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The Gainesville Ripper · Boozy Banter with Friends

• 0:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello and welcome to Boozy Banter with Friends.
• 0:12
  Trisha Smith: Join us this week as we explore the supernatural,
• 0:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: With the little sass,
• 0:18
  Trisha Smith: The unexplained,
• 0:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: And a side of snark,
• 0:20
  Trisha Smith: And tales of other worldly shenanigans,
• 0:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: Grab your favorite spirit and join me Leyla,
• 0:26
  Trisha Smith: And me, Trisha and meet us on the other side.
• 0:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello,
• 0:39
  Trisha Smith: Hi. That was very subdued.
• 0:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do you want me try it again?
• 0:43
  Trisha Smith: No.
• 0:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 0:48
  Trisha Smith: How you doing?
• 0:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm good. Not too shabby. How about you?
• 0:54
  Trisha Smith: Doing very good.
• 0:54
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. Now, now that I'm sipping on this, very boozy.
• 1:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know,
• 1:01
  Trisha Smith: Martini.
• 1:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: It is one of my favorites.
• 1:04
  Trisha Smith: It is mine too.
• 1:04
  Trisha Smith: But you forget how strong they are.
• 1:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: They're delicious.
• 1:09
  Trisha Smith: They are.
• 1:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: But the problem, I will say this again. The problem with martinis,
• 1:14
  Trisha Smith: Is they go down too fast,
• 1:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: They're too small,
• 1:16
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 1:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like you need like a vat-o-teeny. I think they need to like make martini glasses much larger. So you can put,
• 1:28
  Trisha Smith: These were pretty large.
• 1:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: They are, I mean, yes, they are larger than,
• 1:32
  Trisha Smith: The average,
• 1:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: The conservative martini glass,
• 1:37
  Trisha Smith: Right. They're definitely not restaurant martini glasses.
• 1:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: No,
• 1:41
  Trisha Smith: But they're still awfully small. Especially you get about halfway through.
• 1:44
  Trisha Smith: You're like, gosh, where's my drink? Just going through. I'm going through too fast.
• 1:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's just sips it's like wine, there's only four glasses in a bottle,
• 1:55
  Trisha Smith: According to who?
• 1:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: Or maybe less.
• 2:01
  Trisha Smith: Depends on who you're sharing it.
• 2:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's true. I mean, if you're nice, you can squeeze four glass out of it.
• 2:07
  Trisha Smith: Right? Right. So yeah, we're having classic dirty martinis today. I forget how much I enjoy them.
• 2:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: I love them so.
• 2:15
  Trisha Smith: I know.
• 2:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know.
• 2:16
  Trisha Smith: But like you said, you have to be careful.
• 2:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: You do. I admit I do have a problem.
• 2:21
  Trisha Smith: You have a problem?
• 2:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do.
• 2:23
  Trisha Smith: What's your problem?
• 2:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know all the 25 letters of the alphabet.
• 2:27
  Trisha Smith: There's 26,
• 2:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know y.
• 2:31
  Trisha Smith: Shut up,
• 2:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: You're welcome,
• 2:39
  Trisha Smith: I fall for it everytime.
• 2:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know you do. I think last. Last time we were together I was able to get like a double dad joke. We're this time I shall not.
• 2:52
  Trisha Smith: Like, I should be able to say I'm on to you. But clearly, I'm not.
• 2:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: This time I didn't start off with, hey Trisha.
• 3:00
  Trisha Smith: True.
• 3:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's what threw you off. You're like, oh, there's no hey Trisha? I just started off with I have a problem.
• 3:11
  Trisha Smith: Watching anything.
• 3:11
  Trisha Smith: reading anything,
• 3:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh man,
• 3:14
  Trisha Smith: Doing anything?
• 3:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Not really. I started there's okay. Yes, there is the show on HBO that I love and it's back again for another season. So they come out like once a week they come out with this new episode. It's called the Righteous Gemstones. Have you seen that?
• 3:34
  Trisha Smith: No.
• 3:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god, Trisha, it is the funniest damn show.
• 3:40
  Trisha Smith: Okay,
• 3:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: it's on HBO. It is hilarious. It is about a evangelist family.
• 3:50
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 3:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: It is so funny.
• 3:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: So clever. It's just, it's great. Let me tell you who's it.
• 3:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like who's cast? It is has Danny McBride in it. So you know it's funny. Adam DeVine.
