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Mark is a Mochi member compensated for his story. You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of into the Dark. This is a true crime podcast that also ventures into all things spooky, dark, haunted, tinfoil tail, all the things. Thank you so much for being here. If you're watching on YouTube, please give this video a thumbs up and leave a comment. Just interacting with the video helps so so much. And if you are listening on audio and can leave a five star review, just share this episode with someone you love. It would mean everything to me now. Before we get into today's episode, we need to do my 10 seconds for everyone who messaged me. My throat is feeling so much better. Honestly, it did get worse after the last time I recorded, but it is so much better. It was pretty gnarly, I'm not even gonna lie. But I'm glad that it is feeling better. So spooky season has officially begun. I'm genuinely so so excited. It is the best month of the year and the weather finally cooled down where I am. So yesterday it was a little breezy outside and I'm so grateful. It is perfect weather. I can't wait to walk every single day this month. If possible, you guys should join me. It's the perfect month to start walking. I'm going to just because it smells good outside, the colors are pretty and the weather's great. All right, I know that was a quick one, but let's just get straight into the episode. Now, now. Trigger Warning. This episode includes discussions of domestic violence and sexual assault, so please listen with care. I am so excited that Halloween season has begun. It is the time of year when all of our food and drinks are pumpkin spice flavored. When we get to wear cozy, comfy clothes, and of course, watch scary movies every day. There is nothing like picking out a creepy movie and then cuddling under a blanket and scaring yourself silly. Except whenever I watch slasher, it feels different from the true crime stories I usually cover. I mean, sure, there is a lot of murder in the slasher movie, but it's just not realistic for one killer to go on a spree and kill countless people in the course of a few days. Right. Except today I'm covering a case that inspired one of the most popular slasher movies of the modern era. And it really does feel like a work of fiction, especially because it's not just a true crime story. It also supposedly has a supernatural element. This is the true story of the 1996 film Scream. And just like in Scream, this real story began with a shocking and gruesome murder. It happened on August 24, 1990, so six years before the movie, when two University of Florida students lost their lives. Their names were Sonya Larson and Christina Powell, and they were both only 17 years old. They lived in the same apartment, which was in Gainesville, Florida, and that's also where they lost their lives. Now, from what the police were able to determine, someone broke into the girl's apartment very early in the morning while both women were asleep back in 1990. Then the intruder walked into Christina's bedroom and stabbed her. Now, of course, Christina immediately woke up and began struggling and fighting back, but the attacker actually duct taped her mouth so nobody could hear her scream. And then he continued to slash her repeatedly until she died. The violence was brutal and effective. It took Christina less than a minute to die of her injuries. And even though she fought back hard, getting scratches on her arms and torso, she didn't raise even enough commotion to wake her roommate. So Sonia was still asleep at this point. It was very easy for the killer to then creep from Christina's bedroom to the couch where Sonia was dozing. But she woke when she heard the distinct sound of duct tape being ripped off a roll. She opened her eyes just as the attacker was putting the piece of tape over her mouth. And just like her roommate, she fought back. But the stranger overpowered her long enough to tape her hands together. And once she was restrained, he cut off her clothes. He sexually assaulted her. And then the attacker made Sonia roll over onto her stomach, and he stabbed her five times in the back, killing her. And as horrible as this all was, the killer still wasn't done. He actually then mutilated Christina and Sonia's bodies, among other Things. He cut off some of their flesh and took it with him. He also posed their remains. It was a way to ensure that once the police found the crime scene, they would know that this was an intentional, gruesome, disgusting murder. The killer was taunting both his victims and the authorities. And sadly, the violence didn't end there. The very next night on Saturday, August 25, an 18 year old woman named Krista Hoyt was out having fun. Krista was a college student. She lived just two miles away from Sonia and Christina. So it was a Saturday night and Krista wanted to have fun. So she stayed out until well after dawn. It was close to 11am when she finally got home and and the moment she stepped into her apartment, she could tell that something was wrong. There was a sliding glass door that she kept closed and locked. But now it was open. And before Christa even had a chance to process what she was