00:00:05
in may 1994 the body of 72 year old
00:00:09
world war ii veteran milton bradley was
00:00:12
discovered on a golf course in savannah
00:00:14
georgia he'd been savagely murdered by a
00:00:17
mysterious stranger who'd vanished
00:00:20
without a trace
00:00:22
at the time nobody could tell me that
00:00:23
they had a murder with similar
00:00:25
circumstances
00:00:26
or a suspect matching the mystery man or
00:00:30
mystery person the drifter who showed up
00:00:32
in savannah was last seen with bradley
00:00:34
and was now gone
00:00:36
the killer was gary ray bowles a 32 year
00:00:40
old transient with an apparent hatred of
00:00:43
gay men he would go on to claim two more
00:00:46
victims after the murder of milton
00:00:48
bradley
00:00:51
anybody who came onto bowles's radar
00:00:54
anybody who formed part of his life who
00:00:56
became a significant individual was
00:00:58
somebody who was in danger from him
00:01:01
because he's somebody who has no respect
00:01:04
for other people he doesn't see other
00:01:05
people's lives as valuable
00:01:08
after slaying more victims with impunity
00:01:11
up and down the i-95 highway bowles was
00:01:14
finally apprehended after killing
00:01:16
jacksonville beach resident jay hinton
00:01:19
by brutally caving in his skull with a
00:01:22
cinder block
00:01:23
he targeted perfectly innocent perfectly
00:01:26
upright
00:01:28
perfectly reasonable men he's ruthless
00:01:31
wicked
00:01:32
depraved and relentless
00:01:35
gary ray bowles the i-95 killer had run
00:01:39
out of road and been discovered as one
00:01:42
of the world's most evil killers
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[Music]
00:02:01
[Music]
00:02:06
in november 1994 32 year old gary ray
00:02:11
bowles confessed his vicious killing
00:02:13
spree to detectives
00:02:15
over the previous eight months bowles
00:02:18
had taken the lives of six men across
00:02:20
three states most of his murders had
00:02:23
happened just off interstate 95 on the
00:02:27
east coast of the us
00:02:30
one of the investigators who helped to
00:02:32
identify bulls as a serial killer was
00:02:36
rookie detective john best
00:02:39
what are the chances your first murder
00:02:41
you're going to get a guy that kills six
00:02:44
men up and down the east coast of the
00:02:45
united states
00:02:47
becomes the 10 most wanted fugitive and
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then you get to interview him
00:02:51
and he gets
00:02:52
put to death
00:02:54
as a result of these crimes and
00:02:56
here we are 27 years later
00:02:59
and we're still
00:03:00
talking about gary ray bowles so it
00:03:03
stays in your head
00:03:05
bowls was finally captured after the
00:03:07
murder of jay hinton in jacksonville
00:03:10
beach florida
00:03:11
detective joe collins spent days
00:03:14
speaking with the killer after a
00:03:16
stunning confession in which bowles
00:03:18
admitted to killing all six of his
00:03:20
victims
00:03:22
initially when you get
00:03:24
close to somebody and you're talking you
00:03:27
have a rapport going
00:03:30
and you want to keep that going
00:03:32
you think you know this isn't a bad guy
00:03:35
you know i guess he screwed up a little
00:03:37
bit or something i don't know but we
00:03:39
were talking like two guys drinking a
00:03:42
beer on the beach or something
00:03:44
until i pulled out the photographs of my
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victim
00:03:48
and all that went away
00:03:50
bowles left a trail of blood and
00:03:53
destruction wherever he went
00:03:56
every single crime scene was was
00:03:58
overkill
00:03:59
it's not like one shot one stab wound i
00:04:02
just think that that rage and when you
00:04:04
throw in some alcohol and drugs that
00:04:08
that created a monster
00:04:14
this killer's story begins in clifton
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forge virginia
00:04:19
gary ray bowles was born on the 25th of
00:04:22
january
00:04:23
1962.
