Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Paul John Knowles, a self-admitted serial killer, sat down with a police psychiatrist in the winter of 1974. Georgia Highway Patrol had just arrested him, ending his year-long reign of terror that left 18 confirmed men, women, and children dead across the United States. Knowles claims his body count was as high as 35, but police could never tie him to those other murders. The psychiatrist asked him,
"What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you?" Knowles answered, "I was born." In his mind, he was better off before he was born than after, a sentiment that perhaps peaked the psychiatrist's interest. Here was a man that murdered upwards of 35 people in cold blood. He had no pattern, motive or reason, he just liked it. According to Knowles, it was a means of escape, escape from a life that lacked love and caring.
He was born a criminal, grew up a criminal, and would die a criminal soon enough. He didn't want anything to do with this mortal world anymore. The psychiatrist asked another question. "If you could change your life, where would you go back to make that change?" Knowles answered saying, "If I ever had to live over again, I wouldn't." All he wanted to do was return to a time before he was born, when everything was quiet and simple.
Ted Bundy takes all the credit when it comes to 1970s serial killers, but Paul John Knowles might be the most terrifying mass murderer you've never heard of. His charm and good looks lured women from Florida to California into his arms. And at one point, he dated an English reporter who had no idea she was riding shotgun with a psychopath. Knowles would go down in serial killer history as the Casanova Killer.
and with no discernible pattern to his killing spree, police across the country were left chasing empty leads between July and November of 1974. Part One: A Casanova Man According to Merriam-Webster, a Casanova is known for seducing women and having many lovers. Technically a noun, we often use the word as an adjective to describe womanizers, calling them "Casanova men."
The autobiography of Giacomo Casanova, an 18th century Italian explorer, introduced the lifestyle to the mainstream. You may default to legends like those of Don Juan and his many sexual conquests. Though the archetypes have subtle differences, Don Juan seeks women who are hard to get, like virgins, nuns, and those already spoken for. Meanwhile, Casanova beds whoever he can.
you'll find both archetypes in film and literature. Heath Ledger portrayed Casanova in the 2005 film of the same name, and Johnny Depp played Don Juan in the 1995 rom-com. As for the Casanova killer, he was born in Orlando, Florida in April 1946. Little is known about Knowles' childhood other than the time he spent bouncing between foster homes. Did the cruel mid-century foster system leave a bitter taste in Paul's mouth?
Paul's first experience with police came at seven years old after they caught him stealing a bicycle. But there's little you can do to legally punish a seven-year-old kid. Instead, Paul probably got the unloving end of the belt in foster care. His teenage years didn't pan out any better. Paul got arrested when he was 19 and then again when he was 22. It was May of 1968 when Florida police picked Paul up for attempted robbery.
He was sentenced to three years in state prison and was a free man in 1971. But prison didn't reform him and Florida cops arrested him again on more robbery charges. In 1972, Paul escaped from a prison work camp, but he was back in custody three weeks later with three more years added to his sentence. In 1974, Paul began corresponding with a young divorcee from San Francisco.
a woman named Angela Kovic, whom Paul called his Yiddish angel. Angela was a good thing for a troubled man. She was a source of stability, love, and hope, three things Paul had yet to experience in life. The two got engaged, and Angela hired a criminal attorney to secure Paul's early release. He walked out of Florida State Prison in May of 1974 and flew straight to California.
A new lease on life was so close, he could feel it. But before they could marry, a fortune teller stripped it all away. Before Paul's arrival, Angela consulted with a psychic to ask about her future. As the story goes, the fortune teller warned her of a very dangerous man about to enter her life. That was all the warning Angela needed. She called off the wedding. Paul says he killed his first three victims that night on the streets of San Francisco.
but police have never found any evidence to support his claim. Paul flew back to Jacksonville and got himself arrested again after starting a bar fight and stabbing the bartender. This time he escaped from prison on July 26th, 1974 and kicked off his killing spree a few days later. Part two, the killing spree. Knowles didn't hesitate to kill after escaping from jail.
