- In October of 1998, atlanta was a very vibrant city.
It was operating on the heels of tremendous economic boom.
- And the hilton was in the heart of everything.
This wasn't the type of hotel that they ever imagined
That this kind of crime would occur in.
[dramatic music]
- Something terrible's happened.
My dad's been killed.
- What they found was shocking.
It was horrific.
- There were three male individuals
Who were lying face down.
- You should be safe in your high-end hotel room, period.
And that certainly wasn't the case.
- That individual that was with phillip dover
At the elevator becomes extremely important.
- Just three days prior to the hilton murder,
Another victim was killed, robbed,
And left in his underwear.
- So now have four bodies, two different locations,
Both in hotels, both robbed,
And both shot with the same pistol.
- Law enforcement now realize they have
A serial killer on their hands.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[sirens wailing]
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- On the threshold of the 21st century,
Atlanta is well into its transformation
Into an epicenter of film, finance,
And most prominently, tourism.
- We were riding an all-time high.
We had just come off of a successful olympics.
The falcons were doing well.
- Number one!
- We were hustling and bustling with a lot of conventions.
- The shiny center of atlanta's renaissance
And beckoning people to the city
Is the downtown skyline,
Dominated by the upscale hilton hotel.
- It was immediately recognizable,
And you always knew that you were in the city of atlanta
When you saw that particular building.
- It purports to be the largest hotel in the southeast
With 1,250 rooms.
- Almost 30 stories,
Thousands of rooms,
Just blocks from centennial park,
Surrounded by restaurants.
- And on Sunday, October 18,
Atlanta is brimming with tourist energy.
- On that particular weekend, there were a bunch of events
Taking place within the city.
We had the saints versus the falcons,
And they were fighting for a playoff spot.
You had georgia tech versus virginia.
And then we also had the blue cross convention.
So we literally had hundreds of thousands of people
Within the city.
- But at 9:00 a.M. On this fall morning,
A maid at the hilton hotel discovers what happens
When tourists become targets.
[tense music]
- The maid walks into the room to do her cleaning.
Sees three dead bodies on the floor.
She steps back out, calls the hotel security people,
And immediately calls 911.
[camera shutter clicking]
- There were three male individuals
Who were lying face down, shoulder to shoulder,
In their underwear
With what appeared to be obvious,
Huge gunshot wounds to the back of their heads,
Which had pretty much opened up their skulls.
It was one of the most horrifying scenes
I had ever seen in my professional career.
It was something that I would choose not to ever see again.
- One african american male, two white males.
They each received two gunshot wounds to the head.
Either the back of the head or the left side of the head.
- The team is unable to locate a gun,
But that's not all that's missing from the scene.
- The victims were missing ids.
It appeared that they were robbed.
- The room was a mess.
Each one of their wallets and personal items such as
Watches, rings had been taken.
- Getting robbed inside a luxury atlanta hotel room
Is highly unusual, but then police uncover something
Even more bizarre.
- There was no forced entry into the room.
- Because there was no signs of forced entry,
We ultimately believed that the victims
Allowed the individual to come into the rooms.
- Did the victims in the room know the killer or killers?
♪ ♪
We were left trying to figure out,
Why these three individuals?
Why this hotel?
And who would have done something so horrific?
The crime scene unit arrives.
One of the first things it does is,
It begins to collect evidence.
Blood and hair and fiber evidence,
As well as photograph the room and take measurements
So that the room can be recreated at a later time
If necessary.
- But the examination did not reveal
Any dna evidence or fingerprints.
Then what we were looking for was any ballistic evidence
Associated with the murders.
- There were shell casings that had come from
A .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun,
And all of the shell casings matched each other
And had been fired from the same gun.
- After discovering the same weapon
Was used to kill all three men,
Detectives now need to know,
Who are these victims?
- It became important for us to try to go back and identify
Who these individuals were.
Not knowing who your victims are,
You don't really have a starting point
In your investigation.
♪ ♪
- With the men's wallets and ids missing,
Investigators reach out to hilton management
To try to identify the three victims.
- One of the first things that he was able to obtain
Was the hotel registration
So that we could positively identify
The occupants of the room.
- We know that the room is registered to mr. Shropshire.
He is described by staff at the desk
Of the hotel as the african american male
That is on the floor.
- Detectives confirm that gerrold shropshire
Checked into the hilton the day before
With two other men.
- Each of the three individuals had signed in
As being guests of the room,
And so we immediately had their names.
