In the years following the murder, the photograph of Willie looking at the murdered body of Johnnie Mae was the only image he had of his wife. He owned perhaps more land than anyone else in Pinellas County. The following month, he landed in Jacksonville, where he abducted, raped and murdered 12-year-old Kimberly Leach. And then hed say he had played all these mind games with the police, to show the smart people they werent so smart at all, that the retarded boy could fool all of them. According to Radford and FGCU research, Florida is third in the U.S. with the most people murdered by serial killers. LISTEN:Hear the 2003 phone interview where William Wells confesses to the 2003 killing spree (five-part series), "And she goes, 'now what are you going to do?,'" Wells said in the 2003 telephone interview. Abandoned by her biological mother shortly after her birth, Wuornos was primarily raised by her grandfather, as her biological fathera pedophile whom she never metlanguished in prison for child rape and hanged himself when Aileen was 12. There are a few random cases of women with a genteel knack for poisoning, but serial murdering black widows are a small club indeed. Frederick GOODE III, David She would later claim that Mallory sodomized and tortured her, promising that her death was imminent, before she pulled a handgun from her purse, shot him to death and then robbed him. With 100th execution, what you should know about Florida's Death Row. I literally, literally defecated my pants. In fact, he did both repeatedly. MELENDEZ-COLON, Thomas Harrison His fingerprints were found on the knife that killed the mother and the hammer that killed the daughter. And again Ottis was weeping, rubbing his nose, rubbing snot across mouth, saying, I dont believe that shit., You dont believe me? Terry said. But the larger point is that once its decline set in, its own city wrote it off entirely and couldnt care less what happened to little boys growing up in its once-grand old houses. The boys were just out having some fun. Jacksonville is safer than 9% of the cities in the United States. I really cant., Terry, increasingly irritated with Ottiss failure, demanded, Look at me! Their bodies were found mutilated. Tommy Zeigler shot to death his wife, Eunice, her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards and customer Charles Mays on Christmas Eve 1975 in the Zeigler family furniture store on Dillard Street in. But it wasn't enough to save Robin Clemons' son. His DNA was collected and was ultimately matched to all of the Gainesville murders. Who would take that assurance away from Adams father? [Times archive] Murders, shootouts, firebombings: A history of the Outlaws in Tampa Bay. Brace yourself. Be the first to know about new products, discounts & content. the Murderpedia project stay alive. He was subsequently convicted of beating a cellmate to death in 2011. Which way did you tell me you went? Now, the self-described Monster of Mayport has allegedly killed again. Aileen Wuornos, then, was an exceedingly rare anomaly. I watched her face spray against the wall in front of me and she fell over.". This proclivity was familiar for Rolling, a seasoned criminal whod served a collective eight years for multiple armed robberies and escaped from prison twice. A few months later, Knowles called him from Coral Gables and said, I have something to tell you. He is currently fifty-five years of age and is convicted of sexual assault, murder, and the unarmed robbery of twenty-five people in total. Both had been raped, stabbed to death and posed. The Aryan Brotherhood. He was destitute and sad and dying of cancer. During a heated argument on May 18, 1990, Danny seized his fathers handgun and shot him in the stomach and between the eyes. His first arrest was at the age of seventeen for loitering. July 4th, 1930 was a different kind of Independence Day for J.J. Mendenhall. Most accurate 2021 crime rates for Jacksonville, FL. Knowles didnt live much longer, and he died with an impression Yavitz had given him that he would write the book to make him as famous as Bonnie and Clyde.. Credit: Leo