Sean Vincent Gillis (born June 24, 1962) is an American

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

and

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crime ...

who

stalked Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The term ...

and murdered eight

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

women between 1994 and 2004 in the Baton Rouge Metro and surrounding areas. He was arrested without incident at his residence on Burgin Ave at 1:30 a.m. on April 29, 2004. In his initial arrest, he was charged with three counts of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

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.

Early life

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 Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

, possession of

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

, and

contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...

. 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.

Murders

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 Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

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.

Arrest and conviction

More attention was paid to cold cases of murdered women when another serial killer,

Derrick Todd Lee Derrick Todd Lee (November 5, 1968 – January 21, 2016), also known as The Baton Rouge Serial Killer, was an American serial killer. Between 1992 and 2003, Lee murdered seven women in the Baton Rouge area. Prior to his murder charges, Lee had be ...

, 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. 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. 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 Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

in Baton Rouge. In letters exchanged between Gillis and a friend of Johnston's, Tammie Purpera, Gillis explains her murder and even expresses remorse: :She was so drunk it only took about a minute and a half to succumb to unconsciousness and then death. Honestly, her last words were "I can't breathe". I still puzzle over the post mortem dismemberment and cutting. There must be something deep in my subconscious that really needs that kind of macabre action. Tammie Purpera, who died in 2005 of complications from

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, 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. He kept body parts in his home as souvenirs and photos to stimulate him as he remembered the murders. In April 2004, tire tracks found near the body of Donna Bennett Johnston were used to track Gillis down. The tracks were from a unique set of tires from which the Louisiana State Crime Lab was able to determine the brand, model, and type of tire. They were able to narrow it down further when they found that this particular tire was only manufactured for a three-year period, which ended in 2003. Only 90 purchases of the tire had been made in the Baton Rouge area. Soon, after obtaining a DNA swab of Gillis and matching it to evidence found on some of the victims' bodies, authorities arrested Gillis on April 29, 2004. He was charged with various crimes at different times as investigators worked to find evidence to support his confession to the other murders. Initially, he was arrested and charged for the murders of Katherine Hall, Johnnie Mae Williams, and Donna Bennett Johnston. He stood trial for these crimes on July 21, 2008, and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison after the jury deadlocked in the penalty phase. The previous year, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was convicted in the killing of 36-year-old Joyce Williams. Gillis is currently incarcerated at

Louisiana State Penitentiary The Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola, and nicknamed the "Alcatraz of the South", "The Angola Plantation" and "The Farm"Sutton, Keith "Catfish".Out There: Angola angling. ''ESPN Outdoors''. May 31, 2006. Retrieved on August 25, 2010. ...

Victims

#March 21, 1994: Ann Bryan, 81 #January 4, 1999: Katherine Ann Hall, 29 #May 30, 1999: Hardee Schmidt, 52 #November 12, 1999: Joyce Williams, 36 #January 2000: Lillian Robinson, 52 #October 20, 2000: Marilyn Nevils, 38 #October 9, 2003: Johnnie Mae Williams, 45 #February 26, 2004: Donna Bennett Johnston, 43

In the media

* Gillis' story was told in the

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...

series '' The Devil You Know'' in the episode "A Twisted Mind", and in another Investigation Discovery series, ''

Dead of Night ''Dead of Night'' is a 1945 black and white British anthology horror film, made by Ealing Studios. The individual segments were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Wi ...

'', in the episode "The Graveyard Shift". * In 2014 ''

Born to Kill? ''Born to Kill?'' is a British true crime television series, made by Twofour Productions. Each episode is an in-depth look at the childhood, and formative years of serial killers in an attempt to find out whether the individuals were born kille ...

'' made an episode about him in season six. * Gillis' case was featured on season 1, episode 14 of ''It Takes a Killer''. * ''

Crime Watch Daily ''Crime Watch Daily'' is an American syndicated investigative news magazine television series. Premiering on September 14, 2015, the program was originally hosted by veteran Australian television journalist Matt Doran. The remaining two season ...

'' covered Sean Vincent Gillis in the episode "Monster in my Room," which aired in February 2018. * In 2017 ''

Criminal Confessions ''Criminal Confessions'' is an American true crime television series that premiered October 1, 2017, and airs on Oxygen. Each episode features a different criminal case and showcases footage from inside actual police interrogation rooms and diss ...

'' aired an episode about him and his confession. * In 2018

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

tv show ''Evidence of Evil'' made two episode about him and

. * In 2018 the tv show ''Murder By Numbers'' showed clips from his interrogation in an episode about another

serial killer Jeffrey Guillory. *The

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

''And That's Why We Drink'' covered Sean Vincent Gillis in the episode "209. A Ghost's Recliner and the PTA of Covens," which aired in February 2021.3, *Gillis' was the subject of the

series
Signs of a Psychopath
', Season 3, episode 3, "Do Her Mortal Harm" which aired September 21, 2021. *In 2021 he was portrayed by British actor

Nicholas Benjamin Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the name and its ...

in season six of ''

Most Evil Killers Britain's Most Evil Killers and World's Most Evil Killers are British crime television programmes on Pick (TV channel). First aired in 2017, the series are narrated by Fred Dinenage, and focus on the most notorious and depraved serial killers th ...

''. *In 2022 he was covered by the television show ''

Mark of a Killer ''The Mark of a Killer'' (or simply ''Mark of a Killer'') is an American true crime television series currently airing on the Oxygen Network. The program examines the disturbing behaviors of serial killers. As of Season 3, the series is currentl ...

'', in an episode named "The Monster".

References