Danny Rolling (Gainesville Ripper) | Mental Health & Personality

hello this is dr grande today's question asks if i can analyze the mental health and personality factors that may be at work in the danny rowling case he is also known as the gainesville ripper and the killer who inspired the 1996 movie scream just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so here i'll look at the background of danny rowling combined with the timeline of the crimes because he started committing crimes at an early age then i'll move to the mental health and personality factors it's worth noting that some of the information available about danny rowling's early years came from him he befriended an author named sandra london and she wrote a book about him therefore the level of accuracy about some of the early years in particular is really not known so starting with the background and the timeline of the crimes daniel harold rowling was born on may 26 1954 in shreveport louisiana his mother was 19 years old her name was claudia his father was a police officer and bria war veteran named james it is believed that his father may have had post-traumatic stress disorder from his experiences in combat but there's really no way to know that for sure james mistreated danny as well as claudia and danny's younger brother kevin with the level of violence intensifying after kevin was born james refused to show affection to danny believing that it was not masculine behavior claudia left james in 1958 for about six weeks but returned to him after he pleaded with her to come back in 1959 danny stole a candy bar from a local store his parents made him return it and apologized to the owner of that store in 1962 claudia left james again and again they would reunite in 1963 danny would fail the third grade due to attendance problems counselors at the school said that danny was suffering from an inferiority complex with aggressive tendencies and poor impulse control they indicated that danny needed counseling but he never received it claudia suffered what was described as a nervous breakdown around that same time she left james twice in 1963 and once in 1964 returning each time a few weeks later so this seems to be a pattern now in 1965 when danny was 11 years old there was a fight between claudia and james claudia caused self-inflicted wounds with a razor and locked herself in the bathroom james broke the bathroom door down and claudia was hospitalized danny interfered with his father's attack of his mother and he was beaten that same year danny began having a number of fantasies about being violent and sadistic and he started drinking alcohol in 1966 james attempted to kill claudia that same year danny ran away after being put in jail for two weeks after he was found drinking but he returned when he was hungry in 1968 danny was looking through a neighbor's bathroom window when james caught him and beat him on christmas day 1969 danny who is now 15 received a guitar and would teach himself to play he recalled that this was one of the best memories of his life later danny would claim that around that same time he started developing multiple personalities in order to cope with the trauma that he was enduring in 1970 danny goes to jail after being caught drinking by james he was arrested again for consuming alcohol in 1971. later that year danny who had already dropped out of high school tried to enlist in the navy but failed the enlistment test he then joined the air force and was stationed in florida i imagine this is not something that the air force would advertise like they wouldn't make a commercial saying are you a future serial killer who is upset because you can't get to the navy come to the air force probably not a top priority in terms of recruitment campaigns danny wouldn't last long in the air force though he was arrested for disobeying orders and drug possession a mental health professional diagnosed him with a personality disorder he was kicked out of the air force but allowed to receive an honorable discharge after this he went to live with his grandmother and started attending church evidently becoming quite active in the church community danny would get married on september 6 1974 and have a daughter in 1975. his wife became increasingly afraid of him as he frequently threatened her in 1976 a police officer saw danny looking through a window of another house and transported him home without arresting him danny and his wife started having more problems she had an affair and he became more violent in 1977 she filed for separation the couple would divorce six months later it's after this that we see danny commit his first assault of a sexual nature against a woman who looked like his wife when i used the word assault in this video that's the type of assault i'm referring to this is something that danny did quite a bit during his criminal career in 1978 and 1979 we see that danny starts committing a number of armed robberies he was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison danny had a turbulent time in the prison system during his first sentence he was convicted of another robbery in alabama so he had sentences in two jurisdictions he tried to escape three different times one of those times it took the police three days to catch him he was released from prison in alabama in june 1984. he broke into a woman's house in november with the intent of committing an assault but he felt badly about it and he didn't follow through at this point he started traveling around the country committing a number of robberies he was arrested for one of those robberies and sentenced to four years in 1986. after being released in 1988 he returned to shreveport louisiana because it was a condition of his release they didn't want him to remain in alabama he found a job there in louisiana