Post by CCADP on Aug 27, 2005 20:28:32 GMT -5
Waiting for justice: Serial killer has picked fights with inmates
Today, in the 1st of a 3-part series, The Sun looks at the impact the
student murders had on the Gainesville area, and those on both sides of
the argument of whether lengthy stays on Death Row - like Rolling's - are
a good idea.
Danny Rolling just can't seem to get along with others, even in the
insulated world of death row where he spends his days primarily with other
murderers and rapists.
According to prison records and Web postings, the man behind the
Gainesville student murders has fought in recent years with several of his
fellow felons in the exercise yard at Union Correctional Institution.
Officers have written up disciplinary reports over fights between Rolling
and fellow Death Row inmates Stephen Booker, Jose Jimenez, Pablo Ibar and
Richard McCoy, all convicted of 1st-degree murder.
The 1st took place in 2000. Rolling has had a fight each year since 2002.
Officers reported that Rolling started each fight, twice walking toward
other inmates as they were walking away.
"Let's fight. I know you're soft," Rolling told McCoy before kicking him
in the chest, according to reports.
Rolling apparently also shared a rather contentious relationship with
anti-abortionist Paul Hill before the former minister was executed in 2003
for the 1994 killing of an abortion doctor and his bodyguard outside a
Pensacola clinic.
Hill once said in a 1998 interview that he enjoyed the camaraderie on
Death Row and was especially friendly with inmates in nearby cells,
including Rolling. But, in a posting attributed to Rolling on a Web site,
Rolling in 1997 said he found Hill "self-righteous" and
"holier-than-thou."
"I've cussed him out more times than I can recall. It's not his
anti-abortion stance in itself that ticks me off. It's his 'Everybody on
Death Row deserves to die - but him.' He gunned down 2 people in cold
blood. Yet he refuses to accept responsibility for his actions.
"I've gotten into deep conversations with him about the Bible, and his
need to ask God for forgiveness for killing. Well! Mr. Sanctimonious
emphatically stated, 'Oh! I don't need to ask for forgiveness. What I did
was righteous and good.'"
Life on death row, in some ways, is like real life, said Gainesville
Police Officer John O'Ferrell, a former corrections officer who once
worked the prison where Rolling was held.
"Generally, human things go on with them, too. There's personal conflicts"
among inmates, O'Ferrell said, even when they're separated by cell walls.
Time in prison
Fifteen years after his Gainesville killing spree, Rolling's name still
stands out among the 368 men and women awaiting execution in Florida.
The son of a former police officer in Shreveport, La., Rolling became
infamous after he confessed to stabbing to death 5 college students inside
their apartments. The murders, committed over a 4-day span at the start of
the 1990 University of Florida fall semester, sent students fleeing from
Gainesville and panicked area residents.
"He's in the classification of Bundy or Wuornos," said state Sen. Rod
Smith, the area's former state attorney who prosecuted Rolling and
compared him to convicted serial killers Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos.
Both were executed in Florida. "He will forever have a certain infamous
notoriety."
Web sites carry Rolling's comments and hawk the art work he still draws in
his prison cell.
Books and news stories chronicle his crimes and his troubled past.
The state spends $72.39 a day to house Rolling or about $26,422 annually.
Prison officers don't describe him as a problem inmate, despite his
run-ins with other prisoners.
"He reads and watches TV. His attitude is that he's pretty quiet," said
Debbie Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections,
after checking Rolling's prison file.
O'Ferrell worked as a corrections officer at Florida State Prison near
Starke from late 1994 until 1997 and saw Rolling when he patrolled Death
Row. Rolling later was transferred to nearby Union Correctional
Institution, where most of the state's male inmates awaiting execution are
now housed.
O'Ferrell had been friends with one of Rolling's victims, 23-year-old
Manuel Taboada.
"I guess it was kind of eerie for me," O'Ferrell recalled seeing Rolling
behind cell bars. The police officer remembered the convicted killer
getting "lots and lots of mail."
"Most of the death row inmates, they had little to no problems from them,"
O'Ferrell said, describing officers' dealings with prisoners facing
execution. Part of that may have been because those inmates had some
privileges other inmates didn't get, he said. They could keep televisions
in their cells and had more legal materials than other inmates, so they
could work on their court cases and appeals. Rolling kept some of his art
in his cell but nothing O'Ferrell, then in his mid-20s, recalled as
"disturbing."
