Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Gainesville Ripper” Pt. 2: Danny Rolling

Episode Date: April 30, 2020

In 1989, Danny Rolling had already gotten away with a shocking triple murder. As he tried to stay ahead of the Shreveport cops, he made his way to Gainesville, where he set about terrorizing the University of Florida Campus as the “Gainesville Ripper.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Watch only on Prime. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of domestic abuse, murder, and sexual assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Krista Hoyt was never late. Her co-workers at the Alachua County Sheriff's Office knew that. So when she didn't show up for work on August 27, 1990, they immediately alerted authorities. A few officers drove over to Krista's Gainesville apartment, hoping she'd simply forgot

to call in sick, but when their knocks on the front door went unanswered, they feared the worst. With no sign of anyone home, they forced their way in. Inside, the apartment was eerily still. The officers moved through the room slowly at first, calling out to Krista. After noticing the back door had been pried open, authorities rushed to the bedroom. There they were greeted by a horrific sight. Krista sat on the edge of her bed, her upper body slumped over her splayed legs. She'd been murdered, brutally. Her back was covered in stab wounds. Her stomach was slashed open, and her breasts had been mutilated. Most disturbing of all, her head had been completely removed from her body. It sat on a bookshelf across the room, a silent, haunting sentinel. The game

I'm Greg Pallson. This is serial killers, a parcast original. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're taking a look at Danny Rawley, the Gainesville River. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other parcast originals for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. To stream serial killers for free on Spotify, just open the app and type serial killers in the search bar. At PARCAST, we're grateful for you, our listeners. You along us to do what we love. Let us know how we're doing. Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at PARCAST and Twitter at PARCAST Network. In our last episode, we followed Danny Rawlings' childhood. We saw how years of severe abuse at the hands of his father led him to a life of violent crime and his first murders. Today we'll cover Danny's journey from one-time killer to notorious serial murderer.

We'll also discuss his vicious rampage that claimed the lives of five University of Florida students in May of 1990. 35-year-old Danny Rawling claimed his first victims in early November of 1989, brutally murdering three members of the Grissom family one cold night. 24-year-old Julie was found stabbed to death and posed in a way that suggested her killer wanted to humiliate her in death. Julie's 55-year-old father, Tom, and her 8-year-old nephew, Sean, had also been stabbed. Their bodies were found unposed, indicating that they had not been the killer's intended victims. To Danny, they were little more than collateral damage, victims of circumstance. We can't be completely certain of the timing, but one evening, close to the evening, close.

close to the time of the Grissom murders, Reverend Mike Hudsbeth, Danny's pastor, recalled a nighttime visitor to his church. Just down the road from where Julie and her family were slain, Reverend Hudsbeth watched Danny come in and pray alone for a long time. Based on the way Danny behaved, the Reverend was suspicious that his parishioner was high, but opted not to disturb his prayers. Perhaps after killing three people, Danny felt the need for some spiritual guidance. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode.

Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. If Danny did visit his church after murdering the Grissoms, it reflects the serious, cognitive dissonance he must have been experiencing. We know that Danny felt strongly connected to his religion. As we explored in the previous episode, his religious awakening occurred at the age of 19, when he was a very stopped by a church near his grandfather's home in Shreveport. Though he became less active in the church as the years went on, it's clear that Danny still felt a strong connection to his faith, a faith that came into direct conflict with Danny's violent urges,

and perhaps required him to compartmentalize. Compartmentalization is a psychological process which allows an individual to hold multiple contradictory beliefs or values within themselves at the same time. By separating out parts of himself, Danny may have been able to both believe he was being a good Christian, while also continuing to act on his sadistic desires. In their 2008 article, normalcy and behavioral characteristics of the sadistic killer, sociologist Jack Levin and criminologist James Allen Fox,

point out that certain people, including violent criminals, may be more likely to compartmentalize, sometimes known as doubling. Whether or not he found what he was looking for at church that night, Danny certainly kept his religion from interfering with his subsequent actions. He made no attempt to repent for his crimes and continued living his life much as he had before he decided Julie and her family had to die. Unfortunately for Danny, he wasn't able to relax much.

Unemployed and struggling to find a job, possibly due to his status as an ex-convict, Danny and his father, James, started arguing more often. On Christmas Eve, 1989, Danny and James got into a particularly vicious argument. Needing to get away from his father, Danny left the house and wandered the neighborhood, falling into his old habit of peeping through windows. When he reached a house where he'd watched a woman dressing months before, he stopped to look for her.

