World's Most Evil Killers - Season 6, Episode 7 - Daniel Gonzalez - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[ominous music] NARRATOR: 17th of September, 2004, 76-year-old retired pediatrician Derek Robinson was eating breakfast
with his wife Jean at their home in Highgate, London, when the doorbell rang. ADAM HIBBERT: His eyes, piercing eyes.
And to me, he had the eyes of a killer-- cold, heartless. NARRATOR: Within minutes, Derek and Jean
were both dead, brutally slashed to death by Daniel Gonzalez. He was only a young man.
He was only 24, and yet it worked out in his mind what he wanted in life was to be a notorious serial killer.
NARRATOR: Fueled by a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, Gonzalez was on a murderous 72-hour killing spree.
This is one of those rare cases in which we had-- and I hate to use the term, but a perfect storm.
NARRATOR: This was what his desperate mother had always feared. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Does my son have to kill somebody
before he gets any help? The tragedy was yes, he did. NARRATOR: Daniel Gonzalez no longer cared,
and six random strangers found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, becoming victims of one of the world's
most evil killers. [dramatic music] [ominous music] September the 15th, 2004, 24-year-old Daniel Gonzalez
boarded a train from his home in Woking, Surrey, bound for Portsmouth, England. Inside a rucksack, he carried his diary, a hockey
mask, and a steak knife. JOHNNY GREEN: Daniel Gonzalez was someone who had long lost the ability to live
anything like a positive life. Probably still a lot of work needed to-- to really try and understand where he was within himself,
but clearly, he was in a very dangerous place. NARRATOR: Gonzalez was a diagnosed schizophrenic, who,
over the next 72 hours, would kill four strangers and leave three with serious injuries across three
different English counties. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He's not thinking an hour ahead, a week ahead.
I think he is very much living in the moment. He is hostage to his own delusions
and his own psychosis. NARRATOR: Gonzalez made no attempt to cover his tracks. He left his victims where they fell, writing every chilling
detail in a diary. ADAM HIBBERT: That would indicate that he wanted to be found.
Whether he wanted to be caught or not is another question, but it would indicate that his mindset was
such that he wanted to be identified as the assailant for all these crimes, which would
then underpin his notoriety as a serial killer. NARRATOR: For Gonzalez, the line between fantasy and reality
hadn't blurred. It no longer existed. There did seem to be quite a fixation on horror films,
especially some of the horror films of the 1980s and the 1990s, like Freddy Krueger,
"Nightmare on Elm Street," "Friday the 13th." And I think at this point in his life,
Gonzalez was consuming quite a lot of violent media. Gonzalez only ever wanted to use a knife.
The knife was his weapon of choice. He didn't talk about shooting anyone or strangling anyone.
He wanted to kill them with a knife, and that was the theme, the thread that ran through his killings.
NARRATOR: Two days later on the 17th of September, 2004, Gonzalez was arrested, his brutal rampage ended, but
the danger he posed continued. PAUL CHESTON: Even though there was prison guards
present with access to riot gear, he was still considered to be too dangerous to appear in court.
It was an unprecedented scene, the like of which I have never seen before. NARRATOR: This killer's story begins
on the 21st of June, 1980. Daniel Gonzalez was born at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, England, to Lesley
Savage and Julian Gonzalez. The family lived in Woking, Surrey, and Daniel went to nursery and junior school in the local area.
Gonzalez was an only child. His mom was English, and his dad was Spanish. His parents separated when he was a young child,
and he was largely brought up by his mom. But he would go to Spain to spend time with his father.
PAUL CHESTON: But he had caused his mother problems even before he'd learned to walk.
She has told how, when he was very, very young, that he used to pull her hair not in a playful way
but in an almost malevolent way, and that she'd caught him from time to time bashing
his head against a wall. JOHNNY GREEN: It wasn't a terrible separation, and his father had flown back to Spain in high dudgeon.
He was still around. He was still supportive. So yes, there was a rift between mother and father,
but it wasn't a-- a chasm. His father was around. As far as we know, he was supportive of his son.