Boatman, Wells' alleged accomplice, In the letter, Wells complains about conditions at Florida State Prison as corrupt and inhumane. Jacksonville, Apalachicola, Quincy, and Key West are just a few of our favorites. Shirley Ann Bridgeford, another victim of Harvey Glatman aka The Lonely Hearts Killer. Gerard Schaefer was dubbed the "Killer Cop" because he was a Sheriff's deputy who found his victims while on patrol in Martin County, Florida. Rolling was arrested in Ocala on Sept. 7, 1990, on an unrelated burglary charge and as authorities were investigating, they were able to identify him as the Gainesville Ripper, a moniker developed based on the way the victims were bound, mutilated and posed. Im an invalid, you know. Ottis had killed 100, maybe 150 people, 300 people. Mallorys lifelong history of sex offenses, incarceration and diagnosis as a likely sociopath tended to corroborate Wuornoss testimony, though it was never introduced at trial. He didnt think he did. Well, maybe I didnt even ask him was his parents in the store, you know., And later, Okay. Besides being a prolific serial killer, Bundy was a necrophile who would sometimes spend hours to groom and perform sexual acts with his victim's corpses. The officers couldnt gain access to the room. ), Arlington Federal Savings and Loan Temple to the Enigma, Arlington: Expressway Mall (Where Mary Ran Away), Arlington: Three Oaks Plaza, FBI Headquarters, Offshore Power Systems, Atlantic Beach: Aquatic Gardens (The Flood & the Poet), Atlantic Beach: Christopher / Bull / Hionides House, Atlantic Beach: Treehouse Over Spacecraft, Atlantic Beach: Voo Swar Restaurant and Lounge, Beaufort Mermaid / Thomas Glover W.s Fyshmalions Eliza, Chaseville Colored Settlement / Fort Caroline Club Estates, Coquina Gates: 3, Riots of the Fall and Noreast, Cosmo and Gullah Geechee Northeast Florida, Egrets Glade Unit 02: Tropic Egret Drive at Snowy Egret Drive, Empire Point: Perley Place and Wine Cellar, Empire Point: Suddath / Van Valkenburgh House, Floral Bluff Manor: Mrs. Marthas Dildo Fence, Florida State College at Jacksonville, South Campus: Outdoor Ecological Laboratory, Fort Caroline: Craig Morris at Grant Mound 8DU14, Fort Caroline: Spanish American War Battery, Fulton (and Lone Star), Lost Arlington Communities, Gilmore: 1. * July 4 th, 1930 was a different kind of Independence Day for J.J. Mendenhall. Calvary / Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church (Grand Park), Sheps Discount and Salvage, Part Two: The Iron Lung, Small Red Shack at the City Limit Sign, U.S. 301, St. Gabriel Ethiopian Orthodox Church: Timkat, Epiphany, Westside Murder Map: Where George Ronnie York and James Latham Met Althea Ottavio and Patricia Anne Hewett, Westside Story: Adolescence (Early 1990s), Westside Story: From Nathan Bedford Forrest High School to the End of the Road, Westside: Apartment Complex, 103rd Street, Yellow Water Nuclear Weapons Storage Area, Annie Lytle Public School Number Four, Gilmore Street, Annie Lytle Public School Number Four, Gilmore Street, Addendum: Tim Gilmore is Still Here, Bold City Brewery and Intuition Ale Works: Growlers of Pale Ale in Old Warehouses by the Railroad Tracks, Feedback Loop Tomb, Shadows and Patterns down King Street and into North Riverside, Chimney Swifts at Riverside Christian Church, CoRK Arts District: Crystal Floyds Cabinet of Curiosities, CoRK Arts District: Olivier Flaires Studio, Cumberland Campus, Florida Junior College / Kent Campus, Florida State College at Jacksonville, End of the Streetcar Line, Patterns in the Brick Pavement, Aberdeen Street, Ernest and Copeland Streets (My Mothers First Apartment), Ernest Street to Willow Branch Park (Simultagnosia), Five Points Theatre / Riverside Theater (Sun-Ray Cinema), Five Points: Petersons Five and Dime Building, Five Points: Rain DogsBarstool for F. Kyle Marshall, aka DJ Chef Rocc, Fletcher Building (Ghosts of The Row and the May Street School of Architecture), Frank G. Slaughter, Medical Thrillers, and the Cleary-Dickert House, JASMYN (Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network) House, Orange-State-Oil-Company-European-Street-Caf, Park