The story of the Gainesville Ripper, based on which the film "Scream" was made
The series of films "Scream" has been admiring horror fans for 25 years. A new part will be released soon, which fans are looking forward to. But behind the world cinema hit there is a real creepy story of serial murders. In three days, a violent maniac Danny Rolling mutilated and killed five students. They were far from the only victims of the monster.
He was called the "Gainesville Ripper" and was caught a few months after committing the crimes. Read the story of the killer, which became the basis for horror films, further in our material.
The "Gainesville Ripper" broke into students' rooms in August 1990 in Florida to find victims there. The maniac raped and stabbed four girls, and then dismembered their bodies. He also killed one guy who woke up when the killer snuck into the room. Danny Rolling was caught a few months later on a tip from a neighbor.
The author of the horror film "Scream" Kevin Williamson (Kevin Williamson) wrote the plot after watching a documentary about Rolling in 1994. In the same year, the maniac was sentenced to death. The criminal said that the main motive for the murders was notoriety: he wanted to become known as the American maniac Ted Bundy.
This is how events actually unfolded, when a real Ghostly face deprived its victims of life one by one.
The series of murders began in November 1989, when Rolling lost his job at a restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana. The same evening, he broke into the Grissom family home and stabbed three people - 55-year-old William, his 24-year-old daughter Julia and 8-year-old nephew Sean. He raped the girl before killing her, and then washed the body and left her on the bed with her legs spread. Her corpse was bitten from head to toe.
The next victim of the maniac was his father James, a police officer. In May 1990, Rolling shot him during an argument. The man survived, but lost an eye and an ear. After the incident, the criminal escaped from his hometown to Florida, where he was going to start a new life.
Arriving in Gainesville, the killer settled in a tent in the woods, not far from the campus. On August 24, 1990, he broke into the home of freshmen — 17-year-old Christina Powell (Christina Powell) and 18-year-old Sonja Larson (Sonja Larson), breaking the lock with a screwdriver.
First, Rolling walked past Kristina, sleeping on the couch, and went to the bedroom, where he attacked Sonya. He taped the girl's mouth and stabbed her. Then the monster returned to Kristina, tied her hands, tore off her clothes, raped and killed her. After that, the maniac washed the girls' bodies and left them in provocative poses.
Kristina's parents sounded the alarm, having not received any news from their daughter for two days. They turned to the commandant of the house Betty Carnett (Betty Curnett) and asked her to open an apartment. What they saw shocked everyone: Kristina's mutilated body was lying on the floor, and Sonya was on the bed.
The night after the double murder, a maniac entered the room of 18-year-old student Christa Hoyt, opening the door with a knife and a screwdriver. Not finding the girl at home, he decided to wait for her return. When she arrived, Rolling attacked her and started strangling her. Then the killer taped the victim's mouth, tied his hands, raped and stabbed.
Soon the maniac returned to the scene of the crime, thinking that he had left his wallet there. This time he cut off Christa's head and put it on a shelf. The girl's inconsolable parents wanted to know if their daughter had suffered before her death. She really died from the first stab, but before that she suffered several hours of terrible torture.
Two days later, on August 27, Rolling broke into the apartment of 23-year—old students - Manuel Taboada and Tracy Paules. He stabbed Manuel and went to Tracy's room. There, the killer tied her hands, stripped her, raped her and stabbed her three times. The pervert again washed the victim's body and left her on the bed.
The number of victims grew, and worried parents began to panic and take their children out of the city. Two weeks after the attacks, Rolling was arrested for armed robbery in the nearby town of Ocala. The police searched his hiding place in the woods and found a bag of money there, on which a quick-witted bank assistant poured paint during the robbery. A screwdriver, knives and a pistol were also found.
Since none of the murders were committed with firearms, Rolling was not considered involved in them. The police found the player, but, unfortunately, did not listen to the tape that was inside. The investigators did this only a few months later. The police mistakenly focused on the identity of another suspect - 18-year-old Edward Humphrey. A guy who suffered from mental problems was arrested for assaulting an old lady.
The first to complain about Danny Rolling was his former neighbor from his hometown, Cindy Juracich. She was sure that the murder of the Grissom family was his doing. After reading in the newspapers about serial murders in Florida, the woman realized that there was a connection between them. Cindy went to the police and told them about her guesses.
Only then did the investigators listen to the recording on the found tape. Rolling was humming a creepy song with the words: "Mysterious Horseman, what's your name? You are a murderer, a tramp, a madman." The maniac also apologized to his family for going down the "crooked path" and told in detail how to kill a deer. Experts, having examined the screwdriver, came to the conclusion that it was the criminal who used it to break into the doors. After a laboratory examination of Rolling's blood, it turned out that the sperm found at the crime scenes belonged to him.
Danny Rolling confessed to all the crimes committed. He claimed that there were many personalities living in him, and even called them by their first names. At the trial, prosecutors rejected the version about the multiple personalities of the maniac and said that he took the idea of terrible atrocities from the movie "The Exorcist", which he watched shortly before the murders. In 1994, the defendant was found guilty of raping and murdering female students and sentenced to death. However, he was not charged with the murder of a family in Shreveport.
Rolling was taken of his life by lethal injection in a Florida State Prison in 2006. Before he died, he sent a note to the priest, confessing to the murder of the Grissom family. The names of five dead students and words of sorrow from their parents and loved ones are stamped on the memorial wall in Gainesville.
Another maniac from Louisiana raped and killed 8 women. His mother considered him an angel and could not believe that her son could do such a thing.