After 4,571 days on Death Row, Danny Rolling is set to die tonight for the grisly murders of five Gainesville college students.

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1 THE PALM BEACH POST MESSAGES FROM A MASS MURDERER Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 By CHRISTINE STAPLETON and PAUL LOMARTIRE Palm Beach Post Staff Writers After 4,571 days on Death Row, Danny Rolling is set to die tonight for the grisly murders of five Gainesville college students. He leaves 1,700 pages of prison documents - a pile of handwritten pleas and doodles and terse records detailing his daily routine. In them, there is no hint of remorse, no trace of sorrow or guilt. No mention of the young women he tortured, bound, raped and savagely murdered or the young man who bravely tried to defend himself. Instead, there is incessant whining about not being able to see his fiancee. There is oily pandering to prison officials for favors. There are grievances about his paints being taken away, his mail being damaged and the horrific book he co-wrote about the killings being banned. There is a relentless, calculated effort to earn himself more notoriety, peppered with bizarre platitudes to prison wardens. There is, in that 9-inch-thick stack of paper, the worst humanity has to offer. Rolling's tenure on Death Row began April 20, 1994, nearly four years after the horrific crimes shocked and terrified Gainesville. From Aug. 24 to 27, 1990, Rolling went on a killing spree. He left crime scenes so shocking that he refused to look at the photographs in court. Rolling's first victim was Sonja Larson. After stabbing her in the back, as he would all his female victims, he went for Larson's roommate, tying and taping Christina Powell. After telling Powell he would return to kill her, Rolling went to the kitchen and ate an apple and a banana. On Aug. 25, he murdered Christa Hoyt, who was alone in her apartment. She was decapitated, her head placed on a bookshelf, her body posed sitting on the edge of a bed. Two nights later, Rolling murdered Manuel Taboada, then attacked and raped his roommate Tracy Paules. He posed her nude body in a doorway. Several of the victims' family members plan to watch Rolling get the lethal injection at 6 p.m. today at Florida State Prison in Starke. "It is very hard for us to see someone else die," Diana Hoyt, the stepmother of Christa Hoyt, told reporters. "But he deserves it."

2 WOMAN'S VISIT LED TO ROMANCE Rolling had been imprisoned at Florida State Prison, home to Florida's execution chamber, on other charges while awaiting trial for the 1990 murders. His file reveals he tried to hang himself in June A year later, another inmate accused him of planning an escape during a trip to court. A report says Rolling "was planning an escape, and had to kill staff to effect the escape." Rolling denied it. On Feb. 5, 1993, Rolling got a visit from Sondra London, a self-proclaimed writer and producer who had visited other killers. She told prison officials her visit to Rolling was as a friend. Prison officials learned it was really a business meeting. London was barred from ever seeing Rolling again. In response, the two began a letter-writing campaign to prison officials, professing their love and begging for visitation privileges. "I have been denied the right to marry the woman I love.... I have been denied the right to be able to visit with my fiance," Rolling wrote in a grievance in June "We only want to marry and visit each other quietly once a week. Is that too much to ask?" Three years later Rolling was still at it, and each note is in his file. "I need encouragement and support from a friendly face," he wrote. "Please give this some thought." After Rolling finally accepted that prison officials wouldn't budge, he asked that other women be allowed to visit. Nine did over the years, most professing their affection and pity for Rolling. One sent rose petals. Another wanted to send a "goody bag" for Rolling's 50th birthday. Still another wanted to send a monogrammed shirt. London even tried to send hair to her betrothed. The hair and rose petals were denied. Organic matter cannot be sent to inmates. And countless other mailings from London were rejected. When officials barred her from sending Rolling a copy of the book she co-wrote with him - a book that graphically described his killing spree - she tried sending it to Rolling a chapter at a time. Rolling filed another grievance. "I wrote the book in question," Rolling wrote. "It's in my own words. I know what's in it." London also tried to send drawings of dismembered bodies. A prison official answered: "I find the illustrations of people being dismembered, tortured, or mutilated as obscene." ROLLING'S ART FOR SALE ON INTERNET Then there was Rolling's art, which is now for sale on the Internet, along with the drawings, letters and paintings of other serial killers. Among his patrons is Merle Allin, bassist for the shock punk band Murder Junkies, who also owns the art of murderers John Wayne Gacy, Henry Lee Lucas and Richard Ramirez.

3 Allin began writing Rolling in 1988 after Rolling's book The Making of a Serial Killer was published. "We became good friends right away," Allin wrote on his site. Allin and his girlfriend visited Rolling at Florida State Prison in "We had a great time," Allin wrote. "We are still close friends and he is our favorite Death Row artist. We are still collecting his work." Prison officials say there will be more than 24 witnesses to his death - 12 media witnesses, 12 citizens and members of the victims' families. They declined to say what Rolling has asked for his last meal or who will claim his body. They do know how he wants to spend his last hour: in a closely supervised visit with Mike Hudspeth, a Pentecostal minister from Shreveport, La., Rolling's hometown. Rolling's brother, Kevin, also will be allowed to see him today. His appeals lawyer, Baya Harrison, visited him Tuesday. "He was remarkably calm," Harrison said, adding that Rolling told him: "I don't want to die, but it looks like I'm going to die." Staff writer Larry Keller and The Associated Press contributed to this story. Prosecutor feels renewed sadness Rod Smith is best known as the man who lost to U.S. Rep. Jim Davis in the Democratic primary for governor in September. But he also prosecuted Danny Rolling. "I realize more now as to how significant this was at the time," Smith said. "When you're in the vortex, you don't realize you're in the storm. A lot of people were watching. The stakes were so high." Smith said he wrote to the families of the five victims to explain he won't witness the execution because he doesn't want to divert attention from them. "I'm kind of thinking about it all over again," he said. "Any sadness I feel is for the loss of the victims." Inside Danny Rolling's DEATH ROW FILES HIS ARTWORK In Rolling's file is a letter he wrote complaining about his art supplies (excerpt below) "Does this mean I lose what material I've acquired over the years?" Rolling wrote to the warden after being removed from the prison's craft program in "They can't be replaced.... I don't

