The Casanova Killer – Life of Serial Killer John Paul Knowles –6.Road Kills

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Road Kills
August 2, 1974

After deciding to drive to Macon, Georgia to hide out at Jackie Knight's place, Knowles made another stop to replenish his money stores. He broke into the Atlantic Beach home of Marjorie Howie, strangled her with a nylon stocking, and escaped with cash and valuables. One of the latter was a television set that he proudly presented to Jackie when he arrived at her home.

It was while en route to Macon that he met and murdered his fifth victim.

August 1974 – date unknown

Although only 13 years old, Ima Jean Sanders was strong-willed and independent. After her parents' divorce in 1968, she went to live with her father in Beaumont, Texas but ran away frequently. Her disappearances were so common that Mr. Sanders rarely notified the authorities. He knew that she always turned up sooner or later.

In July, 1974, Ima Jean hopped on a bus to Warner Robins, Georgia, where her mother Betty and stepfather lived. Upon arriving, she called Betty from the bus station, announced her arrival, and asked if someone could come pick her up.

Ima Jean's four-year-old sister, Sharron, was thrilled to see her. Six months earlier, Sharron had watched in horror when another sister, Charlotte, fell off the family's houseboat in Florida and drowned.[16] Since then, she had clung to her older sister whenever they were together.

On August 1, Betty left the family's mobile home for a few hours. She asked Ima Jean to babysit Sharron. However, soon after Betty's departure, a group of Ima's older friends pulled up in a conversion van. After ordering her sister to go inside and lock the doors, Ima Jean left with them.

"I remember being upset," Sharron said in 2011.

It was the last time she saw her sister.

In his taped reminiscences, Knowles would remember that sometime in August 1974, he picked up a teenaged hitchhiker named "Alma" not far from Warner Robins. After taking her to a wooded area, he raped and strangled her and left her body between some trees. For reasons he never explained, Knowles returned to the location two weeks later and found that animals had dragged the barely-recognizable corpse a short distance away.

The girl's jawbone had been detached from her skull during the feeding frenzy over her remains. For some reason, this bothered Knowles enough for him to bury the small piece of bone. Then he departed.

August 23, 1974

By the last week of August, Knowles was running low on funds, and despite the television and other gifts, Jackie Knight had hinted that he was overstaying his welcome. So on August 23, he went to Musella in Crawford County and knocked on the door of 24-year-old divorcee Kathy Sue Woods Pierce, who was home alone with her three-year-old son, Joel.

Once the door closed, Knowles demanded money. Mrs. Pierce tried to scream, which enraged him. Ripping the telephone out of the wall, he wrapped the cord around her neck and pulled tight, until it was practically buried in her flesh. While Joel watched helplessly, Knowles dragged his mother's body into the bathroom, left it on the floor, and departed after taking whatever cash he could find. He left the boy unharmed.

The carnage was discovered by the father of Pierce's boyfriend, who called the police. Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers tried to talk to Joel, but the boy wasn't much help.

September 3, 1974

After leaving Jackie's place, Knowles headed north. There doesn't appear to have been a strategy to his itinerary. He simply wanted to put as much distance between him and each crime as possible.

On September 3, he was in Lima, Ohio. That evening he entered the bar at Scott's Inn and struck up a conversation with William Bates, a 32-year-old account executive for the Ohio Power Company. The bartender, who knew Bates, watched with mild interest as the executive chatted with a man he later described as tall, young, and redheaded. The two men left together, and Bates was never seen alive again.

Mrs. Bates soon reported her husband missing. The police detectives investigating his disappearance found an abandoned white Dodge Dart near Scott's Inn and traced it back to the deceased Alice Curtis. The link confirmed their suspicion that the account executive fell victim to foul play. On Thanksgiving Day, a hunter found his nude body in the woods outside the city. He had been bound and gagged with electrical tape before being strangled to death.

Given the fact that Bates was naked when discovered, Knowles almost certainly lured him out of the bar with the promise of homosexual favors. Sandy Fawkes later marveled over his ability to detect men who were open to such proposals. In Killing Time, she recalled sitting in a bar with Knowles and watching one man come in, look around, and then saunter up to a man in an armchair. The two exchanged words before leaving together.

