Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230142
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JACKSONVILLE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Gary Ray Bowles, 32, had been added Friday to the FBI's list of 10 Most Wanted Fugitives. Bowles was described by the FBI as someone who frequented gay bars, hustling gay men in exchange for lodging, household chores and sexual favors.
Bowles confessed to murders in Jacksonville, Daytona Beach and Hilliard in Florida; Atlanta and Savannah, Ga.; and Wheaton, Md., Sheriff Jim McMillan said at a news conference. Warrants already had been issued in three of the killings.
All of the victims had been severely beaten, bludgeoned and strangled. Some were shot.
``He has confessed to six and says that is all he did,'' McMillan said, declining to discuss a motive.
Bowles was arrested in Jacksonville Beach at a day-labor office for questioning in the slaying of a Jacksonville man whose body was found in his home Sunday. Bowles was using an alias he eventually dropped.
``He did not feel good about what he had done,'' said Jacksonville Sheriff's Detective J.P. Collins.
Bowles is charged with fleeing prosecution for the strangling death of a 72-year-old disabled veteran in Savannah, Ga.
He also has been charged with murder in two other cases: the strangulation death of a 39-year-old Silver Spring, Md., man and the shooting and strangling of a 37-year-old Hilliard, Fla., man.
Authorities said Bowles confessed to three other slayings, in Daytona Beach, Jacksonville and Atlanta.
Bowles has been arrested at least 14 times in Florida since 1981. Charges ranged from sexual battery and aggravated assault to robbery and violation of probation.
In 1982, Bowles was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to three years in prison.
by CNB