The Casanova Killer – Life of Serial Killer John Paul Knowles –12.Famous at Last

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Famous at Last
Sheldon Yavitz arrived from Florida. During his first meeting with Knowles, he noticed that his client, while buoyed by a sense of accomplishment, was unnerved at the prospect of being put to death for his crimes.

"I don't want to be electrocuted," Knowles insisted. "I don't want them to fry me. That's a bad way to die."

Yavitz indulged him, personally believing that nothing would stand between Knowles and Death Row. "Well, how about if they hung you? That be all right?"

"No, I don't want to be hung either."

"Maybe a firing squad. You could have a cigarette and a blindfold. That more your style?"

Knowles seemed intrigued by the idea. "No. Well, I don't know."

"How about poison?"

"Sure. I'd take poison. But I want you to do what it takes to keep me alive."

For someone who didn't want to be executed, Knowles certainly tempted fate. When Douglas County Sheriff Earl D. Lee, who later described him as "intelligent and mean as hell," asked him how many people he had killed, Knowles just smiled and traced a figure 18 on his left palm.

"Where did you kill them?"

Knowles wrote down the following on a piece of scrap paper: Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Virginia, Connecticut, Mississippi.

To others he gave different answers, claiming 35 murders at one point. But investigators would only ever be able to link him to the 18 he admitted to Sheriff Lee.

When photos of him were published in newspapers all over North America, Knowles' good looks earned him a new nickname: "the Casanova killer." His easy laugh, quick smile, and devil-may-care demeanor alternately fascinated and repelled people. His comments to the media were flippant, self-obsessed, and thoroughly typical of someone who was reveling in the attention.

At one point he mentioned the tapes that he had given to his attorney, saying that the contents would make him famous. Federal Judge Wilbur Owens ordered Sheldon Yavitz to hand them over but the lawyer refused, citing attorney-client privilege. They were in his personal safe, but he would not divulge its location or combination to U.S. marshals. Nor would his wife, Patsy, so Judge Owens jailed them both on contempt charges.

Yavitz finally gave in, primarily to get his wife released, and surrendered two packages containing tapes and documents. The latter included Knowles' will, which left everything to his parents and directed Yavitz "to make my life story, record, and history known to the world for the good of society." He suggested "books, movies, and television" as ideal mediums for getting his story to the masses.

Judge Owens freed Patsy and ordered Yavitz to appear in court later to show why he should not be held in criminal contempt for refusing to divulge the tapes in the first place. Unable to post the $15,000 bond, Yavitz remained in jail along with his client.

Yavitz's mentor, famed defense attorney Ellis Rubin, arrived from Miami to represent his former protégé. He petitioned to have the subpoena for the contempt hearing quashed, citing the Fourth Amendment, which guaranteed the inviolability of attorney-client privilege. Judge Owens denied the petitions instantly.

Knowles was having a much better time than his attorney. When he was taken to the Baldwin County courthouse in Milledgeville to be arraigned for the murders of Carswell and Amanda Carr, he was thrilled by his reception. People lined the streets outside the courthouse, and those especially eager to catch a glimpse of him climbed onto roofs or hung off balconies. Nothing spoiled his good mood, even the hostile presence of Carr family relatives and friends in the courtroom. Manacled and wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, he smiled at everyone as Charles Marchman, a local attorney appointed to his defense team, addressed the judge.

Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter appointed State Attorney General Arthur Bolton to prosecute Knowles for the numerous killings he had committed in Georgia. Florida also wanted him for the murders of Marjorie Howie (whose color television had been retrieved from Jackie Knight's home by federal agents) and Alice Curtis, his elderly first victim. Although he never named Alabama as one of his hunting grounds, state authorities there planned to question him about the torture murder of Ben Sherrod, a Miami native whose knife-slashed body had been found in a Brewton motel room on October 22.

With so many murder charges both laid and pending, the execution of Paul John Knowles appeared to be a certainty. It was only a question of when.