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he was raised by his mother and a
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succession of different father figures
00:04:29
in rupert west virginia bowles never
00:04:32
knew his real father because he died
00:04:35
before bowles was born so this was
00:04:37
something that had a significant impact
00:04:39
on his life as it does on on many
00:04:42
children in this situation and there are
00:04:44
lots of kids whose fathers die before
00:04:46
they're born this isn't a prescription
00:04:48
for serial murder but it's what his
00:04:51
father was replaced with which is the
00:04:53
issue in this case two of bowles's
00:04:57
stepfathers violently abused the
00:04:59
youngster while his mother reportedly
00:05:01
refused to step in and help her son
00:05:05
these men were not ideal stepfathers by
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any stretch of the imagination these
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were men who abused bowls he was
00:05:13
somebody who never felt particularly
00:05:16
safe or secure or childlike in his own
00:05:19
home home was a dangerous place for him
00:05:24
at the age of 10 years old he started to
00:05:27
engage in
00:05:29
substance abuse at the time he was
00:05:31
sniffing glue snorting whatever he can
00:05:33
like paint to get high just in this
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frantic effort to escape the pain
00:05:40
that was inflicted upon him by his
00:05:42
stepfathers
00:05:46
as he matured into a teenager bulls
00:05:49
finally snapped
00:05:51
and the boy
00:05:53
then only 13
00:05:55
really hit back at the abusive
00:05:57
stepfather in fact he hit him with a
00:05:59
rock
00:06:00
very hard
00:06:01
in an effort to
00:06:03
stop him
00:06:04
he was fed up with the fact that his
00:06:05
mother was being abused his brother was
00:06:07
being abused and he was being abused and
00:06:09
he wanted to put a stop to it
00:06:12
i think this is something that is a very
00:06:14
pivotal moment for him he has been in
00:06:17
this household where violence is normal
00:06:19
violence is every day violence is a way
00:06:21
of exerting your power and your control
00:06:24
over others and bowles at this point has
00:06:26
had enough and i think he probably feels
00:06:29
that he has won at this particular point
00:06:31
he has had some kind of victory over his
00:06:34
abuser and now he comes to equate
00:06:37
violence with power
00:06:39
his stepfather survived the attack but
00:06:41
the incident led to balls leaving home
00:06:44
while still in his early teens
00:06:46
drifting up and down the country he
00:06:49
found a dubious way to make money
00:06:52
what gary told me was he found it easy
00:06:56
to
00:06:56
say friends he was hitchhiking a ride
00:06:59
one particular incident that he told me
00:07:02
um the man gave him a ride and then
00:07:04
offered him
00:07:06
money
00:07:07
for sex
00:07:08
[Music]
00:07:09
on the one hand he's found a solution to
00:07:12
some of his problems but on the other
00:07:14
hand i think this creates a whole new
00:07:16
problem in itself because in doing this
00:07:19
he's fueling feelings of shame and and
00:07:22
feelings of regret essentially and all
00:07:25
violence is rooted in shame so this is
00:07:28
not a good combination
00:07:31
in 1982 the 20 year old was arrested for
00:07:35
a violent attack on his girlfriend which
00:07:38
left her physically scarred for life
00:07:41
he blamed alcohol he blamed drug use
00:07:44
he only claimed to remember parts of the
00:07:46
assault but it was a horrible attack to
00:07:49
quote the detective in a probation or
00:07:51
sentencing hearing she said she had seen
00:07:53
better looking bodies in the morgue
00:07:56
bowles served 18 months for the assault
00:07:58
but when he was released in 1983 the 21
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year old soon settled down with a new
00:08:04
girlfriend
00:08:06
in fact
00:08:09
she gets pregnant by bowls
00:08:12
and they seem to have what is the
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beginnings of maybe
00:08:17
a family life
00:08:19
but then she makes
00:08:20
a discovery bowles is still
00:08:23
working as a male sex worker he's still
00:08:25
prostituting himself
00:08:28
and she can't stand that lifestyle
00:08:31
she rejects it utterly she calls him a
00:08:33
hustler
00:08:35
and she then aborts the child
00:08:38
their child bowles would later claim
00:08:41
that this was the trigger that led him
00:08:43
to target a specific type of victim
00:08:47
he did mention to me
00:08:50
that
00:08:51
and i'll quote it he said they killed my
00:08:54
baby they meaning homosexuals killed his
00:08:57
baby
00:09:00
according to bulls that put him in a
00:09:02
vicious circle where he had to go out
00:09:04
and hustle and meet these gay men and
00:09:06
get their money and he became enraged at
00:09:10
the gay men for that
00:09:12
it was an anger that led to a succession
00:09:15
of misdemeanors that would land bowls in
00:09:18
and out of prison for the next decade
00:09:22
in march 1994 gary ray bowles was at the
00:09:26
home of 59 year old john roberts in
00:09:29
daytona beach florida
00:09:31
the circumstances surrounding their
00:09:34
friendship are not known but years later
00:09:37
the killer confessed that he and roberts
00:09:39
had got into an argument over a woman
00:09:42
whom bowles had been spending time with
00:09:46
gary was on the phone
00:09:48
and john roberts made a derogatory
00:09:51
remark or
00:09:52
said you know
00:09:54
you don't need to be talking to that
00:09:55
[ __ ]
00:09:56
something very nasty
00:09:58
