Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Love this podcast? Support this show through the ACAST supporter feature. It's up to you how much you give, and there's no regular commitment. Just click the link in the show description to support now.
Get unlimited talk, text, and data for just $25 a month with Boost Mobile forever.
After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan. This summer, Instacart presents famous summer flavors coming to your front door. Or pool. Or hotel. Your grocery delivery has arrived, sir. That was faster than room service. No violins in the lobby? Seriously?
Anyway, sit back, relax, and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes. Starring your favorite snacks, drinks, and more. Download Instacart for free delivery on your first three orders. Rated H for hungry audiences. Offer valid for a limited time. Minimum $10 per order. Excludes restaurants. Additional terms and fees apply. Hey, it's Sharon, and here's where it gets interesting. Raise your hand if you want salon-perfect nails for just $2 a manicure.
Yeah, me too. With the Olive and June Manny System, you can say goodbye to expensive services that take hours and hours and love your nails more than ever. I would know. I've been doing it for years. Get 20% off your first Manny System with code PerfectManny20 at OliveandJune.com slash PerfectManny20. That's PerfectManny20 at OliveandJune.com slash PerfectManny20.
Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Weyborg Thun. And tonight, we stay in the humid and sunny lands of Florida. To continue our expose into the life and crimes of Daniel Harold Rowling.
Last episode I presented to you, dear listener, the early life of Danny Rowling and his murderous debut. Tonight, we take a closer look at his various murders as well as Mr. Rowling's arrest, trial, and execution. Would you, dear listener, like to hear more from your humble hosts other than just the weekly Serial Killer Expo 6?
If so, I have the solution for you. The $10 plus club is growing, and I have provided its fine members to four 100% exclusive bonus content.
The bonus content now includes a brand new expose into the Norwegian black metal artist, murderer, and Satanist, Varg Vikernes. A detailed look into the history of the death penalty around the world, a video review of the excellent film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile,
and an American radio station interviewing yours truly. So, if you want to join the exclusive ranks of the TSK $10 Plus Club, go to patreon.com slash the Serial Killer Podcast and donate $10 or more now.
After discovering, through the partially drawn blinds covering the back door, the naked female body sitting on the bed slumped over, lacking a head. The two officers ran back to their patrol car to notify the station. It was in the middle of the night, 1 a.m. However, police were already out in force due to the earlier discovery of a murder victim.
So it took only moments before the first of the investigating team had arrived. Barber and O'Hara quickly briefed Sergeant Baxter and Lieutenant Nobles, telling them that they had heard water running in the apartment.
As there was a strong possibility that the killer was still inside, O'Hara and Barber were told to take up positions around the outside of the apartment, while Baxter and Nobles waited for more backup to arrive. It was half an hour before they were ready to enter the building. The officers entered through the front door, into the dimly lit interior. It was very quiet.
They moved very slowly, pistols drawn, ready for anything. The bathroom was first. They could hear the drip-drip of the shower. But there was no one there. There were bloodstains on the floor of the shower. The blood a vivid shade of red in the glare of the bathroom light. Now they moved onwards towards the bedroom. They knew they could expect something awful
So the officers braced themselves. Immediately after closing in on the bedroom, they could see Krista's lifeless head facing them, propped up on a bookshelf in the bedroom. Next to the bookshelf was the bed, and there they saw the headless corpse of the once beautiful Krista, sitting at the end of the bed. On the bed, next to her,
where her two nipples ripped clean of her breasts. Barely able to breathe, they checked under the bed and in the closets. Confident that the killer had long gone, the two officers made their way back outside.
As they walked out into the courtyard, they saw that the Gainesville police chief, Wayland Clifton, had arrived in the Williamsburg Village apartments, along with many of the other officers. Although they had no jurisdiction in this area, they needed to know for sure whether the murders were in any way linked. With the preliminary examination completed, it was time for the body to be moved.
Alat Chua, county's chief investigator, gave the order. Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next. One of the officers let out a low growl when Krista was laid back. Apart from her head being cut off and her nipples being ripped off from her breasts, she had been carefully eviscerated from her vagina all the way up to her breastbone.
Her intestines were visible beneath the deep incision. It was soon clear that the three murders most probably were linked. At both scenes, underwear was missing. A knife with a four to six inch blade had been used on all three girls, and the use of adhesive tape for restraint was evident, although it had been removed.
