WASHINGTON, May 24, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A serial killer was put to death on
Thursday in the US state of Florida, 35 years after he raped and killed at
least eight young women in the Tampa Bay region.
Robert “Bobby” Long, 65, was executed at 6:55 pm (2255 GMT) at the Florida
State Prison in Raiford, the state’s Department of Corrections said.
“The execution took place without incident,” Michelle Glady, the
department’s director of communications, said in a statement.
He was sentenced to death in September 1985 for killing a woman the year
before.
During the investigation, he confessed to killing seven others as well as
to committing multiple rapes, according to the execution order.
The then recently divorced father of two began his violent spree in early
1980s.
He first chose his victims from the classifieds section in local
newspapers. He contacted women who were selling items, went to their homes
and raped them before fleeing.
That earned him the nickname of “classified ad rapist.”
In 1984, Long started murdering. Over the course of eight months, he
kidnapped at least as many women, tied them up, raped them, choked them or
slit their throats before abandoning their bodies.
He kidnapped a 17-year-old girl who was returning home on her bike in
September of that year. After raping her repeatedly, she managed to convince
him to let her go, and later notified police.
Since his sentencing, Long made several failed appeals. His last request,
filed with the Supreme Court, failed as well.
His lawyers had highlighted that their client suffered from epilepsy, along
with other reasons to stay his execution.
They said the cocktail of lethal drugs would fail and could cause Long to
suffer cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the US Constitution.
Long’s execution was the eighth so far this year in the United States.