FL FL/GA - Paul John Knowles, active 1965 - 1974

[Richard]

Paul John Knowles (1946-1974) often traveled Highway 75 from Florida to Georgia. In 1965, he kidnapped a police officer and got 5 years. By 1967, he was paroled and soon back in prison the same year. In 1970, he was again out on parole, and was loose until 1972 when he was again sentenced to prison.

In May 1974, he was again released on parole and in July of that same year, he began a three state killing binge of 18 to 20 victims. In September 1974, he was captured in Georgia, and in December 1974, he was shot while attempting to escape.

His story was detailed in a book by an English woman named Sandy Fawkes who traveled with him and knew him in 1974.

LINKS:

Natural Born Killer: In Love and on the Road with a Serial Killer by Sandy Fawkes

https://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/knowles-paul-john.htm

Paul John Knowles: A Serial Killer You May Not Recognize

Spree killer Paul John KNOWLES - The Casanova Killer

 

[sonz82]

I was reading about this guy yesterday, I noticed he murdered a couple...Debbie Griffin apparently is still missing. Not much information available anywhere online, no age listed and i cant find a missing persons report or even a WS thread.
Is she still missing?

 

[dogperson]

Does anyone know whether he was incarcerated in June 1972? The family of Carlene Sessions Tengelsen believes he is responsible for her disappearance (and presumed murder) on June 21, 1972 in Macon, GA. Knowles had a girlfriend in Macon then but I can't find any info about what date in 1972 he went back to prison.

GA - GA - Carlene Tengelsen, 16, Macon, 21 June 1972
Carlene Sessions Tengelsen – The Charley Project

 

[Richard]

Most accounts of Paul John Knowles begin with his killing spree which began in 1974. He was in and out of prison in the years prior to that - either in Georgia or Florida. He had a few periods of parole between incarcerations, because he would be let out of his sentence early. The only information that I had on him regarding the time in question was that he was paroled in 1970 and sometime in 1972 he was picked up again and put back in prison. I do not know the exact dates.

His convictions and imprisonments, however are a matter of public record. So it should be possible to learn the specifics, if you know which state to contact.

 

[Richard]

Victims of Paul John Knowles:

Alice Curtis was a 65-year-old resident of Jacksonville, Florida. Knowles gagged her on July 26, 1974, while stealing her belongings. She choked to death on her gag.

Lillian and Mylette Anderson, aged 11 and 7 respectively, were strangled early August 1974. Their bodies were never found.

Marjorie Howe lived in Atlantic Beach, Florida. She was strangled with a nylon stocking. The motive, apparently, was that Knowles stole her television.

Ima Jean Sanders was a 13 year old hitchhiker from Warner Robins, Georgia whom Knowles raped and strangled.

Kathy Pierce was strangled with the cord of her telephone on August 23, 1974. Her three-year-old son, who was also present, remained unharmed.

William Bates was murdered on September 3, 1974, after having shared some drinks with Knowles in Lima, Ohio. His body was not discovered until October. His car, money and credit cards were all taken by Knowles.

Emmett and Lois Johnson were out camping in Ely, Nevada, where Knowles murdered both on September 18, 1974.

Charlynn Hicks was killed on September 21, 1974. Her motorcycle broke down in Seguin, Texas. Knowles raped her before strangling her and dragging her body through some barbed wire.

Ann Dawson, from Birmingham, Alabama, met Knowles on September 23, 1974. They traveled together for a while, until Knowles killed her on September 29, 1974. Her body was never found.

Karen Wine and her 16 year old daughter, were killed on October 16, 1974. They were bound, raped, and strangled with a nylon stocking. They were discovered by Wine's older daughter Cheryl. A tape recorder was missing from their home.

Doris Hovey was 53 years old and lived in Woodford, Virginia. She was shot to death by Knowles with her husband's rifle on October 19, 1974.

Carswell Carr and his daughter met Knowles on November 6, 1974 in Milledgeville, Georgia, and invited him over to his house. Subsequently, Knowles stabbed Carr, who had a heart attack before Knowles strangled his daughter. He attempted to engage in necrophilia with her body, but failed.

Edward Hilliard and Debbie Griffin were hitchhiking near Milledgeville, Georgia, on November 2, 1974. Hilliard's body was found in nearby woods, but Griffin's remains were never discovered. Knowles was not proven to have murdered them, but he was under strong suspicion.

Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Eugene Campbell was abducted while on patrol in Perry, Florida and shot by Knowles in Pulaski County, Georgia on 16 November 1974.