At both scenes, there were body parts missing. As Sheriff Lou Hindery walked towards his car, the crowd of reporters, which had gathered while he was inside Krista's apartment, met him. In answer to their barrage of questions, he told them some of the gruesome details before getting into his car to drive back to the station.
By the afternoon, the information available to the press was being strictly controlled. Already much of the most vital information was well known, and where facts were missing, fear and fertile imaginations had filled in the gaps. The earliest stories in the local newspaper, the Gainesville Sun, were gruesome, even without embellishment.
Newspapers were being sold as quickly as the shelves could be filled. Even without the headlines, the news was sweeping through the college community. The students, who could all identify with the victims, felt vulnerable.
For many parents, and even some of the students, the memory of Ted Bundy, who had gone on a very similar murder spree just over a decade earlier, also in Florida, suddenly became very vivid once again. Just over a year earlier, Bundy had been fried in the electrical chair.
And now it was as if Ted had returned, only this time even more ferocious and sadistic than all those years before. Beautiful young Christa's murder meant that the killer may not have known his victims, and they were chosen opportunistically.
The victims didn't even attend the same school. Christina and Sonia were freshmen at the University of Florida, while Krista was a sophomore at Santa Fe Community College. Anyone could be next, at any place and at any time.
First thing the following Monday morning, Sheriff Lou Hindery of Allat Chua County Sheriff's Office and Wayland Clifton of Gainesville Police Department conferred and set the wheels in motion to create a combined task force.
It was to include top crime scene technicians and investigators from both departments, along with representatives from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol, and ten of the top criminal behavioral specialists from the FBI. Here, I would like to pause for just a moment, dear listener.
These behavioral specialists from the FBI belonged to a branch of the Bureau called the Behavioral Science Unit, the BSU. This being 1990, the BSU had been a respected and established spearhead of criminal investigation into the FBI for some time.
But if you, like me, are a fan of the excellent TV show Mindhunter, you will perhaps be aware of the fact that it was not that much earlier that the BSU was established.
It was the same type of investigators you see on the show Mindhunter that was now looking into the Gainesville Ripper case, well-dressed and sharp as nails. The task force was to be headed by three men. Lieutenant R.B. Ward was appointed by the G.P.D.,
Captain Andy Hamilton represented the ACSO, and Special Agent J.O. Jackson represented the FDLE. On Monday night, the first press conference took place. The media was in a feeding frenzy, and grisly rumors regarding the murders were widely published, with little regard to the accuracy of said rumors.
Police tried to quell the worst of the public's fears, but since they had to keep details from the crime scenes off-limits in order not to compromise the investigation, they could not stop the media madness escalating. Also, the police wanted the public to be on guard. They didn't want a panic, but there was a killer on the loose.
Three young women had been murdered, and judging from the brief time between kills, it would not take long until he struck again, unless he was stopped. The Gainesville police lines were jammed as students called home to reassure parents of their safety, and parents phoned their children just to hear the sound of their voices.
Callers from all over the country called the GPD, wanting to know whether it was true that there was a serial killer on the loose. Students, fearful of returning alone to their apartments, banded together. With as many as ten or twelve people staying together in one apartment, no one walked alone at night, or during the day for that matter.
Young women were wary of any young men they did not know. How could they be sure that the killer was not a fellow student? Nobody could be sure. Nobody felt safe. On Tuesday, the 28th of August, 1990, the fear and panic in Gainesville reached a crescendo when two more bodies were found.
This time, surprisingly, one of them was a young man. Now it was not only the women in Gainesville who feared for their lives. Being male or having a male close by no longer offered anyone a sense of security. The victims were Tracy Ines Paulus and Manuel, known by friends as Manny, R. Taboada, both 23 years old.
Friends since high school, they decided to share the two-bedroom ground floor unit at Gatorwood Apartments when Manuel's previous roommate had moved out. Manny, a six-foot-three-inch athlete weighing over 200 pounds, seemed to Tracy's parents a good choice as a roommate.
Such a strong man surely would keep their daughter safe from the dangers of a dangerous world. With many in residence, Tracy's parents didn't think they needed to worry so much about their daughter living off campus. They were wrong. Gatorwood Apartments was a three-story apartment building that still exists today, although there are plans to have it replaced with a new building.
It had been seven o'clock on Tuesday morning when one of Manny's friends, Tommy Carroll, arrived there to check on Manny and Tracy at the request of a mutual friend who was living out of the area. Chris Pasciarella had been trying to contact Manny by phone since Sunday, and was concerned that they were still not answering.