[uplifting music] NARRATOR: In 1991, at the age of 11, Gonzalez was accepted into Gordons School in Woking,
where his mother Lesley worked. PAUL CHESTON: And there he was clearly-- was able to find some purpose, some enjoyment in life.
He was a decent chess player, a good actor, they found. He passed eight GCSEs. He was an intelligent boy.
NARRATOR: At Gordons School, Gonzalez was found to have an above-average IQ, but there were concerns about his learning ability.
First of all, he's diagnosed with dysgraphia, which is a difficulty in writing, rather like dyslexia
is a difficulty in reading. But he nevertheless was very good at Spanish, took his GCSE in Spanish a year early, got an A.
And although he only ever went there in family holidays, he was very fluent indeed.
NARRATOR: In 1995, Gonzalez was excluded from school for bad behavior, just as he was
about to sit his final exams. He was given a second chance and allowed back to take them.
He attained a further seven GCSEs and went on to study drama and Spanish at Brooklands
College in Weybridge, Surrey. GEOFFREY WANSELL: So we have a portrait of a boy who is--
has his difficulties but is nevertheless apparently on track. NARRATOR: Gonzalez was popular amongst his college
friends, who affectionately nicknamed him Zippy. He appeared to be growing into a balanced young man with
a bright future ahead of him. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But then several things begin to happen.
One is he begins to experiment with cannabis. There's no doubt in my mind whatever
that those initial experiments, which probably began when he was 14 or 15, did something to the balance
of Gonzalez's mind. As he reaches adolescence, he becomes increasingly troubled.
A dark and troubled adolescence sets in. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Gonzalez was first convicted of a crime in 1996, and this
involved an altercation with a bus driver over a bus fare. And it was reported that he'd punched the bus driver,
but it later emerged that he'd actually bitten the bus driver's ear. So this was quite a significant assault for somebody who
was quite young at the time. NARRATOR: 16-year-old Gonzalez admitted the offense
and was formally cautioned by the police. The family GP referred him to a social services
children's center, and he was sent for drug counseling. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He then later commits
property offenses like theft and burglary, quite opportunistic offenses. And we've also got to remember that he's using
drugs at this point in time. He's using cannabis, using marijuana. NARRATOR: In 1997, having dropped out of college,
his mom Lesley found him a job in a bank, which only lasted a few days. In April, he was arrested for shoplifting.
His mother turned to social services for help and asked them to find Gonzalez a foster home.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think this is a very significant stage in Gonzalez's life because he's-- he's getting older.
He's getting bigger. He's getting stronger. He's also exhibiting some quite disturbing mental health
symptoms, and his mum is having trouble coping with him at home. So I think out of a concern for him,
she decides to get some help in. NARRATOR: Social services found Daniel a stable, loving foster home with a local couple.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think it's a really difficult situation for any parent to be in because you want your child to have
the help that they deserve, but that is going to involve a little bit of destabilizing them in a way
in order to get them to adapt to a new environment. So there could have been some feelings,
perhaps, of rejection, of abandonment at this point in time. NARRATOR: In February 1998, after harming himself
by punching a window, Gonzalez was admitted to an open psychiatric unit under the 1983 Mental Health Act.
He was discharged by a mental health review tribunal before a full assessment was completed and returned
to live at his foster home. GEOFFREY WANSELL: This is a boy who slipped through the net.
Instead of it being offered to him as a support and a way of overcoming his clear mental difficulties,
he isn't getting the support. So you have this awful pattern of, well, yes, we'll give him some support.
We'll put him in-- into some kind of psychiatric environment. It doesn't last long enough.
NARRATOR: Gonzalez remained close to his mum despite being in foster care. When he reached the age of 18, a new foster carer
was found for him. 28th of September, 1998, during a psychotic episode, Gonzalez calls public criminal damage,
threatened violence, and self-harmed by banging a metal saucepan repeatedly on his head.
He was restrained by the police and taken to a medium secure psychiatric hospital unit called Oaktree,
where he was sectioned and diagnosed as a schizophrenic. But he only lasted three weeks there.
