Lewis testified that he had had hundreds of hours of conversations with Rolling about the murders, and along with another inmate, helped him fake a suicide attempt so that they could stay in the same wing of the prison. [9][10][11], 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. Hes now engaged in the Fox series The Following which taps into hysteria on a college campus. In the afternoon, his father put on a police uniform and served the law, and in the evening he returned home and brutally beat his wife and son. He would see that as kind of a sign somebody (is) communicating directly to me through the movie.". In the film, Rolling is portrayed by Zachary Memos. His father was a Shreveport police officer named James Rolling, who told Danny that he was unwanted from birth and abused his mother, Claudia, and his brother, Kevin. He fled Shreveport and took a bus to Sarasota, Florida, to start a new life as Michael Kennedy Jr. in late July of 1990. "It would not let me rest," she said. Some of the female bodies were left in sexually suggestive positions, which offered authorities a clue into the killers method. Danny Harold Rolling, Florida's most notorious serial killer since Ted Bundy, was executed Wednesday for butchering five college students in a ghastly string of slayings that terrorized the. Having earned the moniker of The Gainesville Ripper after the latter occurred in August 1990, there are speculations that Danny reached his breaking point due to the years of abuse he suffered as a child in his parents home. Rolling had requested, according to court documents of his 1996 appeal, not to be separated from Lewis because he needed Bobbys support. He said he wanted to see Bobby a free man.. it would break his heart if they could not do anything for Bobby., Rolling reportedly told the task force that Bobby was a worthy soul, and he deserves his chance to make his life good, and out of all of this Im trying to do something for someone. The task force rejected Rollings request, as they had done to Lewis, to which Rolling referred to his father: I was raised by a policeman. Unfortunately for Danny, his father never wanted children. The robbery had been committed ten days after the bodies of Paules and Taboada were found. [6] They included: posing of the victims; tape residue on victim's body; and vinegar used to clean the body. While on death row at Florida State Prison, Rolling wrote songs and poems and drew pictures. Mark of a Killer explores the methods and the madness of infamous serial killers, starting with the premiere on January 20, on Oxygen, Sundays 7/6c. They returned to the evidence locker, where the gun, screwdriver, bag of money, and cassette player had been stored, and listened to the tape. Rolling went so far as to cut off the girls nipples and to keep one as a grisly trophy of his actions. She also said that Dobbin told her that Rolling had told him he had a problem. Not only were the Rolling children not allowed to have birthdays or holidays, but they never even got an affectionate word or action from their father. The Gainesville Ripper on trial for murder. Authorities feel Rolling did not manage to mutilate these bodies because he may have been in danger of getting caught, or was otherwise interrupted. Lummus, 38, of Alexandria, La., was summoned by prosecutors as a rebuttal witness for the death penalty hearing of Rolling, 39, who has pleaded guilty to killing five Gainesville college students in August 1990. Shreveport police alerted Gainesville police to the similarity of the murder scenes, which is what prompted Gainesville Police's interest in Rolling. Instead of leaving the duct tape on his dead bodies, Danny disposed of it in dumpsters to get rid of any fingerprints. Danny Rolling, at 36 years of age, was on the lam, having attempted to kill his retired police lieutenant father by shooting him in the face just months before he went on a crime spree spanning armed robbery to first-degree murder. He married a woman named O'Mather Halko, with whom he had a daughter, but eventually, he drove her away after exacting the same sort of abuse on her that had been prevalent in his own childhood home. Krop said Rolling has a borderline personality characterized by violent mood swings, impulsive and self-destructive behavior, narcissism and anti-social feelings. . A former high school football player, Toboada put up a fight before both were overwhelmed; neither body was mutilated this time. Following his arrest, Rolling was interviewed by a number of mental health professionals, who all agreed he had some form of mental illness. Daniel Harold Rolling Executed October 25, 2006 06:13 p.m. by Lethal Injection in Florida 47th murderer executed in U.S. in 2006 1051st murderer executed in U.S. since 1976 3rd murderer executed in Florida in 2006 63rd murderer executed in Florida since 1976 Florida victims: (left to right) Christina Powell, Christa Hoyt, Rolling later confessed to raping several of his victims, committing an additional November 4, 1989 triple [] He later claimed his intent was to add to the shock of whoever discovered her. Then he killed Tracey. The friendship between the two murderers was interrupted by a six-month stint in a mental health facility in Chattahoochee, according to the same court documents, but when Rolling returned to Florida State Prison in December 1992, Lewis continued to seek information. He broke out of prison several times and was fired and quit jobs just as frequently. In 2021, an episode of the ABC primetime true crime television series 20/20 aired the murder case. Police also considered Brandon Curry. Students triple-locked doors and some slept in shifts so someone was awake at all times. Brother of Kevin Rolling. Danny Rolling was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more! The movie's plot may have also inspired the grisly nature of one of the Gainesville Ripper's first murders. The idea that Danny was an unwanted child was reinforced. The mental health professionals who interviewed Rolling concluded he was mentally ill, and clearly "shifted from role to role." Ex-wife O'Mather Lummus, whom Rolling has blamed for much of his troubled life, walked into Alachua Circuit Court to face the man she had not seen in 17 