Cannibal

him with a catapult. In his teenage years Lawrence got in trouble with the law. He failed to hold down any sort of job and was eventually committed to a mental institution after a suicide attempt.

It was in the Florida State Hospital that Lawrence met Rodgers.

His background is equally grim, almost mirroring that of Lawrence’s.

Court papers reveal how Rodgers suffered sexual abuse from his own mother, beginning at the age of three and continuing through till he was 14. He was described as being “severely emotionally disturbed”.

Rodgers attempted suicide five times by the time he was 13. Five years later he attempted “self-castration” in a fit of madness.

With their horrific backgrounds, Lawrence and Rodgers were a match made in hell.

They soon began to conspire together to do something truly awful – and they put their plan into action in the early evening hours of March 29, 1998.

Lawrence and Rodgers had been driving around looking for a target when they spotted Leighton Smitherman in his living room in Pace, Florida.

Poor Leighton had never even met the pair. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A handgun bullet fired by Rodgers passed through his front window and entered the base of Leighton’s neck. Despite suffering extreme blood loss, he survived.

Rodgers and Lawrence evaded capture and just 11 days later they found a new target.

Lawrence’s cousin, Justin Livingston – a troubled teen with a love of marijuana – was led out into a field before being set upon by the pair.

Court papers reveal: “Rodgers told Livingston to look up. He then stabbed him in the chest with a knife he had taken out of the toolbox.

“Rodgers then told Livingston to lay on his stomach so he wouldn’t have to look at his face. He then knelt over Livingston and stabbed him in the back at least twice more.

“Rodgers and Lawrence sat there for a while, then walked off before returning to Livingston.

“He was still alive so Rodgers wrapped a flannel shirt around his

JUSTICE SERVED: Lawrence in court throat and squeezed it. Lawrence then struck Livingston with a knife a few times in the side.”

Justin was buried in a shallow grave nearby.

One month later, Lawrence and Rodgers struck again – this time letting their insane minds run wild.

On May 7 they went to the home of Jennifer Robinson to pick her up for a “date”.

The three of them drove in Lawrence’s truck to a secluded area in the woods, where Jennifer had sex with both men.

Then, when she least expected it, Jennifer was shot in the back of the head by one of them. It took several minutes for her to die from the gaping wound to her skull.

Before she breathed her last, Lawrence raped her before attempting to “scalp” her with a hunting knife.

The evil pair then posed for macabre photos next to tragic Jennifer’s blood-soaked body.

And before they buried her, Lawrence took out his blade once more and carefully hacked off a chunk of Jennifer’s leg for his freezer.

Court documents state: “She had an incision to her right lower leg in the calf region where a sharp instrument was used to cut down into the muscle and the skin.

“A piece of muscle, possibly human and consistent with the shape and character of the missing calf muscle, was later found in a freezer in the kitchen of Lawrence’s home.”

Lawrence may have planned his murder meticulously but he didn’t count on one thing: the overpowering stench he would have to put up with in his trailer.

In his confession he admitted: “I can’t get rid of the smell. It’s just a bad smell. It smells like fat, or something.

“I guess when you touch some fat it stays with you a long time.”

Detectives soon traced Jennifer’s disappearance to Lawrence and Rodgers. Three days after her death they searched Lawrence’s home – and there found all the evidence they needed.

As well as Polaroid images of the killers with Jennifer’s body, they found the missing

MUTILATED: Jennifer Robinson had a chunk of her leg cut off before being buried piece of her leg and the murder weapon.

They also uncovered Lawrence’s lurid notes written by hand.

One, detailing the things they would need, read: “Tarp, coolers of ice for new meat, film for Polaroid cam, rope, two scalpels.”

Another outlined their plans for poor Jennifer.

It read: “Resharpen main blade, clean the saw and tomahawk, slice and dice, dissect completely, bag up eatable meats.”

It ended with the words: “Bag remains, bury and burn.”

Lawrence told officers: “It’s kinda like we were planning some real sick thing. We didn’t think we’d ever really do it.

“It’s just real messed up. It’s like I planned to do something, but I didn’t think we’d actually do that stuff to her. We just make up stuff like that. Real bad things.”

Lawrence was finally sentenced to death on August 15, 2000, while Rodgers pleaded guilty to all charges and was handed his own death penalty three months later.