• 4:06
  Trisha Smith: Oh, yeah.
• 4:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: And John Goodman.
• 4:09
  Trisha Smith: Oh, I like John good.
• 4:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: John Goodman's the dad,
• 4:12
  Trisha Smith: Ah,
• 4:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: And Danny McBride, Adam DeVine and Edie Patterson are all his kids. And good goodness gracious. It is funny. It is so funny.
• 4:26
  Trisha Smith: Okay, off to check it out.
• 4:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, I watched season one loved it. Season two is out and it's season two is not disappointing either. It's good stuff. So Righteous Gemstones.
• 4:37
  Trisha Smith: Okay, I'm gonna check it out. Yeah,
• 4:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: You're gonna love it.
• 4:42
  Trisha Smith: I am not watching anything right now. I are reading anything. I'm like out of stuff. All my you know, several of the authors that I follow. We're supposed to release books in January and everything got pushed back to February.
• 4:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh goodness,
• 4:59
  Trisha Smith: I told my husband I'm like, let's go see a movie.
• 5:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: What?
• 5:06
  Trisha Smith: I know, right, that lasted all of like 15 seconds.
• 5:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: I was gonna say, what is this? Trisha? I do not know her.
• 5:15
  Trisha Smith: Right? I was all for it. And then I really thought about it. And I'm like, nevermind.
• 5:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, can we just get all the movies that are out now in the home?
• 5:25
  Trisha Smith: I love that whole, you know, get it, get it for 30 days on HBO, Max. They,
• 5:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: Love it.
• 5:31
  Trisha Smith: Love that.
• 5:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Love it.
• 5:32
  Trisha Smith: And when it goes, I mean, I don't know why I know you wear the younger generation likes to go to the movies. I don't. I never enjoy going to the movies.
• 5:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Really? I did like going to the movies before.
• 5:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Because I like movies. And I did like going to and seeing new movies that came out. But now that you can see movies, pretty much the same time they come out in the theater as you can in the comfort of your own home. Why would I want to go out to the theater when I can see the new movie in the comfort of my home?
• 6:06
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, and sit in a grimy seat with snacks that aren't even that good?
• 6:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 6:11
  Trisha Smith: I like I want to have a charcuterie board and multiple glasses of wine.
• 6:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 6:17
  Trisha Smith: I don't want some damn bag of popcorn and,
• 6:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Terrible box wine that I had to spend $15 on.
• 6:25
  Trisha Smith: Rachel and I used to bring our own little boxes of wine in our purses and we'd go sit and drink that's like three glass, supposedly three glasses of wine and watch it.
• 6:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's an adult sippy cup.
• 6:39
  Trisha Smith: It's it is to do that we would finish it and go out and then have dinner or something fun, so much fun.
• 6:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's different, though. I mean, you're going and watching a scary movie. You're you have an outing, and I'm sure you guys are going to an appropriate time where the theater isn't crowded. With all these, look at you, you're like, yes, during the day,
• 6:59
  Trisha Smith: Sometimes Yeah.
• 6:59
  Trisha Smith: During the day when kids are in school.
• 7:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 7:04
  Trisha Smith: Or late at night after we go out to dinner.
• 7:07
  Trisha Smith: Again,
• 7:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Another good time.
• 7:08
  Trisha Smith: But so I looked up the times for the new Scream movie.
• 7:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: I heard that was good.
• 7:14
  Trisha Smith: I did too, which is why I was checking it out.
• 7:17
  Trisha Smith: And like I said, we didn't go see it. But,
• 7:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: I would like to see it though.
• 7:22
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, I would to.
• 7:22
  Trisha Smith: I had to Google, you know, the times and when it was showing and a bunch of articles popped up about the new Scream movie talking about, you know, reviews and everything. And the fact that it's based on the Gainesville Ripper.
• 7:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: No.
• 7:40
  Trisha Smith: Okay, so this is not supernatural. This is not a haunted story, or anything. It's just related to a super scary movie that not even super scary, but a scary movie that I enjoy.
• 7:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 7:51
  Trisha Smith: I mean, it came out 25 years ago.
• 7:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. A long, long time ago. It's it's almost hard to believe like movies that we've seen back then.
• 8:00
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 8:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, look at look at the Matrix,
• 8:02
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 8:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: The first Matrix came back, came out like I remember,
• 8:06
  Trisha Smith: Twentyfive years ago,
• 8:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Watching it in the theater going, Holy crap, that was different,
• 8:11
  Trisha Smith: Right. And now everybody's using the same technology.
