Gerald Stano

Gerald Eugene Stano (born Paul Zeininger; September 12, 1951 – March 23, 1998) was an American convicted serial killer. Stano murdered at least 23 young women and girls, confessed to 41 murders, and the police say the number of his victims may be closer to 88.

Early life Stano was born as Paul Zeininger on September 12, 1951, in Schenectady, New York, the fifth child born to his mother, and the third she put up for adoption. His biological mother neglected him to such an extent that when she gave him up for adoption at six months old, county doctors declared that he could not be adopted. They said Zeininger was functioning at "an animalistic level," even eating his own feces to survive. Zeininger had four biological siblings who were given up for adoption. A nurse named Norma Stano eventually adopted Zeininger and legally changed his name. Despite his foster parents being described as loving, Stano continued to have behavioral problems.

Officially, Stano admitted that he began killing in the early 1970s, when he was in his twenties. He also claimed to have begun killing in the late 1960s, at the age of 18. Several girls had gone missing in Stano's area of residence at that time, but insufficient physical evidence was found when these claims were investigated almost twenty years later, and Stano was never charged. He was most active in Florida and New Jersey. Stano admitted to committing his first murder in New Jersey in 1969. He also confessed to having killed six other women in Pennsylvania. After moving to Florida, he may have murdered 30 or more women. Most of Stano's victims were women in vulnerable circumstances, all except two were Caucasian and most of his known victims were between the ages of 16 and 25. He was imprisoned with fellow serial killer Ted Bundy until the latter's execution in 1989.

Victims Stano admitted to several murders across Florida from 1973 to 1980: The bodies of Janine Marie Ligotino, 19, and Ann Eugenia Arceneaux, 17, were discovered stabbed to death in a vacant lot in Gainesville, Florida on March 21, 1973. Barbara Anne Bauer, 16, was found on September 6, 1973, in Bradford County, Florida. She had been abducted from a Holly Hill shopping mall and strangled to death. She had been stabbed twice and was possibly sexually assaulted, as her underwear was pulled down and her shirt was pulled up. In 1982, Stano confessed to her murder. He said he had picked her up while she was hitchhiking on the Interstate 4, had argued with her, and ended up murdering her. She remains unidentified and is known as the Seminole County Jane Doe. On January 2, 1975, the body of Nancy Jean Heard, 24, was found near Bulow Creek Road, just north of Ormond Beach. According to Stano's 1982 confession, he picked her up as she exited a school bus after enticing her with a ride to the Starlite Skate Center on South Nova Road. Instead, he strangled her and left her body in a patch of woods, covered with palm fronds. Her body was never found and the site has since been built over. On July 22, 1975, a fisherman discovered the body of 16-year-old Linda Ann Hamilton strangled, drowned, and buried in the sand of a beach near Turtle Mound State Park in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. 25-year-old Bonnie Williams Hughes was found on February 11, 1976, approximately 200 yards south of CR 546, near the intersection of 546 and U.S. Highway 27. She had been beaten about her head and face. Her 1974 brown and gold Cadillac sedan was found 50 feet from her body. Kathleen Mary Muldoon, 23, was in her third semester of woodworking classes at Daytona Beach Community College. On April 15, 1980, a boy in Holly Hill, near Daytona Beach, discovered a human skull in a wooded area at the end of Primrose Lane. A young woman's remains were found in Daytona Beach on November 5, 1980, by Florida Department of Transportation workers who found the victim's skeletal remains in the wooded median strip of Interstate 95, north of the Volusia/Brevard County line. She had been murdered several weeks before and died due to stab wounds in her upper torso. Stano told investigators that he met her at a bar on Main Street in 1978 or 1979 and that he choked her to death and took her to the wooded area. Years later, he remembered the slogan on her shirt, "Do it in the dirt," an advertising slogan for a motorcycle manufacturer. No charges were filed in accordance with a plea agreement. DNA from the woman remains was extracted by Astrea Forensics for the genetic genealogy team at FHD Forensics. The investigation was underwritten by the Dean and Tina Linn Clouse Memorial Fund at Genealogy For Justice. She was identified as Pamela Kay Wittman in March 2024.

Execution Stano was found guilty of nine murders and received eight life sentences and one death sentence. He was executed by electric chair on March 23, 1998, in Florida State Prison. For his final meal, Stano requested Delmonico steak, a baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits, salad with blue cheese dressing, lima beans, a half gallon of mint chocolate-chip ice cream, and 2 litres of Pepsi. Stano's final statement proclaimed innocence and directed blame for his false confessions at the lead investigator, Paul Crow. He stated: "I am innocent. I am frightened. I was threatened, and I was held month after month without any real legal representation. I confessed to crimes I did not commit."