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World's Most Evil Killers S03E09
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00:00Gainesville, Florida, 1990.
00:11On the 23rd of August, students Christina Powell and Sonia Larson
00:16were preparing to start their freshman year at the University of Florida.
00:22They are the very vision of hope and happiness and joy for the future.
00:27But in less than 24 hours, they would both be dead,
00:31brutally murdered by a 36-year-old vagrant named Danny Rowling.
00:36This is a person who volcanically erupted behaviorally.
00:40The hatred, the paranoia, the psychosis just unleashed itself upon the world.
00:46Rowling's passion for killing grew.
00:49His victims were bound, stabbed and mutilated.
00:52Some had been savagely raped.
00:54His capacity for violence and his appetite for violence
00:59was more than anyone I had ever encountered.
01:03A reign of terror had been unleashed.
01:06A serial killer the press dubbed the Gainesville Ripper was on the loose.
01:11Danny Rowling was taking the lives of innocent victims all over town,
01:15making him one of the world's most evil killers.
01:18Gainesville, a university city in inland Florida.
01:42It was here that 36-year-old drifter Danny Rowling killed five students in just four days.
01:50The city was shaken to its core by the murders,
01:54and when Rowling was arrested for armed robbery on the 7th of September 1990,
02:00the police had no idea they had a serial killer in custody.
02:04Retired FBI Special Agent Ken Porter worked on the investigation into the Gainesville College killings.
02:13He brought a dark cloud of fear and terror amongst the whole community of Gainesville, Florida,
02:20for at least two or three months, where people were just afraid to go out,
02:25afraid to open their doors, afraid of the dark.
02:30In that brief spree of killings in August 1990,
02:37Rowling effectively terrorised an entire community.
02:41He reduced the community to a sense that no one, and no woman in particular, was safe,
02:47that there was a madman on the loose, which indeed there was.
02:52Rowling's victims would have had the most horrendous time during their ordeals,
02:58because here's somebody that they don't know, who's coming into their home,
03:01which is their place of sanctuary, and attacking them in the most brutal way.
03:06It really is terror of an unimaginable degree.
03:10Former state attorney Rod Smith had never encountered a case featuring such depravity.
03:16I have no way to measure comparative evil,
03:18but certainly he was a guy whose crimes were, for this community and in this part of the world,
03:25were among the most tragic and horrific.
03:29This killer's story begins in 1954.
03:33Danny Harold Rowling was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on May the 26th.
03:39His 20-year-old mother fell pregnant almost immediately after the couple married,
03:44much to his father's disgust.
03:47Danny Rowling was a son of a policeman,
03:50but he wasn't a very compassionate policeman.
03:53In fact, he was a violent and abusive father.
03:58For the rest of Danny's life, his father would refer to him
04:01as an accident that should never have happened.
04:04He had a violent temper,
04:06and almost anything young Danny did was able to ignite it.
04:10If he didn't breathe properly, he was beaten by his father,
04:14that the slightest thing would set him off.
04:16And I think if we look at that now, we'd call that coercive control now.
04:21We'd call that the kind of behavior that is designed to chip away at somebody's self-esteem,
04:25that really does destroy someone's identity.
04:29Time after time, throughout his childhood,
04:33Rowling was told by his supremely arrogant father that he was useless.
04:38It was a useless piece of work and never would amount to anything.
04:42Fifteen months later, Rowling's mother would fall pregnant again
04:46and gave birth to her second son.
04:49She would continually try to protect the two boys
04:52from their father's destructive influence.
04:55His mother flees several times, taking him and his younger brother.
05:00They get away from his abusive, domineering father.
05:03But she soon goes back to the home.
05:06So you've got this constant chewing and frowing,
05:09this constant state of upheaval,
05:11and this creates an environment that isn't safe, that isn't secure.
05:15To add to Rowling's insecurity,
05:17his mother, his only form of stability,
05:20was struggling with mental health issues.
05:23Despite him needing her, she wasn't always around.
05:26Still a young child, Rowling's existence became a solitary one.
05:31He would hide in the woods or wander the neighborhood
05:34to escape the constant abuse from his father.
05:37He would go out at night when his parents didn't know about it,
05:41and he would look through the windows of the neighbors' homes
05:44and he'd see them around the kitchen table, around the dinner table,
05:47happy families all together.
05:49And he's got that building resentment.
05:52Why have these people got this when I haven't?
05:55What's wrong with me?
05:56And that's something that continues to bubble away in the background.
06:00Rowling yearned for a normal family,
06:03the kind of home life that everyone else appeared to have.
06:07The suffering at the hands of his father,
06:09coupled with his mother's mental instability,
06:12sent him on a downward spiral.
06:15Now, the impact this had on quite a suggestible child was severe.