"It seemed like he was a regular person," O'Ferrell said. "I remember him
seeming to be a relatively humble person, not cocky, . . . which again I
felt was very odd knowing the things that he did."
Words of a killer
In a courtroom at Florida State Prison on Jan. 31, 1993, Rolling first
talked with investigators about the murders in Gainesville.
Over four hours, Rolling and investigators went back and forth with each
other. Officers said they were willing to hear Rolling out after he had
"summoned" them to the Bradford County prison about a month before he was
scheduled to go to trial for murder. But Rolling refused to answer
questions directed to him about the grisly attacks.
Instead, officers were supposed to get answers from another inmate in the
room, Bobby Lewis, who Rolling described as his "confessor" in whom he had
confided.
Speaking to both Rolling and Lewis, investigators learned Rolling had
randomly chosen his victims and had spied on two of the women before he
broke into their homes in southwest Gainesville. Officers had Rolling
through Lewis describe what happened to the students and explain where he
hid the murder weapon, a Marine Corps Ka-Bar knife he bought at a
Tallahassee military supply store about a month before.
Rolling, through Lewis, claimed he had different personalities. There was
Danny. But then there was a side he referred to as "Jessie James," another
called "Ynnad," (an anagram for Danny) and a 3rd, "Gemini." Investigators
doubted Rolling's assertions he had other personalities, believing instead
that Rolling had lifted the Gemini reference after watching the movie
"Exorcist III" at a Gainesville theater just before the murders. The
film's killer had the same name. It also is his astrological sign.
"Gemini was who you would have found at the five murder scenes," Lewis
told officers on Rolling's behalf.
Rolling tried to blame his crimes on this alternate personality or demons,
Smith said.
"God only knows that there is this force in this world, gentlemen, that
can even overpower even the strongest of us," Rolling said in the
interview, one of the few times he spoke directly to officers about the
murders instead of having Lewis speak for him. "I've seen 'em and I know
it's real, just as sure as there's angels in heaven there's devils in
hell. They're mighty angry and they're working awful hard. They don't have
anybody else to . . . really try to tip the scales cause they know that
Lord God of heaven and earth is coming soon, and then they won't have any
more time to . . . even enjoy any kind . . .of pleasure whatsoever other
than through us."
Smith said Rolling has always tried to blame his actions on "satanic
forces."
"In the end, Danny Rolling escapes personal responsibility under the Flip
Wilson defense of 'the devil made me do it,' " Smith said.
"The way you can commit those kinds of horrible crimes is to have a
mechanism by which you divorce yourself," Smith said. "When he talks about
things like Ynnad and Gemini taking over his personality, what he was
really saying is, 'This is a different Danny, not the Danny who you're
talking to now.'"
On television true-crime shows that have followed the student murders
case, Rolling has given some interviews and said he's better off in
prison, Smith said. "He really doesn't believe any of that. I know he took
great glee in talking about the appearance of his victims and their
struggles."
Rolling bound the women with duct tape and raped three of them after
surprising them inside their apartments. He posed some of the bodies,
removed body parts from 1 woman and mutilated the body of another, leaving
her head on a bookshelf.
Lewis also later told investigators that Rolling had faked mental illness
in hopes of being moved to the prison's psychiatric wing and plotting an
escape. And Marion County officers said Rolling's mood would shift from
moments when he would "act crazy," to committing violent acts including
where he tore a toilet from his cell floor and threw it toward a barred
window and ripped two thick paperbacks in half with his bare hands.
Rolling was arrested for robbery and housed at the Marion County jail
before he became a suspect in the Gainesville slayings.
Rolling did not respond to requests from The Sun for an interview.
In a comment attributed to Rolling on the Web site www.mayhem.net, he does
apologize for the murders as he did in court when he was sentenced in
1994.
The site contains listings about cases of mass murder and serial killings.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully," Rolling wrote to an
Australian teenager whose posting said she was intrigued by killers.
"You mention you feel the thrill of the kill when you read stories about
murder. If indeed that is the case, I strongly suggest you read something
else. Why? you might ask. Because KILLING of all deeds done by mortals is
most tragic and horrible. Believe me, young lady, not only does the victim
lose that which is most precious than silver or gold (LIFE). The KILLER
loses a part of his or her soul every time a life is taken. God as my
Sovereign Judge, I regret with all my mind, heart & soul that which I
took. If only I could go back? I'd find a way to prevent what happened.
