Ep. 128-Danny Rolling The Gainesville Ripper

WEBVTT
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Hey y'all, Pearl here.
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Just letting you know that due to our crazy work schedule, we did not have time to properly research our new episodes.
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So instead, we decided that we would pick some episodes we liked that we thought just didn't get enough attention the first go round.
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So please enjoy them and share with your friends as always.
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And we will be back with fresh, brand new content.
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We do apologize, but please, please, please continue to listen and follow.
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We appreciate you all.
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Thousands of students were moving into their apartments, unpacking boxes, and settling into their dorm rooms.
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Their futures wide open until the night Danny Rowling rolled into town.
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This is Hold My Sweet Tea.
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And I'm Pearl.
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And why in the heck are we already halfway through?
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I look at the beginning of October, I reached out to whatever powers may be in the universe and said, please, for the love of whomever, can we please have a slow October?
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And it is flying by.
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They did not listen.
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I said, no.
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The answer is no.
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No.
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I'm like, I need spooky.
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Of course, spooky season will continue on for me.
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But like, I'm just I was about to say every season is spooky season.
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Right.
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Up and in.
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Exactly.
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I know.
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I keep going, and I almost wore that shirt today, by the way.
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The matching.
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That would have been funny.
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I need to get out my October shirts.
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Yep.
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Well, you have the midnight margaritas.
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I have to, I have to get it in.
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I mean, this one I I wear anyway.
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Yeah.
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But like I try not, I have so many things.
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I know.
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Me too.
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Like I I have a two drawers full of folded t-shirts, and like most of them are Halloween shirts.
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So I'm like, throw this one in, throw that one in.
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Like, get them where I can so I can wear all the spooky shirts.
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Me and the daughter are gonna go to Haunted House because Lord help me if we don't do it one time.
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So uh I'm gonna wear my hunter orange horrors in this house.
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Horrors in this house.
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There we go.
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To the haunted house.
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Uh at least then she won't be able to lose me.
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Yeah, right.
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She'll be like, it's my mom, the one in bright orange over there.
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Exactly.
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Safety orange.
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The one you can see and won't accidentally mistake as a deer.
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Right.
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That lady.
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That lady right there.
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So I liked the intro.
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Thanks.
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I said he's rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling.
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And from Florida.
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Like, there we go.
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Wimp biscuit.
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But we are going to get into today.
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He they call him different things.
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The Halloween killer, the Gainesville Ripper.
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But he was the inspiration behind the ghost space killer.
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Oh well.
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You know.
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Look at that.
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All these in inspiratory kids bringing about some great movies.
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But I figured, why not?
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You know, it's it's spooky season.
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Let's let's do roll with it.
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Roll with it.
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Right.
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So his name is Danny Harold Rolling.
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We're rolling with it.
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So he was born on May 26, 1954, Gemini.
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Oh.
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Yeah.
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Gross.
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In Shreeport, Louisiana.
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Makes sense.
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Yep.
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I know.
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I was like, May, oh, nope, he's a Gemini.
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I missed Gemini by two days.
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I dodged that bullet real fast.
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I was almost a Gemini.
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I don't know what I do it myself, but you know.
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I guess I would roll with it too.
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But we still look crazy.
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Yeah.
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I'm I'm my Taurus self, very practical and down to earth.
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But from the outside, like most of these people, like his family looked ordinary, just an ordinary family.
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Um his mother and father had gotten married young and she got pregnant.
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And his father, like a lot of men, blamed her.
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You know, because she did it all by herself.
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Him, you know, doing his part didn't do anything.
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It was all her.
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It was immaculate conception.
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Exactly.
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He didn't help.
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But his father, James Rowling, was a decorated police officer.
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I'm sorry.
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He was a police officer.
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Yeah.
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But his mother, Claudia, a quiet woman who tried to keep the peace at home.
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But James was very abusive to her.
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And when Danny was born, he made sure that Danny knew from day one that he was an accident and he never wanted him.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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Surprised father right there.
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He was violent.
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He demanded perfection from his wife and son.
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And when he didn't get it, he used his fist.
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He beat Claudia.
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He berated Danny.
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He told him, You'll never amount to anything.
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You will never accomplish anything in life.
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You are a failure.
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You are making him one with your words.
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So of course Danny's childhood became a study in fear.
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He learned to like hide.
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He learned to stay silent, like shrink into the, you know, the shadows.
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But he internalized his pain.
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So for once it's the daddy that's messing up the kids.
