Serial Killer Gary Ray Bowles is scheduled for execution Thursday. Bowles will be the 99th individual to be executed in Florida since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.
Bowles, 57, started an eight-month killing spree by murdering 59, John Hardy Roberts on March 14, 1994, in Daytona Beach. He was arrested soon after slaying his sixth victim, 42, Walter Hinton in Jacksonville in November 1994.
Bowles committed three premeditated murders in Florida and killed two other men in Georgia — one in Savannah and the other in Atlanta. He also murdered a man in Wheaton, Maryland and each of the murders were brutal, violent and heinous.
In August 1998, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Bowles' death sentence. The following May, jurors heard evidence again on whether to recommend life or death. They were unanimous the second time. Bowles was taken back to death row in September 1999, where he has remained for 20 years.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed two death warrants with Bowles being his second.
His lawful execution is scheduled to begin Thursday at 6 p.m. in the "Q" Wing of the Florida State Prison.