"Homosexuals," said Daryl with satisfaction in his voice, "or 'poofs', as you would call them."

"How could you tell? They looked like respectable businessmen."

"Lots of highly respectable businessmen in this country are gay. You'd never guess to look at them, all that backslapping hides a lot."[17]

Knowles took his victim's money, credit cards, and white Chevrolet Impala. Then he headed west for California, once again leaving the site of his latest murder far behind.

September 12, 1974

A later examination of credit card transactions confirmed that after he left Lima, Knowles drove east to Missoula, Montana and then south into Utah. On September 12, he ended up in Ely, Nevada, a growing city in the east-central part of the state. He had run out of money, and Bates' credit cards were now maxed out, so he went hunting.

Knowles had picked up a gun in his travels and used it to overpower Emmett and Lois Johnson, a San Pedro couple in their sixties who were vacationing in their camper. He tied them up, shot both of them behind the left ear, and escaped with their cash and credit cards. Their bodies were not discovered until September 18, long after he'd left the state.

September 21, 1974

Driving through Seguin, Texas, Knowles spotted Charlynn Hicks, a 42-year-old widow, outside a rest stop on US 10. According to one account, her car had broken down, and he pulled over to ask if she needed help. Another version states that Hicks, who was on her way to a chili-cooking contest in San Marcos, had paused during her journey to admire the rest stop's view.

When Mrs. Hicks failed to show up in San Marcos, her family contacted the Guadalupe County Sheriff's Department. A search commenced. Her car was found at the rest stop, so police hunted through the surrounding countryside. On September 25, a deputy found her nude body in some brush near the highway. She had been strangled to death, and her skin was torn in places after Knowles dragged the corpse through the barbed wire fence that separated the brush area from the road.[18]

The Houston Post offered a $1000 reward, but Mrs. Hicks' murder remained unsolved until Knowles took credit for it two months later.

September 23, 1974

Two days after murdering Charlynn Hicks, Knowles was in Birmingham, Alabama. There he met Ann Dawson, an outgoing 49-year-old beautician. He must have found her more intriguing than his previous victims, because he traveled with her for six days before killing her on September 29. All he would say afterward was that he had "tired" of her and dumped her corpse in the Mississippi. Dawson's body was never found.

October 16 1974


For the next few weeks, Knowles traveled through Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, leaving no known bodies behind. Then, on October 16, he walked up to a home in Marlborough, Connecticut and knocked on the door. When 16-year-old Dawn Wine, who was home alone, answered, Knowles forced his way inside, tied her up, and raped her.

When Dawn's mother, 35-year-old Karen Wine, came home, he subjected her to the same treatment. Then he strangled them both with silk stockings and left, taking money, a tape recorder, and some records from Dawn's collection. He gave the latter to Jackie Knight's children when he visited them again.

October 19, 1974

Three days after leaving Connecticut, Knowles made another deadly stop. Arriving in Woodford, Virginia, a small community in Caroline County, he persuaded or forced 53-year-old Doris Hovey to let him into her home. He told her that all he wanted was a gun, and as soon as he got it, he would leave.

Mrs. Hovey believed him. She led the way into the study and retrieved her husband's rifle. As soon as he loaded it, Knowles shot her through the head. Before leaving, he wiped his prints from the weapon and left it beside her cooling corpse.

******
As he drove to Florida, Knowles knew that he had taken enough lives to guarantee his infamy. But only if someone knew what he had done. Someone who he could count on to not turn him in.

In Key West, he picked up a pair of young hitchhikers and volunteered to drive them to Miami. He later said he'd planned to kill them but hadn't gone far before a policeman stopped him for a traffic violation. The officer let him go with a warning, but Knowles was forced to change his intended course of action. There was no way he could murder the couple after a policeman had seen him with them.

No matter. There would be more opportunities to augment his bloody glory later. After dropping his passengers off in Miami, he went to see his lawyer, Sheldon Yavitz, and presented him with two things: a set of audio tapes and a shocking proclamation.

"I have something to tell you. Brace yourself. I'm a mass murderer."