PAUL CHESTON: During that time, he pulled a knife on a care worker. When he was discharged, he was supposed
to be monitored by health workers, health authorities of-- of every description.
He was clearly mentally ill, but he fell into the trap of being mentally ill but not
sufficiently mentally ill to be suctioned properly and to receive the full medication
and help that he needed. NARRATOR: Throughout his childhood and teenage years, Daniel would spend periods of time
in Spain with his dad and other relatives. With no access to drugs and more structure in his life,
his behavior improved. GEOFFREY WANSELL: So in a way, Spain represents for Gonzalez a sort of respite.
It's not the same as life in Woking. It's not like suburban Surrey. It's, oh, it's different.
And perhaps it's hotter, or perhaps it suits his temperament better. But there's no denying that he feels more at home, at least
apparently, during those periods when he goes to Spain. NARRATOR: March 2000, when Gonzalez returned from trips
to Spain, his use of street drugs escalated, and he became more unstable. His mother had a new partner, and although they
welcomed Daniel into their home, his behavior was hard to live with. Gonzalez moved out and became homeless.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: He returns, unfortunately, to life on the street, back to street drugs.
Whether it's ecstasy or cannabis, it doesn't matter very much to him. NARRATOR: April 2000, just before his 20th birthday,
Gonzalez was arrested on charges of burglary and street robbery and held in prison in Reading, England, where he received
antipsychotic medication. However, one doctor claimed Gonzalez was being manipulative
and exaggerating his mental illness to try and secure a reduced prison sentence.
In December 2000, Gonzalez was sent to prison for two years, which he spent in a young offenders institution
in relation to the burglary, the theft, and some other offenses that he committed.
So for the first time, he is institutionalized within the criminal justice system.
NARRATOR: At Dover Young Offenders Institute, Daniel's parents hoped he'd finally be given the help he
needed. GEOFFREY WANSELL: But I'm afraid the damage has been done. Those teenage years between 15 and 19
have taken a dreadful toll on Gonzalez. He is paranoid. He's suffering from delusions.
He's addicted to drugs when he can get them. He is literally a time bomb waiting to go off.
[dramatic music] NARRATOR: While serving his two-year sentence at Dover Young Offenders Institution, Daniel Gonzalez was
assessed by the medical team. They found no evidence of mental illness. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He's released in 2001 on license.
His last six months of his sentence are spent on license, and he behaves relatively well.
I think he probably doesn't want to get involved with the police again if he can avoid it.
And so until then to the autumn of 2001, Gonzalez is relatively quiet. Not much is happening.
But he's very introverted. He's watching a lot of horror films. He's very much living in himself.
His delusions are not getting any better. He is, in many ways, a tragic case. NARRATOR: Lesley knew her son was mentally ill
and desperately wanted to find him help. PAUL CHESTON: But what his mother explained happened,
that he was passed from pillar to post, from one health worker to another, from one social worker to GPs, to doctors, to psychiatrists,
none of whom had a, she'd say, a coherent pattern of looking after him and developing
a pattern for his care. GEOFFREY WANSELL: At one point, Mrs. Savage writes to her MP
and says-- and it's a heartbreaking quotation, this. Now, does my son have to kill somebody
before he gets any help? The tragedy was yes, he did. NARRATOR: Daniel Gonzalez was a young man whose mental health
was spiraling out of control. GEOFFREY WANSELL: There is no doubt that in the first months of 2002,
Gonzalez's mother sought what help they could, and but it really wasn't available.
He didn't have those stable friendships with his peers and-- and with people that you might work with or--
or go to college with. So I think he was very much a loner. GEOFFREY WANSELL: There's more experiences
with A&E. He's homeless again. He's living with friends. He's living rough until at the end of 2002,
he's convicted of shoplifting again. The pattern is unchanging. He gets a community punishment order,
and then he gets a community rehabilitation order to try and get him back on the straight and narrow,
to try and make his life-- well, I hesitate to say normal, but at least steady. NARRATOR: 26 of October, 2003, Gonzalez
went to Spain to visit his father and then his aunts in La Coruna. He was hoping he would find work and be able to stay in Spain.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: While he's in Spain, at the end of 2003, is he writes a letter to his GP, which he doesn't send,
in which he admits for the first time clearly that he is a paranoid schizophrenic
and says that he deeply needs help. He never posts the letter. Perhaps he was ashamed of it.
