The Gainesville Ripper

The vicious murders of four young women and one young man in their off-campus apartments in Gainesville, Florida, are brought to justice in an account of the intense police and FBI investigation, and the killer's arrest and trial. 15,000 first printing.

In August 1990, five young people were killed in Gainesville, Fla., all students at the University of Florida or Santa Fe Community College. Of the four women slain, some were also raped and others mutilated. The murders were committed by Danny Rollings, a Louisiana resident who had previously been arrested for armed robbery and theft throughout the Southeast and, after receiving a death sentence in this case, admitted to a triple murder in his home state. This account of the lives of the killer, who as a child had suffered extreme psychological and physical abuse, and his victims creates a vivid sense of tragic confluence. Appeals of Rollings's death sentence are pending. Ryzuk's (Thou Shalt Not Kill) true-crime book is haunting. Photos not seen by PW. Paperback rights to St. Martin's; True Crime Book Club main selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A series of random, vicious murders of five college students in August 1990 spread fear and panic at the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. In 1994, Danny Rolling, a 40-year-old drifter and habitual criminal, confessed and was sentenced to death. Ryzuk (Thou Shalt Not Kill, Warner, 1990) has written the most complete account of this case to date (see also John Philpen & John Donnelly's Beyond Murder, Onyx, 1994). Rolling was the product of an abusive childhood, and Ryzuk skillfully contrasts the bright promise of the murdered students with Rolling's poverty-stricken background and borderline personality. Except for too much dramatic license in pretending always to know what Rolling was thinking, Ryzuk's approach is effective, and her book will appeal to true crime readers.
Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.