Serial Killer Daniel Blank #truecrime

Daniel Blank
Over the course of one year, a vicious monster bludgeoned and stabbed 6 people to death in River Parish Louisiana. Driven by a powerful addiction and lack of empathy, the killer cut the phone lines then murdered his victims as he robbed them. One of his favorite weapons was a cane knife also called a sling blade. The police of the small town became suspicious when one of their residents began showing up to the local casinos flush with cash to blow on the slots and video poker.

Daniel Blank, the Louisiana Cutthroat

Daniel Blank was born in Paulina, Louisiana on June 28th 1962. Both of his parents worked in a sugar refinery and he had 7 brothers and sisters. Otherwise not a lot is known about his early childhood.

At age 12 Blank had a bad bike crash which resulted in a head injury. Doctors said he had mild brain damage from the accident. Other noticed he became introverted and sullen. Soon after the injury, when Blank was in 8th grade he dropped out of school.

His interactions with law enforcement and the justice system began when he was still a teenager. Blank was arrested for arson after he burned down a building. This led to him being sent to a reform school.

The reform school introduced Blank to engines and mechanic work. He took to it immediately and pursued it as a career when he was released. However, he also found a second preoccupation, gambling.

Despite being withdrawn after his head injury, Blank was able to marry and have a family. He and his wife Cindy had 4 children. To those in town, he was known as a gifted mechanic and family man. But in October of 1996, the obsession with gambling drove the unassuming man to murder and after the first he was unable to stop himself.

The first victim owned a mechanic shop in St Amant, Louisiana where Blank had worked for a while. 42 year old Victor Rossi was asleep the night of October 27, 1996, when his killer broke in. Blank used a baseball bat he found in the house to beat him to death. When Rossi was dead, Blank ransacked the house taking money and valuables, while leaving behind the blood soaked bat.

With the money he had stolen, the sick monster went to the casino. He blew it playing video poker and slot machines. With his appetite now awoken, Blank was looking for a second victim only months later.

On March 18, 1997 58 year old Barbara Bourgeois was at her Paulina home when Daniel Blank broke in through a window. She lived just blocks from Blank and it is likely they were at least acquaintances. The vicious killer rushed her using her own vacuum to beat her savagely. Once she was incapacitated, he got a knife from her kitchen and stabbed her to death.

When her body was found, there was no sign of a robbery. It is suspected that due to the level of violence inflicted on Bourgeois and the noise it must have caused, the killer fled without going through her belongings. Due to being forced to leave empty handed, Blank was eager for his next kill.

3 weeks later on April 9 1997, the killer moved on his next target, Lillian Phillipe. The 71 year old and her husband owned a car parts store in Gonzalez where Blank had shopped. This time, he cut the phone line on his way in so she could not call for help.

Blank broke in and was confronted by the elderly woman. She came at him with a trophy and struck him with it. The blow enraged Blank and he shoved to the ground and took the trophy from her.!when she got back up, he began striking her with it until she stopped moving.

The money from the Phillipe murder did not last and once again he was seeking out someone with money to rob and murder. This time he targeted a elderly couple.

On May 9th, 76 year old Sam Arcuri and his wife, 69 year old Louella, were at home in LaPlace when Blank broke in through the garage. Once again he cut the phone lines and used an object he found to kill the couple while they lay in bed. Once the evil act was complete, he searched through their home for cash and valuables.

5 days later he was back at it again. On March 14 1997 55 year old Joan Brock was at home when her husbands former employee Daniel Blank came knocking. Before entering the home, he cut her phones lines. With no signs of forced entry, it is surmised that Brock let her killer in.

The brutal murder began in the house, then Blank dragged her outside where he stabbed her in the next so many times she was nearly decapitated when she was found. Once she was out of his way, he ransacked her home and stole her car.

The next attack would be his last in Louisiana. Police were zeroing in on the killer and Blank wanted to escape the heat. Capture became infinitely more likely once living witnesses that could identify him as their attacker.

On July 7th, Leononce and his wife Joyce were in bed when Blank broke in. They were beaten and then shot. Somehow they survived the attack and were rushed to the hospital to have their wounds treated.

Once they were able to speak to investigators, the Millets gave a detailed account of the night that they were shot. They also spoke to a sketch artist and the results were shared with the public. Of the tips that came in to identify the perpetrator, one name came up multiple times, Daniel Blank.

Unfortunately, as soon as the killer saw the news that the Millets survived, he uprooted his family and moved to texas. Police investigated Blank and found more evidence that he was behind the robberies and murders.

They found that while he had won 220,000 in the casinos, he had lost around 27,000. Police also discovered that he had worked for some victims and frequented the businesses owned by others. Investigators reached out to Daniel Blank but were unable to get him to come to Louisiana for an interview and so they went to Texas.

Blank was living in a trailer he had recently bought in Onalaska Texas. He had furnished his new home as well as a new above ground pool. There was no legitimate source for the funds used for these purchases which heightened suspicions. . He had also attempted Police obtained a room at the Onalaska courthouse and brought in Blank for an interview.

The killer began telling them the story he had told his family- that the money he had been spending came from gambling winnings. The police had already determined that blank had lost more money than he had won at the casinos and began to press him about the murders.

He admitted knowing several of the victims but denied having anything to do with their murders. Police challenged him to prove his innocence by taking a polygraph test, which Blank consented to. Unbeknownst to him, the polygraph examiner was ready and waiting in the next room.

6 hours into the interview Daniel Blank was hooked up to the machine. Out of the 3 times he was questioned about the murders, Blank failed every time. Even so, the lie detector test results were not admissible in court so police confronted him to get him to cooperate and confess.

Finally after being confronted with the test results, and coaxing, they were successful. The first murder he admitted to was that of Joan Brock and once the dam broke, the other confessions came tumbling out. Investigators were able to get details on the crimes that had not been released to the public.

When he was transferred to jail, police feared retaliation from the families of his victims. As a result, Blank was made to wear a bullet proof vest. In court, the killer received the death penalty in April of 1999 for the murder of Joan Brock. The trial lasted barely more than a week. A year later, he recieved a second death sentence for the Phillipe murder.

He was found guilty of the other murders in subsequent trials. His lawyers made efforts to suppress his confessions but they were not successful. Due to the death penalty, appeals automatically began.

In February of 2016 Blank received a stay of execution as his appeals continued. As recently as 2021 new dna tests were ordered to confirm or reject him as the murderer. Daniel Blank is currently housed in the Louisiana State Prison in Baton Rouge Louisiana.

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