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Right, not the mommy.
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No mommy issues, it was daddy issues.
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Exactly.
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His mom tried to leave several times.
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She would leave, but he always pulled her back in.
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And that just hurts my heart, you know.
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They have a way.
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And that I it's hard to explain that way to anyone who's never experienced.
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Just leave.
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No, it's not that, it's not that easy.
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Like it you have to be in that person's mind.
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So his only escape was his imagination.
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He would sketch, he would play guitar, he would retreat into fantasy worlds where he could be anyone but himself.
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He started, he would stay out outside a lot because he didn't want to be in the house with his father.
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So he would go around the neighborhood and not really peep for like creepy reasons, but he would peep into people's houses and go, Gosh, this family looks so normal.
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Or like that's just, I mean, like for him, normal is getting beat up, and he's probably sitting there in awe of these people like eating dinner together.
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And that's what happened.
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And like, you know, a father sitting on the couch with his kid reading to him or something, you know, just any of that.
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Or physical affection, right?
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Hugging and and showing support.
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So this started building up a lot of resentment, like a lot of feelings that he was like, why is this family like this?
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And mine is is this way?
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It's I don't understand it.
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So as a teenager, that pain turned into rebellion.
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He drank, he fought, he stole.
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By his 20s, he had been arrested multiple times for armed robbery.
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And then, you know, he spent time drifting from state to state, living off whatever he could steal.
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But inside, Danny, like something darker was forming, a fascination with power, violence, and control.
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His father.
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That's what his father did.
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He wasn't just angry, he was becoming something else entirely.
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So before he moved to Gainesville, he lit, like I said, lived in Shreeport.
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Um he did get married.
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He did try to find religion.
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He was went to um, they went to Pentecostal church and all that stuff.
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So he tried a lot.
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It's probably the wrong place to try.
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That's a I mean, that's a I'm not a largely religious person, but I've been to so many different churches.
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Types of churches, yeah.
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Yeah, that's rough.
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Like, especially when you come from a a bad background, I d I feel like that's a very strict religion, and he probably needed to seek out something a little more easy going.
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So, you know, it just it just wasn't working.
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His wife ended up leaving.
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He went into the military, he tried to do that, he ended up being a failure at that as well because he got hurt.
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So it's like everything he was doing in his mind, his father telling him, You'll never amount to nothing, you'll be a failure.
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Everything was failing, everything.
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So I'm sure he just kept hearing that too.
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Right.
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Like that's on replay.
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Every time something goes wrong, he probably hears his dad and he's probably like, see, he was right.
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Yeah, which is feeding that negativity that's growing.
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And also, he was started looking, peeping into windows for more sexual pleasure.
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Oh, so it changed.
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It changed.
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It went from I'm jealous that your family looks so great because yeah, I want to see your boobies.
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Because his his marriage failed and all this stuff.
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So now he's got this this thing of like, I'm gonna fixate on this person and watch their every move.
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You so this brings us to the Grissom family in Shreveport.
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Um Tom Grissom.
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He had a 24-year-old daughter, Julie, and an eight-year-old grandson, Sean.
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On November 4th, 1989, rolling entered their home, and he like brutally beat, he sexually assaulted Julie, and he killed all three of them.
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He stabbed the eight-year-old so hard that it went through the eight-year-old into the ground, like into the floor.
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The knife was like that's how how much anger he had behind him.
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Um Judy Julie was mutilated, but her body was left posed.
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So this would kind of become his thing.
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He cleaned her body.
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Soap and water cleaned it.
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He arranged it like in a deliberate pose, almost like a real ritualistic way, and left it like that.
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Everybody else was just like slaughtered.
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But he cleaned her and you know, so I think maybe in his mind he wanted to see her like uh in a different way and not like in a horrific way, because that way he could think back to that.
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Like that's what I'm thinking.
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Maybe he could think back to that and be like, okay, this is the last vision I had of her.
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Or maybe the the only bit of remorse, any ounce of remorse left in his body is reflected in her since he really didn't hate his mom.
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I feel like he hated himself.
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He hated his dad.
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Yes, but wasn't like that with his mother, and so maybe he he was like have the hatred toward women like that.
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So he's like, let me clean you know, let me clean her up and and there's like a a minute piece of respect in that sense, I guess.
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Yeah.
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I mean, she she's still dead, right?
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She's still, you know, sexually assaulted and dead.
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But but I feel like maybe he just treated that differently because of his family dynamic for sure.