and it really upset gary
00:10:01
so gary said uh
00:10:04
john roberts was
00:10:05
sitting on the couch
00:10:07
gary picked up a lamp
00:10:09
and bashed him over the head
00:10:12
then i think believe he told me that he
00:10:14
strangled him and he stuffed the rag or
00:10:16
something
00:10:17
in his mouth
00:10:19
and then he fled the scene from there
00:10:22
in an apparent fit of rage 32 year old
00:10:26
gary ray bowles had killed for the very
00:10:29
first time
00:10:31
this is an important murder because
00:10:33
bowles didn't get caught for it and i
00:10:35
think he learns from this that actually
00:10:37
murder is something that you can get
00:10:39
away with
00:10:40
and and i i think that after this murder
00:10:43
he's he's reliving it he's thinking
00:10:45
about it he's enjoying those feelings of
00:10:47
power that it gave him but it's not long
00:10:49
before he wants to experience those
00:10:51
feelings again
00:10:54
gary ray bowles now had a taste for
00:10:56
murder john roberts was the first but he
00:11:00
would not be the last victim on bowles's
00:11:02
chaotic killing spree in just over nine
00:11:05
weeks time another four men would be
00:11:08
dead
00:11:10
in march 1994 32 year old drifter gaddy
00:11:15
ray bowles had taken the life of another
00:11:18
man in daytona beach florida
00:11:21
john roberts had been bludgeoned and
00:11:23
then strangled to death in his own home
00:11:27
detectives searching for the killer had
00:11:30
a major breakthrough early on
00:11:33
the daytona beach police found a piece
00:11:36
of probation or parole paperwork
00:11:39
that belonged to gary ray bowles at the
00:11:42
scene of the murder
00:11:43
[Music]
00:11:44
but gary ray bowles is no longer in
00:11:46
daytona beach he's gone
00:11:48
and what's more
00:11:50
he starts another
00:11:52
tray which is to become part of his
00:11:54
signature he changes his name
00:11:57
going by an unknown alias bowles made
00:12:00
his way to silver spring maryland just a
00:12:03
month after the attack on john roberts
00:12:06
bowles would later confess to the murder
00:12:08
of 39 year old david jarman after
00:12:11
meeting him on a night out in the dupont
00:12:14
circle region of washington dc
00:12:18
gary told me that mr jarmon was doing
00:12:21
something he didn't like and he told him
00:12:24
to stop
00:12:25
mr jarvan did not stop
00:12:28
and gary got mad and strangled him
00:12:33
and wrapped him up with bed sheets
00:12:36
turned the ac down real low
00:12:39
so it'd be cold in there
00:12:41
and he left
00:12:44
just as he'd forced something into the
00:12:46
mouth of his first victim john roberts
00:12:48
balls did the same to david jarman
00:12:52
john is beaten
00:12:54
strangled
00:12:56
but this time
00:12:58
there's a little additional
00:13:00
twist
00:13:01
bowles stuffs a sex toy into his
00:13:05
victim's mouth when he leaves him
00:13:09
this murder is interesting because he's
00:13:11
stuffed the sex toy in this this man's
00:13:14
mouth this is something that he's he's
00:13:16
doing in a performative way he's wanting
00:13:19
to humiliate his victim
00:13:22
david jarman had last been seen leaving
00:13:25
a bar on p street with an unknown man
00:13:29
the murder stunned the local residents
00:13:33
it sends shockwaves through the
00:13:34
community because
00:13:36
you just didn't hear of such things back
00:13:38
then and it really hit home in the gay
00:13:41
community because it was dupont circle
00:13:43
was known to be a popular hangout for
00:13:47
gay people and they had many
00:13:49
bars and restaurants that many like to
00:13:52
frequent because it was just the cool
00:13:54
place to go
00:13:56
investigators had no idea that the
00:13:59
murders of david jarman and john roberts
00:14:02
were linked the two crime scenes were
00:14:04
over 700 miles apart which meant that
00:14:07
two different police departments were
00:14:09
working on the cases
00:14:12
it's not as if this is a master criminal
00:14:14
on the contrary but what is
00:14:17
clever enough to do is to cross
00:14:19
county lines
00:14:21
thereby evading the local police
00:14:24
department
00:14:25
and you have to remember that this point
00:14:27
there is no national database
00:14:31
bulls would soon strike again just three
00:14:34
weeks after the murder of david jarman
00:14:36
he was in yet another state savannah
00:14:39
georgia the home of 72 year old local
00:14:43
hero milton bradley
00:14:45
milton bradley was a world war ii
00:14:47
veteran he suffered a
00:14:50
brain injury in world war ii
00:14:53
was totally disabled
00:14:55
and
00:14:56
got along from with a stipend from his
00:14:59
family that he got daily
00:15:01
and uh
00:15:02
he's a very very nice kind gentle man
00:15:05
and pretty much stayed in the downtown
00:15:07
savannah area which was his footprint he
00:15:09
didn't leave that area
00:15:12
on the 5th of may 1994
00:15:15
milton bradley's body was found on a
00:15:17
nearby golf course
00:15:19
he'd become victim number three of gary
00:15:22
ray bowles
00:15:24
there were pieces of a broken toilet the
00:15:26
leaves and dirt around bradley's body
00:15:28
were in disarray and there were scrapes
00:15:30
in the back of a maintenance shed that
00:15:31
indicated somebody had been forced
00:15:32
against it or that a struggle violent
00:15:34
struggle had taken place there was a
00:15:36
severe amount of
00:15:38
trauma to bradley's face and neck and
00:15:40
head
00:15:41
and the
00:15:42
strangest thing about it was there were
00:15:45
dirt and leaves
00:15:47
protruding from bradley's mouth
00:15:50
just like david jarman milton bradley
00:15:53
had last been seen in a local bar with a
00:15:56
