Robert Joseph Long

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Hello.

Have you missed us? I hope so. You know what I'm going to tell you. I listened to the COVID episode.

Oh, did you? It's just when I call that period of time. Yeah, that was the COVID distance. The audio on my side sucked.

It's not great. No, but you were clear as a bell. You were not as like times. It just was good.

You know, we tried, we did what we could with COVID and yeah, because the reality would be like we wouldn't have had episodes for like three weeks. Yeah, it would have been so wild. Yeah, so is it better to not have us at all or have us halfway there? Halfway there.

Yeah. So I showed up to Holly's today to your home. Good job. I came here and as I roll in, your son was outside.

He likes on the splash pad. Yes, which was very cute. Very fun. It was an immediately, and say, Haley, watch me do this.

Watch me do that. Oh, yes. Running through water and I'm like, that's awesome, dude. So I'm standing there.

I've rolled out of my vehicle. My sunglasses are on my head. I'm holding a giant cup from the Dunkin' Donuts. That's correct.

Because I needed some caffeine. And I roll up and I'm like, what the? And I was like, okay, great, you're it. I'm gonna go finish dinner.

So it's just me. And I'm like, I've never felt more like the drunk aunt that shows up and is like, just there to keep them alive. You did have a saunter about you holding this cup that if you had a stick hanging out of your mouth would have been more appropriate. It would have been really, but you just sort of showed up like, I don't know what you're going to go over here.

Like, there was a there was a vibe happening. Yeah, I wasn't opposed to it. No, I'm clearly I left you alone with my child. But yeah, it did.

But yeah, you did kind of roll up in that way. Yeah. Even how you came out of the car. Yeah.

Like one foot for a second, which is hanging out. Yeah. You know, as you were collecting your big gulp from the gas station, which is what it felt like. It was actually a coffee from the Dunkin' but attached to a gas station, I will say.

Exactly. That is true. Yeah. That's true.

But yeah, it was it was a great time. It was a thing. One of my favorites is during dinner. Hailey and my son and I were having dinner together.

We were looking out and there were some squirrels and Hailey made a comment that he was a squirrel trainer. He trained them with nuts and then he said something about and then I opened them up and eat them. He did. And I chose to just ignore that fact and we moved on and I was like, you know, who also loves squirrels and do eat squirrels would be my dad, Mr.

Larry. And he was horrified by this. Actually, he turns and he says, do you eat squirrels? No sir.

I do not. But then he was like, oh, Mr. Larry eat squirrels. Yeah, I don't think he's he's not a big.

My dad isn't like he's not a big hunter. Yeah. So but like if the opportunity arises, the squirrel is available to eat. He will consume it.

Well, my son even asked like does he cut them up and like do all the work and you were like, no, no. He said, does he like to cut them up? That's right. And I was like, I don't think he particularly enjoys that part.

Yeah, who would? I mean, he also scared me slightly about my son. He's like to eat them. Yeah, it was a lot.

We just kind of ghosted right over that and moved on. There's there's a lot that happens in his little brain. Yeah. That is like, wow.

He told you that he would teach them to do backflips. He did. He said he uses his bag of nuts to teach them to do backflips. Yep.

And we're also working on inside voices versus how that he does not. There was a lot of screaming. I did at one point though, say, she's crying me up. I was like, dude, inside voice and instead of like getting quiet or just got deeper in his voice, he's like, is this better?

I'm like, oh my gosh. You sound like a demon now. But yeah, that's great. He likes to move his voice up and down because he's learned he's very musical.

Yeah. And he learns that he can move his voice up and down and he hit different tones. Anyway, so he'll do this thing where he'll be like singing a song, you know, and his new song. So he has a monster truck that's a zombie.

So for those of you who know about these monster trucks, these Hot Wheels monster trucks, they all have names. He introduced me to three of them earlier today. I don't know what I remember his big foot. Yes.

Because obviously, oh, clearly, but there were two other ones that I don't remember what that's like. Yeah. So there's one that has these weird arms and looks creepy in its name, a zombie. So he likes to sing the cranberry song, zombie.

Have you ever heard the song? No, really? So it goes in your head in your head, zombie, zombie. Well, he sings in your brain.