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But at the time, the police had no suspect, but the staging, the brutality, and the sexual nature of the crime would later prove to be, like I said, an early signature of Danny Rowling.
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After those murders, Rowling disappeared.
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He drifted through the south, eventually ending up in Gainesville, Florida.
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And that's where the real horror began.
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So it was August 24th, 1990, when he first like struck in Gainesville.
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18-year-old Sonia Larson and 17-year-old Christina Powell, both freshmen at the University of Florida.
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Like they were both so excited.
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They had met and they were like, let's not live in the dorms.
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Let's get an off-campus apartment.
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We'll share the rent.
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We'll both work.
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It's gonna be like the best time of our lives.
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So they had just moved into their apartment.
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They were excited for their new lives, but they were unaware that a stranger was watching them from the woods.
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They were in their kitchen, like, you know, just laughing and having fun.
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They were doing dishes, like he told all of this later.
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They were doing dishes, they were laughing with each other, just music going, having a great time, being college freshmen, ready for life to start.
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Like this is their new chapter of life.
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Yeah.
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Their families, you know, of course, were like on edge, like my babies are moving and all that stuff.
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And I, oh, that would just break my heart.
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So rolling broke in late at night.
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He had, when he got to Gainesville, he bought um, he went to an Army surplus store, he bought a knife, he had a screwdriver, um, he had, you know, some tactical gear and things like that that he had bought.
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So he he got there and bought and assembled his kill kit.
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His kit.
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Yep.
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He got his kill kit, duct tape.
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That was another one of his things.
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He had duct tape, he got everything ready to go because he was on a mission.
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So he also um lived like there were uh like a good wooded area in that area near the university.
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So he set up a tent, and that's where he squatted in those woods.
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Oh gosh.
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Yeah.
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So rolling broken at night, armed with a knife.
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It was an apartment with a sliding glass door.
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I was like, I will never live anywhere with a sliding glass door.
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I I tell you that I always either have a piece of very strong wood that is measured, jammed in it, yep.
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Yep, measured to that length where it will barely move if you try.
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That's why he got the screwdriver because all most of those college apartments, sliding glass doors, and they're pop, they're easy to get into.
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So within hours, both young women were dead.
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One he one was upstairs in the bedroom, the other, her furniture hasn't come yet.
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So she was downstairs sleeping on the couch.
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So he chose which one he wanted to do first.
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So he went upstairs first, and he raped and killed her, and he kept her quiet, so the one downstairs wouldn't hear, and then the one downstairs was the one that he was really fixated on.
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So again, he you know, he raped, he stabbed, he washed them, he posed them, arranging their bodies, though they were part of like a just this macabre like scene, and that was it.
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He left.
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So that's a lot of time he spent.
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He spent in there, and he he made sure to clean everything, wipe everything because they they couldn't get fingerprints and all this stuff.
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Um so he left, and the parents, of course, tried to get a hold of their daughters because it was the next day, and they're like, haven't heard from you.
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It's your first night in your apartment.
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How'd it go?
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Yeah.
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More time would go by, so finally the parents are coming down.
00:17:54.640 --> 00:18:01.920
Well, of course, you know, they get the police, they get the apartment people to kind of break the door and let them in.
00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:07.200
And there they are, dead, like done.
00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:11.759
The next night he found another victim.
00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:14.240
So this is more of a spree killing.
00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:17.279
Golly, yeah, he didn't really have any cooling off.
00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:18.000
Nope.
00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:24.960
And all of his victims, the the female victims, they all kind of look like his ex-wife.
00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:26.960
They were all petite and brunette.
00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:28.559
Oh, he had a type.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:33.039
Well, then he's spreading some anger from that situation.
00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:34.799
Yeah, because that was another failure.
00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:35.759
Yeah, you know.
00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:36.160
Yeah.
00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:41.200
So the, like I said, the next night, Christina Hoyt, 18 years old.
00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:42.640
She lived alone.
00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:46.160
She worked part-time as a records clerk for the sheriff's office.
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:50.240
So she was also, you know, starting college and everything.
00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.599
Um, her parents said she wanted to be a police officer.
00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:54.880
That's all she ever talked about.
00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:59.839
She wanted to be a police officer, so she got a job at night working records and stuff like that.
00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:04.400
And never, never missed work.
00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:05.359
Ever.
00:19:05.920 --> 00:19:13.200
So he broke into her apartment, attacked her, murdered her, washed her, but he did something different with her.
00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:15.200
He decapitated her.
00:19:15.519 --> 00:19:15.839
Oh.