and King, Park View Court Apartments / Wieselman Building, Purple Petunia Filling Station and Antique Bottle Collection, Ricker House / Queen Victoria / Lane House, River House / Riverside House / Rochester House-part-II, River House / Riverside House / Rochester House: Part I, Riverdale Inn / Brazil(e) House, Sugar Castle / Kelly House, Riverside High School (formerly Robert E. Lee), Part 1: The Girl Who Would Become My Mother, Riverside High School (formerly Robert E. Lee), Part 2: Ted Pappas Becoming Ted Pappas, Riverside High School (formerly Robert E. Lee), Part 3: History According to Vaudeville, Riverside High School (formerly Robert E. Lee), Part 4: Becoming Riverside High School, Riverside High School (formerly Robert E. Lee), Part 5: Coda The Prehistory of Friday Night Drums, rXr at Willow Branch and College, Death of a Crustpunk, Silvertown: My Mothers Early Childhood Home, Trump Campaign Office Update #5: The End Again (or, The Real End), Willowbranch Park and Cenotaph for Dogwood, Willowbranch Park and Library and Gay Pride, Woodlawn Baptist Church (My Mothers Early First Wedding), Banned Book Displays at Chamblin Bookmine and Chamblins Uptown, Free Bird & Midnight Rider & Confederate Flags & Mosh Pits, Georgia Savory and Air Potato, Cheryl after John Muir, Lovetts Grocery / Winn-Lovetts / Winn-Dixie & My Grandfather, National Association for the Advancement of White People, Jacksonville, Poor Penny Carson and Sweet Pea Johnson at Beach and Hodges Boulevards, Blanding Boulevard and 103rd Street, University Boulevard and Matthews Bridge / Arlington Expressway, Presidential Election, 1920 & Presidential Election, 2020 (Have Courage. She promised she wouldnt tell anyone what happened. On the eve of his execution, Bolin Jr. told the media, My punishment's over. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. It didn't take long for Shawn and Leah Crawford to choose the house where they wanted to start their life together. He was eventually taken into custody and confessed to those and hundreds of other murders, implicating his companion Ottis Toole in many of them. While not all of the killers originated in the Sunshine State they did, unfortunately, kill victims here along their deadly paths. After all, Yavitz never wrote the book Knowles expected. In a trial that took place approximately four years after the murders, Rolling admitted that he wanted to be as famous as Ted Bundy. He that did that deed, he cried, may he never enjoy a womans love!, As for Pitzer himself, St. Clair-Abrams demanded incredulously, Do you mean to tell me that the hand of love fired that weapon?. We reached out to Shorstein for comment on the recent incident, as well as current State Attorney Melissa Nelson, who prosecuted the Wells case. While in county jail, Bolin Jr. managed to get married to a socially prominent woman named Rosalie Martinez in 1996. Browse photos, see new properties, get open house info, and research neighborhoods on Trulia. This information is not intended to be used as official crime data . So Hoffman admonished him, Both his mother and his dad? Your chance of being a victim of violent crime in Jacksonville is 1 in 146 and property crime is 1 in 37. He had epileptic seizures, he never learned to read, he dressed up as a girl, and he liked setting things on fire. Largely lost to time are descriptions of a muscular, mustached olive-skinned man in his 20s, who had been seen in the parking lot outside the Sears from which Adam went missing, forcing the boy into a blue vanone that matched the description of a van seen parked late at night near the Turnpike mile marker where Adams severed head would later be discovered. Since 1900, there have been 778 documented victims of serial killers in Florida. Murders A-Z is a collection of true crime stories that take an in-depth look at both little-known and famous murders throughout history. Throughout much of his childhood, Long had slept in the same bed with his mother, a barmaid who dressed provocatively and brought home strange men on a regular basis. For more content like this,subscribeto the magazine. Distinctive