Seeing that no one was home, he broke in and settled down to wait. for her return. But after spending some time watching TV and sampling her liquor cabinet, the woman still wasn't home, and he was sick of waiting for her. Frustrated, he left without claiming another victim that night. In the following months, Danny continued his disturbing habit of nighttime prowling, largely without incident. Meanwhile, police continued their investigation into the Grissom Slayings, but came up with

few leads. It seemed Danny had gotten away with murder. He continued to lay low at his parents' house, doing his best to tolerate his father, but in May of 1990, things boiled over. That month saw Danny and James get into yet another heated argument. Except this time, neither one left the house to calm themselves down when things got heated. Instead, as things grew tense, James retrieved his gun and pointed it at his son. By now, Danny was used to his father threatening him with weapons. He was determined that this would be the last time

he cowered and fear. Danny retreated into the street as James fired at him from behind. Minutes later, Danny returned to the house with his own 38 revolver and fired back. While James's bullets went wide, Danny's hit their mark. James took a shot to the stomach

and another. to his forehead. As James collapsed to the kitchen floor, Danny approached his father's writhing form and gave him a few kicks for good measure. Then, suddenly realizing what he'd done, Danny turned and ran. As ambulance sirens wailed in the distance,

Danny dove into his car and sped through Shreveport. Knowing that the police would come looking for him, he abandoned the vehicle near the airport and disappeared into the bushland on foot. Danny ran through the woods all night. Eventually, he found a friend's house and stopped to call Willis Knighton Hospital. He was told that his father was still alive. Danny was relieved, though he had a difficult, often violent relationship with James.

He realized he hadn't really wanted his father dead. But even with James recovering, Danny knew he wouldn't get off easy. He couldn't go back home again. Over the next few months, Danny moved across state lines, traveling as far as Kansas City, Missouri. While there, he robbed the Westwood United Superstore twice, asking the cashiers to pray for him as he left. His next stop was Boulder, Colorado,

where he stumbled across a young woman on a mountain hike. In that moment, Danny allowed his worst impulses to control him yet again. He later claimed he was just following the orders of a mysterious voice in his head. According to him, the disembodied demon ordered him to rape the woman right there on the trail. Which is exactly what Danny attempted to do. When the woman resisted, he beat her until her face was covered in blood. Distraught and fearful for her life, the woman begged him to let her go. That's seemingly all it took.

Danny allowed his victim to run away and make her escape. Soon after, Danny continued his aimless want to. He hitchhiked back to Kansas City, then headed south toward Florida. On the 22nd of July, he reached Sarasota. Over the next couple of weeks, he staked out several houses, looking for the site of his next attack. On August 5th, he settled on the home of 30-year-old Janet Frake. Danny watched Janet leave the house to run an errand

and forced his way in through her bedroom window, window. Ignoring her two shrieking cats, he hid and waited for Janet to come back. When Janet returned, Danny, his face hidden behind a black ski mask, came at her with a large hunting knife. After subduing her, he used duct tape to bind and gag her. At first, Janet felt certain that someone was playing some kind of a twisted joke on her, but when she noticed the waves of anger emanating from her attacker, she realized, she was in serious danger. Desperate for a way out of the situation, she called on her knowledge of true crime books and documentaries. Surely her obsession had taught her something. Janet knew that

making her attacker angrier wouldn't help, so she tried her best to remain calm during the assault. When Danny boasted that he was going to do this all night, she had an idea. She offered him a cold beer and asked if he'd like to take a break. He immediately relaxed. and his anger faded slightly. Thinking quickly, Janet presented Danny his beer with a glass, hoping he'd leave fingerprints on the mug. Unfortunately, he didn't leave any prints behind. He did, however, allow her to shower alone once he'd finished raping her.

When he wasn't looking, she quickly used a clean towel to wipe herself down before she washed and hid the towel in the hopes that DNA could be collected later. Looking back on the attack, Janet remarked, he thought he was in control, but I was the one who really took control. Later in the night, when he asked her permission to take off his ski mask, she told him not to. She didn't want to see his face.