He called the manager and arranged for someone to meet Tommy to check the apartment. The manager sent Christopher Smith, the maintenance man. When Tommy told Christopher that there had been no answer to his knocking, he took out his master key and opened the door. They didn't need to enter to see what had happened.
Tracy's naked, bloodied body was lying in the hallway between the two bedrooms. Sitting on the floor above her head was a dark-colored bag. Christopher slammed the door shut and locked it. When he returned only five minutes later with the police, the door was unlocked, was gone. It was apparent that the killer had been inside the apartment when they had opened it.
They had just missed him, and perhaps had narrowly escaped being victims themselves. It turned out what had happened was that shortly before, Rowling had broken into the apartment by prying open the sliding glass door with the same tools he had used previously.
Inside, he found Manny asleep in one of the bedrooms and proceeded to plunge his K-bar knife deep into the young man's solar plexus. Manny naturally woke up from this trauma and put up a vigorous fight for his life against Rowling. Rowling kept stabbing Manny in the face, the arms, and chest, and ultimately Manny succumbed to his massive wounds and died.
Hearing the commotion, Tracy went down the hall to Manny's bedroom and saw Rowling, completely covered in blood, looking at her and moving towards her with a knife in his hand. She had seemingly attempted to barricade herself in her bedroom, but Rowling broke through the door and easily overpowered the lithe woman.
He then taped her mouth and wrists, cut off all her clothing, and raped her savagely, before turning her onto her belly and stabbing her three times deep in the back, causing massive internal bleeding and her lung to collapse, ensuring the young woman's death.
By now, Rowling had found his signature modus operandi, and wanted to pose Tracy's body, and wanted to mutilate her corpse. But he heard voices, so he simply stretched her naked body out on the floor, with a towel under her hips to expose her genitals as lewdly as possible, and left Manny where he lay, before hiding from the arriving people.
When they left, he quickly grabbed his bag filled with his murder kit and ran away before anyone managed to spot him. With the discovery of the fourth and fifth bodies, Gainesville came under the spotlight of the national media.
One report highlighted the similarity between the Gainesville killings and the mutilations done by the infamous historical serial killer operating in the late 1800s, good old Jack the Ripper. Stories about the now-christened the Gainesville Ripper quickly became the media's latest drawcard, guaranteeing soaring sales records.
Soon, police were inundated by calls. Thousands of possible suspects were identified. Ex-boyfriends and husbands were named as strong candidates. Anyone who had behaved quote-unquote strangely was likely to be reported. All of them had to be checked and cross-checked for any possible links to the killings.
One name seemed to be coming up again and again. It looked like the police had their first real suspects in a strange young man by the name of Edward Lewis Humphrey. When Officer Lonnie Scott of GPD had told her superiors about her neighbor, Edward Humphrey,
They had already had a number of similarly strange reports from the many people who had come into contact with him over the summer period. The manager of Gatorwood Apartments, where Tracy and Manny had been murdered, reported that Humphrey had been asked to leave after he fought his roommate, who said he was weird and walked in his sleep.
When the maintenance man and the manager had attempted to make him leave, he had become violent and thrown a chair at them. He had also been in trouble when he had lived in the opposite apartment block, going into people's apartments uninvited, and, when they dared to lock him out, he would peep through the curtains to get their attention. In early August, Edward had been in trouble again.
He was arrested in Ordway, Colorado, for disorderly conduct. His car was confiscated, and he was held in custody for 24 hours until his grandmother, Elna Clavate, came to rescue him. She returned him to Gainesville and found him an apartment.
The police were quickly able to gather many reports of Edward's violent behavior towards his grandmother as the pair moved around town in search of an apartment. The numerous other independent reports about Edward made to the police included harassment and arguments, and one instance where he produced a penknife at a fraternity house when they tried to stop him from coming in.
Edward Humphrey was definitely a strange character who, police believed, could possibly be the killer. The investigation began to focus heavily on Edward as the prime suspect, beginning with their surveillance of Edward's every movement. As he drove back to his grandmother's home in India Atlantic on the 28th of August, police helicopters hovered overhead.
