TWISTED TALE
True story behind Scream movies serial killer ‘Gainsville Ripper’ who raped, murdered & mutilated 5 students in 3 days
THE Scream franchise has been delighting horror fans for 25 years and the trailer for the latest instalment has them buzzing once again.
But the hit movies - which have raked in over £520million at the box office - were inspired by a harrowing real life killing spree, which saw five students murdered and mutilated over the course of three days.
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Danny Rolling - known as The Gainesville Ripper - broke into student accommodation in the Florida university town in August 1990.
There the twisted killer raped four women before stabbing them, butchering their bodies and leaving them in sexually provocative poses.
One victim was decapitated and her head placed on a shelf facing her mutilated body.
Rolling also stabbed a male student who woke up while the perpetrator was breaking in.
He was finally caught some months later, after former neighbour Cindy Juracich linked the attacks to three brutal murders in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana.
writer Kevin Williamson came up with the idea for the teen slasher movies after watching a documentary on Rolling in 1994, after he was sentenced to death that year.
Rollings had claimed his motive was to become a "superstar" similar to American serial killer Ted Bundy.
As fans eagerly anticipate the fifth movie, released in January 2022, we take a look at the real Ghostface and the shocking true story behind the films.
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Triple murder and rape in hometown
Rolling’s murder spree began in November 1989, when he lost his job at a restaurant in Shreveport.
The same night, he broke into a house in the town and butchered three members of the same family - William Grissom, 55, daughter Julie, 24, and her eight-year-old nephew Sean.
Julie was raped before being stabbed. Rolling then washed her and manipulated her body into a pose on the bed with her legs apart. Bite marks were found all over her body.
Rolling’s next victim was his abusive father James, a police officer, whom he shot during a family argument in May 1990.
James survived but lost an ear and an eye. Afterwards Rolling fled town heading for Florida, where he had always dreamed of a better life.
Neighbour Cindy previously told ABC: “He always told us, ‘One day, I’m going to leave this town and I’m going to go where the girls are beautiful and I can just lay in the sun and watch beautiful women all day'.".
On arrival in Gainesville, Rolling set up camp in a wood behind the university campus, and on August 24, 1990, he used a screwdriver to break into the home of freshers Christina Powell, 17, and 18-year-old Sonja Larson.
He walked past Christina, who was asleep on the couch, and made his way to the bedroom where he attacked Sonja, taping her mouth and stabbing her to death.
He then returned to the living room where he gagged Christina, tied her wrists, cut off her clothes and raped her before stabbing her to death.
Rolling then removed the duct tape, washed both bodies and arranged them in provocative positions.
Two days later, after not hearing from their daughter, Christina’s parents turned up at the flat and, getting no answer, asked the building’s manager Betty Curnett to open the flat.
Betty entered the apartment with a caretaker and came face-to-face with the horrific scene.
“I saw the young lady on the bed. You could see [she was] in a bad position, and I just turned around and walked out,” she recalled.
“My maintenance man, unfortunately, ran down the stairs screaming, ‘Oh my God’ and came out and threw up. And the sad, sad part about it is that we had the parents behind us on the stairs.”
Christina’s mutilated body was found on the floor while Sonja, who had been stabbed in her arms and torso, was lying naked on the bed with her feet on the floor and her hair fanned out.
Returned to behead dead victim
The night after the double murder Rolling struck again, breaking into the flat of 18-year-old student Christa Hoyt using a knife and a screwdriver.
Finding no one home he lay in wait for the teenager, grabbing her in a chokehold as soon as she returned.
He then taped her mouth and wrists before raping her on the bed and stabbing her in the back.
Shockingly, the killer later returned to the scene, believing he had left his wallet behind, and decided to mutilate her further, decapitating her before placing her head on a shelf.
Christa's heartbroken mum Dianna said of the murder: "My husband would just sit and say, 'Just tell me she died right away. Tell me she did not suffer.'
"These police officers told Gary she died right away from the first stab, which was the truth, but there were many hours before that."
Two days later, on August 27, Rolling broke into the flat of University of Florida students Manuel Taboada and Tracy Paules, both 23.
Rolling fatally stabbed Manuel before making his way to Tracy’s room, where he taped her wrists before stripping, raping and stabbing her three times.
Tracy was found posed on the bed and police found soap on her lower body where, once again, Rolling had washed his victim.
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Sinister tape and tip off
As the body count rose, parents began to panic and many moved their children out of the city.
Two weeks after the attacks, Rolling was arrested for an armed robbery in the nearby town Ocala, and his woodland hideaway was searched.
Police found a bag of money containing dye which a quick-thinking bank assistant had tipped in during the robbery, as well as a screwdriver, knives and a gun.
As none of his murders involved a firearm, they failed to link Rolling to the killings.
Police also found a cassette player, but crucially didn’t listen to the tape inside until months later.
Instead they concentrated on another suspect, 18-year-old Edward Humphrey, who had been arrested for assaulting his grandmother and was known to have a fascination with knives and a history of mental health problems.
Cindy Juracich, who had read about the Florida killings, became increasingly convinced that the Grissom family murders were linked to the Florida ones and rang police to suggest they looked at Rolling.
The investigators then listened to the tape - and heard Rolling singing a chilling song with the lyrics “Mystery rider, what’s your name? You’re a killer, a drifter, gone insane.”
He also apologised to his family for going down the “wrong road” and detailed the best way to kill a deer.
Convinced they had their man, police examined the screwdriver, which matched the model used to prise open the victims’ doors, and found his blood type - B - matched semen found at the scene.
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'Spurred on by evil alter ego'
Rolling eventually confessed to the crimes and claimed he had multiple personalities which spurred him on.
One, named Ynnad - “Danny” spelled backward - was described as a bad person, but not evil.
The second, more sinister personality was named “Gemini” and Rolling claimed he was the killer.
At the trial, prosecutors dismissed the multiple personality claim, saying Rolling had borrowed the idea from Exorcist III, which he watched shortly before the murders.
Rolling was convicted of the rapes and murders of the students in 1994, and was sentenced to death - although he was never charged with the Shreveport killings.
He died by lethal injection in Florida State Prison in 2006.
Before he died he handed a note to a clergyman, confessing to the murders of William, Julie and Sean Grissom.
A memorial painted on the wall in Gainesville ensures the names of the five tragic students are never forgotten.
“It’s a place for all of us families to go… and see their children’s names still living there,” Christa’s mum Dianna Hoyt told ABC.
“They’re gone but their memory has to always endure,” Manuel's sister Mario Taboada added.
“In a way, talking about [Manny], as I do sometimes with those who knew him… they’re kind of alive for that moment, and so, it’s comforting.”
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