She thought if she did, he would be more likely to kill her. At around 1.30 in the morning, and exhausted Janet told Danny that it was time he left. And he did just that. He told her that. if circumstances were different, he could imagine dating her. He bid her farewell and asked her to wait 10 minutes before calling the police. Then, Danny disappeared into the night, leaving Janet shocked and traumatized, but very much alive. The next woman Danny attacked wouldn't be so lucky.

After this, Danny Rowling becomes the infamous Gainesville Ripper. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey, Zepbound, Terseptitide, may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. Zepound contains terseptide and should not be used with other terseptopatine. containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if Zepbound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it,

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Now back to the story. After shooting his father during an argument, 36-year-old murderer Danny Rawling went on the run. He spent this summer of 1990 hitchhiking around the southwestern United States, eventually reaching Florida. There he burglarized several homes and brutally raped a woman. In August, he made his way to the town of Gainesville. Home to the University of Florida, Gainesville has a large population of college students. When Danny arrived, thousands were moving into dorms and apartments for the new semester. Watching the students fill up their restaurants and bars ignited an indescribable rage in Danny.

Exactly what it was about Gainesville that triggered him, we can't be sure. But he later claimed that a terrifying demonic voice was talking to him around this time, the same one that had been plaguing him for years. By now, Danny had given the voice a name, Gemini. According to his book, The Making of a Serial Killer, Gemini was calling the shots whenever Danny committed a violent crime. And after tasting blood the year before, when he killed the Grissoms, it seemed the demon thirsted for more. Early in the morning on August 24, 1990, under cover of darkness, Danny stole a bicycle and cycled through the streets of Gainesville. Clad all in black, he slipped through the shadows, a blue sports bag strapped to.

his waist, he could feel the weight of the bag upon his hip, moving in time with his peddling feet. It held everything for his next murder. After riding for a while, something about the Williamsburg Village Apartments building caught Danny's eye. He leaned his stolen bike against a wall and pulled leather gloves and a ski mask out of his bag. Donning his disguise, he climbed quietly up the stairs and came to a stop outside apartment number 113. Using a screwdriver, he forced his way in through the locked door. Then he pulled out his Navy SEAL-style K-bar hunting knife and began to prowl.

Entering the still, dark living room, he found 17-year-old Christina Powell asleep on the couch. He considered her for a moment, then moved towards the staircase. In an upstairs bedroom, Sonia Larson lay sleeping in her van. allegedly guided by the voice of Gemini, Danny gagged the 18-year-old with duct tape and stabbed her to death. After he watched her die, Danny left the bedroom and crept back downstairs. Christina hadn't heard a thing. Covered in blood, he woke Christina and promised he wouldn't hurt her if she did what he asked. He assaulted and raped her before stabbing her to death on the living room floor. He then defiled her lifeless body one last time. After leaving the apartment, Danny

carefully discarded the duct tape he had used, trying to dispose of any evidence that might tie him to the crime. Two days later, when Christina and Sonia's parents couldn't reach them, they called the police to check in on the girls. On August 26th, authorities arrived at the apartment and forced their way in. The bodies of both teens were lying. out in the open. They had been suggestively posed and Christina's nipples had been sliced off. At the time, Dr. William Hamilton, Gainesville's chief medical examiner, told investigators that whoever this killer was, they were just getting started. Just nine hours later, police were called to another home. 18-year-old Krista Hoyt lived

two miles from Christina and Sonia, and like them, was a student at the University of Florida. Krista's colleagues had sounded the alarm when she hadn't shown up for work on time. She worked as a clerk at the County Sheriff's Department and hoped to one day be a crime lab technician. Unfortunately, her dreams were cut short by Danny Rawling. Authorities found Krista's mangled body in her bedroom. As with Christina and Sonia, she'd been deliberately posed.

This time, however, the killer had gone to more dramatic lengths. After he raped Krista, Danny had mutilated her corpse. He had even moved a bookshelf across the apartment for the sole purpose of displaying her decapitated head. Rod Smith, the state attorney at the time, noted that this specific dramatic posing indicated that the killer liked to make a production out of the event. In our last episode, we discussed how Danny posed Julie Grissom's body,

The sexual nature of her position suggested Danny's hatred of women and his desire to see them humiliated after death. Given that all of his female victims had dark brown hair like his ex-wife, it's possible that Danny was directing his latent rage about his divorce at women who reminded him of her. His next victims were also forced into lewd positions after their deaths. But considering the lengths Danny went to in order to decapitate Krista, Her pose stood out as particularly disturbing.

