Accused ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ takes stand, spins bizarre yarn that police set him up
Years of abductions, torture and trauma — that’s what the accused “Pillowcase Rapist” detailed during his ongoing trial on Monday.
But Robert Koehler wasn’t describing attacks on the dozens of women police believe he terrorized and sexually assaulted in South Florida in the 1980s. Koehler, taking the stand in his own defense, denied any and all charges and allegations.
Instead, he painted himself as a victim of a bizarre conspiracy involving rogue cops to explain how his DNA was found on a 25-year-old woman he is accused of raping in December 1983 in Miami-Dade, just one of dozens of cases police have linked to Koehler and the first he is being tried on. Broward County prosecutors also have charged Koehler in six other sexual assault cases and more charges may be pending.
Public defender Vivian Pitchik had cautioned last week during the opening of the trial that Koehler’s testimony “might sound strange.” That proved to be understatement.
As the defense began presenting its case, Koehler denied all accusations against him, claiming he was “set up” by police back in the 1980s as the police scrambled for clues to catch the so-called “Pillowcase Rapist,” named because he typically shielded his face with a pillowcase or shirt.
Koehler, 63, shared an elaborate explanation with no evidence to support it: that he had been kidnapped, sexually tortured and drugged by police officers, who extracted the semen that linked him to dozens of rapes in the 1980s. A tracking device was placed in his arm, he claimed, and if he reported what happened, he would be framed for the murder of his family.
“I was screaming and kept getting shocked,” he said about one of the times he was kidnapped. “I’ve had the hardest time with this...”
During cross-examination, Koehler told prosecutor Laura Adams that he couldn’t remember the day he was first kidnapped. He said he believed it was during the last days of
1980 or the first days of 1981, minutes later saying his torture spanned from 1981 to 1986.
Adams pointed out how Koehler couldn’t remember dates but had no issue recalling specific details, which was the bulk of his testimony Monday.
Things just got stranger and stranger. Koehler claimed that during his captivity, he saw a man and woman murdered in front of him. At one point, he said he was forced to pull the trigger on a young girl — no older than 6 — as she was duct-taped to a wooden chair and clung to a Raggedy Ann doll.
“There was no way to move anything,” Koehler recounted in court. “...I kept pushing my index finger as far as I could forward into the trigger part of the gun. It was a big gun. It was aimed right at this poor little girl’s body, chest.”
He even said he knew the officers’ motive: They needed a serial rapist on the loose to get their hands
on more money — and more power.
“When you have something there, you can justify money,” Koehler said. “And you can get the money and the power you need.”
There was no explanation of why it took police decades to charge and arrest him. Police had never made any arrests or
even identified possible suspects until 2020 when the arrest of a relative and a DNA profile led them to raid Koehler’s home in Palm Bay, where they also found what was described as a hidden “dungeon.“His trial continues on Tuesday.