James Meyer was a businessman whom Knowles took hostage along with Campbell. Knowles handcuffed them to a tree and shot them with the trooper's gun on 16 November 1974.

LINK:

Paul John Knowles - Victims

 

[Richard]

It would be nice to know what Knowles was doing in the years before 1965 and where he was living.

 

[DS2021]

This article gives some insight on his desire to be a notorious serial killer, I'm wondering if the number of murders he claimed to have committed on his spree (35) was fabricated to make him appear more prolific than he actually was

paul john knowles murdered 35 people

Clipping found in Statesville Record and Landmark published in Statesville, North Carolina on 12/19/1974. paul john knowles murdered 35 people

www.newspapers.com

I'll keep digging to see if there's any unsolved murders and disappearances that line up with his time line.

 

[Richard]

This article gives some insight on his desire to be a notorious serial killer, I'm wondering if the number of murders he claimed to have committed on his spree (35) was fabricated to make him appear more prolific than he actually was

paul john knowles murdered 35 people

Clipping found in Statesville Record and Landmark published in Statesville, North Carolina on 12/19/1974. paul john knowles murdered 35 people

www.newspapers.com

I'll keep digging to see if there's any unsolved murders and disappearances that line up with his time line.

Good article. Knowles was completely evil and got what he deserved in the end. As to whether or not he was accurate or truthful about the number of victims - one has to consider that most serial killers are also serial liars.

He may well have killed others prior to his known murder spree. It would seem that he was already well into killing in 1974.

 

[Richard]

Paul John Knowles in 1974 arrest photo

 

[Richard]

Paul John Knowles claimed to have committed crimes in and traveled through 48 states (not including Hawaii and Alaska). He said that after a murder, he would cross a state line to avoid capture. This does not appear to always have been the case as he was known to commit consecutive murders in the same location on occasion.

While most accounts can name about 20 murder victims, some state that evidence is only coincidental in some of the cases. Knowles himself claimed to have killed 35 victims, but was himself killed in an escape attempt. Perhaps a study of unsolved murders during the times and places of his travels might identify other possible victims.

Note that there are some gaps in time and location that are unaccounted for, but looking at maps might indicate other states through which he traveled.

-------------------------------------------------

Here are some known locations and dates of Knowles' travels:

Jacksonville, Florida July 26, 1974. Murder of Alice Curtis, 65. Stole her car.

Warner Robins, Georgia 1 August 1974 murder of Ima Jean Sanders, 13 year old hitchhiker.

Jacksonville, Florida 1 August 1974. Murders of Lillian and Mylette Anderson, aged 11 and 7 respectively bodies never found.

Atlantic Beach, Florida 2 August 1974. Murder of Marjorie Jean Howe, 49.

Musella, Georgia August 23, 1974. Murder of Kathy Sue Pierce

* Between 23 August and 3 September, Knowles drove from Georgia to Ohio

Lima, Ohio September 3, 1974. Murder of William Bates. Dumped Curtis car and stole Bates' car.

* Between 3 and 18 September, Knowles drove from Ohio to Nevada.

Ely, Nevada September 18, 1974 Murders of Emmett and Lois Johnson

Seguin, Texas September 21, 1974. Murder of Charlynn Hicks

Birmingham, Alabama September 23, 1974. Picked up Ann Dawson, whom he killed killed on September 29, 1974. Her body (said by Knowles to have been thrown into the Mississippi River) was never found.

* Known to have traveled through Oklahoma, Iowa, and Minnesota between 29 September and mid October 1974.

* Also would have driven from Minnesota to Connecticut in that time frame.

Marlborough, Connecticut, October 16, 1974. Murdered Karen Wine and her 16 year old daughter Dawn Wine.

Woodford, Virginia October 19, 1974. Murdered Doris Hovey, 53

* Driving from Virginia to southern Florida probably would have taken Knowles through North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, but alternatively he could have gone through Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.

Key West, and Miami Florida Late October 1974, reportedly pulled over in Key West driving Bates' car.

Milledgeville, Georgia, November 2, 1974 Murdered hitchhikers Edward Hilliard and Debbie Griffin.

Milledgeville, Georgia November 6, 1974 Murdered Carswell Carr, 45 and his daughter Amanda Carr, 15.

Atlanta, Georgia, November 8, 1974 Picked up Journalist Sandy Hawkes.

West Palm Beach, Florida some time between 10 and 15 November 1974, abducted Barbara Mabee Abel, and stole her car.

