﻿While not all serial killers are abused as children, and not all children who are abused
grow up to be serial killers, however, there is admittedly a level of correlation between the two.
We’ve covered plenty of serial cases that start with abuse, especially some famous ones such as
Richard Ramirez, Aileen Wuornos, and Edward Kemper. Unfortunately, this is also the case
with Gary Ray Bowles, our topic for this video, whose abuse led him down a road at an early age
where he would eventually go on to murder six gay men, earning him the nickname
the I-95 Killer, and the Gay Slayer. Gary Ray Bowles was born in Virginia on
January 25th, 1962, to William and Frances Bowles. William, Gary’s father, worked as a coal miner and
died from lung disease six months before Gary was born, leaving Gary’s mother Frances to raise Gary
and his older brother on her own. While Gary’s early childhood was allegedly perfectly normal,
Frances remarried when Gary was six or seven, and this man would beat Gary and his brother violently
with either his hands or with a belt. Years later during Gary’s trial, Frances admitted that she
knew the boys were being beaten by her husband but didn’t interfere for years in order to save
herself from her husband’s wrath. However, she eventually divorced him and once again remarried,
although tragically this relationship didn’t fare much better. Gary’s new stepfather, a man
named Chet, was an alcoholic who was inclined to violent outbursts while drunk, targeting Gary,
his brother, and his mother, even landing Frances in the hospital several times. By ten years old,
Gary began to fall into the dark world of drugs. He started out with sniffing glue but
eventually upgraded to harder drugs, looking to get high in order to escape his tragic home life.
The drugs and abuse took their toll on Gary’s mental health and motivation,
and he eventually dropped out of school early in the eighth grade. With his life seemingly already
falling apart around him, it was only an amount of time until Gary started getting violent.
At around the age of thirteen, Gary and his brother decided they had had enough of the
abuse from Chet and went to get their revenge. The two brutally beat Chet up, with one of the boys,
likely Gary, even clobbering him in the head with a rock. Despite the obvious mental and physical
effects her relationship was having on her sons, Frances stayed in the marriage with Chet,
much to Gary’s chagrin. Gary was so irritated and frustrated with his mother’s lack of action
that he decided to run away from home, deciding it would be better to provide for himself
on the streets as a young teenager rather than put up with his horrible home life. Gary was able to
keep himself afloat on the streets by becoming a prostitute to an also exclusive customer base of
older men. However, it is definitely worth noting here that Gary is not believed to be a homosexual,
with him not allowing any sex to happen during his jobs, receiving oral from men
but never giving it himself, and being known to only have actual relationships with women.
With his abusive past rearing its ugly head, the relationships he had were all unsuccessful,
as they were volatile, violent, and abusive. This abuse didn’t come without consequences, however,
as in June of 1982, Gary beat and sexually assaulted his then-girlfriend, Leslie, sending her
to the hospital with bruising around her throat from choking her, eyes swollen to the point of
closing, a deep bite mark on one of her breasts, and internal lacerations. For this heinous and
extreme crime, Gary was sentenced to six years in prison, however, it is unlikely that he actually
served that full sentence. After getting out of prison, Gary was eventually arrested again in 1991
for unarmed robbery after pushing a woman down in Florida and running off with her purse. He evaded
the police for a short while but was eventually caught and sentenced to four years in prison,
however once again it seems that he did not serve his full sentence. Unfortunately, this was only
the start of Gary’s violent rampage. Gary lived in Daytona Beach after prison,
eventually meeting a 59-year-old man by the name of John Hardy, who eventually offered him
a temporary place to live. Gary would later reveal to police that he resumed prostitution during this
time, leading many to believe he may have had a homosexual relationship with John for money.
On March 15th, 1994, Gary brutally beat and strangled John, going so far as to shove a
rag into John’s mouth and nearly rip off one of his fingers, eventually leading to John’s death.
The police eventually discovered the crime scene where they were able to find Gary’s fingerprints
and probation records, and discovered that he had also stolen John’s wallet and car.
While they were confident that Gary was the killer, the police were not
able to apprehend Gary in time to stop him from committing other vile crimes.
Investigators were able to slowly follow Gary’s trail of evidence, including finding
John’s car abandoned by Gary in Georgia, and eventually were led to Maryland. On April 14th,
just over a month after the murder of John Hardy, a maintenance worker found a decomposing body in
the basement of a home in Maryland. This body was later identified to be 39 year old David Jarman,
who was found beaten and strangled to death with a rag stuffed into his mouth and his wallet and
car stolen, bearing a more than a striking resemblance to the murder of John Hardy.
According to a later testimony, David was seen the night before his death at a gay bar with a
man who matched Gary’s description. Not only this, but David’s stolen credit cards were later used,
and the signature on receipts from these purchases matched Gary’s handwriting. Once again,
the police knew exactly who their killer was but were unable to apprehend him.
