Why did they abduct the husband in the first place? And why were there other incidents of missing people as mentioned by the sherriff. Good movie but the end doesn't really explain anything. At first, I thought they killed/abducted people out of sheer sadistic pleasure but I don't think so. There was a point to them abducting the husband beyond just doing it for the hell of it.
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Having just caught the movie on veehd.com, I can freshly recall that the sheriff explained the motives while driving with Cloris Leachman's character, in pursuit of the bad guys: they were after the money, and the car. (Although in this case, the bad guys were planning to wreck the car with the couple within, so scratch the car.)
While the sheriff described these motives in general (in connection with the other incidents having nothing to do with the cafe/motel crowd), Ned Beatty's character also provided ideas as to the motives, while driving off with Cloris' character (while revealing that he intends to spend ten minutes alone with her, before killing her... and also declaring that killing is nothin'): he does not appreciate the city slickers passing through his turf, so he just makes it his business to take whatever he wants.
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This was explained in the movie when Ned Beatty is talking to Ross Martin at the climax of the film. They were running a gang that kidnapped and robbed travelers. Ross Martin's character had left the men's room door unlocked by mistake and when Dabney Coleman's character went into the men's room he saw the character of Lou (the tall guy with the limp who was on parole) and witnessed some kind of nefarious activity so they had to grab him.
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