- Based on the information that we received,
The individuals are phillip dover,
Ronald gutkowski,
And gerrold shropshire.
- While detectives start tracking down the next of kin,
Atlanta pd and hotel security try to keep
The incident under wraps.
- Most guests were completely oblivious
To what was going on.
This crime had happened on the 24th floor,
And there was no obvious crime scene tape in the hotel lobby.
But then when word started getting out,
Guests became worried about
What was going on in this hotel.
Was it an isolated incident?
Was someone still there lurking around?
Were they gonna be next?
- As pressure mounts for the team to find answers,
They ask hilton security if they can tell them
When the victims last entered their room.
- We requested through the hotel security
A printout of the card swipes at the door,
A timeline of when the keys were used last
Prior to discovery of the bodies.
- So the key card information proved to be
Very, very important, because that allowed the detectives
To come up with a time frame
To pinpoint the time in which someone
Had actually entered the room.
- We were able to determine a specific time.
2:00 in the morning was the last time
That the key card was used in the door.
- Detectives now know that the victims were killed
Somewhere between 2:00 a.M. And 9:00 a.M.
When the bodies were discovered.
They immediately begin to canvass
The adjacent hotel floors to search for witnesses.
- There's surrounding rooms around the location
Where the victims were ultimately murdered,
And they went and knocked on some of the doors.
- We were able to locate one individual who indicated
That he heard what he believed to be gunshots
About 2:30 in the morning,
But he didn't report them. Didn't call anybody.
So we were able to make the calculation
And determine the actual timing of the murders,
And that was very helpful.
[gunshots]
- Investigators have now pinpointed an exact time
Of the murders: 2:30 a.M.
But they are not able to uncover any eyewitnesses
Until they notice a witness of another kind--
Surveillance cameras.
- The elevator bank in the hilton
Was under video surveillance.
- I directed our investigators to go pull
The last 48 hours of video footage from the hotel itself.
- Unlike most other crime scenes in 1998,
The hotel's extensive surveillance system
Could give investigators the advantage they need
To quickly identify their killer.
- We very strongly felt that the image of the perpetrator
Was captured on that videotape.
The video surveillance tape could be
The most important piece of evidence
For solving this case.
♪ ♪
- He had received tickets from his boss
To attend the atlanta falcons-saints game.
- This person killed these people at the hotel
Execution-style, stole their falcons tickets.
- Now we have images of the murder suspect.
- It was very scary for tourists in atlanta.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- Atlanta detectives are investigating the murders
Of gerrold shropshire, ronnie gutkowski, and phillip dover,
All executed in their hotel room
In the high-end downtown hilton hotel.
With no witnesses or physical evidence,
The team hopes the hotel surveillance cameras
Captured images of the killer.
♪ ♪
- We requested any and all video surveillance
For the hotel, hotel perimeter, the lobby,
Anything that they had cameras pointed at.
- Hotel security tells detectives it will take days
To retrieve all the security footage,
Leaving the identity of the murderer a mystery.
- In 1998, the technology wasn't as good as it is today.
It would take a while to be processed.
- While they wait on surveillance tapes,
Investigators reach out to the victims' family members.
They start with calling gerrold shropshire's
Family in florida.
- I remember sitting on my bed and the detective
Telling me that there had been an incident
At the atlanta hilton, and then asked me
If I knew gerrold shropshire.
And I said I did, that's my dad.
And he said, well, I'm calling because he had your number
And name by the bedside,
That there had been an incident,
That him and two other men were in the room
And had been--been killed.
♪ ♪
My dad didn't have any enemies where
He would be murdered and shot in the back of the head
And left for dead.
That did not compute.
It didn't make any sense.
[somber music]
Everyone says I was a daddy's girl.
My dad was fun-loving and charismatic.
People loved him because he also was just that person
You could go to and depend on,
Who would love on you when you felt like
You didn't deserve it.
My dad was born and raised in new jersey,
And he was living in orlando, florida.
In 1998, my dad was in the trucking industry.
He had been in the trucking industry for years
And was working, I think, as a coordinator.
He always had friends everywhere we went.
His colleagues were always an extension of the family.
- Gerrold's family reveals that
Fellow victim ronnie gutkowski was his co-worker in florida,
So investigators call ronnie's family for more information.
- Ronnie gutkowski was a successful executive
With a shipping company.
Mr. Ronald gutkowski lived with his family,
His wife and his children, in florida.