06:20Now, I'm not suggesting for a second
06:21that Rowling's father made Rowling into a serial killer,
06:24but there was no doubt at all
06:25that there was a very great deal of animosity
06:28between father and son.
06:31As a teenager, Rowling continued to escape his home life.
06:36He spent even more time wandering the neighborhood,
06:39and around the age of 13,
06:40his innocent childhood pastime of watching families
06:44became sexually motivated.
06:47Rowling had a habit of stalking people,
06:50and he would watch them.
06:52That voyeurism that had developed during his early years,
06:56when he'd looked through the windows of the happy families
06:59in his neighborhood and had that simmering resentment,
07:01turned into something else.
07:03It turned into something quite sinister.
07:05Rowling took a particular interest in watching young women.
07:09He was caught several times
07:11and began to get a reputation as a peeping Tom.
07:15His life had now started on a destructive path of crime.
07:20It was that classic serial killer pattern.
07:24Petty crime, small offenses,
07:28gradually escalating into greater and greater offenses.
07:31By now, he'd started drinking heavily.
07:34In 1971, aged 16,
07:37a drunk Rowling had a fight with his father,
07:39and he was locked up for two weeks
07:41in a juvenile detention center.
07:44In an effort to escape his abusive home,
07:47Rowling then dropped out of high school
07:49and joined the Air Force.
07:51And I think what he's essentially doing here
07:54is looking for some structure.
07:55He's looking for a sense of belonging.
07:58This is somebody who's always felt rejected,
08:00who's always felt excluded,
08:02and for many people who join the military,
08:05it's a family to them.
08:06It's rules, it's structure, it's routine,
08:09it's a way of life.
08:11Rowling initially thrived in the military,
08:13but his drinking evolved to substance abuse
08:16and led to an early discharge.
08:19After barely a year's service,
08:20he returned to the home in Shreveport.
08:23He desperately tried to escape.
08:25Nevertheless, Rowling appeared to turn his life around.
08:29He started attending the United Pentecostal Church,
08:32where he met a young woman in the congregation.
08:36It was love at first sight,
08:37and in 1974, when Danny was just 20,
08:41the couple married.
08:42A year later, they welcomed a baby daughter.
08:45When he was first married,
08:47you know, he was a very religious guy
08:48in a kind of hyper-religious area
08:50out of Shreveport,
08:52went to a very Pentecostal church,
08:55had a very black-and-white view of the world,
08:57of the ongoing battle between good and evil.
09:02Things look like they might be on the up for him,
09:05but he's still drinking, he's unemployed,
09:09he's not the kind of man that he thinks he should be.
09:12In 1977, after just three years of marriage,
09:16Rowling's wife filed for divorce.
09:18The 23-year-old was devastated by her rejection.
09:23And this is something that I don't think he does move beyond.
09:25The very fact that his wife is the person
09:29that chooses to end their relationship,
09:31she's taking the control away from him.
09:33So we're just adding to these resentments all of the time.
09:37At around the time his wife left him,
09:40Rowling was working in a local bakery.
09:42He had an accident with a bread-slicing machine
09:45and lost part of his finger.
09:47It seemed everything was going wrong for Danny Rowling.
09:51He stole his father's gun
09:53and embarked on a series of armed robberies
09:55across Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia,
09:59but he was soon arrested.
10:01By 1989, after spending a total of eight years behind bars,
10:05Rowling found himself once again
10:07back in the family home in Shreveport.
10:11Aware that he doesn't amount to anything
10:13and only too conscious of his father's horror
10:17at his uselessness,
10:18he's 35 years old.
10:19He's virtually amounted to nothing until now.
10:23Rowling decides to prove
10:26that he does do something
10:28and he chooses to kill.
10:31Danny Rowling had grown up thinking he was worthless.
10:35He'd failed at high school,
10:36in his military career and in marriage.
10:39In 1989, at the age of 35,
10:41he found work at a restaurant
10:43in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana.
10:46But even this resulted in failure.
10:49On November the 4th,
10:50he was fired for missing his shift.
10:53Rowling claimed his boss
10:54had changed the roster without telling him
10:56and was aggrieved at his wrongful dismissal.
11:01Rowling is somebody who I would refer to
11:03as a grievance collector.
11:05So throughout his life,
11:06he's harboring all of these resentments.
11:09There are various events
11:10where the heat is turned up
11:11and I think the significant one for me
11:13is when he loses his job
11:15at a local restaurant.
11:17Now, usually,
11:18he would take this fairly quietly
11:20and he'd internalise his trauma
11:22and that resentment would bubble away.
11:25But on this occasion,
11:26he externalises.
11:27He threatens his manager,
11:29he shouts at him.
11:30You see this rage begin to come out
11:33and this is the day of his first killing.
11:37Enraged by his mistreatment at work,
11:40that night, Rowling took his sinister hobby
11:42of stalking to a whole new level,
11:45a deadly one.
