Gwen Amber Rose Araujo was an American trans teenager who was murdered in Newark, California at the age of 17. She was murdered by four men, two of whom she had been sexually intimate with, who beat and strangled her after discovering that she was transgender. Two of the defendants were convicted of second-degree murder, but not the requested hate-crime enhancements to the charges. The other two defendants pleaded guilty or no-contest to voluntary manslaughter. In at least one of the trials, a "trans panic defense"—an extension of the gay panic defense—was employed.
Florida State Prison (FSP), otherwise known as Raiford Prison, is a correctional institution located in unincorporated Bradford County, Florida. It was formerly known as the "Florida State Prison-East Unit" as it was originally part of Florida State Prison in Raiford, Florida. The facility, a part of the Florida Department of Corrections, is located on State Road 16 right across the border from Union County. The institution opened in 1961, even though construction was not completed until 1968. With a maximum population of over 1,400 inmates, FSP is one of the largest prisons in the state. FSP houses one of the state's three death row cell blocks, and the state's execution chamber. Union Correctional Institution also houses male death row inmates while Lowell Annex houses female death row inmates.
Oba Chandler was an American serial killer and mass murderer who was convicted and executed for the June 1989 murders of Joan Rogers and her two daughters, whose bodies were found floating in Tampa Bay, Florida, with their hands and feet bound. Autopsies showed the victims had been thrown into the water while still alive, with ropes tied to a concrete block around their necks. The case became high-profile in 1992 when local police posted billboards bearing enlarged images of the suspect's handwriting recovered from a pamphlet in the victims' car. Chandler was identified as the killer when his neighbor recognized the handwriting.
Ronnie Antonio Paris was an American three-year-old boy from Tampa, Florida, who was murdered in 2005. Paris was subject to severe physical abuse at the hands of his father, Ronnie Paris Sr., who was convinced he was homosexual despite his young age, and was forced to box repeatedly, eventually entering a coma and dying from brain injuries. His death brought attention to the Florida Department of Children & Families for failing to identify the child abuse and neglect. Controversy arose over Paris being removed from his home and placed in to foster care, only to be returned, and died within six weeks from continued abuse. Ronnie Paris Sr. was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 30-years in prison.
The Union Correctional Institution, formerly referred to as Florida State Prison, Raiford Prison and State Prison Farm is a Florida Department of Corrections state prison located in unincorporated Union County, Florida, near Raiford.
John Edward Alite is an American former mobster, Gambino crime family associate and a government witness who testified against the crime family and John A. "Junior" Gotti in 2008. That year, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including two murders and a variety of other crimes, and in 2011, was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. Due to his cooperation with prosecutors, he was released on a five-year supervised release in 2012. Alite has estimated that he shot between 30 and 40 people, beat about 100 people with a baseball bat, and murdered six people. Later in life, Alite publicly denounced the life of organized crime and became a motivational speaker, podcaster and books author.
James Michael Randall is an American criminal whose convictions include multiple rapes, a kidnapping, and the murder of two women in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida in the 1990s. Randall is currently an inmate in the Charlotte Correctional Institute serving out two life sentences. He has been described as a "notorious criminal".
Gary Ray Bowles was an American serial killer who was executed in 2019 for the murders of six men in 1994. He is sometimes referred to as The I-95 Killer since most of his victims lived close to the Interstate 95 highway.
Eddie Lee Sexton was an American convicted murderer and rapist known for compelling his children to murder and committing sexual abuse against his own family which he ruled in a cult-like manner. He fathered at least three children with two of his daughters. Rick Terrana, Eddie Sexton's defense attorney, described the Sextons as the "most dysfunctional family in America." The case earned national attention, due in part to some of the graphic and sensational details revealed in court.
Sandra Lee "Sandee" Rozzo was a Pinellas Park, Florida, bartender who was shot to death in her driveway on July 5, 2003. Her abuser, Timothy "Tracey" Humphrey, and his wife Ashley Laney Humphrey, were convicted of her murder.
M. Leo Elliott was an architect known for his work in Tampa, Temple Terrace and Sarasota, Florida. His designs include the public buildings and first eight houses in the City of Temple Terrace, Florida (1921), Ybor City's Centro Asturiano de Tampa, Old Tampa City Hall, Osprey School, two buildings that were part of Florida College and the original Temple Terrace Estates, Masonic Temple No. 25 (1928), the 1920 addition to Sarasota High School and Historic Spanish Point. Several of the properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Janice Marie Young was a formerly unidentified American girl who was pushed into the path of a moving vehicle on June 9, 1973.
Oscar Ray Bolin Jr. was an American serial killer and convicted rapist who was executed in Florida for murder. In 1986, Bolin kidnapped and murdered three young women in Tampa, Florida. He was later connected to a fourth murder in Texas in 1987. The murders went unsolved for nearly four years, until the husband of his ex-wife called a tip line and implicated him. He maintained his innocence to the end.
William Mansfield, Jr. is an American serial killer, child molester and sex offender, responsible for the murders of five women and girls between 1975 and 1980. He buried the bodies of four victims at the family home in Spring Hill, Florida, and later traveled with his brother to California, where he raped and strangled a Watsonville woman. He was convicted of the latter homicide, and later pleaded guilty to the previous murders to avoid the death penalty in Florida, receiving four life sentences.
Bernard Eugene Giles is an American serial killer and rapist who killed five girls and women in Titusville, Florida between September and November 1973. Following his arrest, he fully admitted his guilt and was sentenced to several life imprisonment terms in 1974.
John Ruthell Henry was an American serial killer who was convicted for the 1985 murder of his second wife and stepson in Florida, a few years after being paroled for the 1975 murder of his first wife. After he was sentenced to death in three separate trials, Henry was executed for the latter murders at the Florida State Prison in 2014.
Joseph Magaletti, Jr. was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who was convicted of killing his neighbor in Sarasota, Florida, in 1995, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. After his death in 2015, he was linked to a similar murder dating back to 1985 via touch DNA analysis, and authorities are now investigating his possible involvement in other murders.
Steven Washington Jr., known as The Window-Screen Rapist, was an American serial killer who attacked five elderly women during home invasions in St. Petersburg, Florida between August and December 1963, killing three. At the time of the attacks, he was only 15 years old, with his victims ranging in ages between 52 and 80. Having been convicted and sentenced to life in prison, he died while serving his sentence in 2004.
John Price Hayter Jr. was an American serial killer. A lifelong criminal, he was convicted of killing a fellow prisoner and two women on three separate occasions from 1953 to 1986 in Texas and Florida. Sentenced to multiple life terms, he died while behind bars for his Florida convictions.