Oh, he keeps singing in your brain. And sometimes he'll make his voice really deep. So he'll go in your brain. And it goes so scary.

Like it's, but he does it in different tones in his voice and like he'll move it up and down. And he likes to just listen to what that sounds like. And he always says, I'm going to write a song like and so he'll make up songs and he says he's writing a song. He can't write.

But like he will just come up with lyrics for songs. He's got a whole song about, um, you can, you can go to school, you can have a job because you can. And I was like, that's really sweet honey. That's encouraging.

Like that's great. Yeah. And he was like, yeah, you can brush your teeth. You can.

Yeah. That'd be great. That's wonderful. So yeah.

Yeah. It's been a stellar night for Haley. Yeah, it's been great. I've learned many things.

I got my feet soaking wet via the splash pad. I think I avoided the mosquito. So I think I ate your son alive. They ate him alive.

But not me. They ate me. I got, I got a place here where they got me several times. But the Calamine lotion man, that works.

My son got up actually from the bed several times tonight. Just saying like, mom, I'm so itchy. Poor guy. I got pretty bad.

The other day on my ankles was out at my ankles place and they will get you. Got me good. And then Haley and I had like, we put the child to bed and then we had like deep, meaningful conversations. We did for like two hours.

And we were like, we just understand each other so much. And then we're like, we should probably talk about murder for another couple hours. Yeah. We were like, what are we doing with our lives?

Oh yeah. We're investing time on our friendship. Yeah. Great.

And we forget like, you know, we should do that. And we even said like, we should probably see each other outside of the podcast. Yeah. Yeah.

We should. We should make, we should invest time in us as friends. We should be. It's just so hard.

It is so hard. We're so busy. And we both talked about we are planned individual. We are.

We're not that type to be like, Hey, I'm gonna be at your house in five. What? No, please don't. I am not that person.

Well, I also live in a community. So I would just ask Randy to kick your ass out. Yeah. But he would.

Happily. But yeah, we're just not those people. No, we are not. I'm thinking of the state of my home right now.

And if you were to say, we're showing up in five minutes, I would be absolutely panicked because it is a disaster. Are you that person that if someone were to do that, that you would like freak out and like in that five minute, like be crazy cleaning? I would you don't you wouldn't care. I would probably do like a general pick up.

But then if they said a word about it, when they came in, I'd be like, well, you're the one who showed up with five minutes. What did you expect? I love that you like, pull the bitchy back out at them. Like, why would you like this is my mess?

I'm a sit in it. Wow. Yeah. No, it's actually driving me a little bit insane because like a little vacation for a week, I had like two days to kind of really a day to kind of turn around and get ready to go back into work days for school.

So I've had a week of work days and then this weekend to kind of get myself together. So tomorrow I'm hoping to do like a deep clean up my kitchen. Is it that? It's just cluttered right now.

Like there's a lot of things on the countertops. I need to do dishes. I just like, there's just a lot of things that need to be done. And a lot of things that I need the other person who lives in my home with me, my brother, to be involved in.

Yeah. However, I don't know if that's going to happen. Um, question be like, oh, I'm going to be working. Sorry.

Well, it's even if he is not. Sunday and Chickalay is closed on Sunday. So yeah, but um, maybe he needs to come in and say it would be my pleasure. He does sometimes have to go in on Sundays to do like maintenance stuff because he's part of that.

Like the part of his job, he does maintenance. Um, but yeah, the goal tomorrow is to clean the kitchen. I got to say, I am extremely anal about my house. Your house is always clean.

Well, as we say, if there's toys all over right now, I'm looking at the kinetic sandals. Well, I had to do that day. My son had a play date and my son was like losing, my son is an only child and he had a play date today and his little friend came over and they were losing their minds because I want to play with the kinetic sandal. I don't know why I'm going and we put it in time out.

We gave them it, you know, and it just, they kept talking about the stupid kinetic sand. So I was like, you know what we're going to do? We're going to divide it in half and I'm going to take it out of its container and you get half and you get half. And so there it was.

And now I got to clean that shit up. But, you know, it was the only way to like solve the problem. But having him having his little friends over gives me anxiety because I know I have to clean. And I'm not cleaning for that four year old friend.

