#Gainesville serial killer trial#

In the end, even his death was surrounded by mystery leaving his family, friends and fans with more questions than answers.” But happiness off stage was hard to find, and Cassidy was keeping gloomy secrets from everyone he loved. HLN offered this preview: “He was happiest on stage. His cause of death at age 67 was organ failure related to alcoholism. 8 episode will focus on another Florida story: singer-actor David Cassidy, who died in Fort Lauderdale in 2017. In all, Rolling confessed to eight killings. The program also features Harry Krop, the Gainesville clinical psychologist who heard Rolling talk extensively about the five killings. ″I’ve had quite a few mention Ted Bundy.The Gainesville episode offers interviews with Mario Taboada, brother of murdered student Taboada Laurie Paules Lahey, sister of murdered student Paules and Spencer Mann, former spokesperson for the Alachua County Sheriff’s Department. ″I’m trying to control the rumor factor, but people are very concerned,″ he said. Handley said authorities had received dozens of calls from parents and students worried that the Gainesville killer or killers might come to Tallahassee. Security was beefed up Tuesday at Florida State and other state college campuses. He could be the guy across the hall or the guy next door,″ she said. The one-time law student was an intelligent, good-looking man few would identify as a murderer. Rhonda Lee, a sophomore from Cape Coral, said the most frightening thing about Bundy was his seeming normalcy. You can either avoid something or you can get in there and try to do something about it,″ she said. ″I think it played a big part in what I do now. When Lehtinen was in the Florida Legislature, she helped him draft legislation expanding rights of crime victims.

#Gainesville serial killer trial#

A great amount of anxiety was felt by everyone.″Ĭossin had to put off law school while the trial was held, and when she returned she decided to shift her focus from family to criminal law. It was like being in a crisis,″ she said.

″What I remember was an enormous feeling of loss, of the shattering of the safety you felt. She comforted one of the victims before she died and later was a witness at Bundy’s trial. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen in Miami, was a member of Chi Omega and was awakened by the sounds of her two friends being killed. 24, 1989, for the February 1978 killing of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach, who was abducted in Lake City about a month after the Chi Omega murders.Ĭrowds cheered outside the Florida State Prison when the switch was thrown.īundy also received the death penalty for the sorority slayings, and authorities believe he was responsible for three dozen other killings across the country.ĭiane Cossin, now an executive assistant to U.S. ″These things just are not supposed to happen in a college community.″īundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair Jan.

″If you’re looking for one way to describe it, I would say it was total disbelief,″ Handley said. Jack Handley of the Florida State University Police Department, who was on the force when it happened, said people had trouble accepting that such a crime happened in quiet Tallahassee. Three other women students were severely beaten with an oak limb. 15, 1978, at the Chi Omega Sorority house. This week’s killings occurred near the University of Florida campus about 2 1/2 hours to the southeast.Ī chill swept through the state capital when Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy were found slain on Jan.

″It’s kind of the first thing you associate with killings like this.″ ″Everybody knows that it happened here,″ Kim Ewing, a sophomore at Florida State University, said Tuesday. (AP) _ The killings of five people in Gainesville this week evoked memories of another Florida campus nightmare - the fatal bludgeoning of two sorority sisters by serial killer Ted Bundy 12 years ago.