Investigators were then led down south to Savannah Georgia, where another body, this time that of
72-year-old Milton Bradley, had been found on May 5th, at a Golf Club where he had been beaten,
strangled, had his mouth stuffed with a rag. Like with David Garmin, Milton had been seen
with a man matching Gary’s description in the days just before his death, and a palm print was found
at the crime scene that would later be matched to Gary. The hunt for Gary Ray Bowles continued,
and the popular TV program America’s Most Wanted aired an episode revolving around
Gary’s case which led to dozens of calls from the public claiming they had information.
Gary would strike again that same month, this time in Nassau County, Florida. The body of
38-year-old Albert Morris was found on May 19th in his trailer, where he had been brutally beaten
in the head, shot in the chest, and strangled with a telltale towel stuffed into his mouth.
Once again the victim’s wallet and credit cards were missing, leading police to instantly make
Gary the leading suspect in Albert’s murder. Later reports would reveal that Gary had lived
with Albert for two weeks after meeting him at a gay bar before eventually murdering him,
also linking up with Gary’s previous murders. Gary then traveled to Atlanta, Georgia that month,
where met up with and murdered 47-year-old Alverson Carter Jr, once again beating the victim,
strangling them, and stuffing their mouth with a rag. By this point, Gary was placed onto the FBI’s
list of the Most Wanted Fugitive, and they were desperately scouring the southern United States
for any sign of him, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be too much longer before Gary’s murderous tendencies
showed themselves again. In early November of 1994, Gary moved to Jacksonville Beach, Florida,
where he met a man named Jamelle ``Jay” Hinton. It is suspected that the two had some sort of
homosexual encounter, and spent several days with each other. Jay then moved into a trailer
in Duval County, Florida, and Gary helped him with the move before eventually being invited to move
in for a bit until he could find a good place of his own. Gary lived with Jay for two weeks,
seemingly happy with his living arrangements, however, he was eventually asked to leave
after having a bad encounter with one of Jay’s female friends. Eventually, however,
the problem was dealt with and Gary was invited back to live in the trailer.
On November 17th of that year, less than a month since he had moved in with Jay,
Gary was spending time with Jay and a mutual friend named Rick. Gary and Rick
had apparently started partying early, drinking heavily and smoking marijuana all afternoon
while waiting for Jay to get off of work, and continued to drink and smoke when Jay got home.
At around 3 pm, the three men piled into Jay’s car as they drove Rick to the train station and once
they arrived at the station the three continued to drink and smoke heavily while waiting for
Rick’s train to arrive. Rick would later testify that Gary was the most inebriated of the three,
having at this point spent most of the day under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana,
however, despite this, he was somehow incredibly coherent. Rick’s train eventually arrived and he
departed Gary and Jay’s company, leaving the two men to return to their trailer.
After arriving back home, Gary drank around another six beers by himself as Jay decided
to go to his room and turn in for the night. Gary would later confess that at some point in the
night as he drank by himself, something inside his mind snapped. He reportedly went outside to grab a
hefty rock which he placed on their table. Gary would later state that there was a brief moment
where he hesitated and contemplated if he was really going to go through with his murderous
intentions, before eventually picking the rock up and heading back towards Jay’s bedroom.
Gary bludgeoned Jay with the rock, startling him awake, and the two struggled for a little
bit before Gary was able to stuff a rag into Jay’s mouth and strangle him to death.
Gary stayed at the trailer for another two days, apparently even bringing a woman into
the trailer during that period while Jay’s body continued to rot and decompose in the bedroom.
Gary then left the trailer and hid out in a Jacksonville Beach Motel, while waiting for
his atrocity to be discovered. On November 18th, Jay’s sister Belinda was celebrating her birthday
and was concerned when her brother didn’t show up or even call. Worrying that something was wrong,
Jay’s soon-to-be brother-in-law William went over to check on the trailer, however,
no one seemed to be home and Jay’s car wasn’t in sight. William left but would eventually return
several times with Belinda, always finding the trailer empty but with the lights on.
Concerned for Jay’s health, the two eventually broke into the trailer, only to make a horrific
discovery when they found Jay’s decomposing corpse stuffed into the bathroom with blankets draped
over him. The police were quickly called and instantly recognized the M.O used in the crime
as Gary’s. On November 22nd,1994, two days after finding Jay’s body, the police were finally able
to track down and apprehend Gary Ray Bowles who quickly confessed everything to them,
and he was soon tried and sentenced to the death penalty for his six murders. While many prisoners
end up dying on Death Row of old age or other natural causes before their execution, Gary Ray
Bowles was not so lucky and was executed on August 22nd, 2019., after spending 25 years on Death Row.
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