And so it was that shortly afterwards, Edward had a violent argument with his grandmother that ended in him striking her. His mother called the police, who convinced Elna that she must sign a complaint charging aggravated assault. Humphrey was immediately arrested and taken to Regional Medical Center for treatment. FBI agents
arrived soon after and their interrogations began he was questioned extensively for twenty-four hours without an attorney when the public defender assigned to edward arrived he was simply sent away
The agents told him that the defense attorney would not be needed, as no arrest had been made in regard to the Gainesville killings, as there was no evidence. Edward was there only on the assault charges, but even though Edward's grandmother dropped the charges against her grandson that night, he continued to be held.
The next morning, the police reinstated the assault charges, and Edward was sent to the Brevard County Jail at Sharps. Bail was set at a staggering one million dollars for a minor assault charge by a first-time offender, and Edward awaited his trial. Almost as soon as his arrest was made, the media blitz against Edward began.
A mugshot of Edward was printed and all reports implied that he was the Gainesville killer. His name and character, no matter the outcome of a trial, would forever be tarnished.
When police reported that Humphrey was a good suspect, the media headlines declared him as the quote-unquote number one suspect, and police did nothing to correct them. With no evidence to link Humphrey to the Gainesville killings, it took the police four days to convince a judge to grant a warrant to search Humphrey's person, apartment, and car.
They also wanted to search the Clavati house, as Humphrey may have left some clues there. The warrant finally granted. They spent several hours at Humphrey's apartment where nothing was found which they could use as evidence. They had no more luck at Elna Clavati's home, where police had descended at 9 a.m. on the same day. Elna had not been home when they arrived,
So a locksmith was called, and the warrant read to an empty house. The elderly woman was so distressed when she arrived home to find the police ransacking her house that an ambulance had to be summoned.
Despite the complete lack of evidence and a complete lack of witnesses to link Edward to the killings, the police continued to view him as their prime suspect. Edward was weird, had acted strangely, and he happened to be close to one of the crime scenes.
So, in the eyes of early 1990s police, he had to be their killer. When there were no more murders after his arrest, they became even more convinced, along with the media. The public perception was that the police had their killer, and this impression quickly spread.
Students who had fled in terror returned, and gradually people stopped traveling and living in large groups. Interest in the murders began to wane, and on the 12th of September 1990, the story did not appear on the front page for the first time since the murders were first announced.
Whoa, easy there. Yeah.
applies to online activations requires port in and auto pay customers activating in stores may be charged non-refundable activation fees
Need new glasses or want a fresh new style? Warby Parker has you covered. Glasses start at just $95, including anti-reflective, scratch-resistant prescription lenses that block 100% of UV rays. Every frame's designed in-house, with a huge selection of styles for every face shape. And with Warby Parker's free home try-on program, you can order five pairs to try at home for free. Shipping is free both ways, too.
Go to warbyparker.com slash covered to try five pairs of frames at home for free. warbyparker.com slash covered. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a family man with three kids, I know firsthand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care. But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable. For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh.
For others, it might be an eating night. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.
If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Everyone needs someone to talk to, even psychopaths, even your humble host. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp.
Visit BetterHelp.com slash SerialKiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash SerialKiller. Meanwhile, the real killer, Daniel Harold Rowling, had moved on after the murders in Gainesville and was eventually arrested for armed robbery in Ocala, Florida.
It would be some time before he would be linked to the murders, and it would be longer still before Edward Humphrey's name would be cleared. In October, Edward Humphrey was sent to trial on the assault charges. Although his grandmother testified that Edward had not struck her,
Edward was still sentenced to 22 months in Chattahoochee State Hospital, where most of the inmates were convicted murderers. He was not released until the 18th of September 1991, and was still considered a suspect until after Danny Rowling, the real killer, was sentenced in 1994.
Up until this time, his name was never officially cleared, nor did he receive any public apology for the pain and anguish caused to him and his family. As the police had begun their surveillance of Edward Humphrey on the 28th of August 1990, the real killer, Daniel Harold Rowling,
not only escaped arrest on bank robbery charges. He had been with a man named Tony Danzy, near the woods on Archer Road, near where Krista Hoyt had been murdered. Rowling had made a campsite on the afternoon of the first murders. He had been on the way back to the campsite with Danzy, a new friend who supplied him with drugs, when the police had noticed them.
Dancy stopped to wait for the police, but Rowling, as the two police officers pursued Rowling, they came upon his campsite. Here they found a number of items that would later link Rowling to the five murders. But at this time, the only item that caught the attention of police was a bag of cash covered in pink dye.