He broke into the Jacksonville home of a 65-year-old retired school teacher named Alice Curtis. Sadly, Alice was no match for the Casanova killer. He bound and gagged her while ransacking her home. He stuffed her money and valuable jewels into his pockets and then made off in her car, leaving Alice to choke to death on the gag.
Paul then drove four hours north to Warner Robins, a small city in central Georgia. There, he picked up a female hitchhiker named Ima Jean Saunders. She said her name was Alma, and though she was only 13, she appeared much older, perhaps 17 or 18. Knowles left the main roadways and lured poor Alma into the woods in Peach County, where he raped and strangled her.
He left her body on the ground between the trees, but returned to the spot two weeks later. Animals must have gotten to her. All Knowles could find was her jawbone. He buried it and left for good. Ima was missing for two years until police finally found some skeletal remains in April 1976. Though they couldn't identify the body, Ima's family had to wait until November 2011 to get DNA testing done on the remains, which proved they were Ima's.
On August 2nd, Knowles drove back south to Atlantic Beach, Florida, where he met 49-year-old Marjorie Howey. She was a Rhode Island native born in Providence who moved down to Atlantic Beach with her husband and children. We don't know much about their interactions, if she fell for Paul's charm or if he forced his way into her home. Either way, Knowles strangled her to death in her apartment and stole her TV.
Knowles laid low for a few weeks before driving back to the Peach County area, to the small town of Muzella, Georgia, northwest of Warner Robinson. We assume this was when he stopped to check on Ima's body and bury her jawbone. Once in Muzella, Paul set his sights on 22-year-old Kathy Sue Pierce, a recent divorcee who separated from her husband six months prior.
They met in the late morning of August 23rd, and Knowles ended up back in her apartment shortly after. Early that evening, around 5:30, a concerned neighbor discovered her body in the bathroom with a telephone cord wrapped around her neck. Dr. Larry Howard, the chief pathologist for the Georgia Crime Lab, determined she'd been dead for seven hours before police found the body. The only witness was Kathy's three-year-old son, Joel.
Instead of heading south, Knowles drove 665 miles north to Lima, Ohio, arriving on September 3rd. In Lima, he met 32-year-old William Bates at a roadside pub called Scott's Inn. Bates left home that day to do some office work for the Ohio Power Company. Perhaps he needed a beer before returning to his wife and stopped at the pub.
William's wife reported him missing that evening, and nobody saw him again until late November, when a hunter stumbled upon his naked and badly decomposed body. Dental records confirmed his identity, and all of William's personal belongings were gone, including his car. Police later found Alice Curtis's car abandoned near the pub. Paul had a new ride and three dead bodies to his name. Part 3: Headed Out West
Paul headed west from Lima, driving William's car 1,800 miles across the country to Eli, Nevada. He stopped at the Lake Valley Summit rest stop on September 12th, where he crossed paths with Emmett and Lois Johnson, a couple in their late 60s. They were on vacation from San Pedro, California, when Paul stuck a gun in their faces and robbed them at the rest stop. He took Emmett's wallet and Lois' purse before shooting both of them in the head.
A highway maintenance worker was emptying trash barrels at the rest stop when he found the bodies. Once again, Knowles was long gone. But perhaps a few incompetent cops were to blame for not catching Knowles right then and there. Someone heard screams coming from the rest stop on the night Paul murdered Emmett and Lois. They drove 20 miles to the nearest telephone and called highway patrol, reporting screams coming from Lake Valley Summit. But that's where the story ends.
Word never made it back to Sheriff Archie Robinson of White Pine County. And though he was over 40 miles away from the rest stop when the Johnsons were murdered, maybe he could have gotten there in time to find a lead on Knowles. Instead, the bodies sat and rotted until the maintenance worker found them six days later. From Nevada, Knowles drove another 1500 miles southeast to Sagin, Texas, a Guadalupe County city of only 15,000 people.
He arrived in late September, right around the time Charlyn Hicks' family reported her missing on September 22nd. The 42-year-old widow met Knowles at a rest stop 14 miles east of the city. She left home on Saturday, and her relatives reported her missing by Monday.
