Serial killer who preyed on gay men executed at Florida State Prison. Bowles was condemned for the murder of Walter Hinton in Jacksonville Beach – one of the killings that terrorized the East Coast’s Interstate 95 corridor in an eight-month span in 1994.
Hinton was Bowles’ sixth and final known victim in a spree that began in Daytona Beach with the slaying of John Hardy Roberts. In between, there were victims in Rockville, Maryland; Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta and Nassau County, Florida.
(CNN) -- Florida has put to death the man known as the "I-95 killer," who was convicted of killing three people and admitted to killing several more in a 1994 spree targeting gay men.
The Supreme Court decided late Thursday not to stay the execution.
The high court was mulling a last-ditch appeal Thursday from 57-year-old Gary Ray Bowles, whose lawyers contended he is too intellectually disabled to be executed.
Gary Ray Bowles, 57, was pronounced dead at 10:58 p.m. ET, Michelle Glady, communications director for the Florida Department of Corrections, said.
Intellectually disabled
Bowles' attorneys had appealed to the Supreme Court for a stay, arguing that Bowles is intellectually disabled and that was something no court had considered.
The state argued in its response filed with the court that Bowles' attorneys didn't file a proper claim until this week. The matter should be, and was, decided by a lower court of appeals, the state said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that she believes there were important questions in the case.
However, "because I do not believe that the questions as presented merit this Court's review at this time, I do not disagree with the denial of certiorari," she wrote. It could be different in other cases, she said.
On Thursday, Bowles woke up at 4 a.m. and was calm and in good spirits, Glady said. His last meal was three cheeseburgers, French fries and bacon, she said.
On the FBI's most wanted list
The FBI began a national search for Bowles in 1994 after they determined he was killing gay men at locations near the highway from Florida to Maryland, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Once on the FBI's most wanted list, he was arrested in November 1994 in Jacksonville Beach going under an alias.
He also was later featured in an episode of A&E's show "The Killer Speaks" as the "I-95 Killer."
Bowles pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1996 for killing Walter Hinton in Jacksonville Beach, Florida by dropping a 40-pound cement stepping stone onto his sleeping head.
Bowles then strangled him and stuffed toilet paper and a rag in his mouth, court documents show.
His body was found inside his locked home wrapped in sheets and bedspreads, the documents say.
Unanimous jury
A jury sentenced him to death in 1996 for killing Hinton, but the Florida Supreme Court later reversed the death sentence and remanded the case for a new penalty phase.
Another jury unanimously sentenced him to death in 1999, and since then, a series of appeals have been denied by courts leading up to Thursday's expected execution.
In addition, he was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 for robbing and killing John Roberts by strangling him and stuffing a rag in his mouth, according to court documents.
He also was convicted in 1996 of murder for killing Albert Morris in a case in which he struck Morris in the head, beat him, shot him, strangled him and tied a towel over his mouth.
He was sentenced to life in prison for both of those cases.
Bowles had several previous charges and was sentenced to prison for beating and raping his girlfriend in 1982.
Bowles is the 99th person to be put to death in Florida since capital punishment resumed in 1976.
Bobby Joe Long, who was convicted for killing eight women in the Tampa Bay area in 1984, was executed by the state in May.
Childhood abuse, years of homelessness and child prostitution
The executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis last week urging him to stop the execution.
The organization said Bowles had survived many years of childhood abuse, years of homelessness and child prostitution.
"Intentionally ending Mr. Bowles' life is unnecessary," Michael B. Sheedy wrote in the letter. "Society can remain safe from any future violent actions of his through life-long incarceration without parole."
Gary Ray Bowles' killing spree
• March 14, 1994 - John Hardy Roberts - Daytona Beach
• April 4, 1994 - David Jarman - Rockville, Maryland
• May 5, 1994 - Milton Bradley - Savannah
• May, 1994 - Alverson Carter Jr. - Atlanta
• May 18, 1994 - Albert Morris - Hilliard
• Nov. 16, 1994 - Walter Hinton - Jacksonville Beach
Bowles becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Florida this year and the 99th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1979.