tire impressions and unique red carpet fibers linked the murders, which by Halloween of that year numbered eight. It was the textbook perfect storm of factors that led to him being a domestic batterer, and it was the dissolution of his marriage that paved the final stretch of road to his homicidal crime spree. Rolling was arrested the following month while fleeing the attempted robbery of a Winn-Dixie store, and police noted he was wanted in Shreveport, where a triple murder he committed exhibited similarities to the Gainesville crimes. She took that chair and Pitzer sat down on the platform before the judges desk. Fresh off the Greyhound bus from his hometown of Shreveport, Rolling pitched a tent in the woods near the University of Florida and began prowling and peeping into the windows of nearby student apartments. While awaiting trial, Rolling began courting a self-described true crime journalist named Sondra London, who was a bridge to another of Floridas most prolific serial murderers: Gerard John Schaefer, a one-time sheriffs deputy responsible for the deaths and disappearances of dozens of women. Rich was identified as the shooter. Rolling and London claimed to be in love and became briefly engaged, while Schaefer fumed over the perceived betrayal. MATEEN, Juan Roberto It made him significant for the first time in his life. When Pitzer finally took the stand several days into the trial, the plot thickened considerably. James Where did you tell us you were going? Both juries sentenced him to death. The 2003 movie Monster starring Charlize Theron as Aileen is a biographical drama about her life. She was represented pro bono by local attorney Steve Glazer, aka Dr. It was higher than in 89.5% U.S. cities. Did you go in the direction to go back to Jacksonville, or did you go the other way?, Ottis had forgotten what he was supposed to answer, so he said, I couldve went back the other way., Ottis, look at me. I guess my quest for the lethal injection continues, and more time goes by," he added. Floyd By the time he was recaptured in 1978, he faced three death sentences and was sent to the electric chair. III cant stand it!. I never heard from them again.. That fact should further prove Pitzers innocence. Every inmate death is thoroughly investigated by law enforcement and the Departments Office of Inspector General to ensure independent oversight and absolute accountability at all levels.. When the jurors returned to the courtroom, the place was packed with spectators, among whom, the newspapers reported, were the usual number of ladies.. to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really Rolling was arrested several times during his teenage years for robberies and voyeurism. Even as late as the 1990s, the last time such numbers were made public, Duval County had an almost 50 percent functional illiteracy rate. Sonja Larson, 18, and Christina Powell, 17, were the first two victims. Before his triple homicide and attempted murder of his father, he raped and killed five students in Gainesville, Florida, in August 1990. A DJ Uncle Al Ignacio Antinori Donald Aronow B Marlin Barnes James Barrett (United States Air Force officer) Murder of Sheila Bellush Frances Bemis Ivelisse Berrios-Beguerisse Byrd Billings Melanie Billings Gus Boulis John Britton (doctor) Carlie Brucia C Ivan Caesar Luis Cncer Sam Carter (lynching victim) James Bailey Cash Jr. His story was the inspiration for the Scream movie franchise, I'd say he got close. They can't hurt me no more.. While one girls body was found in the woods off Beach Boulevard and anothers off Heckscher Drive,the other girls bodies were never found. An overwhelming percentage of serial murders are men. So the first thing you did was get a ticket to get onto the turnpike. Im not tryin to do nothin, Terry said. Jack and Linda Jones grew up together in Jacksonville, Florida. In my nonfiction novel, Stalking Ottis Toole: A Southern Gothic, I try to bounce all the different Ottis Tooles off each other, but I also indicate that, whoever Ottis Toole really was, he didnt have to end up that way. California was No.1 and Texas came in