He was also a devout catholic who was a very active member
In his church community.
- Ronnie's family explains that he and gerrold
Traveled up to atlanta on a business trip
To meet with phillip dover, the third victim.
- Phillip was born here in georgia,
And he lived in gainesville,
Probably an hour north of atlanta.
Phillip was a people person. He was a great brother.
He got along with everybody. Never really met a stranger.
- He was a high-level executive
From a small town here in georgia.
- He carried his self in a way that,
If you were in a bad mood, you know,
He'd lighten your spirits.
He was all about, you know, being happy
And wanting the people around him to be happy.
- All three were very prominent business people
In their own communities.
They were family men and had traveled to atlanta
That particular weekend to consummate a business deal.
After speaking with each one of their families,
It was quickly discovered that these guys
Were upstanding citizens
And there was no immediate motivation
For them being targeted as murder victims.
[dramatic music]
- While the team can't find a motive behind the shootings,
Phillip's family provides them with a potential lead.
- We were able to determine that phillip dover
Actually received tickets from his boss
To attend the atlanta falcons-saints game.
- The weekend was to culminate with attending
The falcons football game that was gonna be held
That Sunday afternoon at 1:00
At the georgia dome here in atlanta.
- And once law enforcement found out that
Phillip was given tickets, immediately they start looking
For the tickets in the room.
The tickets were all gone.
- And so the questions that detectives had was,
What happened to the tickets?
- Detectives realized that the falcons game
Is happening at that very moment.
Investigators instantly reach out to phillip's boss
To find out the ticket seat numbers.
- It became extremely important for us
To determine if, in fact, those tickets were being used.
- Is somebody sitting at the georgia dome
Watching the football game as we are doing
This crime scene investigation?
- Detectives immediately leave the crime scene
And rush to the georgia dome,
Hoping to track down the killer.
- The perpetrators could be sitting in mr. Dover's seats
At the very time that the crime scene is being processed.
- By the time we had been made aware
Of the seat location and the section,
The game was over.
- Determined to find their killer,
Investigators tracked down the georgia dome security.
- They learned that the tickets had been scanned in and used
On the day of the game.
♪ ♪
- The fact that this person killed these people
At the hotel execution-style, stole their falcons tickets,
And then went to the game, you knew that
You had a cold-hearted killer.
- Now knowing that the killer went to the game,
Investigators ask if it's possible
They were caught on camera.
- Detectives were able to retrieve
From the security department there at the georgia dome
Video surveillance footage for the game itself.
- At that point, they knew that if they could see
Who was sitting in the seats, they might be able
To figure out who was the killer.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- The city of atlanta is stunned
By the brutal murder of three prominent businessmen
At the downtown hilton hotel.
The only clue to the killer's identity
Is the set of tickets to the falcons football game
That were stolen from the victims.
Investigators are hoping the perpetrator
Was caught on camera, watching the game
From the victims' seats.
- The video footage was reviewed,
And they were really trying to see if they could see
The identity of the person who they suspected
Had committed these crimes.
- Based on the video that was provided to us,
You cannot see the seat assignments
That we were looking for.
- Ultimately, that led to a dead end
From that portion of the investigation.
- As the mystery deepens, reports of the murders
Hit the airwaves.
- The falcons-saints game is what brought the three victims
To town, but as the season's largest crowd cheered on,
Ronnie gutkowski, gerrold shropshire,
And phillip dover had already been found dead,
Shot to death in their downtown hilton hotel room.
- It was just surreal to stand in front of the hilton
And talk about three people being murdered inside.
And then it was during this amazing weekend of fun,
And it really turned out to be such a tragedy.
- These are things that you don't think
Will happen to you, will happen to your loved one.
And you should be safe in your, you know, high-end hotel room.
And that certainly wasn't the case.
- Because of where the murders occurred,
We had media coverage from all over.
I mean, literally, it was nationwide.
It was important for us to make sure
That we got the word out, that we were attempting
To solve this case as fast and as efficiently
As we possibly could.
♪ ♪
- There were no suspects and there were no arrests.
And for the atlanta community,
It was a really terrifying experience.
- They were used to seeing this kind of crime
In other kinds of hotel establishments,
But not the hilton.
It was very scary for tourists in atlanta.
- 48 hours into the investigation,
Detectives may get their answer as hilton's security
Delivers their surveillance video
From the night of the murders.
