TULSA, Okla.—Evidence links a Colorado inmate suspected of being the “Ether Man” serial rapist to a string of sexual assaults that roiled not only the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman from 1985 to 2005 but also several other states in the Southwest, authorities said Friday.
Prosecutors filed 19 felony charges this week against Robert Howard Bruce, who is serving a 64-year sentence in Colorado for attempting to blow up a police officer’s home.
Bruce, 50, is accused of being the Ether Man, whom police describe as a cunning egomaniac who used brutality and his wits to evade custody for years. Bruce was known for using chemicals such as chloroform to subdue dozens of rape victims in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
Authorities plan to file necessary paperwork to extradite Bruce to Oklahoma to face the charges.
Court records say Bruce described the Oklahoma attacks when a detective questioned him in January. Public Defender Kim Karn, who represented Bruce in Colorado, did not immediately return a phone message Friday. The records do not list an Oklahoma attorney for Bruce.
“The good news is he’s off the street, and he’s going to be off the street for the rest of his life,” said Capt. Rich Goddard with the Pueblo, Colo., police department, which busted Bruce on a peeping Tom charge. “There aren’t a lot of guys like him.”
For nearly 20 years, Bruce terrorized the University of Oklahoma campus, where he was a student. Later, he came back to Norman to again prey on young women, police said.
Several assault reports included in the case, which was filed in Cleveland County District Court—describe Bruce as a man who used violence to get whatever he wanted from his victims.
In March 1985, police allege that Bruce assaulted a woman in Norman while she was asleep. When she struggled, Bruce allegedly told her to “be quiet and you won’t get hurt.” She continued to fight him, so Bruce pinned and handcuffed her arms behind her then put a pillowcase over her head, according to court records.
In July 1985 in Norman, records show that Bruce allegedly entered a sleeping woman’s house through an open back window, got on top of her and warned her that he had a razor and would use it if she resisted. Police said Bruce escaped on foot.
In 1991, Bruce’s DNA matched a rape case in Albuquerque. Police said Bruce might be also responsible for more assaults in New Mexico’s largest city, as well as in two Texas cities: Austin and Lubbock.
Albuquerque police officer Tasia Martinez said her department has at least 12 known sexual assault victims that have implicated Bruce, and expects “many more.”
“With this many victims, this is a very unusual pattern of criminal activity,” Martinez said.
Things began to catch up with Bruce in 2007, when he was arrested in Pueblo, Colo., on a peeping Tom complaint.
Police Officer Nathan Pruce was schedule to testify against Bruce in court in 2009. Police said that Bruce was afraid he’d be convicted and have to submit his DNA to a national database that authorities use to track crimes, so he tried to blow up Pruce’s home using a 30-pound propane tank rigged to pump explosive gas into the home.
No explosion happened, but Bruce was arrested and convicted. His DNA sample matched him to sexual assaults in Albuquerque, and investigators started examining cases that could be linked to Bruce.
Norman Police Det. Jim Parks said Friday he has already received calls from at least a half-dozen women who think they may have been Bruce’s victims.
Parks said the case has “bothered” him for years and he is looking to help some victims find closure.
“The way everything worked, Mr. Bruce was a high confidence-level, he has a big ego,” Parks said. “He was very boastful and he was proud that he had managed to not even worry about the police because he felt he was so good at what he did.”
