The Craigslist Killer: Richard Beasley | Making A Serial Killer | Forensic Files

Well, when Mr. Beasley sets up this Craigslist ad, he puts himself in a position of power.
EVERETTE PENN: It's an aspect of unfair play, using technology like Craigslist to lure men and then
find themselves in horrific situations. TINA BEASLEY: I knew there was a dark side, but not to the extent
that it turned out to be. JONI HOHNSTON: It occurs to Richard Beasley, what if I do this as my next career?
It hit me really hard. TINA BEASLEY: He was a wolf in sheep's clothing. I thought it.
Guess what? I was right. [theme music] EMMA DONALDSON: Akron, Ohio, was once the buckle
on America's industrial belt. Akron used to be a really booming city. It was the rubber capital.
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: The turn of the century, 1900s, you couldn't have found a more bustling and important
area to the world economy. EMMA DONALDSON: But times changed. And certainly, as a lot of jobs
have been automated and left, you know, we felt it harder than most. And it's hard to remember what a different world
we were in in the end of 2011. And Ohio was harder hit than many other states, so there was a lot of people feeling a lot of pain,
a lot of employment pain, and a lot of people looking for opportunities wherever they could.
EMMA DONALDSON: Craigslist is booming as a website where people can find anything, even a job.
In the fall of 2011, more than 100 people responded to an ad posted on the site by Richard Beasley.
It's $300 a week. They have a trailer they can live on. You know, the only drawbacks are, hey, you know,
your cell phone probably isn't going to work, and you got to want to be by yourself,
because you're kind of going to be, you know, off the grid. This is a difficult time financially.
We have the 2008 kind of home prices, and there were a lot of people who were really in very
difficult financial straits. EMMA DONALDSON: 56-year-old Ralph Geiger is one example.
He's living in a homeless shelter, having lost the construction company he used to run.
He applies for Richard Beasley's job on the farm in Caldwell, Ohio. JONI HOHNSTON: This is somebody who's down on his luck
for the past few years. This guy had a good history of working, but now he's in a bad, bad place.
He's desperate for work. He's going to look for a job in the library every day. This is someone who says, wow, I'm looking on Craigslist.
This opportunity exists for me to have a new life, perfect job. I'm going to drive and take my possessions there.
I'm going to get interviewed, and then I'm going to find this wonderful outcome that's
going to give me a fresh start. EMMA DONALDSON: Countless other men like Ralph are also interested in the job and the chance
to start a new life. David Pauley, Scott Davis, and Tim Kern are all unemployed and hope Beasley's advert could
be just the break they need. Richard Beasley will arrange to meet and interview all of them.
Most of them will end up dead. They never really knew the man who posted the ad.
JONI HOHNSTON: Sir Richard Beasley, reportedly, was physically abused by his stepfather.
It came out later that he had been sexually abused by some neighbors. And so he really did start out, I
think, with some pretty significant trauma. He was interested in school, to some extent.
He had said at one point that it was important to have Christians as friends because they
would always vouch for you. And so I think, from an early age, we see a little bit of Richard Beasley kind of realizing
that who you're around and how you pretend to be can really get you places. EMMA DONALDSON: Richard graduates from high school
in 1976 and trains to become a machinist, but he quickly loses interest. JONI HOHNSTON: So he moved to Texas,
has a job or two that are legitimate and then quickly kind of gives that up, and really
becomes a prolific burglar. He is arrested for that, and, you know, the judge throws the book at him.
And he receives like 40 years in prison. He only, though, does about four. So he is released, and he goes back to Ohio.
He meets his wife. They're both avid motorcycle enthusiasts. TINA BEASLEY: My name is Tina Beasley.
I'm 62 years old, and I was married to Richard Beasley. It was an instant attraction for both of us.
Me, I fell for them gorgeous blue eyes. Oh. And him, I'm not sure why he fell for me, but it was instant.
I mean, we clicked instantly. And then it wasn't too long after dating, I became pregnant,
so we decided to get married. We had a biker wedding, basically. My family was there.
His family was there. But everybody else was from our mutual biker friends. Three days later, Tonya was born.
TONYA BEASLEY: My name is Tonya Beasley. I'm 30 years old, and Richard Beasley is my father.