seeing, she felt an arm wrap around her neck. Someone had just grabbed her from behind. Christa had no way of knowing this, but it was the same man who had killed Sonia and Christina just the night before. He had spent hours waiting for Christa to get home. And now that he had her in his grasp, he worked quickly, just like before. He overpowered her, then used duct tape to gag and restrain her. The man wrestled her into the bedroom and that's where he sexually assaulted her and stabbed her. Once she was dead. The man also mutilated her body the same way he did the other two, but this time he one upped himself and he cut off Krista's head and set it on her bookshelf. Basically, he posed it so Krista would have to look at her own decapitated body again. This is horrible, gruesome, evil. So by this point, there had been three murders in two days on this college campus. All of the victims were students of the University of Florida. Which is why they news reports gave the unidentified killer a nickname, the Gainesville Ripper. Now, nobody knew if the Gainesville Ripper would strike again. As Sunday, August 26th came and went, everyone was on edge. All across the campus, people stayed inside with their doors locked. Locals went out to buy weapons that they could use to defend themselves. And they all kept asking themselves, who could actually do this. But by the time the day ended, there was no new reports of more murders. And maybe a few people breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe this killing spree, whoever had done this over the last two nights was over. But then came Monday the 27th. That night, 23 year old Manny Taboda Was asleep in his apartment, which he shared with his 23 year old roommate, Tracy Paulus. Now, once again, they were both students at the university of Gainesville. But unlike the other victims, Manny was male. This obviously didn't stop the Gainesville Ripper from breaking in. He crept into Manny's room and then stabbed him while he was asleep. Manny woke up, struggled a little bit, but he was already too badly hurt to save himself. Still, he did make a lot of noise while he was fighting the Gainesville Ripper. And it was loud enough to wake Tracy. So she got out of bed and walked toward Manny's room to see what was going on. Except as soon as she looked in the door and saw this person stabbing Manny, she was terrified. Tracy had seen the news reports. Everyone had. She knew what this man had done to other girls on campus. So right away, she turned and ran. She made it all the way to her bedroom, where she closed and locked the door. But remember, it's 1990 and most people don't have cell phones yet. So Tracy had no way to call 911 to get Manny help or herself help. All she could do was try to keep herself safe and alive. Now, unfortunately, the Ripper had spotted her when she had walked in to Manny's room. And while Manny wasn't dead yet, he was hurt enough that there was no risk of him getting away. So the Gainesville Ripper marched from Manny's room to Tracy's locked door, and he rammed his shoulder against it until it broke down. From there, Tracy's final moments played out just like the other victims had. The Ripper held her down, duct taped her mouth and hands, Sexually assaulted her, and then stabbed her to death. And afterward, he mutilated and posed her body. By the time he was done, Tracy and Manny were both dead, and they were now the fourth and fifth victims in this rampage. So naturally, the people of Gainesville were terrified. At this point, a serial killer was on the loose. He had already taken five lives, and it didn't seem like the police were any closer to catching him. So that's why a lot of locals, especially the students of the University of Florida, went to great lengths to stay safe. Many of them were having huge sleepovers, inviting all of the friends to come stay. The idea was that it felt more secure to cram four or five people into a living room than to let everyone fall asleep in their own bedrooms. Sometimes they'd make people take turns staying awake through the night so someone would have an eye on the door and be ready to yell for help. On top of that, everyone used the buddy system at this point, Even if it was the middle of the day, People would not go outside unless they had someone with them. Lots of students carried baseball bats around to try and defend themselves. And of course, the school did what it could to keep their students safe. They canceled all of their classes for an entire week so nobody would feel obligated to leave the house and put themselves in danger. Still, this didn't feel like enough for some of the students. Thousands of people fled the campus, going back to their homes or out of town. They wanted to get as far away from what was happening in Gainesville. Roughly 700 of those students actually went as far as dropping out. They just didn't feel safe at the school. And the thinking was that even if the killer was caught, they still didn't want to be on a campus where so many gruesome murders had happened in a span of days. Now, naturally, while this was going on, the police were doing everything they could to try and solve these horrible crimes. But the problem was that the killer was good at