Perhaps he didn't think his GP cared. One can't be sure, but we do know that by the time
it gets to the end of 2003, he's back in England. And he's back with his mother trying to get help.
I mean, time after time, they try and get him outpatient appointments. NARRATOR: Gonzalez begged to be admitted to hospital,
but he was denied and only seen as an outpatient. PAUL CHESTON: He had plenty of contacts to supply him
with drugs but no real friends, and he lived at home with his mother. He's-- he was obsessed with horror
films and computer games. He had no sense of purpose in his life. NARRATOR: January 2004, Gonzalez broke his leg
and was in plaster. He was entirely dependent on his family. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He did kind of turn in on himself,
and he spent a lot of time alone. And I think, because of his mental health condition,
he develops quite a lot of difficulty in distinguishing fantasy from reality. So the two really do start to overlap,
and things get very muddled for him. NARRATOR: March 2004, when the plaster was finally removed,
Gonzalez remained quietly at home during the week in his bedroom, and at weekends, he went to drug-fueled raves
in London. [ominous music] GEOFFREY WANSELL: He's now in his early 20s. He goes out at night, scores street drugs,
lives in darkness in a fantasy world of his own creation peopled by videogames, horror films.
I've long argued that video is a much more dangerous influence on troubled young men than many of us realize because it plays
to certain parts of their mind which are theirs and theirs alone and plays to their--
their fantasies of themselves. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Gonzalez seemed particularly obsessed
with the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, those films with the character Freddy Krueger,
so there did seem to be quite a fixation on this particular dangerous individual.
And I think Gonzalez looks at Freddy Krueger, and he looks at the power that this-- this individual
is able to have over a whole street and a whole neighborhood. And maybe that is something that-- that he
finds quite appealing. GEOFFREY WANSELL: And so in the-- by the summer of 2004, Gonzalez is now 24 living in this strange world
of his own creation, anxious to find out what it's like to be a serial killer. In many ways, it's a tragedy.
If only, one says, if only he could have got help, the help that he truly needed, but perhaps that's being
naive of me or idealistic. Perhaps he would never be capable of being helped, that that--
he saw this as his destiny. NARRATOR: September the 11th, 2004. PAUL CHESTON: Daniel Gonzalez headed up to London
to meet some of his drug contacts and ended up at a rave all night in Hackney, where he took
the most extraordinary cocktail of drugs, including speed and cocaine and ecstasy and ketamine,
which is a horse tranquilizer. And imagine the combined effect on anyone's mental health
with such a cocktail inside them. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He punches himself in the eyes.
He has had a habit of some self-harm, but this is quite severe. He punishes himself brutally in both eyes.
So now you have a young man of 24 who is literally-- someone somewhere has lit the blue touch paper
to this particular explosion. PAUL CHESTON: On the Monday, he was so affected that he was running through the streets naked, which prompted
his mother to despair that why wasn't he getting the treatment that he so clearly needed.
The second day, the Tuesday, he stayed virtually all day in bed and in his bedroom.
He wrote in his diaries how this was his plan to become a notorious serial killer.
He wanted to see his name in newspaper headlines. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Very, very few people with schizophrenia
will ever go on to harm other people at all. They're much more likely to harm themselves
or to be harmed by others, but this is one of those rare cases in which we had--
and I hate to use the term, but a perfect storm. GEOFFREY WANSELL: On Wednesday, September the 15th,
he takes a kitchen knife from his own home and sets off to Portsmouth. Well, that's not entirely unreasonable.
Woking is on the train line to Portsmouth. So he goes to Woking Station, gets on a train,
and gets off at Portsmouth. NARRATOR: Gonzalez got off the train at Hilsea Station, a quiet suburb of Portsmouth, England.