11:46He'd grown infatuated
11:48with a 24-year-old department store worker
11:51named Julie Grissom.
11:53He had decided that he wanted her, essentially.
11:57So he followed her home
11:59and he spied on her.
12:01He saw her with her family,
12:02which included her father, Tom,
12:05and Tom's grandson, Sean.
12:07And he's got this vision of this perfect family
12:10in front of him again.
12:11So he's thinking,
12:12why have these people got this
12:13when I haven't got this?
12:15I feel really aggrieved.
12:16I feel really resentful about this.
12:19The back door of the house was unlocked.
12:22Armed with a knife, Rowling let himself in
12:24and begins a violent attack on the whole family,
12:27brutally stabbing all of them.
12:30And on that evening, he kills Julie.
12:33He rapes her, he assaults her.
12:35He also kills Tom.
12:37He kills Sean as well.
12:38So he wipes out three generations
12:40of an entire family.
12:42But it was the attack on eight-year-old Sean
12:44that was particularly horrific.
12:48Sean was stabbed with such force
12:50that the knife went all the way through him
12:53and stuck in the ground.
12:54That is the sort of extreme level of violence
12:58that even as forensic pathologists is rarely seen,
13:01it really tells you something about
13:03what the person is thinking
13:05when he commits that murder.
13:07After raping and killing Sean's aunt, Julie,
13:10Rowling carefully cleaned her,
13:12put her dirty clothes in the washing machine
13:14and posed her body provocatively.
13:17I think that Rowling saw this as vindication
13:23that he amounted to something.
13:25That this was his handiwork.
13:28This was something he was good at.
13:31Rowling fled.
13:32Two days later, a neighbour discovered
13:34the gruesome murder scene.
13:36The small town of Shreveport was in shock.
13:39Rowling had a secret that nobody else knew.
13:42For the first time, he'd succeeded at something.
13:46He had been in control and he liked it.
13:49Six months later,
13:51Rowling had yet another altercation with his father.
13:54The Shreveport murders gave Rowling the courage
13:58to confront the man who'd humiliated him,
14:03emasculated him over years.
14:05He gets into a full-scale drag-out fight
14:10with his police officer father.
14:13It is so severe that Rowling shoots his father.
14:17And indeed, his father loses one eye and an ear in the fight.
14:22Empowered by confronting his nemesis
14:24and seemingly getting away with the Grissom family murders,
14:28it was time for a newly confident Rowling to move on.
14:32In May 1990, the 36-year-old left his home
14:35in Shreveport for the last time
14:37and headed for the university city of Gainesville, Florida,
14:41to feed his newfound appetite for killing.
14:44Many people ask, well, why did Rowling target a college town?
14:48What was so special about it that drew him to that place?
14:53And I think that was because it symbolised
14:55that the very thing that he resented,
14:58young people, successful people,
15:01people who had opportunities.
15:02And he is just a pot of simmering resentments.
15:07And it's no surprise to me that he takes it out
15:10on people who he wants to be like,
15:12people who he feels envious of.
15:15On our route to Gainesville,
15:16Rowling's trip included a stop
15:18in Florida's state capital, Tallahassee.
15:22He got off of the bus station in Tallahassee
15:24and clearly had already made plans
15:26as to what he was going to do.
15:27He bought a K-Bar knife there
15:30at an Army-Navy store right there by the bus station.
15:34Armed with his K-Bar combat knife,
15:37once he arrived in Gainesville,
15:39Rowling set up a makeshift camp in the woods.
15:42He was a vagrant, a bum, if you like,
15:46but he had a purpose.
15:48And his purpose was a very particular kind of victim.
15:54Danny primarily targeted young women,
15:57and they were always young brunettes
15:58like his former wife had been.
16:00I was always struck by the fact that,
16:02for the most part, his victims were of a type.
16:06On the 23rd of August, 1990,
16:09new roommates Christina Powell and Sonia Larson
16:12were preparing for the beginning of the fall semester
16:15at the University of Florida.
16:18They're 17 and 18 years old.
16:20They're freshmen.
16:22This is the start of an exciting period in their lives.
16:25Someone else was enjoying their excitement, too.
16:29That evening, they caught the attention of Danny Rowling.
16:33And he's watching them through the window.
16:35He can see them giggling along together,
16:38having a nice time, washing the dishes.
16:40You can just imagine the kind of conversations they're having
16:42about the things they're excited about at university.
16:46Rowling has been watching them.
16:47In fact, he's probably spent the best part of the night outside
16:52in the woods just behind the apartment block.
16:54In the early hours, he breaks in.
16:58He used very specific equipment,
17:00a screwdriver to get in through a sliding door
17:03that most of these girls had,
17:06and a cabal knife, which he also used.
17:09Those two elements were his signature.
