Blank had made a fortune playing video poker machines. Evans said he was later told by his 12-year-old daughter, a friend of Mr. ''I leased him the shop, although he did offer to buy it.
''What happened was the mayor referred him to me, said he was looking to buy a piece of property,'' Mr. He was working as a mechanic out of a former muffler shop he leased from Don Evans, a retiree in Onalaska. Blank had apparently been living quietly in Onalaska, a small town a few hours from Houston, in a double-wide trailer with his wife, Cindy, and their four children. At least not all alone, not all by himself.''
''He burned down a building when he was a teen-ager and had to go to reform school,'' Ms. He told us they took his picture at the casino.'' ''He said he won big, and he showed us the papers to prove it. Blank's sister, Sally Blank, a 34-year-old cosmetology student and one of eight siblings. ''Daniel went to casinos pretty often,'' said Mr. The checks, payable to Daniel Blank, totaled $33,000. On two other occasions, he arrived with huge cardboard copies of checks from casinos in nearby Kenner and Baton Rouge. Blank, known as Bone to his family, wheeled into the dusty yard on a shiny red Suzuki motorcycle. Blank periodically appeared at his boyhood home, a jumble of trailers and frame structures in Paulina, west of LaPlace, to report on his new fortune. Blank was taken into custody in Onalaska, Tex., on Friday, about four months after he reportedly tried to buy a four-bay automobile repair shop there for $65,000 in cash.ĭuring this time, Mr. Blank had lived at a notch or two above transient status, making three moves in the River Parishes and then moving in the summer to a small resort town in eastern Texas. We had to retrain ourselves.'' His office handled three of the cases - one murder in April and a double murder attempt in July.Īcquaintances and family members said that since the killings began late last year, Mr. ''It was the first homicide we had experienced since 1986,'' Chief Bill Landry of Gonzales said. The police have given little information about the case, saying only that a tip had led to the arrest. ''I guess you could say his income didn't quite correspond with his life style.'' ''He was without question a gambling addict,'' Sheriff Jones said. The authorities estimate that he had stolen as much as $200,000, much of which he was believed to have squandered at the casinos. Blank was either on an extraordinarily lucky streak or was up to no good. John the Baptist Parish said, it became apparent that Mr. Toward the end of his suspected string of killings, Sheriff Wayne Jones of St. He favored slot machines and video poker, acquaintances said, and visited many different gambling parlors. Blank had killed to feed a gambling habit.
and his wife, Joyce, both 66, of Gonzales. One couple survived being beaten and shot, Leonce Millet Jr. Nearly all had at least a nodding acquaintance with Mr. Most of the dead were elderly most were found in their homes with their pockets turned inside out. Blank to kill six elderly residents within 20 miles of his family's home in the River Parishes, a water-bound stretch of chemical plants and sugar cane between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. A quest for the big win and lust for a piece of the American dream, the police said, was what drove Mr.
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