I'm cleaning for the parents who I'm like, please don't judge my house. Like, you know, I work full time and I'm like, craze, but I want my house to look good. You know, so I am detail oriented to all do things and I find myself like, why am I using this toothbrush on the stairs when I really need to make sure the kitchen's great. You know, it's like, that's my 80s.

But, you know, yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm hoping that tomorrow I can just get the kitchen done. If I get anything else done, that's just kind of a bonus. If you ever need a cleaning lady, I'm really good. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll come be your laundry for you. That'd be great. I love laundry.

That would be great. I did laundry today. I'm on the yard today. That felt productive.

Nice. I did. Before I came here, the man mowed my yard off. The man mowed your yard.

I got that with my pushover. Well, he stands on his little thing and he's like, oh, yeah. You know, now I had to lug the pushover out of the shed. Yeah.

Yeah. It's the whole thing. I had to bring my laundry up and down the stairs. Yeah.

That's kind of a pain. I'm on one level. There's alarm going off upstairs, or is that your phone? That's my phone.

We'll just wait for it to end. I don't know if y'all can hear it. Fancy me. So I still have a trauma response from my old cell phone, my work cell phone, that ringer.

Like for whatever had the ringtone set out, I just want it like if I hear that out and about somebody had it set as an alarm somewhere in the school I work in and it went off and I like I look a full freak out like trauma response. You started like, you know, where's my inhaler? Oh, my God. Deep breaths.

Okay. We're ready. Go time. Yeah.

That's what I was saying. I was telling Hayley tonight, you want Hayley in a crisis. Yeah. I'm ready to be here for you.

I will pick up the pieces afterwards and process feelings with you. I'll do all that. Well, what story have you got for us today? Well, this is also so forewarning.

I haven't looked at this in about three weeks, because this is one that I wrote while I had COVID. Great. So this will be fun for all of us. It'll be a new adventure.

A new adventure. We are going to go to West Virginia. A whole new in West Virginia. Absolutely.

All right. So we're going to talk about Robert Joseph Long. Okay. Yep.

So he was born on October 14, 1953 in Canova, West Virginia. His parents were Luella and Joe, and they split when Bobby was a young boy. He spent most of his childhood with his mother in Florida. His early years were marked by some troubling incidents.

He did fail the first grade and was injured in a couple of different accidents. He also developed a hatred for women, beginning with his mother, Luella, who worked in a bar, often wore racy clothing to work and brought different men home with her. Doesn't that know? So making matters worse, he shared a bed with her until he was about 12 or 13 years old.

What did it do? So okay, she's bringing men in obviously for intercourse. Yeah. And he's in the same bed.

So he's watching her have sex with these men. I guess so. And I wonder if he was abused by her or these men. I'm gonna assume so.

Yeah. That feels like probably she was like pimping him out. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Okay. Yeah. So he met his future wife, Cynthia, when they were 13. They married in 1974, and they had two children.

But the stress apparent at a level of, you know, children had stress to your life. There was some issues going on with a marriage as well. Around this time, Bobby was involved in a really serious accident. He was hit by a vehicle while he was riding a motorcycle and was hospitalized for several weeks.

Cynthia later claimed that his temperament changed following the accident. And while he had always been short tempered, he became physically violent with her and impatient with her children. He also had developed a strangely overt compulsive and often dangerous sex drive. So crime analysts would later attribute his violent character to a sexual obsession, labeling him as a sexual sadist.

That working kind of something out. So Cynthia filed for divorce in 1980. She's like, I can't do this anymore. I'm in for her.

I'm done. So he then moved in with a female friend, Sharon Richards, who would later accuse him of rape and battery. In the fall of 1983, he was charged with sending an inappropriate sex-infused letter and photographs to a 12-year-old girl in Florida that earned him a short jail sentence in probation. During this time, he also made the leap to becoming a rapist.

His method was to scout out for sale signs on houses and hunt through the classified ads for furniture and other items, leading to an opportunity to enter a woman's home and force himself on her. That's why when you sell things online, nowadays, public places. Always, always. Yeah, always public places.