In an article from the Journal for the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, researchers concluded that while the act of murder was often part of an offender's sexual arousal pattern, subsequent posing can be tied to their deviant sexual fantasies. As a pubescent boy, Danny masturbated to fantasies during which he controlled and killed people. Now having graduated from rapist to murderer, his sexual fantasies were coming true, and clearly they were growing more twisted by the day. As we discussed, Danny later blamed his actions on the Gemini demon that he claimed spoke to him, but it seems more likely that he was simply acting on his darkest impulses.

Whatever was driving his actions, Danny had committed three brutal murders in the space of a few days. With less than a week to go until fall classes started at the University of Florida, word was beginning to spread about a possible serial killer on campus. But it wasn't spreading fast enough. Even as police cordoned off Krista Hoyt's apartment, Danny was moving on to his next crime. The same morning her body was discovered, he burst into a first union bank nearby and made off with a bag of cash. While many of Danny's earlier attacks had been somewhat isolated events with long periods of inactivity in between, He was now working himself into a kind of frenzy.

In technical terms, this is what's known as a homicidal crime spree. According to a 2008 article in criminal justice studies, criminals who committed homicidal crime sprees often displayed a pronounced degree of versatility in their crimes. The sheer magnitude of their deeds was often greater than those of criminals who did not murder. The next day, the bodies of two more murdered students were found. 23-year-old's Tracy Paulus and Manuel Manny Tapawata have been lifelong friends.

Both had been stabbed to death inside their own apartment. Tracy's body was found posed on the floor in the middle of a hallway. Mani had been killed in his bed and his body had not been posed. Like in Danny's first murder, this indicated to investigators that the young woman had been Danny's only intended target. Mani had simply been an obstacle in the way. It had been less than 72 hours since Christina Powell and Sonia Larson's bodies were discovered, and now Gainesville Police had a total of five murders to investigate.

As news broke out about Tracy and Manny, locals began to fear for their own safety. Manny's death in particular signaled that no one was safe, man or woman. At the time, the city's annual murder rate was typically in the single digits. Five murders in three days had people. understandably panicked. Many students at the University of Florida packed their things and went back to their hometowns as soon as they could. Around 700 of these fleeing students would eventually choose not to return to the university at all. As the mass exodus took place, journalists and reporters flocked to the city from across the country. Danny made national news, and the media

gave him a sensational name, the Gainesville River. The publicity and panic caused rumors to spread around the city. Some swore the Ripper was a pizza delivery man. Others insisted it was a cop. Stillmore heard the killer was actually a doctor. No one could be trusted. Locals cleared the shelves of gunstores. People were desperate for a way to feel safe in their own homes again.

What was just days earlier, a quiet peaceful community had been transformed into a hotbed of fear and paranoia. At the time, Sadie Darnell was the public information officer for the Gainesville police. Looking back on those weeks, she remembered cautioning the community to take their time and do things to feel safe, but not to get carried away. But in the back of her mind, she was fighting her own instincts to tell people to get out of Gainesville. Meanwhile, Darnel's colleagues were hard at work investigating the murders, As they carefully picked over the gruesome crime scenes Danny left behind,

they noticed patterns about his behavior and strange signatures in his MO. For example, after examining the width and depth of the stab wounds, it was clear that each victim was attacked with the same weapon, a K-bar hunting knife around seven inches long. There was also an adhesive residue on some of the bodies. This suggested the killer had restrained his victims with duct tape, but had removed the tape before he left the scene. This careful removal of evidence told police that the killer was likely experienced

or had familiarity with law enforcement. The care the Ripper had taken to clean up matched with a methodical staging at each of the three crime scenes. In particular, the presentation of Krista Hoyt's apartment felt like it was meant to send a message. State Attorney Rod Smith theorized that the way Krista had been left was designed specifically to terrorize whoever came across her body. But Rod Smith had a theory that the Gainesville Ripper was seeking to make himself a star. Only one year earlier, Florida had executed one of history's most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy. When looking at both killers' patterns of behavior, some striking parallels emerge. Like Bundy, Danny entered the home

of female college students in Florida. Once inside, he would beat, sexually assault, and then murder his victims, just as Bundy had done. If Danny Rowling wanted infamy to rival Bundy, who murdered at least 30 women across seven states, investigators feared they would find even more victims very soon. Looking back at the frantic search for the Ripper, Rod Smith remarked, this was the test of their generation. That test wasn't even close to being over. After this, the search for the Gainesville River heats up, and Danny's backed into a corner.