Police found Charlynne's car abandoned at the rest stop on Tuesday, and 24 hours later, Deputy Walter Bargfried found her body 200 yards deep in the woods near the rest stop. She'd been raped and strangled to death, left to rot in the hot Texas sun. But once again, Knowles was long gone and on his way 800 miles east to Birmingham, Alabama.
He arrived in Pinson, a small town about 25 minutes north of Birmingham, and struck up a conversation with 49-year-old Ann Dawson. She took a liking to Mr. Casanova as they talked at a local bar and were seen leaving together. We don't know if Knowles kidnapped her or if she went voluntarily, but nobody ever saw Ann again after September 23rd. They did find her car abandoned about five miles away from the bar two days later.
But that was it. Police Chief Harold Barlett knew he was looking for a six-foot, redheaded man in his 30s and extended the search as far as Talladega. Too bad he couldn't extend the search 1,000 miles northeast to Marlboro, Connecticut, where he might have stopped Knowles from killing his next two victims. Part Four, The Wine Murders. 16-year-old Dawn Wine was in the middle of her homework when someone rang the doorbell around 5 p.m.,
She lived in a Cape-style home in Marlborough and was home alone while her mother, Karen, was at work. Her sister, Cheryl, was staying at a friend's house. Don answered the door to find Noel standing on the other side. He asked if her parents were home and she said no. Then he pulled a sawed-off shotgun out from under his slacks and pushed his way into the house.
He forced Dawn into her bedroom, where he stripped and raped her until Karen came home from her nursing job an hour later. Knowles turned the barrel on Karen and said, "Why don't we all just relax? I'm not here to harm anyone. I'll stay for dinner and then be on my way." Dawn got dressed while Karen prepared dinner, and the three sat and ate like some twisted scene in a Quentin Tarantino movie. He conversed in a friendly Dixie accent,
while the shotgun rested at his feet. Paul wanted to tie them up before he left, so they couldn't call for help immediately. He led them into the bedroom, stripped them naked, and bound their hands. But Knowles had no intention of leaving them alive. He strangled both with a pair of nylon stockings and fled 1,000 miles back to Georgia. 17-year-old Cheryl returned home in the morning and found her mother and sister in the bedroom.
She carried that gruesome image for 43 years before passing away in 2017. This retelling and Knowles' quotes come from Paul Meskel, a New York Daily News writer who had the luxury of listening to a three-hour series of recordings Knowles made before his capture. For over three hours of audio, Paul described 14 murders across eight states.
Few people ever got to listen to the Paul Knowles tapes, as they, along with the transcripts, were destroyed in a flood at the federal courthouse in Macon, Georgia. Part 5: Casanova's Lawyer Paul didn't go right back to Georgia after killing the Wines. Instead, he stopped in Caroline County, Virginia, at the home of Doris Evelyn Hosey. The 53-year-old mother of two was home alone putting the laundry away when Knowles arrived.
She'd spent the day bouncing around town, stopping for a beauty parlor appointment and visiting her sisters at their respective jobs. It was her daughter's 25th birthday, and she promised to call later that night once the chores were done. It's unclear when or why Knowles targeted Doris. We can't say if he stalked her around town or if he just picked out a random house. All we know is Doris never made that call.
and her brother found her body the following morning. She was partially clothed, but an autopsy didn't discover any signs of rape. Her killer scattered her belongings around the kitchen and left a .22 caliber rifle lying next to her body. Like Knowles's other victims, the local sheriffs couldn't figure out who killed Doris Hosey. Her friends and family described her as happy-go-lucky, someone who'd never take their own life.
Her husband, Mansell, a retired Marine, was away in West Virginia when Doris was killed. The rifle also belonged to the couple, suggesting that Knowles either made a lucky guess or had prior knowledge about Doris before killing her. Knowles continued past Georgia down to Key West, Florida, where he picked up two hitchhikers in William Bates' stolen car. We can assume Knowles was hellbent on killing these two hitchhikers.
but a police officer pulled him over for a simple traffic violation. Shaken, Knowles dropped off the hitchhikers without harm and headed back north to Georgia. By now, Knowles felt like the police were hot on his tail. Before heading north, Knowles recorded his confessions on the tape recorder stolen from the wine house. Then, he sent the tapes to his lawyer, Sheldon Yavitz, also known as "The Little Jew."
