Gerrard Kaonga
A man who accepted a ride with a serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers ending up asking the murderer why he was spared.
And his answer was absolutely chilling.
In 1975, a then 19-year-old Steve Fishman was hitchhiking from Boston to Norwich, Connecticut, and was relying on the kindness of strangers to get him there.
He would be picked up by a man driving a green Buick sedan who introduced himself as Red.
Advert
Fishman has explained that the pair got to talking and the man even admitted that he had recently gotten out of prison.
As a young budding journalist, Fishman started to see the potential for a story, imprisoned man reintroduced into society, but he never actually asked what he went to prison for.
The ride only lasted about 15 minutes but it would be six months later that Fishman would realize he was sat inches away from a pedophile, rapist, serial killer.
Advert
Fishman saw that same man on a news alert that identified him as Robert Frederick Carr III, a murderer who had confessed to kidnapping and raping dozens of people, as well as killing four people. He particularly targeted young hitchhikers.
When he realized this, Fishman understandably wondered why he hadn’t become another victim. A few years later he would finally get his answer in a jailhouse interview.
Speaking to CNN, Fishman said: “One of the questions that I had for him was, ‘Why not me?’ And that feels like a really bizarre question to ask. But I did.
Advert
"And he basically shrugged and said, ‘I thought you were too big.'"
Certainly a chilling answer that comes with the realization during that 15 minute ride Carr was likely sizing the 19 year-old up.
At the time of the lift, Carr was on parole after serving time in Connecticut for rape.
His murder victims included Tammy Ruth Huntley, 16, who he raped and killed, before burying her in a shallow rural grave.
Advert
He also killed two 11-year-old boys, Todd Payton and Mark Williams, in 1972 and buried them in isolated graves in Louisiana and Mississippi.
He killed his fourth victim Rhonda Holloway, 21, shortly after Fishman met him. He buried the body in Connecticut.
After confessing to his crimes, Carr took police around the country to show them where he buried his victims.
Carr died in prison of prostate cancer in at the age of 63.