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1:14

listener note. This episode contains

1:16

adult content and is not suitable

1:18

for everyone. Please be

1:20

advised. During

1:30

the early 1980s in Florida, a serial rapist

1:32

was terrorizing young women, sneaking into

1:35

their homes, mostly through unlocked windows

1:37

or doors. The

1:40

victims told police that the

1:42

man threatened them with a sharp object and

1:45

then tied their hands. The

1:48

attacker demanded that they not look at

1:50

him and covered their faces with a pillowcase, earning

1:54

him the nickname The Pillowcase Rapist.

2:00

His last known attack occurred in

2:03

February 1986. The

2:06

rapist, who is estimated to have at least

2:08

44 victims, had

2:10

vanished, and after a year

2:12

of searching, the case had

2:14

gone cold. That

2:17

is until Labor Day

2:19

weekend 2019, when a

2:21

28-year-old man kicked in the door

2:24

of his girlfriend's home and was

2:26

arrested for assault and burglary. His

2:29

DNA was taken and it matched

2:32

a sample taken from a crime

2:34

scene involving the pillowcase rapist. But

2:37

the 28-year-old was not alive when

2:39

the series of rapes occurred. However,

2:42

his 63-year-old father,

2:45

Robert Kohler, was. The

2:51

elder Kohler's DNA was a 100% match

2:54

to the pillowcase rapist, and he

2:57

was arrested on January 19, 2020.

3:02

In January of 2023, he

3:04

was convicted and sentenced to 17 years

3:06

for a rape in 1983. Other

3:11

charges are still pending. Today's

3:14

headline is courtesy of Channel 4,

3:17

CBS Miami. A

3:20

man who police say brutalized dozens of women

3:22

in South Florida in the 1980s is under

3:24

arrest tonight.

3:27

60-year-old Robert Kohler became known as the

3:29

pillowcase rapist. He is now in jail

3:31

in Brevard County. According to our news

3:33

partners, the Miami Herald authorities found the

3:36

registered sex offender thanks to a DNA

3:38

match. He suspected of raping at least

3:40

44 women at 9th

3:42

point while using a pillowcase or similar

3:45

item to hide his face. Today

3:48

we are speaking with David

3:50

Schutz, the senior editor of

3:52

The Sun Sentinel and the

3:54

host of the podcast, Filonius,

3:56

Florida, which is now in

3:58

its fourth season. This

4:01

season focuses on Florida's pillowcase rapist,

4:03

which is what we will be

4:05

discussing today. So

4:29

David, what if the police

4:32

learned about Robert Eugene Kohler's

4:34

background? He was adopted

4:37

and at around age 7, his

4:39

father took off, left his

4:41

wife and his young son at home. He

4:43

was an only child. Beyond

4:46

that, the police don't know

4:48

a whole lot about Kohler

4:50

because Kohler himself doesn't

4:52

like to talk about it. I spoke

4:55

to him from jail a

4:57

few times and he's very difficult to talk

4:59

to. He doesn't give away any personal information.

5:02

He's very secretive. He's a paranoid

5:05

person. He dropped out of

5:07

school in middle school and he was a

5:09

tow truck driver. He was always

5:11

a volatile person. As

5:13

he's described, he had run-ins

5:16

with police. So there were

5:18

signs before the rapes began

5:20

that he had a lot

5:23

of anger in him. You mentioned

5:25

he was paranoid. Now is that a

5:27

clinical diagnosis he has been given or

5:29

is it your observation account? That's

5:31

a good question. It's my observation of him. I

5:34

haven't seen any clinical diagnosis of

5:36

him, but in my

5:38

conversation with him, he's full of

5:40

conspiracy theories. He's paranoid. He's agitated,

5:44

short-tempered, lashes out, and that's

5:46

just my observation. How

5:49

many rapes do they think

5:52

he's good for? What

5:54

they will say is dozens.

5:57

What we've known historically about the Philippines is

5:59

dozens. she's rapist is the number 44.

6:02

He was very prolific and none of

6:05

the victims had ever seen his face.

6:07

And then in 1986, he broke into

6:09

the apartment of a woman who

6:14

kept her wits about her and was able

6:16

to trick him into

6:18

believing that she couldn't see

6:21

without her glasses. I'm

6:23

blind as a bat, that's specifically what she said

6:25

to him. And so

6:28

he did not conceal his identity

6:30

from her. And he proceeded to

6:32

rape her and she got a really good

6:34

look at his face. And from that,

6:36

a police sketch artist was able to

6:38

create a rendering of him. They created

6:40

a three dimensional bust. The investigators got

6:42

very aggressive with this sketch because it

6:44

was the big break that they had

6:46

been hoping for all along. So

6:49

it went to the media, flyers were printed

6:51

by the hundreds of thousands and distributed across

6:53

South Florida. And that was

6:55

the last time the pillowcase rapist ever struck.