61-year-old Peter King and his wife Janice were walking their dog along a local pathway
in the area popular with runners and dog walkers. PAUL CHESTON: Gonzalez leapt on him,
suddenly attacked him for no reason at all, yelling, I'm going to kill you, and started stabbing around
the face and the neck and the upper body area with his steak knife. Mr. King was able to fend off some blows.
He broke away and decided to run away but not before shouting over his shoulder, I'm sorry.
I'm a schizophrenic, and then rushing away. NARRATOR: Peter King put up a brave fight
and sustained serious injuries, which were thankfully not life threatening. Gonzalez fled back to the train station.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: But sadly, he doesn't run away back home. He gets another train because it's a convenient train ride,
gets another train from Portsmouth, this time to Brighton. NARRATOR: Gonzalez got off the train at Worthing near Brighton
in East Sussex. Believing his small steak knife was the reason Peter King escaped alive, Gonzalez
went into a hardware store and stole a bigger knife before heading east to the area of Southwick.
PAUL CHESTON: While Gonzalez was waiting to attack his second victim, he searched through his belongings
and came across a hockey mask, which was particularly significant in his mind because it was similar to a mask that was used by a character
called Jason in a horror film, one of his favorites, called "Friday the 13th." ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Marie Harding was
very well-known person in the community around Brighton. She worked for the supporters arm of Brighton
and Hove Albion Football Club and was-- was very well recognized there. And she was due to go on a holiday of a lifetime
with her husband to Australia. She'd gone to pick up the currency that morning. So here's somebody who's in their 70s.
They have a very kind of thriving, active life and-- and looking forward to enjoying those
twilight years with her husband. GEOFFREY WANSELL: When, by an awful twist of fate,
she's set upon by Gonzalez, who stabs her ruthlessly, repeatedly, and kills her.
There is no rhyme nor reason to the attack. He steals some of the money from her,
but I think that's more by the by, his old street robbery habit. It's most of all about the killing.
NARRATOR: Gonzalez left Marie Harding dead on the ground and fled the scene. GEOFFREY WANSELL: He must have had some blood on him
but nevertheless perhaps washed it off in a station washroom. That's merely speculation on my part,
but certainly, he gets the train from Brighton back to Woking and goes back to his mother's house.
NARRATOR: Sitting on the train, Gonzalez updated his diary, describing the thrill he'd got
from murdering Marie Harding. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Gonzalez has killed his first victim,
but he's intent on not stopping there. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: 15th of September, 2004, Detective Superintendent
Adam Hibbert was the senior investigating officer called to the crime scene of the murder
of 73-year-old Marie Harding. ADAM HIBBERT: My initial hypothesis was, given the location and the nature of the assault,
was that this had to be a local individual with local knowledge and potentially with a propensity for assaulting
women, elderly or otherwise. So that sets in motion some research, intelligence development around, who do we know in the area
that would fit this criteria? Who do we know locally that-- that has a propensity
for this type of offense? Because we have to have something to work on. NARRATOR: Press Association photographer Johnny Green
was one of the first members of the media to arrive at the scene. JOHNNY GREEN: Being sent to a murder scene was, as grisly
as it sounds, in many ways-- thankfully, it wouldn't happened too often. But at least two or three times a year, you'd be sent,
and it could be anywhere. ADAM HIBBERT: Police officers were already in attendance,
uniformed police officers who had cordoned off the scene, and one of my first roles was to speak to my crime scene manager
to make sure that we had full control of the scene itself to mitigate any potential contamination that
might happen thereafter. JOHNNY GREEN: It was very quiet, I have to say. It was very quiet, but there were-- there were other members
of the press there. Information was scant. The one thing I would say about all the--
all the scenes I have been to over the years, it's just one of those things where people are scared.
People are fearful because this has happened so close to where they live, to where they're
bringing up their own children. And I think it makes us all wonder, well, if it happened that person, it could happen to us.
