Confessed murderer admits killing four more women

St. Petersburg Times

August 14, 1974

Bernard Eugene Giles, who already has confessed to one slaying, has pleaded guilty of killing four other young women and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms at hard labor.

Giles, 21, was declared a mentally disturbed sex offender at his first murder trial in April, and Brevard Circuit Judge David U. Strawn reaffiermed that ruling Monday.

Strawn ordered Giles sent to a state hospital for treatment as a mentally disturbed sex offender. Under state statute, Giles will not begin serving time in prison until he has been declared cured by a state psychiatrists.

Giles has confessed to killing five Titusville-area women, whose partly clad and descomposed bodies were found over a two-month period late last year in orange groves near here.

Giles confessed Monday to killing Paula Hamric, 22, a Titusville waitress; Carolyn Bennett, 17, of Mims; Sharon Wimer, 14, and Kristi Melton, 15, both of Titusville.

At his first murder trial, Giles confessed to killing Nancy Gerry, 18, of Titusville, and faces a life sentence in the slaying. He also faces sentences for armed robbery of a Cocoa woman and for attempted rape.

SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: T MOTIVE: Sex.

MO: Necrophile slayer of female victims.

DISPOSITION: Life terms on four counts, 1974; life term on another count + 15 years on lesser felonies, 1977.

Bernard Eugene Giles