According to police, he committed more than 50 rapes during this time. So he's a serial rapist. But the spring of 1984, he makes another jump in his criminal venture, and he commits his first murder. Initially just looking to fulfill his sexual needs, he picked up a young sex worker named Ardis Wick in March of 1984.

After he assaulted and raped Wick, he decided that he wasn't fulfilled, so he strangled and killed her. In May of 1984, yeah, definitely escalating. In May of 1984, while driving on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa, Bobby Long spotted a young woman walking, and her name was Olana Long. He pulled up to Atlanta and offered her a ride, which she accepted.

But he soon pulled his car off the road and took out a knife. When she began screaming and attempting to fight, he tied her up and drove to a more remote location where he then raped and strangled her. According to police, her body was found face down a few days later. Her hands had been bound behind her back, and her legs were spread far apart.

And officers actually measured this, and they measured five feet from one heel to the other. So like, your body's like broken apart. Almost into like the split. Oh my god.

Yeah, so very much escalating. Was this done? Post-mortem. I would assume so.

Like probably strangled her and then like opposed her. Pushed her out of the car or something. So I mean, I could have assaulted her after strangling her as well. I don't know.

Just really, really awful. His next victim was Michelle Sims. She was a 22-year-old sex worker. After he lured her into his car, he beat and raped her before cutting at her throat repeatedly.

Detectives connected Michelle's murder to Lana's when the same material, a red nylon fiber, was found on both women. Police then discovered a fourth victim, Elizabeth Loudonback, some 17 days after she was killed. Her body was badly decomposed when detectives found her. She was lying on her back and was fully clothed.

According to police, she was different from the other victims. She wasn't a known drug user, wasn't a sex worker and didn't work as like an exotic dancer, which other victims seem to have been like. But still was sexually assaulted. Yeah, but had her old clothes back on?

Yeah, and I don't know exactly. I guess they connected her through the same fibers. Yeah, but yeah, it connected her as well. So he's killed four people so far.

Four women. His fifth victim was a young sex worker named Chanel Williams, and she had been walking along a Tampa street when he picked her up. After raping and attempting to strangle Chanel, he pulled out his gun and shot her in the neck. There were two more murders that followed.

I think again, these were kind of found, you know, afterwards more decomposed, and they were the bodies of Karen Densfried and Kimberly Hopps. So all this is kind of happening in the Florida area. Gotcha. So originally from West Virginia, so that's how we're tying it in.

Gotcha. But a lot of this happening in Florida. He did make some like trips back and forth. Yeah.

And there may have been some very well-connected that we maybe just, you know, are connecting to you. Yeah. In early November, 1984, Bobby Long spotted a 17-year-old Lisa McVay on her bicycle in northern Tampa. He dragged her to his car and forced her to perform oral sex and then brought her to his apartment where he raped her repeatedly.

He apparently even showered with her. However, unlike his other victims, Bobby Let McVay live after treating her like a sex slave for more than 24 hours. So for some reason he let her live. And it was actually her testimony that would finally lead to police to Bobby Long.

So did he after 24 hours just let her go? Which is so strange. It is so after he's been murdered. Yeah.

He's been, he's killed five that we know of. And then kidnaps this girl and then lets her go. So and then after he released her, he kills two more women, Virginia Johnson and Kim Swan. So maybe it was because she wasn't a sex worker.

Maybe it was because she was just a teen girl. I don't know. She was like a teen girl on a bike. I don't know.

This was our, so McVay had provided a brief description of her attacker and his car. And on November 16th, 1984, he was arrested at a movie theater not far from where he lived in Tampa. The mysterious red fibers which had helped police connect to the victims were found to match the interior carpeting of his car. Once in custody, he was also connected to the recently discovered murder of Vicki Elliott.

So that's a grand total of nine. Oh, yeah, nine. And that's why you've been counting all the women previously. Right.

Right. At April of 1985, he was convicted of first-degree murder in the Virginia Johnson case and was sentenced to death. Later that year, he pled guilty to eight Hillsborough County murders. Wix body actually wasn't found until several days after his arrest and because he had not pleaded guilty to murdering her until long after submitting his original confession, he was never formally charged with her murder.