in a restaurant but was fired for missing too much work on the same day he was fired he forced his way into a house and murdered a 55 year old man a 24 year old female and an eight-year-old male here we see emotional reactivity christmas eve 1989 danny broke into a house intent on committing assault on the woman who lived there who he had seen before through her window the woman did not come back to the house so danny left after stealing property including a 38 caliber revolver in may of 1990 danny got into a fight with his father danny shot him in the stomach and in the head his father james survived but lost use of an eye and an ear danny then committed a number of armed robberies before moving to florida and assuming a false name michael kennedy jr he started camping in the woods behind the university of florida august 24 1990 danny entered the apartment of two 17 year old female university of florida students he was armed with a semi-automatic pistol and a marine corps k-bar knife he found one victim asleep downstairs and another upstairs he attacked the woman upstairs first assaulting her and stabbing her to death then he did the same thing to the victim downstairs he posed the bodies and showered before leaving the next day he used a knife and a screwdriver to pry open a sliding glass door to an apartment of an 18 year old female the woman was not at home at that time so dany waited for her to return when she did so around 11 am he assaulted her and stabbed her to death he severed the victim's head and put it on a shelf overlooking her body which he had placed on the bed two days later august 27 danny attacks two 23-year-old university of florida students one male and one female he made entry into the apartment through the sliding glass door and killed the male the female heard the attack and went to investigate when she saw danny she tried to barricade herself in one of the bedrooms but danny was able to break through the door he would assault her before stabbing her to death danny left the area and the police assembled a task force to catch the killer they soon identified a suspect he was a university of florida student named edward humphrey he had bipolar disorder and a number of scars on his face from a motor vehicle accident shortly after the police realized that he was not the killer many people have accused the police of incompetence because of this but it actually makes sense that they thought he might have been the killer he attacked his grandmother he lived in the same building as two of the victims he was kicked out of that building for fighting and he harassed neighbors in the apartment complex across the street so he wasn't doing anything to help his image danny robbed a grocery store using a firearm in ocala florida when he was trying to escape from that robbery he crashed his vehicle and was arrested by 1991 danny would be sentenced to three life terms plus 170 years for several burglaries he had committed in november he was charged with the gainesville florida murders when dna and other evidence connected him to those crimes in 1992 he was sentenced to another life term plus 30 years for a bank robbery that same year he started corresponding with sandra london who would write a book about him as i mentioned before they announced their engagement in february 1993. many people have accused london of using danny rowling and people accused danny rowling of using london so it's hard to know what was going on there it could be that they were using each other danny initially pled not guilty to the murder charges but changed his plea to guilty against the advice of his attorney on february 15 1994 the day his trial was scheduled to start he claimed that he did not want to face the jury as they looked at the crime scene photographs this is really an unusual move the prosecution wasn't offering a deal so he had nothing to lose by going to trial the penalty phase continued as it would have if he was found guilty by a jury so he still had to face the jury after all there are a number of aggravating and mitigating circumstances that were considered in this penalty phase looking at the aggravating circumstances danny was convicted of a violent felony prior to the murders he was engaged in the commission of other felonies while committing the murders the murders were heinous and premeditated looking at the mitigating factors danny's emotional age was thought to be around 15 years old he committed the crimes while under the influence of extreme mental disturbance he had suffered emotional and physical harm during his childhood he cooperated with law enforcement in the sense that he pled guilty to all those murders he claimed to have remorse for his actions he had a family history of mental illness and his ability to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law seemed to be impaired by mental illness when weighing the nature of the crime including the aggravating and mitigating circumstances the jury sentenced him to death on april 20 1994 he appealed his sentence all the way to the florida supreme court he raised several issues on his appeal like illegal search and seizure the fact that the change of venue was denied by the court incorrect jury instructions but his appeal was denied as he was awaiting execution he pled guilty to the three murders he committed in november 1989. danny rowling was executed by lethal injection on october 25 2006. he was 52 years old he didn't have any last words except to sing for a few moments he never apologized to the families of the victims claudia rowling died in 1995 and around age 63 james rowling died in 2012 at age 81. now moving to the mental health and personality factors danny rowling was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder anti-social personality disorder and paraphilia let's take