Only Texas (562), Virginia (113), and Oklahoma (112) have carried out more executions since the death penalty was re-legalized in the USA on July 2, 1976.
As of Thursday afternoon, there are 339 men and three women on death row in Florida.
Bowles becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,503rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Source: CNN, news4jax.com, Rick Halperin, August 22, 2019
Serial killer who preyed on gay men executed in Florida
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — Gary Ray Bowles, a serial killer who preyed on older gay men during an eight-month spree that left six dead, was executed by lethal injection Thursday at Florida State Prison.
The sentence was carried out at 10:58 p.m., according to the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Bowles received the death penalty for the November 1994 murder of Walter Hinton in Jacksonville Beach. Hinton was Bowles' sixth and final known victim in a series of killings in an eight-month span in 1994 that terrorized the Interstate 95 corridor and won him the nickname the "I-95 killer."
It began in Daytona Beach with the murder of John Hardy Roberts. In between, there were victims in Rockville, Maryland; Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta; and Nassau County, Florida. In each case, Bowles had a signature: He stuffed the victims' throats with objects — towels, rags, toilet paper, dirt, leaves and even a sex toy.
Bowles did not say anything before his execution, but said in a handwritten statement dated Thursday that he was sorry for his actions.
"I'm sorry for all the pain and suffering I have caused. I hope my death eases your pain," Bowles wrote. "I want to tell my mother that I am also sorry for my actions. Having to deal with your son being called a monster is terrible. I'm so very sorry. I never wanted this to be my life. You don't wake up one day and decide to become a serial killer."
The execution itself proceeded with nothing unusual happening, other than Bowles speaking to himself perhaps in prayer before the procedure was carried out.
Investigators say if he hadn't been caught, he would have kept on killing.
"He probably enjoyed it after a while," said Thomas Youngman, a Daytona Beach detective assigned to the Roberts murder. "Why do you kill people after the first one? The first one could be a mistake, maybe. But then the second, all right, I'll maybe give you that. But the third, fourth fifth and sixth? When do you stop?"
It wasn't hard for Daytona Beach police to figure out who killed Roberts , the first victim in March 1994: Bowles left a probation document at the scene and also was caught on an ATM camera trying to withdraw money from Roberts' account. What proved more difficult was capturing him, something they were unable to do until after five other men in three states had been slain.
Bowles, 57, was raised in West Virginia, where he experienced drugs and violence at a young age. His father was a coal miner who died of black lung before he was born. His mother remarried multiple times, and his first two stepfathers were abusive, according to court records. His mother and brother testified that Bowles began drinking, smoking marijuana and huffing glue when he was 11 years old. When he was 13, he fought back against his second stepfather, smashing a rock in his head and nearly killing him, according to court records.
That's when Bowles left home. Investigators say Bowles survived by letting gay men perform sex acts on him for money, though he has maintained he is straight,
"I had a question about him being gay. He told me he was not, and I said, 'What do you describe yourself as?' He said, 'A hustler,'" Youngman said. "He'd befriend these old guys and have sexual relations with them, but I think they performed on him. He said he did not perform on them."
He also had a history of violence against women.
He was convicted of beating and raping his girlfriend while living in Tampa in 1982 and sentenced to eight years in prison. The victim had severe injuries, including tears on her vagina and anus. Former Savannah detective John Best remembers hearing details of the crime as he investigated the murder of 72-year-old World War II veteran Milton Bradley.
"The Tampa detective, I remember her exact quote, 'I've seen better looking bodies in an autopsy,'" Best said.
Best still suspects that Bowles is bisexual and also believes he might have killed women. He said during an interview with detectives, Bowles freely admitted to killing his male victims, almost in a boastful manner, but when asked if there were female victims, he hemmed and hawed.
"He never gave us a yes or no answer," Best said. "It was, 'Let's change the subject.'"
Source: The Associated Press, Staff, August 22, 2019
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