Post by almagata on Jan 12, 2018 11:11:49 GMT
I'm currently reading "Beyond Murder The Inside Account of the Gainesville Student Murders" by John Philpin & John Donnelly.
There are plenty of websites that have good histories of his abusive upbringing so I'm only going to post about his confession. There are a couple of pages in the book where he confesses in a weird way via one of his prison mates. It talks about his stalking and attack behavior but not his emotional motivation during the confession. It's a very third person way to communicate the details of his crimes.
I'll be curious to hear board members comments about Danny Rolling's victim selection compared to what we know about the victim's in EAR attacks.
Warning: This is a graphic account of what Rolling did.
__________________________
pg. 387
"Rolling insisted that Lewis was his "mouthpiece" and "confessor." So when the session finally did get underway, it was Bobby Lewis who began by explaining that Danny Rolling became very emotional when discussing the crimes. Lewis said he didn't like what Danny had told him, didn't understand it, but believed that his friend was trying to set things right.
Rolling had spent almost two weeks in Gainesville before the killings. He made his way around the city on a stolen bicycle. "One of the quickest and cheapest ways to get from point A to B in any city, " Rolling told his audience, "is with a good bicycle."
Before the homicides he was stopped once by police because the bicycle's headlight was out. Rolling was dressed in black - his Ninja outfit, Lewis called it - and was seeking a victim. In his black bag he had his tools: the tape, K-Bar knife, pistols, gloves, screwdriver. His Michael Kennedy Id was checked and he was told to get his light repaired.
Another time he was peering in through a window when a security guard interrupted him. "What are you doing?" the guard asked. "What are you doing?" Danny said and walked away.
The security guard called the police who almost caught Danny Rolling that night. But the man in the black has slipped away through the woods.
The investigators started with the murders of Christina Powell and Sonja Larson at the Williamsburg Apartments, Hewitt established the pattern for the evening. He asked Lewis if Rolling was responsible for the murders. "Yes, he was, " Lewis said. Le Gran Hewitt turned to Danny Rolling . "Is that correct, Danny?" he asked. "Yes, sir, " Rolling said.
Lewis read from the letter. Rolling was out that night, peeping in windows and "shaking doors" - turning doorknobs to see if the apartments were unlocked. He just happened to come upon the one apartment 13, and opened the door. He didn't have to pry it. He walked through the kitchen and into the living room where Christi Powell slept on the sofa. "I stood over her for a moment," Lewis read, "Then crept up the staircase into Sonja Larson's second-floor bedroom. She was stabbed several times. The first blow landed in the area of her upper left chest near the collarbone. At the same time I pressed a double strip of masking tape over her mouth to muffle her cries. She fought and I stabbed her again. She tried to fend the blows with her arm."
What Danny had written seemed like a blend of police jargon and the language of someone distancing himself from events. And that was what he was doing by having Lewis as his spokesman" trying to keep the distance. But the investigators weren't going to allow that.
"the last blow was inflected to the inside of her left thigh," Lewis read. "The whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds. Then she died."
"Danny, what's written there, is that true?" Hewitt asked. "Yes, Rolling said.
Lewis continued reading, "Then I crept back down the stairs and stood over Christina Powell."
He taped Christi Powell's mouth and wrists and put her on the floor where he sexually assaulted her, Then he rolled her over and stabbed her in the back.
"Then I went back upstairs," Lewis read, "and removed the tape from Miss Larson. She had on panties printed with little animals on them. I think they was teddy bears. I'm not sure. But I removed them, spread her legs, and I had no sex with her. I only looked. Then I descended the staircase, pulled the knife from the back of Miss Christina Powell."
Rolling walked into the kitchen, found some liquid soap, returned, and cleaned up the young woman's vaginal area. He cut off her nipples and put them in a lunch bag. Then Rolling returned to the kitchen, ate an apple and a banana, and left the apartment.
Hewitt was relentless and would remain so throughout the evening. "Is that part that Bobby read, is that true Danny?" "Yes," Rolling said.
They moved on to the second crime scene and the murder of Christa Hoyt.
"Is Danny Rolling responsible for that homicide?" Hewitt asked. "Yes, sir," Lewis said. "Is that correct, Danny?" "Yes, sir," Rolling said.
Rolling stalked Christa Hoyt, watched her at her apartment for two or three days before he went in after her. She was gone when he broke in. He moved the bookcase before she returned because he knew he was going to grab her the minute she walked in. He needed room to hide so she wouldn't see him when she first came through the door.
