The son of a Baptist minister, born in Jackson, Mississippi, during 1966, Davis had developed a sexual fixation on older women by the time he reached his teens. His special hangout was the Jackson public library, where he would sit by the hour, staring at women, sometimes reaching through the stacks to fondle unsuspecting victims as they browsed for books. In January 1985, librarians called police on a patron's complaint that Davis was crawling around on the floor, peeking up her skirt and touching her legs. Arrested for disorderly conduct, he was also carrying two stolen credit cards when police checked his pockets for weapons. The Jackson charges added up to misdemeanor time, but it was still humiliating, and Davis was packed off to Georgia shortly after his arrest, enrolling in the Job Corps program at Albany. The change of scene made no apparent difference, and Davis was soon up to his old tricks, dropping his pencil in class as an excuse to wriggle under desks and fondle women's legs. On at least one occasion, he reportedly exposed himself in the classroom, and Albany police later accused Job Corps leaders of covering up his escapades, in order to spare themselves embarrassment. On October 17, 1986, 59-year-old Lucy Spillers was killed in her Albany home, one block from the warehouse occupied by Job Corps trainees. On discovery, Spillers was tied to the foot of her bed with a rope tight around her neck. She had been sexually mutilated with a butcher knife. By November 1986, Davis was back home in Jackson, and the murders followed him like a brooding shadow. On November 18, 81-year-old Mary Dewitt was sexually assaulted and beaten to death in her home. Bertha Tanner, 83, met a similar fate on December 11, and 80-year-old Addie Reid joined the list on March 31, 1987. A 74-year-old survivor, attacked on March 25, provided police with a vague description of the suspect, but another month would pass before they ran him down. On April 17, 1987, Davis got careless with a home burglary, leaving behind evidence that led to his arrest three days later. By May 1, he was facing three counts of murder and one of assault in his native Jackson, with police from Albany preparing further charges in the Spillers case. Conviction, when it came, would take him off the streets for life.