6:58

So the thinking at the time was the

7:01

publicity might have spooked him. He

7:05

may have left the area, maybe he

7:07

died. Maybe he was incapacitated in some

7:09

way. They didn't know. What

7:11

was going on that we know

7:14

of in his life that

7:16

he stopped voluntarily, apparently?

7:19

What we know is that the rape stopped in

7:21

1986. Cola

7:24

was employed. He was still living

7:26

in his apartment in South Miami.

7:28

But around the same time that

7:30

they stopped, he abruptly packed up

7:32

his apartment and moved further North and

7:35

South Florida into Palm Beach County. Why?

7:38

We don't know. But he

7:40

continued working as an

7:42

electrician. He met a

7:44

woman who got pregnant

7:47

with Coler's son. They

7:49

ended up getting married and

7:51

she got pregnant with Coler's daughter.

7:54

So he was now at this time starting

7:56

to build a family. But after his 2020

7:58

arrest. told police

8:00

that it was not a good

8:03

marriage. It was quickly over. Well,

8:06

how could it not be? The guy's

8:08

a serial rapist. He abuses

8:10

women. I can't even

8:12

imagine him having a good

8:15

marriage. You mentioned his

8:17

arrest in 2020. How

8:19

did that come about? Now,

8:21

there's DNA being used in

8:23

every investigation. In

8:26

2019, Kuller's son was in

8:28

his early 20s and got

8:30

in an argument with his girlfriend. It

8:33

turned a little bit physical. His

8:35

girlfriend fled into her house.

8:38

The younger Robert Kuller, they

8:41

have the same name, kicked in the

8:43

door to his girlfriend's house. As soon

8:45

as he did that, he was committing

8:47

a felony. The son was arrested and

8:49

now anyone who's arrested and charged with

8:51

a felony has their DNA taken and

8:53

entered into a database. His

8:56

DNA came back as a match

8:58

to the pillowcase rapes from the early 1980s. But

9:01

of course, he wasn't born in the 1980s. How

9:04

could this be? The only answer was that

9:07

the DNA of the pillowcase

9:09

rapist belonged to his father, Robert

9:12

Eugene Kuller. That's

9:15

enough for investigators

9:17

to get a warrant to

9:19

try to collect more specific

9:21

DNA from the now

9:24

suspect. They began following

9:27

Robert Eugene Kuller around waiting for

9:29

an opportunity to collect DNA. They

9:32

got one at a Walmart when they

9:34

watched Kuller go in and use a

9:37

disinfectant wipe to wipe off his shopping

9:39

cart. As soon as he did

9:41

that, investigators were at the trash can where he

9:43

threw that wipe, took it out, got it to

9:46

the lab, did a test. It came back as

9:48

a match. He has now been

9:50

fitted for a pair of handcuffs

9:54

as a result of

9:56

medical biotechnology, the DNA.

9:59

Does he have anything? to say? I mean, is he

10:01

saying you got the wrong guy or is he just

10:04

zipped up or what? He is

10:06

absolutely not zipped up. He is

10:08

very talkative, more talkative than

10:10

he probably should be. But as

10:13

I said to you at the start of our

10:15

conversation, he has a lot

10:17

of conspiracies rolling around in his head.

10:20

He believes that the government has been

10:22

watching him for decades, that

10:25

he's been framed for these crimes, that

10:27

the serial rapes themselves were pegged on

10:29

him as a way for law enforcement

10:31

in Miami-Dade County to say

10:33

there's a serial rapist and get more funding. All

10:36

of these bizarre conspiracy

10:38

theories that he spouts

10:40

off. So at the

10:42

same time he's denying that he

10:44

was the guy who did this. He's

10:48

also saying, I was framed and

10:50

made to do things that I didn't

10:52

want to do. He's saying

10:54

he was framed and the police made him

10:56

rape women? Is that where we're at? Not

10:59

his exact words, but that's absolutely what he's

11:01

implying. I thought I heard it all, but

11:03

that's a new one. You've interacted

11:05

with him. Do you think this

11:10

paranoia, the police frame me and

11:12

they made me do things, is

11:15

that BS or does he

11:17

believe that? I think he believes that. And

11:19

I would say it's BS

11:22

if he just started talking like that

11:24

now. But the people that I

11:26

talked to who had interacted with him before

11:28

his arrest and the revelation

11:30

that he is the pillowcase rapist say

11:34

that he had the same conspiracy

11:36

theories. Obviously not specific to these

11:38

crimes, but that the government was

11:40

watching him, that they were out

11:42

for him. And so even though

11:44

he wasn't talking specifically about these

11:46

crimes, I think there are indications

11:48

that as the years went on

11:50

for this man, that his mental

11:52

condition was deteriorating. And in fact,

11:55

So much so that in the last hearing that I went

11:57

to in early May, I was in the office of the

11:59

police. The Twenty Twenty Four. Color.

