Sean Patrick Goble considered himself a real lady's man and bragged about his romantic exploits and 300-pound physique to police. A neighbor called him a "scary kind of fellow."
Others call him a sensitive, generous giant. He once complained to police that his girlfriend beat him up.Now homicide investigators from North Carolina and about 10 other states are trying to draw an accurate portrait of this confessed serial killer, an enigmatic trucker whose black 18-wheeler had "The Wild One" emblazoned across the cab.
After his arrest on April 14, Goble told police he killed 45-year-old Brenda Kay Hagy of Bloomington, Ind., in January at a service station in eastern Tennessee and dumped her body along Interstate 81 in Virginia.
He also confessed to killing 36-year-old Alice Rebecca Hanes, a prostitute from Ohio whose body was found in March off I-81 in Kingsport, Tenn., police said.
Authorities in Guilford County, N.C., said Goble told them he was involved in the death of a woman whose body was found along I-40 in February.
He will stand trial first in Greensboro on the third murder charge.
Goble was arrested by local, state and federal officers when he drove his Peterbilt truck into the Rocky Road Express terminal in Winston-Salem. He lived in an aqua-blue trailer in nearby Asheboro.
"When the feds laid their cards on the table, it gave me goose bumps," said Kurt Stonestreet, who owns the trucking firm with his father. "Look here," he said, pointing to his forearm, "I've got 'em again."
Stonestreet rated Goble - who pronounces his first name as Seen - in the top 15 percent of drivers he's hired over the years.
"He was a take-charge kind of guy," he said. "He's the kind of guy who doesn't bother me in the middle of the night with a problem he can solve by himself."
One police investigator said Goble views himself as a lady killer - in both senses.
"He is very fond of his power over women, he loves his women," the investigator told The News & Observer of Raleigh. "He's very proud of his physique. I'm serious. He thinks women go for him."
The investigator said Goble does not seem to comprehend the serious nature of the charges.