17:14Rowling found Christina asleep on the couch downstairs
17:18and Sonia in bed upstairs.
17:20So he's decided that Christina is the one that he wants.
17:24So he gets Sonia out of the way first.
17:28He leaves Christina Powell asleep on the couch
17:31and creeps upstairs
17:33and attacks Sonia Larson while she's asleep.
17:38He puts duct tape over her mouth to prevent her screaming
17:41and also, of course, to prevent her waking up.
17:44Christina, who's asleep downstairs.
17:47Rowling stabs Sonia repeatedly until she was dead.
17:51He then made his way back downstairs to Christina,
17:54who was still asleep, on the couch.
17:56He wakes her, puts duct tape over her mouth
18:00to prevent her screaming,
18:02tapes her hands behind her back
18:04and proceeds to cut off her clothes and underclothes
18:08and rape her with a knife to her throat.
18:12He then turns her onto her face
18:14and stabs her five times in the back.
18:19It's an act of the most grotesque wickedness.
18:22As with his first female victim, Julie, in Shreveport,
18:26Rowling washed and posed his victims.
18:30I suspect that posing of the body
18:32has to do with his last vision of the body.
18:38He can't take a photograph.
18:40Too dangerous.
18:42So what he does is his sexual conquest,
18:46and remember, this woman was a sexual conquest
18:48a matter of moments ago.
18:49So he cleans her up because there's nothing arousing
18:53or exciting about her as a bloodied body.
18:56Cleans her up, poses her,
18:59and I suspect at that moment,
19:02the flash camera of his brain takes one last look before leaving.
19:06Barely a day later, on August the 25th,
19:09Rowling broke into the home of his next victim.
19:1318-year-old Christa Hoyt was a community college student
19:17and a part-time overnight clerk at the local sheriff's office.
19:22Once again, he broke in through a sliding door using a screwdriver.
19:28Once again, he was carrying his cabal knife.
19:32Once again, he was targeting an innocent student
19:35who had her whole life in front of her.
19:39This time, however,
19:42Christa Hoyt wasn't at home when he broke in.
19:45Rowling patiently waited for his victim to return.
19:49When Christa arrived at around 11 a.m., he was ready.
19:54He starts with a chokehold.
19:56He renders her unconscious.
19:58He then binds her wrists.
20:01He gags her.
20:02Cuts her clothes off after she's taped.
20:06Has sex with her.
20:08Kills her by stabbing her in the back.
20:10Actually punctures her aorta, which is virtually instant death.
20:14But what he's done after she dies
20:16shows a development in his technique.
20:19So he not only poses her in a provocative position,
20:23he actually beheads her and places her head in such a way
20:27that she is looking at her own mutilated, posed body.
20:34Sometimes, if people are psychotic,
20:36they have some delusion about the head.
20:39It's almost as if they were afraid that killing them didn't kill them.
20:44Removing the head and being able to look at the head detached from the body
20:50is a complete reassurance that the person is really dead.
20:54Through the violent murder of Krista Hoyt,
20:57it seemed Rowling was also settling old scores from his past.
21:02Many people have observed that Krista bore quite a resemblance to Rowling's ex-wife,
21:07the woman who had rejected him.
21:09And it's no surprise to me that this was possibly the most violent of his murders,
21:14the one where the most rage was expressed.
21:17The residents of Gainesville were blissfully unaware that a killer was on the loose.
21:23The town's students were full of hope and excitement at the start of the new college year.
21:29Danny Rowling had killed and mutilated three female students in less than 48 hours.
21:36The parents of Rowling's first victims in Gainesville, Christina and Sonia,
21:41were becoming concerned at not being able to contact their daughters.
21:45At 4pm on Sunday the 26th of August, two days after they were killed,
21:51police entered their apartment and discovered the horrifying truth behind their silence.
21:57Just hours later, Rowling's third victim, Krista, had failed to turn up for work.
22:03Krista Hoyt worked at the local county sheriff's office and she was a very reliable employee.
22:08She was never late for work.
22:10It was completely out of character for her not to turn up on time.
22:13So when she didn't show up for her shift, which began at midnight,
22:17two officers went to her home to see what was going on and they came across the most horrendous scene.
22:23The Gainesville community was learning that some of their students had been butchered.
22:28Overnight, it had gone from a serene college town to a place where its residents cowered behind closed doors
22:34in fear for their lives, but Danny Rowling's killing spree wasn't over.
22:40On the same day officers discovered his latest victim, Rowling had broken into another apartment.
22:47His next chosen victim was 23-year-old Tracy Pauless.
22:51He knows that she lives in an apartment not far from where his den, his hide in the woods is.
23:00By then, people were alerted that something was going on.
23:04We know that because we actually have a tape recording of Tracy and it's a phone recording
23:10in which she basically is telling someone else, as I recall, Tracy was uncomfortable.
