Sumith Prasad
The first season of Showtime’s crime series ‘Dexter’ revolves around the Ice-Truck Killer, who terrorizes Miami by leaving behind body parts of his victims at several places all across the city. Forensic expert and vigilante serial killer Dexter Morgan’s efforts to find the murderer lead him to Rudy Cooper, the boyfriend of his adoptive sister, Debra “Deb” Morgan. On his way to save Deb from Rudy’s hands, he realizes that the killer he has been looking for is none other than his biological brother, Brian Moser, whose fake identity of Dr. Rudy hides him from Dexter. Rudy’s modus operandi and actions remind us of several real-life serial killers, but it doesn’t mean that he is based on one!
The Creation of Brian Moser/Rudy Cooper
Brian Moser/Rudy Cooper is a serial killer crime novelist Jeff Lindsay created for his novel ‘Darkly Dreaming Dexter,’ the first work in the ‘Dexter’ novel series. Lindsay conceived the character without any exact real-life counterparts. To be specific, the serial killer is created as the exact opposite of the protagonist, Dexter Morgan, who is also a serial killer. Through the Ice-Truck Killer, Lindsay and the series developer James Manos Jr. established the characteristics and principles of the vigilante murderer. Therefore, the roots of Brian Moser/Rudy Cooper can be traced back to Dexter rather than a real-life serial killer.
Rudy drains the blood of his victims to garner the attention of Dexter, his biological brother. As a forensic expert who has investigated more than two thousand crime scenes, killers and their victims are nothing new for the forensic expert. Thus, to gain the attention of Dexter, Rudy has to be innovative, which explains why he drains the blood of his victims and cuts their body parts with unignorable precision. The attention to detail maintained by Rudy convinces Dexter that the former is a special one, which forms a strange bond between the two of them. That’s the reason why the forensic expert feels sad when Neil Perry claims to be the Ice-Truck Killer.
Lindsay must have chosen Rudy as the main antagonist of his novel to juxtapose him with Dexter. While Rudy preys on innocent prostitutes, who struggle hard to make a living, Dexter is a vigilante who kills only murderers and rapists who are threats to their community. This difference is significant since Rudy eventually forces Dexter to kill innocent individuals, including the latter’s adoptive sister, Deb. The novel and the series establish that Dexter is a man of principles when he resists the provocation of his brother and walks away from killing the people the latter traps for him.
The Ice-Truck Killer and Real-Life Parallels
Even though Rudy doesn’t have any particular real-life counterparts, his actions match the modus operandi of several serial killers in reality. Richard Trenton Chase, infamous as The Vampire of Sacramento, was a serial killer who was obsessed with the blood of his victims. Even though Rudy and Chase drained the blood of their victims for different reasons, the authorities who investigated both had to deal with numerous harrowing sights. The officers who conducted a search in Chase’s apartment found blood in the entire living space and even in the utensils of the serial killer, reminding us of Rudy’s refrigerated section of his house and his room at Marina View.
Like Rudy, several real-life serial killers have refrigerated the body parts of their victims. The notorious Jeffrey Dahmer, also known as The Milwaukee Cannibal, had kept the body parts of his victims in his refrigerator and freezer. Robert Berdella or the Kansas City Butcher’s actions are extremely similar to Rudy’s when it comes to the latter’s dissection of his victims’ bodies. Like the Ice-Truck Killer, Bardella also disposed of the body parts in bags, in addition to keeping his victims in captivity, reminding us of how the former kept Tony Tucci and Deb as captives. The principal difference between the two is that Bardella’s victims were young men, as opposed to Rudy’s prostitutes.
When it comes to Rudy’s selection of prostitutes, he can be compared to some of the most infamous serial killers in history, ranging from Jack the Ripper to Gary Ridgway or the Green River Killer.
Read More: Did Debra Die in Dexter? Did Dexter Kill His Sister?