My dad was a really goofy dad. He liked to have fun. He would actually get down and kind of
use his imagination with me. When we were drawing, it was storytelling and dragons and monsters and all that kind of cool stuff.
Like, I actually felt like he was a kid like me just having fun. EMMA DONALDSON: With a new family,
Tina wants to leave the biker gang that she and Richard are members of, but Richard wants to stay.
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: You may think the lifestyle of a motorcycle gang is a close-knit community.
You know, they are very tight-knit. They don't let in outsiders, even if it becomes violent.
Often involved in drugs. At that time, we were seeing a lot of meth moving through motorcycle gangs.
TINA BEASLEY: He was a good father. He was good to me. He had a paycheck every week.
Bills were paid, but I had no clue what he was doing. And then I found out he wasn't working.
The pay paychecks wasn't real. And then I knew what he was doing for a living. EMMA DONALDSON: In the mid 1990s,
with Tonya a little girl, Richard becomes involved in illegal firearms. TONYA BEASLEY: While my dad was being this ideal father
from the outside, he actually, at the time, was breaking and entering. He was illegally selling weapons.
So it looks like he was doing the right thing, but he kind of had a double life in a sense too.
He was a father but also a really good con man, even just from the start. TINA BEASLEY: Everything was doing good
until they come to arrest him. At that time, I had to have a hysterectomy. I got out of the surgery, and there was no Rich.
No page from him, no call from him. He just disappeared. They had raided our house, and they even ripped up my couches,
looking for weapons. Oh, I was mad. TONYA BEASLEY: I do remember being all dressed up
for the court date and having to hug him and say bye, but I didn't realize what for.
It was more and more real as I got older. TINA BEASLEY: I knew there was a dark side, but not to the extent
that it turned out to be. EMMA DONALDSON: Richard Beasley is behind bars for dealing drugs
and carrying illegal weapons. In 2003, he's released early, and 12-year-old Tonya is unaware
her mother filed for divorce. TINA BEASLEY: We had a perfect family life, for her sake.
We stayed together, but we separated. He was very upset about it. Even to this day, Rich still has not come
to terms that I divorced him. We still tried to be friends. It wasn't like it was before.
I just didn't trust him. EMMA DONALDSON: But after his release, Richard Beasley swears he's now a changed man.
JONI HOHNSTON: While he is in prison during the seven-year stint, Richard Beasley finds God.
He reads the Bible. He memorizes Bible verses. And when he gets out, he tells his daughter and other people
that his life has changed and he is going to spend, you know, the rest of his life helping other people.
EMMA DONALDSON: Beasley puts his newfound faith into action on Akron's streets. He becomes a self-styled pastor and even earns
the nickname Chaplain Rich. TONYA BEASLEY: There were all these people who had been down on their luck their whole lives.
They'd been in and out of prison their whole lives. And so he kind of was a role model in the sense
that no matter how many times you do fall, you can get back up. Not just the first time you fall, not
just the second time you fall. It's almost like an ebb and flow. And he showed people that.
JONI HOHNSTON: He does, for a while, go out and minister to other people. He goes to soup kitchens.
He volunteers his time. And the question I think becomes, is this genuine? And so we don't know completely with Richard Beasley.
EVERETTE PENN: Opportunities still exist. When one is around vulnerable people who are looking for help,
it can be very easy to hurt them as they look for that help. So what comes first?
Trying to rehabilitate and trying to be a different person? Or seeing that as an opportunity to see people
who will need your help and then you can take advantage of them? TINA BEASLEY: They were driving, and I believe
he was hit by a dump truck. His truck rolled. It severed his Achilles tendon, broke his sternum.
TONYA BEASLEY: Not only did it affect his ability to work, but he also was prescribed painkillers.
Ultimately, his accident led to him being addicted to OxyContin. At the time, he was getting into street ministry
with individuals who were addicts, so I think there was that struggle. At one point, I don't think he realized he was addicted to it.
After his accident, he used part of his settlement to buy a house in Akron, and it was in kind
of a rough neighborhood. So he helped the people in the neighborhood, and through his ministry, get back on their feet.
And he converted the bottom into his apartment so he could monitor what was going on in the rooms
and the housing upstairs. JONI HOHNSTON: And he began to go to the courts, and he was vouching for people.
He is going on the streets. He's recruiting people. And people in town are thinking, man, you know, Chaplain Rich
is a great, great guy. TONYA BEASLEY: When my dad first got his halfway house, a lot of people were donating furniture.