"I send my heartfelt thoughts across the yawning sea between thee & me.
When one takes another's life, 'tis of all things most grievous. I pray
you NEVER find yourself on the other side of midnight dripping life blood
of another. At that point you will have lost your way."
The posting also has Rolling talking about being incarcerated.
"Prisons and jails are a prime example of human's lack of wisdom. No other
species on Earth builds prisons or executes their own. It's not about
Justice as so many of the Rulers of Darkness of this present world would
have the public believe. It's about GREED! If you take mine? I want
yours," the message says. It does not say when it was written.
Rolling's routine
Rolling, 51, follows the same daily routine as other death row inmates,
whose average age is 44, prison officials say.
His cell at UCI near Raiford, located toward the interior of the prison
and away from windows, is a standard size of 6-by-9-by-9.5 feet.
Rolling's meals, like other inmates, are served three times a day, at 5
a.m., between 10 and 11 a.m. and between 4 and 4:30 p.m. The inmates are
allowed to use plates and spoons to eat their meals, and food is delivered
via insulated carts.
Occasionally, Rolling gets visitors, corrections records show. His last, a
woman described by the state corrections office as a "pen pal" from
Arizona, came to UCI in May.
All of the prisoners' visitors must be approved by the corrections
department before they are allowed to see any death row inmate.
Rolling has 13 people on his approved visitation list including his
younger brother and daughter, his prison file shows. The corrections
department describes others allowed to see Rolling as a girlfriend,
personal friends and pen pals. At least three of the people on the list
have deposited money in Rolling's prison account and describe themselves
as collectors of serial killer art.
Like other inmates, Rolling can use the money in his account to buy items
from the prison's canteen like snacks and deodorant.
Among those who regularly contribute to the account are Rolling's brother,
who has given his sibling $1,545 since October 2000 and deposits $30 every
few weeks.
Inmates may shower every other day.
O'Ferrell said death row inmates are constantly monitored. They are
counted at least once an hour. When escorted out of their cells, they wear
handcuffs everywhere except on the exercise yard or in the shower. The
only reason inmates can leave their cells are for medical reasons,
exercise, social or legal visits or for media interviews.
Inmates can get mail every day except holidays or weekends and can have
cigarettes, snacks, radios and black-and-white televisions in their cells.
They don't have cable television or air conditioning and aren't allowed to
be with each other in a common room, only on the exercise yard. They can
watch church services on closed circuit television. Unlike other prison
inmates, death row inmates wear orange T-shirts.
'Danny liked it'
Rolling continues to appeal his death sentence in the courts.
A key argument in those appeals has been that his case and sentence were
decided in Alachua County, where the crimes occurred.
Back in a Gainesville courtroom in 2000 on his appeals, Rolling said he
was never comfortable that his case wasn't moved from the county where the
murders occurred. But he respected his attorneys and their opinions and
went along with their decision to keep the case in Alachua County.
"I had my reservations concerning it, I certainly did, because you know
the people of Gainesville had been greatly wronged and they, the passions
of this, of this fine city were extremely high. And they couldn't help but
. . . look at me from a, you know, a viewpoint that I'm not a monster. But
I'm not a monster sir," Rolling told Smith, who questioned him during the
hearing on his appeal.
Smith scoffs at any apologies Rolling has offered for the murders or
issues he's raised about his abusive childhood.
Rolling sees himself as "the ultimate victim" and has "this chameleon-like
quality of fitting in," Smith said.
"The interesting thing about these kind of guys, these are people who have
never been good at anything and they get a special status. There is a
prison hierarchy. Some of the horror of what he had done gave him prowess.
And if given the chance, Smith said he thinks Rolling would do it again.
"He talked about liking to look into the eyes at the point of death. He
could conquer and possess people who were far superior to him in terms of
intellect and potential.
"Danny liked it. It's what he was successful at," Smith said.
********************************
Rehabilitating killers: Can it and should it be done?
Profile of a serial killer
The following list of traits are the factors most commonly found in serial
killers, according to the FBI. Not every serial killer will have all of
them, however.
White males in 85 % of the cases.
25 to 35 years of age.
Kill same type of victim in the same way.
May have physical deformities.
Average or above-average intelligence.
Abused as a child.