• 8:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know,
• 8:14
  Trisha Smith: But back then it was so cool.
• 8:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was so cool.
• 8:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: So different. The idea of the movie, the concept was different,
• 8:21
  Trisha Smith: Right. And that's the same with scream. And but yeah, it came out 25 years ago, this is the fifth movie, the original movie was based on a story and it caught my eye because Gainsville are from us couple hours. And the fact that it was actually based on something.
• 8:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Whoa, I didn't know that.
• 8:44
  Trisha Smith: I'm gonna tell you about it.
• 8:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Tell me.
• 8:46
  Trisha Smith: First of all, I didn't realize there was any type of inspiration. But there's also a weird connection to something we've already done.
• 8:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: No,
• 8:55
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 8:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay. I'm really excited.
• 8:58
  Trisha Smith: So most people have seen scream, or they've at least heard about it.
• 9:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 9:03
  Trisha Smith: Especially from the mask.
• 9:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: The mass.
• 9:06
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 9:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Ghost face.
• 9:07
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. So and the basic plotline is that somebody in a mask is killing everyone connected to the main character,
• 9:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right,
• 9:15
  Trisha Smith: Okay. The screenwriter of the movie. His name is Kevin Williamson, learned about the case that was going on in Gainesville. In I think it was like 1992 this happened. I'll tell you as I get down, I already forgot the year.
• 9:32
  Trisha Smith: He wrote this play based on the murders of college students and the media frenzy that surrounded it,
• 9:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do remember that.
• 9:41
  Trisha Smith: Even though the movie is eventually made following high school students instead, the fear surrounding the murders and the media attention that ensued is still influenced by the Gainesville Ripper story.
• 9:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, man.
• 9:55
  Trisha Smith: This whole story begins with a man named Danny Rolling.
• 10:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 10:00
  Trisha Smith: Does it, is it coming back to you now?
• 10:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 10:02
  Trisha Smith: Like so many other stories we hear about involving murderers his life began with an abusive father.
• 10:10
  Trisha Smith: A cop. No less. So yeah, remember the Devil Tree
• 10:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: Of course, Story?
• 10:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes,
• 10:16
  Trisha Smith: Florida's first serial killer.
• 10:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes.
• 10:18
  Trisha Smith: Was a cop.
• 10:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 10:19
  Trisha Smith: Right? Danny's mother tried to leave when he was little. But for whatever reason, she kept going back. And he was left on his own with his father when he was 11 years old when she tried to commit suicide. By then, Danny had developed aggressive behavior.
• 10:41
  Trisha Smith: And he had poor impulse control, you know, trying to just try and figure out how to live in this world of deranged parents that he turned to music to cope with the abuse. And he taught himself how to play the guitar.
• 10:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Ok,
• 10:56
  Trisha Smith: But despite that, he still got into trouble and was arrested several times for robbery. And when he was old enough, he joined the military.
• 11:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 11:05
  Trisha Smith: The Navy wouldn't take him.
• 11:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 11:08
  Trisha Smith: I know. So I mean, if the Navy doesn't take you,
• 11:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: I gonna say.
• 11:14
  Trisha Smith: He ended up in the Air Force. I'm like, normally the Air,
• 11:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Isn't that harder?
• 11:18
  Trisha Smith: Maybe? Yeah, maybe nowadays. I don't know. Back then. Maybe it was easier. But the Air Force took him. But he didn't last long because he was discharged after too much drug use, which included taking acid more than 100 times.
• 11:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: What?
• 11:36
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 11:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, my,
• 11:38
  Trisha Smith: Which I'm sure didn't help.
• 11:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, I'm sure I did not.
• 11:42
  Trisha Smith: His mental health,
• 11:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like that certainly doesn't help.
• 11:46
  Trisha Smith: I know, after the military, Danny got married, attended church and tried to live a normal life.
• 11:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay.
• 11:55
  Trisha Smith: But he brought that same cycle of abuse into his new family that he grew up with and, the abuse, he grew up with. And his wife left him after four years when he threatened to kill her.
• 12:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, that'd be like a good sign to GTFO.
• 12:12
  Trisha Smith: Deal breaker. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
• 12:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Sorry guy, i'm out.
• 12:15
  Trisha Smith: So after the divorce, he raped a woman who looked like his ex wife and embarked on a series of armed robberies, which led to his arrest and incarceration in Jackson, Georgia in 1979.
