Sick killer lured innocent men to woods via job ads - then killed them (2024)

WHEN David Pauley saw he'd been accepted for the farm work job he'd applied for on Craigslist, he couldn't believe his luck.

The 51-year-old divorcee - who'd been out of work for months and living on his brother's sofa - would now be raking in £230 a week and have a two-bedroom trailer to live in... or so he thought.

But little did Pauley know that the online post was fake - and that conman Richard Beasley had used it to lure him to a remote location where he would murder him to sell his posessions.

The 'Craigslist killer' - who went by the name 'Jack' online - targeted vulnerable middle-aged men with promises of work and a home using the free listings site, which was unwittingly set up by his 17-year-old daughter Tonya.

Tonight, a new TV show, I Lived With A Killer, details the three months in 2011 when Beasley lured Pauley - as well as his other victims, Ralph Geiger and Timothy Kern - to a remote area of Ohio before shooting them dead and tossing their lifeless bodies in shallow graves.

'Someone older and single preferred'

More than a hundred men replied to Beasley's fake Craigslist job advert, many who had been hit hard by the global recession.

In full, it read: "Wanted: Caretaker for farm. Simply watch over a 688 acre patch of hilly farmland and feed a few cows.

"You get $300 a week and a nice 2 bedroom trailer. Someone older and single preferred."

Pauley was the perfect candidate for Beasley's plan.

Desperate for a shot at making ends meet, 51-year-old childless divorcé Pauley went for a bogus job interview with his prospective employer 'Jack', and his 16-year-old accomplice Brogan Rafferty - a family friend of Beasley's.

At the time, Pauley had lost his job and was sleeping on his brother's couch.

Pauley told his sister that his new job was divine intervention and that his prayers had finally been answered.

After meeting at a restaurant, Pauley, Beasley and Rafferty drove to a remote area roughly 100 miles south of a city called Akron where Beasley claimed he owned land.

Shot in the head and flung into a ditch

Rafferty went to the toilet, and when he returned he found Pauley shot dead on the floor and his cowboy hat dangling from a tree.

Beasley told the teenager to move his body to a shallow grave he had dug earlier - close to where another body, that of Ralph Geiger, 56, lay rotting.

Like Pauley, Geiger was a middle-aged man who had been hit hard by the recession and was picked up by Beasley on the streets of Akron.

Before burying his latest victim, Beasley coolly removed Geiger's social security card and driver's licence.

He then began using Geiger's identity to claim his social security benefits, and rented out a house in his name.

Beasley then sold the few belongings Geiger had and blew the money on expensive painkillers within just two weeks.

On the run for seven hours

It was then that he decided he needed to strike again, and turned to Craigslist once more to arrange a meeting with Scott Davis, a single 49-year-old from South Carolina.

Beasley and Rafferty met him at a local breakfast diner before taking him to the same tragic plot of land.

But when they got there, Davis heard the click of Beasley co*cking his gun and turned round just in time to see him preparing to shoot at his head.

He escaped from the direct firing line but was shot in his arm before running into the nearby woods.

For seven hours he hid in the undergrowth, before escaping to a nearby house where he called the police.

The police didn't initially believe his story and were convinced it was a drug deal gone wrong, but then Davis showed them the Craigslist advert.

As they began to investigate and the local media got wind of the horrifying story, they got a call from Pauley's sister who believed her brother may also have been a victim.

Law enforcement started searching the secluded site and found his grave, as well as an empty plot which they believed had been prepared for Davis.

Ohio police realised they had a serial killer on their hands and called in the FBI.

One final murder

But Beasley wasn't done yet - he decided to kill again and arranged to meet another person from Craigslist.

Tim Kern, a 47-year-old street cleaner, had just lost his job and wanted money to support his two sons.

Beasley shot him dead behind an abandoned shopping centre before burying his body in the nearby shrubbery.

After his final sick murder, police arrested Beasley while he was walking down the street in broad daylight.

Rafferty - who had been in awe of Beasley as his own father became absent - gave evidence which helped lead them to Geiger and Kern's bodies.

In November 2012, Rafferty was was found guilty of three counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 70 years.

The mastermind, Beasley, was found guilty of murder, kidnapping and robbery and was sentenced to death in April 2013 while still protesting his innocence.

I Lived With A Killer: Craigslist Killer will air on Tuesday, April 9 at 9pm on Crime+Investigation