INFAMY: Danny Rolling: The Real Life Ghostface

Hi, the four-today's episode of Crimes of Reddit. We want to tell you about Mother Knowsmarter, a new crime house original hosted by Nisi Nash and her daughter, Dia. For Nisi, true crime is personal. When she was 15, she witnessed her mother become the victim of a violent shooting. Her mom survived, and today, Nisi and Dia bond over true crime together. Now, they're inviting you in, with comedic relief that lightens things up even when these cases get dark. Follow Mother Knowsmarter, with Nisi and Dia Nash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or subscribe on YouTube at Crime House Studios. Welcome back to Crimes of Infamy. Sabrina and I are going to start off today's episode with a little game for you all. Do you want to play a game? Let's play. Let's play. We will give you three details about this subject story and see if you can guess which movie was based on our subject today. This is Danny Rolling, aka the Gainesville Ripper. Okay, so hit number one, he became notorious for the brutal way he stabbed his victims to death. Hit number two, after killing his victims, he posed them in a way to provoke a very strong response and make sure that his crimes were talked about. In hit number three, he mainly targeted young women who reminded him of his mother. So put all of that together and you get the basis for one of the biggest horror movies of the 90s, whose villain you will see kids still dressing up as to this day, and if you haven't guessed it already, Danny Rolling inspired scream and the terrifying ghost face killer. Alright Sabrina, let's kick this episode off the same way we've been doing it previously with a quick game of two truths and a lie about today's subject, Danny Rolling, the Gainesville Ripper. Alright, give him to me. Alright, number one, Danny studied anatomy to commit his murders more efficiently. Number two, he went to jail when he was only 13 and was put there by his father. In number three, he dreamed of being a famous country singer. Why do I love the idea that he really wanted to be a famous country singer? It feels like the lie, doesn't it? It feels like the lie. I think I have to go with that one. Yeah, but that one is actually true. He didn't want to be a famous country singer. Does he have? No, I don't want to entertain it. I have the next country career. Yeah, what's his like, does he even album? I don't care. Not giving him any time. And in this case, the lie is actually number one because it turns out Danny was not so sophisticated in being a criminal. He killed in the heat of passion. He stabbed his victims to death in a psychotic frenzy, so he certainly was not studying anatomy to get away with his crimes. So today we will tell you all about Danny Rowling, the victims he left in his wake as he became known as the Gainesville Ripper, and how his actions inspired the terrifying ghost face killer in the legendary movie franchise Scream, whose films have collectively grossed about a billion dollars in the box. I believe it who hasn't seen Scream or at least heard of Scream. Right. It's the classic movie. Everyone recognizes the mass. Everyone. Welcome to Crimes of Infamy, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society, and giving you a front seat to every twist and turn along the way. We are your hosts, Karin Vien and Sabrina Diannaroga. I will be the one walking you through the chilling narratives of every story. And I'm Sabrina Diannaroga. I'll be zooming in on the moments and showing you how the very real scenes in these stories played out. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow rate and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community, and we love hearing from you. To get early access and add free listening, subscribe to the crime house plus community on Apple podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. This season is all about the crimes behind the world's most iconic horror movies, and today we are talking about Danny Rolling, aka The Gainesville Ripper. The inspiration behind one of the world's biggest horror franchises, scream. A warning before we begin, this episode contains descriptions of murder, sexual assault, physical abuse of animals, and death of a minor. Please listen with care. In August of 1990, 36-year-old Danny Rolling terrorized college students and Gainesville, Florida, killing five people in just four days. Before that, he murdered three people in Shreveport, Louisiana. But before we talk about anything else, we do want to take a minute to say his victim's names. In Gainesville, Tracy Paulus, Sonia Larson, Manitabota, Christa Hoyt, and Christina Powell, and in Shreveport, Tom Grissom, Julie Grissom, and Sean Grissom. These people all had bright promising futures ahead of them and their lives were cut short for no reason, in senseless acts of violence. And it's always important to us and for us to acknowledge the indescribable loss their loved ones suffered, all because of the crimes committed by Danny Rolling, also known as The Gainesville Ripper. The brutality of Danny's crimes and his twisted theatrics shocked the nation, and they also caught the attention of an emerging screenwriter named Kevin Williamson. The Gainesville Ripper murder inspired him to write a horror film, and it became the launch pad for one of the world's biggest horror franchises. So I didn't really know much about Danny Rolling before this episode, and I wish I could say it stayed that way. But here we are about to tell you all about him. And for having seen almost all of the screen movies in the franchise and all of the new ones, too, I had no clue it was based on an actual person. Me neither. Me neither. But I do love the screen movies. Yeah. Well, today we're taking the mask off, and we're going to learn about the killer behind Ghostface. We're going to rip off the mask. But also then we'll talk a lot about the movie screen and Kevin Williamson, and I have insider knowledge, bragging. It's like, I worked with the wife of the director of the new screen movies. So I have like a little bit of inside knowledge. Oh, do you? And then I interview gossip. I mean, it's actually very wholesome gossip. And then I interviewed to work on one of Kevin Williamson's show and I didn't get the job. So a little bit of gossip, a little bit of drama to start out with. Exactly. And then there also are a lot of Kevin Williamson projects that we can recommend to you to watch if you need a breather and a refresher. Something to take your mind off of the horrifying because he worked on some great things like Dawson's Creek Vampire Diaries. Vampire Diaries. Yes. Yes. So many things. Yeah. But I am curious. We are curious to know how many people realize that screen was based on a real person. So we're going to create a poll in Spotify. Vote and let us know. And if you have any more fun facts about these movies, drop your comments on YouTube because we would love to know. But in case you haven't seen any of the screen movies here suggest there is a serial killer known as Ghostface who haunts and arguably haunts in a fictional town of Woodsboro, California. Like Danny Brilling, he targets young girls, taunts his victims and throws the small community into chaos. The crimes that inspired the movies were so brutal that screenwriter Kevin Williamson had to actually tone down the gore in his scripts to make his script more marketable, which is hard to believe if you've seen the screen movies, but this over-the-top violence was really Danny Rollings' whole point. Yes. He wanted everyone to know about it. It is just after midnight on Monday, August 27, 1990. Despite the late hour, Tracy Paulis is wide awake. The 23-year-old should be excited about starting her senior year at University of Florida tomorrow, but instead, she is terrified. Two young women have just been brutally murdered in the area, Sonia Larson and her roommate Christina Powell. Like Tracy, they were students at the university and also like Tracy, they were white, brunette, and conventionally attractive. So it's deeply unsettling. Tracy cannot stop thinking about it. She knows she shouldn't worry. After all, her roommate, Mani Tabota, is a giant guy. Nobody's gonna mess with him, right? But Mani's not around tonight, and Tracy is feeling very alone. She knows that she's not gonna fall asleep anytime soon, so she calls her sister Laurie. All Tracy can think about is the murders. Her fear is all-consuming, so Laurie gets her to change the