Psychopaths.
Few social attachments.
Interest in violent pornography, bondage, detective magazines.
Keeps records of offenses.
No history of arrests in more than half of cases.
History of head or brain injury.
Alcohol or drug abuse.
When Danny Rolling stalked his young Gainesville victims 15 years ago, he
knew exactly what he was going to do to them.
And when he killed them, it felt good.
Whether or not Rolling or other convicted serial killers might be
rehabilitated just isn't an issue, many legal experts say. For an outraged
public, rehabilitation is not an option.
"In their outrage, juries and judges conclude that they deserve the
ultimate punishment," says Christopher Slobogin, a professor in the
University of Florida's Levin College of Law.
Jeanne Singer is now the chief assistant state attorney for the 8th
Judicial Circuit. In 1993, she was 1 of 3 attorneys assigned to the
Gainesville student murders and made the case for the prosecution in the
murders of Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada.
"The issue of rehabilitation is not relevant in a case where a person
commits crimes as heinous as Danny Rolling has committed," Singer says.
"The issue in our criminal justice system for a person like Danny Rolling
is punishment."
Slobogin, who is also affiliated with UF's department of psychiatry, has
given more than a little thought to the question of whether the punishment
fits the crime when a serial killer like Rolling is sentenced to death.
Some mental health professionals will say that even Ted Bundy, who may
have stalked and killed as many as 20 young women, including three in
Florida, could have been rehabilitated. It is just a matter of time and
resources, Slobogin said.
"You must convert someone from a psychopath to a relatively normal person,
but many mental health professionals claim it can be done," he said. "It's
just a very tough task."
Speaking from the prosecutor's position, Singer said rehabilitation is not
an option to even be considered for someone who killed in the violent and
heinous way that Rolling did.
"Under the laws of the state of Florida, we have capital punishment as one
of our forms of punishment. In this case, the jury having heard all the
facts, the recommendation was that he should receive the ultimate
punishment, which is death," she said.
Singer said Rolling knew exactly what he was doing when he stalked his
Gainesville victims before raping, torturing and killing them. "After he
killed them, he mutilated them and then he left the premises, making sure
his fingerprints were wiped clean," Singer said.
"It made him high. It made him feel good, which is what makes it even
worse," she said.
"There is no issue of rehabilitation and we are not looking to
rehabilitate him."
In drawing a portrait of a psychopathic killer, experts portray someone
who is not just antisocial, but also a remorseless predator who uses
charm, intimidation and, if necessary, impulsive and cold-blooded violence
to attain his ends.
"Most of these people are psychopathic," Slobogin said, picturing someone
with a conscience as full of holes as a piece of Swiss cheese.
"They don't react to horrible situations the way that most of us do," he
said.
Psychopaths can function very successfully in society, Slobogin said.
While some would find them charming, others recognize them as
manipulative.
"Some become serial killers and some become CEOs," he said. "It's all a
matter of upbringing, opportunities and psychological proclivities."
In 1978, the FBI set up a behavioral science service unit in Quantico,
Va., to study what traits serial killers seem to have in common.
By studying how a killer murders his victims, who he chooses as a victim,
how the body was left and other characteristics of a case, the FBI can
develop a "profile" to describe the probable suspect. Profiles can include
details such as the killer's age, race, social ties and personal
characteristics.
Critics of such profiles worry that police investigating a crime will take
them too literally, searching only for people who match the profile,
whether or not they are the killer.
Experts stress that a profile is just one weapon in law enforcement's
arsenal used to track repeat killers. It may not be the key to unlocking
the case.
Slobogin points to a French saying: "The more you understand, the more you
forgive."
"If you understand that these persons may have been born with a birth
defect, and almost always had horrible childhoods, as a juror you might
not vote to acquit, but you begin to understand why they did what they did
and at least relent on recommending the death penalty," the legal expert
said.
Danny Rolling didn't even try to convince a jury of his innocence. He
pleaded guilty.
In the end, Slobogin said, juries and judges don't care about the
mitigating evidence when faced with an accused serial killer; they focus
on the number of crimes and their nature.
In Singer's view, that is as it should be.
"I love life, and I understand that Danny Rolling is a human being," the
attorney said. "But our system has to have some authority and credibility.
When you see the youth and the beauty of the people that he killed, and
know how horribly he killed them, it will change your perspective on
rehabilitation for a person like him."