Yavitz made a career defending thieves, smugglers, murderers, and rapists. He was like the Saul Goodman of South Florida and was known to bribe judges and officials to get his clients off. Ultimately, his crooked practices caught up with him and Yavitz spent 20 years behind bars, but he'd go down in legal history thanks to his most famous client, the Casanova killer, John Paul Knowles. Part six, the car killings.
On November 7th, 1974, Knowles arrived in Milledgeville, Georgia, looking to stalk and murder his next victims. Some sources say he befriended a man named Caswell Carr, who invited Knowles to stay the night. Carr had recently retired from the Georgia Department of Labor after a heart attack almost killed him in 1973. He kept busy with household projects, like building a new bed frame for his 15-year-old daughter Mandy.
Carr's wife, Ellen, was working her late nursing shift the night Knowles killed her family. Little Mandy was in her bedroom studying while Caswell relaxed on the couch, watching midterm election returns. When Ellen came home, she found her husband in the bedroom, stabbed between 15 and 20 times with a pair of scissors. We imagine Ellen went berserk and called the police. They found Mandy's body strangled by her own stockings when they arrived.
D.C. Gormley, head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, in Milledgeville, called it one of the roughest, most brutal slayings he'd ever seen. Though one fact about the car murders baffled responding officers, it didn't appear as though someone broke into the home, fueling the theory that Caswell met Knowles prior and invited him in. Part 7. He Wasn't Even a Good Poke
Sandy Fawkes was a seasoned 45-year-old English reporter when she landed in Atlanta, Georgia on November 7th, 1974. She just spent the day in Washington trying to interview former Vice President Spiro Agnew to no avail. The quest was part of a month-long audition period for an American newspaper willing to pay her more than her current London employer. She just needed a good story to prove her worth.
But Sandy also liked to drink, so she planted herself at the Atlanta Holiday Inn bar and ordered a cocktail. In her own words, she wasn't a raving beauty, though she had some kind of magnetism that often drew men to her. And like a magnet to iron, Noel spotted her through a smoky haze from across the bar. He introduced himself as Lester Darryl Golden and asked for a dance. She rejected him.
saying she was a reporter in town on businesses who hadn't had a drink all day. To her rejection, Knowles replied, "Will you be gone long? Will you come back? Are you staying here?" Sandy ignored those questions. She had a meeting in the morning with the Atlanta Constitution, but when that meeting didn't go as planned, she returned to the hotel bar looking for the handsome, lanky, redheaded man she rejected the night before.
They danced, and Knowles mentioned he was on his way to Miami. Coincidentally, Sandy was due in West Palm Beach in the morning. Knowles insisted on driving her, and she accepted on one condition. "I'm not going to bed with you." She even joked about how she didn't know anything about him, and how he could be another Boston Strangler. They laughed, drank, and danced, and Casanova eventually got what he wanted.
The two slept together that night. Though Sandy called the experience underwhelming, in the morning, she read a front page story about the recent murders in Georgia, Paul's murders. Paul was pretty talkative as they drove to Florida. He went on about how he would die soon, that somebody would eventually kill him. He wasn't meant to last much longer, perhaps a few more days, weeks, or months. He also had this box of tapes that he refused to talk about.
They stayed together for three days before parting ways. But before she left, Sandy asked Knowles what was on those tapes. He wouldn't tell her. That night, Sandy drank with other journalists while a heartbroken Knowles stalked West Palm Beach. In the morning, Sandy received a call from Sergeant Gabbard at the police station. They needed her to come down and answer a few questions. They asked if she knew a woman named Susan McKenzie. Sandy nodded.
Susan was married to one of the men Sandy went drinking with the night before. Gabbard also knew about Sandy's relationship with Knowles, saying he tried to rape Susan in the early morning. The story blindsided Sandy, and she blurted out a response she'd regret for the rest of her life. Good God, and he wasn't even a good poke. Apparently, Knowles offered to drive Susan to her hairdresser's appointment that morning. Then he pulled over and asked Susan to have sex with him.
