On November 17th, 1974, Sandy Fawkes was watching the evening news in a state
of pure shock. Staring back at her from TV was the charming and handsome man
with whom she had recently had a 2-day whirlwind romantic fling.
He had the same movie-star good looks and devilish grin that had drawn her to him in the first place,
and so she could see how he had earned the nickname the media had given him - The Casanova
Killer. The man she knew as Paul John Knowles was really a vicious serial killer who had killed
as many as 35 innocent men, women and children over a 5 month period across 6 different states.
Sandy now knew just how lucky she was to have survived their encounter.
Paul John Knowles was born in Florida on April 14th, 1946, and as a young boy he began getting
into trouble with the law for petty crimes. After he was caught stealing at the tender age of 9, his
father was fed up and decided he wanted nothing to do with young Paul. He was disowned and given
up for adoption, and would spend the rest of his childhood years in reformatories and foster homes.
Unsurprisingly, this did little to curb his criminal tendencies, and the young Knowles
would continue to steal, vandalize and generally get himself into trouble with the law throughout
his teens. His first true arrest happened at the age of 19, and from that point on, Knowles would
spend an average of half of each year in jail for crimes ranging from burglary to auto theft.
By early 1974, Knowles was serving a prison sentence in Florida’s Raiford Prison when he
found himself a new pen pal in Angela Covic. After exchanging letters for months, Covic had
fallen head over heels for Knowles. She travelled from California to Florida to visit him in prison,
and soon the two were engaged. She used her meager savings to hire a lawyer who was able
to successfully get parole for Knowles. Upon his release, he immediately flew from Florida to San
Francisco, where two planned to marry immediately. However, just days before the wedding was set to
take place, Covic called it off - she claimed that Knowles had an aura of evil surrounding him,
and that her psychic had warned her about a dangerous new man in her life.
Angela didn’t know it at the time, but that decision quite possibly saved her life.
Knowles did not take their broken engagement well, to say the least.
He would later claim that, on the night of their breakup, he murdered 3 people in a blind rage,
although investigators were never able to corroborate his story. What they do
know for sure, though, is that Knowles flew back to Jacksonville, Florida,
where he was jailed yet again after picking a fight in a local bar. If only that was the end
of his story. Instead, on July 26th, 1974, the veteran jailbird picked the lock on his cell
and escaped from jail, setting off one of the most brutal crime sprees in American history.
The very same night that he escaped from a holding cell in Jacksonville, Knowles broke into the home
of 65 year old Alice Curtis, gagging her and tying her up while he ransaked her home looking
for cash and valuables. Sadly, Curtis choked to death on her own dentures, making her his
first confirmed murder victim. Whether or not he intended for her to die, her death seemed
to unleash something truly evil in Knowles, and kicked off a brutal, months-long murder spree.
Knowles spent a few days hiding out in Curstis’ home with her dead body,
eating her food and watching her TV. When he saw his own mug shot on the local news
he realized he needed to get far away from Jacksonville. Shortly after stealing Curtis’ car,
Knowles was driving through Jacksonville looking for a place to drop the hot vehicle
when he saw 11 year old Lilian Anderson and her 7 year old sister Mylette walking down the street.
He recognized them as friends of his mother’s and, fearing that they may be able to identify him,
he kidnapped the two young girls, strangled them both, and dumped their bodies in a swamp
outside of town before hitting the open road. He had now killed 3 innocent people,
and he knew that he needed to get out of the area as soon as possible.
By the next day, Knowles was in Atlantic Beach, Florida, where he broke into the home of Marjorie
Howe. This time, he wasted no time strangling Howe with a nylon stocking before stealing her TV
and getting back on the road. As he made his way aimlessly North, Knowles strangled a hitchhiker
that he had picked up, bringing his official total to 5 victims in just a few short days.
After the murder of the hitchhiker Knowles appears to have laid low for a few weeks, but before long,
he would be back to his evil ways. On August 23rd, 1974, Knowles strangled Kathie Pierce in Musella,
Georgia with a phone cord while her 3 year old son looked on. Oddly, he left the boy unharmed.
On September 3rd, 1974, Knowles met businessman William Bates in a bar in Lima,
Ohio. After drinking together for several hours, he strangled Bates,
dumped his body in the woods, and stole his money, credit cards and car.
Bates was Knowles’ first known male victim, and his body wouldn’t be found until October.
Knowles drove Bates’ stolen car all the way to Sacramento, before making his way back
East through Utah and Nevada, where he murdered campers Emmet and Lois Johnson near Ely, Nevada
on September 18th. 3 days later, Knowles assaulted and murdered a female motorist who was stranded on
the side of the road, leaving her body tangled in a barbed wire fence. On September 23rd, Knowles
met beautician Ann Dawson in Birmingham, Alabama. The two travelled together for a few days,
until Knowles grew bored of her. He killed her on September 29th, but her body would never be found.
After brutally murdering at least 10 people across 5 different states,
Knowles once again laid low for a few weeks. But it was only a matter of time before the
urge to kill became unbearable. On October 19th in Woodford Virginia,
Knowles shot 53 year old Doris Hovey in her home with her husband’s rifle. This time, he did not
assault or even rob Hovey. Clearly, his lust for blood was all that mattered to Knowles, now.
Shortly after the murder of Hovey, Knowles picked up 2 more hitchhikers. He planned to
kill the pair, but before he could he was stopped by police in a stolen car for a routine traffic
violation. The careless cop let him off with a warning, but the experience rattled Knowles.