• 12:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 12:32
  Trisha Smith: Right. So I mean, you know, he was already like, spiraling.
• 12:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, he was spiraling down hill.
• 12:39
  Trisha Smith: I couldn't find out exactly how long he stayed in jail for raping a woman and committing armed robberies. But it must not have been long because,
• 12:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: Different times back then, just different times.
• 12:50
  Trisha Smith: Throughout the 80s. He was arrested several more times for armed robbery.
• 12:53
  Trisha Smith: But in November of 1989, everything starts to come to a head. Like, all of his issues start to like lead him to flip out. So after being fired from his job at a restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana, Danny breaks into a home and rapes 24 year old Julie Grissom before murdering her, her eight year old nephew, Shawn.
• 13:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my!
• 13:18
  Trisha Smith: And her 55 year old father, Tom.
• 13:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god!
• 13:22
  Trisha Smith: For the next six months he lives in Shreveport until a final argument with his father. This time Danny shoots him in the stomach and the head, his father survives but he has he no longer had the use of an eye and an ear, due to the shooting.
• 13:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: I Yeah.
• 13:39
  Trisha Smith: I know right.
• 13:39
  Trisha Smith: Danny takes off and heads to Kansas before making his way to Florida that summer.
• 13:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Holy Criminy.
• 13:48
  Trisha Smith: I know and still not caught.
• 13:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's insane.
• 13:52
  Trisha Smith: Right. Once Danny makes it to Gainesville, he sets up a campsite in a wooded area behind the University of Florida on August 24. Just days before the fall semesters about to begin. He breaks into the home of incoming freshmen, Christina Powell, age 17, and Sonia Larson, age 18 in the middle of the night, using just a screwdriver and a knife to pry open the door. I know, I mean nowadays everybody bolts everything, you know. have
• 14:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well now we have ring cameras,
• 14:26
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 14:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean it's, yeah.
• 14:29
  Trisha Smith: I know, he breaks in and he brutally rapes and stabs both girls. Both bodies were mutilated and posed in a sexually suggestive manner. So I mean, not only
• 14:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: Is he sick,
• 14:45
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 14:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: But he's also deranged.
• 14:46
  Trisha Smith: Right. Right. So the next day, Danny violently killed Santa Fe Community College student Christa Hoyt in her apartment. Not only did he decapitate her, he placed her head on a shelf to face her own body. So he's just, he's just escallating.
• 15:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: He's just spiraling down madness.
• 15:08
  Trisha Smith: So on August 27, three days after the first murder, Danny kills again this time after breaking into the home of Manuel Tobada and Tracy Paulis both 23. Although Manuel fought back, Danny managed to overwhelm him but police think something or son someone may have spooked him because he took off without mutilating the bodies. Now Danny was six foot two inches tall and had a slightly muscular build. He wasn't a small guy.
• 15:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 15:44
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. So even though Manuel was a football player in high school, he was still overwhelmed by him and couldn't fight him off. Right.
• 15:54
  Trisha Smith: So in the months after the killings, police investigated more than 6000 leads, 18,000 items of evidence and identified 657 different suspects. That's a lot of people.
• 16:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a lot.
• 16:13
  Trisha Smith: Coincidentally, the same day as Krista Hoyt's murder. Police had responded to a robbery at a bank a half mile away from her home where the bank teller had placed a red dye pack into the bag of money. When the police had found the makeshift camp behind the college. They also found a screwdriver, money stained with red dye and a cassette player with a tape inside. Although investigators wouldn't listen to the tape for months.
• 16:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, no. I feel like that has something to do with the case.
• 16:47
  Trisha Smith: You are correct.
• 16:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am correct.
• 16:50
  Trisha Smith: You are correct.
• 16:50
  Trisha Smith: Soon after a police investigator from Gainesville was alerted to the triple homicide in Shreveport because of the similarities between the two cases and DNA evidence was able to link the cases together. And I mean DNA was or that was early on.
• 17:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 17:09
  Trisha Smith: Early 90s.
• 17:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 17:11
  Trisha Smith: It was shortly after this, that a woman named, Cindy Jurassic, called Crimestoppers and told investigators to look at Danny Rolling. Cindy had grown up with Danny in Shreveport and told them about the incident with his father's shooting three months prior to the murders in Florida.
• 17:29
  Trisha Smith: This led investigators to Danny's extensive criminal history.
