Victims Tracy Paules and Manny Taboada were both 23. Another victim Sonja Larson, who was roommates with Christina, was also 17. Rolling had planned the crimes carefully, said state attorney Rod Smith, killing four women and one man in “late-night raids” near the University of Florida campus, according to the Orlando Sentinel.ĭetails of how he sliced off the nipples of Christa Hoyt, 18, and Christina Powell, 17, and how he decapitated and disemboweled Christa Hoyt horrified a jury that unanimously found him guilty on all counts. Sordid details of the case came out when more than 1,000 pages of investigative documents were released to the public in March of 1994, during Rolling’s highly publicized trial. Rolling stayed calm until the very end, ordering a luscious meal of lobster tail, butterfly shrimp, baked potato, strawberry cheesecake, and sweet tea.Īt the time of his trial, Danny Rolling was already serving four life terms for robbery and burglary. “He who flung the stars into the heavens above created the oceans, mountains, eagles and doves, none greater than thee oh Lord, none greater than thee,” sang the serial killer, one among five verses that mentioned nothing related to his murders, according to the Gainesville Sun. He was of the Pentecostal faith, and seemingly attempted to regale the crowd of 47 people - some of whom were relatives of those he’d murdered some 16 years before - with religious song. Rolling sang gospel verses for two minutes. Well, he had a considerable amount to express - in song. What did this man have to say for himself in his final moments?
GAINESVILLE SERIAL KILLER SERIES
Rolling is featured on the Oxygen series “ Mark of a Killer,” which delves into the psyches of serial killers focusing on their postmortem signatures. There was no redemption for Rolling on this earth: he was sentenced to death for each of his five murders, and despite protests of the death penalty and an appeal, he was administered a lethal injection on October 25, 2006, at Florida State Prison.
Gruesome crime scenes and evidence of extreme sexual violence had sent a chill up the collective spine of this otherwise normal, muggy town. Rolling's DNA was a match.Danny Rolling became a household name in the 1990s after he “ripped” through northern Florida on a murderous rampage in August 1990, killing five students in quick succession. Within two months, authorities noted the similarities between the murders of the Grissoms in Shreveport and the students in Gainesville, which prompted a request for DNA from inmates from Shreveport incarcerated in Florida. Two weeks later, the Gainesville Ripper was arrested after a high-speed chase related to a Winn-Dixie robbery. News of the murders spread throughout the university and the city, but Rolling was still able to stalk and kill Tracey Paules and Manuel Taboada, although he didn't mutilate them, per All That's Interesting. The following day he raped and murdered a student named Christa Hoyt in a similar manner, going so far as to decapitate her and leave her head on a bookshelf for authorities to find. He removed their nipples and took one as a trophy. He broke into the house, overpowered them, then raped, stabbed, and murdered them. On August 20, 1990, Rolling followed two University of Florida Gainesville students, Sonja Larson and Christina Powell, to their home.
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