subject. She asks Tracy to tell her about the weekend getaway she just had with her new boyfriend, Chris. Finally, Tracy smiles. She has some big news for Laurie. She and Chris said they loved each other for the first time. And not only that, but they slept together too. This conversation helps Tracy get her mind off of the murders. Plus, Mani will be home soon. She'll get to get some sleep and everything will be okay. She'll finish school, become a lawyer, and maybe spend the rest of her life with Chris. She has no idea that outside her window, she is being watched. And tragically, the future she sees for herself will never come to pass. And if you have seen the screen films, you'll recognize that scene that we just painted for you is very very reminiscent of the opening scene of Scream, the original. Where Drew Baymore is on the phone and getting a call. Chatting away. Later that night, after Manny got home, someone did break into their apartment and he murdered Manny first and then he killed Tracy. After Tracy's boyfriend, Chris didn't hear from her the next day, he asked one of Manny's friends to go check on them. And that friend found the bodies of Tracy and Manny. The police were certain that they had been killed by the same person who previously had murdered Sonia Larson and Christina Powell. And since then, another victim had also been discovered, Christa Hoyt, making Manny and Tracy the fourth and fifth victims killed in a span of only three days. Three days. Five victims in three days. I can't even imagine how someone isn't caught in the act of doing this. This just seems so implausible too that someone could be slinking around. Like, when are they sleeping? It seems like they're not. It's really, really terrifying. And it does feel almost supernatural, which makes sense in terms of the horror film of Ghostface, which is how is this possible? Is there just one killer? How can someone get away and stalk this many people at once? And also, killing sprees like this are, I mean, a lot of serial killers will strike once and then have like a prolonged period of time off before striking again. So this is like really horrifying. And you can imagine how the entire town and community of Gainesville, this like college town, is horrified. Oh, absolutely. In the aftermath, Newsweek compared the murders to Jack the Ripper, which led to the nickname being given to this murder, which was the Gainesville Ripper. So inspired by Jack the Ripper, but Gainesville, the area where it was happening. Police did not know who he was yet, but we do. His name was Danny Rolling. Danny stalked young women and subjected them to brutal sexual violence and his sadism was fueled by years of abuse at his father's hands. And because of how most of his victims look, many believe that he was targeting women who looked a lot like his mother, who Danny felt and blamed for not saving him from his father's violence. Well, Danny also said that at least one of them reminded him of his ex-wife. And I think she even looked a lot like his ex-wife. Yeah, I do know that when he was first rejected by his ex-wife, that first rape victim happened after that rejection. And he said basically that that was the reason for his attack. God. And before he unleashed hell on the city of Gainesville, he lived through hell himself. Healing from Shreveport, Louisiana, Danny came of age in the late 1960s, and while many parts of the country were embracing the hippie attitudes and free love, his household was defined by the exact opposite. Of course, nothing can excuse Danny for what he went on to do, but to get the full context of this story, it's important to know his entire story first. And a big part of that was the abuse he endured at his father's hands, James Rowling, a U.S. Navy vet and a police officer James beat his son from the time that he was six months old. So sad. Danny grew up just constantly being hit by his father for doing anything. Everything he did was wrong for taking up space in the same room, for even breathing too loudly. There was one report I read where he was beaten when he was just one year old for not crawling correctly. So there's just a lot that happened to Danny that if you these are just some examples, if you actually read the nitty-gritty of what Danny endured, it is like if you've ever read the book, Child Called It, it is so similar. It made me want to vomit and cry. It was it's sickening. Yeah, and I'm sure as a mother yourself, like that's like you couldn't even imagine. It was horrible. I didn't really read it. Danny's mom, Claudia, she really tried to protect him and his little brother, Kevin, but as is tragically two common in situations like this in abuse cases, she also feared what would happen if she ever left her husband. And she did try like a multiple times to leave and then would end up going back to him, which is also very common in abuse situations. Like your abuser also becomes like your whole world. They isolate you, they take away all of your resources and like love bomb you in a way that you're reliant on them. Yeah, and things just kept getting worse for the kids too over time. And James would tie his sons up for hours at a time. He made them eat dinner while wearing blindfolds. He reportedly trapped neighborhood cats in the backyard and then forced the boys to watch as he killed them. And I also read when Danny was just five years old. He had a puppy who he loved so much and his father beat the puppy so horribly. And then Danny held the puppy and watched the puppy die in his arms. Well, that's horrible. One of the worst cases of child abuse. I mean, it's very clear. Like he he didn't want to be a dad. He wanted to be a torturer. Like he's torturing me. He didn't want kids. He was really upset actually. I feel like that's another important detail that we didn't mention. Was that James Rowling did not want children. And yet he had two and then tortured them. So you would think that Danny would grow up with this burning hatred of his dad. And maybe his mom a little bit too, but his feelings were a lot more complicated than that. He hated his father yet he yearned for his father's approval. And while he tried to forgive his mother, he was also overwhelmed with resentment for her. He really was expecting her to save them. And that didn't happen. And so he had really complicated feelings towards both of his parents. He fantasized about his mom leaving James and saving him and his brother. And like you said, she did try a few times, but never truly succeeded. And by the age of 13, Danny was suffering. He was stealing, he was drinking heavily, trying to cope with all the trauma of his entire life. I read that he started drinking at like 11. So by the time he's 13, he's like fully drinking to cope. And one night his father caught him with a bottle of whiskey and the incident led to another beating. But that wasn't all. James had his fellow officers because James, the child abuser, was a police officer. He had his fellow officers throw Danny in jail for two weeks as punishment. Two whole weeks. His child, which is like you can't even imagine like what happened in those two weeks while he's in prison. Honestly, like I would like to think that it probably was a break from his household. But it probably wasn't, especially if like these fellow cops are in on it. And they're like, yeah, let's teach him a lesson. I can't imagine they're treating him well for two weeks. No, and I guess like you're to your point when he returned from those two weeks, he was never the same. And he never told anyone what happened during those two weeks. When he was in jail. All right. It's the middle of the night. 