mysterious out of towner
00:15:59
we began receiving information
00:16:01
myself and my partner at the time
00:16:03
detective deborah robinson from the gay
00:16:05
community that bradley had been seen
00:16:06
with a drifter who had come into town
00:16:09
who was telling different stories giving
00:16:11
different stories about where he was
00:16:13
from how he got to savannah and giving
00:16:15
different names he was
00:16:16
identified as james mike or mark
00:16:19
the killer's palm prince was taken at
00:16:21
the crime scene but detectives had no
00:16:24
idea who it belonged to
00:16:26
they were unaware that a serial killer
00:16:28
was on the loose working up and down the
00:16:31
1900 mile long i-95 highway so you've
00:16:36
now had three murders
00:16:38
within the space of two months
00:16:40
bowles is unrepentant and absolutely
00:16:43
determined to go on killing
00:16:46
bowls stayed in georgia to claim his
00:16:48
next victim although it was a detour
00:16:51
from his usual route along the i-95 his
00:16:54
mo remained the same
00:16:57
he crossed paths with 47 year old
00:16:59
alvison carter in atlanta on the 13th of
00:17:03
may
00:17:05
he met
00:17:06
mr carter in a gay bar
00:17:09
and i guess mr carter invited gary over
00:17:11
to his apartment
00:17:13
once he was over there they
00:17:15
were drinking and then they engaged into
00:17:19
sex uh mr carter according to gary was
00:17:23
very aggressive
00:17:25
in his sexual behavior and gary was
00:17:28
telling him to quit doing what he was
00:17:30
doing he didn't like it gary went
00:17:32
downstairs
00:17:34
told the carter that he went down there
00:17:35
to get some more
00:17:37
liquor
00:17:38
he picked up a knife
00:17:40
went back upstairs
00:17:43
and killed him by stabbing him
00:17:47
this case was a very
00:17:49
unique case when it comes to bowles's
00:17:52
crime
00:17:54
because
00:17:55
alverson carter was killed via stab
00:17:58
wounds this was the first of his and
00:18:01
only
00:18:03
of his murders where there was stabbing
00:18:06
involved
00:18:08
the signs of a violent struggle
00:18:10
furniture
00:18:11
broken and in disarray
00:18:14
allerson carter's mouth was stuffed with
00:18:16
a towel
00:18:20
as the investigation into albus and
00:18:22
carter's murder began bowles was already
00:18:25
in a different state back in florida and
00:18:28
on the i-95 he surfaced just north of
00:18:32
jacksonville in nassau county where he
00:18:35
soon befriended 37 year old al morris
00:18:39
i was a very
00:18:41
fun person he liked to have a good time
00:18:44
he was business
00:18:45
but he liked to party on the weekends
00:18:47
like to
00:18:49
furnish people with food and drinks
00:18:52
he liked to have a good time
00:18:55
jackie remembers the first time he met
00:18:58
al's
00:18:59
new friend
00:19:01
they were supposed to come to my store
00:19:03
and they actually arrived a little
00:19:04
earlier and come over to my house and
00:19:06
that's when i first met gary which al
00:19:09
introduced me to him as joey pearson
00:19:12
and he was
00:19:14
standing there with his hands in his
00:19:16
pockets already wearing al's clothes
00:19:19
and i thought that kind of struck me
00:19:21
kind of odd
00:19:22
despite his initial concern jackie soon
00:19:26
warmed to the mysterious stranger
00:19:29
his personality traits to start out was
00:19:32
very friendly
00:19:33
he was kind of uh outgoing had a good
00:19:36
little sense of humor about him
00:19:38
and he could he could wedge his way
00:19:41
right into a crowd real easy
00:19:44
he invaded his way into their lives
00:19:47
he became
00:19:48
quotes a friend
00:19:50
they didn't suspect him they didn't
00:19:51
think that this man who was
00:19:53
buddying up to them
00:19:55
could possibly be dangerous and that was
00:19:57
part of
00:19:58
bowles's mo that he wasn't uh
00:20:02
an evil figure dressed in a cloak he was
00:20:04
just this guy who
00:20:07
seemed harmless enough
00:20:09
paul stayed with al morris for a few
00:20:12
days with the promise of doing some jobs
00:20:15
to help him out
00:20:16
he was supposed to be doing some work
00:20:18
around al's house that needed to be done
00:20:21
he needed some work done in the kitchen
00:20:24
and he needed some work done on his
00:20:26
porch he didn't do any of the work at
00:20:28
all he laid around all day drinking and
00:20:30
smoking
00:20:32
this is him appearing to be somebody who
00:20:35
is helpful and who is giving and who is
00:20:38
going to to make the victim's life
00:20:40
easier so it's that getting inside the
00:20:43
home which is the important thing for me
00:20:46
he is accessing their their private zone
00:20:49
their safe space and then he's violating
00:20:52
that in the worst possible way
00:20:55
on one occasion jackie had to break up a
00:20:57
fight between owl and bulls in the
00:21:00
parking lot of a bar
00:21:02
he had no idea it would be the last time
00:21:05
he'd see his friend alive
00:21:08
and the next morning i got up and i
00:21:11
called al and he was a busy signal on
00:21:14
his phone and i called him until i had
00:21:17
to go to town
00:21:20
and then when i come back from town i
00:21:22
called al about three more times and it
00:21:24
was a busy signal and i said oh i've
00:21:27
just i guess got to lay down for a
00:21:29
little bit and take a nap
00:21:31
so i went over to the house and i laid
00:21:33
down and just as soon as i did they come
00:21:35
knocking at the door saying al's been
00:21:37
murdered al's been murdered
00:21:40
jackie immediately rushed over to owl's
00:21:42
trailer park home
00:21:46
there was a crowd of people in the yard
00:21:48
the trailer door was open there was a
00:21:50