Today, in the 1st of a 3-part series, The Sun looks at the impact the
student murders had on the Gainesville area, and those on both sides of
the argument of whether lengthy stays on Death Row - like Rolling's - are
a good idea.
Danny Rolling just can't seem to get along with others, even in the
insulated world of death row where he spends his days primarily with other
murderers and rapists.
According to prison records and Web postings, the man behind the
Gainesville student murders has fought in recent years with several of his
fellow felons in the exercise yard at Union Correctional Institution.
Officers have written up disciplinary reports over fights between Rolling
and fellow Death Row inmates Stephen Booker, Jose Jimenez, Pablo Ibar and
Richard McCoy, all convicted of 1st-degree murder.
The 1st took place in 2000. Rolling has had a fight each year since 2002.
Officers reported that Rolling started each fight, twice walking toward
other inmates as they were walking away.
"Let's fight. I know you're soft," Rolling told McCoy before kicking him
in the chest, according to reports.
Rolling apparently also shared a rather contentious relationship with
anti-abortionist Paul Hill before the former minister was executed in 2003
for the 1994 killing of an abortion doctor and his bodyguard outside a
Pensacola clinic.
Hill once said in a 1998 interview that he enjoyed the camaraderie on
Death Row and was especially friendly with inmates in nearby cells,
including Rolling. But, in a posting attributed to Rolling on a Web site,
Rolling in 1997 said he found Hill "self-righteous" and
"holier-than-thou."
"I've cussed him out more times than I can recall. It's not his
anti-abortion stance in itself that ticks me off. It's his 'Everybody on
Death Row deserves to die - but him.' He gunned down 2 people in cold
blood. Yet he refuses to accept responsibility for his actions.
"I've gotten into deep conversations with him about the Bible, and his
need to ask God for forgiveness for killing. Well! Mr. Sanctimonious
emphatically stated, 'Oh! I don't need to ask for forgiveness. What I did
was righteous and good.'"
Life on death row, in some ways, is like real life, said Gainesville
Police Officer John O'Ferrell, a former corrections officer who once
worked the prison where Rolling was held.
"Generally, human things go on with them, too. There's personal conflicts"
among inmates, O'Ferrell said, even when they're separated by cell walls.
Time in prison
Fifteen years after his Gainesville killing spree, Rolling's name still
stands out among the 368 men and women awaiting execution in Florida.
The son of a former police officer in Shreveport, La., Rolling became
infamous after he confessed to stabbing to death 5 college students inside
their apartments. The murders, committed over a 4-day span at the start of
the 1990 University of Florida fall semester, sent students fleeing from
Gainesville and panicked area residents.
"He's in the classification of Bundy or Wuornos," said state Sen. Rod
Smith, the area's former state attorney who prosecuted Rolling and
compared him to convicted serial killers Ted Bundy and Aileen Wuornos.
Both were executed in Florida. "He will forever have a certain infamous
notoriety."
Web sites carry Rolling's comments and hawk the art work he still draws in
his prison cell.
Books and news stories chronicle his crimes and his troubled past.
The state spends $72.39 a day to house Rolling or about $26,422 annually.
Prison officers don't describe him as a problem inmate, despite his
run-ins with other prisoners.
"He reads and watches TV. His attitude is that he's pretty quiet," said
Debbie Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Corrections,
after checking Rolling's prison file.
O'Ferrell worked as a corrections officer at Florida State Prison near
Starke from late 1994 until 1997 and saw Rolling when he patrolled Death
Row. Rolling later was transferred to nearby Union Correctional
Institution, where most of the state's male inmates awaiting execution are
now housed.
O'Ferrell had been friends with one of Rolling's victims, 23-year-old
Manuel Taboada.
"I guess it was kind of eerie for me," O'Ferrell recalled seeing Rolling
behind cell bars. The police officer remembered the convicted killer
getting "lots and lots of mail."
"Most of the death row inmates, they had little to no problems from them,"
O'Ferrell said, describing officers' dealings with prisoners facing
execution. Part of that may have been because those inmates had some
privileges other inmates didn't get, he said. They could keep televisions
in their cells and had more legal materials than other inmates, so they
could work on their court cases and appeals. Rolling kept some of his art
in his cell but nothing O'Ferrell, then in his mid-20s, recalled as
"disturbing."