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Now the conclusion of our story. In late August of 1990, just as classes were about to begin at the University of Florida, 36-year-old Danny Rawling murdered five students in their apartments. The brutal slings happened over the span of just 72 hours, drawing the panicked attention of local and national media. They dubbed the killer the Gainesville Ripper. A police task force was quickly assembled and got to work solving the murders. Investigators were incredibly thorough when they examined the crime scenes.

Altogether, they assembled over 18,000 pieces of evidence. Among the key findings were samples of seamen left at the scenes of Christina Powell and Krista Hoyt's murders. These samples definitively proved what was already suspected that the same man had killed both women. Even after investigation, however, the Ripper's identity remained a complete mystery. For the DNA sample to be truly useful, they had to match it with the culprit, and their list of suspects was intimidatingly long. A dedicated squad was tasked with questioning each individual suspect and requesting DNA samples from them.

One of the names on that list was of particular interest to police. 18-year-old Edward Humphrey was a student who, until recently, had lived in the same apartment complex as Tracy Paulus and Mani Taboada. Humphrey had earned a reputation for a strange, violent behavior. He often dressed in combat gear and was frequently seen carrying a knife. While he was being considered a suspect for the Gainesville Ripper Slayings, Humphrey was arrested on an unrelated assault charge. With his bail said at $1 million, many locals assumed that police had caught the killer. But though they were strongly suspected Humphrey, police knew they needed hard evidence. They searched his apartment

and were unable to find anything to tie the 18-year-old to the Ripper slings. When Humphrey's DNA was tested against the samples taken from the crime scenes, it wasn't a match. The Gainesville Ripper was still on the loose. Police kept this development quiet. They decided it was best to keep panic about the serial killer to a minimum. Meanwhile, Danny Rawling continued his crime spree. After killing Tracy and Manny, he spent the following days camped out in the woods. He played guitar, sang, invented hymns, and recorded his disparate thoughts using a handheld tape recorder. Less than a week following the murders, police attempted to stop Danny one afternoon while he spoke with a fellow drifter.

When Danny ran, they followed him into the woods. He escaped, but left. led them directly to his campsite. There they found all of his belongings, including a bag of money covered in pink dye. Police realized they had found the culprit behind the recent bank robbery and began banking items at the campsite. They had no idea that they just let the Gainesville Ripper get away.

But Danny knew exactly how close he'd come to being captured. He knew he had to leave Gainesville. To expedite his escape, he burglarized a home, making off with a few valuables and a getaway car. With a fresh set of wheels and nothing to lose, he hit the road making for Tampa. But he was getting sloppy. After driving for some time, he stopped to commit several more burglaries. Ultimately, he didn't find much and ended up with little to show for his crimes, except for a trail of evidence that showed police exactly where he was heading.

Not content with his meager spoils, he decided to take yet another risk and held up a convenience store. Once again, Danny narrowly avoided capture by running into nearby woods. But no matter how much he pushed his luck, it seemed nothing would deter him from his relentless crime spree. On the 8th of September, 1990, he held up a Wind Dixie supermarket in Ocala. It was the middle of a Saturday afternoon, and the store was, was packed with shoppers. In the chaos, an employee was able to raise the alarm, and police caught up with Danny as he attempted to flee in a getaway car. A brief high-speed chase ensued, which ended when Danny

drove into a lot and attempted to escape on foot. His luck had finally run out. Danny Rowling was arrested and charged for the string of burglaries and robberies. A year later, Danny was convicted for the robberies and sentenced to multiple. life terms in prison. He was behind bars, but investigators in Gainesville still didn't know he was responsible for the killings that had terrorized their city in 1990. With months of work leading them no closer to making an arrest, detectives cross-reference the river's kills with similar attacks in surrounding areas. This led them to Danny's murder of the Grissom family in 1989. The resemblance between the crimes was striking.