13-year-old Danny has just been released from jail, but he has no interest in going back home. He shoves his bedroom window open, tosses a backpack outside, it's stuffed with dry food, a flashlight, and a ratty old blanket. Everything a runaway needs. He takes one last look at his room, then climbs out the window, and drops into the bushes. He is sick and tired of dealing with his parents. Tired of dealing with school, tired at the everything, and he plans to leave and never look back. Danny shoulders his pack and marches aimlessly through his neighborhood without a clear destination in mind. A few hours later, he finds himself deep in Louisiana woods. And where he expected peace and quiet, he is surprised to hear a wall of noise surrounding him. He is paralyzed by fear as the wind screeches through pine trees, the sounds of buzzing insects, snapping twigs, and screeching animals. All keeping him awake all night. Even so, it's better than being home. He stays in the forest until the next day, because anything is better than being home. When darkness falls at second night, sexual fantasies distract him from his fear. Danny imagines himself growing larger, stronger, like his dad. He wants to be big, big enough to overpower others, because that is what it means to him to be a man. Control. And in that moment, he touches himself, as he thinks about hurting people, especially women. Though he won't admit it to himself, the women in his fantasies resemble his mother. Pale with dark brown hair and matching eyes. He dreams of having power over both their life and their death. He fantasizes about bloody murder. Hey, I'm Nessie Nash. I've spent years playing cops and detectives on TV. Hi, I'm Dianash, and I grew up watching a duet. She's my daughter, and fortunately for her, I'm her mother. We love each other, and we hope love true crime. Most nights, you'll find us in bed chatting, watching True Crime. This is how we unwind after a long day anyway. We get in bed. We get our snacks. And somehow, we end up talking about murder. Somehow, on our new show, Mother Knows Murder, a crime house original, we're letting you in on our hand. Each week, one of us brings a case. and the other hears it for the first time. - We catch totally different details, question every alibi, and lock in on our own verdicts. And once justice is served, baby, we drag the murderer. - For most of all, we never lose sight of the people at the heart of these stories. - Listen and follow Mother Knows Murder, available now wherever you get your podcast. - We all know how sick this is. And if you're wondering, is this true? How could this be true? We know it's true, because Danny himself actually wrote a book about his life and his crimes. And he admitted to having rape fantasies as a teenager and that he would go into the woods and essentially masturbate while thinking about murdering people. - Yeah. - He didn't mention this specific incident in his own book, but it is cataloged in a different book of the Gainesville Ripper by Mary Ryzek. - Her work was exhaustively researched, drawing on interviews, court transcripts, thousands of investigative reports and countless articles. So it does feel safe to say that the information is reliable. I'll be very, very disturbing. - Very disturbing. - Especially because Danny himself said he was unhappy with how he was portrayed in that book, which, to me, makes me think. Yeah, because you didn't get to control the narrative. - Right. - You didn't like how things were talking about. - Totally. - Yeah. - And also, I can't imagine what it's like to actually write a book about someone like him and about these crimes, because it's so much effort to write a book and to have to do all of this research and just kind of constantly be bombarded by some of the darkest corners and darkest thoughts of humanity. - As we sit here doing exactly that. - Well, not to the extent that Mary did. - That's true. - Yeah, I feel for Mary. - I do. - Me too. - Okay, well, regardless of what happened in these woods, whether Mary's depiction of it is correct or Danny's, he did not last long there because the next day, reality, set in. Danny was happy to be away from his parents, but it was clear that he could not survive on his own out there. And I mean, he couldn't survive as in, he couldn't survive one day out there alone because he was already at a food. But keep in mind, he's also a kid, like he's young. He just spent two weeks in jail because his dad put him there. Like, he's thinking, I need to get out of here quick, but unfortunately, yeah, he's a child. He doesn't have, he doesn't know to pack up all of his cans. - Exactly. I remember when I was little, I wanted to run away because it's one of those things. You know, like all the kids run away. And so I wanted to have the runaway experience. My mom like, helped me pack a bag. - She helped me pack your bag. - Yeah, well, she supervised, but I still remember what I selected. I had a few granola bars and then I packed some pantyliners because I was like, one day I'll get my period out here. - Why are you so cute? But I also would have survived more than a few hours with those items and I didn't. I had to go home. - I love that your mom helped you pack your bag. - I mean, she stood on the sidewalk and watching me like, "Bye!" - She was like, "Bye!" - She came to live on my, my pantyliners, granola bars. - I love that. - Yeah, but my situation was obviously very different. Like, he truly was trying to escape and unfortunately, realized that he couldn't live without going back. So he was not outside of his home for very long. He did return to his home and for the next four years, he just grit his teeth and he endured the life that he had there that he'd sort of gotten used to, but was constantly trying to escape. - Yeah. - And sometimes he went out at night and he would spy on girls through their windows and that sort of how he passed time and felt a little thrill and felt alive for a moment. - And his sexual fantasies kind of continued to develop. - Right. So he dreamt of leaving town of getting far away from his parents and making his dark fantasies come true. And at 17 years old, he came up with a way out. He would join the Air Force. And so Danny pleaded with his dad to let him enlist because he was underage, so he needed parental permission to enlist in the Air Force. And finally, relenting James's last words to his son before bootcamp were quote, "See to it, you don't screw up." - And also going back to Danny wanting his father's approval, like his dad was in the military. He served the country. And so it's like, oh, look, I'm getting two things out of this or hoping to get two things out of this. One, to leave the toxic, unhealthy home, but then hopefully get approval of his father. - Danny did screw up just two years after enlisting in 1973. Danny was discharged for repeatedly defying orders and using drugs. - And I think he did participate in some other unholy crimes, yes. But he was dishonorably discharged. - He was diagnosed with an unspecified personality disorder and returned home. And once he returned home, he moved back in with his parents and he tried and tried and tried and failed and failed at holding down a job. - Yep. - So his drinking is now getting way worse and he realizes he's kind of at a crossroads in his life. Because if he doesn't clean up his act soon, he's going to end up in jail and prove his father right that he's basically a failure and he's going to screw up. And he very sincerely did want to turn his life around. And he just didn't really know where to start. And so that's kind of where the drinking came in and he continued to drink. And one day he was getting drunk in a neighborhood park when a group of church goers noticed they were on their way to a service and they stopped to comfort him. They encouraged him to put down the bottle and to find the Lord into Danny. He, his response to experiencing this was he felt like they were angels sent down from heaven to save him essentially, like a literal sign from God. This was his chance to be saved. And for the first time in his life, he took a helping hand. - It's very obvious from a lot of his behaviors, especially in this time of his life. All he wants is to be loved and belong and feel like he belongs. His peeping turned into a much more serious, violent crime. It does make me think that he's like looking in these windows at people who are living lives that he wished he had. - Maybe, but it's all women. - Right, it's not just like I'm peeping at 6 p.m. into this family home and watching everyone have dinner and talk together. It is, peeping is one of those signs. It's just like when people start harming animals. It's like one of those telltale signs of something that's gonna progress into something else. - That could easily escalate and peeping is definitely one of those. It reminds me of like Golden State Killer and some of those other murderers out there that like that is sort of beginning in the progression. - We had peeping toms. So Karen and I met in college and like your junior senior year, you live off campus and they were multiple predators, 'cause that's what they are. I'm gonna call them that. That would be caught on cameras, peeping in windows, like they got, so there was one who got so bad that they learned the schedule of the girls living in the