By Chuck Hustmyre

(Continued) 

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PURE EVIL

During the next few days, Gillis confessed to the three killings with which he'd been charged, plus five more. The murders went all the way back to 1994.

For Gillis it had been a decade of death.

In July, Gillis sat for a jailhouse interview with Advocate reporter Josh Noel. During the 10-minute interview, conducted by telephone while the two men stared at each other through a small window of thick, shatterproof glass, Gillis again admitted to killing eight women. When the reporter asked why he had killed them, Gillis said, "I don't know," then added, "Stress, maybe."

Asked how he felt about the women he killed, Gillis said he felt contempt for them. "It's like they were already dead to me."

During the summer of 2004, Gillis wrote three letters to a friend of Donna Bennett. In the letters he expressed remorse for the killings. He also described Donna's last moments. "She was so drunk it only took about a minute and a half to succumb to unconsciousness and then death," Gillis wrote. "Honestly, her last words were, 'I can't breathe.'"

Gillis went on to explain how he felt the night he strangled Donna. "I was in a real bad place. I was pure evil that night. No love, no compassion, no faith, no mercy, no hope."

In September, a judge ruled that the letters could be used at Gillis's upcoming trial, which is expected to begin in early 2007.

After Gillis's arrest two years ago, Sheriff's Office Col. Greg Phares was clear about what he thought should be Gillis's ultimate fate. "The goal now is to convict this man and hopefully to execute him."

Coming soon, more about Sean Vincent Gillis's bizarre behavior and the murders he is accused of committing.

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Contact Chuck Hustmyre at chuck3174@yahoo.com

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