23:16And she said, you know, if Manuel doesn't show up pretty soon, I'm leaving.
23:19And Manuel was working that evening and Manny came home.
23:24Well, when he came home, you know, I guess the feeling was that all was safer and more normal.
23:29Manny, or Manuel Tabuda, was Tracy's burly 6'2 college roommate.
23:35Unaware that Tracy had company, Rowling followed his usual plan of attack,
23:40breaking in through the sliding door with a screwdriver,
23:43armed with his cabar knife and a gun.
23:46But this time, he was in for a surprise.
23:49Danny did not realize that Manuel had come home.
23:52So he thought he was going into an apartment that had one or two women in it.
23:56Manuel was not the target, but when he checked the room, he found Manuel.
23:59And actually, when he stabbed Manuel, Manuel came alive and fought him for a sustained period of time.
24:07Hearing Manuel's screams, Tracy awoke and went to investigate.
24:11She was greeted with the most horrific scene.
24:14Terrified, she raced down the corridor and locked herself in her room.
24:20And now, all that stands between Tracy and Danny Rowling is a flimsy bedroom door.
24:28He literally bursts through it, breaks it down.
24:36Tracy was now at the mercy of a killer.
24:40Rowling taped her mouth, taped her hands behind her back, as he'd done to his other victims.
24:45Cut off her T-shirt and raped her.
24:48Once again, he turned her onto her face and stabbed her three times in the back, killing her.
24:53Once again, he cleaned and posed the body.
24:59This was a killing spree.
25:01A spree aimed at, to some extent, and cleansing him of the feeling that he was worthless.
25:07The repetition in his crimes was all part of Rowling's design.
25:12He wanted to leave behind a signature so that the world would know he had finally succeeded in something.
25:19By now, police had discovered three of his victims.
25:22The entire city was in turmoil.
25:25Ken Porter was an FBI agent at the time and was part of a task force assigned to investigate the multiple killings.
25:33I was driving to work on Monday morning, August 27th, and I heard a news report on the radio of three murders that had been discovered over the weekend and was just shocked as I was driving in because things like that had not happened in Gainesville.
25:51The task force had immediately identified similarities between the crimes.
25:56He appeared to be looking for young, college-aged females with brunette hair of a small, petite build.
26:07That was the profile of the three victims that had been discovered up to that point.
26:13On the very day that Gainesville learned they had a serial killer on the loose, Rowling committed an armed robbery at the local branch of the First Union Bank.
26:23It heightened the fear felt amongst the community.
26:26The next morning, on Tuesday, the 28th of August, the bodies of Manuel and Tracy were discovered.
26:33Tracy fit the profile of the previous female victims.
26:36She was a young female college student, kind of petite in build, brunette hair.
26:43She was also killed in the same manner as the other three, with a knife, stab wounds, mutilated body,
26:51and immediately everybody knew that it was the same killer.
26:56The people of Gainesville were now terrified.
26:59With the body count rising day by day, anyone could be next.
27:04The authorities were determined to catch this monster before he struck again.
27:09During their investigations into the murders and the armed bank robbery,
27:13police came across two men acting suspiciously.
27:16So these two officers followed them into the woods.
27:20They came upon a campsite that had been carved out of this densely wooded area near the university campus.
27:28Unbeknownst to the officers, one of these men was Danny Rowling.
27:32The police saw Rowling and a drug dealer friend of his at the campsite.
27:38Now, when Rowling clocked that the police were watching him, he fled.
27:43He just upped and he left.
27:45Rowling's drug dealer was apprehended, but the killer himself had slipped into the night.
27:51They look around the campsite and they notice there's a camping tent set up there.
27:55And they noticed a few things inside this tent.
27:59They saw this money that was covered in this pink, reddish dye and they knew right away,
28:04oh, this might be the proceeds or evidence from the bank robbery.
28:08They also found a gun that matched the description of the handgun that was used in the bank robbery.
28:14But there were also some other items which were quite perplexing.
28:18So there was a ski mask, there were a pair of trousers, there was some pubic hair.
28:23And they didn't make the connection at the time between the murders and the items at this campsite,
28:29but they did bag them up and they were to prove incredibly valuable when the pieces were put together.
28:36With an entire town under the glare of the national media spotlight,
28:40the FBI were under pressure to find the killer.
28:43On August the 30th, amid the panic and chaos on campus,
28:47police identified a 19-year-old freshman with mental health issues as a suspect.
28:52Edward Humphrey lived in the same apartment complex as the last two victims
28:57and had been outwardly aggressive to other students.
29:01Two days after the final murder, he was involved in a physical battle with his grandmother,
29:08which involved him hitting her, and the police arrested him.
29:12Mr. Humphrey's behavior was such that he was highly conspicuous.