"It seemed like he was a regular person," O'Ferrell said. "I remember him
seeming to be a relatively humble person, not cocky, . . . which again I
felt was very odd knowing the things that he did."
Words of a killer
In a courtroom at Florida State Prison on Jan. 31, 1993, Rolling first
talked with investigators about the murders in Gainesville.
Over four hours, Rolling and investigators went back and forth with each
other. Officers said they were willing to hear Rolling out after he had
"summoned" them to the Bradford County prison about a month before he was
scheduled to go to trial for murder. But Rolling refused to answer
questions directed to him about the grisly attacks.
Instead, officers were supposed to get answers from another inmate in the
room, Bobby Lewis, who Rolling described as his "confessor" in whom he had
confided.
Speaking to both Rolling and Lewis, investigators learned Rolling had
randomly chosen his victims and had spied on two of the women before he
broke into their homes in southwest Gainesville. Officers had Rolling
through Lewis describe what happened to the students and explain where he
hid the murder weapon, a Marine Corps Ka-Bar knife he bought at a
Tallahassee military supply store about a month before.
Rolling, through Lewis, claimed he had different personalities. There was
Danny. But then there was a side he referred to as "Jessie James," another
called "Ynnad," (an anagram for Danny) and a 3rd, "Gemini." Investigators
doubted Rolling's assertions he had other personalities, believing instead
that Rolling had lifted the Gemini reference after watching the movie
"Exorcist III" at a Gainesville theater just before the murders. The
film's killer had the same name. It also is his astrological sign.
"Gemini was who you would have found at the five murder scenes," Lewis
told officers on Rolling's behalf.
Rolling tried to blame his crimes on this alternate personality or demons,
Smith said.
"God only knows that there is this force in this world, gentlemen, that
can even overpower even the strongest of us," Rolling said in the
interview, one of the few times he spoke directly to officers about the
murders instead of having Lewis speak for him. "I've seen 'em and I know
it's real, just as sure as there's angels in heaven there's devils in
hell. They're mighty angry and they're working awful hard. They don't have
anybody else to . . . really try to tip the scales cause they know that
Lord God of heaven and earth is coming soon, and then they won't have any
more time to . . . even enjoy any kind . . .of pleasure whatsoever other
than through us."
Smith said Rolling has always tried to blame his actions on "satanic
forces."
"In the end, Danny Rolling escapes personal responsibility under the Flip
Wilson defense of 'the devil made me do it,' " Smith said.
"The way you can commit those kinds of horrible crimes is to have a
mechanism by which you divorce yourself," Smith said. "When he talks about
things like Ynnad and Gemini taking over his personality, what he was
really saying is, 'This is a different Danny, not the Danny who you're
talking to now.'"
On television true-crime shows that have followed the student murders
case, Rolling has given some interviews and said he's better off in
prison, Smith said. "He really doesn't believe any of that. I know he took
great glee in talking about the appearance of his victims and their
struggles."
Rolling bound the women with duct tape and raped three of them after
surprising them inside their apartments. He posed some of the bodies,
removed body parts from 1 woman and mutilated the body of another, leaving
her head on a bookshelf.
Lewis also later told investigators that Rolling had faked mental illness
in hopes of being moved to the prison's psychiatric wing and plotting an
escape. And Marion County officers said Rolling's mood would shift from
moments when he would "act crazy," to committing violent acts including
where he tore a toilet from his cell floor and threw it toward a barred
window and ripped two thick paperbacks in half with his bare hands.
Rolling was arrested for robbery and housed at the Marion County jail
before he became a suspect in the Gainesville slayings.
Rolling did not respond to requests from The Sun for an interview.
In a comment attributed to Rolling on the Web site www.mayhem.net, he does
apologize for the murders as he did in court when he was sentenced in
1994.
The site contains listings about cases of mass murder and serial killings.
"I want you to listen to me very carefully," Rolling wrote to an
Australian teenager whose posting said she was intrigued by killers.
"You mention you feel the thrill of the kill when you read stories about
murder. If indeed that is the case, I strongly suggest you read something
else. Why? you might ask. Because KILLING of all deeds done by mortals is
most tragic and horrible. Believe me, young lady, not only does the victim
lose that which is most precious than silver or gold (LIFE). The KILLER
loses a part of his or her soul every time a life is taken. God as my
Sovereign Judge, I regret with all my mind, heart & soul that which I
took. If only I could go back? I'd find a way to prevent what happened.
