Maniac Cops: 10 Psycho Police Officers Who Went Wild

One week ago, the unfolding saga of the NYPD's finest young (alleged) wannabe cannibal, Officer Gilberto Valle III, rocketed through the news like a police-issued 9 mm slug. The 28-year-old seemed like an OK guy on his OKCupid profile but authorities say he was really a closeted monster, with plans to kidnap, rape, kill, cook and eat as many as 100 women. Valle is accused of using law enforcement databases to research his victims as well as offering to kidnap and sell one unsuspecting woman to a co-conspirator for $5,000.

A favorite cop drama cliché is a scene where some diabolical psycho turns to a detective, icy eyes glittering, and says something like, “We're not that different, you and I.” Like most clichés, this comes from real-world observations by many who have found themselves dealing with a particularly dead-eyed member of law enforcement. The blue line between cop and psycho is sometimes scarily thin.

Sometimes there's really no line at all. The cop was a monster who managed to maintain a mask of sanity long enough to get a shield and a gun. Complex has put together examples of 10 maniac cops on the loose—and these are just some of the devils we know.

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Written by Steve Huff (@SteveHuff)

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Outfit: New Orleans Police Department

Crime: Officer Frank and her boyfriend Rogers LaCaze (they met when he was a suspect in a shootout) robbed a Vietnamese restaurant in East New Orleans, killing two employees and fellow officer Ronald Williams, who was moonlighting as a security guard. Frank was monitoring her police radio after she and LaCaze left the scene. She returned to the restaurant and tried to act like she was on the scene in an official capacity, but got busted. She later confessed. Investigators think Antoinette Frank may have put a bullet in her father's head as well.

Outfit: Milwaukee Police Department

Crime: Lawrencia "Bambi" Bembenek wasn't a cop for very long—she got busted for filing a false report on a fellow cop's behalf after her sister officer was busted for smoking weed. In the spring of 1981, Bembenek's husband's ex-wife turned up dead with a bullet in her head. Bambi was busted and convicted of the crime but she maintained her innocence and became nationally famous after she escaped from prison in 1990 and fled to Canada. Someone wrote a shitty song about her and others sold T-shirts bearing the legend “Run, Bambi, Run.” Bembenek was re-captured but she was out of prison by 1992 anyway. She was 52 when she died in November 2010.

Outfit: DeKalb County, GA Sheriff's Department

Crime: The public elects sheriffs in DeKalb County, and in 2000, Sheriff Sidney Dorsey was voted out of office in favor of Derwin Brown, who was promptly murdered. A jury convicted Dorsey of murdering Brown as well as a laundry list of other charges, including racketeering and violating the oath of office. Sidney Dorsey is said to have admitted he ordered a hit on Brown because he was pissed at losing the election.

Outfit: Metropolitan Police, London

Crime: Dennis Nilsen, Britain's answer to Jeffrey Dahmer, was a member of London's legendary Metropolitan Police force for a while before he quit and launched a second career as a full-time weird loner who liked to kill young gay men, sometimes consuming parts of their bodies. So at least the Met Police can say he wasn't on the force when he was doing his thing. Nilsen said he did what he did because he didn't like being alone. He killed at least 15 before he was arrested.

Some reports say Nilsen didn't feel so bad about the murders, but felt awkward about eating guys. Well, at least it was awkward for him.

Outfit: Police affiliation unknown

Crime: It might be a presumptuous stretch, but an unknown maniac has been dropping the bodies of women on a secluded Long Island Beach for several years now and many investigating the case think he might be a current or former cop. The Long Island Serial Killer typically targets women on the margins of society, like prostitutes and sex workers, and his crimes show detailed knowledge of forensics and police procedures.

He's up to eight victims now and he remains a ghost.

Outfit: New York Police Department

Crime: Another favorite cop drama cliché is partners playing “good cop/bad cop” to mess with a suspect's head enough to get them to confess. Louis Eppolito and his fellow NYPD detective Stephen Caracappa were nothing but bad cop/bad cop, 24/7. For 20 years, the mob-affiliated pair indulged in extortion, drug dealing, and murder—eight counts worth. Eppolito and Caracappa were convicted of their crimes in 2006 and sentenced to life in federal lockup.

Louis Eppolito also had a little acting career—if you look close you can see him (appropriately enough) in Goodfellas.

Outfit: Los Angeles Police Department

Crime: Detective Stephanie “Crazy Eyes” Lazarus had a steady and respectable career with the LAPD and in 2009 held a coveted position investigating art crime. That was when a DNA match in a cold case revealed the skeleton in Lazarus's closet was named Sherri Rasmussen, a woman who was mysteriously murdered in 1986. Lazarus had left that DNA in bite marks she made on Rasmussen's body in the process of beating, shooting, and killing her. Rasmussen had made the mistake of marrying Lazarus' ex, John Ruetten.

Lazarus was convicted of Rasmussen's murder in March 2012 and sentenced to 27 years to life.

Outfit: Federal Bureau of Investigation

Crime: John Connolly was the FBI handler for Boston gangsters Whitey Bulger and Steve Flemmi. Connolly was convicted in federal court on charges of racketeering and obstruction of justice in 2002—he'd let his childhood buddies Bulger and Flemmi know the feds were seeking to prosecute the men for a book-length list of crimes like drug trafficking and homicide.

Connolly was convicted in a state court of 2nd degree murder—his tip to Bulger and Flemmi about witnesses in investigations into the mobsters' activities led to hits that occurred in 1981 and '82.

Outfit: Bolingbrook, IL Police Department

Crime: Drew Peterson was a sergeant with the Bolingbrook, IL police when his fourth wife Stacy vanished into thin air. Peterson initially seemed to love the attention his wife's disappearance brought and interviews with him began to raise all kinds of suspicions with investigators and the public.

He retired from the force in December 2007, and has since enjoyed a good deal of leisure time answering questions about Stacy's whereabouts and just what the hell happened when his third wife, Kathleen Savio, died in March 2004. (Lifetime even made a ridiculous movie about him starring Rob Lowe as the mustachioed creep.) In September 2012, a jury convicted Peterson of killing Savio.

Stacy Peterson has never been found.

Outfit: Martin County, FL Sheriff's Department

Crime: Serial killer lawman Gerard John Schaefer was the ultimate nightmare cop for any vulnerable young woman thinking his arrival on the scene signaled safety. He might have looked like a friendly Deputy Sheriff, but Schaefer was a prototypical '70s-era serial killer who preyed on hitchhikers, whom he would drag into the woods before torturing, raping, and murdering them.

Schaefer was convicted of two murders in 1973 and given double life. Police found evidence linking him to as many as 10 other victims and authorities think he may have killed 30 or more. Deputy Schaefer had literary ambitions as well. He wrote incredibly gruesome short stories that may have been thinly-veiled descriptions of his crimes.

Prison justice found Schaefer in 1995, when he was stabbed to death by fellow inmate Vincent Rivera.