house and one day broke into the home, didn't realize that one of the girls had skipped her class. And so she's in her room like by herself. - Face to face now. - With this man and police couldn't do anything 'cause technically no crime had been committed. - Except he broke in. - Broken. - Yeah, it was so scary. - It was so scary in LA. - But for Danny, these church goers are the helping hand. This is like his opportunity to have someone else who's coming at him with warmth and acceptance and giving him an opportunity to basically save him, to give him a family or just like some sort of purpose, right, to be loved for a moment. - Yeah. - But going to church could only keep Danny's demons at bay for so long. His anger, his desire to blame someone for his pain. It soon overwhelmed him and no matter what he did, how many services he attended. Danny had a darkness inside him that was about to burst. So here Danny is, it's 1973. He's really starting to turn his life around. The 19 year old found a community at the King's Temple United Pentecostal church in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, which was actually only like a block or two away from his home. So it was really nice 'cause it was so close. So I do imagine like in my mind I picture him in really dark moments, like running from his house to this church for a respite. - Yep. - And the people there were very kind to him and they did actively work with him to help him sort of clean up his act. He even found a girlfriend and at the church social event, he met this girlfriend, Omother Helko. In the following year when Danny was just 20 years old and Omother was 19, they got married and he moved out of his parents house finally, thank God. He was probably literally thanking God and things started off well. But Danny had never seen a healthy relationship and so instead of letting Omother help him and shape kind of what a healthy relationship could be for them, he instead lashed out and Danny started to drink again. He became secretive. He would wander the streets at all hours. Omother was always wondering like where is he going? Where are you going? What are you doing? And then one night in the summer of 1975, her questions are answered. Because that evening while Danny was out, two police officers showed up at their door and her husband Danny is standing between them. They found him peeping in a woman's window. And Omother wanted to end things with Danny right then and there but she was pregnant. So that really complicated things. And then she decided she would give him another chance for the sake of her. child in the family and try to understand what's going on and try to help him, right? Like they met in church, let's take this to the church and like confess your sins and repent and then move forward and become a better person. Totally. And so that was kind of her perspective in forgiving him the first time. But unfortunately, nothing she could do or anyone else could do could keep him sober. And around this time, something all started happening to Danny, something paranormal. He started seeing things. At first, he claimed to see a UFO, as well as some other things far more terrifying. It's a hot, muggy night in July. Danny tosses and turns in his bed. He and O'Mather had just put their daughter to sleep. And despite how exhausted Danny is, he is wide awake, unable to sleep. From the bed, he looks through the open window onto the dimly lit street. And then suddenly, he's blasted with a burst of cold, wintry air. At first, Danny wonders if they're being hit by a tornado. But O'Mather doesn't stir from her deep sombre. Whatever is causing this, it's just for him. And that's when he sees it. Crawling in from the outside of the window is a dark, shadowy form. It's eyes piercing Danny's soul with a devilish hunger. Something deep inside Danny knows what he is looking at. A demon. This entity slithers into the room. Crawling, joints cracking in an inhuman manner, all the way up into the upper corner. It lurks there, latching itself onto the ceiling, watching, waiting. Danny knows what it's after. His soul. He's paralyzed by fear, too scared to move, too terrified to speak. So finally, Danny finds the power to cry out a name. Jesus. He says it three times. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. And the demon disappears. After that, all goes quiet. But Danny feels its presence long after this, constantly following in his shadow. Well, that was terrifying. I even terrified myself. Yeah. And I'm like, we are the first people to scream paranormal activity. Like we truly believe in ghosts and demons and all of those things. But it does make me wonder in this moment, too, given all that has happened in his view of the church attempting to save him and God. I do wonder if because he's starting to kind of dissolve into himself again and is not being able or not receptive to the help. If this is like his way and his mind's way of kind of seeing the light and dark battling one another. Because like in this moment, he's trying to be a better person for his wife and kid that's on the way. But this dark side of him lingers, waiting to like come out. Right. And he calls for God. He calls for a better life. Yes. But does he succeed in getting it? No. No. That's his own fault now here. Yeah. So whether Danny really saw a demon or if this was something in his psyche, maybe a case of sleep paralysis, we don't really know. Maybe he just made the whole thing up. We'll get to it in a minute. Yeah. Because this is also information told to us by Danny, told to us personally by Danny. No. That God it wasn't told personally. That Danny wrote about his experiences and we'll unpack that in a minute. Right. Yeah. But after this, his behavior only became more erratic. In a 1977, after less than three years of marriage, he and a mother divorced and she took their young daughter with her. Danny was so devastated. He lost the family that he so fantasized about having and this totally led him to basically like spiral. Even more than he already was spiraling. Right. And along with his emotional pain, he suffered a physical setback as well. One day while he was at his job at a bakery, he had an accident with a bread slicer and he lost part of his left ring finger. Which almost feels ironic. You know, it's like his wife and child just left him. And then his finger. And then almost instantly he like loses a part of his ring finger. It's like this like universal for like the universe reminding him like you can't have that one thing you've always wanted. Which is in part, it's like my mind has so much trouble with talking about killers like this, because so many of them did experience really terrible things growing up and so part of me wants to sympathize with them. And I guess I do with the the young child version of them. But what happens after I'm like, this is very responsible for actions that then they take. It's complicated. Yes. So he blamed the world for all of his problems. And he decided that he was going to get some payback to the world for everything that happened to him for his missing finger. And he committed a series of armed robberies, but he wasn't exactly good at the armed robberies. And so he got caught pretty much immediately. Yeah. In 1979, the 25 year old was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. And the time behind bars only caused his anger to fester. And I'm sure remind him of the time that he was in jail for two weeks as a young kid. We have no idea what happened in those two weeks. Right. So like his father of violence became Danny's solution to everything. So obviously it's no surprise that almost immediately after being released, he was arrested again for another robbery in Mississippi, repeating crimes, probably still deeply drinking. And he served three more years for this robbery getting out in 1988 when he was 34 years old. And while we're not a psychological people professional, that's clearly we're not because I can't even say it. We're not psychological. We're not psychological professional people. That's a scientific term there. I feel like I've read a lot about killers and the progression to their, you know, the fantasy of like their progression to what they ultimately want, which is murder. And a lot of them do start with petty crimes. A lot of them do commit like the peeping Tom or again, the Golden Sey killer. Yeah, the breaking and entering to maybe stealing a couple things, maybe not just seeing like what you can get away