A Hitchhiking Odyssey

As a nineteen-year-old English kid filled with wanderlust and a sense of adventure, I visited Southern California in 1980 and decided to hitchhike around the state, and beyond. I found it a quick, easy, and very interesting way to travel and meet random Americans.

However, it was only years later that I realized I had been playing a form of Russian roulette. Among the kind and generous people who gave me rides were, occasionally, drivers who were badly “off.” They were highly unusual, and that is why I remembered them.

It was only years, in fact decades, later that I instantly recognized them in crime documentaries about notorious serial killers. I am not mistaken. They clearly had murder on their minds.