When he first got out of prison, a lot of people donated stuff. So by the time he finished setting up,
he had all this extra stuff. So he asked me to make the Craigslist account so he could sell all of these extra things that he had.
And of course, at the time, Craigslist was the place to go to sell and buy stuff.
Also, at the time, that was a leading technology, was a computer or a laptop. And so he had no idea of how to use that stuff.
In the beginning, I had to help him a lot. But then after that, he learned and did it all himself.
So at first, it was just men that lived in the house, and then it started becoming here
and there, oh, well, there's a woman that needs help. And when you start mixing things like that,
it gets messy real quick. And that's when things really started going south. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: He had manipulated the system enough
to get some defendants sent to him as part of their probation. So what he's doing here is two different things.
He's trying to scam money from the courts for this, you know, make-work halfway house.
But we also found out is that, in doing so, he's trying to get women who are drug
addicts into his halfway house and trying to turn them into prostitutes. And around that time, he started getting a little snappy.
Like, he would snap at me over random things and not the kind person I know, which I know--
I knew at the time, when you're on drugs, that's what happens. It affects your personality.
It almost felt like, overnight, there was this great, awesome dad, and then there was this hateful kind of shell of the guy that I knew.
But to everybody else, he was great. JONI HOHNSTON: There was some psychological payoff for him,
this idea of, you know, kind of getting off on other people, fooling other people.
There's a term called duping delight. It's people who get psychological satisfaction
from fooling other people. You know, Richard Beasley was showing up at court and pretending to be this wonderful person
and having this facade in the community. It's hard not to believe, as elaborate as it was,
that he wasn't getting some kind of thrill or some kind of satisfaction out of that part of it as well.
TINA BEASLEY: He pretended to be a Christian. Going to burn in hell for that. Excuse me saying that.
But yeah, God forgives, but I don't think that you can be a man of God and run a prostitution and drug ring out of your house either.
TONYA BEASLEY: At the time, I was dating someone who was older than me, and I found out that my dad had been using
him to sell pills and marijuana in my hometown to people I know. That's when I completely cut off contact.
EMMA DONALDSON: By 2011, Richard Beasley is under scrutiny by Akron Police for sex trafficking.
His behavior is deteriorating, and he's now a wanted man following a probation violation.
Richard Beasley really does feel like, I think, his back is up against the wall.
And one of the things he had said on several occasions is he did not want to go back to prison.
And so he began scheming. You know, OK, how am I going to avoid this? I can't go on the run.
With my name and with all my history, I can't-- I mean, that's not going to work.
And so he comes up with this horrendous scheme. I'm going to find somebody who looks like me, who's
about the same age that I am, somebody who is older, somebody who's vulnerable, somebody
who isn't going to be missed. They don't have a lot of family ties. If I can find that person, I can just kill
them and assume their identity. EMMA DONALDSON: In the summer of 2011, Beasley plans to lure potential victims to him with an ad he's
placed on Craigslist, and then he's going to kill them and steal their identities to avoid
being captured by police. EVERETTE PENN: Look at the situation and the desperateness
that some people may have. Here's a person that says, there are people without work.
There are people without opportunity. There are people addicted. There are people involved in prostitution.
This is now starting to come my way. Well, when Mr. Beasley sets up this Craigslist ad,
he puts himself in the position of power. He's the one who has the job, so he can ask any questions
of any applicants. And so he can find out who's local, who's not local, who has strong family ties, who doesn't have strong family ties.
You know, it's not going to be a coincidence that he winds up with several victims who don't have a lot of close family ties.
TONYA BEASLEY: And he knew that if these people had no one that would miss them and they brought all their belongings for this
job, he'd be able to sell their belongings-- there's the money-- steal their identities because they had long hair
and looked like him-- there's the drugs. And then he had this huge plot of land, wherever he was saying,
that provided him a place to live. So at that point, in his head, he was just trying
to survive and get his drugs. EMMA DONALDSON: Estranged from his daughter and physically
unable to carry out his plan alone, Richard Beasley develops a closer bond with Brogan Rafferty, the 16-year-old
son of a close friend. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: Our investigation showed that Brogan Rafferty's dad was pretty high up
in a local club, and we kind of think that's how those two, Mr. Beasley and Mr. Rafferty
started to meet. I think that he certainly, probably enjoyed the attention and the love and the admiration
he got from this young child. TINA BEASLEY: He would teach Brogan things. At first, it was about Christ and church and everything
like that. Then it turned into mafia. And Brogan copied Richard's dress. You know, wore the same leather jacket, identical leather jacket
and jeans, same brand of jeans. And he just became obsessed with Rich. EVERETTE PENN: 16-year-olds, please don't be fooled, are
still in the formative stage. The brain is still forming. We call it the teen brain.
