Surviving Bobby Joe Long

serial killers · survival story

Surviving Bobby Joe Long

35 Episodes

Episodes

Episode 1: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis01

0:42
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis01

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Transcript ▾
00:00The murders of at least eight young women
00:02struck fear through Tampa.
00:04These weren't just murders.
00:05He brutally raped all these women
00:06before he killed them.
00:09Bobby Joe Long is my ex-husband.
00:13He is the father of my older
00:15two children.
00:18I never imagined in a million years
00:20that he was capable of doing the things that he's done.
00:23To her he's this guy, very violent.
00:25He was prepared.
00:27He had a murder kit
00:29with a knife, a gun,
00:30he had ropes.
00:32God, yes, he's evil.
00:33Anybody that can do something like this
00:35to another human being
00:37is definitely evil.

Episode 2: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis02

0:55
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis02

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Transcript ▾
00:00Bobby Joe Long is my ex-husband.
00:03He is the father of my older two children.
00:08For 25 plus years,
00:11I would never have sat here with anybody
00:14and said anything about Bob
00:16because I still felt like he had that control.
00:18You know, a fear that
00:20if I opened up my mouth,
00:21he may have somebody from the prison,
00:23one of the inmates when they get out,
00:24come hurt me or my kids.
00:26Then one day I finally said,
00:28you know what?
00:29I'm tired of being his victim.
00:31I'm tired of being his puppet.
00:33I'm a full-grown adult woman
00:35and there is women out there
00:36or men out there that are in the same
00:38situation that I was in,
00:40and they need to hear
00:41that they can get away from it.
00:43So I no longer feel like I'm a victim.
00:46I'm a survivor.
00:47And till I take my last breath,
00:50I will tell my story.

Episode 3: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis03

0:56
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis03

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00:20I'm Daniel Smithson,
00:21I'm a reporter with the Gainsville Sun.
00:23Tampa in the 80s
00:24was known as a party town.
00:26Um, it was known
00:27for its strip clubs,
00:29a lot of prostitutes and partying.
00:31Bobby Joe Long was described
00:33by his victims and his victim's families
00:35as a monster,
00:36as a horrendous guy,
00:38very violent,
00:39and was known to show no remorse
00:42for his actions.
00:45He had the Tampa Bay community scared
00:48and worried that
00:49they might be the next victim
00:51of Bobby Joe Long.

Episode 4: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis04

1:17
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis04

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00.59I'm Katherine Ramsland,
02.39and I'm a professor
03.76of forensic psychology.
06.21Long was an effective predator
08.58because he was prepared.
11.18He had a murder kit.
12.68He had a knife, a gun,
14.58he had ropes already cut
16.18to the length he thought would be workable.
18.48He had gags,
20.38and he would troll around.
21.68He knew the area pretty well.
24.58So he was organized,
26.18careful, street savvy,
28.48smart enough to know
30.68how to get this done in a way
33.88you know, that was under control.
36.49He would go down on the
38.59Tampa's famous strip
40.79where nightclubs and prostitution is rampant.
43.29He would pick up girls
44.49and take them to a remote spot
47.19and uh, rape them in the car
48.79on the front seat,
50.09often at knifepoint.
51.69Then he would drag them out in a field,
53.59put a hangman's noose around their neck,
56.19rape them from behind
57.39and pulled the ligature very tight.
59.89Just horrible things.
01.49Uh each one, each crime scene
03.59was was like somebody crazed,
05.69not even somebody,
07.29something,
08.49monster type, you know,
10.19it was just terrible.
11.29And he made no effort
12.29to uh to bury them,
14.29just left them there.

Episode 5: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis05

0:60
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis05

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00:06I was 13
00:07and he was 14 when we met
00:09many years ago.
00:11And we were playing football
00:13at one of the local parks.
00:15And one of the kids
00:16that we were playing with
00:18brought him there for the first time
00:19because he had just moved to the area.
00:21And that's where we met
00:22the first time there.
00:24It was like an instant bond
00:25with each other.
00:26I I loved his sense of humor.
00:28I mean, it was pretty witty
00:30and, you know, he made me feel
00:32good about myself.
00:33I never really had a whole lot of
00:35self-secureness there, but
00:37he always made me feel
00:38that, you know, I was pretty
00:40and I was important
00:41and somebody loved me
00:42other than my aunt and uncle.
00:45He swept me off my feet,
00:46really hard.
00:47I don't know, I just
00:48I guess I just fell madly in love with him.
00:50You know, and thought that
00:51in the fairy tale world
00:53that this was going to be my husband
00:55and we were going to
00:56live together forever.