The perpetrator of the robbery of the First Union National Bank on the previous day had been identified. Unfortunately, he was not suspected as the Gainesville Ripper, and his belongings were stored away in case they caught him later. When Danzy and Rowling met the next day, Danzy threatened to call the police. Rowling was on the run for the second time in his life and made plans to leave the area.
With no car and no money, he set about acquiring them the only way he knew how. He burgled the apartment of student Christopher Osborne, where he stole the keys to Christopher's 1978 Buick Regal and drove towards Tampa.
There he burgled several houses, but failed to achieve anything except to leave a trail of evidence, including fingerprints and hair, to help the authorities convict him. He was almost caught as he departed from a convenience store robbery, but managed to run into the woods once again, eluding capture. But his luck was about to run out.
Rowling stole another car and headed for Ocala, where he attempted a daring robbery of a Winn-Dixie supermarket during the peak of Saturday afternoon crowds on the 8th of September 1990. While he forced the manager at gunpoint to empty the office safe, the store's bookkeeper was on her way back to work.
She phoned the police when she learned, at the entrance to the supermarket, that they were being robbed. The police were well on their way by the time Rowling left, heading to his getaway car. The store manager, Randy Wilson, had followed Rowling as he left the shopping center and was able to tell the police exactly where he was.
As Rowling backed out of the parking area, the police were already in pursuit, and a high-speed chase began. When Rowling crashed his car, he fled on foot into a nearby office, but as he left through a rear door, the police were waiting for him. He made one last attempt to escape their clutches, but it ended in failure, and he was finally arrested.
On the 10th of October, the day Edward Humphrey was convicted of the assault charges against his grandmother, Rowling sent his mother a Christmas card from the Marion County Jail, where he was being held, awaiting an indictment from the Winn-Dixie robbery and the many burglaries he had committed prior to his arrest.
From the moment of his arrest, Rowling had passively accepted his fate and was being totally cooperative with police and prison authorities. But on the 1st of January 1991, he revealed another side to his personality in a fit of anger.
He ripped a toilet from its mounting and threw it across the day room, believing that there was a lot more to Danny Rowling than initially thought. His defense attorney, Victoria Lizaralde, asked for psychological tests and moved to withdraw the guilty plea on Rowling's armed robbery charges. Throughout the time prior to his trial, Rowling had trouble keeping his mouth shut.
Many inmates made contact with the investigating team to relate stories of Rawlings' quote-unquote confessions, which fluctuated between penitent admissions of sin to bragging, depending on his mood. He formed a friendship with inmate Bobby Lewis, known as the only man to have escaped from Florida's death row.
Rowling knew that escape was the only way he would ever get out of prison. Even if he wasn't convicted for the Gainesville murders, Rowling knew that Lewis could prove a helpful friend. In time, Rowling told Lewis all about the murders in explicit detail. He admitted that he had decided to kill while he was in prison during the 80s, long before he came to Gainesville.
He acknowledged that he had a bad side, which he couldn't always control. As is typical for psychopaths, Rowling never took responsibility for his own crimes. Instead, he blamed his father's abuse and neglect, sexual abuse he experienced in prison, and his ex-wife for his actions.
Together, Rowling and Lewis planned for Rowling to fake suicide in order to stay in the same ward and then later escape. Unlike Ted Bundy, Rowling never managed to escape. On the 31st of January 1993, Rowling informed the Gainesville investigators that he wished to confess through Bobby Lewis.
During the three-hour confession, Rowling did not answer any of the investigators' questions directly, but confirmed the answers given by Lewis on his behalf. Through Lewis, Rowling effectively confessed to planning and committing the five murders in Gainesville.
He also told them that he had originally planned to kill eight people while he had been in prison, and that he would, and here I quote, clear up the Shreveport homicides after the Gainesville murders trial, end quote. Rowling also shifted all responsibility for the murders onto an evil side of his personality that he called Gemini.
If you, dear listener, remember my expose of Ted Bundy, he too preferred to put the blame on his murders on a dark alter ego he simply called the Entity.
While happy with Rowling's confession, the investigators didn't buy the evil Gemini aspect of his story, as they knew from their investigations that Rowling had watched the movie The Exorcist Part 3 during the week of the Gainesville murders.
