Behind the Mask: The True Story of the Gainesville Ripper

He watched. He waited. He killed. And then he vanished.

In the summer of 1990, the peaceful college town of Gainesville, Florida, became the setting for one of the most horrifying killing sprees in American history. Five young students, full of dreams and promise, were found savagely murdered in their own homes-stabbed, mutilated, and posed in grotesque positions meant to shock, terrify, and confuse investigators. Panic swept through the town. Students fled. The media descended. A serial killer was on the loose.

But this was no ordinary murderer.

Danny Rolling, later dubbed The Gainesville Ripper, was a drifter with a violent past and a disturbing obsession with fame, power, and death. Raised in a broken home under the abuse of a sadistic police officer father, Rolling's descent into darkness was long and tortured. His crimes weren't random-they were rehearsed, ritualistic, and calculated. And they were only part of a longer string of atrocities.

This book tells the true story behind the mask that would later inspire the fictional killer Ghostface from the Scream movie franchise. From Danny Rolling's tormented childhood and early crimes to the Gainesville murders, nationwide manhunt, shocking courtroom confessions, and final execution, Behind the Mask exposes the truth that Hollywood could only hint at.

This isn't fiction.
This isn't a movie.
This is what really happened.