bloody handprint on the door and
00:21:53
i saw his mother and she said that she
00:21:55
had went in there and found him in on
00:21:58
the kitchen floor and it looked like he
00:22:00
had just come out of the shower and he
00:22:02
had a towel around his neck and
00:22:04
she just would never forget his eyes and
00:22:07
there was blood all over the living room
00:22:10
where al had tried to find the front
00:22:12
door of the trailer to get out but gary
00:22:14
was torturing him all the way
00:22:17
[Music]
00:22:19
until he died
00:22:22
just six days after arriving in town
00:22:25
bowles had killed for the fifth time
00:22:28
he would eventually confess to al
00:22:30
morris's murder and the fight that led
00:22:33
up to it
00:22:35
he told me about that one al morris he
00:22:38
wasn't just a pushover
00:22:40
and gary thought he was
00:22:43
and they got in an argument because
00:22:46
they were out and al saw him
00:22:49
making uh motions towards someone else
00:22:53
and when they got back to the trailer
00:22:54
al's trailer they were drinking
00:22:58
and al brought it up and they got into a
00:23:00
fight
00:23:01
and according to gary he said
00:23:03
that guy was whipping my ass
00:23:06
i couldn't get him off of me
00:23:08
and the only way he could get him off of
00:23:10
him is there was a shotgun nearby
00:23:13
and gary said he picked up the shotgun
00:23:14
and shot out he said that was the only
00:23:17
way i'd get him off of him
00:23:19
in less than 10 weeks gary ray bowles
00:23:22
had taken the lives of five men
00:23:25
detectives from five different police
00:23:27
departments were trying to solve their
00:23:29
individual cases
00:23:31
it would take some extraordinary
00:23:33
detective work to finally bring bowls to
00:23:36
justice but not before he would kill for
00:23:39
a sixth time
00:23:41
in may 1994 gary ray bowles had killed
00:23:46
for a fifth time
00:23:48
bowles had murdered al morris after
00:23:51
winning his trust and attacking him in
00:23:54
his nassau county home
00:24:00
he feeds off other people's kindness and
00:24:03
other people's
00:24:04
willingness to to welcome someone into
00:24:07
their home and this gives him immense
00:24:09
feelings of power and i think the home
00:24:12
is this constant theme that keeps coming
00:24:14
up with him so the home is somewhere
00:24:16
where he never felt safe the home was
00:24:18
somewhere where he was abused he was
00:24:20
violated and now he's going into other
00:24:23
people's homes he's making his way into
00:24:25
other people's lives and he's violating
00:24:27
them
00:24:29
five killings
00:24:30
in a matter of weeks
00:24:34
it's as if he's absolutely
00:24:37
on an adrenaline rush
00:24:39
a fueled by no doubt certain amount of
00:24:42
alcohol but fueled also no question
00:24:45
by a genuine
00:24:46
bloodlust
00:24:49
he's unrepentant unremorseful
00:24:54
but by now
00:24:57
some of the police departments are
00:24:59
beginning to see there might be a
00:25:01
pattern here
00:25:03
detective john best who is investigating
00:25:06
the murder of milton bradley and
00:25:08
savannah georgia had sent out a request
00:25:11
to neighboring police departments to see
00:25:13
if they had any similar homicides
00:25:16
and he soon got a response from
00:25:18
investigators in nassau county who were
00:25:20
looking into al morris's murder
00:25:24
two murders of gay men
00:25:26
involving a transient or a drifter who
00:25:28
was a suspect
00:25:30
these murders occur right off the i-95
00:25:32
corridor these crime scenes are eerily
00:25:35
similar even though one is outside one
00:25:37
is inside
00:25:38
my crime scene with a milton bradley
00:25:40
pockets are turned inside out nassau
00:25:42
county crime scene with al morris
00:25:44
pockets turned inside out so
00:25:46
i feel at this point
00:25:48
the two are linked
00:25:51
john showed a composite sketch of the
00:25:53
suspect to witnesses who'd seen him with
00:25:56
milton bradley on the night of his
00:25:58
murder
00:25:59
one of them claimed he'd been to a
00:26:01
convenience store with bowls the
00:26:03
previous day
00:26:04
armed with security cam footage from the
00:26:07
store john approached jackie strickland
00:26:10
who'd met the killer before his attack
00:26:12
on al morris
00:26:15
so i watched the videotape
00:26:17
for and from that convenience store for
00:26:20
several minutes
00:26:21
and then the door opened and then two
00:26:23
guys come in
00:26:25
and one guy went to the counter
00:26:27
and the other guy
00:26:28
was joey who he told me he was i
00:26:31
recognized him immediately when he come
00:26:33
in the store
00:26:34
the other guy went and bought a pack of
00:26:37
but joey is sitting there with a woman
00:26:41
who has a baby on her hip and he's
00:26:43
playing with her little baby girl
00:26:45
uh
00:26:46
there and talking about maybe how cute
00:26:48
the baby is and something and this guy
00:26:51
has just murdered all these people
00:26:53
and has no conscience whatsoever
00:26:56
and that's when i said that's him that's
00:26:57
what he looks like that's your guy right
00:26:59
there
00:27:02
so now we have
00:27:04
one suspect linked to two murders in two
00:27:06
different states with the same
00:27:08
circumstances same violent crime scenes
00:27:10
pockets turned inside out of both so
00:27:13
now we have a definitive link two
00:27:15
murders two states same suspect and then
00:27:18
we spoke to the the supervisory agent in
00:27:20
charge harold jones and i never forget
00:27:23
harold jones looking at me and saying
00:27:25
johnny i think you got a serial killer
00:27:26
on your hands
00:27:28
fbi agent harold jones sent a request
00:27:31