• 17:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh goodness.
• 17:35
  Trisha Smith: Meanwhile, during all of this,
• 17:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 17:38
  Trisha Smith: Danny rolling was already in jail.
• 17:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: How did he land in jail?
• 17:42
  Trisha Smith: In September, so the murders were commited in August, just 10 days after the last murder. He had robbed a Winn Dixie at gunpoint in Ocala and was caught after crashing his getaway car.
• 17:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god,
• 17:55
  Trisha Smith: Right. By early the next year after digging into his criminal records, authorities used a tooth extracted from Danny to link him to the DNA evidence from the Gainesville crime scenes and he became a primary suspect. With that police finally had enough to formally charged him with five counts of murder. But he unexpectedly entered an initial plea of not guilty even though they tied them together with DNA evidence.
• 18:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: Not my tooth.
• 18:23
  Trisha Smith: Idiot. So police have to start building their case and that's when they finally listened to the cassette tape they found at his campsite.
• 18:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay.
• 18:33
  Trisha Smith: It contained recordings of a man singing and talking. "Your killer, a drifter gone insane you're a rebel no one can tame." went the lyrics to one song titled, mystery writer. The man also talked about his life, his family, and how it felt like he'd ventured down the wrong road. He also discussed the way to most effectively kill a deer,
• 18:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: What?
• 18:59
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, some ramblings
• 19:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Who the fuck is this person on the tape.
• 19:03
  Trisha Smith: He ends the recording telling the listener he had something he had to do and identified himself as Danny Harold Rolling.
• 19:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god,
• 19:12
  Trisha Smith: He says his name in the recording. Police think that Manuel Taboada and Tracy Paules were murdered soon after Rolling recorded that. Isn't that crazy?
• 19:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: That is crazy.
• 19:24
  Trisha Smith: And they didn't listen to the tape, till they had DNA evidence, or else they would have had his name they would have been like what was the number that I threw out there about evidence How much 18,000 pieces of evidence they're probably like just one more thing.
• 19:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: There's just one more thing.
• 19:41
  Trisha Smith: Just piece of garbage out in the woods that we have to listen to or go through or whatever. So Danny Rolling remained in custody until his trial was due to begin in April of 1994 and then suddenly changed his plea to guilty. He claimed his motive was to become a superstar like Ted Bundy.
• 20:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh God,
• 20:04
  Trisha Smith: The superstar Ted Bundy.
• 20:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Superstar.
• 20:08
  Trisha Smith: And that he had an alter ego named Gemini that actually did the murders. Like he was claiming mental illness.
• 20:17
  Trisha Smith: You know, multiple personalities.
• 20:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: All of the things we're trying to get out of it .
• 20:20
  Trisha Smith: Right, right. But he was after pleading guilty he was sentenced to death on April 20 1994. and executed by lethal injection. 12 years later.
• 20:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well,
• 20:33
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. Just before his execution, he finally admitted to the murders in Shreveport as well.
• 20:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: Good.
• 20:40
  Trisha Smith: Yeah. At least he did something.
• 20:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: At least you did it, you know,
• 20:43
  Trisha Smith: Right. But get this on October 25, 2006. The day of his execution in front of the 47 people who had come to watch execution Danny chose to sing one of his,
• 20:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: Your kidding,
• 20:58
  Trisha Smith: Songs that he wrote, a religious hym until his microphone was cut off.
• 21:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: No doubt.
• 21:05
  Trisha Smith: He's just singing away. And they're like enough bullshit. You're out?
• 21:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Nope.
• 21:12
  Trisha Smith: You know, a religious hym no less.
• 21:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Come on guy.
• 21:16
  Trisha Smith: He just murdered eight people that they know of, and who knows how many women he assulted?
• 21:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 21:23
  Trisha Smith: Over the years.
• 21:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Because somebody like that doesn't just go full blown into it. They do little things to gain their confidence and build.
• 21:32
  Trisha Smith: Right. Okay, so I mentioned the beginning that this was the inspiration for the original Scream movie.
• 21:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes, she did.
• 21:39
  Trisha Smith: But there's another link to another story that I actually did. Season one, episode 10, We Live Inside. Do you remember that episode?
• 21:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes.
• 21:51
  Trisha Smith: We Live Inside. I talked about the Devil Tree in Port St. Lucie,
• 21:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right,
• 21:56
  Trisha Smith: Which was about Gerard John Shaffer, Florida's first serial killer.