29:16I mean, he was loud, he was drunk, he was off his medication, he had had brain injuries,
29:23he was out of control a lot, even in restaurants.
29:26Humphrey's grandmother didn't want to press charges,
29:29but the state decided that in order to keep their prime suspect in custody, they would.
29:35They posted bail at an unachievable $1 million,
29:38and took DNA samples from the suspect, hoping to conclusively link him with the college murders.
29:46He was under investigation quite heavily,
29:49because a lot of the evidence pointed to him as a possible suspect.
29:54Word of that leaked out to the press,
29:56so he became a focus of the media, as well as a focus of the investigation.
30:02I think everybody was so desperate to solve what had happened here,
30:07for a lot of reasons, one of which is just a sense of security,
30:10is that, quote, they got the guy.
30:12Now it seemed the police had their serial killer and the prime suspect for the bank robbery,
30:17Rowling's drug dealer friend, both in custody.
30:20Despite the incriminating evidence at the campsite,
30:23the FBI weren't convinced this was their man.
30:27For some reason, I just felt that this was not our bank robber.
30:31He seemed to me to be totally clueless about how to rob a bank.
30:35But you never give up on somebody until you do the investigation.
30:40So over the next couple of days,
30:42my partner and I started conducting investigations
30:45to determine if this individual was in fact the bank robber or not.
30:50Meanwhile, the FBI's real killer and bank robber, Danny Rowling, was still on the run.
30:57He stole a car, he drove to Tampa,
30:59he committed three robberies, including holding up a convenience store on September the 2nd.
31:05And five days later, he tries to commit another robbery,
31:09this time in a store in Ocala,
31:11where he holds the manager to ransom and demands he opens a safe.
31:16But unfortunately, other people realise what's happening,
31:18the police are called,
31:20and Rowling is unable to escape this time.
31:23Rowling was finally taken into custody
31:25and awaiting trial for the Ocala supermarket robbery.
31:29But in Gainesville, the investigation into the student's slayings
31:32had hit a dead end.
31:34DNA evidence had proven that prime suspect Edward Humphrey
31:38was not their killer.
31:39He found himself at the centre of this investigation
31:42when police named him as a potential suspect.
31:45But this was a rabbit hole that was going to lead nowhere,
31:49and it really was a distraction.
31:51Without another suspect for the murders,
31:54the investigation came to a standstill.
31:56The Gainesville community had believed the perpetrator
31:59of these horrific killings was safely locked up.
32:03It had given them a false sense of security.
32:06But now they knew the truth.
32:08There was a serial killer still at large.
32:11A dark cloud of fear and panic
32:13hung over the Gainesville community once again.
32:20Serial killer Danny Rowling had been arrested
32:23for a grocery store robbery in nearby Ocala,
32:26but the investigations into the Gainesville murders
32:29and bank robbery he'd committed in the city
32:31were still ongoing.
32:33No link had been made between the crimes or to Rowling.
32:37The serial number of the gun used in the bank robbery
32:40was traced to its registered owner
32:42three hours south in the coastal city of Sarasota.
32:46So FBI agents went to interview him.
32:49So the guy told the story of selling it to some vagrant,
32:53some guy who was just passing through town
32:55who wanted to buy the gun.
32:57Sold it to him for cash.
32:59And the agent asked him,
33:01well, was there anything that stood out about this guy,
33:04anything that you can remember
33:06that would help us identify who he was?
33:08Officers were told the gun had been sold to a vagrant
33:12who had a very distinctive attribute.
33:16We were in a task force meeting one morning
33:20and I started recalling what this FBI agent had reported,
33:24that the individual, the gun used in the bank robbery
33:27had been sold to an individual who had a missing finger.
33:31And one of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents
33:34stood up and says,
33:37holy shit!
33:39And the whole room falls silent.
33:42And he proceeds to explain
33:45that during the crime scene investigation
33:47of the first murders
33:49of Christina Powell and Sonia Larson,
33:52that they found a piece of paper towel
33:58on the counter in the kitchen.
34:00On one side was the imprint of a man's penis,
34:04as if he were wiping himself off
34:07after conducting a sex act.
34:10On the other side of the paper
34:12was a handprint with a finger missing.
34:15And it was at that point
34:18that everybody realized
34:20the bank robber is the murderer.
34:24The problem is,
34:26we still didn't know who that was.
34:29Once that connection had been made,
34:31the crime lab began re-examining other exhibits
34:34from the Woodland campsite
34:36in connection with the student murders.
34:38Among the elements of significance
34:42were a ski mask
34:45whose fibres matched the duct tape
34:47found at the third murder.
34:50Krista Hoyt's pubic hairs
34:53were found on Ronning's sleeping bag
34:56at the campsite.
34:57Blood on a pair of his trousers
34:59was found to be manned to boaters.