"I send my heartfelt thoughts across the yawning sea between thee & me.
When one takes another's life, 'tis of all things most grievous. I pray
you NEVER find yourself on the other side of midnight dripping life blood
of another. At that point you will have lost your way."
The posting also has Rolling talking about being incarcerated.
"Prisons and jails are a prime example of human's lack of wisdom. No other
species on Earth builds prisons or executes their own. It's not about
Justice as so many of the Rulers of Darkness of this present world would
have the public believe. It's about GREED! If you take mine? I want
yours," the message says. It does not say when it was written.
Rolling's routine
Rolling, 51, follows the same daily routine as other death row inmates,
whose average age is 44, prison officials say.
His cell at UCI near Raiford, located toward the interior of the prison
and away from windows, is a standard size of 6-by-9-by-9.5 feet.
Rolling's meals, like other inmates, are served three times a day, at 5
a.m., between 10 and 11 a.m. and between 4 and 4:30 p.m. The inmates are
allowed to use plates and spoons to eat their meals, and food is delivered
via insulated carts.
Occasionally, Rolling gets visitors, corrections records show. His last, a
woman described by the state corrections office as a "pen pal" from
Arizona, came to UCI in May.
All of the prisoners' visitors must be approved by the corrections
department before they are allowed to see any death row inmate.
Rolling has 13 people on his approved visitation list including his
younger brother and daughter, his prison file shows. The corrections
department describes others allowed to see Rolling as a girlfriend,
personal friends and pen pals. At least three of the people on the list
have deposited money in Rolling's prison account and describe themselves
as collectors of serial killer art.
Like other inmates, Rolling can use the money in his account to buy items
from the prison's canteen like snacks and deodorant.
Among those who regularly contribute to the account are Rolling's brother,
who has given his sibling $1,545 since October 2000 and deposits $30 every
few weeks.
Inmates may shower every other day.
O'Ferrell said death row inmates are constantly monitored. They are
counted at least once an hour. When escorted out of their cells, they wear
handcuffs everywhere except on the exercise yard or in the shower. The
only reason inmates can leave their cells are for medical reasons,
exercise, social or legal visits or for media interviews.
Inmates can get mail every day except holidays or weekends and can have
cigarettes, snacks, radios and black-and-white televisions in their cells.
They don't have cable television or air conditioning and aren't allowed to
be with each other in a common room, only on the exercise yard. They can
watch church services on closed circuit television. Unlike other prison
inmates, death row inmates wear orange T-shirts.
'Danny liked it'
Rolling continues to appeal his death sentence in the courts.
A key argument in those appeals has been that his case and sentence were
decided in Alachua County, where the crimes occurred.
Back in a Gainesville courtroom in 2000 on his appeals, Rolling said he
was never comfortable that his case wasn't moved from the county where the
murders occurred. But he respected his attorneys and their opinions and
went along with their decision to keep the case in Alachua County.
"I had my reservations concerning it, I certainly did, because you know
the people of Gainesville had been greatly wronged and they, the passions
of this, of this fine city were extremely high. And they couldn't help but
. . . look at me from a, you know, a viewpoint that I'm not a monster. But
I'm not a monster sir," Rolling told Smith, who questioned him during the
hearing on his appeal.
Smith scoffs at any apologies Rolling has offered for the murders or
issues he's raised about his abusive childhood.
Rolling sees himself as "the ultimate victim" and has "this chameleon-like
quality of fitting in," Smith said.
"The interesting thing about these kind of guys, these are people who have
never been good at anything and they get a special status. There is a
prison hierarchy. Some of the horror of what he had done gave him prowess.
And if given the chance, Smith said he thinks Rolling would do it again.
"He talked about liking to look into the eyes at the point of death. He
could conquer and possess people who were far superior to him in terms of
intellect and potential.
"Danny liked it. It's what he was successful at," Smith said.
********************************
Rehabilitating killers: Can it and should it be done?
Profile of a serial killer
The following list of traits are the factors most commonly found in serial
killers, according to the FBI. Not every serial killer will have all of
them, however.
White males in 85 % of the cases.
25 to 35 years of age.
Kill same type of victim in the same way.
May have physical deformities.
Average or above-average intelligence.
Abused as a child.
Psychopaths.