covering his tracks. The investigators wanted to gather DNA from the bodies, including semen samples from the victims who had been sexually assaulted. However, this was impossible. The killer had actually used cleaning chemicals on his victim's remains to destroy his own genetic material, so the detectives only managed to recover partial DNA samples. The ripper had also gathered every single scrap of duct tape from the crime scenes. He never left behind any fingerprints or any other physical evidence hinting at his identity. The police could only hope that sometime soon he'd make a mistake and leave something incriminating behind at another case. Except after Manny and Tracy's murders, the Ripper's spree stopped. There were no more homicides. Now, of course, this is a good thing. Everyone was glad that nobody else had lost their lives. But it also meant the police didn't have any way of gathering new evidence. As the weeks went on, forensic investigators tried to analyze the crime scenes, Particularly the specific ways that the ripper had mutilated and posed the bodies. And they told him a little bit about the Ripper's psychology, But they still didn't know the most important detail. And that was who he was. All right, you guys, Fall is here, Kids are back in school, Vacations are over, and it is officially the start of cozy season, which means it's time to slide into some bombas. You know, bombas, the most comfortable socks, slippers, tees, and underwear out there, made from premium materials that actually make sense for this time of year. This is what I love about Bombas. They have the season's softest materials. Think merino wool that keeps you warm when it's chilly, but cool when it's hot. Cotton that is softer, stronger and more breathable than regular cotton. And even rag wool. The thick, durable, classic cozy sock you'll want all fall. And they have footwear. It is not just socks. 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Then the Gainesville police got a tip that just raised the stakes even more. See, a few days after the murders, some officers from Shreveport, Louisiana reached out to the Gainesville pd. They thought the Ripper may have been connected to even more unsolved murder cases from their town. So now let's go back to November of 1989. About 10 months before that spree in Florida. On the 4th, someone broke into a home that was shared by three people. 55 year old Tim Grissom, his 24 year old daughter Julie and his 8 year old son Sean. The home intruder killed all three of them and mutilated and posed the bodies afterward. And the specific way that he disfigured the remains now looked familiar. It was very similar to the murders in Florida. The officers thought this can't be a coincidence. Maybe these crimes had all been committed by the same person. So from there, the different departments compiled the genetic evidence they had. Like I said before The Gainesville police had partial DNA. There was just enough of it to compare with the samples the Shreveport officers had gathered from the triple murder scene. And I'm not going to lie, it took a while. By January of 1991, the investigators confirmed the that the murders had all been committed by the same person. And not only that, the officers were finally actually able to determine the killer's identity, because, get this, he already had a criminal record and had been arrested before he was in the Shreveport database. And more importantly, while the officers were learning all of this information, they got another useful tip. It was from a woman who had lived in Shreveport at the time of Tom, Julie and Sean's murders. The first ones she knew of, a neighbor who had always seemed just a bit aggressive and violent. And he had left town right before the killing spree in Gainesville. The man she named was the exact same person whose DNA matched the Gainesville crime scenes. And most important of all, the investigators didn't have to track him down or figure out where he had fled to after the Gainesville murders, because they already knew where he was. He was sitting in jail in Marion County, Florida, which was about 440 miles away from Gainesville, and he was facing charges that had nothing to do with the killing spree. His name was Danny Harold Rowling. Now, Danny was born back in 1954 in Shreveport, and unfortunately, he grew up in a very abusive environment. His father was physically violent against Danny, his mother, and his younger brother. And on top of that, one night when he was young, Danny witnessed a horrific crime. He was having dinner with his parents and his grandparents, and that's when his grandfather and grandmother started fighting. And the grandfather actually became so angry that he picked a knife up, and then with his free hand, he grabbed his wife by the hair and began sawing at her neck with the knife. And he actually didn't stop until he cut off her head. And he did this right in front of Danny, who witnessed this entire gruesome scene. Needless to say, this was all very disturbing for a young boy. And by the time he was in middle school, he was acting out and getting into lots of trouble. This was also when he began to be sexually aggressive against the girls and women that he knew. When Danny was