When she refused, Knowles pulled his double barrel shotgun and asked again. Susan managed to escape and ran to the closest payphone to call the police. Knowles fled, but now the cops knew what he had looked like and what kind of car he drove. Part eight, the beginning of the end. Knowles knew he had to ditch his current ride if he wanted to escape West Palm Beach.
He targeted a woman named Beverly Mabee, who lived with her sister, Barbara, and Barbara's son, Tucker. Beverly had cerebral palsy and struggled to take care of herself, though she was still sharp as a tack when Knowles knocked on her door, posing as an IRS agent. She didn't buy it, so Knowles forced his way in, tied her and Tucker up, and then waited for Barbara to get home.
When Barbara arrived, Knowles kidnapped her at gunpoint, stole her car, and drove 60 miles out to Fort Pierce, Florida. They checked into a hotel room where Knowles held Barbara captive. He raped her over and over again before letting her go. After her ordeal, Barbara wrote a book called "35 Dead, 1 Survivor."
how I became the sole kidnapped and raped survivor of the Casanova serial killer. In it, she details her harrowing ordeal and how faith and quick wits kept her alive. Back in West Palm Beach, Tucker and Beverly broke free of their bindings, ran next door and called the police. Now, every department across the state was looking for Knowles and it was only a matter of time before they caught him.
While out on patrol on the morning of November 16th, highway trooper Charles Eugene Campbell spotted Barbara's stolen car near Perry, Florida, about 358 miles northwest of West Palm Beach. He pulled the vehicle over, but Knowles wrestled Campbell's gun away and took him hostage. They drove away in Campbell's police cruiser, and Knowles used the siren to pull over another vehicle. The driver was 29-year-old James Meyer of Wilmington, Delaware,
He was in Tallahassee on business and driving a rental car when the police sirens went on behind him. Assuming he'd done something wrong, James pulled over and waited for the officer. Instead, Knowles shoved Campbell in the back of James' car and took both men hostage. The trio drove to Pulaski County, Georgia, where Knowles finally pulled off the road. He led the two men into the woods, handcuffed them to a tree, and shot them in the head.
Two days later, Knowles arrived in Henry County, Georgia, where he crashed Meyer's car through a police roadblock and into a tree, rendering it undriveable. Knowles took off on foot with Henry County officers hot on his tail. He shot back at them, and they opened fire on him. Chief Detective Philip Howard put a well-placed shot in Knowles' foot, slowing the fleeing killer, but not enough to end the chase.
An entire battalion of dogs, cops, and helicopters chased Knowles, but he kept slipping away. Then an unknown hero saved the day. Knowles crossed paths with a 27-year-old Vietnam War vet named David Clark, who was armed with a shotgun when Knowles ran by. David held him at gunpoint long enough for officers to arrive and finally arrest Knowles for the final time.
- With Knowles in custody, Sheriff Earl Lee and GBI agent Ronnie Angel wanted to know what happened to Officer Campbell and James Meyer. Knowles only agreed to show them where he dumped the handgun and they hoped it would lead to the bodies.
On December 18th, 1974, the three men were driving towards Henry County when Knowles picked the lock on his handcuffs and reached for Lee's handgun. He discharged it through the holster and a struggle ensued as Lee tried to keep the car under control. That's when Agent Angel shot Knowles three times in the chest, killing him instantly. This is the story the GBI told a local TV station when questioned about Knowles' death.
Yavitz didn't buy it and didn't think Knowles would try to escape police custody. He'd been waiting to get caught and told Yavitz as much, with him dead. The only thing tying Knowles to his trail of death were those tapes, the tapes currently in Yavitz's hands. But when those tapes and transcripts disappeared after the Macon courthouse flood, so did any hope of piecing together Casanova's entire crime spree.
The only people who ever reviewed those tapes were Sheldon Yavitz, Paul Meskel, and a grand jury in 1975. Knowles went to his grave, claiming he killed 35 people. As of 2022, he's only been linked to 18 murders.