The ET22: The Most Bizarre Gun in Serial Killer History
Essay by Bob Cyphers
In most homicide cases, the gun tells a story. But in the case of the I-70 serial killer, the weapon created only more questions.
In this gripping essay, true crime author Bob Cyphers explores the unsettling choice of the killer’s firearm: a rare, jam-prone German pistol from World War I—the Erma Werke ET22. With only a few thousand ever made, detectives were stunned by its appearance at multiple crime scenes. But what really shook them? The bullets had been polished with red jeweler’s rouge—an eerie sign of ritual, craftsmanship… and obsession.
This is forensic detail at its most haunting.
It always comes back to the gun. In a case with no answers, it's always the gun. Homicide scenes usually wind up tracing suspects back to semiautomatic pistols, maybe a Ruger 9mm, or a Raven Arms 25, perhaps a Lorcin 38, or the most common: a simple Smith and Wesson 38 revolver. But not the I-70 serial killer. The killer's choice for a weapon was off the charts, one so rare that all homicide detectives could do was look at each other and wonder.
“It makes no sense,” said Roger Spurgeon of the Indianapolis Police Department. ”Absolutely no sense.”
Meet the Erma Werke ET22. It was originally used by the German Navy in World War I. But they were so unreliable, the Germans mainly used them only as target pistols.
“This was certainly an extremely unusual gun,” said Detective Tim Relph of the Wichita Police Department. “To say the least.”
Only about six thousand of the ET22 models were ever made, again starting more than 100 years ago. The final production lines of the gun were run in the 1960s, and from there it is likely where the serial killer's gun came from. The Erma Werke did not stop with it being ancient, or foreign. The gun had problems on both the feeding and ejecting ends, which eventually led to the jamming and malfunctions issues. Gun collectors say the Erma Werke “was practically made to jam.” They were also notorious for suffering more misfires than fires. Oh, and you could not hide it if you tried. That is because the ET22 has a barrel that is almost a foot long. Just about the last gun in the world a killer wants to be seen hauling around.
"Not a very usual weapon of choice," said Detective Kelly Rhodes of the St. Charles Police Department, "because it is not very easily concealable."
And then another piece was added to the puzzle. Police discovered that each casing at all of the crime scenes was linked to the others by a red substance forensically lifted from the casings, but detectives had no idea what it could possibly be. They sent the casings for testing to the FBI crime lab in Quantico. The substance appeared to be some sort of jeweler's red rouge. The killer was apparently rubbing the bullet casings with the rouge and using the corundum to polish the cartridges. This would allow the bullets to slide more easily into the chamber. For detectives, feeling the need to polish the bullets is a clear sign that the I-70 killer was assembling his own homemade guns. Detectives think the gun was passed down to him through generations by relatives, and held some sort of emotional value to the killer. If that was the case, the gun would have been a prized possession to him.
An old advertisement from the gun magazine LA Distributors had this to say about the Navy Model Erma. “Enjoy inexpensive shooting at its very best with this famous look alike gun, a fast shoot and dependable 22 caliber pistol ideal for plinking, target shooting and pest control.”
A look alike gun used for pest control was incredibly the gun of choice for the madman killer.
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🔗 Dead End – Genius Book Publishing
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