ADAM HIBBERT: One of the most important aspects of an investigation of this nature
is managing the crime scene investigation. We only get one chance to secure, preserve, and seize
evidence from that scene. JOHNNY GREEN: When you attend the scene of a crime and there's a mobile unit which has been set up by police,
that certainly gives an indication that this is a serious crime, a very serious crime.
This doesn't just happen for no reason. This happens for certainly a very good reason.
ADAM HIBBERT: And it is to the credit of our crime scene officers that they worked through night and day
through some unpleasant conditions in making sure that we achieved the best we could do in terms of a forensic harvest of that scene.
And by forensic harvest, I mean, what evidence can we extract from the scene that will give us our best
chance of identifying who carried out the attack on Marie Harding? JOHNNY GREEN: I don't think I had an awful lot to go on.
You know, it was one of those murders, one of those rare murders where I think they felt
the perpetrator was not known to the-- to the victim, which then-- you know, they really got a tough job to do
and very quickly. What if that person's still out on the street? ADAM HIBBERT: For Sussex police, this
was a significant investigation in terms of resources, if you can imagine from the outset
that this is a lone female who transpires to be a pillar of the community in an area
whereby this sort of thing doesn't happen. NARRATOR: September the 15th, 2004, while the manhunt for the murderer of Marie Harding
continued, Gonzalez spent the night at home in Woking. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When Gonzalez attacked Marie Harding,
he was wearing a hockey mask like the Jason Voorhees character in the film "Friday the 13th,"
and we know that he was quite a fan of horror movies. So I think that for Gonzalez, the line
between fantasy and reality really had been crossed at this point in time. I'm not sure he was completely aware of exactly what he was
doing, but I think this-- this willingness to imitate this-- this character is something that was being driven by his delusions
and by his psychosis. [somber music] GEOFFREY WANSELL: The following day, the 16th of September,
2004, he gets the train to London, where he knows how to score drugs, and he knows how to drink.
And he goes on a colossal bender, out and out madness, drinks through the night,
until in the early hours of the 17th of September, he takes a night bus from Central London to Tottenham.
It's quiet. It's dawn. It's-- it's not light yet. And he happens upon another complete stranger,
this time a great big tall Irishman called Molloy who's in his 40s. He's a pub landlord.
PAUL CHESTON: And in the early hours of the morning, he was walking home through the streets of Tottenham
without, you can imagine, a care, really, just a matter of having had a very nice night out.
And he was-- he was wandering home. As he was walking down the road, Gonzalez attacked him with a very large knife
and stabbed all around his face, his neck, his upper chest, and his head. And-- and Gonzalez just walked away into the night,
leaving him dead. [dramatic music] GEOFFREY WANSELL: Well, now all constraints are lost.
With the drugs and the drink still flowing through his body, he goes to a house.
I don't think he specifically chose it. I think it was much more a matter of randomness in Hornsey, not all that far from Tottenham.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Gonzalez breaks into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Constantino. And he grabs a knife in the kitchen,
and he's threatening Koumis Constantino, the husband, with the knife. Then the wife comes into the room
and-- and starts screaming. And I think at this point, Gonzalez gets quite fearful
and realizes, I need to get out of here, so then he flees. GEOFFREY WANSELL: So you have had a man who's
killed at 5:30 in the morning, attacks a couple in their house at 7 o'clock that same morning,
and now he has an appetite to kill again. And so he-- he moves location. He goes to Highgate in North London
and starts ringing doorbells randomly. It's by now about 8:30 on that morning. He's ringing doorbells.
By sheer chance, one of the couples who live in the various houses opens the door.
The man is called Derek Robinson, and he's a very distinguished pediatrician who's worked
abroad, worked in this country. His wife Jean is a Christian Aid worker, and she's younger but not much.
They are an archetypal professional North London couple living in a comfortable house in Highgate,
but they make the mistake of answering the door to a man who's literally out of his mind.
NARRATOR: Derek Robinson got up to answer the doorbell. Gonzalez pushed him back into the hallway
and launched into a frenzied knife attack on him. Mrs. Robinson ran to his defense,
and the two older people were desperately and bravely trying to ward the blows off.