"then at about 11:00 or 11:30," Lewis read, "I observed her walking across the grass towards her apartment carrying her tennis racquet and balls. She was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, tennis shoes. She entered the apartment, sensed that she wasn't alone too late. I was upon her and a brief struggle began. She was taken to the floor, her hands taped behind her back, her mouth taped.
Rolling forced her into the bedroom and down onto the water bed where he removed her clothes and raped her. Afterward, he rolled her over and stabbed her in the back. Then he removed the tape from her hands and mouth, rolled her back over, and cut her from her pelvis to her breast. His final act was to cut off her nipples. Then he left.
"Later I discovered I had lost my wallet," Lewis read. "I went back to Ms. Hoyt's apartment about an hour before sunrise and searched for it but did not find it. Then I cut off Ms. Hoyt's head and placed it on the shelf I had moved from the front room. I used a book or something to prop up the head so it would set upright facing the hallway. Then I set up the body of Ms. Hoyt on the edge of her water bed, propped her elbows on her knees, her hands resting on he inside of her thighs."
"Is that correct, Danny?" Hewitt asked. "Yes, sir," Rolling said.
Later that day Rolling called the police and asked if anyone had found his wallet with his Michael Kennedy identification. No one had.
Hewitt wanted to know whether there was any special reason for the decapitation, Lewis said, "There was a strong urge like a hunger, a sexual desire, a possession to force him to do these things. Something he literally couldn't control at the time."
Rolling agreed.
Lewis tried to explain that even though Danny had seen Christa Hoyt before the night of the homicide, it wasn't a case of stalking. "He went a couple other places and tried the same thing and wasn't successful. He was run off by the police on a couple of different occasions. It was more at random than it was, "that's the person I want to get."
That explanation was weak. Rolling had spotted Christa Hoyt days before he killed her. He watched her inside her apartment. All Lewis was adding was that Rolling had watched other woman that he had selected.
Rolling was out peeping again the night he went in on Manny Taboada and Tracy Paules. His statement was that he went in about 3:00 a.m., but it was clear to the three investigators that Rolling lacked a sense of time. Night and day was what he related to. He knew that he went by Gatorwood apartment and saw Tracy Paules in there, but he may have spotted her earlier, also.
"I used the same heavy screwdriver to pry my way through the double sliding glass doors," Lewis read. "Once inside I entered Mr. Taboda's room. He was asleep on his back. I stabbed him first in the solar plexus upward into his heart. He fought, and I stabbed him eight or nine more times. The struggle lasted perhaps 40 to 60 seconds. Then it was over. Ms. Tracy Paulson heard the commotion in Mr. Taboda's bedroom and opened her door to investigate. She saw me and slammed the door, locking it. I kicked it in immediately and was upon her. I taped her hands behind her back, taped her mouth. All she had on was a T-shirt which I removed, then raped her. Turned her over on her stomach. I stabbed her once in the back through the heard. She died quickly - 8-10 seconds and it was over".
The investigators knew that assessment of Tracy's death was wrong. The medical examiner's report stated that her left lung had been punctured, not her heart. Tracy Paulson died several minutes after being stabbed.
Rolling dragged her into the hallway, wiped the blood from her face, and raped her again. Then he washed her vagina with liquid detergent, took a black muscle shirt from Manny Taboada's dresser and left.
After the murders, under the cover of darkness, Rolling slipped into one of the swimming pools outside the student apartment complexes. He bloodied the water as he rinsed himself and his clothes before returning to his campsite.
_____________________________
I'll also note, that in the Taboada/Paulson scene, Rolling watched TV and ate some cheese at some point before he left the scene. It was noted earlier in the book but not included in the confession.
The Gainesville police did not have Rolling on the suspect radar for quite a few months after the murders. Law enforcement had heard about a similar crime where three people were killed in Shreveport (father, daughter and her young son), especially the liquid soap and stab wounds, but the Florida investigators delayed the forensic testing between the Louisiana crimes and the Florida crimes to focus on a mentally disorganized man that lived nearby. Eventually, a woman who knew Rolling and his family in Louisiana called the tip line and said Rolling had a fantasy about stabbing woman which triggered the forensic testing that confirmed he was the killer. By then, Rolling was already in custody for a robbery.
Rolling held a few jobs here and there, but he basically survived on money obtained from robberies and burglaries. Robbery and burglary for him was his means of survival since he had trouble finding and maintaining normal jobs.