12:02

Began yelling profanities at

12:04

the prosecutor calling her

12:07

evil. The judge had him

12:09

taken out of the courtroom, He was

12:11

wheeled out and his wheelchair and the

12:13

prosecutor immediately asked for a new mental

12:15

health evaluation as had been the second

12:17

one to determine his competency to stand

12:19

trial. So it'll be interesting

12:21

to see what that report says that

12:23

will have the question really about just

12:26

how much he believes his own conspiracy

12:28

theories. I. Find it hard to

12:30

believe and I come from a clinical background

12:32

foreign was an agent. I find it hard

12:35

to believe that somebody. Seriously.

12:37

Mentally else and he'll a

12:40

nos. That prosecutors

12:42

are ordering new psyche

12:44

vowels on him. That

12:47

he could have been. A

12:49

could he have been a prolific. Rapists yes would

12:51

likely have been caught because since

12:53

mental state would have resulted in

12:55

him being careless and. An.

12:58

Are getting caught because of leading evidence

13:00

The Staten, the other. That's

13:03

possible, but there. No. Way

13:05

someone or could have found

13:07

that mentally. Disturbed. Thirty

13:09

years ago. What? we're

13:11

talking about here is a paranoid delusion

13:13

that he has an apparently this is

13:16

been going on for. A while. The.

13:18

Government's after me. They frame me, the

13:20

police made me do things sexually. Did

13:22

these women I didn't wanna do? Said

13:25

that state of mine existed. Thirty.

13:27

Years ago there. Wouldn't have found.

13:30

What? Forty For a minimum,

13:32

forty four rapes, Without.

13:34

Him being caught. And. He was caught.

13:37

Accidentally. If it was

13:39

absolutely a stroke of luck, And. this

13:41

is absolutely your area more than

13:43

mine but if you took all

13:45

these things that he was doing

13:48

kind of on their own not

13:50

knowing his history and what he's

13:52

been accused of you would say

13:54

will he's a survivalist right he

13:56

believes in government conspiracies and that

13:58

is being was your camera mounted

14:01

all over his house. He

14:03

had water collection. He had

14:05

power sources off

14:07

the grid and he was

14:09

collecting things. His house was

14:11

an absolute mess. Well

14:14

that stands to reason because his mind

14:16

is. And what I

14:18

mean by that, it's sounding

14:21

like he had, well, definitely paranoid

14:24

delusions, possibly extending into a

14:26

disorder. And people that

14:29

are suffering from either

14:31

serious clinical depression, paranoid

14:34

delusions, their

14:36

habitat is usually a reflection of

14:38

what's going on in their head. And

14:40

by that I mean a hot mess.

14:43

Mental illnesses, if

14:45

he had one then, he was in

14:48

control of it. They get worse

14:50

without treatment or medication. As

14:52

an individual gets older, the

14:54

mental illness gets worse. Not

14:57

better. Yeah, and that is

14:59

absolutely not the same person who was

15:01

committing these rapes back in the 1980s.

15:03

I was able to evade capture. That's

15:06

not easy to do. At the peak

15:08

of the investigation there were 60 investigators

15:10

assigned to the task force

15:12

looking for this one individual.

15:14

Wow. You can't escape that

15:17

unless you're very tricky and

15:20

you're smart. And investigators said they believed

15:22

he was probably an intelligent person

15:24

back then to be able to stalk

15:27

his victims and get in

15:30

and out without any, not just

15:32

the victim, but witnesses.

15:35

Nobody ever saw him coming or going from any

15:37

of the apartments that he attacked.

15:40

Pretty amazing. Yeah, and that is

15:42

not the person who is sitting in jail today. No,

15:44

it isn't. David, I

15:46

really enjoyed your podcast. Thank you so

15:48

much for joining us to talk about your

15:50

season four. Thank you, Candace, and thank you

15:52

so much for having me on Killer Psyche.

15:55

If you would like to listen to David's podcast,

15:58

Filonius, Florida, we will... have

16:00

any links in the description.