The Casanova Killer – Life of Serial Killer John Paul Knowles –3.A Killer Is Born

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A Killer Is Born

Paul John Knowles was born on April 17, 1946 in Orlando, Florida, and grew up in Jacksonville. He had two older brothers and sisters. His father was a hard working carpenter. Knowles was apparently an intelligent but destructive child, defying his parents, Thomas and Bonnie, and ignoring schoolwork in favor of running wild and showing off. Like-minded boys clustered around him like flies, impressed by his nerve and the way he talked back to adults without fear.

Their admiration fuelled his vanity and inspired him to act out in ways that exceeded mere childish mischief. In 1953, when he was seven, he started breaking the law by stealing bicycles. In view of the crimes he would later commit, this was a trivial incident, but it created a criminal record that would only get worse.

Thomas and Bonnie Knowles tried to control him, but Paul was incorrigible. If restrained or confronted, he would explode into a murderous rage. The system didn't fare any better with him. By the time he was seventeen, Knowles had been sent to the Florida School for Boys six times on charges ranging from breaking and entering to grand larceny. He showed no interest in reforming. Each time he was released, Knowles would head back to Jacksonville, meet up with old friends, and resume his routine of joyriding, burglary, and stealing until the law caught up with him again.

Even as a young man, Knowles dreamed of becoming a criminal celebrity. He devoured books about John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, and other outlaws who swept across America and left bloody devastation in their wake. He wasn't as inspired by Al Capone and the more regimented world of organized crime, seeing it as too tame in comparison, although he appreciated the money and power that professional gangsters had at their disposal.[6]

Although there is no proof that Knowles murdered anyone before 1974, his violence toward women was well-established. Kathy Hardy[7], whose brother ran with the future killer during the late 1960s, says that he could be terrifying.

If he liked a girl, and she rejected him, watch out. He had a real temper and would punch a woman without even thinking. I remember him being beaten up by the boyfriends or brothers of these girls a few times, but it didn't change him.[8]

Surprisingly, Kathy got along with Knowles.

I knew how to handle him, I guess. He loved being flattered and told how "bad" he was. He used to say that one day he would be this big, famous, bad guy. When I said, "Better give me your autograph now then" Paul was tickled. I was never scared of him but then again, he liked me.

In March 1965, when he was nineteen, a policeman stopped him while he was driving a stolen car. Knowles grabbed the officer's gun, forced him into the vehicle, but released him two hours later unharmed. He was soon picked up, convicted of kidnapping, and sentenced to one to five years in the state prison.

Although the Florida School for Boys was no holiday camp, prison was edgier, more vicious. The food was bad. So were hygiene standards. Outside, gay liberation was in progress, but for Knowles, homosexuality was the only available outlet for his sexual urges. Because he was now having sex with men more than women, he would soon find it difficult to achieve orgasm with a female partner, which added to his agitation.[9]

Two years and eight months later he obtained parole. He was far from rehabilitated. In April 1968, Duval County police caught him attempting a break and enter, which sent him back to Raiford prison to complete his sentence. He was released on May 10, 1970 with, as a parole official later put it, "$25 in his pocket, a new suit, and no responsibilities."[10]

He did have a girlfriend, though. Jackie Knight, a tiny brunette, had met Knowles after his 1967 parole. Her husband at the time introduced them. Soon Knowles was visiting the Knights regularly. He was especially fond of their three children. Jackie would later remember how much he enjoyed taking them to local fairs and winning prizes for them. Soon after he went back to prison for violating parole, the Knights separated, and Jackie started writing to Knowles. A romance bloomed, and he vowed that after getting out of prison he would marry her and go straight.

He and Jackie married as soon as he left Raiford, but the relationship floundered. No one wanted to employ an ex-convict, so Knowles gave up on looking for honest work and went back to his drinking buddies. Alarmed, Jackie took the children and moved to Macon, Georgia. Although she succeeded in getting the marriage annulled, she remained in touch with Knowles thereafter.

It did not take him long to get in trouble again. On September 15, 1971, Knowles was convicted of breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony and sentenced to three years. It is unclear why he got off so lightly given the existence of a previous record. In 1971, the maximum penalty for that offense was fifteen years.

Equally mysterious is why Knowles received furlough privileges after a year. The outcome was predictable. He simply left one day and failed to return. When the police caught up with him on December 6, 1972, he fought like a cornered wildcat, punching out one officer and nearly taking down another before they overpowered him and returned him to Raiford.

It looked as if nothing could ever convince him to give up his violent ways. Then he met the woman who would change his future.