Daniel GONZALEZ
Classification: Spree killer
Characteristics: Inspired by horror films
Number of victims: 4
Date of murder: September 15-17, 2004
Date of arrest: Next day
Date of birth: 1980
Victims profile: Marie Harding, 73 / Kevin Molloy, 46 / Derek Robinson, 75, and his wife Jean, 60
Method of murder: Stabbing with knife
Location: London/Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to life in prison, 2006. Committed suicide in prison by slicing his wrists with the edges of a CD case on August 9, 2007
Daniel Gonzalez (1980 - 9 August 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.
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.
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.
But Gonzales was found dead in his cell at Broadmoor Hospital on 9 August 2007. He was still only 26 years old, and was believed to have committed suicide.
Most dangerous inmate
11 march 2006
The serial killer who wanted to be like Freddy Krueger was yesterday branded the most dangerous inmate ever seen in notorious Broadmoor psychiatric hospital.
Daniel Gonzalez, 25, was put in the special care unit — the highest security ward in the country — after stabbing six people in three days.
He terrified other patients by re-enacting how he knifed his victims, four of whom died.
And he tried to kill himself by chewing veins and arteries in his arm.
He even attacked his mum and gran — grabbing their hair when they visited, the Old Bailey heard.
Broadmoor, Berks, has been home to such killers as Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Moors murderer Ian Brady.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Edward Petch told jurors he first saw Gonzalez when he was admitted there.
He said: “I have never seen anything like this.
“The degree of disturbance was without parallel in my experience.
“This man was at further risk of extreme unprovoked violence. He would attack and punch and sometimes self-harm.
“I’ve never seen anyone bite himself with the ferocity he did. It was a serious attempt on his life.”
He said Gonzalez, of Woking, Surrey, had schizophrenia and an anti-social personality disorder.
Gonzalez knifed victims because he wanted to be like horror film character Freddy Krueger, it is claimed.
Four died — one each in Tottenham, North London, and Worthing, West Sussex, plus a retired couple in Highgate, North London. Gonzales denies four counts of murder but admits manslaughter.
The trial continues.
Serial killer found guilty
BBC News
March 16, 2006
LONDON (Reuters) - A horror film fanatic who wanted to be an infamous serial killer was found guilty on Thursday of murdering four strangers during a three-day rampage through southern England.
Daniel Gonzalez, 25, compared his murders to those in the film "Halloween" and told police he wanted to know what it would be like to be "Freddy Krueger for the day" -- referring to the crazed killer from the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" movie.
Gonzalez, who also said he wanted to carry out a massacre similar to the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in the United States, began his murderous spree on September 15, 2004.
He travelled to Hilsea on the south coast and tried to cut the throat of a 67-year-old man who was out with his wife, walking his dog.
The man fought him off but later that afternoon Gonzalez headed up to Woking near London and stabbed to death Marie Harding, 73, as she was out walking in a secluded area.
Early the next day, he used two knives to stab to death 46-year-old Kevin Molloy who had been out drinking in a pub in north London.
Just an hour later, he broke into a house not far away and tried to kill the occupant. However he ran away after the men put up a fierce struggle.
Shortly afterwards, he bought some new knives and then went to the home of Derek Robinson, 75, and his wife Jean, 60, and stabbed them both to death.
He was arrested a few hours later at a station.
Hearing voices
Gonzalez, who had admitted two counts of attempted murder, had denied murder, saying he was a schizophrenic and had been under the command of voices.
But a jury at the Old Bailey took just over an hour to find him guilty of murder.
"We suggest that Gonzalez is a psychopath who killed because of the callous, cold person that he is," said prosecutor Richard Horwell. "He wanted to kill for his own personal pleasure."
During the trial, the court heard how Gonzalez had told doctors he went on the rampage because he was bored.
"I watched horror movies and that all the time, fantasy and not real and that," he had told detectives.
"I just thought about doing it, man -- what would it be like just to be maybe Freddy Krueger or something like that, just for one day."
Police called his murders "shocking and brutal".
"Gonzalez admitted he was an individual intent on killing. He was clever and manipulative and did not want to accept responsibility for what he had done," said Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cobb.
"He wanted to be remembered as a famous serial killer, but I hope he is forgotten and that we only remember his victims and the families that survive them."
He will be sentenced tomorrow and faces a mandatory life jail term.
Family 'pleased' at trial outcome
18 march 2006
The family of a grandmother murdered by serial killer Daniel Gonzalez say the outcome of his trial has restored their faith in British justice.
Gonzalez, from Woking, Surrey was handed six life sentences on Friday for killing Marie Harding and three other people and for two attempted murders.
Mrs Harding, 73, was murdered in 2004 in Southwick, near Hove, West Sussex.
"We are pleased the right result has come out of this terrible situation," her family said after the trial.
Mrs Harding worked part-time in the ticket office at Brighton and Hove Albion FC's Queen's Road ground.
Minute's silence
She was walking home from her daughter Julie Harris's house when she was stabbed to death.
The family are all avid supporters of the club, which held a minute's silence for Mrs Harding a few days after her death in September 2004.
Her husband Jim, Mrs Harris and her husband Andrew and their children Daniel and Natalie issued a joint statement.
"Together with the other families involved, we have waited a long time for this outcome," they said.
Mission to kill
"Our faith in British justice has been restored.
"We would like to thank our friends and families for their support throughout this dreadful time."
They also thanked Sussex Police and their family liaison officers.