with. And it's like building up this confidence. Or I think there's also an element of like, what if I do this one crime, like can it satiate the deeper urges that I have? Right. And the answer is almost always maybe for a time being, but not always. Right. And also I feel like at this point too, just knowing that there is this sort of like paranormal element that's being brought into Danny's story, it does remind me of the son of Sam a bit as well, where it's just like a lot of times killers will blame everyone else, but sometimes they also blame the paranormal and some sort of someone or something who's trying to control their mind. And they're responsible not them because it's a way to disassociate because it's like that's a different version. That's not me. That's I was forced to do that. Yeah, the amity feel horror. This is a light-hearted iteration of this, but my friend Jill has a daughter who has a imaginary friend named Curly, but anytime that Abby does anything wrong, she was it wasn't me, it was Curly. Curly, not Carly Curly. Curly, which is like such like a villainous alter ego, but it's like she put her hand in the toilet water. Yeah. She's not committing robberies or murdering anyone exactly. So Danny serving these additional three years in jail for this robbery, this time it seemed maybe a little bit different for Danny. It seems like maybe he finally learned his lesson. And when he got out, he tried to start over and he got a few restaurant jobs, but he could never really hold them down for very long. He got fired again and again, but he took this extremely personally. Like this is such an attack on him and who he was that he was not the fact that he's still drinking a lot and not showing his job done. Yeah, exactly. Danny got so angry that the mere sight of someone else being happy seemed to completely trigger him. It made him so incredibly furious and he especially hated to see a pretty woman happy and smiling. He thought back to the night in the woods all those years ago, the bloody fantasies from back then returned once more with Avengers. And on November 4th, 1989, the 35-year-old decided to turn these fantasies into reality. Warning, the following segment includes depictions of a murder of a child, and so if you'd like to skip past it, you can fast forward about a minute. Danny walks into Dillard's department store, his mind reeling. He has just been fired from another job this time at the Western Sizzler restaurant in the same mall, but he is not ready to go home, not yet. Instead, he finds himself gravitating towards the cosmetics counter at Dillard's. There is a young woman who works there, 24-year-old Julie Grissom. She's pretty brunette, dazzling smile. Danny's been watching Julie for a while now, and he hates her. For absolutely really no other reason than the fact that she exists. And tonight… He's decided he's going to make her pay. When Julie's shift ends, Danny follows her into the parking lot. He watches Julie climb into her car, tails her at a safe distance. And when she gets home, Danny watches her go through the front door and continues to spy on her through the bedroom window. Then around six o'clock, he pulls out his knife and moves in. He finds the door unlocked. He sees a man, presumably Julie's dad, cooking steaks for dinner. He also sees a boy no older than 10, playing with his toys in front of the TV. Danny slips by both of them unnoticed. He tiptoes upstairs into Julie's bedroom. He then ties her up with tape, sexually assaults her, and kills her. He then goes back downstairs, kills her father. And last of all, takes young Sean's life, too. After the murders, he spends hours cleaning the bodies with vinegar to get rid of any trace of evidence. He mutilates them. And then he poses Julie's body in a provocative, shocking manner. Leaving her on the bed, legs spread out, and hair fanned out behind her. Because clearly, Danny wanted to terrify the person who found the bodies. He wants to leave a signature, a personal statement, to show he is the one in control. As Danny moves through these vile acts, his resentment towards his mother, quiets, the pain from his father's abuse, subsides, ever so slightly. But even now, it doesn't fully go away. Well, it's interesting, too, that some people say that the way that he posed the body was, like, for a signature move, or basically just, like, for the shock of the crime. But also just knowing what I know about, like, his resentment towards his mother and targeting people who reminded him of his mother, it does feel almost like a humiliation thing. And control. Yeah, to be like, I took your life. And now I'm going to, like, make a mockery of you, too. It's so disturbing. Two days later, the Grissom family's neighbors found their gruesome murders, the gruesome scene, and they called police. Truly Grissom, her father, Tom, and her eight-year-old nephew, Sean, were deceased. Detectives launched an investigation, but weren't able to zero in on our subject. Danny had cleaned the scene so thoroughly that he did not leave behind anything too obvious. They did collect a sample of his semen, though. But DNA testing was not a thing back then, so they couldn't really do anything with it. So there was no clear suspect. It was impossible to tell who the semen belonged to. And since Danny didn't know Julie personally, there was no way to connect him to the murders. Also, looking at this time in the '70s, we talk about the '70s as being the height of serial killers, but I think it was also the first time that the FBI and profilers were becoming more common. And this belief in psychology to help understand a killer and a criminal was becoming accepted. So the term serial killer wasn't really known until this time. So it's like, as we're evolving through this story, keeping that in mind, people don't really know what to do with this information. But we hope that everyone's just keeping all the evidence stashed away, so that DNA evidence is still finding and identifying both murders and victims. Today, yeah, definitely. So getting away with this heinous crime gave Danny a sense of superiority that he had been chasing for a while now in his life. But this also made him very paranoid that he was going to be caught. So afterward, he laid low for about six months until he realized no one was coming for him. Then in May of 1990, he visited his parents and it wasn't long before a pretty petty argument broke out between he and his father. It was raining that day, and his father, James, demanded that Danny roll up the windows in the back seat of the car. But they were under a covered car port. So Danny said, why there's no point. And James didn't care. It was his house, his rules. And when Danny refused, James pulled a gun on his son, stood in the rain and fired several shots at the direction of Danny. It's a, can you imagine? Because you won't roll up a car window. So you're going to get shot out by your father. - I mean, this is a perfect example of how small, like literally anything Danny did growing up, he would get abused for. But this is now an escalation to where his own father is pulling out a gun and shooting at him. - Right. - Not threatening him with it, fully shooting at him. - Full shooting at him. So Danny ran away while his father cursed him, revolver in his hand, and James thought that his son had basically left for good after this argument. Well, is it an argument? I don't know. It's a full-on shootout. - Assault. - Yeah. - But Danny didn't leave. He actually didn't go very far at all. In fact, he went home to their backyard where he knew his dad kept a backup pistol stashed in the shed. So then he goes, he grops the pistol, and he goes to the back door of their house, and he kicks it in. His mom is there, and she's terrified. So she screams, she flees to the bathroom to hide. She locked herself inside. Well, James and Danny had a shootout. They're shooting at one another. - Right, James still has the gun that he just shot at his son at, and Danny is shooting at. - And now he has a weapon too. James was hit several times, and he fell to the floor. Danny looked down to his father, kicked his limp body, and then ran out of the house. But James didn't die, which, like, kind of unfortunate. I kind of wish he didn't. - He was shot in the head too, which is crazy. The fact that he survived that. - He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He'd been shot in the stomach, and in the head, and miraculously somehow, he survived this. The cops then go after Danny, but Danny is nowhere to be found. He high-tells it out of town, left her a few months, and he bounced. - And I did read that. So, like, he fled, and he, like, just kept driving, basically, with no destination in mind, but when he did temporarily stop, he called the hospital where his dad had been admitted to check up on him to make sure he was okay. Which, again, goes back to this really complicated relationship he had with his dad. - He wants him dead, but not really, but also, yes. But also, no. - Right. - It's all very confusing, but, yeah. So, he bounced around from County to County, one step ahead of police, a drove and drove and drove. And at a certain point, he did end up staying with a relative in Southern California, but by the time authorities learned of that, and they arrived, he was already gone. He was driving east again. And basically, his plan was to make it to the Florida Keys, to then get in a boat and escape to Jamaica. But he didn't make it that far. He did steal cars and rub convenience stores to basically live on his way. But in late July, 1990, his money ran out in the city of Gainesville, Florida. So, just 500 miles north of Key West. He was restless. He was fried from weeks on the road, hiding and running. The life he knew was over and his rage only returned. And according to Danny, this is what happened next. It is the night of August 23rd, 1990. Danny is tired from weeks spent on the run. He's out of money, out of places to hide. So, he sets up camp in a patch of woods. He's got a tent, a camp bed and really not much else. It reminds him of running away from home when he was a teenager. Back then, he was scared of the dark. But now, the dark is the only place he feels safe, a place where no one can find him and no one can hurt him. Using a tape recorder, he leaves a farewell to his friends and family and apologizes to his parents, claiming he only ever wanted to make his father proud. His final words on the tape are, quote, "I got something I gotta do. Love ya, bye." After that, he leaves the woods, headed to his dark purpose. Danny stalks the darkened streets, peering into apartments around the University of Florida's campus. Each time he sees a woman undressing, he takes off his jeans right then and there, and he's caught twice by two different night watchmen, but manages to pull up his pants and run away both times. Then, at around 3am on August 24th, he arrives at the complex where Christina Powell and Sonia Larson live. He had spied on them before. He knows that there is no one else there in that apartment. And when he realizes that their backdoor is unlocked, he decides to go in. When Danny steps inside, he finds Christina asleep on the couch. He stands over her for several minutes, debating what to do. Not if he should hurt her, but which roommate he wants to go after first. He decides to leave Christina for the moment. So Danny heads upstairs to find Sonia. She's in her bedroom asleep. Danny pulls out a k-bar military knife and before Sonia can wake up, he stabs her. To make sure she doesn't cry out, Danny places tape over her mouth. Then he heads back downstairs where Christina is still sleeping. He grabs her, ties her hands behind her back, and then rapes and tortures Christina before killing her. He then robs the place and spends the rest of the morning cleaning up like he did before. It's open vinegar. to get rid of the tape residue and any other forensic evidence. When he's done, Danny mutulates the bodies and poses them for the police, like he did with the Grisms. Later, Danny will claim that there is this demonic being called Gemini, who was in control of all of these killings. And according to Danny, Gemini had been in his mind since he was in that filthy Mississippi prison, sometime in the mid-80s. And here's where we get to this conversation of, was that demon real? Because this is the tricky thing. And since this whole season of "Crimes of" is about movies and who inspired them, Danny had gone to see the exorcist three, very recently, prior to killing Sonia and Christina. That's what the name of the demon possess killer in that movie, is Gemini. So demon or no, demon, Danny is out for blood and on August 25th, 1990, the day after murdering Christina and Sonia, Danny struck again. The morning after killing, Sonia Larson and Christina Powell, Danny rolling, walked into an eye-hop, sat down, and ordered breakfast as if it were any other day. As he ate, he couldn't keep his eyes off of one of the other customers. 18-year-old Christa Hoyt, she was just his type. She was beautiful, she was brunette, and she was grinning from ear to ear, happy, happy Christa. And he hated her. He hated seeing anyone happy, especially someone like Christa. So Danny followed Christa home and lurked outside, watching her all day, until she went out for the night. And while she was gone, he broke into her apartment, and he hid and waited there until she returned. He crouched behind her bedroom door for hours, listening carefully for the sound of the door. And around 11pm, Christa came home after a night out with friends and Danny attacked her. He pounced on her before she even realized what was happening before she could understand that there was someone in her room with her, but she fought back. Yet Danny was twice her size. He overpowered her. He stabbed her and he decapitated her with his military issue knife. And when he was done, he placed her severed head on a bookshelf. It was deliberately positioned opposite of a mirror. So the first thing anyone would see when they walk in was her head. And this was just another act of control from Danny. Almost making her decapitated head look at her headless body. I look at the control I have over you. Right. And it took Danny until four in the morning to get the pose just right before he finished up cleaning. It's around the same time that the parents of his first victim, Christina Powell, were starting to get worried about their daughter. And they were supposed to help her move into a new place, but she wasn't answering her phone. And so they decide, hey, we'll just go show up anyway and see what's happening. But the front door is locked. No one's answering. They can't get hold of their daughter. And so they decide to call the police. Upon arrival, a police officer forced open the door, walking into a super gruesome and tragic scene inside. He found the decaying bodies of Christina and Sonia, which were left on display for police to find. Yeah. And the news of their death sent shock waves through the city of Gainesville. College students throughout Gainesville locked their doors, changed their routines. They stopped going out by themselves. Three-year-old Tracy Paulus was one of those students. She lived only a mile or so from Christina and Sonia and she was so terrified of what happened to those girls. And what she didn't know was at that time the body of Danny's third victim, Christa Hoyt, was also being discovered. After midnight on August 27th, she called her friend and then her sister to share some of her fears of this unnamed unidentified killer in the area. And the two of them did their best to reassure her and to calm her down. All the while, Danny Rowling is watching Tracy from outside of her window. It's so sad because I imagine every person in this town is panicking, scared, calling their loved ones, being like, "I don't want to go to sleep tonight." And unfortunately, Tracy Paulus is being watched by him. And this is a scene from Scream, right? And if you make the phone call to your friend, "Help, come over, I need you, boyfriend," and the killer's outside watching you through the window. So sad. She stayed up until 2.45 AM or so until her roommate, Mani Tabota, got home from work. Mani was a super big former football player, definitely made her feel a lot safer, having him as the roommate. And he was clearly very strong, very tough. Danny Rowling, seeing this guy knew that he wouldn't stand a chance against Mani, at least not in a fair fight. So around 3 AM, Danny cracked open the sliding glass door to this apartment using a screwdriver. Tracy's room was along a hallway. Mani's room was right across from it. So Danny went to Mani's room first. Mani was already fast asleep. And Danny took out his k-bar knife. The same one he'd used in the previous murders. And he plunged it into this young man's chest. The blow woke Mani up immediately, and he managed to actually fight back. As a attacker. And even with a knife in his