- When detectives start scouring the videotape
From the hotel, they actually see the three men checking in.
Detectives also notice that around 2:00 a.M. On October 18,
The day of the crime, they notice phillip dover.
- The video surveillance shows mr. Phillip dover
Alive and walking into the elevator bay area...
- Carrying what he had just purchased from the snack bar
In the lobby of the hotel...
- And actually waiting
For one of the elevators to arrive.
- Based on the purchase and then
The card swipe at the room, we know what the time is.
So phillip dover is standing at the elevator
At about 2:04, 2:07 a.M.
- Mr. Dover does not appear to be alone.
He appears to be having a conversation
With an unidentified black male who is wearing a baseball hat.
- And after they are done conversing,
They enter into the elevator together.
- Phillip goes to the 24th floor.
We know the key card was used within minutes
Of us seeing him get on the elevator.
That's the last key usage of the night.
♪ ♪
That individual that was with phillip dover
At the elevator becomes extremely important.
- When the detectives allow the tape to continue to roll,
Approximately an hour later, what they see is,
This same unidentified black male wearing a baseball hat
Exit the elevator and walk through the elevator bay area
Alone, carrying a suitcase, a garment bag,
And an ice cooler as he exited the hotel.
- So now we have images of potentially a murder suspect.
- Unfortunately, back in '98, the quality of videos,
It wasn't the best.
Law enforcement knew that this was possibly
Their first big break in this case,
Having this person on camera.
They had to figure out, who is this guy?
- We were determined to see if we could find a source
That could enhance the video.
- They actually sent the videotape
To the national aeronautical space agency
That has some of the most highly technical equipment
Known to mankind, and to see whether or not
They could look at this footage and enhance it.
We were looking to see if they
Could actually identify the face
Of this unidentified black male.
- If they could identify who this man was,
They could figure out who was the killer.
Atlanta law enforcement had passed the photos
All around the country.
- I got a call from the memphis, tennessee,
Sheriff's department.
They had probable cause to arrest the driver,
And he was taken into custody.
- In the vehicle is a .45 caliber
Semi-automatic pistol.
- It was the exact type of gun
That was used in the murders.
♪ ♪
- Detectives investigating the murders of three businessmen
At the downtown atlanta hilton have just discovered
A blurry image in the hotel surveillance footage
Who they believe could be their killer.
The team is hoping that nasa can clarify the image
To help them id the suspect.
[tense music]
- Unfortunately, after several attempts,
A positive identification was not able to be made
From the analysis done at nasa.
But detectives got some good news
As a result of the analysis of the videotape.
Nasa was able to tell us the approximate height
And the approximate weight of the perpetrator.
- If you take the triangulation of the individual standing
At the door and then the size of the door frame itself,
There's a calculation that can be made
To determine an approximate height
Of the individual.
- He was a tall black man in khaki pants and a ball cap.
- As investigators scour the city for suspects
Matching the killer's description,
City hall attempts damage control.
- Leading tourism officials are trying to emphasize
That the tightest security measures
Could not have prevented the crime.
- It's not a good look when three tourists end up
Getting murdered in your city, so the importance to expedite
The investigation is there.
It's one of those where every hour of the day matters,
So you work as long and as hard as you need to
To get to a successful conclusion
So that the perception of the city of atlanta in 1998,
You don't want it to be that it's unsafe for tourists.
- The fulton county district attorney's office
Received a tremendous amount of pressure,
Not only from the chief of police,
But also the mayor's office with trying
To identify a suspect for this horrible crime.
- Atlanta had just made a name for itself as being
One of the top convention cities in the country,
And the last thing you want people to think is that
We had some sort of killer on the loose in atlanta,
Right in the middle of our hotel and business action.
- In 1998, these probably were the only tourists
That got killed in the city of atlanta,
So it's a big news story.
- Every day since the discovery of the bodies
There at the hilton hotel seemed to last an eternity.
- Detectives work every angle of the case,
Reaching out to confidential informants
And following up on even the smallest lead.
- Atlanta investigators say
They're determined to crack the case,
But right now they're not sure what direction to go.
Police will only say they haven't ruled anything out.
- It just seemed like this was possibly
About to be a cold case.
♪ ♪
- After several days of coming up empty in the atlanta area,
The team casts a wider net, reaching out
To police departments nationwide
To be on the lookout
For anyone possessing items from the three victims,
Carrying a .45 caliber weapon, or matching the description
Of the man seen on the surveillance footage.