out to see if there were any more
00:27:33
potential victims that could be linked
00:27:36
to the killer
00:27:37
and he soon got a hit another murder
00:27:41
case in florida that had happened back
00:27:43
in march
00:27:45
the daytona beach police responded to
00:27:48
special agent jones teletype and gave
00:27:50
him the name of a suspect in the murder
00:27:52
of john harder hardy roberts the name
00:27:54
they gave was
00:27:55
gary ray bowles
00:27:57
[Music]
00:27:59
finally investigators had a name gary
00:28:02
ray balls had a long list of felonies
00:28:06
meaning his fingerprints were on file
00:28:08
from a previous arrest
00:28:10
these proved to be a match with the
00:28:12
prince found at the milton bradley crime
00:28:15
scene so now we have physical evidence
00:28:17
we have a palm print at the scene we
00:28:19
have video evidence of bulls being in
00:28:21
savannah with a witness that day i
00:28:23
secured a murder warrant for gary bowles
00:28:26
bowles was added to the fbi's top 10
00:28:29
most wanted fugitives list investigators
00:28:32
needed to track him down
00:28:34
fast
00:28:35
we sent it all over our local papers the
00:28:37
news was out and all of our local news
00:28:40
the word was getting out that this guy
00:28:43
gary ray bowles needed to be found this
00:28:45
is what he looks like
00:28:47
and he needs to be
00:28:48
picked up off the streets because he's
00:28:50
very dangerous
00:28:53
words pretty much can't define how i
00:28:55
felt
00:28:56
i was glad that we we have this person
00:28:58
identified
00:28:59
you know i can tell the bradley family
00:29:01
that now we know who who killed milton
00:29:03
um then there's another part of me that
00:29:05
realized now
00:29:07
now the hard part starts we have to find
00:29:10
[Music]
00:29:11
bowles him
00:29:11
now becoming infamous across the nation
00:29:14
and the media had even come up with a
00:29:16
nickname for the killer
00:29:19
the media started calling bowles the
00:29:21
i-95 killer because as we found out
00:29:23
later that was the way he got around
00:29:25
that's the main highway on the east
00:29:27
coast of the united states that's how he
00:29:28
traveled
00:29:30
i think this transience is conscious
00:29:32
it's not something that's happening by
00:29:34
accident because there's an awareness
00:29:36
among serial killers at this particular
00:29:38
point in time that police systems
00:29:40
perhaps don't always join up
00:29:42
particularly well
00:29:44
the additional publicity led to
00:29:47
detectives linking balls to two further
00:29:50
murders due to the similarly chaotic
00:29:52
crime scenes where the victims have been
00:29:55
left with something stuffed in their
00:29:57
mouths david jarman in maryland and
00:30:00
albus and carter in georgia
00:30:04
after killing five men in just over nine
00:30:07
weeks bowls had suddenly stopped
00:30:10
nobody knew where the 32 year old
00:30:12
drifter was
00:30:15
i was very worried when he was on the
00:30:18
run because we're sitting out like open
00:30:20
targets on the open highway
00:30:23
uh there and i thought that you know he
00:30:24
might come back one night
00:30:26
and say hey remember me
00:30:29
what'd you tell them you know are you
00:30:30
the reason that they all are after me
00:30:33
now i just had no idea
00:30:36
after laying low for six months bowles
00:30:39
resurfaced in jacksonville beach florida
00:30:42
he couldn't resist killing for a sixth
00:30:45
time
00:30:46
on a winter's morning 42 year old jay
00:30:49
hinton didn't turn up at the flower shop
00:30:52
where he worked
00:30:54
well i came on the case i believe
00:30:57
it was
00:30:58
november 20th of
00:31:00
1994.
00:31:02
a relative of mr hintons called in and
00:31:05
said
00:31:06
i believe
00:31:08
my brother-in-law my my girlfriend's
00:31:11
brother
00:31:12
is dead and he's in a trailer that type
00:31:15
of call
00:31:16
uniformed officers were dispatched
00:31:19
out there then we as homicide
00:31:22
we were notified and we responded as we
00:31:26
went inside and we went in very
00:31:28
carefully
00:31:30
and just to speed things up we found the
00:31:32
deceased individual covered up with
00:31:35
blankets and sheets
00:31:38
jay hinton's head had been struck by a
00:31:41
heavy object a cinder block was laying
00:31:44
on the bed next to his body
00:31:46
the murder bore all the hallmarks of
00:31:48
another brutal gary ray bowles attack
00:31:52
i think the reason for this this
00:31:54
extensive violence is because the more
00:31:57
violent he is the more powerful and the
00:31:58
more in control he feels during his
00:32:01
childhood he came to learn that violence
00:32:03
was currency and the more of it you had
00:32:06
the better the more powerful you were so
00:32:09
i think that does explain that the level
00:32:11
of brutality that we've seen in these
00:32:13
cases
00:32:14
detective joe collins had read all the
00:32:17
information on bulls and was certain
00:32:20
that the serial killer had struck again
00:32:24
at one particular time once we were
00:32:27
going through everything there were some
00:32:30
key things there was a gin bottle he
00:32:32
liked drinking gin
00:32:35
there were cool cigarettes he liked
00:32:37
smoking those
00:32:40
some of the thing the way the victim was
00:32:43
the way we found jay hinton
00:32:46
uh was also a big clue
00:32:48
and i made mention to
00:32:51
my partner at the time that
00:32:54
i you know hey man i think this might be
00:32:56
bowls this might be gary bowles
00:32:59
but documentation recovered at the scene
00:33:02
suggested that someone entirely
00:33:05
different may be involved in the murder
00:33:07
of jay hinton
00:33:09