35:03A screwdriver was found
35:05which matched the marks
35:06on the sliding doors
35:08by which he got into the apartment.
35:10But the most significant, perhaps, of all
35:12was there was a series of audio tapes.
35:16In these disturbing recordings,
35:18Rowling alluded to the horror
35:20that he was about to unleash.
35:22I know I have to run the rest of my life,
35:25but I'm getting pretty good at it.
35:28I'm a big boy.
35:30I take care of myself.
35:33We're all down here
35:34for just a breath anyway.
35:35Well,
35:38I'm going to sign off for a little bit,
35:40but that's something I've got to do.
35:42As more details of the Gainesville killings emerged,
35:45police in Shreveport, Louisiana,
35:47realized that there were significant similarities
35:50between these cases
35:51and the unsolved murders of the Grissom family
35:54in 1989.
35:56They suspected all eight homicides may be connected,
35:59but the identity of this serial killer
36:01remained a mystery.
36:03After a period of time
36:04when it became evident
36:05that the murderer had either left Florida
36:08or had been arrested
36:10because no further murders
36:12had been committed
36:13that matched that M.O.,
36:15a decision was made
36:16to test the DNA
36:18of all inmates in Florida
36:21who had been arrested between,
36:22I think it was like a three-
36:23or a four-month window.
36:25Anybody who had been arrested
36:26during that time frame
36:27was going to have their DNA checked
36:29against the DNA on the homicides.
36:32Danny Rowling was in jail
36:34pending the trial
36:35for the armed robbery
36:36of the grocery store
36:37in nearby Ocala,
36:39so he was on the list
36:40to have his DNA checked
36:42against the killers.
36:44He also had a partially missing finger
36:46on his left hand.
36:48They obtain his profile
36:49and lo and behold,
36:51they match
36:51and they've got their man.
36:53On the 24th of January 1991,
36:56as a result of DNA testing,
36:59Rowling became the prime suspect
37:00in the Gainesville student murders.
37:03Brian Jarvis was a sergeant
37:05covering major crimes
37:07in Marion County
37:08where Rowling was brought in
37:10for questioning
37:11in connection with the murders.
37:14When Danny walked
37:15into the interview room,
37:17he was shackled.
37:18He had a lot of anxiety.
37:20His left leg would tap,
37:21it would shuffle.
37:23He would be scratching his leg
37:24or picking lint off of it.
37:25In fact,
37:26there was one or two points there
37:27where the detective
37:28offered to show him
37:30the photos of the crime scene.
37:31He said,
37:31I want to make sure
37:32you know what we're talking about here.
37:34And Danny couldn't look at him.
37:35He turned his head away
37:36and he reacted.
37:37He said,
37:37I don't want to see that.
37:38On September the 18th, 1991,
37:42Danny Rowling was convicted
37:43for three counts
37:44of attempted armed robbery
37:45and two counts
37:46of aggravated assault
37:47on a law enforcement officer.
37:50He was jailed for life.
37:52Finally,
37:52two months later,
37:53Rowling was indicted
37:54on five counts
37:55of first degree murder
37:57for the atrocities
37:58in Gainesville.
38:00Rowling is indicted
38:01for the murders
38:02and he initially pleads
38:04not guilty,
38:05but he does begin
38:07to confess
38:08and he doesn't do this
38:10in a standard,
38:11traditional way
38:12where he sits down
38:13with officers
38:13or prosecutors
38:14and tells them
38:15what happened.
38:15He actually speaks
38:16through a fellow
38:18inmate of his.
38:19Once the details
38:20of his crimes
38:21were revealed
38:22through his fellow prisoner,
38:23Rowling himself
38:24broke his silence
38:25and spoke
38:26to the investigators.
38:28He blamed the atrocities
38:29on a personality disorder.
38:31I have dealt
38:32with different personalities
38:34all my life.
38:36One personality
38:37is a gentleman
38:38named Enad
38:39who is a Jesse James type.
38:43He, well, you know,
38:44he's, well,
38:47he's not a good person,
38:49but he's not really
38:50an evil person.
38:52And then another one,
38:54the evil one
38:55that causes him
38:56to kill, Gemini,
38:57was a personality
38:58really responsible.
39:01Because I'm going
39:01to tell you guys,
39:03Danny's not that person.
39:05I never wanted
39:06to come this way.
39:07Believe me,
39:07God and my judge,
39:08I never wanted
39:09to come this way.
39:10But I'm here
39:11and now I've got
39:11to live with this.
39:12Now, in my view,
39:14it was not going
39:15to be about
39:15whether he'd found guilty,
39:16but whether or not
39:16he was going
39:17to be executed.
39:18With a potential
39:19death sentence
39:19now hanging over him,
39:21Rowling's trial
39:22was set for February
39:23the 15th, 1994
39:25in Gainesville, Florida.