• 22:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 22:02
  Trisha Smith: Okay. So there was an author that I had mentioned, then.
• 22:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 22:07
  Trisha Smith: Named Saundra London.
• 22:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes.
• 22:11
  Trisha Smith: Okay. She was Gerard John Shaffer's girlfriend in high school.
• 22:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay,
• 22:17
  Trisha Smith: Okay. And when he was convicted of murder, when he was locked up in prison, she had reached out to him and befriended him again, and got him to talk to her and she ended up releasing a book called, Killer Fiction,
• 22:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 22:31
  Trisha Smith: That all had all of his short stories, drawings, you know, all of his artwork and stuff was in it. She began communicating with Danny Rolling in 1992.
• 22:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Of course she did.
• 22:42
  Trisha Smith: Evidently he reached out to her.
• 22:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Mm hmm. Well, he wanted to be famous,
• 22:47
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 22:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Superstar.
• 22:48
  Trisha Smith: So, he reaches out to her, he wants her to write about him, glorify him.
• 22:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: Of course he does.
• 22:57
  Trisha Smith: Okay. After corresponding through letters for eight to nine months, she petitions the prison to let her visit, they don't want her visiting.
• 23:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Of course, they don't.
• 23:08
  Trisha Smith: She's already got a reputation now.
• 23:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 23:10
  Trisha Smith: Okay. Well, she finally gets a chance to meet him like she's allowed to go in the prison. Here. Here's what she says.
• 23:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, God,
• 23:22
  Trisha Smith: She wasn't expecting much, but in her own words, she was definitely not expecting a fine looking man.
• 23:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Shut the front door.
• 23:34
  Trisha Smith: Here's more of what she's said,
• 23:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my good lord,
• 23:36
  Trisha Smith: Instead of the broken and dejected loser I'd seen on TV standing before my hungry eyes was one gorgeous hunk of man.
• 23:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hungry eyes?
• 23:48
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: I've been meaning to tell you. I have this feeling that won't,
• 23:55
  Trisha Smith: When did that movie come out?
• 23:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: Subside.
• 23:58
  Trisha Smith: Very close to this time, so she's probably,
• 24:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: I look at you and I fantasize
• 24:05
  Trisha Smith: That's what she was doing. So yeah, Sandra had been labeled a true crime groupie.
• 24:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god,
• 24:15
  Trisha Smith: Due to her two relationships with convicted killers. She was eventually prohibited from seeing him again when she revealed she had obtained all the rights to his writings, art, songs, and other works. Just like with Gerard John Schaefer, the prison said she had misrepresented herself to gain access to him. They eventually became engaged.
• 24:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Shut the front door!
• 24:40
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, they became engaged,
• 24:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my God.
• 24:43
  Trisha Smith: And through their corresponding they fell in love.
• 24:51
  Trisha Smith: I mean, if the prison system can even see,
• 24:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Then clearly this is her game.
• 24:57
  Trisha Smith: He seriously. This is what makes her famous.
• 25:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right, exactly.
• 25:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: And it's not like she has to do anything more than just profess her love,
• 25:07
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 25:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like she's on the other side, you know, living scot free collecting all this money, you know, because she's glorifying all these murders and this murderer, which you know people love true crime.
• 25:20
  Trisha Smith: He's an artist No, he's a serial killer.
• 25:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: He's a psycho.
• 25:25
  Trisha Smith: During a re-sentencing hearing for an unrelated robbery charge, the judge gave Danny an opportunity to speak. But instead of addressing the court, he stated Sondra, they might keep you from me. But I want you to know they can't stamp out the love and affection that I have for you in my heart. He then proceeded to sing a song he composed for her, which included the lyrics,
• 25:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, please tell me you have them.
• 25:55
  Trisha Smith: Just tell me baby.
• 25:55
  Trisha Smith: What were my words, as all my tears run together, baby. Just like rain.
• 26:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Just like rain.
• 26:11
  Trisha Smith: If you watch the footage, the actual news footage, from like our local, if you watch it, you can see her watching him and she puts on the best show. She's like biting her bottom lip and staring at him and just fawning over him because she knows the cameras on her.
• 26:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, of course,
• 26:35
  Trisha Smith: One news station say claimed she was staring at him, lustfully.
• 26:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 26:41
  Trisha Smith: Which,
• 26:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Jesus,
• 26:43
  Trisha Smith: When you watch it.
