On
this date, August 22, 2019, Gary Ray Bowles, a serial killer was executed for
the murders of six men in 1994, by lethal injection in Florida. I will post the
information about this serial killer from Wikipedia and other links.
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Gary
Ray Bowles
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Born
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January 25, 1962
Clifton Forge, Virginia, U.S.
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Died
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August 22, 2019 (aged 57)
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Cause of
death
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Criminal
status
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Executed
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Criminal penalty
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Details
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Victims
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6+
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Span of crimes
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March 1994–October 1994
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Country
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United States
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State(s)
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Date apprehended
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October 22, 1995
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Gary Ray Bowles (January 25, 1962 – August 22, 2019)
was an American serial killer who was executed in 2019 for the murders of
six men in 1994. He is sometimes refered to as the I-95 Killer since
most of his victims lived close to Interstate
95 highway.
Early life
Bowles
was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and was raised in Rupert, West Virginia. His father,
"Frank" who worked as a coal miner, had died from Black Lung Disease six months before,
and his mother, Frances remarried several times. Bowles was abused
by his second stepfather, a violent alcoholic
who also abused Bowles' mother and older brother. The abuse continued until, at
the age of 13, Bowles fought back and severely injured his stepfather. He left
home soon after, angered by his mother's decision to remain in the marriage. He
was homeless
for the next few years, earning money as a prostitute.
In
1982, he was arrested for beating and sexually
assaulting his girlfriend, and was sentenced to six years in prison. In
1991, after his release from prison, he was convicted of unarmed robbery in the
theft of an elderly woman's purse, a crime for which he was sentenced to four
more years in prison; he was released in two.
Murders
On
March 15, 1994, in Daytona Beach, Florida, Bowles killed his
first known victim, John Hardy Roberts, aged 59, who had offered him a
temporary place to live. Bowles beat and strangled him to death, and then stole
his credit
card. Police soon considered him a suspect after finding his fingerprints
and probation
records at the crime scene. Over the next six months, Bowles murdered five
other men: David Jarman, aged 38, Milton Bradley, aged 72, Alverson Carter Jr.,
aged 47, and Albert Morris, aged 38, in Nassau County, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah,
Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Wheaton, Montgomery County, Maryland. His
typical modus operandi was to prostitute himself to his
victims before beating and strangling them, and stealing their credit cards.
While on the run, Bowles was put on the FBI's list of the country's 10 Most Wanted
Fugitives for his four known victims. On October 22, 1995, Bowles was
arrested for the murder of Walter Jamelle "Jay" Hinton, and confessed
to all six murders.
Following
his arrest for the murders, Bowles told police that following his 1991 release
from prison he had moved to Daytona Beach, and moved in with a girlfriend and
resumed working as a prostitute. According to Bowles, his girlfriend became
pregnant but then had an abortion after she learned that Bowles was a sex
worker. Bowles told police officers that he blamed gay men for the abortion,
and this led him to becoming a murderer.
Aftermath
In
May 1996, Bowles pleaded guilty to the killing of Walter Jamelle Hinton in
Jacksonville on November 17, 1994. Hinton died after Bowles hit his head with a
40-pound steppingstone while Hinton was sleeping and stuffed a towel down his
throat during the struggle. Bowles received the death penalty for Hinton's
murder. In August 1997, while sitting on death row for the slaying of Hinton,
Bowles pleaded guilty to beating and strangling Roberts in 1994.
Bowles
was found guilty of three counts of murder and sentenced
to death, but the sentence was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court, when they determined
that the court erred by allowing the jury to hear that Bowles hated homosexuals
and that the victim was gay. He was given a new sentencing hearing, and in 1999
again received the death penalty.
Bowles
was executed by lethal injection on August 22, 2019 at Florida State Prison in
Starke. Bowles ate three cheeseburgers, french fries and bacon as a last meal.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ray_Bowles
Jacksonville serial killer Gary Ray Bowles executed by
lethal injection
Brendan
Farrington, Associated Press
Aug 22, 2019 at 6:19 PM
Aug 22, 2019 at 11:34 PM
STARKE,
Fla. — Gary Ray Bowles, a serial killer who preyed on older gay men during an
eight-month spree that left six dead, was executed by lethal injection Thursday
at Florida State Prison.
The
sentence was carried out at 10:58 p.m., according to the office of Gov. Ron
DeSantis.
Bowles
received the death penalty for the November 1994 murder of Walter Hinton in
Jacksonville Beach. Hinton was Bowles' sixth and final known victim in a series
of killings in an eight-month span in 1994 that terrorized the Interstate 95
corridor and won him the nickname the "I-95 killer."
It
began in Daytona Beach with the murder of John Hardy Roberts. In between, there
were victims in Rockville, Maryland; Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta; and Nassau
County, Florida. In each case, Bowles had a signature: He stuffed the victims'
throats with objects — towels, rags, toilet paper, dirt, leaves and even a sex
toy.
Investigators
say if he hadn't been caught, he would have kept on killing.
"He
probably enjoyed it after a while," said Thomas Youngman, a Daytona Beach
detective assigned to the Roberts murder. "Why do you kill people after
the first one? The first one could be a mistake, maybe. But then the second,
all right, I'll maybe give you that. But the third, fourth fifth and sixth?
When do you stop?"
It
wasn't hard for Daytona Beach police to figure out who killed
Roberts , the first victim in March 1994: Bowles left a probation document
at the scene and also was caught on an ATM camera trying to withdraw money from
Roberts' account. What proved more difficult was capturing him, something they
were unable to do until after five other men in three states had been slain.
Bowles,
57, was raised in West Virginia, where he experienced drugs and violence at a
young age. His father was a coal miner who died of black lung before he was
born. His mother remarried multiple times, and his first two stepfathers were
abusive, according to court records. His mother and brother testified that
Bowles began drinking, smoking marijuana and huffing glue when he was 11 years
old. When he was 13, he fought back against his second stepfather, smashing a
rock in his head and nearly killing him, according to court records.
That's
when Bowles left home. Investigators say Bowles survived by letting gay men
perform sex acts on him for money, though he has maintained he is straight,
"I
had a question about him being gay. He told me he was not, and I said, 'What do
you describe yourself as?' He said, 'A hustler,'" Youngman said.
"He'd befriend these old guys and have sexual relations with them, but I
think they performed on him. He said he did not perform on them."
He
also had a history of violence against women.
He
was convicted of beating and raping his girlfriend while living in Tampa in
1982 and sentenced to eight years in prison. The victim had severe injuries,
including tears on her vagina and anus. Former Savannah detective John Best
remembers hearing details of the crime as he investigated the murder of
72-year-old World War II veteran Milton Bradley.
"The
Tampa detective, I remember her exact quote, 'I've seen better looking bodies
in an autopsy,'" Best said.
Best
still suspects that Bowles is bisexual and also believes he might have killed
women. He said during an interview with detectives, Bowles freely admitted to
killing his male victims, almost in a boastful manner, but when asked if there
were female victims, he hemmed and hawed.
"He
never gave us a yes or no answer," Best said. "It was, 'Let's change
the subject.'"
___
Associated
Press writer Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, contributed to this
story.
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