Timothy C Richards

Phantom Rapist: the True Story of Patrolman Milton Brookins Timothy C Richards

Patrolman Milton Brookins was a cop, and serial rapist in St. Louis, Missouri in the late 1960's. Milton learned early in his cop career that women were not afraid to open their doors when someone knocked on them during the daylight hours. This was his modus operandi. Milton specialized in raping Washington University and medical students in and around the West End and Central West End corridors of the city of St. Louis in his off-duty hours. After making surveillance of a potential victim, Patrolman Brookins would knock on their door, pistol paralyze them, enter and brutally beat, rape and rob them. These were ancient times for law enforcement. There was no DNA evaluation, no computers, just detectives plying their trade through, interviews ambition, and determination. In and around the city's universities, rape was a vocation of the scores of ghetto young men who were convinced that these young coeds actually wanted to have sex with them. It was a racial sex game, played with brutality. After raping his victims, Milton would leave taunting notes to the police daring them to catch him. The notes led the police to believe that the rapist might be a city cop. Two detectives (George Hotsenpiller and Bobby Matthews) worked the cases, which were mostly cold and unsolvable without a lucky break. Several innocent men were arrested and incarcerated for the rapes. Victims identified the wrong suspects in line-ups, and later recanted their identifications. The rapes continued after suspects were incarcerated. Milton bragged in his notes that he had raped over 50 women. The detectives plodded along, interviewing and investigating until they got their lucky break. "Phantom Rapist" details the life of big-city cops and naïve university students entering into the sub-culture of racial divide in St. Louis, Missouri. It is true crime in its rawest form. Crime photos, photos of Milton Brookins, of the investigating cops and commanders. The book includes true names (not victims) and has an index of cops, witnesses, and some victims wrongly incarcerated. "Phantom Rapist" places the reader into the psyche of the rapist, the victims, and the investigating detectives.