The killer in this movie, known as Gemini, had decapitated and disemboweled a female victim, much in the same manner as Rowling had done in real life. Soon after the confession, Lewis was moved from the ward, causing Rowling to feel betrayed by Lewis. In Rusty Binstead, Rowling found a new confidant. But this time, instead of only telling Binstead
The details, he wrote them down in a letter. He gave the original to Binsted, with instructions to take a copy and then return it to him. Instead, when Binsted returned to his cell, he told the man in the next cell to wait five minutes, then call out, SHAKEDOWN!
When he did, Binsted flushed his toilet to make Rowling believe that he had flushed a letter down the toilet, while in fact making sure the guards found Rowling's written confession. Three weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin, Rowling asked for a meeting with his attorney, Public Defender C. Richard Parker. During his meeting, Rowling expressed his desire to plead guilty.
Parker attempted to convince his client that, although there was a great deal of primary evidence against him and his videotaped confession had damaged his case, there was still a strong case for mitigating factors against a death sentence.
If Rowling would maintain his not-guilty plea, Parker would attempt to use Rowling's life story of abuse and the many psychiatric evaluations which established Rowling's mental illness. By pleading guilty, Parker warned the likelihood of receiving a death sentence was much stronger, and it would leave no opportunity to have a conviction overturned in an appeal.
He would only be able to appeal the sentence. Despite the warnings, Rowling was determined to go ahead with the change, admitting that much of the reason was that he didn't want the crime scene photographs to be shown. Parker asked Rowling to take three weeks before the trial date to think about it. The week before the trial...
Rawlings signed a three-page plea form at the Florida State Prison, which effectively made his new guilty plea official. In the courtroom on the 15th of February 1994, there were very few members of the public or the media. The families of the victims were all present, but no one from Rawlings' family was there. His mother was suffering from cancer.
and was thus too ill to be able to attend. The only person present to support him was his fiancée, a woman called Sondra London. Rowling's announcement that he would be pleading guilty was received with shocked silence in the courtroom, while outside the reaction was explosive as the media converged upon the courthouse to get the latest word as the courtroom emptied.
Daniel Rowling had taken sole responsibility for the murders of the five young students. All that needed to be determined by the jury, that was finally selected nine days later, was whether he would receive the death penalty or not. Opening arguments began on Tuesday, the 7th of March, 1994.
The prosecution claimed that it would be successful in proving five of the eleven possible aggravating circumstances laid down by the law, and they were as follows. The crimes were cold-blooded and premeditated. The crimes were committed during sexual battery. The crimes were particularly heinous, atrocious, and cruel.
The offender had a prior history of felony convictions. The crimes were committed for the purpose of escaping detection or avoiding arrests, particularly in the cases of Sonia Larson and Manuel Taboada. The defense, on the other hand, would attempt to prove the following mitigating circumstances. The perpetrator suffered mental illness at the time of the crimes.
The crimes were committed under extreme stress. The perpetrator grew up in an abusive household. There was a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The perpetrator showed remorse. If Rowling had hoped that a guilty plea would save him from the shame of having the details of his crimes made public, he was sorely disappointed.
State Attorney Rod Smith had no intention of leaving out any of the details of Rowling's crimes as he presented his death penalty case. One by one, he brought forward the state's evidence against Rowling. The DNA matches with semen found at three of the sites.
Items found at Rawlings' campsite, including a screwdriver, duct tape, and a pair of black pants stained with Manuel Taboada's blood. A handwriting match from a note found at one of the scenes. The many details of the murders and the crime scenes told to inmates by Rawlings. Proof of Rawlings' purchase of a K-bar knife matching the one that was used in the murders.
the handwritten confession given to Rusty Binsted by Rowling, and finally, the videotaped confession Rowling made to investigators through Bobby Lewis. Smith then presented the long list of Rowling's violent crimes committed before and after the murders. In total,
Rowling was held responsible for eight counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted robbery, one count of armed bank robbery and two counts of aggravated assault of a police officer committed over four states. To further confirm in the jury's mind that Daniel Rowling was a violent and sadistic killer who knew exactly what he was doing,
Smith described in detail how Rowling tortured his victims, how he had told them everything he planned to do to them before he killed them, adding to the horror and fear they were already experiencing before they died.
Smith told the jury that the evidence he had presented, established beyond every reasonable doubt that Daniel Harold Rowling was guilty of all the crimes alleged in the indictment, and only the death sentence could respond to the horror Rowling had created. The difficult task of proving to the jury that, despite the nature of his crimes,
Daniel Rowling did not deserve to die was given to John J. Kearns.