So perhaps that 16-year-old is looking for a definition of life, looking for those materialistic goods.
The 50-year-old is able to provide it. The 50-year-old is looking for a person that has the youthfulness
to allow for some of these criminal activities to take place. EMMA DONALDSON: 56-year-old Ralph Geiger,
who's now homeless after losing his job running a construction company, is the first
to answer Beasley's ad. I'm out of work. Here's an opportunity for me to work. Here's an opportunity for me to be on a farm.
And all I have to do is answer this call, meet with this person. It's an aspect of almost unfair play
that this would be set up in this way, using technology like Craigslist to lure men to find these jobs
and then find themselves in horrific situations. JONI HOHNSTON: Ralph becomes Richard
Beasley's avenue, in his mind, to escape going back to prison. So he and Ralph and Brogan meet up.
And they basically get into the car, and they go out in the woods, allegedly to this farm.
Richard makes up some ruse to get Ralph out of the car, and they go through the woods.
Somehow Richard gets behind Ralph Geiger, and Richard Beasley just pulls out a gun
and shoots him in the back of the head. TONYA BEASLEY: My dad was so far into drug usage at the time.
He knew it was wrong, but I don't think he could emotionally connect to it. When you're on drugs, it's all about self gain.
What benefits you, what helps you get your next high. And that's all he was thinking about.
JONI HOHNSTON: Richard now becomes Ralph Geiger. He asked people who knew him to start calling
him Ralph, which I can only imagine what they thought about that. He rents a room under the name Ralph Geiger,
and it occurs to Richard Beasley, a.k.a. Ralph Geiger at this point, that, man, that was so easy.
Nobody's looking for Ralph Geiger. I need money. My back hurts. I don't want to work.
So what if I do this as my next career? I mean, this is really the beginning of Richard Beasley,
the serial killer. EMMA DONALDSON: For two months, Richard Beasley has been living under the identity of Ralph Geiger,
a homeless man who Beasley killed after responding to a Craigslist ad. Now he's looking for another victim from the applicants
to his ad. JONI HOHNSTON: He is looking for very, very specific, vulnerable victims--
lack of family ties, middle aged, willing to go off the grid. And so he gets over 100 replies for this position.
EMMA DONALDSON: Beasley agrees to meet 51-year-old David Pauley. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: So Mr. Pauley is coming from Norfolk,
Virginia, which is almost a 10-hour drive from Akron, Ohio. He's not coming here just to find out about a job.
He packed up his U-Haul and moved all of his possessions here, so he was coming here with the intention to stay
here and make a new life here. And I think that Mr. Pauley being willing and able to leave
Norfolk, Virginia, and drive 10 hours for a promise of a job or the possibility of a job shows how desperate Mr. Pauley
was at the time and, frankly, how a lot of people were at the time. EVERETTE PENN: Can you imagine the helplessness
and the hopelessness that exists in someone responding to that, thinking that this is a new start?
Again, the vulnerabilities of people lending them to take down their guard a step or two.
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: He starts hearing from these victims and luring them to Ohio.
Some of the questions he's asking are, do you have meds? Clearly, drugs is a through line through all of this.
So the motive was him stealing identities and trying to get money and drugs while not
getting caught by the police. He was so numb to what he was doing, he didn't grasp the concept of another human life.
JONI HOHNSTON: So David Pauley is beside himself. He packs all of his stuff up. He drives all the way to Ohio.
He meets with the person who he thinks is named Jack. Jack's "nephew," Brogan, is also with him.
And once again, he does the same ruse. He convinces David to go out into the woods.
They go for a walk. Richard Beasley gets behind him and shoots him in the back of the head.
