A serial killer who preyed on older gay men along the I-95 corridor in 1994 died by lethal injection after the Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal.
Gary Ray Bowles, 57, was pronounced dead at 10:58 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida. According to officials, Bowles consumed a hefty last meal of three cheeseburgers, fries, and bacon around 3 p.m. that same day.
Bowles is known to have murdered at least six victims during an eight-month span along I-95, earning him the nickname the “I-95 killer.” In each case, Bowles left behind a signature: He stuffed the throats of his victims with various items, including toilet paper, dirt rags, leaves, and in one case, a sex toy.
He was sentenced to die for the murder of his final victim, Walter Hinton. Bowles strangled Hinton and bashed his head in with a concrete brick in Jacksonville, Florida. One of his victims was a 72-year-old World War II veteran.
Other victims were found in Daytona Beach, Florida; Rockville, Maryland; Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta; and Nassau County, Florida.
Bowles was raised in West Virginia where he began drinking, smoking marijuana, and huffing glue at the age of 11. He was abused by two stepfathers, and when he was 13, he smashed a rock against the head of his second stepfather, nearly killing him. Bowles left home soon after and survived by letting men perform sex acts on him for money, despite maintaining up to his death that he was straight.
“I had a question about him being gay. He told me he was not, and I said, ‘What do you describe yourself as?’ He said, ‘A hustler,’” Thomas Youngman, a detective assigned to one of his cases, said. “He’d befriend these old guys and have sexual relations with them, but I think they performed on him. He said he did not perform on them.”
Bowles also was violent toward women. He was convicted for the beating and rape of his girlfriend in 1982 and convicted to eight years in prison. It is unclear if Bowles left behind any female victims in the wake of his brutal murders. Former Savannah detective John Best said that when Bowles was asked about the possibility of female victims, he demurred.
“He never gave us a yes or no answer,” Best said. “It was, ‘Let’s change the subject.’”
Bowles had no final words before his execution but reportedly spoke to himself, perhaps in prayer, before the lethal formula entered his veins. He did write a final handwritten statement Thursday.
“I’m sorry for all the pain and suffering I have caused. I hope my death eases your pain,” Bowles wrote. “I want to tell my mother that I am also sorry for my actions. Having to deal with your son being called a monster is terrible. I’m so very sorry. I never wanted this to be my life. You don’t wake up one day and decide to become a serial killer.”