The Old Bailey trial heard that Gonzalez had set out on a mission to kill at least 10 people and become famous as a serial killer.
His other victims were Derek Robinson, 75, and his wife Jean, 68, who were attacked in their home in Highgate, London; and Kevin Molloy, 46, who was murdered in a north London street.
The men who survived his attacks were Peter King, 61, in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Koumis Constantinou, 59, in north London.
The one that got Hawai
23 march 2006
SERIAL killer Daniel Gonzalez got off a train in Worthing, bought a knife and followed a man with the intention to kill.
This unknown man had a lucky escape from Gonzalez, who, on Friday, was given six life sentences at the Old Bailey for knifing to death four people including Southwick pensioner Marie Harding.
He also attempted to murder two others.
It was during police interviews the 25-year-old killer told officers that when he got off the train at Worthing on September 15, 2004, at 1.20pm he bought a knife in the town.
He said: "I was walking down these alleyways with a knife, waiting to carve up someone. The knife was six inches long. It was like a butcher's knife used to carve up bits of meat. I was going to the first place I could to kill someone."
He said he had followed a man in Worthing but did not attack him because he turned into a main road.
Gonzalez added: "I felt I was on a mission to kill as many people as possible."
After his failed attempt to find a victim in Worthing he got back on a train to Fishersgate. There he walked to a remote area of north Southwick where he hid in some bushes. Wearing a hockey mask he jumped out and stabbed 73-year-old Marie Harding to death as she walked along a track to her home in Highdown, Southwick.
It is believed he used the knife he bought in Worthing, which has never been found.
On Friday, Gonzalez – who wanted to become a notorious serial killer – showed no emotion as Judge Ann Goddard recommended that in his case "life should mean life".
A relative of one of his victims clapped in the public gallery and shouted "goodbye" as he was led to the cells.
Gonzalez, from Woking, Surrey, will start his sentence at Broadmoor maximum security hospital where he is considered one of their most dangerous patients.
He was convicted by a jury on Thursday of murdering two women and two men and knifing two other men in random attacks over three days in September, 2004.
Jurors decided he was a drug crazed, cold-blooded murderer and not suffering from mental illness as he claimed.
He stabbed 73-year-old Mrs Harding to death in a remote lane in north Southwick as she walked home from visiting her daughter on a sunny afternoon.
Gonzalez's ambition was to be a famous serial killer of "at least 10 people" in a campaign of murder stretching from the south coast of England to London.
He "wanted his 15 minutes of fame". He was high on drugs, bored and wanted to kill as many people as possible. He later confessed to killing all his victims, saying: "I am sorry. I just want to get locked up. In fact I should go into the electric chair."
But when he settled into life at Broadmoor, the maximum-security hospital, he told a psychiatrist he still had time on his side: "I think I will be out in eight to 10 years."
Gonzalez – who told police he wondered what it would be like to be the Nightmare On Elm Street's Freddy Krueger for a day – feigned mental illness long before the murders.
After his arrest, he again tried to manipulate psychiatrists into believing that voices commanded him to kill.
Richard Horwell, prosecuting, said that "the excuse of being under the control of voices is often fabricated – it is a caricature of mental illness. He has fabricated such symptoms in the past."
Mr Horwell told the jury Gonzalez was a "psychopath" who "killed because of the callous, cold person he is.
"It is his very personality that led him to kill – disinhibited by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol."
Gonzalez's defence had claimed he was suffering from auditory hallucinations – voices commanding him to kill – which diminished his responsibility in law.
Serial killer appeal bid refused
6 july 2006
A man who killed four people in London and Sussex and tried to kill two others has been refused leave to appeal against his "life means life" sentence.
Daniel Gonzalez, 26, of Woking, Surrey, was given six life sentences at the Old Bailey after being convicted in March.
His lawyer said a 30-year tariff should have been imposed because of his young age and mental health problems.
Judges refused the bid, saying Gonzalez took pleasure in cruel and premeditated killings, and could attack again.
When Gonzalez was sentenced for the knife-attack killings, which happened in 2004, judge Ann Goddard told him that in his case "life should mean life".
The trial had heard that Gonzalez, of Southend Avenue, wanted to be remembered as a famous serial killer.
Timeline of Gonzalez's killings
BBC News
Thursday, 16 March 2006
A man who said he wanted to become a notorious serial killer has been found guilty of stabbing to death four people within three days.
The BBC News website looks at how Daniel Gonzalez, 25, killed two men and two women in a series of attacks in Sussex and north London.
15 September 2004, 1130 GMT - Gonzalez attacks a couple with a steak knife on a pathway in Portsmouth. Peter King suffers non-life threatening injuries.
15 September 2004, 1620 GMT - body of Marie Harding found on a footpath in Southwick, near Worthing in West Sussex. She died from stab wounds to the neck and back.
17 September 2004, 0530 GMT - body of Kevin Molloy found in Tottenham High Road, north London. He died of stab wounds to the chest, which had been inflicted with a knife stolen from a department store.
17 September 2004, 0700 GMT - Koumis Constantinou confronts a man armed with a large kitchen knife in his home in north London. He was stabbed and bitten by Gonzalez, who only ran off when Mr Constantinou's wife ran outside screaming for help.
17 September 2004, 0805 GMT - police called to a house in Makepeace Road, north London, where the bodies of Derek and Jean Robinson had been found. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
17 September 2004, 1200 GMT - Gonzalez arrested at Tottenham Court Road tube station after buying a ticket with a bloodstained £20 note.
