Post by CCADP on Aug 28, 2005 7:29:31 GMT -5
Killer's name not spoken by families
By BOB ARNDORFER
Sun staff writer
August 28. 2005 6:01AM
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hey try never to utter his name.
Some of the families of Danny Rolling's victims, and their advocates, think speaking his name only dishonors the memory of the slain students. So one of the small ways they honor the victims is by not giving their killer any formal identity.
"I call him 'my daughter's killer,' " said Ada Larson, Sonja Larson's mother. "Or 'the murderer.' "
Rolling is on Florida's Death Row, where he was sentenced in 1994 for the August 1990 murders of five Gainesville college students. He confessed to the murders in 1993, but has appealed his death sentence to the federal courts.
Families and others watch and wait - and avoid speaking his name.
"I consciously refer to him only as 'he,' " said Christa Hoyt's stepmother, Dianna Hoyt. "One of the reasons he said he did it was because he wanted to become famous. We don't want any recognition given to him. That is his glory."
Laurie Lahey, Tracy Paules' sister, doesn't recoil when someone else uses Rolling's name. But she just calls him "he" or "him."
So does Mario Taboada, Manny Taboada's brother.
"Sometimes I refer to him as 'the individual,' " Taboada said.
Laura Knudson and Sadie Darnell have served as victim advocates for the families since the murders. But they also have become close friends of the families, and they, too, go out of their way to avoid using Rolling's name.
"In our society, we romanticize killers, and I don't want to be part of that," said Knudson, a former victim advocate for the State Attorney's Office in Gainesville and now president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of North Central Florida. " 'This killer' - that's how I refer to him."
"Gutter spit." That's what Darnell calls Rolling.
"I won't mention his name now," said Darnell, who was spokeswoman for the Gainesville Police Department during the time of the student murders.
"When I was doing press conferences I had to use his name, but I purposely mispronounced it because I had heard he didn't like it when people said his name wrong," she said. "To me it was like a slap in the face to him."
She said she used to publicly pronounce it "RA-ling" instead of "ROLL-ing," as Rolling prefers it.
"Names are so powerful," Darnell said.
"Fame was one of his motivators. We glamorize offenders, and that drives some of them to commit more egregious acts to become famous.
"Stop saying their names," she said. "And stop buying books and making movies about them."
Bob Arndorfer can be reached at (352) 374-5042 or arndorb@ gvillesun.com.
By BOB ARNDORFER
Sun staff writer
August 28. 2005 6:01AM
Font Size: 101112131415161718192021222324
hey try never to utter his name.
Some of the families of Danny Rolling's victims, and their advocates, think speaking his name only dishonors the memory of the slain students. So one of the small ways they honor the victims is by not giving their killer any formal identity.
"I call him 'my daughter's killer,' " said Ada Larson, Sonja Larson's mother. "Or 'the murderer.' "
Rolling is on Florida's Death Row, where he was sentenced in 1994 for the August 1990 murders of five Gainesville college students. He confessed to the murders in 1993, but has appealed his death sentence to the federal courts.
Families and others watch and wait - and avoid speaking his name.
"I consciously refer to him only as 'he,' " said Christa Hoyt's stepmother, Dianna Hoyt. "One of the reasons he said he did it was because he wanted to become famous. We don't want any recognition given to him. That is his glory."
Laurie Lahey, Tracy Paules' sister, doesn't recoil when someone else uses Rolling's name. But she just calls him "he" or "him."
So does Mario Taboada, Manny Taboada's brother.
"Sometimes I refer to him as 'the individual,' " Taboada said.
Laura Knudson and Sadie Darnell have served as victim advocates for the families since the murders. But they also have become close friends of the families, and they, too, go out of their way to avoid using Rolling's name.
"In our society, we romanticize killers, and I don't want to be part of that," said Knudson, a former victim advocate for the State Attorney's Office in Gainesville and now president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of North Central Florida. " 'This killer' - that's how I refer to him."
"Gutter spit." That's what Darnell calls Rolling.
"I won't mention his name now," said Darnell, who was spokeswoman for the Gainesville Police Department during the time of the student murders.
"When I was doing press conferences I had to use his name, but I purposely mispronounced it because I had heard he didn't like it when people said his name wrong," she said. "To me it was like a slap in the face to him."
She said she used to publicly pronounce it "RA-ling" instead of "ROLL-ing," as Rolling prefers it.
"Names are so powerful," Darnell said.
"Fame was one of his motivators. We glamorize offenders, and that drives some of them to commit more egregious acts to become famous.
"Stop saying their names," she said. "And stop buying books and making movies about them."
Bob Arndorfer can be reached at (352) 374-5042 or arndorb@ gvillesun.com.