Larry Eyler: A Brief Biography of the Highway Murderer
Larry Eyler was a prolific American serial killer, who had killed more than twenty young men from 1982–84 in the Midwestern states (most of his victims were from Illinois, and Indiana). Most of his victims had been hitchhikers, gay men at bars, and male prostitutes. He would ply them with alcohol, and sedatives, and proposition them for sexual acts. Then, after transporting his victim to a secluded spot (like the abandoned farmhouse, his apartment, or Little’s condo), Eyler would kill them in vicious ways. Most of his murders were stabbings, or mutilations — with some of his victims being dismembered, or eviscerated. Eyler had received the nickname ‘Highway Murderer’, because the majority of his victims were dumped along the Interstate Highway System, or in rural areas nearby. He would always throw away any of his victim’s ID cards.
He didn’t always choose gay victims; some of them were straight hitchhikers, or straight sex workers who had mostly male clientele. Eyler’s murders were not sexually driven. Although he would often proposition his clients, he never actually had sex with them. He was described as a ‘rage killer’, because he’d become so infuriated by his partner’s infidelity, that he’d go on a rampage, taking his extreme anger out on the innocent young men.