But Gonzalez was young, and he had an intent and purpose about him. There is going to be no mercy.
He's covered in blood and decides that he's going to have a shower to wash the blood off
and takes a shower. PAUL CHESTON: As Gonzalez was showering himself in a vain attempt to rid himself of the horrendous blood
staining on himself and his clothing, he was shocked to find a decorator suddenly arriving.
By prearranged appointment, the decorator was hired by the Robinsons to do some work.
Imagine his shock, then, to find a half-naked bloodstain man sprinting out of the house and down the road.
But the decorator was able to raise the alarm, and for the first time, the police were on the trail
of Daniel Gonzalez. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: September the 17th, 2004, after murdering the Robinsons in their Highgate home,
Gonzalez fled the scene and headed for Central London. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Gonzalez left the bodies of all his victims
essentially where they fell, and he fled the scene. So this was somebody for whom covering up after himself was
not an overriding priority because I think he was acting on those impulses, on those delusions
that he was having. And I think his-- his mental health had deteriorated to such an extent
at this point that-- that he wasn't always in control of his actions. So I think after he carried out a murder,
he just wanted to get as far away from it as possible. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Well, of course, the decorator
can give a description of him. Of course, he's covered in blood. It doesn't take very long.
I mean, this is a double murder. At that point, they haven't connected the other two murders or the attempted--
the two attempted murders. This is a double murder. No wonder the Met are going to respond quickly,
and certainly, they do. NARRATOR: In Sussex, at the Marie Harding crime scene, the forensic team had discovered some crucial evidence.
ADAM HIBBERT: Crime scene team did their job, fantastic job, and were able to identify a fingerprint from a money
bag which Marie Harding had got when she'd exchanged the money for her trip to Australia.
Without the recovery of the fingerprint, without the fact, then, that Gonzalez already had an existing criminal record,
without those two things enabling us to identify him early on in the inquiry, this inquiry
could have ran on a-- for much, much, much longer, and in addition to that and more worryingly and concerningly,
so could have his murder spree. GEOFFREY WANSELL: And by noon that day, Gonzalez is arrested at Tottenham Court Road
Underground Station with at least one bloodstained 20-pound note on him. NARRATOR: September the 17th, 2004, less than 72 hours
after embarking on his murderous rampage, Daniel Gonzalez was in police custody.
PAUL CHESTON: Daniel Gonzalez's first appearance in court after his arrest was at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court,
where he had formally to appear in court in requirement with the law. But in an unprecedented scene, one I have never
seen in 30 years of covering the courts on a professional basis every day of my life,
he did not appear in court. The court, in terms of the magistrate, the clerk, the barristers, the police, the press
went down to the cells inside the court because he was too dangerous to be taken from his cell
up into open court. Very quickly, the police knew they had a man responsible for the three previous attacks
in the London area, but it still took time to piece together his previous trail through Portsmouth, which
was investigated by the Hampshire force, and the murder in Southwick, which was being investigated
by the Sussex force. NARRATOR: The police knew they had the man responsible for four heinous murders
and three brutal attacks. Gonzalez was charged but could not be put on trial until extensive psychiatric assessments were
completed. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Gonzalez is, of course, remanded in custody originally to Belmarsh but then before very long
to Broadmoor Secure Hospital. Gonzalez is now so out of control that he tries to kill himself in Broadmoor
by biting his arteries. Now, that is a-- a remarkable thing. One of the psychiatrists who dealt with him said he'd never
seen anyone bite themselves so fiercely nor so aggressively nor so determinedly, so desperate
was Gonzalez to end his life. NARRATOR: February 2006, 18 months later, the trial of Daniel Gonzalez began at the Old Bailey
in London. PAUL CHESTON: After the prolonged examination by a huge number of psychiatrists
and psychologists, he arrived at the Old Bailey for his trial and pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter
on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He claimed that he was a paranoid schizophrenic
at the time of the attacks and was so mentally ill that that lessened his criminal responsibility,
even though he admitted that he had, in fact, been the killer. ADAM HIBBERT: When they presented him in the dock,
I have a vivid memory of thinking how intimidating he looked. He had bulked up significantly from the time of his arrest
to the point of the trial. PAUL CHESTON: Over the years, many Old Bailey juries have had to consider the age-old question of,
is the defendant who is charged with murder bad, or is he mad? This was a case in which the lines between bad and mad
were seriously blurred. ADAM HIBBERT: The thing for me personally that stuck out around Daniel Gonzalez
was his eyes, piercing eyes. And to me, he had the eyes of a killer-- cold, heartless.
