Customer Reviews

The Gainesville Ripper: A Summer's Madness, Five Young Victims- The Investigation, the Arrest and the Trial (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I started school at the University of Florida in August 1990...the day after the public became aware of the murders in Gainesville. I will never forget the horror and fright that accompanied my first few days of college. Nearly nine years after the fact, I wanted to read this book to find out about Danny Rolling - to try to understand what made him do what he did. I think the book gave me a good idea about his childhood and his feelings of inadequacy. But, I thought it was too graphic in describing the details of the murders. I also thought that there were a lot of things in the book that the author could not possibly know - like what the victims were thinking or feeling just before their awful murders. I thought that some of the details were wrong (for example, the Oaks Mall is in Gainesville, not Shreveport [page 160]), and that the jumping back and forth between what Rolling was doing and what the murder victims were doing at different time periods was confusing.

THE GAINESVILLE RIPPER is author Mary Ryzuk's true-crime recounting of one of the most hideous serial-killing sprees on record, the slaughter of Christina Powell, Sonja Larson, Christa Hoyt, Tracy Paules and Manuel Taboada, all college students, in Gainesville, Florida in the late summer of 1990.

These five young people were the unfortunate victims of Danny Rolling, a small-time habitual offender and confessed murderer, now awaiting execution on Florida's Death Row. As is well known, the Gainesville victims were not simply murdered---they were butchered, sexually assaulted, mutilated, and intentionally posed in what has to rank as one of the most bizarrely ritualized occurrences of its type anywhere.

Ryzuk maintains a readable novelistic tone throughout, though at times her approach rankles. The young victims (in their late teens and early twenties) are all too predictably described as being exceptional individuals of one stripe or another. Her delving into certain private details of their lives (dating and bed partners) seems unneccessary and puerile.

Ryzuk tries to be evenhanded in her treatment of "Danny Boy" Rolling, whom she sees as the product of a cold, extremely abusive household where severe corporal punishment, spousal abuse, and aggravated assault were near-daily happenings. The Rollings are presented as a ne'er do well working poor Southern family with a long history of deadly violence toward each other (Danny's paternal great-grandfather cut the throat of his wife, an episiode witnessed by Danny's father as a child, and a paternal uncle committed suicide with a shotgun). Danny's father and paternal grandfather were both policemen, though Ryzuk makes it evident she believes they reveled only in their ability to inflict force by authority. Danny's father is the villain of the piece, at least until Danny shoots him in the head after a minor argument (he survived). Danny's mother is portrayed as a willing victim who repeatedly fled the marital home with her sons only to return time after time. It's obvious that Ryzuk wants us to believe that Danny Rolling is the product of nature and nurture (though many people are raised in terrible circumstances and do not commit the crimes Danny did; witness his younger brother). Rolling has claimed this book is untrue; it is up to the reader to decide where and what the truth is.

As if to undercut the sympathy she may have created for Rolling, Ryzuk's descriptions of the murders and the murder scenes veers headlong into the gory and the gratuitous. One of the worst failings of this book is Ryzuk's insistence on placing us into the mind of the killer, though whether she is relying on the record or substituting speculation for fact is not ever clear.

Ryzuk also does poorly in trying to apply the language of law, psychology, forensics, criminology and behavioral science to Rolling's case. It's apparent she simply does not have the technical knowledge at hand, and so her attempts to sound clinical are awash with malapropisms. She mentions at one point that it is "[her] legally unproven belief" that Danny Rolling also killed the Grissom family of Shreveport, Louisiana with a similar signature; yet, she reports later that Rolling confessed to these killings; so it is not simply 'her belief'.

THE GAINESVILLE RIPPER does do a more than adequate job of recounting this nightmarish episode, does seek to understand it, and does memorialize the victims. Tabloid in tone and substance, it is still well worth reading if you are a fan of the True Crime genre.

Florida Attacked by "The Ripper"

The Gainesville Ripper is the chilling true story about the gruesome murder of five college students in Gainesville, Florida. The book leads the reader through the horrible murders of these five students during the hot summer of 1990. Before the identity of the serial killer would be known, five people would be brutally murdered. The lives of their families would be destroyed, and a town would be living in fear. The book takes a look into the mind of a killer. It makes you ask yourself, "What could make a person do something like this?" You feel as if you were there. You will feel for the victims and their families. You will be shocked at the lack of remorse shown by the accused. For all of you who have ever thought, "This could never happen to me," this book will make you think again.

Mary Ryzuk's account of the Gainesville Ripper, Danny Rolling, has got to be the absolute worst of all three books written on this case.

Her writing style is tedious and at times overly dramatic and just plain silly. For example;

"Savagely intent, and volatile, the sinister mystery of his fantasies was set free the moment he saw her. Pretty. Dark. Brunette. At the cosmetic counter."

That is way over the top. This is a true crime book not some trashy dime store romance novel. There is no need to over sensationalize and dramatize the content of a true crime book. The case itself is dramatic enough to stand on its own.

Also, her "facts" are often incorrect. I don't know what she used as research material but the text is rife with inaccuracies and her timeline of the murders is pure conjecture.

