Danny Rolling - Serial Killings

Serial Killings

In August 1990, Rolling murdered five students (one was a student of Santa Fe College and four attended the University of Florida) during a burglary and robbery spree in Gainesville, Florida. He would mutilate his victim's bodies, decapitating one. He then would pose them, sometimes even using mirrors, to intensify the carnage in the rooms.

The first attack occurred early August 24, 1990, when Rolling broke into the apartment shared by Sonya Larson and Christina Powell. Finding Powell asleep on the downstairs couch, he stood over her briefly, but did not wake her up, choosing instead to explore the upstairs bedroom where Larson was sleeping. Deciding that he would rape Larson, he went back downstairs to murder Powell, first taping her mouth shut to stifle her screams as he stabbed her to death. She died while trying to fend him off. Rolling then went upstairs, taped Larson's mouth shut and her wrists together behind her back, and threatened her with a knife as he cut her clothes off of her. He then raped her and forced her face-down onto the floor where he stabbed her five times in the back. Rolling posed the bodies and left the apartment.

A day later, on Saturday August 25, 1990, Rolling broke into the apartment where Christa Hoyt lived by prying open a sliding glass door with a KA-BAR knife and a screwdriver, but she wasn't home. He waited in the living room for her to return. At 11 a.m. she entered the apartment and Rolling surprised her from behind, placing her in a choke-hold. After she had been subdued, he taped her mouth shut and her wrists together and led her into the bedroom, where he cut the clothes from her body and raped her. As in the Larson murder, he forced her face-down and stabbed her in the back, rupturing her heart. He then decapitated the body and posed the head facing the corpse, adding to the shock value of whoever discovered her.

By now the murders had attracted widespread media attention and many students were taking extra precautions, such as changing their daily routines and sleeping together in groups. Because the spree was happening so early in the Fall semester, some students withdrew their enrollment or transferred to other schools. Tracy Paules had invited her boyfriend, Manny Taboada, to sleep at her apartment as a form of protection against attack. On August 27, Rolling broke into the apartment by prying open the sliding glass door with the same tools he had used earlier. Rolling found Taboada asleep in one of the bedrooms and, after a struggle with the young man, eventually killed him.

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 onto her belly and stabbing her three times in the back. Rolling posed Paules' body but left Taboada's in the same position in which Taboada had died.

With the exception of Taboada, all of the victims were petite Caucasian brunettes with brown eyes.

Although law enforcement authorities initially had very few leads, police did identify two suspects; one a University of Florida student (Edward Humphrey) who had a history of mental illness and bore numerous scars on his face from a car accident, making him an ideal video snip when discussing news about the investigation. His image was played multiple times by media outlets.

Rolling was arrested in Ocala on a burglary charge and, in the course of that investigation, his tools were matched to marks left at the Gainesville murder scenes. The small one-man camp where he was living was in a wooded area located near the apartment complexes frequented by students, including those of the victims. There, investigators discovered recordings Rolling had made of him singing folk songs he had composed and audio diaries alluding to the crimes. He was then charged with several counts of murder in November 1991.

The two men the police had identified as suspects were released with no further suspicion of participating in the crimes.

Rolling was finally brought to trial, by Alachua County State Attorney Len Register, nearly four years after the murders. His motive, according to Rolling, was to become a "superstar" in much the same way as Ted Bundy. Before testimony began in his trial in 1994, Rolling pled guilty to all charges. Subsequently, State Attorney Rod Smith presented the penalty phase of the prosecution. Rolling was sentenced to the death penalty on each count. During his trial, Court TV conducted an interview with his mother from her home. During the recording, his father could be heard shouting off-camera.

Three psychiatrists agreed that Rolling had a personality disorder and functioned at the maturity level of a fifteen-year-old.