What struck me was how much psychological payoff there seemed to be for Richard Beasley in running the schemes
and duping the people around him. And I think that motive was extremely powerful to him
and probably more powerful to him than he even realized or would acknowledge. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: We see a lot of time pass
between that first victim, Mr. Geiger, and that second victim, Mr. Pauley. But given that the time had passed
and still nothing happened, they're even more emboldened. They're not going to wait this time.
They're going to move faster this time. And that's exactly what they did. EMMA DONALDSON: Less than three weeks later,
50-year-old Scott Davis is on his way to meet Richard Beasley. Scott Davis was from South Carolina,
but he was living locally with his mom in Massillon, Ohio. So that's about 40 minutes from Akron.
But like everyone else, he was also kind of down on his luck at this time. So this is how he comes into Mr. Beasley's orbit.
Mr. Beasley is still relying on that same Craigslist ad. He's still getting people interested in that job,
and he's still going back to that same ad and going to the same pool of victims to pick from.
So what we find is, Mr. Beasley lures Mr. Davis to a restaurant, just like he did Mr. Pauley.
They have their meal there, and he takes him to the same secluded wooded area with every intention
of killing Mr. Davis, just like he killed Mr. Pauley. And so, once again, Richard Beasley pulls out the gun,
points it at Scott's head, and it doesn't go off. There's a click. And Scott turns around and sees this gun.
Now, Richard Beasley fires again, and this time he doesn't miss. And he hits Scott in the elbow, which
is a pretty serious injury. But Scott absolutely takes off, and he is running for his life.
And Richard Beasley is looking everywhere, and so is Brogan Rafferty. And Scott Davis is running, just losing blood as he goes.
He ends up hiding in this creek bed for, like, seven hours, losing blood this entire time.
After seven hours, it's freezing outside and he's losing blood, this man gets up and walks 7 miles
to a house, where he knocks on the door, and people open it. And there's this man covered in blood
who tells them this horrendous story, and they call 911. MAN (ON PHONE): We just had a gentleman
come up to our front door. He claims he's been shot. He's got some blood on him.
What's your name, sir? SCOTT DAVIS: Scott Davis. MAN (ON PHONE): Scott Davis. EMMA DONALDSON: Scott Davis is rescued, treated for his wounds
and questioned by police. JONI HOHNSTON: At this point, Richard Beasley has become not
only desperate but reckless. He's realizing that the gig is about to be up. EMMA DONALDSON: Before authorities begin
to track down Beasley and Rafferty, they're luring another victim. This time, they picked Timothy Kern,
an unemployed father of a teenage son from Massillon, Ohio. Timothy's son drives him to an interview with Beasley
and Rafferty at a Waffle House. A few days later, Beasley confirms Tim has got the job,
so he heads back. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: They lure Mr. Kern through the same thing. They sit down.
They have a meal, and they're going to go take him to this advertised wooded area.
They have to go to a different place after what happened to Mr Davis, but they find another wooded area to do this in.
They start taking him to this wooded area, and they shoot him four times. Mr Kern didn't die at the first shot to the head,
and he kept breathing. And it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder-- four times shot.
JONI HOHNSTON: He literally has $5 in his pocket. To me, again, it's an indication that while money
may have been part of that entire scheme, it wasn't everything. I think Richard was angry as a person.
I think he was desperate. I think he saw what was going to happen, and I think he was just-- he didn't care.
I don't think he cared at all about his victim. And maybe he never did. But he chose, at that moment, to go ahead and kill him.
EVERETTE PENN: This is the question that occurs right about this time is, after you've committed two, three of these heinous acts,
is it something that you're doing to fulfill a need? Or is it something that you've gotten very good at?
Whatever is the answer there, we still have to deal with there are people who will do these heinous crimes.
And it takes outstanding police work and also the general public being out there, willing to be the persons
to report activities that may be suspicious or in question. EMMA DONALDSON: The sister of David Pauley,
Beasley's second victim, is one such person. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: Mr. Pauley actually
had a sister who lived up in Maine, and he told his sister what he was doing. He told her that he had found an ad on Craigslist.
He'd found a job in Ohio and that's where he was going to go. So fortunately, in this case, his sister
is aware and can contact authorities and alert people that his brother's gone missing.
