A man who has been convicted of murdering six gay men is expected to be executed in a Florida jail today.
Sometimes known as “The I-95 killer,” serial killer Gary Ray Bowles who is on death row in Florida admitted to the 1994 slayings of six men along the interstate corridor between Daytona Beach and Maryland. Bowles targeted gay men.
According to a 1994 profile by the Washington Post, Bowles already had a history as a violent criminal before he embarked on the 1994 killing spree.
After leaving an abusive home at 14, he earned money working as a prostitute.
In 1982, 20-year-old Bowles was sentenced to eight years in prison for the brutal beating and sexual assault of a girlfriend in Tampa. He served less than three years.
After a second prison stint that ended in 1993, this time for grand theft and robbery, Bowles travelled to the Daytona Beach area, where he continued to work as a prostitute.
During this time, he moved in with another girlfriend, but she left him after finding out he was a sex worker, according to a report from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Gary Ray Bowles later told authorities he blamed gay men for the breakup and, after finding out his ex-girlfriend had an abortion, the death of his unborn child. He said that was why he targeted gay men for the killings.
Bowles was caught in Jacksonville several days after the murder of his final victim, 47-year-old Walter Jamelle Hinton.
Bowles confessed to Hinton’s murder, telling investigators he dropped a 40-pound concrete block on Hinton’s head while he slept. In total, Bowles admitted to killing six men in four states.
Bowles pleaded guilty to Hinton’s murder and was sentenced to death in 1996.
The Florida Supreme Court reversed the death sentence in 1999, due to the court’s improper handling of Bowles’ sentencing, but he was again given the death penalty in a re-sentencing hearing the same year.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Bowles’ death warrant on June 11. The Florida Supreme Court rejected appeals for a stay of execution, and Bowles is scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 22.
Victims of Gary Ray Bowles
John Hardy Roberts, 59
David Jarman, 38
Milton Bradley, 72
Alverson Carter Jr., 47
Albert Morris, 38
Walter Hinton, 47
Last Updated on Aug 22, 2019
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