A quote from Rolling about his voyeurism: "I would look and see how other people were living," Rolling said. "How they were happy. And I would sort of like become a member of their family in a way."
There are plenty of websites that have good histories of his abusive upbringing so I'm only going to post about his confession. There are a couple of pages in the book where he confesses in a weird way via one of his prison mates. It talks about his stalking and attack behavior but not his emotional motivation during the confession. It's a very third person way to communicate the details of his crimes.
I'll be curious to hear board members comments about Danny Rolling's victim selection compared to what we know about the victim's in EAR attacks.
Warning: This is a graphic account of what Rolling did.
__________________________
pg. 387
"Rolling insisted that Lewis was his "mouthpiece" and "confessor." So when the session finally did get underway, it was Bobby Lewis who began by explaining that Danny Rolling became very emotional when discussing the crimes. Lewis said he didn't like what Danny had told him, didn't understand it, but believed that his friend was trying to set things right.
Rolling had spent almost two weeks in Gainesville before the killings. He made his way around the city on a stolen bicycle. "One of the quickest and cheapest ways to get from point A to B in any city, " Rolling told his audience, "is with a good bicycle."
Before the homicides he was stopped once by police because the bicycle's headlight was out. Rolling was dressed in black - his Ninja outfit, Lewis called it - and was seeking a victim. In his black bag he had his tools: the tape, K-Bar knife, pistols, gloves, screwdriver. His Michael Kennedy Id was checked and he was told to get his light repaired.
Another time he was peering in through a window when a security guard interrupted him. "What are you doing?" the guard asked. "What are you doing?" Danny said and walked away.
The security guard called the police who almost caught Danny Rolling that night. But the man in the black has slipped away through the woods.
The investigators started with the murders of Christina Powell and Sonja Larson at the Williamsburg Apartments, Hewitt established the pattern for the evening. He asked Lewis if Rolling was responsible for the murders. "Yes, he was, " Lewis said. Le Gran Hewitt turned to Danny Rolling . "Is that correct, Danny?" he asked. "Yes, sir, " Rolling said.
Lewis read from the letter. Rolling was out that night, peeping in windows and "shaking doors" - turning doorknobs to see if the apartments were unlocked. He just happened to come upon the one apartment 13, and opened the door. He didn't have to pry it. He walked through the kitchen and into the living room where Christi Powell slept on the sofa. "I stood over her for a moment," Lewis read, "Then crept up the staircase into Sonja Larson's second-floor bedroom. She was stabbed several times. The first blow landed in the area of her upper left chest near the collarbone. At the same time I pressed a double strip of masking tape over her mouth to muffle her cries. She fought and I stabbed her again. She tried to fend the blows with her arm."
What Danny had written seemed like a blend of police jargon and the language of someone distancing himself from events. And that was what he was doing by having Lewis as his spokesman" trying to keep the distance. But the investigators weren't going to allow that.
"the last blow was inflected to the inside of her left thigh," Lewis read. "The whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds. Then she died."
"Danny, what's written there, is that true?" Hewitt asked. "Yes, Rolling said.
Lewis continued reading, "Then I crept back down the stairs and stood over Christina Powell."
He taped Christi Powell's mouth and wrists and put her on the floor where he sexually assaulted her, Then he rolled her over and stabbed her in the back.
"Then I went back upstairs," Lewis read, "and removed the tape from Miss Larson. She had on panties printed with little animals on them. I think they was teddy bears. I'm not sure. But I removed them, spread her legs, and I had no sex with her. I only looked. Then I descended the staircase, pulled the knife from the back of Miss Christina Powell."
Rolling walked into the kitchen, found some liquid soap, returned, and cleaned up the young woman's vaginal area. He cut off her nipples and put them in a lunch bag. Then Rolling returned to the kitchen, ate an apple and a banana, and left the apartment.
Hewitt was relentless and would remain so throughout the evening. "Is that part that Bobby read, is that true Danny?" "Yes," Rolling said.
They moved on to the second crime scene and the murder of Christa Hoyt.
"Is Danny Rolling responsible for that homicide?" Hewitt asked. "Yes, sir," Lewis said. "Is that correct, Danny?" "Yes, sir," Rolling said.
Rolling stalked Christa Hoyt, watched her at her apartment for two or three days before he went in after her. She was gone when he broke in. He moved the bookcase before she returned because he knew he was going to grab her the minute she walked in. He needed room to hide so she wouldn't see him when she first came through the door.