• 26:43
  Trisha Smith: I mean, they're really kind of isn't like she wore a wedding ring around her neck. That was for him. She was and she was twisting the ring in her fingers and biting her lip and looking at them like,
• 26:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh disgusting,
• 27:00
  Trisha Smith: Right? So he eventually even wrote a letter to The Washington Post gushing over her and voicing his frustration over not being able to physically touch her.
• 27:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: She's like haha, fucker.
• 27:16
  Trisha Smith: But most people who knew her thought she was just using Danny for her own financial gain, including the lead detective in the Gainesville murders and a reporter from ABC, who had interviewed her named John Donovan, her response to them was, I could have exploited him without pretending to love him.
• 27:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, it wouldn't have been that easy. You could have done it, it would have taken you would have taken you a lot longer. But if you play the love game, it's so much
• 27:45
  Trisha Smith: Easier.
• 27:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. And so much. And it's sealed. Like seriously, she was visited one day and already she's has exclusive complete rights to that.
• 27:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: She, Whatever,
• 27:59
  Trisha Smith: And she stood by him like through the different trials through his appeals.
• 28:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well of course because she's just has, just has to be there, and that promotes her. But in her real life, she's probably you know,
• 28:10
  Trisha Smith: Doing whatever,
• 28:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: Swipin one way or another on tender.
• 28:18
  Trisha Smith: Swipin,
• 28:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Swipin one way or another. I wonder what she's doing now,
• 28:22
  Trisha Smith: She's an artist now and still a writer. I looked her up and now she tries to downplay
• 28:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: Of course she does. Because she's older now.
• 28:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: And she realizes like, shit.
• 28:31
  Trisha Smith: She was like 71 now,
• 28:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like, I don't want that associated with me.
• 28:34
  Trisha Smith: Right. And when people interview her and ask questions, she downplays what her relationship was with what she thought of him. But at the time, she was doing interviews because she was notorious for being the girlfriend of this mass murderer, you know, but yeah, the fact that she dated a serial killer in high school and then went on to be engaged to a different serial killer, just so kind of gross.
• 29:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, absolutely.
• 29:06
  Trisha Smith: You know,
• 29:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Absolutely.
• 29:07
  Trisha Smith: I mean to each their own, but ew.
• 29:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a whole other type of type of fetishes.
• 29:15
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 29:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like I don't even know a fetish is the right word for that. Is it?
• 29:18
  Trisha Smith: It kind of is, obsession?
• 29:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Obession maybe?
• 29:21
  Trisha Smith: And he got her name. He reached out to her because she sent a letter to his cellmate, another guy. I don't remember his name, but,
• 29:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Another serial killer?
• 29:32
  Trisha Smith: Probably but ew like,
• 29:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like she was fishing.
• 29:36
  Trisha Smith: She was fishing,
• 29:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like she's a prison fish.
• 29:39
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 29:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know if that's the right term.
• 29:45
  Trisha Smith: Fishermen?
• 29:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Fishermen,
• 29:46
  Trisha Smith: I don't know,
• 29:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Prison fish.
• 29:52
  Trisha Smith: Fisher. I mean, nowadays what they call that cat fishing? No,
• 29:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: We got a cell fishing.
• 29:57
  Trisha Smith: Cell fishing. I've read about like prison groupies, like the ones who write to serial killers and stuff like that but she she actually like double dipped.
• 30:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: She double dip in the prison system, from the outside. Doesn't make it as dirty then.
• 30:24
  Trisha Smith: And the prison system was like hell no lady you're coming in here.
• 30:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: We saw what you did with the last guy, you're not doing it this guy.
• 30:32
  Trisha Smith: No way,
• 30:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm gonna sign petitions.
• 30:35
  Trisha Smith: Don't know she did or not but needless to say they never married.
• 30:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh no,
• 30:40
  Trisha Smith: They were never married. So they were engaged. I don't think they know. They didn't.
• 30:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, just just breaks ones heart.
• 30:51
  Trisha Smith: I can see you're torn up.
• 30:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like a tear like a tear popped from my eye.
• 30:58
  Trisha Smith: But yeah, isn't that crazy? That two serial killers in Florida are connected by one woman.
• 31:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: That is a little crazy.
• 31:06
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 31:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 31:07
  Trisha Smith: Weirded me out when? I mean yeah, you know, I read the story. And it was interesting, but I wasn't going to talk about it until she was that missing link and then it was like,
• 31:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: I have to,
• 31:17
  Trisha Smith: I have to and then it's connected to a movie you want to go see, I know I even expected that.
