A former short order cook who confessed to 41 murders was executed this morning in Florida's electric chair, the state's first execution since flames flared from a condemned man's mask a year ago.
In the first of four electrocutions scheduled for the next eight days, Gerald Stano, 46, was executed for killing a 17-year-old hitchhiker in December 1973.Stano made no final statement and stared straight ahead as he was strapped in, mustering only a small smile toward his attorney.
Stano confessed that he choked the girl repeatedly and dumped her body in a drainage ditch before cleaning up and going roller skating. Stano later confessed to 41 murders in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Most of his victims were prostitutes, runaways and teenagers.
If Stano's confession is to be believed, he was responsible for more deaths than were some far better-known serial killers.
John Wayne Gacy Jr., was put to death in Illinois on 1994. He was convicted in 1980 of killing 33 young men and boys.
Theodore R. Bundy was convicted of three Florida slayings and executed in 1989. Authorities considered him a suspect in as many as 36 killings, some in Utah.