Two days later her body was found in a bayou off of Highway 61 in St. on May 30, 1999, a Sunday, he saw 52–year–old Hardee Schmidt jogging on Quail Run Drive. He spent three weeks driving around the area looking for her. In May 1999, Gillis began stalking a woman he had seen jogging in the south Baton Rouge area. James Place (an exclusive retirement home in Baton Rouge). He left her body there at her residence, St. To stop her screaming, Gillis slit her throat and then stabbed her 50 times. He intended to rape her, but became frightened when she screamed as he touched her. His first murder, which he confessed to after his arrest, was of 82-year-old Ann Bryan in March 1994. Gillis once claimed he began killing because of 'stress'. Gillis also said that he sometimes committed murder without knowing why he was doing so. In the letter, Gillis expressed remorse for the murders, particularly regretting his mutilating the bodies, and described himself as 'pure evil'. She turned the letters over to the prosecution and some of Gillis' words made it into the news. Years later after he had been arrested and convicted for some of his murders, a friend of one of his victims wrote to him. He committed his first known murder in 1994. Throughout the years he was arrested for traffic citations, DUI, possession of marijuana, and contempt of court. His rap sheet began in 1980 when he was 17 years old, with minor infractions.

This is the person I loved most in this world.' In the penalty phase of the trial, while testifying for the defense, his mother is quoted as saying, 'I used to call him my little blue-eyed angel. and saw Gillis in his front yard, beating ruthlessly on some garbage cans.' ĭuring his 2004 first-degree murder trial for the slaying of Donna Bennett Johnston, his mother, Yvonne, testified that her son was a well-behaved, well-adjusted child with good grades and a healthy social life. A neighbor once reported that 'she heard a loud banging noise at 3 a.m. Ī more violent side of Gillis' personality began to surface during adolescence, behaving with anger and rage. Gillis was raised by his mother and his grandparents. His father abandoned the family soon after his birth. He was the son of Yvonne and Norman Gillis. Gillis was born June 24, 1962, in Baton Rouge and was raised in southern Louisiana.

Louisiana serial killer 1933