• 31:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: And it's connected to a story that you actually did.
• 31:24
  Trisha Smith: Right, I had no idea that Scream was based on on that,
• 31:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: The Jacksonville Ripper. No, I didn't.
• 31:32
  Trisha Smith: I didn't know they called it that either.
• 31:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: The Jacksonville Ripper. I can't remember,
• 31:37
  Trisha Smith: Gainesville,
• 31:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Gainesville,
• 31:38
  Trisha Smith: Gainesville Ripper.
• 31:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't remember if they called it the Gainesville Ripper or not when I was younger, I don't think I paid attention when I was younger,
• 31:46
  Trisha Smith: I didn't. I know I did. Yeah, you know,
• 31:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do like murder.
• 31:50
  Trisha Smith: I know. I mean, it's just like, it's the whole, I'm gonna call it science behind it. But I guess the psychological part of it, where it's like, what makes people snap,
• 32:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: And actually brings harm to another person like, I can't understand getting so angry and you're hitting somebody like I get that,
• 32:12
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 32:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: But I don't get getting so messed up in your head that you actually physically hurt hurt somebody,
• 32:20
  Trisha Smith: Or even like you hear. Do you remember the little boy in California like it was a road rage incident. And the couple drove by the car and shot into the car and it went to the little boys carseat and kill him. But I mean, what possesses you to think that you you're so angry that you would shoot? You know, is it that whole? It's not really me. It's the gun?
• 32:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know, see to me, that's bullshit, though.
• 32:45
  Trisha Smith: Absolutely.
• 32:45
  Trisha Smith: Absolutely. Did they think they were just scaring this woman by shooting into her car and didn't realize that it would kill her son? I don't know. But yeah, fact is you fired a gun into another vehical.
• 32:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: And you pointed it at somebody.
• 33:00
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 33:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like I'm, if my life was in danger, and I had a gun. Yes, I would point it in fire at somebody.
• 33:08
  Trisha Smith: If your life was endangered.
• 33:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: If my life was endangered.
• 33:10
  Trisha Smith: But the fact that people kill another human just just out of anger or spite or,
• 33:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Drugs or robbery or,
• 33:19
  Trisha Smith: Whatever the reasoning was, just I don't I think that's why True Crime fascinates me. Because it's like, I would just I just want to know why. Why do people do it? And I think maybe, for her for this lady, or at least for other people that I've read about. That's how it starts that communication with prisoners is trying to for that same exact reason. Why did you do what you did? But that doesn't seem like why she did it?
• 33:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, clearly, serial killers have something going on?
• 33:54
  Trisha Smith: Right?
• 33:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Some of them, as we know from famous serial killers are natural charmers,
• 34:01
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 34:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: So they can charm and persuade and what makes you think that you are special?
• 34:09
  Trisha Smith: Right?
• 34:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's what,
• 34:10
  Trisha Smith: You think you're going to get away with it?
• 34:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 34:13
  Trisha Smith: You know,
• 34:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Right.
• 34:14
  Trisha Smith: I don't know. It's just Yeah, again with the psychological.
• 34:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, I don't I don't get it.
• 34:18
  Trisha Smith: It's just anyways,
• 34:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do like some true crime, that's a good one.
• 34:23
  Trisha Smith: Thank you. Like I said, it wasn't a haunted or supernatural except for its connection to the Scream movies, which I love scary movies.
• 34:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah.
• 34:33
  Trisha Smith: But it just makes Scream a little more creepy.
• 34:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's like a hometown, hometown murder.
• 34:38
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, knowing that it's based on something a little close to home.
• 34:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, the Gainesville Ripper. That's good.
• 34:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a good one.
• 34:46
  Trisha Smith: Thank you.
• 34:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: You're welcome. I liked it. Hey, you want to go see when Scream is playing?
• 34:52
  Trisha Smith: Yes, I would.
• 34:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: All right, everyone, until next time.
• 35:00
  Trisha Smith: Cheers.
• 35:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cheers.
• 35:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hey, like what you hear?
• 35:04
  Diane Black: Check us out on Instagram.
• 35:05
  Trisha Smith: Or send us a message at Boozy Banter with Friends.com
• 35:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks for listening.
• 35:10
  Trisha Smith: Until next time.
• 35:11
  Diane Black: Late-a.