Episode 6: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis06

1:22
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis06

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Transcript ▾
00:02Long was born in West Virginia,
00:04but had grown up in Hialeah, South Florida
00:06with his single mother, Luella.
00:09When I first met her,
00:10she seemed like a very loving parent.
00:12And, you know, and I have to say
00:14she did the best she could
00:15as being a single parent
00:16and what she knew how to do.
00:18For the longest time, she worked at
00:20one of the local bars in Hialeah
00:23and their dress was pretty risque
00:26and he was always embarrassed about that.
00:28She was very much
00:31almost like a bully type person to him,
00:34if that makes sense.
00:36She was always dominating him
00:38and, you know, telling him
00:39how he would cut his hair
00:41and what he would dress,
00:42you know, for school
00:44and what he would have for dinner,
00:45that type of stuff.
00:47For the longest time,
00:48I understand that he was not
00:51very happy with his mom
00:53and he was also embarrassed because
00:54there was quite the reputation there too
00:56from working at the bar.
00:58You know, different men and everything.
00.54I know that they lived
01.24in a one bedroom apartment
02.04until they moved to Hialeah.
03.84I've heard rumors
04.84that they slept in the same bed together
06.14until he was 13 years old.
11.54He would tell me
12.64that, you know, certain nights
14.04that she would come home
15.84with a a boyfriend
17.44that he would get woke up
18.44and put on the couch
19.34while the boyfriend spent the night with her.

Episode 7: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis07

1:24
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis07

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00:38Humiliation has the effect
03:00of really disintegrating
05:79a boy's sense of control
08:39and sense of of their world
11:19that it's safe or unsafe.
16:39they will develop resentment,
18:89sometimes rage
20:99against either the source of humiliation
24:69or a symbolic source of humiliation.
27:99So Bobby Joe Long developed rage
30:09against women in general.
31:59He especially blamed his mother.
33:50Psychiatrists have said that that's part of his problem,
36:50that he was actually killing his mother.
38:80Again and again.
39:90He hated women.
42:33Some of the red flags was the jealousy.
44:53you know,
45:13if there was another guy that would talk to me
47:03or anything in school,
48:23he would just have a fit about it.
50:43A few times he accused me of messing around with people,
53:23which I had not.
55:13Controlling,
55:83he would tell me what I was going to eat,
58:53basically like what his mom had done to him
00:83as a child.
02:23You were basically his puppet on a string.
05:23And then we ended up getting married
07:13on January 25th, 1974,
10:23while he was still in the military.
12:33And soon thereafter,
13:83he had his motorcycle accident
15:83in March 14th of '74.
18:63And after the motorcycle accident, he just continued to change.

Episode 8: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis08

0:56
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis08

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Transcript ▾
00:02Long suffered a serious head injury
00:04when his motorcycle collided with another vehicle.
00:07Do I think that it was the motorcycle accident
00:09that caused the problems?
00:10In my own opinion, no,
00:13because there were certain things that had happened,
00:15you know,
00:16earlier on in the relationship
00:18like the jealousies
00:18and and him trying to control me and everything.
00:21But I think that
00:23if possible,
00:24the motorcycle accident just kind of
00:26knocked the screw
00:28loose that was holding everything together at the time.
00:32It's fairly clear that something happened
00:35to him neurologically
00:37after that motorcycle accident.
00:39He seemed to change his personality.
00:42He already had a lot of resentment against women,
00:45but he seemed to begin become very angry,
00:48uh quick to rage
00:50and very sexually demanding.

Episode 9: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis09

1:53
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis09

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Transcript ▾
00:00Well, after the motorcycle accident,
01.88it seemed like he was running around
03.90on a short fuse.
06.30And, you know, I mean,
08.40certain noises would bother him.
10.50I remember one time
11.30when my son was in the baby swing
14.20and I mean just an infant.
16.20And the the clicking of the swing
18.70was bothering him
20.00and he told me to turn the swing off
21.80and I explained to him,
23.20you know, the child is sleeping.
24.50I'm not going to wake him up again.
26.20And he said that it was bothering him so much
27.80I needed to turn it off.
29.00And when I didn't,
30.30he took the baby out of the swing,
31.50handed him to me,
33.00and took the swing and threw it out the front door.
35.00He says, now the noise won't be in the house anymore.
38.30If I didn't do the dishes right after dinner,
40.60he would get really upset about that.
42.50And a couple of times he threw all the dishes in the garbage can.
46.20Not that the house was a mess or anything,
48.00but, you know, I'm raising a newborn child and
51.50you know, I don't feel like doing the dishes as soon as I'm done eating.
58.50The first time that he was ever physical with me,
01.50we had gotten into an argument
03.20and um, he choked me.
05.30And
06.80he's to have the habit of
08.20getting on top of me on the bed
10.00or the couch
11.00and he'd put his knees like right here
12.80where I couldn't move my arms
14.20and of course I couldn't get my legs up that high.
17.20And he would just sit there and like smack me in the face.
20.20And so that's what he did the first time,
22.00but then that became a habit of when he was,
24.50you know, very upset with me.
26.50That and choking.
29.50I know there was one time
31.00that he had come home
32.20and he was upset because he wanted to take money out of the bank
34.80and there wasn't any money for him to go use as play money.
42.50He beat me really bad.
44.30Punched me in the nose.
45.50My nose has been broken three times because of him.
48.80Stitches in the head,
50.00stitches in the face.