- Getting this person in custody becomes extremely
Important to us because of the potential
For more violence and more execution-style murders.
[camera shutter clicking]
- Finally, the bolo pays off when atlanta police get a call
From memphis, tennessee.
- Two weeks later, Halloween weekend,
I got a phone call that was the most important phone call
I had received thus far in the case.
It was a call from the shelby county sheriff's department,
Memphis, tennessee, indicating that
They had conducted a traffic stop.
A 38-year-old black male was driving a vehicle
And had been pulled over for speeding.
- The officers ask if there's any firearms
Or illegal contraband in the vehicle.
The driver indicates that there is a firearm,
A gun in the vehicle,
And it's a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol.
[gunshot]
- It was the exact type of gun that was used
In the atlanta hilton murders.
And because atlanta law enforcement
Had passed all around the country the still photos
From nasa, this memphis police officer
Thinks that this person that they've pulled over
Looks like the guy in the pictures.
So because the memphis police officer
Was a bit suspect about this particular driver
And he knows that there is a weapon in the car,
He investigated the vehicle and searched the vehicle.
- Amongst the items that were recovered from the vehicle
Were the driver's licenses for mr. Phillip dover,
Mr. Ronald gutkowski,
And mr. Gerrold shropshire.
- Memphis police reach out to atlanta police
And they tell them, we may have found your murderer.
♪ ♪
- After weeks of searching for a lead
In the brutal triple murder of three men
At the atlanta hilton hotel, a suspicious man has just
Been pulled over during a routine traffic stop
In memphis, tennessee.
The suspect not only matches the physical description
From the nasa images, but he was found
With a .45 caliber pistol, the same kind
Used in the killings.
And he had credit cards and ids from all three victims.
- The memphis police department called us,
And they relayed that this was an individual that we may want
To talk to with respect to our triple homicide
Murder investigation in atlanta.
- This weekend, an apparent break in the case.
The suspect originally gave police an alias.
Police say his real name is timothy carl dawson.
- We were able to find a long list of violent crimes
That he had been arrested for in the past.
It became extremely important for us to extradite him
Back to georgia so that we could
Further our investigation.
- Timothy dawson is transferred to atlanta.
Detectives sit him down to see if he can explain
Why he was found with the victim's ids.
- Dawson was very casual about the whole interview process.
It didn't faze him that he was being questioned
About multiple murders.
- Timothy carl dawson still refuses to confess.
- He was adamant that it wasn't him,
So now we're going with just physical evidence.
We're not gonna rely on timothy dawson saying he did it.
We're going to attempt to prove it
Based on physical evidence that we've recovered.
- With dawson denying knowing the victims
Or having any involvement in the murders,
Police focus their efforts on the evidence
From the crime scene.
- The firearm that was recovered
From the glove compartment of the vehicle
Is matched ballistically as the murder weapon
To the triple homicide at the hilton hotel.
- But the ballistics aren't the only thing linking
The gun to the murders.
- The actual dna from mr. Dover, mr. Gutkowski,
And mr. Shropshire were found in the muzzle of that gun...
Concluding without any shadow of a doubt
That this was actually the weapon
That was used to take their lives.
[gunshot]
- From the very beginning, law enforcement
Wanted to make a dna match, and they finally got it.
[tense music]
- And the clothing of mr. Timothy carl dawson,
Which included a dark baseball hat,
Similar to the one that could be seen
In the video surveillance tape there at the hotel,
Had been recovered from the trunk of the car.
- The hat that dawson was wearing was tested,
And the dna came back with mr. Shropshire's blood on it.
- The dna in the gun, the hat,
Overwhelmingly puts him at the crime scene
At the time of the crime.
- The evidence against dawson is overwhelming,
So much so that investigators must ask,
Is this the first time he's committed such a crime?
- The detectives in the hilton case,
They went to other jurisdictions to find out,
Do you have any crimes that looks remotely similar
To what happened at the hilton?
And sure enough, just three days prior
To the hilton murder, just a few miles away
From downtown atlanta in college park at a hotel,
Another victim was killed, robbed,
And left in his underwear.
Law enforcement figured, this can't be a coincidence.
- We got a copy of the file and discovered that
The victim is found in a hotel room.
He's shot with a large-caliber pistol,
And his id is also missing, and he's been robbed as well.
[camera shutter clicking]
- And sure enough, he was left in his underwear,
Dead at the hotel in college park.