Fort Pierce, Florida 15 November 1974, Barbara Mabee Abel escapes.

Perry, Florida 16 November 1974. Abducted Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Eugene Campbell and businessman James Meyer. Stole Myer's car.

Pulaski County, Georgia 16 November 1974. Murdered Campbell and Meyer.

Henry County, Georgia 17 November 1974. Paul John Knowles captured.

 

[Richard]

Paul John Knowles, Serial Killer (1946 - 1974)

LINK:

Facts About The Casanova Killer, Paul John Knowles

In the 1970s, a strange serial killer, nicknamed the "Casanova Killer," terrorized people across the country. Now known by his real name, several Paul John Knowles crimes dominated newspaper headlines of the time. And while it's believed he killed several people, no one can definitively answer...

www.ranker.com

 

[Richard]

Ima Jean Sanders, age 13
Went missing 1 August 1974 from Warner Robbins, GA

1974 Disappearance and Murder of Teenaged Warner Robins Girl Solved​

DECEMBER 21, 2011
Perry, GA—On August 1, 1974, Ima Jean Sanders, a white female then 13 years old, disappeared from Warner Robins, GA, where she resided. In April 1976, skeletal remains of a young female were found in a wooded area off GA Highway 96 in Peach County, GA. The remains could not be identified and were retained by the GBI Crime Laboratory in Atlanta.
In January, 2011, DNA samples from Sanders’ biological mother and sister, now residing in Texas, were submitted by the Austin County Sheriff’s Office to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI). There, genetic data derived from them were uploaded into the Relatives of Missing Person index of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS)—a national DNA database containing known DNA of convicted criminals and missing persons; and questioned DNA from unidentified bodies and crime scenes.

This comparison indicated the genetic data from Sanders’ mother and sister was consistent with DNA submitted by the GBI into CODIS from the skeletal remains found in Peach County in 1976. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) was notified of this match in July, 2011 and informed the Warner Robins Police Department (WRPD), which had original jurisdiction for Sanders’ disappearance in 1974. UNTCHI confirmed the match with investigators in November, 2011, but admonished them to evaluate all associated case information before declaring the identity of the remains publicly.

WRPD investigators contacted the Peach County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) and the GBI Regional Office in Perry for assistance. The combined efforts of these agencies developed evidence to support the likelihood that Sanders was murdered in 1974 by noted serial killer Paul John Knowles. In 1974, Knowles went on a multi-state crime spree, committing at least 18 murders. It ended on November 17, 1974 when he was apprehended in a road block near McDonough, GA after kidnapping a Florida State Trooper and another man near Perry, FL and murdering them in Pulaski County, GA. Knowles was later shot to death by a GBI agent on December 18, 1974 while attempting to escape from custody.

During Knowles murder spree, he mailed audio taped confessions of his crimes to a Florida attorney. Following Knowles’ death, the release of these tapes was the subject litigation ultimately reaching U. S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals prior to District Court Judge Wilbur Owens allowing them to be reviewed by a federal grand jury in 1975. Although the tapes were never disclosed publicly, there were rumors they included Knowles confession to murdering a teenage girl near Macon.
In recent weeks, WRPD, PCSO, and GBI investigators attempted to locate copies or transcripts of these tapes to verify whether Knowles’ murdered Sanders. Meanwhile, the GBI Medical Examiner’s Office was confirming the circumstances of the DNA match along with the cause and manner of Sanders’ death.

Investigators spoke with current and former members of the U.S. Attorney’s office, the U.S. District Court, the FBI, the GBI, and other agencies involved in the original investigations of Knowles’ crimes and determined the only copies of the tapes and transcripts were destroyed after being ruined beyond repair in a flood of the Federal Courthouse in Macon several years ago. From GBI archives, however, investigators were able to retrieve a letter written in 1975 to the GBI by the then-U.S. Attorney that summarized Knowles’ taped confessions on the tapes of crimes he committed in Georgia. In one summary, the letter states:

“Sometime in August, 1974, Knowles picked up a white, female hitchhiker named Alma who represented her age as 13 or 14 but who appeared to be in her late teens. He carried this girl to a wooded area some distance from Macon, possibly west. He raped her and then strangled her and left her body in woods between trees. Approximately two weeks later, he returned to the location and found that the body had been moved eight or ten feet away apparently by animals. The body was greatly deteriorated and barely identifiable as a human being. Knowles found her jawbone and buried it in the area.”

