Gerard John Schaefer Jr. (March 26, 1946December 3, 1995) was an American murderer and suspected serial killer, known as the Killer Cop and the Hangman, who was convicted of the 1972 murder and mutilation of two teenage girls in Port St. Lucie, Florida. He is suspected of up to 26 further murders. Described by prosecutor Robert Stone as "the most sexually deviant person" he had ever encountered, Schaefer was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment at his 1973 trial, to be served at Florida State Prison. He was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate while incarcerated at this facility in December 1995. Schaefer became known as the "Killer Cop" as he was a sheriff's deputy in Martin County, Florida, at the time of his initial arrest. He also became known as the "Hangman" due to his favored practice of binding restrained women to trees with a hangman's noose around their neck prior to their torture and murder. Early life Gerard Schaefer was born in Neenah, Wisconsin, on March 26, 1946, the first of three children born to Gerard John and Doris Marie (née Runcie) Schaefer. His father was a traveling salesman, and his mother a housewife. He was raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and, later, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended Marist Academy until his family permanently relocated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1960. Schaefer later described his childhood as "troubled and turbulent", largely due to the frequent family relocations, his father's alcoholism, and his father's frequent verbal abuse of his wife and children. Although Schaefer's father's occupation resulted in his being frequently absent from the household, he had a difficult relationship with his oldest son, who resented his frequent belittling of him and believed his father favored his sister over himself and his brother. By contrast, Schaefer was close to his mother, who was extremely protective of her children. As a child, Schaefer preferred outdoor pursuits. By his adolescence, he had developed an interest in nature. His primary interests as a teenager included collecting guns, hunting, and fishing—activities that he and his father occasionally pursued together when his father was at home. Although hardly a classic loner, classmates at St. Thomas Aquinas High School recall his "not being part of any clique". He frequently pursued his interests alone, leading his family and peers alike to view him as an "outdoors man" who held aspirations to become a forest