Danny Rolling

Danny Harold Rolling (May 26, 1954 – October 25, 2006), known as the Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer who murdered five college students in Gainesville, Florida over four days in August 1990.

He later confessed to raping several of his victims, committing a triple homicide in his home city of Shreveport, Louisiana, and attempting to murder his father in May 1990. In total, Rolling confessed to killing eight people.^[1] He was sentenced to death for the five Gainesville murders in 1994. He was executed by lethal injection in 2006.

His killing spree inspired the slasher film franchise Scream.^[2]

Daniel "Danny" Rolling was one of two sons born to James Harold Rolling and Claudia Beatrice. James was a

In August 1990, Rolling murdered five students (one student from Santa Fe College and four from the University of Florida) during a burglary and robbery spree in Gainesville, Florida. He mutilated his victims' bodies, decapitating one. He then posed them, sometimes using mirrors.

In the early morning hours, Rolling broke into the apartment shared by two university freshmen, 18-year-old Sonja Larson and 17-year-old Christina Powell. Finding Powell asleep on the downstairs couch, he stood over her briefly but did not wake her up, choosing instead to go to the upstairs bedroom where Larson was also asleep. Rolling murdered Larson, first taping her mouth shut to stifle her screams, and then stabbing her to death with a Ka-Bar knife. She died trying to fend him off.^[5]

Rolling then went back downstairs, taped Powell's mouth shut, bound her wrists together behind her back and threatened her with the knife as he cut her clothes off. He then raped her and forced her face-down onto the floor, where he killed her by stabbing her five times in the back. After killing Powell, Rolling went back upstairs and raped Larson's corpse.^[6] He posed the bodies in sexually provocative positions and took a shower before leaving the apartment.^[5]

Rolling broke into the apartment of Christa Hoyt, an 18-year-old chemistry honors student at Santa Fe College,

Tracy Paules, who was 23 years old, was living with her roommate Manny Taboada, also 23. Rolling broke into their apartment by prying open their sliding glass door with the same tools he had used previously. Rolling found Taboada asleep in one of the bedrooms and killed him after a struggle.[5]

Hearing the commotion, Paules went down the hall to Taboada's bedroom and saw Rolling. She attempted to barricade herself in her bedroom but Rolling broke through the door. Rolling taped her mouth and wrists, cut off her clothing, and raped her before turning her over and stabbing her three times in the back. Rolling posed Paules' body but left Taboada's in the same position in which he had died.^[5]

With the exception of Taboada, all of the victims were petite white brunettes with brown eyes, like Rolling's mother.

Although law enforcement initially had very few leads, police did identify two suspects. One suspect was Edward Lewis Humphrey, a 20-year-old

Don Maines, an investigator on the case with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, traveled to Shreveport in November 1990 because of similarities between the murders committed in Gainesville and murders committed in Shreveport;^[10] these included posing of the victims, tape residue on the victims' bodies, and vinegar used to cleanse the bodies. Maines said they tested the body fluids from the perpetrator in Shreveport and found that this person also had type B blood. He called the match to the evidence in Gainesville a "revelation" in the case.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after Maines' trip to Shreveport, a Shreveport resident, Cindy Juracich, called

News of the Gainesville murders haunted Juracich, so she finally contacted police in November, based on her hunch about Rolling's connection to the murders in both cities. "It would not let me rest," she said. "One day, I picked up the phone, I called Crime Stoppers, and I said, 'I think there's one guy y'all need to investigate — Danny Rolling.'"[10]

Investigators responded to the tip and quickly found Rolling, who had been arrested on September 7, 1990, for an Ocala, Florida, supermarket robbery. The robbery had been committed ten days after the bodies of Paules and Taboada were found. Rolling was being held in the Marion County Jail 40 miles south of Gainesville. Investigators determined that Rolling had type B blood, like the suspect in both the Gainesville and Shreveport murders.

Once Florida investigators realized that Rolling had multiple convictions for

Later it was discovered that on August 5, 1990, Rolling broke into the home of Janet Frake in Sarasota, Florida. He bound and gagged her with duct tape while he sexually assaulted her, but did not kill her.^[11]

In November 1991, Rolling was charged with five counts of murder. He was brought to trial nearly four years after the murders. He claimed his motive was to become a "superstar" similar to Ted Bundy. In 1994, before his trial could get underway, Rolling unexpectedly pleaded guilty to all charges. Subsequently, State Attorney Rod Smith presented the penalty phase of the prosecution. During his trial, Court TV conducted an interview with Rolling's mother from her home, during which his father could be heard shouting off-camera.^{[citation needed]}

On April 20, 1994, Rolling was sentenced to death.^[12] Rolling was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and paraphilia.^[13][14][15]

Shortly before he was executed in Florida for the series of killings in Gainesville, Rolling claimed responsibility for the Shreveport murders, handing his spiritual adviser Reverend Mike Hudspeth and Florida police a handwritten confession and apology.

Rolling was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on October 25, 2006, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal. He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m EDT.

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Rolling has been the subject of several written works. His crime spree inspired screenwriter Kevin Williamson to pen the script of the 1996 slasher film Scream, which became a successful horror franchise.

Sondra London collaborated with Rolling on The Making of a Serial Killer: The True Story of the Gainesville Murders in the Killer's Own Words.^[20] Rolling's relationship with London, which developed while he was behind bars, was the focus of an episode of Errol Morris' First Person. Rolling and London became romantically involved, eventually even becoming engaged. The series overviewed their romance, his artwork, and his supposed feelings of remorse over the crimes he committed. It also included a segment of Rolling using one of his hearings as an opportunity to publicly display his affection, serenading London in the courtroom.

A 2007 independent feature film titled The Gainesville Ripper, based on accounts of the killings, was shot in the Gainesville and