heart, he almost knocked Danny out. But it was too much for Mani to overcome. Danny had stabbed him 31 more times before Mani actually succumbed to his wounds. But the commotion of all of this did wake Tracy up, and she came out to see what was going on. She walked into Mani's bedroom, just as Danny staggered to his feet. She then sprinted to her own room, but Danny got to her before she could lock the door. By the end of the night, the Gainesville Ripper had claimed his fourth and fifth victims in just four days. Danny knew he couldn't stay in the area. He was out of money. But before he made her run for it, he needed to rob a bank. The money had a dipack in it. So when Danny brought it back to the campsite, it blew up and sprayed pink all over him and all over everything. And so while Danny decided what to do next, the police were looking for him and they found his campsite. Danny somehow managed to escape this. And he left everything behind, including his gun, the screwdriver that he'd used to break into his victims' apartments, the pink money. And at this point though, the officers didn't really make the connection that the bank robber was also the murderer. They just thought that they'd basically found the bank robber's campsite. Well, because it also just seems like such a different crime. Right. Like, it is. It is such a different, drastically different crime than a murder. And it's a weird thing to go back to back. Right. Double murder to bank robbery. Right. Right. So they think they have two different criminals. Yes. And in the coming days, two men would be arrested for Danny's crimes. For the bank robbery, they thought that it was a man named Michael J. Martin, who'd also been camping in the woods that night. And when it came to the murders, their main suspect was 19-year-old Edward Humphrey, a troubled University of Florida freshman who lived in the same complex as Tracy Palace and Manning Tabota. But now, at this point in time, DNA evidence is in play. And thanks to the DNA evidence, the police quickly realized that they had the wrong guys. So these two people who they thought were responsible for Danny's rolling crimes are freed and cleared. As the investigators on the bank robbery regrouped, they traced the gun back to a guy in the town of Sarasota. And when they talked to this guy, the guy admitted that he had sold his gun to someone else. And as he remembered this person, he remembered there was something very distinctive about the guy who bought his gun. This guy was missing a part of his left-wing finger. So in one of the investigators on the case shared this information in the meeting, a colleague with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed up from his seat because he was also investigating the Gainesville murders and the killer had left something behind at Sonya Larson and Christina Powell's apartment, a paper towel that he had used to wipe off his penis. And the handprint on it showed that he was missing the top of his left-wing finger, exactly. So the authorities now know that the bank robber and the Gainesville killer are the same person. But the only problem is, they don't know who that is. So they are getting closer, and a couple months later, they do get their answer from a very unexpected source. Cindy Jurassic turns up the volume on her car radio as she passes through the Florida Panhandle. It's late August and the Gainesville River murders are all over the airwaves. As Cindy listens to the Grizzly details, she thinks it sounds a lot like the Grizzam family murders in her hometown of Shrieveport, Louisiana. So she can't help but wonder if the Gainesville River is responsible for those murders, too. And if that's true, Cindy thinks she knows who that is because back in Shrieveport, Cindy and her husband had been friends with a guy named Danny Rolling. She'd met him through church, but there was always something weird about Danny. He just rubbed her the wrong way, but her husband liked him well enough, so Danny came over once in a while. Cindy thinks about the last time she saw Danny Rolling. Earlier that year, sometime around the beginning of 1990, Danny had been hanging out at their house when he made some very disturbing comments to her husband. Danny told Cindy's husband that he liked cutting people with knives. Thinking back on it now, Cindy realizes it had just been a few months after the grissoms were violently stabbed to death. After that, Cindy never saw Danny again, and all he said was that he was leaving for someplace sunny, a place where there were a lot of young, pretty girls. Gainesville definitely fit that description. At the time Cindy convinced herself there was no way that someone she knew killed the grissoms. It couldn't have been Danny. And now she really can't deny it anymore. A serial killer had been in her house and he had just struck again. So now Cindy knows she has to do something about it. It did take Cindy a few months before she called police with her suspicions, but when she did contact them in November of 1990, they immediately believed her and took action. It turns out they had just connected the grissom murders to the Gainesville Ripper themselves, and the disturbing poses, the brutal stabbings, the same kind of knife, the military issue K-Bar, it all pointed to the same person. Danny was actually already in custody at this point, but not for those crimes. He had been arrested about a week after the Gainesville murders for robbing a supermarket. The police still had not connected him to the bank robbery or any of the murders, but after Cindy's tip, they turned all of their attention to Danny. They compared his DNA samples to the ones taken from the Gainesville crime scenes, and it turned out he was not as careful as he thought he was because, of course, DNA match. And also what was Danny missing? The tip of his left-wing finger. Right. How many. It's all falling into place. How many fingerless guys are going around jerking themselves off and murdering people? Crime scenes. Yeah. Seems implausible that it would be anyone other than Danny. So a year later in November of 1991, Danny is charged with five counts of murder for the Gainesville Ripper crimes. And he was not interested in fighting these charges at all. And in his own little twisted way, he demonstrated some remorse for what he did-ish because he spent a lot of time with a state-appointed spiritual advisor. Is that remorse, though, or is that, again, playing into all the psychologicals and things like that? Right. I don't know, but it reminded him of his time at the Shreveport Church, apparently, which was more of the happiest period of his life. And so even though his lawyer thought that he did have a decent case, he surprised them by insisting that he actually do plead guilty without a deal. Three years later, Danny Rowling was sentenced to death. And while Danny was never officially charged with the gruesome murders, he did freely confess to them. And fashion came just before his execution on October 25th, 2006. Well, Danny Rowling's murders are absolutely horrifying and truly stomach-turning. This case of Danny Rowling is a really good example of, I think, why people are interested in true crime and spend a lot of time reading it and thinking about it. And one of the stories that we didn't really mention in the episode is prior to his first murder of the gruesome murders. There was a woman that Danny attacked. And he broke into her home, followed a lot of the same things that he had done with all of his other victims. He was wearing a mask and he broke into this woman's home and attacked her, tied her up, sexually assaulted her. And this woman, the whole time, was like, how do I survive this? And she knew. She's been a big consumer of true crime. True crime. True crime. True crime. Fanatic. Fanatic. And so she knew not to anger him because angering him would only make it worse. So she almost befriended him. She insisted that he keep his face covered with a mask. She offered him a drink. Which he didn't take. It was her attempt at getting a fingerprint. And then she also, again, she knew she might get murdered. And she decided that she was going to help leave evidence behind so that he would get caught. After he had assaulted her, he allowed her to go shower in her bathroom by herself. And before showering, she wiped her body and like got fluids and stuff on a towel that she hid for investigators to find with hopefully his DNA. And then yes, after it was done, he asked if he should take