Sean Vincent Gillis

Sean Vincent Gillis (born June 24, 1962) is an American serial killer and sex offender who murdered eight women in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from 1994 until his arrest in April 2004.

In his initial arrest, he was charged with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of ritualistic acts in the murders of 29-year-old Katherine Hall, 45-year-old Johnnie Mae Williams and 43-year-old Donna Bennett Johnston.

Gillis confessed to the murders with little coercion and then informed investigators about five other women whom he had murdered.

Gillis was born June 24, 1962, in Baton Rouge and was raised in southern Louisiana.

He was the son of Yvonne and Norman Gillis.

His father abandoned the family soon after his birth.

Gillis was raised by his mother and his grandparents.

His rap sheet began in 1980 when he was 17 years old, with minor infractions.

Throughout the years he was arrested for traffic citations, DUI, possession of marijuana, and contempt of court.

Lee began his killing in 1992, but between 1994 and 2003, there were two other serial killers silently and secretly targeting women in the Baton Rouge area.

Donna Bennett Johnston, 43 years old, was Gillis' eighth and final victim.

He committed his first known murder in 1994.

Years later after he had been arrested and convicted for some of his murders, a friend of one of his victims wrote to him.

She turned his replies over to the prosecution, and some of Gillis' words made it into the news.

Gillis expressed remorse for the murders, particularly regretting his mutilating the bodies, and described himself as "pure evil".

Gillis also said that he sometimes committed murder without knowing why he was doing so.

Gillis once claimed he began killing because of "stress".

His first murder, which he confessed to after his arrest, was of 82-year-old Ann Bryan in March 1994.

He intended to rape her, but became frightened when she screamed as he touched her.

To stop her screaming, Gillis slit her throat and then stabbed her 50 times.

He left her body there at her residence, St. James Place (an exclusive retirement home in Baton Rouge).

In May 1999, Gillis began stalking a woman he had seen jogging in the south Baton Rouge area.

He spent three weeks driving around the area looking for her.

Around 5:30 a.m. on May 30, 1999, a Sunday, he saw 52-year-old Hardee Schmidt jogging on Quail Run Drive.

Two days later her body was found in a bayou off of Highway 61 in St. James Parish.

Gillis later confessed that he hit Schmidt with his car, knocking her into a ditch.

He got out and placed heavy-duty wire plastic wrap tightly around her neck and forced her into the car.

He drove to a park off of Highland Road and raped her.

After killing her, he put her nude corpse into the trunk of his car, a white Chevy Cavalier, and left it there until dumping it two days later.

Gillis continued killing for five more years, the murders unconnected and his presence unknown to law enforcement.

More attention was paid to cold cases of murdered women when another serial killer, Derrick Todd Lee, was apprehended on May 27, 2003.

When certain cases could not be linked to Lee, investigators began to wonder if another serial killer had been in operation at the same time.

In February 2004, he raped her and strangled her with a nylon tie wrap.

Gillis mutilated her body post-mortem, slashing her breasts, cutting off her left nipple, gouging out a tattoo on her right thigh, and severing her left arm at the elbow.

Her body was found on February 27, 2004, in a drainage canal near Ben Hur Road, south of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

In letters exchanged between Gillis and a friend of Johnston, Tammie Purpera, Gillis explains her murder and even expresses remorse:

Tammie Purpera, who died in 2005 of complications from AIDS, turned over all of the letters to the prosecutors, and they were used at Gillis' trials.

After his arrest, police found 45 digital pictures, downloaded to his computer, of Johnston's mutilated body, as well as photos of her corpse in the trunk of his car.

Many other photos were found of other victims, some of which were used at his various trials for first-degree murder.

In the end, Gillis brutally raped and murdered eight women.