One of the first things that they had done
Was to get these bullet casings tested
To see if, in fact, there was any similarity
Between the college park case and the hilton case.
And sure enough, the ballistics test revealed
That this gun was used in both crimes.
- So now we have four bodies, two different locations,
Both in hotels, both robbed,
And both shot with the same pistol.
- Law enforcement now realize they have
A serial killer on their hands.
- Timothy carl dawson was charged
With four counts of murder, as well as armed robbery,
Aggravated assault, and theft.
- In November 2002, timothy dawson goes on trial
For the murders of phillip dover,
Ronnie gutkowski, gerrold shropshire,
And ladaris hawkins.
- The prosecution's theory of the case
Was that timothy carl dawson was
A vicious homicidal predator
That chose his victims randomly.
- Rucker explains that dawson struck up
A conversation with phillip dover
In the lobby of the hilton hotel.
The two men then rode the elevator to the 24th floor.
- It appears that the victims in this case
Let timothy carl dawson into the hotel room...
And at some point, he produced a handgun,
Ordered them to strip down to their undergarments,
And laid them out in between the two beds.
After collecting all of the victims' personal effects,
Began to execute the victims.
♪ ♪
- I personally felt very good about the facts
And the circumstances of the case.
There were pieces of evidence that I felt
Were very, very compelling and served to prove
That timothy carl dawson was absolutely responsible
For these horrific murders.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Timothy carl dawson is on trial
For murdering four men, three of them
In the downtown atlanta hilton hotel.
[gunshot]
With overwhelming evidence proving his guilt,
The prosecution lays out their case
While dawson steadfastly maintains he's innocent.
- He was emotionless.
You know, he didn't seem to care
At any given point in time.
It wasn't a reaction.
You're looking for remorse for the person,
And that never came.
I never really saw that from him.
- After both sides delivered their closing arguments,
The jury is sent away to deliberate.
- I was making sure that we get dawson off of the street
And found guilty before more
Execution-style murders take place.
- There's pressure to get a conviction on any case,
But this one, the pressure to get that conviction
Was overwhelming.
- With all of the evidence in the case,
A lot of us in the media assumed that
This was going to be a slam dunk.
But little did we know that they were actually
Back there struggling.
In fact, the jury foreperson came and told the judge,
We can't come with a consensus.
- As the anticipation builds, the foreperson
Makes a shocking admission to the judge.
- After the jury trial took place,
The judge read the charge to the jury,
And they went out and deliberated,
And they couldn't come up with a verdict.
- And the judge said, go back at it.
Try it some more.
- The jury deliberates for three days
Before reaching a verdict.
♪ ♪
- The jury came back and concluded that that evidence
Proved beyond a reasonable doubt
That timothy carl dawson was responsible
For these four homicide cases.
- Prosecutors are relieved
They have secured a guilty verdict.
But when they move to sentencing, they hit a snag.
- Defense argued that he should not receive
The ultimate punishment of death
Because he suffered from emotional or mental defect
That rendered him unable to appreciate the nature
Of what it is that he did.
The jury had a chance to deliberate for several days
On those two issues, and ultimately decided unanimously
That timothy carl dawson should receive a sentence
Of life without the possibility of parole,
Which means that he would have to spend
The rest of his life in custody.
♪ ♪
- When they came back with guilty and life in prison,
It was relief for guilt,
Disappointing for life in prison.
- I think everybody there was relieved that
They had got justice, but it may not have been
The justice that they were hoping for,
But it's still justice.
- With timothy dawson off the streets for good,
The families of phillip dover, ronnie gutkowski,
And gerald shropshire now must find a way
To live their lives without them.
- And this right here was the best time
Of his life right now. He had a good job.
He enjoyed working where he worked.
- I miss his laugh.
I mean, just talking and cutting up.
He was a good brother, a good just genuine human being.
[somber music]
- My dad was 56.
He was celebrating, you know, being in his 50s.
It was kind of when you kind of hit a sweet spot of life.
So he was kind of in that space,
And that was really cut short.
- The verdict hopefully brings some closure
To the victims' families.
And for the city of atlanta, a chance to reset.
- It helped to bring some normalcy to the hotel district
Along with the--a sense of relief from the citizens
That lived in that area.
- At the time of this crime, atlanta was really struggling
In terms of its reputation.
But once this man was found guilty
And people realized that he could no longer
Hurt anyone else, atlanta bounced back.
♪ ♪