I do know that he had certain mental health issues, but nonetheless, he grew up into a man who
decided to go and ruthlessly take the lives of four people, try and take the lives of others.
And for me, he was the personification of evil. I think when we look back on-- on the police investigation, we can see just how quickly
the police stepped up and-- and tried to-- to catch this killer. So it was a very fearful time, I think,
and I think it was also a time when that stigma attached to-- to mental ill health started to increase
a little bit, you know, this-- this notion of the-- the, quote, "madman on the run."
And that hasn't done anything to help people with-- with mental illness. And I think when we've got cases like this,
we need to remember that they are very, very few and far between. Most people who have schizophrenia
will never harm another person. One of the most damning pieces of evidence that the prosecution produced for the Old
Bailey jury was Daniel Gonzalez' writings and his diaries. These showed exactly how coldly and callously
he was working his way through life in order to achieve his goal of becoming a serial killer.
ADAM HIBBERT: Whilst in court, Gonzalez was always flanked by two guards. He was an intimidating presence.
That must have had an impact on the family members who are watching this unfold and seeing the man that had taken
the life of their loved ones. PAUL CHESTON: The trial lasted only a matter of days,
and it was really on a small issue, which was, was he sufficiently mentally ill in order
to be not guilty of murder and just be committed to a mental hospital for manslaughter?
It's a single issue. And so the psychiatrists gave differing views, and the jury had to make up their mind
whether this constituted murder or manslaughter. In the end, they took only 15 minutes,
certainly less than an hour, to come to their unanimous view that this was murder.
NARRATOR: Daniel Gonzalez was sentenced to six life sentences. He would never be a free man again.
[somber music] GEOFFREY WANSELL: But the tragic story of Daniel Gonzalez is not finished.
He's returned to Broadmoor, and on the 9th of August, 2007, he kills himself using a broken CD case
cover to slit his arteries. He's in his room at Broadmoor. He's 27 years old. [dramatic music]
NARRATOR: Maybe Daniel Gonzalez no longer knew the difference between reality and fantasy.
Maybe his killing spree made sense to him, but it made no sense to his victims and their loved ones.
For them, Daniel Gonzalez is one of the world's most evil killers.

The story of the killer who took four lives during a chilling two-day killing spree in 2004 after being inspired by horror films.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers. New episodes including Lee Ford, Pawel Relowicz, John Shaw, John Allen Muhammad, Derrick Todd Lee and more.

Brief Summary

Daniel Gonzalez's 2004 killing spree left four dead, revealing the dark intersection of mental illness and violent media influence.

Key points

A Mother's Despair. Geoffrey Wansell shares a heartbreaking quote from Gonzalez's mother about seeking help.
The Perfect Storm. Daniel Gonzalez's mental health spirals out of control, leading to a tragic series of events.
The Horror Mask. Gonzalez finds a hockey mask reminiscent of Jason from 'Friday the 13th'.
The Murder of Marie Harding. Gonzalez brutally stabs Marie Harding, a beloved community member.
Gonzalez's Arrest. Less than 72 hours after his rampage, Gonzalez is arrested with bloodstained money.
Trial and Sentencing. Gonzalez pleads guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility but is convicted of murder.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Does my son have to kill somebody before he gets any help?

Geoffrey Wansell reflects on the tragic reality of Daniel's situation.

1:04WatchAug 10, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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