just 14 years old, he got caught spying on a neighbor girl. She was changing in her bedroom, then turned to see Danny looking through her window. Of course, she told her parents, who talked to Danny's father. And then his father beat him up, which is what he always did when he was angry at Danny. So as soon as Danny turned 18, he tried to enlist with the military. His first choice was the Navy, but his application was rejected. So instead, he joined the Air Force. But Danny only lasted a short while before he quit. And that's when his life of crime actually began. Danny was in and out of jail throughout the 1970s and 80s. He stole and did drugs. During this time, Danny also got married. He was physically abusive against that wife, so this meant he also frequently got arrested for domestic violence on top of everything else. Eventually, she leaves him. And Danny was so angry that he decided to punish the next woman he saw who reminded him of his ex wife. He tracked down a stranger who resembled his former wife and raped her. Now, Danny's criminal record was getting longer by the day. And you may be wondering, how is this guy even out? Well, the answer is that most of the time, he wasn't let go on purpose. Danny became an expert at breaking out of jail. So it almost didn't matter what crimes he was convicted of or how long his sentence was. He always found a way to get free again. And in the midst of all of this, he killed someone for the first time. But it wasn't a murder. Danny was in a car accident, and a woman died in the car crash. It wasn't intentional, but it took a toll on Danny's mental health. He spiraled, and ironically, he dealt with the shame of taking another person's life by becoming even more violent. It all culminated on November 4, 1989, when Danny crossed the line and became an actual murderer. That's when he killed Tom, Julie, and Sean in Shreveport, his hometown, his home neighborhood. The police still weren't sure why he chose to target these three people or what his motives were, but the pieces were starting to come together. By now, the investigators understood that Danny was driven by anger. When things did not go the way he wanted them to, he would lash out and hurt other people. For example, In May of 1990, Danny got fired from his job. Now, he always had a hard time staying employed. He was regularly getting let go. But for some reason, this time around, Danny took the termination personally. That same night, he went back home. He had a gun with him. And the moment Danny saw his father, who lived with him at this point, he fired twice. He didn't pause to see if his dad was okay or bother to call an ambulance. He just turned and walked away, leaving his father to die. Now, the father had been shot, once in the torso and once in the face. He eventually lost an eye and an ear, but he actually survived the shooting. But Danny didn't even stick around to learn all of this. He'd already decided he couldn't stay at home and wait for the police to arrest him. He had to skip town. So Danny began using a fake name, and he moved to Gainesville, Florida. Except he didn't have any money. He couldn't afford to rent an apartment. So instead, he actually camped out in a tent. It was pitched in a wooded area very close to the University of Florida campus. And interestingly, there was a street not too far from the woods that was full of apartment complexes. Many of them had fences to stop wild animals from coming out of the forest and onto the apartment property. But Danny realized it was pretty easy to jump the fence and slip through holes. And that's when he got into a habit. He would sit outside of apartment buildings and watch the residents through their windows. And in particular, he made note of which units had young women living in them. He'd watch them come and go, living their lives. He'd fantasize about hurting them. And then finally, on August 24th, he escalated. That is when he broke into Christina and Sonia's home to assault and murder them. The next night, he did the same thing in Krista's apartment. He had been surveilling her for days prior to the attack. Perhaps that's why he was so elaborate when he posed her body after the murder. And then finally, he struck against Manny and Tracy. But by then, Danny was seriously broke, and he needed to get food and more supplies for his crimes, which meant he needed to get his hands on some money. So on August 27, the same day he killed Tracy and Manny. Instead of continuing his murder spree, Danny actually robbed a bank in Gainesville. And he got away with a big wad of cash, which he stashed in his tent in the woods. Now, later that evening, police were actually patrolling the area. They were on edge after all of the murders. So when an officer saw Danny creeping through the trees, he immediately ordered Danny to stop. Well, Danny does not surrender. He breaks into a run. The officer chased him all the way back to the tent. That's when they find the stolen money. But in the moment when the police officer had no idea that Danny was even connected to the murders, he thought that he just found the bank robber from that day. Now, either way, the police arrested him and charged him with burglary, which was why he found himself sitting in a jail cell four months later in January of 1991. And then the police got the DNA evidence and the tips about Danny and they realized he's sitting in jail for the bank robbery and they pull him into questioning and before long Danny admits what he had done. He says, yeah, I'm the Gainesville Ripper, you guys. Fall always feels like a reset between back to school, busier routines and shorter days. Finding time to cook can be tough. That's why I love Factor. Their chef prepped dietitian approved meals make it easy to stay on track and enjoy something comforting and delicious no matter how hectic the season gets. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no extra cost. And enjoy even more GLP1 friendly meals and new Mediterranean diet options packed with protein and good for you fats. 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Now, of course, the police charged Danny with all of the murders and he hired a lawyer that began preparing his defense. He tried to argue that he wasn't mentally competent to stand trial. Danny claimed he had developmental disabilities that prevented him from understanding what he was doing. Except mental health professionals examined him and they did not buy the argument. They agreed that Danny did have some disabilities, but he still knew right from wrong. Now, Danny's trial was scheduled for February of 1994 and he was facing five counts of murder. Ultimately, rather than fight these charges, Danny actually pled guilty. To be clear, he didn't accept a deal or bargain for a lighter sentence. After Danny admitted to his guilt, he was sentenced to death and this probably won't come as a surprise, but the whole trial and sentencing phase, him pleading guilty, was a huge news story. Of course it was. Danny had traumatized the entire community of Gainesville with his brutal, grotesque crimes. So now people all throughout the United States wanted to make sure that he would face justice. They tuned in whenever the nightly news did a story about the case. They bought papers, they gossiped about it. And this included an aspiring writer named Kevin Williamson. Now, as soon as he heard about Danny's killing spree, he realized would make a pretty good scary movie. So he wrote a screenplay for the film that we now know as Scream. Except it wasn't a particularly accurate adaption of the story. It was very much a work of fiction. For example, in the film, the killer targets high school students, not college students. I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say the film's murderer was very different from Danny. Now, either way, as you know, Scream was a huge Halloween hit. It brought slashers back into the mainstream after they had been unpopular in Hollywood for years. And the release injected a lot of new excitement and energy into the horror genre. But even while people were flocking to the theaters to watch this movie, very few of them even realized that Scream was based on on the true story of the Gainesville Ripper. And in the meanwhile, Danny remained on death row. He filed a number of appeals, all of which got rejected. On top of that, he began telling guards and reporters that he wasn't actually responsible for the murders. He just pled guilty. To be clear, Danny still admitted that he committed all of them. But now he's saying it wasn't his fault. According to Danny, during his killing spree, he believes now that he had been possessed by a demon. This evil spirit had taken control of his body, and it had forced him to do these horrible, violent things. At other times, he would tell a different variation of the story. Danny would go on to say he had multiple personalities, one of which was a serial killer. So then his excuse wasn't that he was literally possessed, but that he had a psychological condition that was similar to a possession. Either way, he supposedly wasn't in control during the murders. He didn't want to pay the price for them. And, of course, lots of people chose not to believe his story. After all, he couldn't even keep his excuses straight. Still, Danny seemed dead set on controlling the narrative around the murders he'd committed. At one point, he announced he was going to write a book on what he had done. And it was also going to include illustrations which Danny intended to draw himself. Now, obviously, as soon as his victims families heard about this, they were horrified. So they sprang into action. They couldn't stop Danny from publishing his piece, but they wanted to make sure he didn't make any money on it. So they filed a suit that guaranteed all of the proceeds from the sells went somewhere else. Danny never saw a dime in profit. Still, his book did eventually hit the bookstores. In it, he continued to maintain that he had multiple personalities. Danny actually said he was just as horrified by the murders he'd committed as everyone else. Still, this wasn't enough to get his verdict overturned, and Danny was executed on October 25, 2006. That's when he had the chance to say his last words. Danny chose to sing his statement. It was one final way to show that he wasn't even remorseful. And he had disdain for all the people he had hurt. 47 witnesses watched as he gave this singing performance. Then he was