Florida Executes Serial Killer of Gay Men: Gary Ray Bowles
“It’s not hard to kill somebody. You can kill somebody pretty easily if you have the mindset for it.”
The crimes for which this man was executed rank among the most disturbing of their time. Not only because of their brutality but also because of the number of victims he left in his wake. This is the story of Gary Ray Bowles, the serial killer who terrorized Florida and other states, systematically targeting gay men. Stay with me because in this video, I’m going to tell you everything about his case, his crimes, the police hunt, and how he ultimately came to face the death penalty. And before we begin, tell me, where are you watching this video from? And in your country, is the death penalty legal or not?
A Childhood Marked by Violence
The story of Gary Ray Bowles is unsettling even before his first breath. He was born on January 25th, 1962, in Clifton Forge, Virginia, marked by an absence that would define his life. His biological father, William Bowles, a coal miner, had died from a lung disease 6 months before his birth. Alone with a newborn, his mother searched for stability wherever she could and remarried several times, but each marriage only pushed the family deeper into chaos.
The true descent began with his second stepfather, a violent alcoholic who turned the home into a battlefield. For years, Gary was not only a witness to brutal beatings; he endured them himself. The final breaking point came when he was just 13 years old. One night, in the middle of a violent, out-of-control argument, his stepfather was savagely beating his mother. Driven by desperation and the instinct to protect her, Gary grabbed a rock from the yard and smashed it into the attacker’s head, leaving him critically injured.
He believed he had done the right thing, that he had saved his mother. But the response was not gratitude nor relief. It was rejection. His mother chose to stay with the man who abused her and threw Gary out of the house. At just 13 years old, he was completely alone. That day, something inside Gary Ray Bowles died. He realized loyalty did not exist. He felt betrayed by the only person he loved. He was left alone in the world, homeless, with the certainty that he mattered to no one.
Life on the Streets & A Broken Illusion
As an adolescent living on the streets, Bowles had to survive. He discovered painfully that he had an asset he could sell: his body. Although he identified as heterosexual, he began working as a hustler, selling sex to older men in exchange for money or a place to sleep, along with committing small thefts to survive. At times, he supplemented that lifestyle with petty crimes. It was all he had to stay alive.
Before 1994, Bowles already had a criminal record, though he had not yet killed anyone. He spent years going in and out of prison for theft and minor offenses until, in 1982, he was sentenced to 8 years after beating and sexually assaulting an elderly woman in an attempt to rob her of money. When he was finally released from prison, he tried to live a normal life. He moved to Daytona Beach, found a job, started a relationship, and for a brief time, everything seemed to fall into place: stability, routine, even happiness.
For a moment, it appeared that he could change. But the past caught up with him. His girlfriend discovered that he had worked as a hustler and, disillusioned, ended the relationship. With that breakup, Bowles’s fragile illusion of normalcy collapsed once again. To make matters worse, she was pregnant with Gary’s child but decided to have an abortion after learning about his past. That was the moment when something inside Bowles broke for good. According to his own statements to investigators, he blamed gay men for his girlfriend’s abortion. He developed a burning rage toward those who for years had paid him for sex. That fury would become the fuel that ignited a deadly spree of murders.
The Murder Spree Begins
On March 15th, 1994, in Daytona Beach, Florida, Gary Ray Bowles would commit the first of his confirmed murders. The victim was John Hardy Roberts, a 59-year-old man who had offered Bowles a temporary place to stay. He was looking for companionship. Bowles was looking for an opportunity. According to the reconstruction of the case, Bowles approached Roberts under false pretenses, suggesting emotional interest and the possibility of an intimate relationship. That apparent connection was enough to gain his trust. Once inside the residence, the situation changed completely.
Bowles beat and strangled Roberts until he was dead. He then wrapped the body in bed sheets and left it inside the locked home. “I went to his house and I walked into his living room. A switch went on and, you know, and that was it and I just snapped. I guess it just opened up a monster. I was on a real adrenaline high and from there on it was just downhill rage.” The murder would not be the only disturbing aspect of this crime. After killing Roberts, Bowles placed objects in his mouth, a macabre gesture that would become his signature and would repeatedly appear in his later victims. After the homicide, Bowles ransacked the house. He took cash, valuables, keys, the wallet, and most importantly for the future investigation, Roberts’s credit card.
After committing his first murder in Florida, Gary Ray Bowles fled the state using his victim’s credit card to buy gasoline in Georgia and Tennessee. That journey north eventually led him to the Washington DC metropolitan area where he would meet David Allen Jarman. Jarman, 39, was a hard-working man who lived in a converted basement apartment in Wheaton, Maryland. He worked as a loan processor at a credit union in the capital, helping clients manage applications and obtain financing. He was also an active member of the local gay community, frequenting bars and social spaces in search of companionship and connection at a time when being openly gay still carried significant social stigma.
According to witnesses, Bowles and Jarman met at a bar or LGBTQ meeting place where Bowles, accustomed from a young age to engaging with men in exchange for money or shelter, knew exactly how to present himself to inspire trust. He projected closeness, vulnerability, and the promise of an intimate relationship. That strategy worked on Jarman, who believed he had found either a genuine connection or a safe transactional relationship. Both men were seen together in public before Jarman invited Bowles to his apartment in Wheaton, a private space where he would be completely isolated.
On the night of April 14th, 1994, Bowles murdered Jarman inside that apartment. He strangled him during a violent struggle that left clear signs of the victim’s desperate attempt to defend himself: displaced furniture, scattered objects, and obvious traces of a physical confrontation. After killing him, Bowles left his distinctive mark by forcing a sexual object down Jarman’s throat, a macabre act that degraded the victim, ensured death, and became the signature that would later allow investigators to link multiple crimes. Jarman was discovered that same night around 8:20 p.m., lying on the floor of his apartment and surrounded by blood. Police immediately launched an investigation but were unable to find any evidence or leads pointing to Gary Bowles.
In the absence of any progress, Gary began to experience a dangerous sense of satisfaction and invincibility. He was convinced he would never be caught. Even so, and to avoid drawing attention or facilitating further investigations, he decided to move to Georgia in an attempt to throw law enforcement off his trail.
The Trail of Blood Continues
On the night of May 4th, 1994, Milton Bradley, a 72-year-old World War II veteran, was at his regular bar, Faces Tavern, in Savannah, Georgia. It was a place frequented by older gay men. And for Milton, a kind man of fixed routines, it was a night like any other. That night, there was a new man at the bar. He called himself Mike, but in reality, he was Gary Ray Bowles. As he often did, Bowles behaved flirtatiously and actively sought out potential victims. There he met Milton Bradley.
Because of his age, Milton almost always took a taxi home. However, the bartender asked Bowles if he had a car and after receiving an affirmative answer, asked him to give Milton a ride. Bowles agreed. Milton made the mistake of believing that the young man felt a genuine attraction toward him. During the drive, Bowles began to behave in a strange and disturbing manner. Milton, who had suffered a severe head injury during World War II when his ship sank in the Pacific Ocean and who had also undergone a lobotomy, likely did not fully understand what was happening. Bowles would later admit he “just started talking all crazy and got really creepy.”
Bowles did not drive Milton home. Instead, he headed to the grounds of the Savannah Golf and Country Club. There, near a maintenance shed, he attacked him. What followed was an outburst of extreme violence. Bowles brutally beat Milton in the head and face. Even so, Milton was still alive. Bowles then manually strangled him, squeezing his neck with such force that his cervical bones fractured. As Milton lay dying, Bowles shoved his hands into the man’s mouth and forced leaves and dirt down his throat, once again leaving his personal mark. Milton’s body was found the following day.
Nine days after murdering Milton Bradley in Savannah, Gary Ray Bowles arrived in Atlanta, Georgia. There he would meet his fourth victim, Alverson Carter Jr., a 47-year-old man who lived in the city. Following his usual pattern, Bowles likely met Carter at a gay bar in Atlanta. He presented himself as a hustler, someone willing to offer companionship in exchange for money or a place to stay. Carter, like the previous victims, had no way of knowing that the man in front of him was a serial killer who had already murdered three men.
On May 13th, 1994, the body of Alverson Carter Jr. was found inside his home. The crime scene showed the same brutal modus operandi Bowles had used before, but with a lethal variation. This time, Carter had been stabbed repeatedly to death. After the stabbing, Bowles applied his characteristic signature. He forced a towel deep into Carter’s throat, pushing it in until it caused complete asphyxiation. This combination of stabbing and strangulation reflected the uncontrolled violence and rage with which he acted. As in the previous murders, Bowles searched the victim’s pockets and took everything of value: cash, credit cards, identification documents, and personal belongings. He then fled the scene, leaving the body behind.
When Atlanta police examined the crime scene, they noticed disturbing similarities with other recent homicides along the East Coast. The towel in the throat, the theft of credit cards, and the extreme level of violence clearly pointed to a single perpetrator. Shortly afterward, Georgia authorities contacted the FBI and police departments in Florida, Maryland, and Savannah. All of them were looking for the same man: a serial killer moving along Interstate 95 systematically murdering older gay men.
Returning to Florida
After killing Alverson Carter Jr. in Atlanta on May 13th, Gary Ray Bowles, fearing he would be caught, quickly headed south back to Florida. This time he arrived in Jacksonville, where he began frequenting gay bars in search of his next victim. In one of those bars, he met Albert Elsie Morris, a 37-year-old man who lived in a trailer in Hilliard, a small town in Nassau County, Florida. Morris, like the previous victims, was a trusting and kind person, unaware of the danger posed by the seemingly charismatic young man.
Bowles introduced himself under the alias Joey Pearson. He told Morris he was a construction worker and that he was on vacation in Florida. He also claimed to be a hillbilly from West Virginia who had lived in Virginia and South Carolina. The story sounded believable. Trusting him, Morris made a generous offer. Bowles could live in his trailer rent-free in exchange for doing occasional repair and maintenance work. Bowles accepted immediately. For him, the arrangement was perfect. He had a roof over his head, food, and direct access to his next victim.
Bowles lived with Morris for approximately 2 weeks. From the beginning, he did not hold up his end of the deal. He refused to do the promised work and simply took advantage of Morris’s hospitality. Tension between the two men began to grow. Morris became frustrated. His friends noticed the situation and warned him about the strange behavior of Joey Pearson. The living arrangement grew increasingly tense.
On the night of May 18th, 1994, the two went out together to a bar. There they were seen arguing violently in public. Morris confronted Bowles about his refusal to help around the trailer. The argument quickly escalated, and several witnesses later recalled seeing Bowles visibly enraged.
On the morning of May 19th, Albert Morris was supposed to report to work at the convenience store his parents operated. He never arrived. Concerned, his parents went to the trailer in Hilliard to see what was wrong. When they arrived, they immediately noticed something was wrong. There was blood on the door. Inside the trailer, Albert Morris was lying face down on the floor. He had been subjected to extreme violence. Investigators determined that he had been brutally beaten on the head with a blunt object, a marble plate used as an improvised weapon, then shot in the chest with a shotgun, the wound passing through his torso. While still alive, he was strangled. Finally, Bowles applied his characteristic signature. He forced a towel deep into Morris’s mouth and throat, pushing it in until his airways were completely blocked. As in the previous murders, the pockets of Morris’s pants were turned inside out. Bowles stole his wallet, cash, and credit cards. He also took the victim’s 1986 Cadillac and vanished without a trace.
The I-95 Killer & The Final Murder
The FBI was alerted immediately. Federal investigators were able to connect the cases that had occurred across several states: Florida, Maryland, and Georgia. After an exhaustive investigation and mounting evidence, in June 1994, Gary Ray Bowles was directly linked to the crimes. As a result, the FBI placed Gary Ray Bowles on the United States’ 10 Most Wanted criminals list. A teletype alert was issued to all law enforcement agencies across the southeastern United States, warning of a traveling killer moving from state to state and murdering gay men. Aware that he was now a nationwide fugitive, Bowles became a ghost. For months, he managed to completely disappear.
It would not be until November 1994 that he would strike again. On November 16th, 1994, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, Gary Ray Bowles committed the murder that would ultimately lead him to justice. The victim was Walter Jamal Hinton, a 42-year-old man who worked as a floral designer. Hinton lived alone in his home. As in previous cases, Bowles approached him under the guise of romantic interest. Hinton, believing he had found a genuine connection, invited him into his house.
What followed was one of the most brutal murders of the entire series. While Hinton was asleep, Bowles took a support stone weighing approximately 40 lbs, about 18 kg. He deliberately carried it inside the house, an act that clearly demonstrated premeditation. Then, taking advantage of the victim’s defenseless state, he lifted the stone and repeatedly smashed it into Hinton’s head. The brain damage was devastating. Even so, Hinton did not die immediately. In a desperate attempt to survive, he managed to crawl to the bathroom. Bowles followed him. There, during a struggle, he strangled him using his forearm. Then, in an act of extreme cruelty, he took toilet paper and a towel and forced them deep into Hinton’s throat, completely blocking his airways and causing final asphyxiation. The autopsy revealed multiple defensive wounds, confirming that Hinton was conscious during part of the attack. His body was found in the residence with severe blunt force trauma, multiple head injuries, and clear signs of strangulation.
Capture and Confession
In October 1994, after Bowles’s official documents and a photograph from his identification were widely circulated, the FBI placed him on the nation’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list on Friday, October 21st, 1994. The media exposure was decisive. National magazines published his image on their covers, and law enforcement agencies distributed composite sketches and photographs of Bowles along the entire East Coast. Thanks to that exposure, a witness who had seen him contacted police after recognizing him from the circulated images.
Meanwhile, Bowles was hiding in Jacksonville Beach under the alias Timothy Whitfield, trying to keep a low profile. Two days later, on November 22nd, 1994, Gary Ray Bowles entered a job placement office in Jacksonville Beach known as the Amerforce Job Center, a labor pool for temporary work. At the office was a young Jacksonville Beach Police Department officer, Gene Paul Smith, who at the time was working as an instructor and who would later become the city’s police chief. Upon observing Bowles, the officer noticed that he almost perfectly matched the description of the killer known in the media as the I-95 Killer. Smith remained calm and approached him to speak.
What happened next was extraordinary. As he began questioning him, Bowles voluntarily confessed his identity. According to Bernie de la Rionda, an assistant state attorney in Florida, Bowles said, “Do you know who I really am? I’m a wanted man. I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m Gary Ray Bowles. It’s a relief. I’m happy it’s over.” At that moment, Bowles surrendered without resistance. Officer Smith arrested him and took him into custody.
During the initial interrogations, Bowles not only confessed to the murder of Hinton; he confessed to a total of six victims. He admitted to killings in Florida, Georgia, and Maryland. He described in detail how he seduced the men, how he killed them in different ways—sometimes by blows to the head, sometimes by strangulation—and how he stole their credit cards and cash. The FBI investigators who interviewed him were astonished by the coldness and clarity of his confession. When asked whether he would have continued killing if he had not been caught, Daytona Beach detectives concluded that Bowles would have continued the slaughter indefinitely.
Trial and Execution
In 1996, Bowles was tried and convicted for the murder of Walter Hinton. A jury found him guilty and unanimously recommended the death penalty. The court imposed the capital sentence. However, the Florida Supreme Court later overturned the death sentence after the trial. The court determined that a legal error had been made by allowing the jury to hear evidence that Bowles hated gay men. This characterization, although true based on his own statements, was deemed prejudicial. Bowles was resentenced in 1999. A new jury once again unanimously voted in favor of the death penalty. Additionally, in 1997, while on death row for the murder of Hinton, Bowles pleaded guilty to the murders of John Hardy Roberts and Albert Morris. He received life sentences for both cases.
Gary Ray Bowles spent approximately 25 years on Florida’s death row. In 2019, after all of his appeals had been exhausted, Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant. His execution was scheduled for August 22nd, 2019.
On that day, August 22nd, Gary Ray Bowles woke up at 4:00 a.m. in his death row cell at Florida State Prison. According to Michelle Glady, communications director for the Florida Department of Corrections, Bowles was calm and in good spirits. He showed no visible signs of panic or desperation. He was simply waiting. Throughout the day, Bowles remained in his cell. He did not receive visits from family members. His mother did not come. No one from his family appeared to say goodbye. He also did not request the presence of a spiritual adviser or a priest. Bowles declined any form of religious assistance. His final visitor was his attorney. As is customary in Florida, he was allowed to request a last meal. His choice was simple and straightforward: three cheeseburgers, French fries, and bacon.
Unlike many condemned inmates who make verbal statements in the execution chamber, Bowles said nothing out loud before his death. Instead, he wrote a handwritten statement dated August 22nd, 2019. In the letter, he wrote: “I am very sorry for all the pain and suffering I have caused. I hope my death brings you some relief.” He then added, addressing his mother: “I want to tell my mother that I am also sorry for my actions. Having to deal with your son being called a monster is terrible. I am very sorry. I never wanted this to be my life. You don’t wake up one day and decide to become a serial killer.” The letter concluded with a direct apology: “I am very sorry to all of Mr. Hinton’s family and friends.”
These words stood in stark contrast to statements Bowles had made years earlier. In 2014, during his appearance on A&E’s The Killer Speaks, he had coldly stated, “I just wanted to kill as many people as I could before I got caught.”
Shortly afterward, Bowles was escorted from his cell to the execution chamber inside Florida State Prison near Raiford. The chamber was a small room with a padded medical gurney in the center. Bowles was secured to the gurney with leather restraints across his chest, arms, and legs. A medical team inserted intravenous lines into both arms to administer the lethal drugs. According to witnesses present, Bowles showed no obvious signs of pain or distress. The procedure proceeded without apparent complications.
With his death, Gary Ray Bowles became the 99th prisoner executed in Florida since 1976, the year the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty. He was also the 13th execution carried out in the United States in 2019 up to that point. Bowles remained the last person executed in Florida until February 23rd, 2023, when Donald Dillbeck was executed nearly four years later at 10:58 p.m.
