The Man Who Looked a Killer in the Eyes

In May 1992, a quiet Missouri evening turned chilling for Tim Hickman, who found himself face-to-face with a man who would moments later commit murder. This gripping account captures the eerie minutes before the crime — and the unsettling escape that still raises questions decades later.

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There is one man alive who has looked into the eyes of a serial killer. And he will never forget it.

Tim Hickman ran a video store in Raytown, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, just off Interstate 70. Around 6:30 p.m. on May 7, 1992, Hickman glanced out the window of his store and looked across the parking lot.

"I just happened to glance up, and I see a gentleman coming across the parking lot. He had on a sports coat, and I thought, 'Wow that is weird,' because it was a relatively warm night outside, and he was much more well-dressed than most of our customers at the plaza. I kept watching him, and he was walking my way, like he is coming right toward my store. I got distracted doing something, but then I looked up again a few minutes later and he had stepped right in front of my door, like he was looking inside for something, but he did not come in. I looked at him and he looked at me. I think he was a little bit shocked at what he saw, because if he had scoped the store a little bit earlier, my mom and my sister were working here. I just remember he looked around and seemed kind of shocked. He looked at me like, 'Huh, that is not what I kind of thought it was.' I looked right at his face. Then he turned, left, and just took off. I just thought it was odd."

Minutes later, the murderer walked a couple of steps, and entered Blessing's store door.

"About two or three minutes after I see him leave my store, I hear what sounds like a pop," Hickman says. "It sounds to me almost like a gunshot. Then I said, 'No, that can't possibly be it.' Then I hear a door slam. And I have never told anybody this before, but I grabbed my gun from under my counter, a .38, and I had it behind my back. I jumped right through the front door. I took a portable phone with me. I saw Sarah's door was just closing, and the guy I saw earlier looking through my door, right at me, was going around the corner of Sarah’s store. His back was to me, and I did not see his face this time, but I could tell it was the same man by his clothes. It was definitely the same guy, absolutely no doubt in my mind, that was looking through my window moments earlier. Same guy, same clothes. He was whipping around the corner of the building fast. I stood there for maybe 20 to 30 more seconds, trying to figure out what was happening. I said to myself, 'Something is very wrong here.' I looked both ways, and he was gone, just disappeared, up over the steep hill leading to the road. That is a very steep hill. It could not have been more than 30 or 45 seconds now. I said, 'Where did this guy go?'”

Detective Chris Shrout of the Raytown Police Department walked with me up towards the steep hill where the killer fled. It just did not make sense for a getaway path.

"Maybe one of us should try running up that hill," I suggested with a smile. "You know, see how long it takes, and how hard it was for the killer."

Shrout laughed. He knew I was not volunteering, and besides, he had already beaten me to it.

"I decided to run up that hill myself," Shrout said. "I wanted to see for myself what it was like."

And, I asked?

He shook his head again. "I can tell you, you do not want to be running up that hill.”

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