I Would Find a Girl Walking (21 page)

Interestingly, all of the girls whom Stano had ever been seriously involved with had some type of abnormality. For example, his first girlfriend was mentally disabled; the second was epileptic and had undergone brain surgery; the third one was a fifteen-year-old runaway who purportedly had emotional and behavioral problems; and the fourth, his former wife, supposedly had emotional problems, including compulsive overeating. His only other relationships with women were with prostitutes or with young women whom he believed to be prostitutes.

Dr. McMillan’s final and most compelling conclusion stated that “Gerald Stano’s abnormal behavior and antisocial acts have followed a consistent progression from infancy to adulthood that makes the act of murder a logical, rather than an illogical event.”

The psychologist based these findings on what she termed the “three most logical bases for mental disorder,” which she deemed present in Stano from at least six months old:

Dr. McMillan went on to examine the characteristics of the schizophrenic murderer and the differences between the psychopathic and schizophrenic personalities.

The report also characterized the schizophrenic’s murders as ones of “unnecessary ferociousness and senselessness” in which the killer committed more than one crime, using the action of murder as a way of discharging an “intolerable schizophrenic anger.”

In keeping with these observations, the antisocial behavior of the schizophrenic murderer caused him to not only disassociate himself from the killing or killings, but to also enjoy a sense of calm or even gratification.

 

 

Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Davis sent his report to Circuit Judge James Foxman as well as to Gerald Stano’s court-appointed attorney, Donald Jacobson; Howard Pearl, the assistant public defender; and Larry Nixon, the assistant state attorney.

Dr. Davis also recounted Gerald Stano’s early childhood and then detailed Stano’s activities back in the early 1970s, when he was living in Daytona Beach with his mother. Even back then, he had begun to pick up girls on the Boardwalk and along the beach area. He admitted to getting involved with a fifteen-year-old and taking her to Georgia on one occasion and to New York on another.

Stano told the psychiatrist of a confrontation at a school in Daytona Beach with a gang member whose girlfriend operated as a prostitute, and he said that one of the gang members cut his chin with a knife.

Dr. Davis deemed Gerald Stano competent to stand trial, and he stated that the accused did not qualify under the criteria for any sort of psychiatric hospitalization or treatment. But, said the psychiatrist, Stano
did
exhibit chilling characteristics in his murderous spree, with total strangers as his unwilling victims:

“This man has little or no conscience. He is grossly selfish, callous, and irresponsible. He is very impulsive. He has a very low frustration tolerance and can fly into a rage at a moment’s notice. He blames the violence of his behavior on the belligerence of his victims.”

During his many interviews with police investigators pertaining to the murders, Gerald Stano always faulted his victims for mouthing off to him, arguing, or making disparaging remarks.

Sergeant Paul Crow pointed out the randomness of Stano’s method of operation in his attacks. He would stab some of the victims, as he had Donna Marie Hensley and Mary Carol Maher; he strangled others, such as Barbara Bauer and Susan Bickrest, whom he also drowned, as he did Linda Hamilton. With still others, he would use a combination of attacks, such as stabbing, shooting, or beating, as with Ramona Neal and Katie Muldoon.

Dr. Fernando Stern, the other psychiatrist who examined Gerald Stano, also delved into Stano’s early years and failed marriage, during which he was physically abusive to his wife. Dr. Stern noted that Stano stated he’d always been violent toward the women he dated, especially when he was intoxicated.

Alcohol was a key factor in Stern’s analysis of Stano’s mental state. He believed Stano wasn’t sane at the time of the murders, during which Stano had claimed to always be under the influence of alcohol “probably due to decompensation of a chronic psychotic condition due to alcohol abuse.”

Stano threatened to beat his wife on several occasions, always insisting her sisters or other family members be around when he was present. As for Stano’s current mental state, the psychiatrist deemed him “perfectly able to stand trial.”

Dr. Stern referred to Stano’s vivid memory, whereby he was able to tell the doctor the particular details of several of his crimes. The psychiatrist classified the cold, calculating manner in which Stano described all of these incidents as a highly inappropriate behavior. As with atypical schizophrenic disorder, Stano went through these episodes during which he was unable to control himself while under the influence of alcohol.

“Here comes the old red again,” Stano recalled thinking when he demanded sex from one woman and was told, ‘Hell, no!’”

This psychiatrist also referred to Gerald Stano as “utterly remorseless.”

 

 

Dr. Ann McMillan compared Gerald Stano to other sociopathic killers.

Citing
Classifying Criminal Offenders: New System Based on MMPI (SAGE Library of Social Research)
, by Edwin I. Megargee and M. J. Bohn, published a year earlier, in 1979, Dr. McMillan listed ten subtypes of criminal offenders, among whom the “Charlie” profile—named for Charles Manson, who sent his acolytes, Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkle, and Susan Atkins, to butcher actress Sharon Tate and her companions at her home in Los Angeles on August 8, 1969—was “the most malignant.” These were the criminals who committed “senseless crimes,” which were, Dr. McMillan pointed out, basically “anti-social acts.” The criminal who fit the “Charlie profile” was a sociopath who became psychotic over a period of time.

