In letters exchanged between Gillis and a friend of Johnston, Tammie Purpera, Gillis explains her murder and even expresses remorse: Her body was found on February 27, 2004, in a drainage canal near Ben Hur Road, south of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Gillis mutilated her body post-mortem, slashing her breasts, cutting off her left nipple, gouging out a tattoo on her right thigh, and severing her left arm at the elbow. In February 2004, he raped her and strangled her with a nylon tie wrap. Lee began his killing in 1992, but between 19, there were two other serial killers silently and secretly targeting women in the Baton Rouge area.ĭonna Bennett Johnston, 43 years old, was Gillis' eighth and final victim. When certain cases could not be linked to Lee, investigators began to wonder if another serial killer had been in operation at the same time. More attention was paid to cold cases of murdered women when another serial killer, Derrick Todd Lee, was apprehended on May 27, 2003. JSTOR ( January 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.įind sources: "Sean Vincent Gillis" – news This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Gillis continued killing for five more years, the murders unconnected and his presence unknown to law enforcement. After killing her, he put her nude corpse into the trunk of his car, a white Chevy Cavalier, and left it there until dumping it two days later. He drove to a park off of Highland Road and raped her. He got out and placed heavy-duty wire plastic wrap tightly around her neck and forced her into the car. Gillis later confessed that he hit Schmidt with his car, knocking her into a ditch. Two days later her body was found in a bayou off of Highway 61 in St. on May 30, 1999, a Sunday, he saw 52-year-old Hardee Schmidt jogging on Quail Run Drive. He spent three weeks driving around the area looking for her. In May 1999, Gillis began stalking a woman he had seen jogging in the south Baton Rouge area. James Place (an exclusive retirement home in Baton Rouge). He left her body there at her residence, St. To stop her screaming, Gillis slit her throat and then stabbed her 50 times. He intended to rape her, but became frightened when she screamed as he touched her. His first murder, which he confessed to after his arrest, was of 82-year-old Ann Bryan in March 1994. Gillis once claimed he began killing because of "stress". Gillis also said that he sometimes committed murder without knowing why he was doing so. Gillis expressed remorse for the murders, particularly regretting his mutilating the bodies, and described himself as "pure evil". She turned his replies over to the prosecution, and some of Gillis' words made it into the news. Years later after he had been arrested and convicted for some of his murders, a friend of one of his victims wrote to him. He committed his first known murder in 1994. Throughout the years he was arrested for traffic citations, DUI, possession of marijuana, and contempt of court. His rap sheet began in 1980 when he was 17 years old, with minor infractions. Gillis was raised by his mother and his grandparents. His father abandoned the family soon after his birth. He was the son of Yvonne and Norman Gillis. Gillis was born June 24, 1962, in Baton Rouge and was raised in southern Louisiana. Gillis confessed to the murders with little coercion and then informed investigators about five other women whom he had murdered. In his initial arrest, he was charged with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of ritualistic acts in the murders of 29-year-old Katherine Hall, 45-year-old Johnnie Mae Williams and 43-year-old Donna Bennett Johnston. Sean Vincent Gillis (born June 24, 1962) is an American serial killer and sex offender who murdered eight women in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from 1994 until his arrest in April 2004.
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