the biggest evidence that we found was
00:33:12
the ameriforce pay slip
00:33:14
the payslip had the name of timothy or
00:33:17
tim whitfield on it
00:33:20
so that was
00:33:21
you know i would say that's probably a
00:33:23
good one of the best
00:33:25
pieces of evidence
00:33:27
because it gives us the lead to find out
00:33:30
why
00:33:31
jay hinton the victim
00:33:34
had
00:33:35
a pay slip belonging to
00:33:37
someone else
00:33:39
while his heart said that bowles was the
00:33:41
killer joe's head told him to follow the
00:33:44
evidence
00:33:46
we wanted to know who tim whitefield was
00:33:49
don't
00:33:49
you know haze the investigation at all
00:33:52
don't rush through it and say yep it's
00:33:54
bowls he's using a different name
00:33:57
we want to know who this guy tim
00:33:59
whitfield was
00:34:00
and go from there one step at a time
00:34:04
the hunt was on joe and his team needed
00:34:07
to locate tim whitfield and find out if
00:34:10
he truly was gary ray bulls
00:34:14
before the transient killer moved on
00:34:17
and murdered
00:34:18
again in november
00:34:21
1994 police in jacksonville beach
00:34:24
florida were closing the net on serial
00:34:27
killer gary ray bulls
00:34:30
detectives believe that bulls was
00:34:32
responsible for the death of 42 year old
00:34:35
jay hinton but a payslip left behind at
00:34:37
the crime scene pointed them towards a
00:34:40
man named tim whitfield
00:34:42
investigators were certain that
00:34:44
whitfield and bowles were one and the
00:34:47
same
00:34:48
well there could hardly be a more
00:34:50
obvious
00:34:51
clue for the local police to find they
00:34:54
look at the payslip
00:34:55
they approach
00:34:57
the ameriforce organization
00:35:00
and ask if timothy whitfield is working
00:35:02
there they're told yes
00:35:04
they're then alerted the moment he turns
00:35:06
up for work and
00:35:08
he is arrested for the murder of hinton
00:35:12
detective joe collins led the
00:35:14
interrogation of tim whitfield
00:35:18
we my partner and i were asking him
00:35:20
questions about
00:35:22
how he knew
00:35:23
jay hinton
00:35:25
and he would tell us
00:35:27
partial truths things that we already
00:35:30
knew but then he would switch gears and
00:35:33
change up and say
00:35:34
something that really wasn't true
00:35:38
as the interview continued on whitfield
00:35:41
grew ever more flustered
00:35:44
about the second or third time he
00:35:46
started
00:35:47
wavering again and telling us a story
00:35:50
i stopped him abruptly
00:35:53
and i said
00:35:54
i told you don't lie to me i want you to
00:35:57
tell me the truth
00:35:59
i was a little stern as the way i said
00:36:01
it my partner was as well
00:36:04
and apparently he didn't like that
00:36:07
being boxed into a corner so to speak
00:36:10
and he jumped up almost got in my face
00:36:13
and said you want to know who i really
00:36:15
am you want me to tell you the truth i'm
00:36:17
gary ray bowles that's who i am gary ray
00:36:20
bowles
00:36:21
and he sat down
00:36:25
at that particular time i'm looking at
00:36:27
gary ray bowles
00:36:30
right then and there
00:36:32
yeah i know this is the guy
00:36:35
and i just
00:36:36
i remember putting my hands on his
00:36:38
shoulder his head was down and he said
00:36:41
i'm glad it's over
00:36:43
and i just
00:36:45
i said i'll just calm down
00:36:48
i'm here and we'll talk about it
00:36:51
gary ray balls who had killed six men in
00:36:54
just eight months was finally in custody
00:36:58
he would never be free again
00:37:01
well it was an exciting feeling i'm not
00:37:04
gonna say it was jump for joy or
00:37:06
something like that but it was like wow
00:37:08
we really do have this guy and i said
00:37:11
well can you prove it
00:37:14
and he goes yeah i can prove it and he
00:37:16
pulled out a wallet
00:37:18
and he said he pulled out tim
00:37:20
whitfield's id
00:37:23
social security card he goes this is the
00:37:25
id i stole from the guy i killed in
00:37:29
in nassau county
00:37:32
and i'm like okay he just submitted to
00:37:34
another murder but i've got to get my
00:37:36
murder
00:37:37
down we have to worry about
00:37:40
our murder
00:37:41
moles admitted to doctoring al morris's
00:37:44
id card after murdering him in nassau
00:37:47
county
00:37:48
bowles then went into detail about how
00:37:50
he killed jay hinton
00:37:52
he told the detectives they'd fallen out
00:37:55
over a mutual friend and jay had told
00:37:58
bulls to get out of his house
00:38:01
and the more he thought about
00:38:03
what jay told him the matter he got
00:38:06
so he went outside and picked up
00:38:10
a
00:38:11
square
00:38:12
concrete
00:38:13
leveling block
00:38:15
it weighs approximately 40 pounds or so
00:38:19
he walked into the bedroom where jay was
00:38:21
sleeping
00:38:22
and dropped the block on jay's head
00:38:25
it did not kill jay
00:38:27
they struggled with each other back and
00:38:30
forth
00:38:30
gary finally overwhelmed jay because
00:38:33
he'd been hit in the head and cracked
00:38:34
his skull
00:38:37
and he strangled him
00:38:38
and then he stuff i believe it was a
00:38:41
maroon
00:38:42
wash rag down his throat and some
00:38:45
toilet paper as well
00:38:47
and i wrapped them up
00:38:50
it is one of the most
00:38:54
horrifying facts
00:38:56
about bowls
00:38:58
is that in the end i think he came to
00:39:00
glory in him
00:39:01
glory in his killings he came to
00:39:06
wear them around him like a
00:39:10
a coat
00:39:11
i am the i-95 killer and i will get away
00:39:14
with it
00:39:15
i have no doubt whatever that he would
00:39:16
have gone on killing remorselessly
00:39:19
had he not been caught in november 1994.