After dropping off the hitchhikers he contacted a lawyer and confessed to his
crimes. The lawyer recommended that Knowles turn himself in, but he refused. Instead,
he allegedly taped a confession and handed it over to the lawyer before skipping town once again.
He instructed the lawyer to make the tape public in the event of his death,
and insisted that any proceeds from his story go to his mother.
Despite his close call, Knowles was unable to stop himself from continuing to kill. On November 6th,
in Macon, Georgia, he met and befriended Carswell Carr. Carr took pity on Knowles, who he took for
a drifter, and invited him to spend the night at his home. Over drinks, Knowles stabbed Carr
to death and then strangled Carr’s 15 year old daughter. After fleeing this murder, Knowles
may have killed hitchhikers Edward Hilliard and Debbie Griffen, but their bodies were never found.
On November 8th, Knowles was bar hopping in Atlanta, Georgia, when he met British journalist
Sandy Fawkes. Fawkes recalls being infatuated with Knowles’ gaunt good looks and his resemblance to
movie star Robert Redford. The two spent the night together, although Knowles was unable to do the
deed, so to speak. Over the next 2 days, after repeated failed attempts at intimate relations,
the pair separated on good terms on November 10th. Fawkes had no idea at the time just how
lucky she was to escape with her life, but she would later say that she suspects that he let
her live because, as a writer, she would be able to spread his story and increase his notoriety.
The day after separating from Fawkes, Knowles made his first big mistake. He attempted to
kidnap Susan MacKenzie, a friend of Fawkes’, and assaulted her at gunpoint. Amazingly,
she escaped and reported Knowles to the police. Officers now had a name to link to the rash of
mysterious killings, and tracked Knowles down and pulled him over. Knowles was prepared, though,
and he managed to escape by brandishing a sawed-off shotgun. Days later, Knowles
was back in Florida. After murdering Beverly Mabee in West Palm Beach, he abducted Mabee’s
sister and stole her car. The next night, he released Mabee in Fort Pierce, Florida unharmed.
On November 16th, 1974, a Florida State Trooper recognized the stolen car that Knowles was driving
and pulled him over. However, Knowles was ready for him - he took the officer hostage at gunpoint,
put him in the back of the police car, and took off in the stolen cruiser.
Realizing that a stolen police car was incredibly obvious, Knowles used the
cruiser to pull over another innocent motorist. After kidnapping the driver, James Meyer, he put
both hostages in the back of Meyers’ vehicle, and drove out into the woods of Pulaski County,
Georgia. There, he handcuffed the men to a tree and shot them both in the head at close range.
The blatant murder of a police officer would spell the beginning of the end for Knowles.
Just hours later, Knowles approached a police roadblock that had been erected to capture him.
With no other options, Knowles crashed his stolen car through the barrier,
lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree. An
injured Knowles then escaped on foot into the woods, firing shots at officers as he fled.
Knowles was pursued by officers from several agencies armed with dogs and a helicopter,
but in the end he would meet his downfall at the hands of a civilian. 27-year old David Clark,
a Vietnam veteran and avid hunter, spotted Knowles in the woods several miles away from the official
search area on November 17th. Seeing that Knowles was bleeding from a wound on his head,
the suspicious hunter cornered Knowles with his shotgun and held him at a neighbor’s home
until police arrived, finally putting an end to his vicious murder spree.
Once in custody, Knowles claimed to have murdered more than 35 people between July and November of
1974, though police were only able to verify 18 of his murders. On November 18th, the day after
his capture, Knowles was being transferred to a maximum security facility when he made one last
desperate bid for freedom. He made a grab for the sheriff’s revolver, which went off during
the scuffle, prompting FBI agent Ron Angel to shoot Knowles 3 times at point blank range,
killing him instantly. The Casanova Killer had met his own brutal and final end.
Even after Knowles’ death, the police and the public remained fascinated by his crimes.
His movie-star good looks, charisma and devilish smirk endeared him to his victims and earned
him his nickname, the Casanova Killer. His constant movement criss-crossing the country
and the fact that he murdered victims in 6 different states made it harder for police
to link his various murders to a single killer. There appeared to be no pattern to his victims,
and he indiscriminately killed men and women, children and adults.
Knowles also had no consistent M.O., stabbing some victims, strangling others and shooting the rest.
Some were assaulted and robbed, while others were simply killed for no apparent reason. By the time
police connected the seemingly random crimes to a single killer, it was too late for his victims.
His death in custody at the hands of the FBI meant Knowles would never have to explain the
motivations for his crimes in court. The taped confession he had left with his lawyer may have
been the key to unlocking the Casanova Killer’s motives, but sadly, the tapes were allegedly
destroyed when the courtroom where they were being stored was damaged by a flood. The lawyer who
received the tapes from Knowles claims not to have listened to them before they were destroyed, and
refuses to speculate on Knowles motives, standing by his commitment to client confidentiality.
Perhaps his traumatic childhood and his father’s abandonment set the stage for Knowles to go on
to become a killer. Maybe the heartbreak of his broken engagement prompted him to graduate from
petty crime to vicious murder. Or, maybe, his motive was simply to gain notoriety and fame
for his brutal crimes. The fact that he let journalist Sandy Fawkes go free and unharmed,
and the fact that his murders seemed to be crimes of opportunity rather
than targeted killings, appear to add credence to this theory,
but we’ll never know for sure why Paul John Knowles was driven to kill.
If you thought serial killers from the 70s were bad, be sure and check out this video,
called “Why This Generation Will Have More Serial Killers Than Ever”. Or,
perhaps this other video will be a little less unnerving.