00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:17.680
What?
00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:22.480
He positioned her body facing her head.
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:28.559
When you walked in the front door, first thing you see was her head looking at her body.
00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:30.000
Oh my goodness.
00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:30.559
Yeah.
00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:42.960
So the thought the the crimes were like methodical, they were theatrical almost, like the way he was posing them, like scenes from a slasher film brought to life.
00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:43.519
Right.
00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:44.480
Pretty much.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:49.039
So he was putting a lot of thought into these things.
00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:53.279
A few nights later, he struck again.
00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:58.160
This time he fixated on Tracy Paul's.
00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.400
She lived with um a friend of hers from back home.
00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:05.920
His name was Manny Taboda.
00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:09.519
They shared an apartment, they had their own rooms and stuff.
00:20:09.839 --> 00:20:14.960
Well, he didn't he didn't figure Manny being home.
00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:20.319
So when he broke in, he found Manny sleeping.
00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:21.680
Manny was a big guy.
00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.519
He was on the football team, um, university football team.
00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:31.119
He was a big guy, like strong six foot, I think six foot two, six foot three, something like that.
00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:34.720
So he stabbed Manny in his sleep.
00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:37.599
Well, Manny woke up and fought back.
00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:38.559
Who?
00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:39.279
Yeah.
00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:54.319
He did end up overpowering him and killing him, but as Manny was like fighting back and yelling, Tracy came out of her room, like freaked the hell out, and like ran back in her room and locked the door.
00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:01.039
Well, you know, rolling busted the door in and dragged her out.
00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:03.039
I did the same thing too.
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:04.960
I'm like, I would have left the whole place.
00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:05.359
Yeah.
00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:08.240
Well, I guess she was just like, didn't know what to do.
00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:14.000
And then, you know, yeah, you're in this morning, you never know, but I would have been like running to somebody else's house.
00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:20.160
Like, get out of the window, but he like went right after her because he killed, you know, Mammy.
00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:23.599
So just within four days, five students were dead.
00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:33.359
Like there was terror in Gainesville, like complete people were making their kids come home from college, and like it classes had just stopped.
00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:43.200
Like students that didn't go home were like buddy system, like six or seven girls to an apartment sleeping in there, just flipping out.
00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:46.480
They said the media, it was so bad.
00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:51.279
The media were flying in and just like running through the airport trying to get to the scene.
00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:53.359
They were following the detectives.
00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:59.759
And every time the detectives would talk to somebody, they would be like, right after I'm talking to that same person, trying to get information.
00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:11.839
But um the head detective on the case said that they like some of the things were like I have this card with all this money on it from a out-of-country bank account.
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.079
Um, it could be yours if you give me some information.
00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:19.200
They were bribing the police because like this had turned into such a huge panic.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:19.759
Mm-hmm.
00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:24.480
That well, and they're sensationalizing it at that point, which is crazy.
00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:25.440
Nobody's gonna do it.
00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:26.240
Don't do that.
00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:26.720
Right.
00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:35.039
But it's also like if you think about this Houston murder, all these bodies and stuff, they're sensationalizing it and go on a stereo kill it before they find out any facts.
00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:40.319
But police weren't disclosing all the information because they were still investigating.
00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:40.720
Right.
00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:44.240
But also they were like, what the hell is going on?
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:46.000
We don't know.
00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.200
So the panic was just like spreading.
00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:53.920
Um, Gainesville Police Department, like I said, was under immense pressure.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:57.839
Hundreds of officers, FBI agents poured into the area.
00:22:58.160 --> 00:22:59.920
It was a media circus.
00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:03.759
Um, like everybody was like, who could do something like this?
00:23:04.559 --> 00:23:09.759
But the crime scenes gave away little information except one thing.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:13.759
The killer was careful, almost meticulous.
00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:21.680
He wiped down surfaces, he used gloves, he left behind little evidence, um, but wasn't perfect.
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:27.519
DNA fingerprints and certain patterns hinted that this wasn't his first time.
00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:32.160
And then as quickly as the murder started, they kind of stopped.
00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:36.319
He wasn't gone, he was just kind of hiding.
00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:41.279
So he's like, oh crap, let me give it a minute because everybody's freaking out.
00:23:43.359 --> 00:24:02.480
There there was another suspect in the case that was arrested at the time that they thought maybe um it could have been him because he went to the university and he w he had some mental problems.
00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:10.160
He got arrested for um like domestic abuse against his grandmother.
