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NY Post
New York Post
11 Apr 2023


NextImg:Survivor of Florida ‘Ninja Killer’ Louis Gaskin recalls ‘terror’ of 1989 shooting spree ahead of execution

A woman who survived a 1989 shooting spree at the hands of Louis Gaskin has recalled the trauma and “terror” of the events as Florida corrections officials prepare to execute the killer.

Gaskin, dubbed “Ninja Killer,” is slated to be executed Wednesday for the murders of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels and attacks on Mary “Noreen” Rector, and her then-husband, Joseph.

He was ultimately convicted of murder and attempted murder.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, he told a psychologist after his arrest, “The devil had more of a hold than God did.”

Gaskin was slated to be executed at 6 p.m. local time Wednesday. News4Jax, based in Florida, reported Monday there was still a chance the Supreme Court could halt his execution.

He had appealed his death sentence several times prior, but the state and US Supreme courts rejected the attempts. Records showed Tuesday that he was being housed in the Florida State Prison, a maximum security facility.

Ahead of the execution, Noreen Rector told the New York Post that she was invited to attend the execution, but did not plan to do so, and had received inquiries from news media.

“Consequently, I have had to reflect, relive, remember all that has happened since that night,” she wrote in an email.

Louis Gaskin in an undated mugshot photo.
AP

Gaskin, now 56, carried out a series of heinous attacks on couples in December 1989, including one that ended in the deaths of a husband and wife.

Gaskin, dressed all in black, went randomly searching for victims on the night of Dec. 20, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

He first encountered the home of Robert and Georgette Sturmfels, who were lounging in the living room of their secluded Palm Coast home at the time, the News-Journal reported.

Gaskin, who lived in Bunnell, about 20 minutes away, stood outside the house, pointed his .22-caliber rifle at it and opened fire, according to multiple reports.

Gaskin ended up shooting 56-year-old Robert Sturmfels multiple times, then struck 55-year-old Georgett Sturmfel as she fled from the room, reports and court records said.

Gaskin followed up the carnage by entering the home, where he executed each victim at point-blank range, according to filings.

Florida State Prison
Florida State Prison
Google Maps

“Mrs. Sturmfels crawled into the hallway, and Gaskin pursued her around the house until he saw her through the door and shot her again,” said records filed in Florida Supreme Court state. “Gaskin then pulled out a screen, broke the window, and entered the home.”

“He fired one more bullet into each of the Sturmfels’ heads and covered the bodies with blankets,” the documents said.

Before he left, Gaskin grabbed jewelry, cash, video recorders, a clock and lamps — some of them Christmas gifts that would eventually help doom him, the reports said.

Flagler County Sheriff’s Sr. Cmdr. Mark Carman told the News-Journal that Gaskin later compared his victims’ gasps to the sound of a dying hog.

After murdering the Sturmfels, Gaskin made his way to the Rector home. According to the News-Journal, Gaskin cut the couple’s phone line and threw items onto their roof in an apparent attempt to get them to come out of their home.

The pair emerged, and Gaskin shot Joseph Rector once. But the couple was able to make it to their nearby car and escape. They drove to a hospital — even as Gaskin shot at their car, according to reports. Joseph Rector narrowly survived the attack.

Florida State Prison
Florida State Prison
Brad McClenny/The Gainesville Sun via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Gaskin was nabbed after an informant stepped forward and told authorities he had the rifle used in the shootings.

The man, whose sister was dating Gaskin at the time, added that the killer had all but confessed to him.

The man told authorities that Gaskin “had saved some of that stuff to give to [his girlfriend] for Christmas” after having “jacked” the gifts and had left the victims “stiff.”

Rector told The Post she did not support Gaskin’s execution and would instead “be satisfied if Louis remained in prison, without the possibility of release.”

She ended the email with: “RIP Louis.”

In the message, she described how it took her “a long time to come to grips with what happened that night.”

“I’m sure I had PTSD from fear, the terror of the phone lines being cut, the gunshot through the window, having to run outside and drive to the hospital while shots were being fired at us, sharing what we thought would be our last words, just trying to figure out what the hell had just happened to us,” she wrote.

“Equally traumatic,” she wrote, was the way the local sheriff’s department treated her and her husband before Gaskin’s capture 10 days later.

“Imagine, how frightening it was to not know who attacked us, and having the agency responsible for the investigation and our protection treating us like the suspect.”

Rector said “time and therapy” helped her recover from the experience. Her husband, whom she later divorced from, had a harder time.

“He developed Hepatitis C years later, from blood he received because of his injuries,” she went on. “The therapy for this illness was months of intensive chemo like treatments. Joe was bitter.”

In speaking to the psychologist after his arrest, Gaskin reportedly said his guilt “was always there.”

“I knew that I was wrong,” he said, according to the News-Journal. “I wasn’t insane.”