Serial Killer Danny Rolling

In the summer of 1990, the peaceful college town of Gainesville, Florida, became the setting for a series of brutal attacks that would shock the nation. This is the story of Danny Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper.Danny Rolling's early life was miserable like so many of the people who end up doing what he did. Born on May 26, 1954, in Shreveport, Louisiana, Rolling endured severe physical and emotional abuse from his father, a police officer from the time he was an infant. This abuse would leave deep psychological scars that contributed to his violent tendencies. Perhaps because of her abusive husband, Danny’s mother was prone to self harm.By the age of 15, Rolling was already showing signs of instability. He struggled with addiction and spent time in and out of jail for various offenses, including robbery and peeping into women’s houses. But it was in late 1989 that his darkest impulses would manifest in the most horrifying way.

In the mean time, he joined the Air Force in 1971, though he would spend just a year in the service. Rolling had begun to use narcotics and other substances, which led him to get demoted and eventually given an honorable discharge citing a personality disorder which seems quite generous.

A year later, he was married to a young woman, who he would have a daughter with. For a while it seemed like he had turned the corner, working multiple jobs to support his wife and child. But the strain wore him down and as he started drinking and smoking more and more he became increasingly erratic and violent. After just 4 years they would divorce and Danny began committing robberies which would eventually land him in prison more than once until his final release before his Gainesville crime spree in 1988.Rolling had a reputation for being unsettling. One woman named Cindy Juracich said he often made disturbing statements and he had even told her husband that he liked to stick knifes in people. Perhaps this was shortly before or after what he did to the Grissom family on November 4th 1989.

Tom Grissom, his daughter Julie, and grandson Sean getting ready for dinner when an intruder forced his way into their home and attacked them. Neighbors would find a horrific display of violence when they went to check on the Grissoms the following day. Tom was slumped against the laundry room door, with several stab wounds to the back and chest. Young Sean was stabbed once in the back with such force that the blade came out of his chest. 

The attacker had spent more time with Julie, she was found in the bedroom. The assailant had stabbed her 3 times in the back, but laid her face up on the bed. Bizarrely, he had also wiped Julie’s body down with vinegar before fleeing the scene. These were the first known victims of Danny Rolling and he would soon travel to Gainesville, he had told acquaintances that "'One day, I'm going to leave this town and I'm going to go where the girls are beautiful and I can just lay in the sun and watch beautiful women all day'".

Rolling made a camp in the woods in Gainesville, near the student housing. He would his time spend time recording music he wrote and committing various robberies and thefts around the area. But his darker impulses would soon take control and he would use the woods to approach his targets homes, entering through the backdoor unseen from the street.

In the early hours of August 24, 1990, Rolling broke into the apartment of 17-year-old university student Sonja Larson and her roommate, 18-year-old Christina Powell. Armed with a ka-bar knife and a pistol, he broke in and brutally attacked them. He crept in and saw Christina asleep on the couch and briefly watched her before he went upstairs where Sonja was asleep in her bedroom. Rolling actually debated for a moment which of the 2 girls he preferred, he chose Christina. 

He attacked, slapping duct tape over Sonjas mouth then stuck her with the 10 inch fighting knife. She instantly woke up and began fighting for her life receiving wounds to her arms and thigh which caused her to lose consciousness in roughly one minute. Somehow Rolling was able to keep the tape over Sonjas mouth and Christina was still asleep downstairs who he then approached. Once again he slapped duct tape over her mouth then taped her hands behind her back.

Rolling then mistreated Christina in the worst possible ways, before eventually having her lay facedown and plunging his knife into her back 5 times. Before he left the apartment, Rolling posed the bodies into graphic positions to shock whoever found them and add one final bit of disrespect.

The next night, Rolling struck again. This time, his victim was 18-year-old Christa Hoyt whom he had watched through the windows days earlier. On August he broke into her apartment just 2 miles from the scene of the first attack. Using a screwdriver to pry open a sliding door,Danny waited in the apartment for Hoyt to return home. When she walked in he ambushed her with his weapons and taped her mouth and hands then forced her into the bedroom.

After violating Christa, Rolling would follow the same procedure as he had with Christina, destroying her aorta. Once again Rolling would pose his victim, but he also removed her head and put it on a shelf, before retreating back to his hideout in the woods. 

Two days later, at 3AM on August 27, Rolling targeted Tracy Paules and Manny Taboada, both 23 years old. Breaking into their apartment, Rolling entered Taboada’s bedroom first, and stuck him in the chest with his ka-bar. Manny jolted away and began to try to fight off his attacker, receiving wounds to his face, arms, and legs. Tracy, hearing the commotion, tried to barricade herself in her room, but Rolling was able to break through her door. She met the same fate as the prior victims and was left in a horrifying pose.

The community was gripped by fear. Students fled the town, and police worked around the clock to catch the killer. But somehow, Danny Rolling evaded capture, and leaving behind little evidence at the crime scenes.

On September 7, 1990, Rolling was arrested, but not for the homicides. He was caught during a botched burglary in Ocala, Florida. It wasn't until January 1991 that investigators linked him to the Gainesville crimes through DNA evidence found at the crime scenes.

Rolling's trial began in 1994. He initially pled not guilty but later changed his plea to guilty, sparing the victims' families from a lengthy trial. In a shocking confession, Rolling revealed details of the homicides, claiming he was driven by an alter ego named "Gemini." 2 Psychiatrists would testify that Rolling did have a severe personality disorder, but that he was fully aware of what he was doing.

On April 20, 1994, Danny Rolling was sentenced to death for the five Gainesville murders. He spent the next 12 years on death row, during which he confessed to additional murders, including the triple homicide of the Grissom family in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1989.

On October 25, 2006, Danny Rolling was executed by lethal injection. His last meal was lobster tail, shrimp and strawberry shortcake, washing it down with sweet tea. He would also sing a gospel hymn before being put to death. The Gainesville community could finally begin to heal, but the scars left by his heinous acts would never fully fade and would go on to inspire the Scream movie series.

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