39:27On the opening day
39:28in court,
39:29the prosecution
39:29was prepared for
39:31an insanity plea
39:32from Rowling,
39:33but he was
39:34to surprise everyone.
39:35Sure enough,
39:36he got up
39:36and he stepped forward
39:38and he addressed
39:39the court
39:39and he confessed
39:41to the crimes
39:42and, of course,
39:43the outburst was
39:43the victims
39:45were stunned,
39:46shocked.
39:46There was even
39:46some people like,
39:47what does that mean?
39:48Did he just confess?
39:50I mean,
39:50it was that shocking
39:51to everyone.
39:52Rowling changed
39:53his plea
39:54to guilty
39:54on all five counts
39:56of murder,
39:57three counts
39:58of sexual battery
39:59and three counts
40:00of armed burglary.
40:02On March the 24th,
40:03the 12 jurors
40:04unanimously recommended
40:06the death penalty.
40:07I had no question
40:09in my mind
40:10that Judge Morris
40:11was going to give him
40:11the death penalty.
40:12I don't think
40:13Danny had any doubt.
40:14I don't think
40:15the defense team
40:15had any doubt.
40:16On the 20th of April,
40:181994,
40:1939-year-old Danny Rowling
40:21was sentenced to death
40:22by Judge Stan Morris
40:24and immediately sent
40:25to Florida State Prison.
40:27His legal team
40:28began a process
40:29of appeals
40:29which would last
40:30over 12 years.
40:32During one of these hearings,
40:34Rod Smith got the opportunity
40:35to cross-examine Rowling.
40:38It was the one time
40:39it was just almost,
40:41in my mind,
40:41it was almost me and him
40:42just for a brief moment.
40:45Danny had said something
40:46in an answer to me
40:48as I recall it.
40:49Mr. Smith,
40:50I'm not the monster
40:51you made me out to be
40:52or I'm not a monster,
40:53something like that.
40:55And for the first time
40:56in the entire thing,
40:57I think I,
40:58in the entire process,
40:59I think I lost my cool
41:00entirely.
41:01And I remember saying,
41:03and I remember the judge
41:04just about,
41:05oh, he was really upset
41:07with me for it.
41:08I remember saying,
41:09something to the effect
41:10of when you kill that boy,
41:12were you a monster then.
41:15Rowling fought his death sentence
41:17to the very end.
41:18The day before his execution,
41:20his last appeal
41:21was turned down.
41:22That night,
41:23on the eve of his death,
41:25Rowling surprised
41:26everybody again.
41:27Despite never admitting
41:28to the 1989
41:30Grissom family murders
41:31in his hometown of Shreveport,
41:34he had another confession
41:35to make.
41:36Hereby,
41:37I make a formal
41:38written statement
41:39concerning the murders
41:41of Julie, Tom,
41:42and Sean Grissom.
41:43I and I alone
41:44am guilty.
41:45It was my hand
41:46that took those
41:47precious lights
41:48out of this
41:49old dark world.
41:51On October the 25th,
41:532006,
41:54in Florida State Prison,
41:56justice for his victims
41:57was finally carried out.
42:00At 6 p.m.,
42:01Danny Harold Rowling
42:03was executed
42:04by lethal injection.
42:06He was 52 years old.
42:08When a grisly crime
42:10like this is committed
42:11and people's lives
42:12are impacted forever,
42:13the worst part of it
42:14is, of course,
42:15the victimization.
42:17The families
42:18who should have been able
42:21to see their kids
42:22graduate from college,
42:24who instead have to bury them
42:26at the beginning
42:28of their college careers.
42:30That's the worst part.
42:32The things that mystify us
42:34most about people
42:35like Rowling
42:35is how ordinary they are.
42:38We want them to be
42:40monstrous in their behavior.
42:42We want there to be
42:43something obvious about them.
42:45And it's hard to accept
42:46that somebody this meaningless
42:48in terms of anything
42:49they accomplish in their lives
42:50could come in
42:51and kind of dominate
42:53and terrorize a community.
42:56When I looked into his eyes,
42:59it was vacant.
43:00There was just darkness.
43:02And I'd never seen that before
43:04with anybody
43:05and I've never seen it
43:05with anybody since.
43:07And Danny Rowling is,
43:08in my opinion,
43:10the most evil person
43:11I've ever met.
43:12Danny Rowling brutally
43:13slaughtered eight people
43:15for no reason other
43:16than to prove to himself
43:18that he could succeed
43:19at something.
43:20He stalked women,
43:21mutilated and raped them.
43:23He killed anybody
43:24who got in his way,
43:26including an eight-year-old boy.
43:28And that makes Danny Rowling
43:30one of the world's
43:31most evil killers.
43:32you
43:38have going on.
43:39And that makes
43:41too much
43:58you
44:02You