second. Around the same time, Toole was charged with arson and murder in the death of George Sonnenberg, whom hed trapped inside a house before setting it ablaze. Which way, where did you tell me you were going?. Crimes in Florida While awaiting trial, Rolling began courting a self-described true crime journalist named Sondra London, who was a bridge to another of Florida's most prolific serial murderers: Gerard John Schaefer, a one-time sheriff's deputy responsible for the deaths and disappearances of dozens of women. Audio Article. At the time, detectives didn't have enough evidence to charge Little and he was never charged in the Mississippi case. Gary Ray Bowles, also known as the I-95 Killer, murdered six people in the year of 1994. A pyromaniac and serial arsonist by the time adolescence arrived, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade. They didnt intend to kill anybody. His daddy always told his children to put their heads down when they drove through that wooded area. After being caught defrauding her, Lucas murdered the elderly woman and then fled to Texas, where he killed Powell during an argument. When he didnt answer their questions correctly, they came down on him hard. A family friend, Judge A. O. Wright had constructed Gatos statement. His other monikers include the Classified Ad Rapist and the Adman Rapist. The 2019 Jacksonville crime rate rose by 4% compared to 2018. Crime Profile: The Debra Evans Case. Part 1, Harry Crewss Childhood Nightmare Northside, Hogans Creek, Reflecting the Life and History of the City, Jacksonville Zoo (for Harry Crews, Jiggs and Gandai), Lake Forest Peninsula: Empty House Flea Syndrome, Lincoln Villas: Jesus Christ the Son of God Holiness unto the Lord Revival Church (and the Voices of Women), Long Branch (Voodoo at East 27th and the Railroad Tracks), Magnolia Gardens / Gardenvale: St. Paul Lutheran Church, Moncrief Park: Saturday Night Prior to the GMAC Mass Shooting, Moncrief Springs: Three Corinthian Columns, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward House, Pilot Town (Batten Island at Fort George Island), New Berlin: Goat Island and Christophers Pier, North Shore: Mulberry Street (And to Think That I Saw It on), the Line between Where Its Raining and Where Its Not, North Shore: Tip Top Tavern / Randalls Ranch House Restaurant, Northwest Decapitations: West Sixth Street and Devonshire Boulevard, Norwood: Standard Turpentine Co., Glidden, SCM Organics, SCM Glidco, Millennium Specialty Chemicals, Renessenz LLC, Symrise, Oceanway: Christel and George Bartchlett Folk Art Collection, Potters Field (Hillside Cemetery) and Howells Morning Glory Chapel, Pumpkin Hill: Anderson Cemetery (Annettes and Mylettes Memorial), Pumpkin Hill: Verse Versus at Five Acre Spread, Riverhills Park: The Pig, the Teardrop Tattoos, the House Trailer, and the Deep Beauty on Third Avenue, Royal Terrace: Camphor Berries and Embers, Sawyers Addition / Ritchieville: Marians House on Janette Street, Shantyboat, Trout River (& Lynn Skapyak Harlin), Springfield Advent Christian Church Cemetery / Lindsley Cemetery, Springfield Community Garden, Main Street, Springfield Hospital for Abortions and Adoptions, Part 1: Incomplete Abortion, Criminal, Springfield Hospital for Abortions and Adoptions, Part 2: Obscenity, Dizzy Spells, Birth Fathers, Springfield Hospital for Abortions and Adoptions, Part 3: Holes in the Story, Springfield: Confederate and Market, Moving Day, 1973, Springfield: Confederate Park: Monument In Memory of Our Women of the Southland, Springfield: Dancy Terrace (Redell Street), Springfield: Drew Mansion and the Buried Head, Springfield: East Fifth Street House Fire, Springfield: Ellenelle / Springfield Usonian, Springfield: Jacobs Flats / Jax Brickhouse, Springfield: Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum / First Church of Christ, Scientist, Springfield: Lewis Marker, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, Stalking Ottis Toole, chapter 53: Ottis Talks by Phone with Henry Lee Lucas, Stalking Ottis Toole, chapter 59: Buddy Terry, Coerced Confessions, Retractions, Stalking Ottis Toole, chapter 