Robert Bruce, serial rapist and schmuck, has bride asking, Who the [Bleep] Did I Marry?

Onetime Pueblo resident Robert Bruce is becoming a TV star of sorts -- but don't expect the results to be especially flattering. That's because the episode of the ID-TV program Who the [Bleep] Did I Marry? in which he features focuses on his wife's discovery that the hunk to whom...

By Westword Staff

November 9, 2012

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Onetime Pueblo resident Robert Bruce is becoming a TV star of sorts -- but don't expect the results to be especially flattering. That's because the episode of the ID-TV program Who the [Bleep] Did I Marry? in which he features focuses on his wife's discovery that the hunk to whom she'd become hitched was actually a serial rapist. Get details below.

According to a U.K. Mail preview, Joy Lynn Martinez met Bruce in an Albuquerque bar in 2001 and was immediately taken by his handsome appearance; he's described as a "Ben Affleck lookalike."

The relationship that developed between Martinez and Bruce, a previously divorced man twelve years her senior, didn't constitute a smooth road to wedded bliss. His mother is said to have disapproved of the pairing, and Martinez says he often spoke about women in a derogatory manner. But when he asked for her hand in marriage, she said yes. They tied the knot in 2003, after which they relocated to Pueblo.

In the time that followed, Martinez's doubts about Bruce continued to grow. She reportedly considered him to be cheap and controlling -- and she wasn't exactly thrilled to discover that he'd been secretly filming their lovemaking. But these issues were minor compared to one brought to her attention by a news article about the search for a serial rapist known as "Ether Man" -- so named because of his proclivity for disabling his victims using rags soaked in chemicals.

The timeline in the report jibed with many of Bruce's travels, making Martinez immediately suspect that he could be the perpetrator -- and it turned out she was right. Two days later, Bruce was arrested for allegedly planting a homemade bomb near the home of a cop scheduled to testify against him in what the Mail describes as a Peeping Tom case. Shortly thereafter, the cops chatted with Martinez, who mentioned her "Ether Man" fears -- and DNA checks later linked him to multiple sex assaults in New Mexico, plus one in Austin and another in Pueblo.

Thus began a legal odyssey for Bruce that reached its apex this week, when he was reportedly handed a 156-year sentence on nine rape charges in New Mexico. He'd previously been found guilty in the Peeping Tom case and the bombing incident.

The "Ether Man" episode of Who the [Bleep] Did I Marry? is set to debut on Saturday, November 10, with re-airings anticipated. Click here for details and look below for a preview of a program that takes schmuckiness to extremes.

In the meantime, here's a New Mexico station's report on the Ether Man's sentencing.

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