00:39:23
after confessing to the murders of jay
00:39:25
hinton and al morris bowles met with
00:39:28
detectives in savannah georgia to
00:39:31
discuss the milton bradley case
00:39:34
bulls confessed pretty much
00:39:35
chronologically and bulls confessed it
00:39:38
would depend on which police agency or
00:39:40
law enforcement agency was interviewing
00:39:42
him at the time
00:39:44
bulls confessed first to the
00:39:45
jacksonville
00:39:46
detectives about the murder of jay
00:39:48
hinton next
00:39:49
dennis reagan and i interviewed him
00:39:51
about the milton bradley murder
00:39:53
and while we were interviewing bowles
00:39:55
about the murder of milton bradley
00:39:58
he confessed to the murder of alverson
00:39:59
carter
00:40:01
bowles would eventually confess to the
00:40:03
murders of john roberts and david jarman
00:40:06
too
00:40:07
meaning he had admitted to killing all
00:40:09
of his six victims
00:40:11
detectives were still fascinated by his
00:40:14
signature calling card
00:40:17
gary told me because i wanted to know
00:40:19
why he put things and the rags toilet
00:40:23
paper washcloths whatever in someone's
00:40:25
throat why did you do that and he told
00:40:29
gary told me he goes i don't know he
00:40:30
goes i just didn't want to hear him
00:40:33
the sound's coming out of their mouth
00:40:36
that's what he told me and i said well
00:40:39
you think you did it to make sure they
00:40:41
were dead he goes no
00:40:43
i just didn't want to hear him
00:40:46
i think this was something that was
00:40:47
symbolic so it's not only silencing them
00:40:50
in terms of stopping them from screaming
00:40:52
when he's killing them it's also
00:40:54
silencing them after their deaths he's
00:40:57
saying to these men you don't have a
00:40:59
voice your voice is not worth hearing
00:41:01
and this is all coming from those
00:41:04
feelings of humiliation and feelings of
00:41:06
shame that he has within himself so he
00:41:08
is essentially taking this out on his
00:41:11
victims by shutting them up
00:41:13
although he had admitted to all six
00:41:16
murders balls was originally charged
00:41:18
with just one
00:41:20
j hinton
00:41:21
if found guilty of first degree murder
00:41:24
in florida bowles would be sentenced to
00:41:27
death in spite of the other cases
00:41:30
there's no point as far as the
00:41:31
authorities are concerned in lumping all
00:41:33
the other crimes together they have him
00:41:36
absolutely stone cold
00:41:39
on the killing of a hinton in his
00:41:40
trailer
00:41:41
so they proceed on that count alone to
00:41:44
begin with
00:41:46
by 1999 gary bowles had been sentenced
00:41:50
to death for the murders of all his
00:41:52
florida victims john roberts al morris
00:41:55
and jay hinton
00:41:57
he would spend the next 20 years of his
00:41:59
life on death row
00:42:03
like so many prisoners on death row
00:42:05
in the united states
00:42:07
appeal after appeal
00:42:09
legal process after legal process grinds
00:42:12
on
00:42:13
incessantly
00:42:15
it's not until august 2019
00:42:19
that he is finally executed by lethal
00:42:21
injection in florida
00:42:23
gary ray balls was 57 years old when he
00:42:27
was executed
00:42:29
he always claimed that resentment from
00:42:31
his childhood and the abortion of his
00:42:34
girlfriend's baby in 1985
00:42:37
led him to the fits of rage that
00:42:39
resulted in the deaths of six innocent
00:42:42
men he's blaming his childhood for an
00:42:46
excuse to to kill i mean he killed six
00:42:49
times then his reason that he snapped
00:42:51
really you snapped six times so there
00:42:53
was no remorse and
00:42:55
the last part of that if if you had
00:42:58
to go to these crime scenes or review
00:43:00
the photos but look at these crime
00:43:02
scenes
00:43:03
the amount of overkill the amount of
00:43:04
force the amount
00:43:06
that was used was just just
00:43:08
completely over the top it was it was
00:43:10
way way more than needed to just just
00:43:13
kill somebody
00:43:15
after
00:43:16
the first one
00:43:18
with john roberts i can understand
00:43:21
the anger which would drive it
00:43:24
but then afterwards you know what you're
00:43:26
doing
00:43:27
and that's where the evil comes in it's
00:43:30
like a dog as they say canines
00:43:34
once they bite somebody the first time
00:43:38
it becomes a whole lot easier in other
00:43:40
words the taste of blood
00:43:42
humans are almost the same way i just
00:43:45
think after the first one it became a
00:43:46
little bit easier he'd become mad and he
00:43:49
wasn't able to hold back the temper
00:43:54
[Music]
00:43:56
moles weaseled his way into the lives of
00:43:59
his victims be it for one night or
00:44:01
longer before killing them in appalling
00:44:04
outbursts of rage
00:44:06
no matter what caused him to act this
00:44:08
way nothing can excuse the murder of six
00:44:11
men who showed him nothing but kindness
00:44:14
and hospitality which is why gary ray
00:44:18
bowles will always be remembered as one
00:44:20
of the world's most evil killers
00:44:25
[Music]
00:45:07
you