off his mask. And she said, no, because I don't want to identify you or I don't want to know who you are. And then he let her go. Yeah. When morning started to come, she said, I think it's about time that you head out and he said, okay, give me 10 minutes before you call the authorities. You know what he said to her? He said, in another life, I could see myself dating you. That is just like the epitome of the sickness and the, what's the word I'm looking for? It's like total disconnect of reality that he had. And this is not to say that if any of the other victims that he murdered had done the same thing that they would have survived. This is a psychotic killer. Right. And he was progressing and escalating. Right. Yeah. Like we said, Danny Rowling's crimes are truly stomach churning. And he did admit to the police that he posed the victims for maximum shock value because he had heard about Ted Bundy on the news and he wanted fame the same way Ted Bundy was getting. Which is interesting that he also chose like Florida College girls. He was inspired. Sadly, he did get the attention he wanted and back in 1994 after Danny was convicted, ABC news did a special on him and everyone was tuning in, including a young screenwriter named Kevin Williamson. And he said that the Gainesville Ripper's murders inspired him to write the script that would become what we know as scream originally titled scary movie, which is I think funny because then the scary movies were made kind of made and made fun of yeah, movies like scream. But it is interesting. Because even the example of the one woman who was able to walk away from that initial attack, I can almost see some of that influence in the screen movies where like there's times where they're dragging themselves, the girls are dragging themselves across the ground and yet they somehow get away because it's the game, like the killers letting them. Yeah. And Danny took pleasure in this like torture of his victims. But Danny Rowling was the foundation for the original ghost face character. If you're watching on YouTube, we have some little Easter eggs on our set, including the scream mask, which isn't so little, I think it's obviously, he didn't in plain sight. But considering Danny Rowling's tendencies towards the theatrics and the posing of his victims, it is no surprise that his murders became inspiration for a slasher film. And reportedly the first draft of the script was so grotesque that they had to tone it back. And so then the final draft ended up being a more satirical homage to horror films. But there are clearly echoes of Danny's crime still in the film. And I think the most notable one, which I made note of, or reference to earlier, is the opening scene where Drew Bremor plays a teenager. She's Casey Becker, home alone, win the phone rings. And she has no idea that the caller on the other end is ghost face. And the next few minutes are terrifying as ghost face is lurking outside, taunting her, ratcheting up the tension, and then he strikes, leaving Casey's mangled body in horrific display. You can see the similarities right away. But there are obviously a few key differences. Ghost face goes after high schoolers, not college students, and spoiler alert. I don't know how this would be a spoiler. If you haven't seen scream, they've been around for a long time. Yeah. So it's on you for not tuning into the franchise. And it will still be an enjoyable watch, even if you know that this is a spoiler. Unlike Danny Rolling's crimes in scream, the killer is actually two killers. It's two young men who are classmates to the victims, which still kind of feels inspired by Danny because if there's this kind of fight between good and bad, and like kind of seeing himself as split between two people in a way. Right. Yeah. So there's still a lot of similarities. I think part of Danny wanted another version of him to be good. He did that. Where was that? These are just two killers. And like many of Danny's real life victims drew Mary Moore and a lot of the other victims and potential victims that the masked killer, ghost face killer wants to attack in the movie are young, pretty girls. And the way that he's lurking outside really does remind me of Tracy Paulis, who's calling her sister, calling her friends, and all the while Danny Rolling is standing outside watching her through the window. Oh, and then I think like the last biggest on the nose connection between the two is the frenzied way that the killers killed their victims, both in scream and then Danny Rolling in real life, the frenzied stabbing, the frenzied stabbing stabs, yeah, slasher films. Of course, movies are a lot less important than the family's Danny Rolling destroyed and the people who suffered at his hands on screen monsters are fun because they're pretend they're not real, right? But the real story is a terrible tragedy and growing up, Danny learned to express himself through violence instead of love. He carried those hateful, bitter feelings into adulthood, and when he failed to escape the cycle of abuse, he took out his resentment on the innocent. He stole the futures of young people, their friends and family because he could never see one for himself. And even though his crimes were turned into a larger-than-life satire, there is nothing funny about Danny Rowling's crimes. We can only hope that his victims' loved ones have found some peace, knowing that he was brought to justice. And that even if Scream has a bunch of sequels, Danny Rowling can never hurt anyone again. And before we say goodbye and see you next week, I did promise some tea. Oh, yes, some tea! Okay, it's nothing dramatic. But so my friend Eileen, who I worked with on Prodigal Son, her husband Tyler, directed the more recent Screams, and they filmed them in, I think it was North Carolina, North South Carolina, one of those beach towns. And they were all on set, and you know, the new cast is like the young new cast. And Jenna Rotega. Jenna Rotega, and some of the old cast reprise their roles. And I guess with the original films, when they were filming like Courtney Cox and everyone when they were filming the original Scream, they would like, go out and party and be kind of rowdy and crazy post filming to like detach yourself from what you're depicting on Scream. And they on set were like shocked at how Jenna Rotega and the new young cast would spend their time off set, because they would play like board games and like, so pure and innocent. And they like rented like a camper van and spent a weekend on the beach like, so pure in comparison to how set was on the early days of the original Scream. Dang. Either way, I do feel like you have to find something outside of filming that does feel kind of like wholesome or just like takes your mind completely off of what you just had to portray. Yes. That's my tea. Thanks for the tea. Yes. And thank you so much for listening. We are your hosts Sabrina Deanna Rotega and Corinne Vienn join us next Tuesday for another peek inside another crimes of infamy. And if there are any cases that you would like us to cover, please let us know in the comments. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. If you like what you heard today, please reach out on all social media at Crime House. Don't forget to rate, review, and follow Crime's of wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. See you next week. Bye! We want to tell you about Mother Nose Murder, a new Crime House original hosted by actress Nisi Nash and her daughter, Dia. You've seen Nisi on Reno 9-1 and in her Emmy Award-winning role on Dahmer. But for Nisi, true crime is personal. When she was 15, she witnessed her mom become the victim of a shooting. Her mom survived. And today, Nisi and Dia bond over true crime, now they're inviting you in. Every Tuesday, one of them brings a case and the other hears it for the first time. They catch different details, unlock in their own verdicts, and even when the cases get dark, their humor offers comedic relief. But most importantly, Nisi and Dia never lose sight of the real people at the heart of these stories. Follow Mother Nose Murder on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Subscribe on YouTube at Crime House Studios to watch now. Looking for your next podcast, check out Mother Nose Murder, a new Crime House original hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress, Nisi Nash and her daughter, Dia. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or on YouTube at Crime House Studios.