Hammack stepped inside the wide front door into the living room. "It seemed like when I lost my cool, he would keep his. Your story has never been told.. "It showed a picture of him, and he seemed trustworthy but kind of crestfallen. Ultimately, the jury recommended five death sentences for Rolling and the judge agreed, sentencing him to execution. "Oh, that's Ed," the kennel workers will say. I mean, why don't the girls tell me that? His eyes appeared glazed and barely open, his hair unkempt. By the time she reported Rolling, police had already arrested another man who they believed to be a suspect in the Gainesville murders. Rolling pleaded guilty to the serial killings of five young people at the University of Florida in Gainesville.). Now the scars on his face are softer, his smile boyish, a little shy--not at all the sinister young man he might have seemed when one corner of his lip curled upward. But, his life was forever tainted. His public defender, J. R. Russo, said Humphrey's mental state deteriorated while he was jailed. In late August of 1990, five Gainesville college students were murdered and their bodies sexually assaulted. Would you like to meet him?". "We had no way of reaching her," Ada Larson said. "I think Ed could have done something like this," he told them. Scott Grissom said he didn't know Rolling but he learned that Rolling had lived with his parents about a half-mile away from his father's house. The roommates and University of Florida students, were found dead Aug. 28, 1990, in their Gainesville, Fla. apartment. Most of my friends got 1200 or something. We have the last say. She had been raped and stabbed multiple times and had been mutilated. No indictment was issued against Edward Lewis Humphrey, a former University of Florida freshman who was considered a secondary suspect. Circuit Judge Theron Yawn said last week he was inclined to order a mental commitment rather than prison for Humphrey. They subsequently discovered that Rolling had type B blood just like the suspect in both the Gainesville and Shreveport murders. Genetic tests conducted on pubic hairs were similar to Ed's - and about 8,000 other people in Alachua County. He was in a wheelchair for weeks. I mean, I was amped. He's only given his home phone number to one--Ed Humphrey. Legran Hewitt said they dispatched Barber and another officer to Christa Hoyt's home. "Get his good side," offers Marti Mackenzie, the publicist. He was supposed to take lithium to temper his mood swings. A task force of police agencies in Gainesville, searching for the killer who had "Here was a kid who was held up as a ass murderer," Mackenzie says. (Edward Lewis Humphrey was an early suspect in the case of five grisly murders of college students in Gainesville, Fla. Daniel Rolling was eventually convicted of the killings, but Humphrey was never officially cleared by the police. Blood spattered an easy chair, the carpet, the coffee table. Three of the women had been raped and one had been decapitated. He was tall, good-looking, athletic, polite. "But when they first arrested him (for beating his grandmother), they basically trashed him in the press and said he was a serial killer.". "Every time they'd mention [Tracy's] name, it was like a punch in the head," Lahey said. ", A police officer told state investigators that 10 days before the killings Ed claimed he was going to Gainesville to "cut up some women.". "One day, I picked up the phone, I called Crime Stoppers, and I said, 'I think there's one guy y'all need to investigate -- Danny Rolling.'". Current address 1294 Port Malabar Blvd NE, Palm Bay, FL 32905 $1,080: B. On Aug. 30, Humphrey returned to his Indialantic home from Gainesville, where he had enrolled as a freshman at the University of Florida. Along with the similarities in which the victims were killed, there were other patterns investigators noted. Humphrey reportedly had been in the surf shop "raising hell" with the female patrons, making general threats, saying they didn't know how many people he had killd, and that he would cut their hearts out. Dobbin told her that Rolling had told him he had a problem, Juracich said. "I don't want people to read about me. A jury found him guilty of one count of battery upon a person over the age of 65, a third-degree felony, and he was sentenced to 22 months in prison, plus probation. What fear did she have going through her mind?" When Ed first got out of prison, he tried living in Orlando with his older brother, George, who gave him a cellular phone to carry around as protection. Meanwhile, Lykkebak hopes eventually to get Ed's record wiped clean of a felony --a move that would require a governor's pardon. The article also stated that Humphreys grandmother said the gloves belonged to her. Lahey said seeing this man "who destroyed my life" made her feel "frozen to the chair.". "It was like, Oh, wow. On Aug. 30, 1990, four days after the first victim was found, Humphrey was arrested after a fight with his grandmother and charged with battery. For months Edward Lewis Humphrey was the key suspect in the horrific slayings of five Gainesville students. ), "When he went in, I followed him in the apartment and I saw the young lady on the bed. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time, said Spencer Mann, the spokesman for the Alachua County Sheriffs Department at the time. WebEdward Lewis Humphrey, age 50s, lives in Palm Bay, FL. The cops came and asked for identification. The investigative records on the GainesviUe murders are filled with entries of Ed Humphrey scaring people in the final months before his arrest. So I got in my car and drove to Palm Bay to meet Ed Humphrey in person. On Aug. 26, 1990, Emery said Powell's parents arrived at the apartment and banged on the door. He demanded officials exonerate his brother. Then, at one point, the man on the tape says his name: Danny Harold Rolling. After his arrest, Humphrey lived in a 10-foot-by-10-foot concrete cell at the Brevard County Jail. He was on heavy medication. Maines said they found out that the suspect had broken in by wedging a screwdriver into the door jamb. He also said he hopes to resume his studies _ but not at the University of Florida. He says she knocked his contact lens out and that made him angry. The questioning elicited new details about the murders. He went from a motivated, friendly student into a deep depression.". This little fracas could have sent him back to prison. The task force investigating the killings put Humphrey under surveillance, and when a police spokesman described him as "an extremely valuable suspect," the media zeroed in on him. Ed says. He got out once a week--in leg chains and handcuffs--when his lawyer came, and twice a week to take a shower. "My brother is in jail now because of the image Gainesville gave him, not because of anything he did.". "The main thing is, I'm just like anybody else," he says. How could this possibly happen? And he paid his dues--both in time and torment. "So I wanted to have the last word.". For Ed's 21st birthday, he sent $221.21. "I just thought it sounded like he was being railroaded,"says Kennedy, who noticed an article about Ed one day in the San Francisco Chronicle. Ed looks out over the water, his face calm. She briefs him before interviews; she and his attorney decide which questions he'll answer. He was, at one time, considered the prime suspect. "Of course you do.". The two talked in June at the Krispy Kreme doughnut store where McGrath worked. Then he would drop into a crouch pretending to open fire. One woman had also been found with soap on her body and the perpetrator had used duct tape on both of the victims, but the tape had been removed. Acquaintances claimed he went on late-night "missions" through the Alachua County woods. Danny Rolling is talking about the murders now. I'm standing by the door and I'm pressing the button, and the guards come up and they slam the door open." Investigators and prosecutors race for justice in an effort that still affects them 30 years later. At this moment he would be home in Indialantic studying for a science test--and hoping, unrealistically, that people would just forget Ed Humphrey. That setting seemed to fit what investigators and the media had made of Ed Humphrey, said his brother George, a 1991 University of Florida graduate who was his biggest defender. "I thought it was totally unfair," Ed says. ", "If we had played the tape before, we would've had this guy three months ago," Maines said. Christa Hoyt was an aspiring police officer who'd been working part-time at the Alachua County Sheriff's Office while going to school, according to Gail Barber, the first officer on the scene of her murder. "They're gone but their memory has to always endure," Mario Taboada said. He knew what was happening. "The main thing that triggered it was Dad putting all this pressure on me to get into a really good college and to make really good grades and do really good on the S.A T. Well, I took the P.S.A.T. She was hoping to become a lawyer. And I'll never be able to forget it. Dave Farley, a senior patrol leader, remembers hiking the Appalachian Trail with Ed, his assistant. Ed Humphrey, on that August morning, had not been taking his medication for some time. He told me he had done interviews on this topic, and most of his experiences had not been pleasant. "He's one of our best employees. The time frame is precise in his mind. The first was named Ynnad -- "Danny" spelled backward. But his attorney, Donald Lykkebak of Orlando, said: "The prolonged investigation has been emotionally and financially exhausting. ", "It was like, here's a reason he killed the person you loved," she said. The second, more sinister personality, was named "Gemini" and Rolling blamed him for his deadliest acts. All of Gainesville shuddered. "He was rambling things that could be totally misinterpreted. And if you recognize that, then no matter what this jail-house) interview says when it comes out, it's not going to mean sh--.". But there was one major problem for investigators: Even though DNA testing technology was still in its infancy, investigators were able to determine the suspect's blood type through semen left behind at all three crime scenes. Then, when Ed was about 13, his grandfather died. Rolling wanted to address the court. Major Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart), a veteran of the Italian campaign in World War II, arrives at Hotel Largo in Key Largo, Florida in the Florida Keys after the war to visit the family of his friend George Temple (who died in the campaign). Although police had collected the evidence, at the time, they did not connect the bank robbery to the student murders because a gun was found at the campsite and the murders didn't involve a gun. "I had to know what Sonja went through. Edward Lewis Humphrey was an early suspect in the case of five grisly murders of college students in Gainesville, Fla. Daniel Rolling was eventually convicted of the killings, but Humphrey was never officially cleared by the police. The murders occurred over several days, which made them all the more terrifying. Tracy Paules and Manny Taboada were found dead the next morning, on Aug. 28, 1990. On it, he admitted to killing 55-year-old William Grissom, 24-year-old Julie Grissom and 8-year-old Sean Grissom in Shreveport. A once-peaceful university town panicked. He spent a lot of that time in Chattahoochee, the state hospital for mentally ill prisoners. Humphrey also faces an assault charge in Gainesville and a 1988 attempted rape and burglary case in Indian River County. There's many people that have abusive parents. I had to have my husband stop at the side of the road, and I looked outside and the stars were shining. Then 28, he received a bachelors degree in business administration with a 3.76 grade-point average, graduating magna cum laude. I wanted to ask him so many questions. State Troops Humphrey Lewis' Company (Madison County, Fla.) Military service, Voluntary He also decapitated