4 understand why others in this institution are allowed to keep their art supplies and I'm not." Rolling tried breaking into the serial-killer art market with his drawings and paintings One of his girlfriends, Sondra London, once called a reporter who had seen one of Rolling's paintings during a Death Row tour. London wanted the reporter to authenticate the painting to increase its value in exchange for an interview. The reporter declined. What his art is worth On Tuesday, Rolling's letters were selling for $75 on an online auction site. The starting bid for a signed self-portrait: $1,450. Another Web site featured nearly two dozen paintings and drawings ranging in price from $350 to $4,000. HIS WOMEN Fiancée Sondra London Rolling's files are filled with requests from women, and London's name shows up often. "I have been denied the right to marry the woman I love, namely Sondra London," Rolling complained in a grievance in "We only want to marry (and) visit each other quietly once a week. Is that too much to ask?" London was allowed to visit Rolling during his early years on Death Row, but when prison officials found out she was writing a book, The Making of A Serial Killer, with Rolling, she was banned. The book London co-wrote with Rolling in 1997 also was banned from the prison. It detailed his Gainesville murder spree of five students. He also was denied illustrations mailed to him of dismembered bodies. A prison official wrote: "I find the illustrations of people being dismembered, tortured, or mutilated as obscene. Your possession of such does not coincide with the rehabilitation objectives of this institution." Other girlfriends mentioned in the file Yvette Perryman of Bronson, 32 in 1997, worked in a styling salon. "My daughter seems to find some goodness in him," her mother wrote. Lynn Kelly of Jacksonville, 42 in 1996, wanted to visit Rolling because her daughter was "dating" another Death Row inmate. Rolling had Kelly taken off his list of approved visitors in writing: "Please clean her name from the paperwork. She just didn't work out." Kimberley Ann Miley of Lutz, 23 in 1997, had been a Rolling pen pal for two months before visiting.

5 Catherine Turgeon of Massachusetts, 34 in 2000, wanted to visit Rolling because he was her favorite Death Row pen pal. Phyllis WIlcox of Perry, 43 in 1996, became an approved visitor after she wrote, "I am a girlfriend of Danny Rolling." Stephanie Baker of Dallas, 29 in 2003, would take time off from her job at a Wyndham International Hotel to travel to Florida's Death Row and visit Rolling. HIS UNUSUAL MANNERS In his written requests to prison officials, Rolling was uncommonly polite (excerpt left) Most of his letters to top prison officials were "respectfully and humbly" submitted and ended with "Sincerely" and "God Bless." At the holidays, he signed letters "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year," and he sometimes wrote "Sir" in calligraphy. His requests to prison supervisors were often emotional and personal: "God knows I could use a little moral support," he wrote in one letter asking that his girlfriend Sondra London be allowed to visit. FLORIDA'S DEATH ROW Death Row for men is split between the Florida State Prison in Starke and the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, both near Gainesville. By the numbers 63: Danny Rolling will be the 63rd man executed in Florida since the death penalty was reinstituted in (Ted Bundy was No. 20, executed Jan. 24, 1989.) 376 men are now awaiting execution. 10 of those were convicted in Palm Beach County. 0 women are on Death Row. Aileen Wuornos was the last woman executed by the state, Oct. 9, : Average stay, in years, on Death Row. $150: What the executioner is paid to administer the lethal injection. The executioner is always an anonymous private citizen. $40: Maximum cost of a last meal. $72.39: Daily cost to house an inmate on Death Row. $13: Money left in Danny Rolling's prison account. (Rolling's brother, Kevin, and Murder Junkies bass player Merle Allin contributed money to the account.) Source: Florida Department of Corrections

6 What life is like for the condemned Visitors: Must be approved: lawyers, family, friends, pen pals. No limit on the number and no contact. When inmates can leave cells: Only for exercise, approved visits and medical and dental appointments. Out of their cells, inmates are always handcuffed except in the exercise yard and shower. Exercise: Twice a week, one hour, in small groups. Volleyball, basketball available. Shower: Every other day. Cells: 6-by-9-by-9.5 feet with a stainless-steel toilet, sink and bed. No air conditioning. Cells can include a 13-inch TV (no cable, bought only through canteen) and radios. Inmates are counted every hour. Meals: 5 a.m., 10:30-11:30 a.m., 4-4:30 p.m. Mail: All screened. Rolling has subscribed to Popular Science and Time. Clothing: Orange shirts, blue pants. Crafts: Inmates can paint and make greeting cards and origami. Finished crafts can be sent out of prison, but inmates can't profit from sales. To take a virtual tour of a Death Row cell: