On April 25, 1946, Paul John Knowles was born in Orlando, FL to Thomas Jefferson and Bonnie (née Strickland) Knowles. Moving around from foster home to foster home in his early life, he was incarcerated for the first time at the age of 19. Paul was serving time at Raiford Prison in early-1974 (ironically the same prison Bundy was put to death in) when he began corresponding with Angela Covic, a young divorcee living in San Francisco; the pair quickly got engaged. Covic paid for his legal counsel and upon his release, he flew directly to California to be with her. However she quickly called off the wedding, saying her fiance projected an ‘aura of fear’ that terrified her. Knowles said he killed three people in the city that night, although these claims have never been verified. He eventually returned to Jacksonville and was soon arrested after stabbing a bartender during a fight. After picking the lock in his detention cell, Knowles escaped on July 26, 1974 and began a four-month, multi-state crime spree. That evening, he broke into the Jacksonville home of Alice Heneritta Curtis and gagged her, then ransacked her home for money/valuables and stole her car. The 65-year-old choked to death.

In his taped confessions, Knowles claimed to have murdered a teenage girl named ‘Alma.’ On December 21, 2011, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified her as 13-year-old Ima Jean Sanders, who disappeared on August 1, 1974 in Warner Robins, Georgia. Her skeletal remains were found in April 1976.

He also claimed to have kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Mylette Josephine Anderson and 11-year-old Lillian Annette Anderson outside of Jacksonville on August 1, 1974. Investigators believe this was a false confession. The crimes were not linked at the time but after Knowles’ was captured law enforcement realized he had mailed recorded confessions to an attorney. The tapes were reviewed by a grand jury in 1975 but were never released to the public; they were destroyed ‘after being ruined beyond repair in a flood of the Federal Courthouse in Macon’ (along with all transcripts), according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

On August 2, 1974, Knowles met Marjorie Howie, in Atlantic Beach, Florida. The 49 year old was found strangled in her apartment and her TV was stolen. Roughly three weeks later on August 23, 1974, he forced his way into the house of Kathie Sue Pierce in Musella, Georgia. Knowles strangled the 24-year-old but left her 3-year-old son alive and physically unharmed.

On September 3, 1974 32-year-old William Bates was last seen with a redheaded man at Scott’s Inn, a roadside pub near Lima, Ohio. Bates was later reported missing by his wife. Near the pub, investigators found the vehicle of Alice Curtis abandoned but Bates’ car was missing. In October, Bates’ nude body was found strangled and dumped in the woods. After ditching Curtis’s car, on September 18, 1974 Knowles bound and killed 62-year-old Emmett Alexander Johnson and 59-year-old Lois Mildred Johnson at a rest stop near Ely, Nevada.

42-year-old Ebon Charlynn Hicks was reported missing by family on September 22, 1974. Three days later on September 25 her body was found beside the road near a rest stop outside of Seguin, TX. She had been raped and strangled; her vehicle was found at the rest stop.

On September 23, 1974 Knowles encountered Ann Jean Dawson in Birmingham, Alabama. It is unclear as to whether he abducted the 49-year-old beautician or if she traveled with him willingly, but it appeared that she paid the bills while they traveled together. He killed her on September 29, 1974 then threw her remains into the Mississippi River. Her body was discovered by two squirrel hunters in Mississippi on November 15, 1977.

On October 16, 1974, 35-year-old Karen Wine and her 16-year-old daughter Dawn Marie Wine were both bound, raped and strangled after their Marlborough, CT home was broken into. The only thing determined to be missing was a tape recorder. Law enforcement felt that Knowles was the murderer. Two days later on October 18, 1974 Doris Hosey was shot to death with her husband’s rifle. The gun was placed beside the 53-year-old’s body.

After picking up two hitchhikers in Key West, FL, Knowles was stopped by a policeman. Despite driving a stolen car he was let him off with a warning. Rattled by the experience, he dropped off the hitchhikers off unharmed in Miami. It was around this time that he recorded his confessions and mailed the tapes to an attorney in Florida.

On November 2, 20-year-old Debbie Griffin and 23-year-old Edward Hillard disappeared while hitchhiking near Macon, Georgia. Hillard’s remains were found in nearby woods and Griffin’s body was found in Crawford County, Georgia on August 29, 1975. Knowles is a suspect in both of their murders.

In Milledgeville, Georgia on November 6, 1974, Knowles befriended Carswell Hall Carr Sr. and was invited back to his house to spend the night. He stabbed the 45-year-old to death and strangled his 15-year-old daughter (Amanda Beth) and attempted necrophilia with her remains.

Knowles met Sandy Fawkes in Atlanta on November 8. The 45-year-old British journalist said that he impressed her with his looks, which she felt were a ‘cross between Robert Redford and Ryan O’Neal.’ Despite spending the next few days together, Fawkes said Knowles was unable to perform when they tried to have intercourse. They parted ways two days later on November 10. The next day, he picked up an acquaintance of Sandy and demanded sex from her at gunpoint. Luckily, she escaped him and notified law enforcement. When patrolmen tried to apprehend Knowles he pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and made his escape.

Days later in West Palm Beach, he invaded the home of invalid Beverly Mabee, where he abducted her sister, 32-year-old Barbara Mabee Abel and stole their vehicle. From there, Knowles drove to Fort Pierce, Florida arriving the following night. Barbara was raped repeatedly during her captivity but thankfully survived.

Early in the morning of November 16, 1974 35-year-old Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Eugene Campbell recognized the stolen vehicle near Perry, Florida. Knowles was able to wrestle Campbell’s gun away from him and took the officer hostage in his own patrol car. Knowles used the police vehicle’s siren to pull over 29-year-old James Meyer, and put both hostages in Meyer’s car. He then took both men into a wooded area in Pulaski County, handcuffed them to a tree, then shot them both in the head at close range. Shortly after, the fugitive got into a car chase with Henry County Sheriff’s Deputy Charles Hancock and crashed the vehicles through a police roadblock, escaping on foot and firing shots at the approaching officers. He was shot in the foot by Chief Detective Philip Howard during this footrace however Officer Jerry Key was injured when the stolen car crashed into his patrol car. Chaos ensued, with Knowles pursued by dogs, multiple law enforcement agencies, and even police helicopters. On November 17 he was eventually cornered outside of the perimeter established for the manhunt by a 27-year-old Vietnam Vet and hospital maintenance worker named David Clark. Henry County investigators Paul Robbins and Billy Payne quickly arrived on the scene, arresting and handcuffing Knowles.On December 18, 1974, Sheriff Earl Lee and Agent Ronnie Angel from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were traveling down Interstate 20 with Knowles, who was handcuffed in the back of their police cruiser. Their intended destination was Henry County, Georgia, where the prisoner admitted to ditching a handgun he had stolen from Trooper Campbell after killing him with it (per a Georgia Bureau of Investigation press release). The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported that, ‘Knowles grabbed Lee’s handgun, discharging it through the holster in the process and while Lee was struggling with Knowles and attempting to keep control of the vehicle, Angel fired three shots into Knowles’ chest, killing him instantly.’