years. Danny Rolling, known as the Gainesville Ripper, was put to death in 2006 for the murders of five college students over the course of four gruesome nights in the Florida college town. Police couldnt find enough evidence at crime scenes to implicate Danny Rolling. YouTubeDanny Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper, appears in court. In the early morning hours of Friday, August 24, Rolling broke into the apartment shared by 17-year-old university freshmen Sonja Larson and Christina Powell. Martin Scorsese's 1990 film about Hill and the mafia comes to a climax during the now-infamous Lufthansa Heist. Rolling, who pleaded guilty last month to five counts of murder in the Gainesville deaths, told investigators he has two personalities, the murderous Gemini, and Ynnad, a Jesse James-type robber. He shot him in the face. She said Rolling was a loving husband who had a normal relationship with his father, James Rolling. As a result of his murder convictions, Rolling was executed by lethal injection on October 25, 2006, and pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. EDT at Florida State Prison in Starke, approximately 30 miles northeast of Gainesville, Florida, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Rolling's last-ditch appeal. It aired July 28, 2013, and tells the story of Rolling's murders in graphic detail. Rolling posed the bodies in sexually provocative positions. One of the psychologists who interviewed Rolling said the killer admitted watching "Exorcist III" in the weeks before killing his first victims. She attempted to barricade herself in her bedroom, but Rolling broke through the door. The argument reportedly began when . Rolling was the subject of a 2010 episode of Cold Blood, and briefly was mentioned in a 2012 episode of Motives and Murders titled "Not Again". Danny Rollings father, who was a 20-year veteran cop of the Shreveport Police Department, had not only taught his son how to take abuse all of his life, but he also taught Danny how to cover his tracks. They were separated at the time of her statement. In all, Rolling confessed to killing eight people. GAINESVILLE The woman of Danny Rolling's dreams appeared for 75 minutes on Friday, cast doubt on his honesty and then vanished like so many women in his life. He goes over every step of the way how he's gonna kill the neighbor across the street. The other suspect was also later cleared. "It was almost as if you could crawl inside and feel his pain," Mills said. As a teenager and young adult, he was arrested several times for robberies in Georgia. Lewis would be his confessor. His mouthpiece.. Grissoms corpse was left in a sexual position. Danny's mother rushed to the hospital after alleging that her husband attempted to . Authorities soon zeroed in on a prime suspect, a UF student who briefly lived in the same complex as two of the victims and exhibited erratic behavior, at one point getting arrested for hitting his grandmother. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. James also treated poorly and hit Danny, Danny's mother Claudia, and Danny's brother Kevin over trivial matters like breathing in a way that annoyed James. Danny Rolling was born in Louisiana in 1954. Rolling has been the subject of several written works. A feature film entitled The Gainesville Ripper is currently in production in the Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida areas, based on the accounts of the killings. He bound and gagged her with duct tape while he sexually assaulted her, but did not kill her. He said Rolling's main problem is his voyeuristic need to peek into windows at women to satisfy his sexual urges and fantasies - which Rolling admitted doing before the killings. Tom Grissom is buried by his daughter. 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. That contradicted testimony of Rolling's mother, his aunt and defense mental health experts who said Rolling suffered at the hand of his father, who was a Shreveport, La., police lieutenant. It was soon revealed that this student was battling acute manic depression, however, and with zero evidence connecting him to the murders, the task force was back to the drawing board. Dr. Robert Sadoff, who testified at Rolling's trial, said Rolling may have identified with the movie because Gemini is his astrological sign. Also as an adult, Rolling had trouble trying to assimilate into society and hold down a steady job. The following May, Rolling got into one final argument with his father. Because the spree was happening so early in the fall semester, some students withdrew their enrollment or transferred to other schools. William DeLong is a freelance wordsmith. If I didnt know him so well, I probably wouldnt have known it was him.. That same night, he broke into a home to murder 24-year-old Julie Grissom, her eight-year-old nephew, Sean,. A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Danny Rolling was the son of James and Claudia Rolling. It made him worse. His mother, Claudia, and later his brother, Kevin. He told her the name of the personality, but she couldn't recall it. Then check out this story on the media coverage of the original Jack the Ripper case in London. In one incident, Danny's mother went to the hospital after claiming her husband tried to make her cut herself with a razor blade. When Danny failed the third grade for too many absences due to illness, his mother had a nervous breakdown. In his final moments, he regaled the 47 people crammed into the witness room with one of his songs, a religious hymn with the refrain "none greater than thee, O Lord, none greater than thee." However, the story was clearly embellished. [citation needed], On April 20, 1994, Rolling was sentenced to death. As he later recalled in The Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Murders, Rolling endured the sort of horrendous childhood that made him ripe to emerge as a menace to society. At the age on one Danny and . According to court documents, the task force who had met with Lewis on occasion refused his attempts to receive incentives in exchange for information. His walk and even his voice changed. Finding she was not home, he waited in the living room for her to return. This is the grisly true story of