Review: ‘Long Haul’ offers a glimpse into the darker side of trucking

Editor’s note: When The Trucker first heard about Frank Figliuzzi’s foray into the dark world of serial killers who take advantage of the transient nature of life as truck drivers, we were intrigued. While we know the majority of drivers are not criminals, we are also painfully aware that the small percentage who are give the entire industry a bad reputation. In this honest, open review of “Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers,” The Trucker’s Kris Rutherford opens the door for conversation about an uncomfortable topic.

In his groundbreaking new book, “Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers,” former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi, tackles a subject often swept under the rug by the trucking industry — sex trafficking and the dangers some truck drivers pose to women along the nation’s highways.

Figliuzzi’s approach to the subject doesn’t so much blame truck drivers for a national epidemic of homicides among sex workers; instead, he offers a three-pronged view into the issue, providing insight into the cultures from which the players in the crimes — and the battle against them — live.

First, there is the dark world of sex trafficking where women may be controlled by pimps, work as “renegade” prostitutes or as “outlaws” who not only serve as prostitutes but also attempt to steal from their trucker customers in the process.

Secondly, Figliuzzi offers insight into local, state and national investigative techniques, providing a view of how law enforcement is attacking an issue growing in the public conscious or, in some cases, doing its best to ignore the problem.

Finally, he gives readers an inside view of the life of a truck driver — not so much the life of a driver who’s prone to become a serial killer, but an everyday Joe (or in this case, Mike) who’s simply trying to earn a living on the highways of America.

In approaching his subject, the author pulls no punches.

The book notes that more than 25 truck drivers are currently serving prison sentences for the murders of sex workers that they took captive in what amount to “murderhomes” on wheels, according to Figliuzzi.

The ability to kidnap women at one location and haul them many miles before dumping their lifeless bodies by the road at a rest area or near secluded woods is one reason truckers have been pinpointed in so many crimes. In fact, at this time 850 unsolved murders have been linked to this “solitary breed of predators — truck drivers.”

But Figliuzzi doesn’t play the blame game.

Instead, he takes readers on a week-long trip with a hard-working driver — one who can’t conceivably have the time to partake in the sex services available at so many truck stops and highway rest areas around the country.

Figliuzzi offers an insider’s view of the sex trade as described by anonymous survivors in various stages of recovery. We learn how the sex trade operates, who are likely victims, how they become trapped in the lifestyle and the devastating role of drugs that make escape seemingly impossible. The crimes pimps commit against their victims are those of outrage, he says, and forced drug addiction is perhaps their most valuable tool.

On board a Volvo big rig hauling a flatbed trailer, Figliuzzi and his driving partner, Mike, make their way through America’s Midwest. Along the journey, Mike attempts to meet the goal of maximizing his daily profit through a well-planned — but often interrupted — series of loadings and drop-offs at customer facilities.

While on the open road, Mike reveals his strengths, weaknesses and frustrations of a career in an industry that has many moving parts and opportunities for breakdown, both human and mechanical. The book’s description makes it difficult to imagine a driver spending a career without experiencing some sort of mental breakdown — perhaps the type of breakdown that could send any employee in any field into a murderous nightmare.

In the third story within Long Haul, Figliuzzi looks into the world of members of law enforcement who battle sex trafficking and associated violence on a daily basis, as well as investigators looking for trends and ways to solve cold cases. Readers are given a look inside the FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative (HSK), an investigative effort to comb the files of cold cases, looking for links that might connect them to a single killer that can be pursued by law enforcement. The HSK concentrates its efforts on murders that meet its criteria, “female victims of opportunity, close to the highway, often near rest stops, and dumped close to the road.”

A shocking majority of such murders can be found along the Interstate 40 corridor that cuts an east-west swath across the southern United States, passing through cities such as Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Oklahoma City and Albuquerque. In one set of murders, the common link is Oklahoma, where victims are targeted and taken on murderous trips across the country.

While “Long Haul” is a quick-moving read, it is far from a comfortable one.

Readers — including truck drivers — who finish the book will never view truck stops or highway rest areas in the same way, and they may even be discouraged from visiting such facilities at night. But so much of the criminal activity described in the book takes place in broad daylight that avoiding nighttime stops is merely for one’s own comfort.

It’s hard to say that the book’s target audience is any single set of readers. “Long Haul” has a little bit of something for everyone … true crime, investigative techniques and an inside look at the dark world of the sex trade.

Perhaps its most valuable purpose is to provide unburnished insights for aspiring truckers, helping them determine whether they’re up to the task. As evidenced by “Long Haul,” life on the road as a truck driver is a whole lot more than making deliveries and following traffic safety standards. It’s a career that is pent with danger at every stop, and it’s one that requires drivers be on the lookout for danger — both to themselves and to others — even when the ELD registers “off-duty.”

Kris Rutherford

Since retiring from a career as an outdoor recreation professional from the State of Arkansas, Kris Rutherford has worked as a freelance writer and, with his wife, owns and publishes a small Northeast Texas newspaper, The Roxton Progress. Kris has worked as a ghostwriter and editor and has authored seven books of his own. He became interested in the trucking industry as a child in the 1970s when his family traveled the interstates twice a year between their home in Maine and their native Texas. He has been a classic country music enthusiast since the age of nine when he developed a special interest in trucking songs.