Yesterday (November 20), the GBI Medical Examiner confirmed the DNA match to conclude the skeletal remains are Ima Jean Sanders and determined the manner of death to be “homicidal means of undetermined etiology.” Consistent with Knowles’ claim; Sanders’ jaw bone was not recovered. For the reasons stated in this release, investigators are reasonably confident that Ima Jean Sanders was murdered by Paul John Knowles in August 1974. Her remains are being released to remaining family for burial.

Contact Information:​

SAC Gary Rothwell, GBI Perry - 478-987-4545; Captain Chris Rooks, WRPD - 478-447-6688; Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese - 478-825-8269

LINK:

Ima Jean Sanders – The Charley Project

1974 Murder Of Ima Jean Sanders Linked to Serial Killer Paul John Knowles

December 21 2011 Today authorities found new information in a 1974 murder of a Warner Robins teenager. Ima Jean Sanders was only 13 years old when she disappe

victimsheartland.forumotion.com

1974 Disappearance and Murder of Teenaged Warner Robins Girl Solved

Perry, GA—On August 1, 1974, Ima Jean Sanders, a white female then 13 years old, disappeared from Warner Robins, GA, where she resided. In April 1976, skeletal remains of a young female were found in a wooded area off GA Highway 96 in Peach County, GA.

gbi.georgia.gov

 

[SimsGuy67]

Does anyone think a thread should be made for Ann Dawson, whose body was never found? Like the Anderson sisters and Debbie Griffin, even if Knowles likely murdered her, she's still missing.

 

[Richard]

Does anyone think a thread should be made for Ann Dawson, whose body was never found? Like the Anderson sisters and Debbie Griffin, even if Knowles likely murdered her, she's still missing.

If she doesn't have a thread of her own, you can certainly start one. Regardless of whether or not a suspect was identified or a killer convicted of her murder. If no body has been found, she is still "missing".

 

[SimsGuy67]

If she doesn't have a thread of her own, you can certainly start one. Regardless of whether or not a suspect was identified or a killer convicted of her murder. If no body has been found, she is still "missing".

Here's her thread, with info and photos from a newspaper article:

AL - Ann Dawson, 49, Birmingham, September 23, 1974

Ann is a victim of serial killer Paul John Knowles. He claims he threw her body into the Mississippi River but Ann's body wasn't found. I feel there's every chance he could be lying. Not about killing her, but the location of her body. Ann Jean Dawson Sex: Female Race: White/Caucasian DLC...

www.websleuths.com

 

[Richard]

A 13 year old victim of serial killer John Paul Knowles:


Ima Jean Sanders, went missing in 1974, recently identified through DNA

BIRTH 26 Apr 1961
Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas, USA
DEATH1 Aug 1974 (aged 13)
Bibb County, Georgia, USA
BURIAL Cremated, Ashes given to family or friend.

LINK:

Ima Jean Sanders (1961-1974) - Find a Grave...

In loving memory of Ima Jean Sanders Age: 13 years old Beloved Daughter & Sister Ima Jean Sanders Born April 26, 1961, in Beaumont, Texas, passed away August 1, 1974, in Georgia. Survivors: mother, Betty Wisecup and stepdad, Gary Wisecup; father, Perry Sanders and wife, Marcie; sisters...

www.findagrave.com

 

[SimsGuy67]

A 13 year old victim of serial killer John Paul Knowles:


Ima Jean Sanders, went missing in 1974, recently identified through DNA

BIRTH 26 Apr 1961
Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas, USA
DEATH1 Aug 1974 (aged 13)
Bibb County, Georgia, USA
BURIAL Cremated, Ashes given to family or friend.

LINK:

Ima Jean Sanders (1961-1974) - Find a Grave...

In loving memory of Ima Jean Sanders Age: 13 years old Beloved Daughter & Sister Ima Jean Sanders Born April 26, 1961, in Beaumont, Texas, passed away August 1, 1974, in Georgia. Survivors: mother, Betty Wisecup and stepdad, Gary Wisecup; father, Perry Sanders and wife, Marcie; sisters...

www.findagrave.com

I found an article about the initial discovery of her remains. At the time police suspected the remains to be a victim of Paul John Knowles. Was Ima reported missing at the time?

Ima Sanders

Clipping found in The Macon News published in Macon, Georgia on 4/28/1976. Ima Sanders

www.newspapers.com

Note that they say that last undiscovered victims. This would imply Ann Dawson's remains were found. I guess they could've thought these remains belonged to Ann?