Episode 10: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis10

0:53
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis10

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Transcript ▾
00:01These people that abuse women
00:03or women that abuse men,
00:05they have this knack of convincing you that
00:08if I hadn't have talked back to him
00:09or argued back with him
00:11or if I'd gotten up and done the dishes right away
00:13or, you know, if I had taken the baby out of the swing
00:16and turned the swing off,
00:17that this wouldn't have happened, you know.
00:19So, of course, you're thinking,
00:21well, of course, this is my fault.
00:23You know, I'm
00:24agitating him
00:25or, you know, arguing back.
00:27Almost like a child that gets punished by their parent
00:30because the parent tells them to do something and they don't do it.
00:33They're not going to do it.
00:34They're just going to be hard-headed.
00:36And of course, the child gets in trouble.
00:39Well, that's how these people make you feel
00:41that, you know, you're getting in trouble for something that you've done.
00:48As well as the physical abuse,
00:50Cindy constantly endured emotional distress.

Episode 11: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis11

1:15
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis11

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Transcript ▾
00:02I was working for a company
00:04and a girlfriend from the company
00:06came over.
00:08and it was nothing uncommon.
00:10I was working that Saturday
00:11because we alternated working on Saturdays.
00:13And when I got home from work,
00:15her car was in the parking lot
00:16of the apartment building.
00:18And then when I got upstairs,
00:20she wasn't there.
00:21So when I inquired about it
00:23because he was in the shower,
00:24he said, you know,
00:25she must have come by
00:26and I didn't hear her or whatever.
00:28When we went to the movies that evening,
00:30and when we got back home,
00:32the police had come to the house
00:33and came in and they were looking,
00:35you know, through the house and everything
00:37because this girl said
00:38that he had raped her.
00:39So she had actually been there.
00:41She said that she had been raped by him.
00:44Well, then he told me that
00:46she hadn't been raped
00:47and yes, she had been there,
00:48that she came over drunk
00:50and came on to him
00:51and they ended up having sex together.
00:54She left just in time
00:56for me to get home.
00:57and that it was all consensual and everything.
01:00Unfortunately, the girl had
01:01a horrible reputation
01:03you know, through the town.
01:04So he was not charged with the rape.
01:07They I guess chalked it up to
01:09you know, he was telling the truth.

Episode 12: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis12

1:31
Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis12

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Transcript ▾
00:00It was horrible.
00:01I mean, my husband
00:02had just cheated on me
00:03with somebody that I worked with,
00:04actually had a desk right next to,
00:06you know, every day of the week.
00:08So I went to work the next day,
00:11you know, I explained to the boss
00:12what had happened.
00:13You know, he told me, he said,
00:14I can't terminate her because of this.
00:17So I ended up leaving the job
00:20because of their actions.
00:21I mean, I wasn't going to work
00:23with somebody
00:24that had just had an affair
00:25with my husband.
00:26You know, and you're supposed to be my friend.
00:28And then as all this came out,
00:31the truth hit me pretty hard in the face.
40.07There was a mysterious
41.57classified rapist in the Bay Area.
43.57He would go to the classified ads
46.07and someone might have
47.57a bedroom suit for sale.
49.37And he'd call and he'd say,
51.57uh, I'm interested in that.
53.07if if I decided to take it,
54.57is there anyone there that can help?
57.37And she'd say, no,
58.07I'm I'm here by myself.
59.77So off he would go.
01.57Rape her, laugh,
02.87leave.
04.57And he did this a lot
05.87through the classified ads.
07.07There would be different things for sale
09.07and he would find
10.57find a way in the house
12.07that was a that was a key.
15.57The so-called classified ad rapist
18.07was Bobby Joe Long.
22.27Police believe he assaulted
24.07over 50 women across South Florida
26.27in the early 1980s.

Episode 13: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis13

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Episode 14: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis14

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Episode 15: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis15

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Episode 16: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis16

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Episode 17: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis17

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Episode 18: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis18

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Episode 19: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis19

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Episode 20: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis20

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Episode 21: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis21

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Episode 22: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis22

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Episode 23: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis23

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Episode 24: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis24

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Episode 25: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis25

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Episode 26: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis26

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Episode 27: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis27

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Episode 28: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis28

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Episode 29: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis29

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Episode 30: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis30

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Episode 31: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis31

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Episode 32: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis32

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Episode 33: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis33

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Episode 34: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis34

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Episode 35: Surviving_A_Serial_Killer_S01E03_epis35

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About

Cindy Brown survived an abusive marriage to Bobby Joe Long. Years later, bodies turned up in Tampa - and the man calling her to chat was the killer.

serial killerssurvival storytrue crime

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