strapped into a chair and given a lethal injection. He passed away at the age of 52. But even though Danny was gone, life would never be the same. And his story had ultimately changed American pop culture. And more importantly, he had traumatized the community of Gainesville. To this day, there are memorials and signs all across the campus. They honor the dead and encourage passersby to never forget what happened to them. Some groups have also campaigned to change the way we talk about the murder spree. They want people to call it the Gainesville student murders because that puts the focus where it should be, on the victims, the students, not on Danny. But no matter what people say or how they talk about the situation, it is impossible to deny that Danny left his mark. Perhaps he did so physically, too. There is rumors of hauntings at the places where he committed the murders. People also have said there's evil energies in the woods where he stayed during the murder spree. However, the spookiest stories are about Danny's childhood home. According to current residents, they have experienced a lot of paranormal activity there for years. They say that sometimes they hear bumps and other noises in rooms that are supposed to be empty. Other times, objects seem to move on their own. Framed pictures fall off the wall, Even if nobody has touched them. According to them, this all began right after Danny's execution, which makes it sound like they are saying his restless spirit returned home after his death. And this isn't just a little rumor that they say in 2021, an actual team of paranormal investigators decided to explore it. They used all of their ghost hunting equipment and visited all of the murder scenes and Danny's home. The team also filmed everything and eventually their footage aired on the Travel Channel. Now, during their investigation, they used a machine that's supposed to detect changes in energy. It beeps very loudly whenever a possible ghost may be nearby. At one point, the investigators lit a campfire in the woods near the area where Danny once lived. And they asked questions aloud about the murders and about whether Danny really was possessed. And each time they brought up the crimes, the equipment beeped. It made the team believe that Danny really was there and he had come specifically to answer their questions because he was proud of what he had done and wanted to keep discussing it, even in death. And then the team apparently made contact with something in Danny's home. It claimed it was the Gainesville Ripper. But get this, the entity also said it wasn't Dany's spirit. Instead, the creature seemed to corroborate what Dany said, that an evil demon had possessed him and forced him to commit the murders. The paranormal team conducted an exorcism to try and cast out the evil spirit. But by the end of the television special, they felt like the house had been cleansed. They didn't sense any evil presence. Their equipment wasn't going off anymore. So to all appearances, they may have sent Dany's spirit to the next life or gotten rid of this demon. Or at least that's what they've said on camera. Ultimately, it is impossible to say exactly what's true and what isn't. If Dany was possessed or not. Maybe he was an ordinary human being who just did something terrible. So terrible in fact, that his soul was never able to find peace. Or perhaps there is nothing supernatural here and the paranormal investigators are exaggerating for views. Ultimately, you gotta decide what you choose to believe. But I will say, at this time of year, when Halloween is just around the corner, it's easier than ever to accept that pure evil may just really exist. Alright, you guys, I hope that was a good episode for you learning about the story that inspired screaming. All of our episodes this month are going to be spooky Halloween based. So I'll see you next time with another one. Goodbye.
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Podcast Summary: Into The Dark, Episode 140: The Gainesville Student Murders Host: Payton Moreland (OH NO MEDIA) | Release Date: October 8, 2025
Payton Moreland dives into the harrowing true story of the Gainesville Student Murders—a brutal 1990 murder spree in Florida that not only terrified a community but also inspired the iconic horror film Scream. The episode explores the chilling details of the murders, the psychology of the perpetrator, and the supernatural lore that continues to haunt the sites of these crimes. The host closes by reflecting on evil, the interplay between true crime and horror entertainment, and the lingering trauma of real-life atrocities.
Payton maintains an engaging “campfire storytelling” tone—balancing sensitivity for the victims with a clear-eyed recounting of brutality. She’s animated, thoughtful, and occasionally injects colloquial or darkly humorous asides, especially when reflecting on the intersection of true crime and horror pop culture.
This episode stands out for its comprehensive narrative arc: from detailed true crime account to pop culture implications and eerie supernatural lore. As always, Payton prompts listeners to ponder deeper questions: about evil, trauma, and the stories that shape our fears—especially as Halloween draws near.