In Shreveport, detectives didn't have a suspect in custody, but they did have strong suspicions about Danny Rawling. By looking into Danny's criminal past, Gainesville police knew that he had a fondness for armed robberies. Using this information, they traced Danny's location from his arrest in Ocala back to his campsite in Gainesville. After re-examining the belongings they found at Danny's campsite, police found the evidence they were looking at.

for all along. Manitabawada's blood was found on a pair of pants. DNA evidence belonging to Krista Hoyt was found inside a sleeping bag, and a screwdriver matched the markings on the doors where the Ripper had forced his way into apartments. After searching for over a year and interviewing hundreds of suspects, authorities had finally found a lead. Investigators worked overtime to unmask Danny as the Gainesville Ripper. When the Florida a Department of Law Enforcement arrived to request a DNA sample, Danny lowered his trousers and ripped out two handfuls of his pubic hairs. When the results came back, it gave police the answer they've been looking for.

Danny Rawling was without a doubt the Gainesville Ripper. He confessed to the five Gainesville murders and told police he would clear up the Shreveport murders following his trial for the Gainesville spree. During the interview, Danny repeatedly blamed his alternate personality, Gemini, the demon who possessed him. He claimed to have no control over the other side of himself. However, Danny didn't count of the fact that other people had watched the 1990 film, The Exorcist Three, like he had.

In the three-quil to the horror classic, the killer went by the name Gemini and had disemboweled one of his female victims, just as the Gainesville Ripper had done. In his book, Danny wrote at length about his Gemini alter ego and continued to blame it for his murders. But his excuses failed to sway police, who couldn't charge a fictional villain with the murders and settled for booking Danny instead. Later, Danny wrote down a confession and gave it to a fellow prisoner. In this version of his story, he admitted that he decided to become a killer during a previous

day in prison years before. his penchant for rewriting history was consistent with borderline personality disorder, the official diagnosis he received in the lead-up to his trial. According to the DSM-5, individuals with borderline personality disorder, or BPD, can exhibit a variety of traits. Among those include impulsive behavior, identity disturbance, intense or inappropriate anger, and severe dissociative symptoms. BPD has also been linked to violence and aggression.

In 2016, the Journal of Clinical Psychology published findings that showed a robust connection between childhood abuse and BPD in adulthood. It's entirely possible that the violence Danny suffered at the hands of his father led to his psychological struggles later in life. It may have been these same issues that caused Danny to alternatively court publicity for his crimes and then spurn it. When he finally stood trial for the murders, Danny shocked the courtroom by suddenly pleading guilty. He claimed he didn't want photographs of the crime scenes and bodies shown to anyone. All that was left for the jury to decide was the sentence. It didn't

take long for them to reach a verdict Danny Rowling would be executed. As he waited on death row, Danny co-authored an autobiography with true crime author Sandra London. The book, The Making of a Serial Killer, the real story of the Gainesville murders and the killer's own words, was published in 1996. In it, he described as 1990 attack on Janet Frake, the woman who had talked him into leaving her apartment. Janet had long suspected Danny of being her attacker

after seeing his face on television. Something about it chilled her to the bomb. After reading the book, she knew it was him. When she took her suspicions to the police, they were able to match the evidence she had collected that night with Danny's DNA. Hours before he was executed, Danny finally confessed to the murders of Julie Grissom and her family.

He handed a note to his minister, not long before he was led to the death chamber in October of 2006. The legacy of the Gainesville Ripper lives on far beyond the the news coverage of his brutal attacks. In 1994, Kevin Williamson was a young screenwriter searching for his big break. After watching a TV special about The Ripper, he was inspired to write a film about high school students being hunted by a terrifying killer wielding a knife. In 1996, Scream became a box office hit and terrorized an entire generation of moviegoers. Ten years later, Danny Rowling was executed by the

lethal injection. Though he may be gone, the memory of the Gainesville Ripper still looms large. Let's hope the memories of his victims outlive that of their killer. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back on Monday with a new episode. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other Parcast originals for free on Spotify. Not only does Spotify already have all of your favorite music, but now Spotify is making it easy for you to enjoy all of your favorite podcast originals like Serial Killers for free from your phone, desktop, or smart speaker. To stream Serial Killers on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network.

We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler and is a Parcast Studios original. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler. by Anthony Valsick, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden, and Freddie Beckley. This episode of serial killers was written by Joel Callan, with writing assistance by Abigail Cannon, and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed.

Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic.

Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves. Something very snakelight lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.