That's so unfair. I know. Right. I mean, it's one of those like, yes, justice is being served, but it's like, does he wish that they included her?

Yes. Yes. He was convicted of the other eight murders in Hillsborough County along with several other charges. He was handed out more than two dozen life imprisonment sentences and the summer of 86, he was sentenced to death by electrocution for the murder of Michelle Sims.

And while he confessed to committing 10 murders, he alluded to the possibility of others during police interviews. I wouldn't doubt it, but I will also say they love the notoriety and they always pat on like, I've murdered 112. Yeah. So I wouldn't doubt it.

He definitely killed those 10. I think I said nine originally, but it was 10. But you know, there so many hard to keep track of everybody. But yeah, he was sentenced to death, confessed to those 10.

Was he executed? Yes. Okay. He was executed actually by lethal injection.

I know he was sentenced to death by electrocution, but that was in 86. I'm not sure when we began the lethal injection. I think it was more than 90s. I think so too.

So they kind of switched to that. So he was executed on May 23rd of 2019. So just recently. So pretty recently.

And convicted in 86. Yep. And 86. 27 years.

Wow. Yeah. The execution was witnessed by McAvay, who was the one who's testimony. Wow.

She attended and witnessed the execution. And she sat in the front row. And she said, I wanted to be the first person he's on. Wow.

I wonder if he made eye contact for her. I don't know. But like how, like, she's a badass. Yeah.

And like, I wonder if that in a way, I don't know if that was healing for her. Or I don't know. I don't know how it seems. Like you victimized me.

I'm going to be here for your final moments. Yeah. You have to look at me as the life goes out of you. Wow.

That I thought, as you were looking at me in the past, you were going to kill me. Yeah. And you took so much from my life. Right.

I don't know. I feel like I would just further traumatize you to like witness that. Yeah. Maybe we give her peace because it's closure.

Maybe. In a sense. Like, I know that this guy is like, I know he's like, I saw him die. Like I know he's dead.

He's not out there. He can't haunt me in my dreams. This guy's dead. He can't escape from jail and come find me.

Right? Oh my God. I know that he's gone. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a very heavy notion. Yeah. So, West Virginia does claim him.

I wouldn't. But most of his crimes were committed in Florida. But it felt like just one, you know, we needed to cover. Yeah.

So I was going to say I never even heard of this. Right. Easy. Yeah.

I had any there. And then I remembered, you know, I was like, I feel like I remembered the name McVay and like her story. I feel like I'd heard it somewhere. Maybe only when I survived or something.

But I was like, I need to know more. There is a new show called I Survived Beyond and Back. It's about near death experience. It is so cool.

That's crazy. Love watching that. Yeah. Well, yes.

It is like how do we move on from such a powerful, intense episode? I know. I'm sorry. That was a lot.

Yeah. But I enjoyed it. Thank you for the journey. Yeah.

You're welcome. And this is actually from your COVID brain is not good. Yeah. I'd like to think Wikipedia and other sources that I will find.

Yes. Other sources. Thank you. Yes.

COVID Haley. COVID me. Yeah. Just a play on typhoid Mary.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Don't let her come into your home. Yeah. That's rough.

Rough time. Open your door. Yep. Influenza.

Yikes. All right. Well, if you would like to contact us, you can do so by sending us the email at mountainmysteries.applelatchin at gmail.com. You can find us on Facebook at mountainmysteries.

Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountainmysteries.applelatchin at patreon.com slash mountainmysteries. That's where you get that bonus content. That's where we are.

You know, really holly hilly after dawn. All the things. It's very fun. It's very fun.

Totally want to join. I know. It's very exciting. Yep.

I'm trying to find a location, but it's taking a minute for it. So low. You know, I'm not surprised. But oh, just getting there.

Oh, yeah. Back out, friend. Yeah. Actually, in our last Patreon, uh, Haley and I were talking about, uh, we would eat each other.

Yeah. We had to. So, you know, if you want to, you know, jump on board with that conversation. It's not the Patreon.

That's right. All right. Let's go with, let's go Beckley West Virginia. Oh, thank you so much for listening.

And uh, we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Nice.