109: Framing Ottis TooleJoe Matthews, Bad Police Work and Desperate Dishonesty, Stalking Ottis Toole, chapter 114: The True StoryRegina Hersey, Springfield: Spence Auto Sales and Ottis Toole Death Car, St. Marys Liquors, Riverside Motel and the Boat Ramp Where They Pulled Nellie from the River, Sugar Hill, Blodgett Homes, Proton Therapy, Tarzan and Darlyn on Trout River; Or, Dee Dee and the Florida Monkeys, Yellow Bluff Fort, New Berlin Road: Earthworks and Hobo Jungles, Ann Adams, Polio Patient, Artist Who Draws by Mouth, South Jacksonville / San Marco, Avenues Mall (Unidentified Flying Objects, Reportedly Seen Heading Downtown), Bayard Antique Village / Hornes Beautyrest Cabins, Baymeadows Circle East at Baymeadows Circle West, Craig Creek at River Oaks Park and Oriental Gardens, Deerwood Country Club Brothel, Fungeon for Prostassage, Epping Forest / The Mansion / My Mothers Illness, Green Cove Springs: All Star Building Materials, Green Cove Springs: Lee Field Hovercraft Ruins, Greenfield Manor: 1960s Tract House, Witches in the Overstory, Lakewood: Williamson House (The Jacksonville Gene Leedy House), Lovelace Park: The Great Non-Fire of 1973, Mandarin: Journeys End House / James Wilk Residence, Mandarin: Orange Groves, Cypress Knees, Stephen for $450, Mandarin: St. Josephs Catholic Church, Old St. Augustine Road, Mandarin: Two Young Men1) Haley Road, Pickwick Park 2) Lurias Fine Jewelry, San Jose Boulevard, Mandarin: Walden Wood, Cul-de-Sac on Wethersfield Place, Orange Park / Lakewood: Monkey Farm / Yerkes Laboratories / The Granary, Saint Nicholas: Curry-Thomas Hardware and Gun Shop, Saint Nicholas: Harry Good Orthodontics Building, San Marco: San Marco Building / Towne Pump, San Marco: Swisher (Herbert) / Balis House, San Marco: Swisher House (Carl) / Villa Alexandria, San Marco: Swisher House (John H.) / Villa Alexandria, Southside Campus, Florida Junior College / South Jacksonville Grammar School: Milli Barnerts Sleep-In Protest, Villa San Jose: Off La Losa Drive (Overheard Dialogue), Waterford-at-Deerwood Apartments, Southside Boulevard, Windsor Parke Professional Center, Sutton Park Drive South, Al-Hajj Feriz Delkic Masjid and Islamic Community of Bosniaks, Arlington and Lillian Roads (Jaywalking without I.D. JaxPsychoGeo stories take a lot of work. Now Ottis wasnt really sure what he was supposed to answer. Everyone saw him as strange. The request was denied. Or he was a Duke of Hazzard. Alex Murdaugh Sentenced To Life In Prison For The Murder Of His Wife And Son. Just before encountering the sisters, he had murdered a 65 year old woman in Jacksonvilles Atlantic Beach after gagging and robbing her. There, he met a fellow drifter named Henry Lee Lucas at a soup kitchen. In early February, 1934, Mendenhall told police hed had dinner with the 60 year old Mary Rae Anderson and her mother, 84 year-old Laura Mae Green, in their quaint little cottage on Liberty Street the same night someone stabbed the mother to death and placed an apron beneath the daughters head before repeatedly crushing her skull with a hammer. In the early 1980s, Lucas traveled with Powell to California, where he ended up working for and living at the residence of 82-year-old Kate Rich. A juror named Bill Loos said hed examined the bullet in court, though the gun had gone missing, and from his knowledge of killing hogs, judged it a ricochet. IE 11 is not supported. Samuel Little, now 79, was sentenced in 2014 to three consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole for killing three women in California. Then-State Attorney Harry Shorstein has defended the decision not to pursue death, citing the wishes of the victims families and Wells questionable sanity. It was like something you see in a horror movie.. Wells was strangling him. Look at me! Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. The killing spree in Truman Capote's famous non-fiction novel In Cold Blood began in the woods at the edge of town. Were you going home, or were you going to Miami?, I was going back, going back to Jacksonville., And when Terry asked if there was an overpass nearby, Ottis said, I cant remember.