"then at about 11:00 or 11:30," Lewis read, "I observed her walking across the grass towards her apartment carrying her tennis racquet and balls. She was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, tennis shoes. She entered the apartment, sensed that she wasn't alone too late. I was upon her and a brief struggle began. She was taken to the floor, her hands taped behind her back, her mouth taped.
Rolling forced her into the bedroom and down onto the water bed where he removed her clothes and raped her. Afterward, he rolled her over and stabbed her in the back. Then he removed the tape from her hands and mouth, rolled her back over, and cut her from her pelvis to her breast. His final act was to cut off her nipples. Then he left.
"Later I discovered I had lost my wallet," Lewis read. "I went back to Ms. Hoyt's apartment about an hour before sunrise and searched for it but did not find it. Then I cut off Ms. Hoyt's head and placed it on the shelf I had moved from the front room. I used a book or something to prop up the head so it would set upright facing the hallway. Then I set up the body of Ms. Hoyt on the edge of her water bed, propped her elbows on her knees, her hands resting on he inside of her thighs."
"Is that correct, Danny?" Hewitt asked. "Yes, sir," Rolling said.
Later that day Rolling called the police and asked if anyone had found his wallet with his Michael Kennedy identification. No one had.
Hewitt wanted to know whether there was any special reason for the decapitation, Lewis said, "There was a strong urge like a hunger, a sexual desire, a possession to force him to do these things. Something he literally couldn't control at the time."
Rolling agreed.
Lewis tried to explain that even though Danny had seen Christa Hoyt before the night of the homicide, it wasn't a case of stalking. "He went a couple other places and tried the same thing and wasn't successful. He was run off by the police on a couple of different occasions. It was more at random than it was, "that's the person I want to get."
That explanation was weak. Rolling had spotted Christa Hoyt days before he killed her. He watched her inside her apartment. All Lewis was adding was that Rolling had watched other woman that he had selected.
Rolling was out peeping again the night he went in on Manny Taboada and Tracy Paules. His statement was that he went in about 3:00 a.m., but it was clear to the three investigators that Rolling lacked a sense of time. Night and day was what he related to. He knew that he went by Gatorwood apartment and saw Tracy Paules in there, but he may have spotted her earlier, also.
"I used the same heavy screwdriver to pry my way through the double sliding glass doors," Lewis read. "Once inside I entered Mr. Taboda's room. He was asleep on his back. I stabbed him first in the solar plexus upward into his heart. He fought, and I stabbed him eight or nine more times. The struggle lasted perhaps 40 to 60 seconds. Then it was over. Ms. Tracy Paulson heard the commotion in Mr. Taboda's bedroom and opened her door to investigate. She saw me and slammed the door, locking it. I kicked it in immediately and was upon her. I taped her hands behind her back, taped her mouth. All she had on was a T-shirt which I removed, then raped her. Turned her over on her stomach. I stabbed her once in the back through the heard. She died quickly - 8-10 seconds and it was over".
The investigators knew that assessment of Tracy's death was wrong. The medical examiner's report stated that her left lung had been punctured, not her heart. Tracy Paulson died several minutes after being stabbed.
Rolling dragged her into the hallway, wiped the blood from her face, and raped her again. Then he washed her vagina with liquid detergent, took a black muscle shirt from Manny Taboada's dresser and left.
After the murders, under the cover of darkness, Rolling slipped into one of the swimming pools outside the student apartment complexes. He bloodied the water as he rinsed himself and his clothes before returning to his campsite.
_____________________________
I'll also note, that in the Taboada/Paulson scene, Rolling watched TV and ate some cheese at some point before he left the scene. It was noted earlier in the book but not included in the confession.
The Gainesville police did not have Rolling on the suspect radar for quite a few months after the murders. Law enforcement had heard about a similar crime where three people were killed in Shreveport (father, daughter and her young son), especially the liquid soap and stab wounds, but the Florida investigators delayed the forensic testing between the Louisiana crimes and the Florida crimes to focus on a mentally disorganized man that lived nearby. Eventually, a woman who knew Rolling and his family in Louisiana called the tip line and said Rolling had a fantasy about stabbing woman which triggered the forensic testing that confirmed he was the killer. By then, Rolling was already in custody for a robbery.
Rolling held a few jobs here and there, but he basically survived on money obtained from robberies and burglaries. Robbery and burglary for him was his means of survival since he had trouble finding and maintaining normal jobs.
A quote from Rolling about his voyeurism: "I would look and see how other people were living," Rolling said. "How they were happy. And I would sort of like become a member of their family in a way."