Daniel Gonzalez
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This article is about the serial killer. For the actor and model, see Daniel González. For the Chilean footballer, see Daniel González (Chilean footballer)
Daniel Gonzalez (1980 - August 9, 2007) was a serial killer who killed four people and injured two others during a three day killing spree across London and Sussex in September 2004. His mother had previously written a letter to her MP criticising the fact that a serious incident had to occur before he could receive mental help. In her letter, she rhetorically asked "...does my son have to commit murder to get help?". Reporters have tried to say that he feigned mental illness long before the murders. He did in fact suffer for many years.
Gonzalez was inspired by horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th to become a "famous serial killer". He went on a drug-fueled stabbing spree, attacking the elderly and infirm, writing about his experiences in letters to himself as Zippy, his past nickname. His letters said how much he enjoyed the murders "...one of the best things I've done in my life", and how similar he was to Freddy Krueger.
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[edit] Victims
On September 15, 2004 Gonzalez told 61 year old Peter King who was walking his dog with his wife in Hilsea, Portsmouth that he was going to kill him. He was fought off and fled to Hove where he stabbed 76 year old Marie Harding whilst wearing a hockey mask, a la Jason Voorhees. After this, he returned to his home in Woking. He concluded that the reason for his failure to kill Mr King was because his knife was too small.
He traveled to Tottenham, where he drank until the early hours of the morning. At 5:30 AM he left 46 year old Kevin Molloy for dead after stabbing him in the face, neck and torso with a pair of large knives he had stolen from a department store. At 7:00 AM he made a forced entry into the Hornsey house of Koumis Constantino, but was fought off after stabbing his arm. By 8:00 AM he was in Highgate, where he randomly tried to gain access to houses. He succeeded in murdering a geriatric couple, the Robinsons, an experience he claimed was "orgasmic". He was arrested at a tube station after a decorator saw him naked and covered in blood in the Robinson's house.
He saw the Columbine killers as heroes and intended to perpetrate a similar crime to theirs.
[edit] Trial
Gonzalez tried to claim that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, although this was rejected. He was given six life sentences and the trial judge recommended that he should never be released. It was revealed that he was a habitual drug user who had run naked down a street whilst drunk a week before he was arrested.
In February 2007, the European Court of Justice began a review of lifelong imprisonment to determine whether such sentences amounted to a violation of human rights. If the court outlaws lifelong imprisonment, then all prisoners serving "whole life" sentences in European prisons would have their cases recalled to court for a new minimum term to be set.
Gonzalez was found dead in his cell at Broadmoor Hospital on August 9, 2007. He was believed to have committed suicide. [1]
[edit] External links
- Sadist who murdered four strangers gets life
- This is London:Killer handed six life sentences
- BBC: Craving of 'horror film' murderer
- Gonzalez found dead at Broadmoor
