Bruce Lindahl is a maniac who did justice to himself
Most serial killers are brought before the law and are punished. Bruce Lindahl, an American maniac who operated in the 70s and 80s of the last century, managed to avoid exposure several times. But karma still overtook him and the killer himself accidentally took his own life during an attack on another victim.
Bruce Everitt Lindahl was born on January 29, 1953 in St. Charles, a poor suburb of Chicago, Illinois. In addition to him, the family of Jerome and Arlene Lindahl had three more children. Bruce's parents liked to drink and after that they noisily sorted out the relationship, often with their fists. They were little interested in the fate of the children, so little Bruce was brought up by the street.
Despite a difficult childhood, Lindahl graduated from high school in 1971 and even entered a technical college. In the mid-70s, he received a diploma in electrical engineering and began working in his specialty. At one time, Bruce even taught the wisdom of electrical engineering to children at the Midvalley Vocational Center vocational school in Caneville, Illinois.
The man was actively involved in sports. Among his hobbies were tennis, racquetball and bowling. Bruce also jumped with a parachute several times and even thought about a career as a professional skydiver-athlete. Friends characterized Bruce Lindal as a positive guy, cheerful and sympathetic. True, after drinking alcohol, he often became rude and aggressive.
Lindahl had some legal problems, but they weren't serious. Several times he got into the police because of fights in bars, and in 1976 he was arrested for possession of marijuana. Each time he received an administrative fine and was released again. Perhaps this gave rise to a sense of impunity in him.
For the first time, Lindal seriously came to the attention of the cops in 1979, after moving to the small town of Aurora. He lured 20-year-old Annette Lazar to his home under the pretext of selling marijuana, and then, threatening with a knife, raped the girl. Lazar managed to escape only after she promised the rapist that she would meet with him. But, after leaving Lindal's house, she immediately went to the police.
But the case was not taken forward for two reasons. Firstly, Annette Lazar was a drug addict and appeared in the precinct "high". And secondly, the house where the crime occurred, Lindal rented from his friend, police officer Dave Torres. The victim's testimony was found to be unreliable, and no charges were brought against Bruce.
On June 23, 1980, Lindahl attacked the girl again. In the parking lot near the store, he saw 25-year-old Debra Colliander. He lured the victim into the car, drove him home and again, threatening with a weapon, committed violent acts. Taking an oath of silence from Debra, the criminal let her go. But Colliander told the police and Lindal was arrested. He was charged with kidnapping and rape.
Thanks to a lawyer, Bruce managed to get out on bail. And on October 7 of the same year, Colliander went missing. The girl left work at the end of the day and seemed to dissolve. In this regard, the trial of the rapist, scheduled for 1981, did not take place due to the absence of the victim. The charges against Lindal were completely dropped.
On December 22, 1980, Lindal met a 30-year-old woman in a bar in the city of Aurora. He offered her money for sexual services, but she refused. Then Bruce beat a new acquaintance and committed sexual acts on her in the presence of witnesses. The victim contacted the police. Lindal was helped by chance - for some unknown reason, among the photos presented for identification, there was no portrait of him. The woman pointed to another person, and the criminal again got away with it.
All these events gave Lindal the opportunity to consider himself omnipotent and invulnerable. He committed one crime after another and constantly received only fines. Once he was accused of illegally tapping phones for the purpose of extortion. When the police came to the criminal's home, Lindahl pointed a gun at the police officer. At that time, miraculously, no one was hurt.
Bruce was again under investigation and again released on bail. No one in the police knew that the rapist and bully Lindal was much worse than they thought. Everyone learned about his most terrible crimes only after the ridiculous death of a man in 1981.
On April 4, 1981, Bruce Lindahl met 18-year-old Charles Huber at a Naperville bowling alley. After the game, Bruce suggested that the young man go to visit his girlfriend and celebrate the acquaintance. Huber agreed, and the two of them went to Lindal's girlfriend, taking several bottles of alcohol with them.
After drinking alcohol, Bruce and Charles quarreled, and Lindal attacked the guy with a knife. But his opponent turned out to be not timid and offered serious resistance. During the struggle, Bruce accidentally stabbed himself in the femoral artery, causing severe bleeding. He killed Huber, inflicting 28 wounds on him, but he himself died a few minutes later than his victim.
After Lindal's death, a girl contacted the police, claiming that the man had raped her on December 22, 1980. Bruce's apartment was searched and found interesting evidence. Among the things of the criminal were photographs of 16-year-old Deborah McCall who went missing in 1979. The police suspected that Lindal had a hand in this, but neither the body nor any witnesses to the crime could be found.
In 1982, the decomposed body of the missing Debra Colliander was found. It was possible to determine the involvement of a maniac in her death thanks to a witness. A man called the police and said that in 1980 Lindahl offered him money for the murder of a girl. He refused and apparently Bruce dealt with her himself.
After that, the Illinois State Police, along with the FBI, began to raise old unsolved cases related to the murders of girls. In 1993, the case of 16-year-old Pamela Morer, who was raped and strangled in 1976, was resumed. The advent of new technologies has made it possible to compare the DNA of the body fluids of the killer with the DNA of his relative. So it turned out that Lindal also killed Maurer.
The investigation is still ongoing. The last crime of the Illinois maniac to date was solved in 2019. In 1976, near one of the roads, the body of a 16-year-old schoolgirl was found, who was run over by a car. An examination of the body showed that she was raped and strangled, and the accident was just a staging. DNA examination proved the involvement of Bruce Lindahl in this atrocity.
Now Lindal appears as an accused of 12 murders and 9 rapes. But this is only a small part of his crimes, the police are sure. In total, the maniac is suspected of committing 70 murders and dozens of rapes. But the investigation of such crimes is a complicated and long matter, because the monster itself is no longer alive. Therefore, the investigation will continue for more than one year.
But if Bruce Lindal was suspected of the murders, then the maniac Rodney Alcala was always out of the police's sight and even participated in a TV show.