00:24:11.119 --> 00:24:16.160
So, and he was kind of like a troublemaker, so they were thinking, well, maybe this is the guy.
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:20.480
So they they had him, you know, for a while.
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:29.920
But on September of 1999, after robbing a grocery store, a man was arrested in O'Cala, Florida.
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:31.680
His name was Danny Rowling.
00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:35.359
At the time, no one suspected him of the Gainesville murders.
00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:38.079
He was just another drifter with a criminal past.
00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:48.000
But while sitting in jail, police found something that would change everything a small audio recorder and a stack of disturbing tapes.
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:50.400
This was in his tent.
00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:57.759
So they found his tent in the woods, they found his kill kits, his stuff, all that stuff.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:00.000
They still didn't know who it belonged to.
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:05.039
So on one of those tapes, he confessed to doing some bad things.
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:06.720
Like he recorded everything.
00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:11.759
Like he was in like his internalization was like he needed to speak it.
00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:18.720
He spoke in riddles, quoting scriptures, talking about demons, hinting at what he had done.
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:26.079
Investigators matched his DNA to the evidence from the Gainesville scenes, and the truth came out.
00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:30.960
Danny Rowling was the Gainesville ripper, the so-called Halloween killer.
00:25:31.119 --> 00:25:40.559
And they call it wasn't around October, like Halloween, but it's just, it seems like something that would happen in a Halloween type movie, a slasher film.
00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:40.960
Right.
00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:41.920
Scream.
00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:53.839
So in 1994, Danny Rowling finally confessed, not only to the five Gainesville murders, but also the 1989 Shreveport killings, which they were like, whoa.
00:25:54.079 --> 00:25:54.480
Mm-hmm.
00:25:54.799 --> 00:25:56.640
Okay, now we got this.
00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:05.359
He claimed that a dark alter ego named Gemini had taken control of him.
00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:07.359
Oh my goodness.
00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:09.359
His twin his evil twin.
00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:14.319
And for reference, the Exorcist III was one of his favorite horror films.
00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:16.880
Yeah, I was like, bruh.
00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:20.000
You took that Gemini thing and ran with it, didn't you?
00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:21.119
Because you know you're crazy.
00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:21.680
Yeah.
00:26:22.480 --> 00:26:22.880
Wow.
00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:28.000
Rowling said he was driven by a compulsion, a need to become a superstar.
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:31.279
Like the killers he had seen in movies.
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:39.599
Because he had never, like I said, never accomplished anything but killing.
00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:41.680
He was accomplishing something.
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:44.240
He was a superstar.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.519
So the trial was quick, evidence was overwhelming.
00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:52.319
He was sentenced to death by lethal injection.
00:26:52.640 --> 00:27:00.079
In the years leading up to his execution, though, he began drawing, writing songs, creating religious art.
00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:03.599
Of course, you know, he said he found religion.
00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:06.559
It's the weirdest thing.
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:09.759
Everybody finds God in prison.
00:27:10.079 --> 00:27:10.480
Right.
00:27:10.640 --> 00:27:13.359
Because they have nothing else to find.
00:27:14.319 --> 00:27:20.559
But even in his letters, interviews, the hunger for fame never like quite disappeared.
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:24.559
He wanted the world to remember his name and in a dark way.
00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:25.440
It did.
00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:33.119
On October 25th, 2006, Danny Rowling was executed at the Florida State Prison in Stark.
00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.519
Outside the prison, protesters and victims of the families gathered.
00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:41.359
Some held candles, others, signs demanding justice.
00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:44.880
Inside, Rowling sat quietly.
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:49.119
When asked if he had any final words, he didn't apologize.
00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:50.319
He didn't explain.
00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:58.000
Instead, he sang a hymn, a strange, haunting melody that drifted through the chambers as the chemicals entered his veins.
00:27:58.240 --> 00:27:59.839
Within minutes, he was gone.
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.799
He was 52 years old when he was executed when his execution took place.
00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:11.680
The man known as the Halloween Killer had taken his last breath just six days before Halloween.
00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:21.279
So, in the aftermath, like I said, of the murders, Rowling's crimes inspired one of the most iconic horror films of all time, Scream.
00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:33.119
Writer Kevin Williamson admitted that the Gainesville Ripper case had haunted him, inspiring the movie's Mask Killer and the ideas of terror in seemingly safe college town.
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:37.680
But unlike the Hollywood version, Rolling's story had no clever dialogue.
00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:39.920
You know, what's your favorite scary movie?