Danny Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper. His father was a Shreveport police officer named James Rolling, who told Danny that he was unwanted from birth and abused his mother, Claudia, and his brother, Kevin. April 20, 1994 - Just after Danny Rolling was sentenced to death Wednesday, April 20, 1994, victim brother Mario Taboada jumped to his feet and yelled across the courtroom at Rolling that he would . [1] He was sentenced to death for the five Gainesville murders in 1994. Fla. Killer of 5 students is put to death. father and brother, and eleven songs about heartbreak and outlaws. He was born in 1954 in Shreveport, Louisiana, to a 19-year-old mother named Claudia and a police officer named James, a decorated Korean War veteran who may have suffered some combination of post-traumatic stress disorder and inherent mental illness. He played guitar and sang hymn-like songs. Mills, a country-Western music producer, said Rolling, who sang Gospel songs and played guitar with her, resisted counseling because he feared retaliation by his father. Son of James Harold Rolling and Claudia Beatrice Rolling Ex-husband of O'Mather Rolling [17], The premiere episode of Mark of a Killer, titled "Posed to Kill", documented the case. While Rolling was in prison and the prosecution built their case for his 1994 trial, he became close with another inmate: Robert Bobby Lewis. On Monday, August 27, Rolling broke into their apartment by prying open their sliding glass door with the same tools he had used previously. Rolling refused to answer any questions on his own; he would simply confirm or deny what was said. Then, a few short years later, the Gainesville murders became even more infamous when they helped inspire the classic horror movie Scream. Geni requires JavaScript! His mother made repeated attempts to leave her husband but always to take him away like a criminal because his father was embarrassed by Danny. They were sitting by themselves at the dinner table in Louisiana when Danny Rolling told her about his darker side, which would blossom in August 1990 with the slayings of five Gainesville college students. Spaced over three days, the murders also coincided with a robbery in nearby Ocala. The door to the victims' apartment was securely locked when he first attempted to enter. As a teenager and young adult, Rolling was arrested several times for robberies in Georgia, and was caught spying on a woman getting dressed. But while Scream provides plenty of slashing scares, in the end, its story of Sydney and the masked killer bears only a passing resemblance to that of Danny Rolling, the "Gainesville Ripper," whose life of violence and despair would present a difficult task for any screenwriter to depict. The mother of my children," he tells a cowering Kristen. Rolling was also the subject of an episode of Body of Evidence: From the Case Files of Dayle Hinman, a Court TV show (transmitted as Crime Scene USA: Body of Evidence on Discovery Channel in the UK) and an episode of Forensic Factor titled Killing Spree, which originally aired on Discovery Channel Canada and was rebroadcast in America on the Science Channel. Oxygen Insider is your all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Bachman's brother, . As an adult, he had trouble trying to assimilate into society and hold down a steady job. He claimed his motive was to become a "superstar" similar to Ted Bundy. Claudia Rolling said she sought to get Rolling psychological care several times, but her husband said nothing was wrong with him. [4], A day later, on Saturday, August 25, Rolling broke into the apartment of 18-year-old Christa Hoyt, prying open a sliding glass door with a screwdriver. Kicked out of the Air Force in 1972 after getting busted for drug possession, Rolling went to live with his grandfather and, for a time, found some stability through his church. The Untold Truth Of Danny Rolling, The Gainesville Ripper, Rolling was not identified as the Gainesville Ripper, The Making of a Serial Killer: The Real Story of the Gainesville Student Murders in the Killer's Own Words. That was on Sept. 8, two weeks after the murders. In one incident, Danny's mother went to the hospital after claiming her husband tried to make her cut herself with a razor blade. By age 11, Danny Rolling picked up music to cope with his abusive father. Danny Rolling was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. Lewis told the task force that the reason for the murders was that Rolling was subjected to inhuman conditions while incarcerated at Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi. Rolling himself blamed that time period in prison in a 17-page letter he sent to the Associated Press in 2000, alleging that a mangy dog gets more consideration and that living in filth drives you crazy as a loon.. Killer who butchered live students in, trame jams. He was executed by lethal injection in 2006. Ron Word THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STARKE, Fla. Hendersonville, Henderson County, NC, USA, "; and Monday, December 25. i In The News, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, United States. Subsequently, Rolling confessed via letter from his spiritual advisor to the Shreveport, Louisiana police, to the killings of 55-year-old William T. Grissom, his 24-year-old daughter Julie and eight-year-old grandson Sean as they got ready for dinner on November 4, 1989, in Grissom's home. After confessing to the murder and mutilation of five students in Gainesville, Florida in August 1990, he was ultimately executed. After confessing to the murder and mutilation of five students in Gainesville, Florida in August 1990, he was ultimately executed. Louisiana police alerted Florida authorities to an unsolved triple murder in Shreveport on November 4, 1989. 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. The following day, he made Santa Fe Community College student Christa Hoyt his next victim, leaving behind her severed head on a shelf to face her body propped up on the bed. At one point, he worked as a waiter. Rolling aided the writing career of Sondra London, who met him in prison while working with Gerard John Schaefer and other serial killers. 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