Police said he was likely stalking his prey and was very meticulous, staging crime scenes and cleaning them up to avoid detection. The killer was entering students’ apartments, usually through sliding glass doors, as people slept. I was a freshman back then and remember students being pulled out of school by their parents, who feared their children would be the killer’s next victim. Police soon surmised Gainesville had a serial killer in its midst and it appeared University of Florida students were his targets. Within 72 hours, five students were fatally stabbed, the crime scenes staged for dramatic effect. Both Christina Powell and Sonja Larson had been stabbed to death, one of them mutilated, her body posed in a sexually explicit manner. The two friends discussed horror movies as Williamson searched. As the article states, "Williamson was terrified, but he admits now that he was starting to enjoy the banter. While Williamson checked around the house, he and his friend riffed back and forth, with the friend playfully mocking Williamson by bringing up horror movies. Williamson was apparently so freaked out by the combination of being alone in a strange house, watching a TV special on the murders, and finding one of the windows open that he became convinced someone else was in the house. Rather than flee the house – an idea that's humorously mentioned in the first "Scream," where Neve Campbell says potential slasher victims are always running upstairs when they should be running out the front door – Williamson grabbed a kitchen knife and began to check the house. He also picked up the phone and called a friend. While housesitting, Williamson watched a "TV special on the gruesome campus murders in Gainesville, Fla." At some point during the night, he also noticed that he had left one of the house's windows open. The exact timeline isn't the easiest thing to pin down, but at some point in the early 1990s, Williamson, then still a struggling screenwriter, took a gig as a housesitter. In 1997, the Detroit Free Press reprinted an article from the Orange County Register in which Williamson recounted that inspiration. No matter what the reasoning behind his horrible acts, Rolling was ultimately sentenced to death, and executed via lethal injection on October 25, 2006.Īnd according to Kevin Williamson, The Gainsville Ripper case is what helped inspire it all. ![]() Later, Rolling stated that he actually wanted to become a serial killer celebrity akin to the infamous Ted Bundy. At one point, Rolling went so far as to claim he was possessed by a demon named Gemini. As for why Rolling did what he did, his own accounts differ. But before the trial could officially begin, Rolling plead guilty to all charges. Rolling was officially charged with the murders in November of 1991. At first, it looked like the accused killer would plead not guilty, and everyone expected the case to go to trial. Eventually, investigators were able to connect Rolling to the murders as well, matching Rolling's type B blood to DNA left at the crime scenes. ![]() Instead, the man who would soon be revealed to be The Gainesville Ripper had been apprehended for robbing a supermarket. ![]() On September 7, 1990, Rolling was arrested – but not for his murders. The grisly crimes earned the killer the nickname "The Gainesville Ripper." The killings would continue throughout the month of August, with Rolling ultimately murdering 8 people. In the midst of it all, Rolling murdered five college students, often mutilating and posing his victims. In August of that same year, Rolling embarked on a burglary and robbery spree in Gainesville, Florida. In 1990, Rolling attacked and tried to kill his abusive dad, with the fight resulting in Rolling's father losing both an eye and an ear.
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