00:28:40.079 --> 00:28:41.599
Do you have a boyfriend?
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:43.440
You know, all that stuff.
00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:45.839
No, no fictional distance.
00:28:46.079 --> 00:28:52.960
His victims were real people, young students, full of potential, taken in moments of unimaginable cruelty.
00:28:53.200 --> 00:28:58.079
Um today, Gainesville has moved forward, but the memory, you know, is still there.
00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:06.720
They have a memorial wall with um that like college boys used to graffiti while they made it into a memorial with all of the Gainesville victims.
00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:23.359
Um, but every August, as students unpack their boxes and decorate their dorm rooms and apartments, like the residents remember they fear, you know, what what if it happened again?
00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:28.400
So I mean, and it's it's possible.
00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:34.079
Yeah, and the monsters that we see on screen are often torn from the ones that walk among us.
00:29:34.880 --> 00:29:43.759
Edging, like this Danny Rowling, like there's so many movies made after real life killers.
00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:45.680
So he was a spree.
00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:50.640
He he murdered, but he also like moved and then he went on a spree killing.
00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:55.440
So it wasn't like a but I'm sure if he wasn't caught, it would have continued.
00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:56.720
Oh, he would have done it again.
00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:04.720
There would have been the little break because he needed the police to get out of the way, or he would have decided to move again and it just would have happened somewhere else.
00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:08.240
And he took he did take that little break because the other dude was arrested.
00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:14.720
So maybe he was like, Okay, well, if he takes the fall for this, maybe I can move somewhere else and like do it again, do it again.
00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:16.480
It'll get me off the hook.
00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:18.559
Nobody will ever suspect me.
00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:24.079
But they found his stuff in the woods and uh and then he had to go rob a supermarket.
00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:24.799
Yep.
00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:26.240
Well, there you go.
00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:27.119
There you go.
00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:28.000
Got caught.
00:30:28.160 --> 00:30:28.640
Yep.
00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:34.079
But I was like, another, another spooky one for ya.
00:30:34.480 --> 00:30:36.960
So what is your favorite scary movie?
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:37.920
For real.
00:30:38.079 --> 00:30:38.720
What is it?
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:39.759
Tell us.
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:42.079
Steep did holdmysweet tea.com.
00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:42.319
Yeah.
00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:45.920
I wonder what uh Patty Salzetta's favorite scary movie is.
00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:48.400
I don't know, but she should also tell us.
00:30:48.640 --> 00:30:50.000
Absolutely.
00:30:50.319 --> 00:30:53.279
Because she does some uh wonderful music.
00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:54.480
She did our music.
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:56.319
She did our music.
00:30:58.640 --> 00:30:59.119
Right.
00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:03.759
So message us on social media if you want to.
00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:05.200
You don't have to use the email.
00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:16.799
You want to tell us about your favorite scary movie or send us your stories because, like I promised, we're still totally willing if you send us a story to read it.
00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:18.000
And let us know.
00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:19.039
Do you have a boyfriend?
00:31:19.200 --> 00:31:19.680
On the pod.
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:20.559
Right.
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:23.119
Do you do you want Crystal Jano?
00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:23.680
Okay.
00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:24.720
You want Crystal Jano?
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:26.480
Give you a boyfriend.
00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:32.799
We do not say like use accents to make fun of people, just so you know.
00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:35.519
We literally are just silly like that.
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:41.200
And that is a comedian that it does reels and stuff of her show.
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:43.359
So yeah.
00:31:44.240 --> 00:31:45.359
We're just goofy.
00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:46.240
Absolutely.
00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:46.559
Yeah.
00:31:46.640 --> 00:31:48.240
Tell us your favorite scary movie.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:49.839
Like, tell us something.
00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:52.640
We have a need for communication.
00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:53.359
We're needy.
00:31:53.519 --> 00:31:54.960
We need to be a superstar.
00:31:56.799 --> 00:31:58.480
We're your needy podcasters.
00:31:58.720 --> 00:31:59.359
Yeah.
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:02.720
Share the tea with us.
00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:04.079
Yep.
00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:09.839
And as always, Hold My Sweet Tea is a drunken bee production.
00:32:11.359 --> 00:32:13.759
And you guys remember stay safe out there.
00:32:14.079 --> 00:32:17.279
Wedge a piece of wood in your sliding glass door.
00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:19.680
Atmin locked your windows and doors.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:21.200
Trust no one.
00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:25.359
And just because we're dipping doesn't mean you can't keep sipping.