The Casanova Killer

Police dubbed Paul John Knowles “the Casanova Killer” because of his thick auburn hair and chiselled jaw and cheekbones. Knowles began his life of crime at the age of seven – when he stole a bicycle. By his early 20s he’d moved on to burglary and assault, and began drifting between the streets and jail.

On July 26, 1974, he picked the lock of his jail cell, escaping and securing a place in US history – as one of the country’s most prolific serial killers. Over the next 15 weeks he killed 18 people and claimed to have brutally murdered another 17.

He abducted strangers while cruising the highways of the southern states. One victim was a 65-year-old woman who choked to death on her own dentures after he bound and robbed her. He also killed two sisters aged 11 and seven, dumping their bodies in a swamp.

Knowles was caught in November 1974 by a shotgun-wielding civilian after he tried to evade a police manhunt in Florida.

The following month, while being transported in a police car, the 28-yearold killer tried to escape yet again. He went to grab a sheriff’s gun and was swiftly shot three times in the chest. Casanova’s reign of terror was over.