a look at the alignment between his behavior and psychopathy as that's tied in with antisocial personality disorder with factor one psychopathy this is primary psychopathy we see that danny seems to have some grandiosity and more superficial charm than would be expected based on his history all the other characteristics seem quite clear he lied pathologically he was manipulative he had a lack of remorse shallow affect lack of empathy and most of the time he failed to accept responsibility he did accept some responsibility of course toward the end with factor 2 psychopathy also called secondary psychopathy the story is pretty much the same we see a strong alignment with the characteristics sensation seeking parasitic lifestyle a lack of realistic long-term goals impulsivity irresponsibility poor behavioral control early behavioral problems juvenile delinquency a revocation of conditional release and criminal versatility even though a number of characteristics appear to be endorsed across both types of psychopathy the alignment with factor two psychopathy is a bit stronger than what we see with factor one now looking at his personality profile i conceptualize personality using the five factor model i remember the five factors through the acronym ocean openness to experience conscientiousness extroversion agreeableness and neuroticism so with openness to experience his level would be high he had a lot of fantasies albeit destructive ones he had an appreciation for the arts namely music and he was intellectually curious his iq was somewhere between 110 and 115. now iq and intellectual curiosity aren't the same thing but they are positively correlated looking at conscientiousness his level was probably as low as somebody could get he was not organized and he had no self-discipline with extroversion his level would be mid to high we don't see much in the way of positive emotions but he was assertive and sensation seeking like many with psychopathy he appeared to be friendly and outgoing with agreeableness his level was low we don't see any empathy he did not follow the rules he was not straightforward and then with neuroticism we see his level here is very high he was depressed anxious vulnerable angry and had no ability to postpone gratification with all this in mind with the psychopathy and the other personality characteristics the antisocial personality disorder diagnosis is really not a surprise his behavior seems to align with all seven of those symptoms the borderline personality disorder diagnosis is not as clear although again he was given that diagnosis assuming that he endorsed all the symptoms which of course we don't know for sure we see that with the first two symptoms frantic efforts to avoid abandonment and an unstable relationship pattern they were probably based on his relationship with his wife the other symptoms seem more clear identity disturbance impulsivity suicidal behavior emotional dysregulation a chronic feeling of emptiness inappropriate or intense anger or difficulty controlling anger and paranoid ideation or dissociation with this last one it was probably based on his self-report they may have connected his claims about having multiple personalities with dissociation when looking at the expert testimony during the penalty phase we see that all of the experts said he did not have multiple personalities even though he claimed that an evil persona named gemini took over his mind what's surprising here is that the mental health professional for the defense said that gemini was not identified even under hypnosis often in these trials there's the sense that the prosecution experts say something that will favor the prosecution and the defense experts say the same thing in favor of the defense so when a mental health expert for the defense doesn't support the defendant's story that's pretty bad it does make it seem like danny was lying the case of danny rowling supports the idea that serial killers are created by maltreatment and because they develop a dysfunctional way of relating to women i think this also highlights yet another danger of domestic violence there are many victims created by this type of crime during his series of murders in florida with the exception of one male victim all of his victims were white petite females with brown hair and brown eyes he had stalked each of them selecting them carefully his attacks were not random so for danny it wasn't just about women in general he was acting out of a fantasy against women with certain physical characteristics like he was trying to get revenge against one person by killing other people danny rowling was a bit like ted bundy in that way and with the frequent escapes from custody he was also like a number of other serial killers he had a history of maltreatment substance abuse and criminal behavior when he was very young like carl panzram also they share the numerous escapes from custody his behavior was similar to the disorganization sheer violence and substance use we see with richard ramirez the night stalker he used the tactic of claiming to have multiple personalities just like kenneth bianchi the hillside strangler he was active in a church community for quite some time like dennis rader and we see a pattern of escalation similar to that of james d'angelo the golden state killer in a way danny was a less disciplined and less organized version of d'angelo danny rowling's life was really a life of experiencing and creating horror in this way it makes sense he was the inspiration for a horror movie with his history it's not hard to imagine how he developed into the gainesville ripper so those are my thoughts on danny rowling please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 178,610

Keywords:

Id: Mv2svpwHOW0

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 26 2020