EMMA DONALDSON: At the same time, as police start investigating the disappearance of David Pauley,
authorities are getting closer to Beasley, thanks to details from Scott Davis. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: Now we have Mr. Davis also saying
that he responded to a Craigslist ad, and once you kind of compare that with what Mr. Pauley's sister is telling authorities,
that's when the pieces start to fall in place. So once they have that Craigslist ad that's been up,
they're starting to be able to investigate where that ad came from, what IP address was used.
It's finding out that the computer and IP address was in Akron, Ohio, in the basement of a gentleman's home
where Mr. Beasley was renting a room. So now we are on to Mr. Beasley as a suspect in this case.
EMMA DONALDSON: Investigators visit the restaurant where Beasley met Scott Davis.
We were able to look at the video at the restaurant where they had, and that's where we
get the picture of Brogan Rafferty and Richard Beasley coming to meet Mr. Davis.
That's the video that ultimately leads the case to break open. And initially, Brogan Rafferty says, I don't
know what you're talking about. I don't have anything to do with this. But he's 16 years old, and so he confesses.
And in talking to him, they're able to get a lot more details, not only of the murders, but where all the bodies are buried.
We get a full account of everything that happened and where every body was buried.
EMMA DONALDSON: Police also find what they call a killing kit at Rafferty's home.
They now hope to find Beasley before he can kill again. 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty has confessed to taking part
in the murder of Ralph Geiger. But police are yet to find suspected serial killer, Richard Beasley, or establish
any alias he's using. TONYA BEASLEY: I was working at fast food, and this guy comes up to the counter.
And I'm thinking he's going to order food per usual, normal day. And he flashes his badge, says he's with the FBI
and wants to talk to me about my dad. Definitely red flags going off in my brain.
But at the same time, I knew he would get caught eventually. But I thought it was weird that it was by the FBI and not,
you know, Akron Police Department. So he pulled me aside. We started talking. He asked me if my dad had land anywhere, if there's anywhere
he could be hiding out. So then I'm like, oh, they didn't catch him. That's weird.
I guess they're still trying to find him. Why are they talking to me? I haven't talked to him in forever.
I did know there were a couple of places he had talked about, about his friend having land.
And then he had me identify pictures of him, but also Brogan, which was weird. I'm like, where does Brogan come into play of all of this?
So I identified the pictures, and then he got a call and was discussing with someone that they found another body.
And I'm like, this probably pertains to my dad. So he came back, and I asked him, I was like,
was that call about my dad? I know you aren't supposed to give details, but, like, what's going on.
Because I heard it, now I know. And that's when he confirmed that they were looking for bodies of people my dad had killed.
In that moment, I kind of froze, and I didn't feel anything. My heart dropped, and I felt this hole.
But at the time, I don't think my teenage mind could really process it. It was almost like my whole dream and idea of him
came crashing down at once, and I was feeling so many emotions, I couldn't even decipher them.
Basically this black hole of despair sucked in all my emotions, and it was like time froze.
And it-- I just was broken and-- It wasn't just open-ended. Like, he killed people.
This was it. Like, he's done. You know, it's something major. And it hit me really hard.
I was just totally taken aback. Anything they could have told me Rich done, I would have never have thought that.
EMMA DONALDSON: Richard Beasley is charged on multiple counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, kidnapping,
and aggravated robbery. It's rough. It is. Knowing I married a man that became that.
I never would have thought that of Rich. I still can't believe when they call him a serial killer--
that I have so many good memories, and my daughter has so many good memories, and that he can just throw it all away.
ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: When we looked into Brogan at the time, because we're trying to find out how does this 16-year-old, 15-,
16-year-old kid get involved with this, you know, our Bureau of Criminal Investigation
investigators looked into his computer history. And what we find is someone who is
obsessed with mafia lifestyle. He's obsessed with crime. And you can see someone who is clearly
trying to emulate that lifestyle, be a heavy, be a tough guy. And so we find that these two people meet,
and they wind up being a perfect match to carry out these awful, awful crimes. JONI HOHNSTON: I don't think that Richard knew when he first
met Brogan Rafferty that he was going to use him to commit murders down the road.
Rich was involved in taking Brogan to church on many, many occasions, and he became like a substitute father.
I also would imagine that part of that grooming process was exposing him a little at a time to criminal activity
so that Brogan becomes desensitized to that. And I think it's very easy to underestimate the power
an adult can have over a child. When you look at his age and you look at his life circumstances,
he was somebody who was absolutely ripe for the picking in terms of Richard Beasley.
EMMA DONALDSON: Brogan agrees to lead police to the burial sites of Ralph Geiger,
David Pauley, and Timothy Kern. ELLIOT KOLOKOVICH: We found the first two victims in Noble
County in Caldwell, Ohio. That was the field and wooded area where Mr. Beasley and Mr. Rafferty were
taking their victims to start. We found the first two victims there in shallow graves.
But because Mr. Davis got away and they had to switch up their method and went to a new place here,
we found Mr. Kern near Rolling Acres Mall. Mr. Davis getting away is probably the only reason
we broke this case. If Mr. Davis doesn't get away, we don't know how many more victims Mr. Beasley and Mr.
Rafferty would have killed. EMMA DONALDSON: Brogan Rafferty is offered a deal that
will allow him parole after a significant jail term, but he refuses to turn on Beasley
and is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. This relationship was so strong
that Brogan sacrifices his freedom for the sake of Beasley. JONI HOHNSTON: I do think that Richard Beasley, and maybe
to a lesser extent, Brogan Rafferty, got a thrill out of these fantasies of their schemes
that they're putting on and how they were these kind of master criminals in this elaborate plot and, you know,
they're the ones who are deciding who lives and dies. And so when you look at that, I think it isn't that surprising
that he would be interested in the mafia, who does kind of pick and choose who's going to live and die.
So I think this kind of anti-hero thing he's got built up in his head is really consistent with all
the time he takes concocting this scheme and carrying it out. EMMA DONALDSON: In March 2013, Richard Beasley
is sentenced to death. To this day, he maintains his innocence. TINA BEASLEY: In Rich's eyes, he'd done nothing wrong.
He feels no remorse. He's a typical sociopath. He has never taken responsibility for anything
in his life. There's no question Richard Beasley was looking to take advantage of people, and there's no question too,
given the viciousness and calculation in these crimes, he had been plotting for a while how he was going
to take advantage of people. So it's not a surprise to see that he had tried several different ways to put himself around people who
were vulnerable and could be taken advantage of by his manipulation. TONYA BEASLEY: It's that victim mentality.
He blames it on everyone else. He constantly writes notes to the newspapers and everything,
stating that the system is corrupt and this is what really happened. And I've tried to confront him about it, even in person.
But then I got to the point where I was able to separate myself from it, but not as a trauma
response, but because finally I had, all this time period, had finally healed and I was able to move forward.
And the first time I went public with my story was when that happened. Because I realized, I'm my own person who can tell this story.
This happened to me, but I am not this. My dad happens to be a serial killer, and despite whether he says he's innocent or he does this,
it just doesn't affect me anymore. [theme music]

Richard Beasley, the Craigslist Killer, lured desperate job seekers to the woods with promises of employment at his fictional ranch, only to ensnare them in a deadly trap. He had a plan to kill men who were similar in age and appearance to him, so he could steal their identities and live a double life to avoid jail time from his previous criminal activity.

Richard Beasley and a teenage accomplice took these hopeful job-seekers to the woods before murdering them – but one brave victim would escape, leading to Beasley’s eventual capture. In this episode, we hear the first-hand tales of the people who knew Beasley best, his ex-wife and grown-up daughter, who offer an unfiltered view of this cruel serial killer.

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

Richard Beasley, a serial killer, used Craigslist to lure and murder vulnerable men in Ohio.

Key points

Richard Beasley's Craigslist Scheme. Beasley uses Craigslist to lure vulnerable men, leading to horrific outcomes.
The Dark Side of Richard Beasley. Tina Beasley reveals the shocking truth about her husband's hidden life.
The Transformation into a Killer. Richard Beasley adopts the identity of his victim, Ralph Geiger, after committing murder.
Scott Davis's Narrow Escape. Scott Davis survives a brutal attack by Richard Beasley, running for his life after being shot.
Brogan Rafferty's Confession. Brogan Rafferty, a 16-year-old, confesses to police, leading to the discovery of multiple bodies.
Richard Beasley's Sentencing. Richard Beasley is sentenced to death, maintaining his innocence throughout.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's an aspect of unfair play, using technology like Craigslist to lure men.

Everette Penn discusses the manipulation involved in Beasley's Craigslist ad.

0:30WatchAug 2, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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