A sociopath, according to various definitions, was someone whose behavior may be superficially charming, like Ted Bundy’s,
²⁹
or as Stano could also be when he was engaging young women in casual conversation. The sociopath felt absolutely no empathy for any other human being. Other convicted murderers who fit into the “Charlie profile” category were Sirhan Sirhan (Robert F. Kennedy’s killer) and David Berkowitz (aka “Son of Sam”).

After examining Stano, Dr. McMillan concluded:

“The best single predictor of violence and of determining the true degree of psychopathology is past behavior. In tracing Gerald Stano’s case history from the prenatal stage to the present it can be clearly demonstrated that Mr. Stano has never been normal; and that in his progression from childhood to adolescence to adult abnormalities it was logical to predict that ‘murderer’ would inevitably be added to his labels.

Primary diagnosis: Paranoid schizophrenia

Secondary diagnosis: Sociopathic personality.”

 

 

In recent years, the practice of criminal profiling has evolved into an infinitely more sophisticated science. Certain rules, however, still apply when examining the causes and early factors of criminal behavior.

For instance, a large number of serial killers seem to have been either adopted or severely neglected as children, or from apparently functional families where one parent was the controller. Many were illegitimate.

Charles Manson’s mother, Kathleen Maddox, was sixteen when Charlie was born and was a sometime prostitute and petty criminal. She married a man called William Manson and changed Charlie’s last name to the one that has now become infamous.

Ted Bundy was born in a house for unwed mothers. He grew up believing that his mother was his sister and his grandparents were his parents.

Gerald Stano, too, was illegitimate, and severely neglected as an infant. His adoptive parents were seemingly functional, but he often referred to his father as cruel and controlling—at times, even abusive.

As youngsters, these criminals find the socialization process difficult if not impossible. Bundy was inept with women as an adolescent, and Stano was not at all liked by his peers.

As for what makes them “kill and kill again,” it’s some form of unfairness they perceive to have suffered, or have suffered, from childhood and into adolescence and at the hands of some authority figure, especially women.

Bundy pined after a society girl who dumped him unceremoniously, and then, as has become known, he murdered young women with long brown hair parted in the middle, as if to kill her again and again.

Stano first blamed his ex-wife for his drinking and prowling for women, and then the behavior of his “young lady” victims for his violent acts, stating that they were talking too much or making fun of him. Some he killed when they refused his advances or ridiculed his clothing or choice of music.

But the bottom line was, these criminals found perfect justifications for their heinous acts, and there was no point in trying to find any logic in their behavior. The very aberrant and abhorrent nature of their crimes defied all logic.

Kathy, this waiting period now, is really taking it’s toll on me hard. I wish he (the Gov.) would tell my attorney what he wants to do further, or to sign my warrant.

—Gerald Stano to Kathy Kelly, April 17, 1986

They think I have turned all of my cards over. I have held a few back Kathy. Because, two people can play a card game. And, they have to make a very good offer, if they want my cards totally turned over. Maybe they could care less about what I have card wise. But, it would really turn some heads if they knew what it is. I will convey these cards only, at the right time and place. It will do no good trying to find out what it is, cause they won’t come out till the right time.

—Gerald Stano to Kathy Kelly, November 3, 1985

 

 

 

 

W
aiting to die was hard for Jerry Stano.

For eighteen years, his days were ruled by the tedium of prison life. His inevitable date with death, however, was planned right down to the last minute, his last meal, his last phone call. The pretty young women who climbed into his car didn’t have that luxury. They thought they would be back in Sunday school the next weekend, back behind the counter serving drinks, or in class at college. Their time was up, too, but they didn’t know it.

The days in a cell at the Florida State Prison death row, not far from the electric chair, moved slowly. The routine of prison life—rising at his customary 6:00 a.m.—was a comfort. He could smoke, make a cup of instant coffee, or listen to his favorite music on his headphones.

Appeals on his murder convictions made their way through the courts. Appeals are mandatory, and public defenders who handle only death penalty cases pore over copies of trial testimony looking for that one little error that will give the prisoner a reason for a new trial. These appeals add years to prisoners doing their time. Their hopes rise with news a witness may have been asked to change testimony or the outcome of a forensic case is in doubt.

The days, months, and years of waiting were broken by occasional “callouts,” summons from a prison official to tell him an appeal had been denied, or his execution had been delayed.

Visits from his parents—his only regular visitors—were often painful. He was happy to see his mom but often returned to his cell frustrated by his father’s cold attitude and the effect it had on his mother.

He also deeply resented the constant pejorative comparisons to his younger and also adopted brother.

Stano’s one attempt at athleticism—a prison volleyball game during one of his limited outside hours—met with failure. He sprained his ankle, and it swelled badly. Better for him to keep his sports interests limited to the small television in his cell. He took up crocheting, making baby blankets for the children of fellow inmates or friends. His former public defender, Chris Quarles, would bring yarn to him for these projects.
³⁰

Goading from guards and fellow prisoners about the stack of sentences he faced nagged him. He had high blood pressure, as he reminded me in one letter, and that type of stress was harmful.

“You know, I hate when the guys start talking about my time—5–25 years and 3 Death Sentences. They don’t know when to back off. All I do is put on my headphones and stereo, and block them out. I refrain from talking about it with hem cause of my temper, and, I would end up in a fight over it on the yard, and loose [
sic
] all my privileges for 30–60 days. . . . Follow what I am saying? They don’t seem to realize I am nothing to play with.”
³¹