her and posed the head on a bookshelf. Mrs. Hlavaty died about 56 hours before the grand jury decided her grandson Ed should not be charged in the Gainesville murders. Still, Rolling has pleaded innocent--and Don Lykkebak expects Ed will be a target in the trial. It was too painful for them to remain here. I had deliberately chosen 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning so that the chances of him being home would be greater. The accidents left him with a rod in his leg and scars on his face, and a Lithium prescription kept him chunky and bloated-looking. He was sent to Florida State Prison, where he met another inmate named Bobby Lewis, who was on death row for killing a drug dealer in the 1970s. "I guess I kind of pushed her because she fell and hit her head on that mantle there. One day after the last of the five bodies were discovered in Gainesville, police arrested Humphrey not for the murders but for assaulting his 79-year-old grandmother in Indialantic. (Danny Harold Rolling appears at his trial in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 13, 1994. It's going to be worse next time.' I just looked at God, and I said, 'God, why? The grand jury considered evidence against Humphrey but declined to indict him. According to another newspaper report, Humphrey's statements to police may be challenged because prosecutors stretched the law to keep defense attorneys away from him after he was arrested Aug. 30 in an attack on For the family members of the Gainesville victims, it was another moment in this long and heartbreaking story. Rolling's defense presented mitigating factors for why he might have committed the murders, including his troubled history with his father. Unit Name Humphrey Lewis' Company (Madison County, Fla.) Unit Leader Lewis, Humphrey Unit Location Madison County Unit Subjects Florida. He glances again at the photographer. "And I was glad to do it.". They say Humphrey made a "sawing motion" across his throat with the knife and threatened to get a gun and shoot them. I walked to my car, trying not to look back, trying not to think about those scars Id seen on his face. Who is Ed Humphrey? View their profile including current address, phone number 321-259-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on The real killer was eventually caught, confessed and was put to death. The image of him from law enforcement and the news media is that "he's a creature, he's a monster," George Humphrey said. Humphrey, a sometime University of Florida student with a history of mental problems, has been labeled a suspect in the slayings of five students near the campus in His grandmother had asked to drop all charges. Im happy I always have the support of family and friends, and Im happy with my family now.. A neighbor also reports that the grandson is running in and out of the home - shouting that he is going to murder the grandparents. He wasnt interested in doing an interview. "I'd have taken a room full of him," says Bill Thomas, Ed's teacher in eighth grade. In one of the songs, the man sings, "Mystery rider, what's your name? A classic film noir, it features a great cast and a great storyline. Ed said. Police found Paules on their living room floor. "I feel 100 percent that the media is the main reason our country is the way it is," Ed says afterward, disgusted. Hammack would have to arrest him. Officer Steven Smith responds. They immediately made her think about a man from her Louisiana hometown church who used to spend time with her and her family. You could see [she was] in a bad position, and I just turned around and walked out," Curnutt said. Russo estimated Humphrey would be in custody for only another seven to nine months because of time served and the states early-release rules. "This was Danny looking for something that would make what happened more dramatic and minimize his own culpability by saying, 'The devil made me do it.'". Although Humphreys October trial was in Brevard County, a visiting judge from Gainesville presided over it. His bail, originally set at $10,250, spiked to $1 million. He has lost 50 pounds and had plastic surgery since being a central figure on the evening news. George figured that if someone came after Ed, trying to kill him, Ed could just dial 911. It was kind of funny really that it hadn't clicked before. "I've got feelings, too, and that stuff really hurt me. "So, let's take it easy on him. They think, 'Well, there's a good chance he did it because he's on TV.' He no longer saw any point in getting up in the morning. Even though three decades had passed, I knew it wasnt going to be easy for Humphrey to talk about his darkest days; a time when his name was linked to grisly crimes. On the 30th anniversary of the murders, I was eager to seek out Humphrey. The rest of the time he sat in his cell, building card houses, reading books his mother sent, or sleeping. Three months before the Gainesville murders, in May 1990, Rolling and his father had an argument in which Rolling's father chased him out of the house at gunpoint, Hewitt said. Christopher Slobogin, a professor at the University of Florida Law School, said suspicions about Mr. Humphrey's possible connection with the Gainesville murders increased the likelihood that he would be prosecuted on assault charges that otherwise would probably have been dropped. Good Student and Boy Scout She was found raped, stabbed to death, mutilated and beheaded. (Manuel Taboada, left, and Tracy Paules, right, are seen in undated photos. She hadn't called us and, finally, the Powells, who lived closer, went over there.". Don Lykkebak, Ed's attorney, says, "He was a medical patient at the time who was not being treated. Always," recalls Scott Bedesem, a friend since junior high school. "The grand jury said it's not true that he probably did it, but he's still left in limbo," said Pat Doherty, a prominent Pinellas County defense lawyer. "It's hard to say what was inside my head. 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