If you want to get the facts in a clear and concise manner pick up a copy of "Beyond Murder" by Donnelly and Philpin. Their book knocks the socks off of this one as well as James Alan Fox's "Killer on Campus".

THE GAINESVILLE RIPPER is an account of Danny Rollings and the murder of 5 University of Florida students in 1990. The book also includes a large amount of collateral information about Rollings, including other crimes.

The book has some minor errors in it and information I wasnt aware of about crimes committed by Rollings in my own community.

I think the book is well written and interesting.

Got straight to the point in this book...from the beginning it just got to the point. This dude did some gruesome stuff.

I've written several newspapers articles about the 1990 Gainesville Student Murders and I must say that The Gainesville Ripper is a pretty accurate account of the mad and macarbe manner in which five young college students were viciously murdered. What this man did to his victims is something that Freddy Krueger would not have done. By the time I got to the last page I was crying uncontrollably and I was also afraid to go to sleep. In fact, I slept with a knife under by pillow for several months. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is an avid true crime reader.

I am not that much of a book reader, but a friend gave me the paperback addition. It is a real attention getter, it goes into detail of each sadistic murder. A suppenseful, exhilirating, heart pounding book, wondering how and when he is to claim his next victom. For instance, I do not like to give away the contents. But, this one is so sadistic that it will give you a kind of idea of the terrible nature of this person.
He waited in the apartment of a college girl that he had been watching for some time. His wait was finally over when she entered the room, unknowing to her that he was waiting in the shadows. When the time was right he attacked relentlessly, not giving her time to fight back(not to much anyway).......
That is only a taste of what it is about, so if you want the whole scoop, buy and read the book. It takes a real good book to get my attention, and I just couldn't put it down. Now the details of the event may not be exact. But it's pretty darn close. Thank You.

Having read Rolling's book co-authored with Sondra London, there is no comparison. This book far outstrips the former in exploring the personalities of not only Rolling, but of the victims and those close to them. I lived in Gainesville and went to the University of Florida not long after the murders, and the shockwaves of these crimes still perpetuate through the town to this day. Ryzuk captures the environment of fear that enveloped the campus and surrounding area with razor-sharp accuracy.

Ryzuk also does a superb job of painting a complete picture of events from several different angles, having interviewed many of the victim's friends and relatives, as well as others involved in the investigation. Some of the events are repeated in the book, but it's for this purpose that I believe this approach was worthwhile. Her use of a timeline during the events leading up to the crimes builds suspense and takes the reader along on a fateful ride with doom.

I have driven by the 34th Street wall memorializing the victims hundreds of times, but only after reading this book do I feel like I have a sense of who the victims all were. They are no longer five semi-anonymous names painted on a wall, but clearly distinguishable lives with different goals that, sadly, will never be achieved. My only complaint is that the personalities of Sonja Larson and Christina Powell do not come off as vividly as did those of Christa Hoyt, Manny Taboada, and Tracy Paules, which may have to do with the willingness of those left behind to talk, but that's only my speculation. By walking us through the victims' relationships and daily events leading up to the killings, Ryzuk almost breathes life into the victims again. Friends and families of the victims are also explored, and their anguish is palpable.

The author does not neglect the killer, though. I came away with an even better sense of his motivations and the life events that led up to the events of August 1990 than I did after reading his own account, co-authored by Sondra London. This is saying something, as this book does a far more insightful job of exploring Rolling than does the killer's own account, which seems like a alter-ego-explaining manifesto scattered with a few short mentions of the killings in detailed, almost mechanical fashion. For those interested, the accounts in this book of the murders themselves are clearly and more fully explored, from Rolling's initial selection and stalking of the victims, to the commission of the heinous acts, to the discovery of the bodies, his subsequent events and beyond, including the arrest of a "red herring" suspect that left the city breathing a premature sigh of relief. I am left disgusted by Rolling's need to murderously dominate, then eliminate, to make up for his own inadequacies as a human being.

There are facts in the book regarding the killings and the investigation I have read elsewhere that were nowhere mentioned in London's account. Also, Ryzuk captures the essence of Gainesville and the University of Florida campus so clearly that it feels as if I were back there again myself. It is by comparing this lovely, generally serene southern town, once again filled with all the excitement of a new fall semester, to a living nightmare of horror at the events and fear of the unknown that even greater impact of the events are realized.

There are only a few small inconsistencies as far as references and places, but most would only be picked up by a native (e.g. the victims were not "five University of Florida students" but four UF students and one SFCC student, "Union Reitz" vs. the correct "Reitz Union," a lake that is not really in front of Marston Science Library, and things of this nature). Other than that - a full, multi-angled, incredible account. I couldn't put it down, and am filled with an even more profound sadness about the murders than I was when I actually lived across the street from where Manny and Tracy met their fates.

Truly tragic, and I hope that, if nothing else, readers get to know and remember the victims as extinguished bright young lights on the verge of their creating their own futures. For many in Florida, the healing will not begin until Rolling meets his fate.

This book is just plain scary. But it tells it like it was, there was a demon in human form preying on the young beautiful people of this university town, taking their lives in the most grotesque fashion. It makes you wonder why? What makes these monsters become what they are? Is there a special hell for them, if not, there should be. I can't wait to hear the news that Danny Rolling, who was born the same month and year as I, has been executed.