Few social attachments.
Interest in violent pornography, bondage, detective magazines.
Keeps records of offenses.
No history of arrests in more than half of cases.
History of head or brain injury.
Alcohol or drug abuse.
When Danny Rolling stalked his young Gainesville victims 15 years ago, he
knew exactly what he was going to do to them.
And when he killed them, it felt good.
Whether or not Rolling or other convicted serial killers might be
rehabilitated just isn't an issue, many legal experts say. For an outraged
public, rehabilitation is not an option.
"In their outrage, juries and judges conclude that they deserve the
ultimate punishment," says Christopher Slobogin, a professor in the
University of Florida's Levin College of Law.
Jeanne Singer is now the chief assistant state attorney for the 8th
Judicial Circuit. In 1993, she was 1 of 3 attorneys assigned to the
Gainesville student murders and made the case for the prosecution in the
murders of Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada.
"The issue of rehabilitation is not relevant in a case where a person
commits crimes as heinous as Danny Rolling has committed," Singer says.
"The issue in our criminal justice system for a person like Danny Rolling
is punishment."
Slobogin, who is also affiliated with UF's department of psychiatry, has
given more than a little thought to the question of whether the punishment
fits the crime when a serial killer like Rolling is sentenced to death.
Some mental health professionals will say that even Ted Bundy, who may
have stalked and killed as many as 20 young women, including three in
Florida, could have been rehabilitated. It is just a matter of time and
resources, Slobogin said.
"You must convert someone from a psychopath to a relatively normal person,
but many mental health professionals claim it can be done," he said. "It's
just a very tough task."
Speaking from the prosecutor's position, Singer said rehabilitation is not
an option to even be considered for someone who killed in the violent and
heinous way that Rolling did.
"Under the laws of the state of Florida, we have capital punishment as one
of our forms of punishment. In this case, the jury having heard all the
facts, the recommendation was that he should receive the ultimate
punishment, which is death," she said.
Singer said Rolling knew exactly what he was doing when he stalked his
Gainesville victims before raping, torturing and killing them. "After he
killed them, he mutilated them and then he left the premises, making sure
his fingerprints were wiped clean," Singer said.
"It made him high. It made him feel good, which is what makes it even
worse," she said.
"There is no issue of rehabilitation and we are not looking to
rehabilitate him."
In drawing a portrait of a psychopathic killer, experts portray someone
who is not just antisocial, but also a remorseless predator who uses
charm, intimidation and, if necessary, impulsive and cold-blooded violence
to attain his ends.
"Most of these people are psychopathic," Slobogin said, picturing someone
with a conscience as full of holes as a piece of Swiss cheese.
"They don't react to horrible situations the way that most of us do," he
said.
Psychopaths can function very successfully in society, Slobogin said.
While some would find them charming, others recognize them as
manipulative.
"Some become serial killers and some become CEOs," he said. "It's all a
matter of upbringing, opportunities and psychological proclivities."
In 1978, the FBI set up a behavioral science service unit in Quantico,
Va., to study what traits serial killers seem to have in common.
By studying how a killer murders his victims, who he chooses as a victim,
how the body was left and other characteristics of a case, the FBI can
develop a "profile" to describe the probable suspect. Profiles can include
details such as the killer's age, race, social ties and personal
characteristics.
Critics of such profiles worry that police investigating a crime will take
them too literally, searching only for people who match the profile,
whether or not they are the killer.
Experts stress that a profile is just one weapon in law enforcement's
arsenal used to track repeat killers. It may not be the key to unlocking
the case.
Slobogin points to a French saying: "The more you understand, the more you
forgive."
"If you understand that these persons may have been born with a birth
defect, and almost always had horrible childhoods, as a juror you might
not vote to acquit, but you begin to understand why they did what they did
and at least relent on recommending the death penalty," the legal expert
said.
Danny Rolling didn't even try to convince a jury of his innocence. He
pleaded guilty.
In the end, Slobogin said, juries and judges don't care about the
mitigating evidence when faced with an accused serial killer; they focus
on the number of crimes and their nature.
In Singer's view, that is as it should be.
"I love life, and I understand that Danny Rolling is a human being," the
attorney said. "But our system has to have some authority and credibility.
When you see the youth and the beauty of the people that he killed, and
know how horribly he killed them, it will change your perspective on
rehabilitation for a person like him."