26 Facts About Joseph Danks

Joseph Danks's birth resulted from an intimate relationship between 42-year-old Edward White, the son of a successful entrepreneur, and his 17-year-old nanny Karen.

Joseph Danks's mother drank alcohol while pregnant, resulting in his premature birth two months earlier, with the baby weighing only two kilograms and having to spend four weeks in an incubator.

Still, after the second child's birth, the couple began arguing, leading to Leroy abandoning the family in December 1970 and Joseph Danks's mother remarrying to another man, Jean Walls.

In 1976, Joseph Danks returned to Bay City with his mother and stepfather, whereupon he got back into contact with his biological father and two half-brothers, Michael and Peter.

In 1977, Joseph Danks suffered two traffic accidents within several months, during one which he received an injury to the head.

The year after, Joseph Danks dropped out of school, left home for several months, and became a vagrant, hitchhiking from various cities to neighboring states.

Joseph Danks accused his mother and other relatives of trying to poison him, because of which he refused to eat any food prepared in the house and washed the dishes several times a day before consuming the food placed on them.

Joseph Danks refused any medical help, claiming that drug addiction was something normal in society, as he was convinced that President Ronald Reagan smoked 10,000 blunts a day.

In October 1982, Joseph Danks showed up at a New Jersey elementary school with torn clothes, for which he was taken to the police station.

Joseph Danks committed several petty offenses, for which he was forcibly confined to a mental hospital, from which he escaped two weeks later.

Joseph Danks was released at the end of his treatment and returned home to his mother.

In June 1986, Joseph Danks was arrested for illegally possessing a sawed-off shotgun.

Eight days later, Joseph Danks committed a double murder, first stabbing 58-year-old Isaac Davis on South Menlo Avenue and then, less than three hours later, attacked 55-year-old John Charles Coble on West 9th Street, inflicting several stabs with the knife, killing him.

Two days later, Joseph Danks killed again, stabbing a homeless man on West 8th.

Once at the police station, Joseph Danks renounced his Miranda rights and confessed to the six killings in a recorded confession.

Joseph Danks's arrest was announced at a press conference held by Police Chief Daryl Gates.

In March 1988, Joseph Danks was asked by the prosecutor's office to accept a plea deal, but he refused.

Joseph Danks accused the administration of psychologically manipulating him through music broadcast on the prison camera.

Joseph Danks constantly kept his cell tidy, brushing his teeth on average six to ten times daily.

Joseph Danks underwent a neurological examination for a suspected cyst in his brain; however, no such thing was found.

At about 1 AM on September 21,1990, Joseph Danks attracted the attention of a prison guard by claiming that he had killed his cellmate.

Early that same morning, while being interviewed on what had happened, Joseph Danks stated that he had strangled Holt with a rope made from a sheet late at night, just three hours after he had been placed in his cell and Holt had fallen asleep.

Joseph Danks feigned insanity, claiming that voices of divine origin had ordered him to kill the man, but this claim was not believed, and he was charged with first-degree murder.

Joseph Danks took the prisoner out and extinguished the fire, which Danks had lit up with papers and newspapers he had been collecting.

Joseph Danks threatened the judge and prosecutors and told members of the jury that he openly welcomed being executed.

Joseph Danks suffered from insomnia, screaming at night and keeping other inmates awake, and frequently attacked prison guards, whom he doused in his urine.