Danny Rolling

Danny Rolling
Background information
Birth name	Daniel Harold Rolling
Also known as	The Gainesville Ripper and James R. Kennedy
Born	May 26, 1954 Shreveport, Louisiana
Died	October 25, 2006(2006-10-25) (aged 52)
Cause of death	Lethal injection
Killings
Number of victims:	8
Span of killings	November 4, 1989–August, 1990
Country	United States
State(s)	Florida, Louisiana
Date apprehended	November, 1991

Daniel Harold Rolling (May 26, 1954 – October 25, 2006), also known as The Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer who murdered five students in Gainesville, Florida. Rolling later confessed to raping several of his victims, committing an additional 1989 triple homicide in Shreveport, Louisiana, and attempting to murder his father in May 1990. In total, Rolling confessed to killing eight people.^[1] He was executed by lethal injection in 2006.

Early years

Rolling was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He had a difficult upbringing. His father, James Rolling, was a Shreveport Police officer who abused him, his mother, Claudia, and later his brother, Kevin. In one incident, Danny's mother went to the hospital after she claimed that her husband, James Rolling, tried to make her cut herself with a razor blade. His mother made repeated attempts to leave her husband but always returned. In another example of James Rolling's cruel sense of discipline, he pinned Danny to the ground and cuffed him, then had police come to take him away like a criminal because his father was embarrassed by Danny. The idea that Danny was an unwanted child was reinforced ever since birth by his father.^{[citation needed]}

As a teenager and young adult, he was arrested several times for robberies in Georgia. In addition to that, he was a peeping tom, for he was caught one time for spying on a cheerleader dressing. Also as an adult, Rolling had trouble trying to assimilate into society and hold down a steady job. At one point, he worked as a waiter at Pancho's restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana. In May 1990, he tried to kill his father during a family argument in which his father lost an eye and an ear.^{[citation needed]}

Serial killings

In August 1990, Rolling murdered five students (one was a student of Santa Fe College and four attended the University of Florida) during a burglary and robbery spree in Gainesville, Florida. Dubbed the "Gainesville Ripper" by the media, he would decapitate and mutilate his victim's bodies. He then would pose them, sometimes even using mirrors, to intensify the carnage in the rooms.

Although law enforcement authorities initially had very few leads, Rolling was arrested and charged with several counts of murder in November 1991. He eventually was brought to trial by Alachua County State Attorney Len Register nearly four years after the murders. His motive was to become a "superstar". Before testimony began in his trial in 1994, Rolling pled guilty to all charges. Subsequently State Attorney, Rod Smith, presented the penalty phase of the prosecution. Rolling was sentenced to the death penalty on each count. During his trial, Court TV conducted an interview with his mother from her home. During the recording, his father could be heard shouting off-camera.

Two other men, one from Indialantic, Florida, were considered initial suspects in the Gainesville murders; authorities cleared both of all suspicion and charges after Rolling's arrest.

Further murders

After Rolling was arrested, police in Louisiana alerted the authorities in Florida to an unsolved triple murder in Shreveport, Louisiana on November 4, 1989. Detectives noted that there were similarities between the Gainesville murders and those of 55-year-old William Grissom, his 24-year-old daughter Julie and eight-year-old grandson Sean. The family had been attacked in their home as they were preparing for dinner. Later Julie Grissom's body had been mutilated, cleaned and posed.^[2]

Although Rolling never officially confessed to investigators handling the Grissom case, he did write about the murders using information that only the killer would know. Shreveport police obtained an open arrest warrant in 1994 but Rolling was never extradited to Louisiana to stand trial for the killings.^[2]

Death

Rolling was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on October 25, 2006 after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal.^[3] He was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m EDT. Rolling showed no remorse and refused to make any verbal statements or offer any apology to the relatives of his victims, several of whom were present at his execution as witnesses. In a written statement made shortly before his execution, Rolling confessed the murders of the Grissom family in Shreveport.^[4][5]

Legacy

Memorial to the five students on the 34th Street Wall in Gainesville, first painted in 1990.

Rolling has been the subject of several writers and their works. His killing spree inspired Kevin Williamson to pen the script for Scream. Sondra London met him in prison while she was working with Gerard John Schaefer and other serial killers.^[6] He is the subject of the book Beyond Murder by John Philpin and John Donnelly. A 2007 independent feature film entitled The Gainesville Ripper was shot in the Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida areas, based on the accounts of the killings. In the film, Rolling is portrayed by Zachary Memos.^[7] Rolling was also the subject of an episode of Body of Evidence: From the Case Files of Dayle Hinman, a Court TV show (transmitted as Crime Scene USA: Body of Evidence on Discovery Channel in the UK) and an episode of Forensic Factor titled "Killing Spree", which originally aired on Discovery Channel Canada and was rebroadcast in America on the Science Channel. And in 2010 a show on Investigation Discovery channel, called Cold Blood episode "Gainesville Ripper" was broadcast. While on death row at Florida State Prison, Rolling created songs, poems, and drawings. His works have been referred to as "Murderabilia".

References

1. ^ "The Killer Confesses" Crime Library. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.
2. ^ ^{a b} Fisher, Lise (October 22, 2006). "Rolling only suspect in Shreveport, La., triple murder". The Gainesville Sun. http://www.gainesville.com/article/20061022/LOCAL/210220344?p=all&tc=pgall. Retrieved April 27, 2010. 
3. ^ "Danny Rolling executed, state says"
4. ^ Kamm, Grayson (October 27, 2006). "Rolling Confessed to Shreveport Killings Before Execution". First Coast News. http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=67772. Retrieved April 27, 2010. 
5. ^ Rolling, Danny (October 25, 2006). "Handwritten Letter". Gannett Company. http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/wtlv/docs//d9475181027.pdf. Retrieved April 27, 2010. 
6. ^ Serial Killer Danny Rolling Defends Sondra London
7. ^ Zachary Memos at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• Danny Rolling, Gainesville Ripper. Crime Library. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.
• The Gainesville Ripper at the Internet Movie Database
• The Gainesville Ripper movie homepage
• Inmate Release Information Detail - Inmate 521178. Florida Department of Corrections. Retrieved on 2007-11-14.

Persondata
Name	Rolling, Danny
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 26, 1954
Place of birth	Shreveport, Louisiana
Date of death	October 25, 2006
Place of death