought was an out of control bond fire, but proved to be the burning body of Gary Clapp. Everybody was surprised when the guy lived - nobody thought he was going to make it. He did live, although both of his legs needed to be amputated above the knees. When shown a photo lineup, Clapp quickly pointed out his attacker. However, the attacker was on his way back to Atlanta.

In May of 1991, another young man, Michael Jordan Jr., was approached and asked if he would take part in a drinking experiment. He couldn't remember very much when he woke up in the hospital with severe burns on his genitals, buttox, and legs. He was found naked behind an Atlanta hotel and the authorities could not interview him for awhile because of the pain the man was in and the pain killers he was given by doctors.

Also in May, Matthew Red Vernon was picked up by a man who wanted to know if he would like to partake in a drinking experiment. It wasn't until he had a few of the drinks that he realized who had picked him up. He told the man he would take the next drink if he gave him the money now, which the driver did. He escaped from the car and stuck his finger down his throat to throw the tainted vodka up.

By now, Jordan was awake enough to tell police what had happened. In a photo lineup, picked out Bob Bennett's photo. The same photo was picked out (after five years) by Max Shrader, who commented that he thought about the man every day since the event happened. A reporter with the Atlanta Journal Constitution made the connection after both identifications and printed that the most likely suspect in The Handcuff Man's case was Bob Lee Bennett Jr. Bennett, of course, publicly denied this. He was arrested anyway.

His lawyers tried to present alternative theories, stating that investigators must have coached the hustlers to finger Bennett since they sincerely needed a conviction in this case. They claimed that the burning of Gary Clapp was part of a Santaria ritual since decapitated chickens and goats were found not too far away and since Santaria was prominent in that part of the world. (Santaria is an Afro-Cuban religion which combines Catholicism with Yoruba. Animal sacrifice being one of its rituals is what makes Santaria so controversial in the United States.)

In jail, Bennett complained about everything from being denied meals to other prisoners attacking him for no reason, not to mention his wrongful imprisonment. Bennett and his lawyer tried everything they possibly could at first, and before long legal fees exceeded five hundred thousand dollars. In the end, prosecutors struck a deal that Bennett would plead guilty to the attempted murder of Gary Clapp and to two counts of aggravated assault in Atlanta. He could serve a seventeen year sentence in Florida to run concurrently (not consecutively) with his Atlanta Crimes. Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney publicly stated that Bennett would serve no additional time for his Atlanta crimes.

Gay Outrage

Many gay activists were royally pissed off about such a lenient sentence. Here's what a few of them had to say:

Good citizens need to step forward...This is an outrage

Larry Pellegrini,
president of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Chapter
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

It’s a sad situation when people can get away with torture, intimidation and hate. There’s obviously a problem with the system.

Lynn Cothren
Queer Nation

Setting people on fire is setting people on fire, and it should not matter what the sexual orientation is. It goes back to prejudice. It affects and invades all parts of society.

Judy Colbs
Atlanta's Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

I think clearly if it were a case involving heterosexuals, that if he had done this to a woman [or] a straight man, that his sentence would be much greater than what it is [...] It has taken the Atlanta Police Department dozens of years to seriously investigate and solve this case. I think that clearly you’ve got a prejudiced judicial system in Atlanta, in Fulton County. I’m happy Tampa was able to put together the case.

Jeff Graham
Act Up

Feb 24, 1992, Bennett pleaded guilty as was mandated by his plea bargain. Since he was out on three hundred thousand dollars bail, he was ordered by the judge to remain at home, except for times when he needed to leave the house, such as lawyer visits. These the courts needed to be informed about. His sentence was to begin March 9, 1992. He violated this order by trying to pick up a hustler at the same place where he met victim Gary Clapp. He was sent to jail immediately - two weeks before the arranged date.

On April 1, 1998, Robert Lee Bennett Jr. died in prison of a stroke, taking with him the reason he did what he did. Behavioral evidence just may provide us with a few clues.

Motives

Bennett was frequently described as a gay basher, and his results were often assumed to be taken out because of his own hatred of his own orientation directed outward. For the longest time, he denied being gay but eventually recanted saying he was. If this could be part of the explanation, it is unknown. Those people close to him state he never made any outwardly homophobic comments or lead them to even think he may be homophobic.

Strictly speaking, Bennett did not actively search out homosexuals on their own criteria. Rahter, he searched out men who were selling homosexual services. Perhaps there is a distinction there. However, many serial killers throughout history have searched out prostitutes and hustlers because they make easy victims - their bodies may never be found or missed, their profession is not legally or morally accepted, they are easy to be approached, they're accustomed to odd requests. Since prostitution is also illegal, the surviving victims are often reluctant to report crimes against them. Also, since prostitution and homosexuality are often considered as negative (espically during the times this case occurred, it is possible he took out his feelings on the gay hustlers. Any of these may have been factors.

Bennett is a fairly ok example of a sane, organized offender. During the court process, his lawyers sent him to a psychiatrist who came up with the same conclusion.

He is believed to have been impotent. This could have a direct bearing on parts of what he did - namely setting his victims genitals on fire. Essentially, since he could not attain an erection, he made it so his victims could not either - displacing the tension away from himself and placing within his victims.

A variation of sexual sadism cannot be completely ruled out since his victims were unconscious during part of his crimes. However, one of the reasons sexual sadists may decide to make their victim wear a mask is so that they do not see them when they are the most vulnerable. (This is similar to a theory of necrophalia as well.) Perhaps the unconscious sexual partner was the only way this man could achieve any level of sexual awareness...

Sources

• Newspapers: Atlanta Journal Constitution, St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Herald.
• The Crime Library