The Well-Known Horror Film Inspired By The Gainesville Ripper

According to All That's Interesting, Danny Rolling broke into the house of 24-year-old Julie Grissom, her father Tom Grissom, and her 8-year-old nephew, Sean, and killed them. Rolling left Julie Grissom's body spread-eagle on a bed with bite marks all over her body. He wasn't identified as the killer at that time. Shortly thereafter, Rolling shot his father twice, causing him to lose an eye. Determined to leave Shreveport for Florida, he stole papers from the house of a man named Michael Kennedy Jr. and began using his identity. 

On August 20, 1990, Rolling followed two University of Florida Gainesville students, Sonja Larson and Christina Powell, to their home. He broke into the house, overpowered them, then raped, stabbed, and murdered them. He removed their nipples and took one as a trophy. 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. 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. 

Two weeks later, the Gainesville Ripper was arrested after a high-speed chase related to a Winn-Dixie robbery. 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. Rolling's DNA was a match. 

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