To support their case that Daniel Rowling, a victim of constant physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father during his childhood, was mentally ill and not accountable for his actions, the defense team presented numerous relatives and friends and a barrage of psychiatrists who had spent a total of 50 hours evaluating Rowling.
The first witnesses, neighbors and family members who had been witness to Rowling's formative years, laid the foundation for the defense case. But the videotaped testimony of Rowling's mother, Claudia Rowling, proved to be the most revealing and humanizing. Talking to both John Kearns for the defense and Jim Nylon for the prosecution,
Claudia Rowling told the story of her family and her eldest son's life. Claudia's testimony had given the jury much to consider. Their dilemma was not helped much by the testimony of three psychiatrists. All agreed that as a result of his father's abuse and his mother's failure to protect him from it,
Daniel Rowling had a severe personality disorder and functioned at the maturity level of a 15-year-old, but, under cross-examination, conceded that he did not suffer from multiple personalities and was aware of the criminality of his actions during and after the murders.
It would take the jury almost two days to resolve these issues and make a determination. The jury had decided that Daniel Rowling should receive the death penalty on all counts. It was now up to the judge to review the aggravating and mitigating factors and make an independent judgment, taking the jury's recommendation fully into account.
He would announce his final judgment on the 20th of April, 1994, after giving all parties concerned, the victims' families, Rowling's family and Daniel Rowling himself, an opportunity to state their case to him personally.
In the meantime, on the 30th of March, the Shreveport police cited Danny's father, James Rowling, for the simple battery of his wife during a domestic dispute. On the same day, Rowling confessed to the triple murder of the Grissom family in Shreveport, putting his final body count at eight human beings. The day of sentencing finally arrived.
three and a half years after the murders were committed. Judge Morris, aware that any grounds for appealing the sentence could come from what he said, measured his words carefully. One by one, he reviewed all of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances that had been presented during the trial.
He noted all aspects of Rowling's history, and the findings of all of the doctors, disputing none. He agreed that Rowling functioned at a considerably immature level, and that his personality disorder did impair his ability to conform to the requirements of the law, but it was not at a level which could be considered by the law as being substantial.
He found that Rowling's disorder was a non-statutory mitigating factor and gave it only moderate weight. Judge Morris found, as did the jury, that the aggravating factors far outweighed the mitigating and sentenced Daniel Harold Rowling to death for all five victims.
Rowling was executed by lethal injection on the 25th of October, 2006. While restrained in a gurney, Rowling turned his head and briefly gazed, with pale blue eyes, at the mother of one of his eight victims.
then sang in a haunting Louisiana drawl of angels, mountains, and, in a reference to St. Paul, of seeing through a glass now, darkly. For three minutes, as the lethal injection drugs were about to pump into him, Rowling chanted the refrain, None greater than thee, O Lord, none greater than thee.
Daniel Rowling, 52 years old, was pronounced dead at 6.13 p.m., 13 minutes after he started singing and two minutes after his body stopped quivering and his jowls fell, puffed and discolored. He was the 63rd person executed since 1973 when Florida reinstated the death penalty.
Forever!
After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan.
Every frame's designed in-house, with a huge selection of styles for every face shape. And with Warby Parker's free home try-on program, you can order five pairs to try at home for free. Shipping is free both ways, too. Go to warbyparker.com slash covered to try five pairs of frames at home for free. warbyparker.com slash covered.
At Ashley, you'll find colorful furniture that brings your home to life. Ashley makes it easier than ever to express your personal style with an array of looks in fun trending hues to choose from, from earth tones to vibrant colors to calming blues and greens. Ashley has pieces for every room in the house in the season's most sought after shades. A more colorful life starts at Ashley. Shop in store online today. Ashley, for the love of home.
And so ends the saga of the Gainesville Ripper. Next week I will present to you a brand new Serial Killer Expo say. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. This podcast would not be possible if it had not been for my dear patrons who pledge their hard-earned money every month. There are...
A few of those patrons I would very much like to thank in person. These patrons are my 18 most loyal patrons and TSK aficionados. They have contributed for at least the last 33 episodes. And their names are... Maud Amber Anne Christina Claudette Cody Evan
You really helped produce this show and you have my deepest gratitude. Thank you.
If you wish to join this exclusive club of TSK producers, go to theserialkillerpodcast.com slash donate and pledge $15 or more to have your name read live on this show. Thank you. Good night and good luck.