Our current dataframe is in long format, meanin

4 min readDec 6, 2020

The fact that his disturbed childhood contributed to making him a “Man of Murders” is debatable. According to studies, a childhood spent in foster care homes increases the child’s probability of committing crimes.

Knowles murder killings had no selective groups. His serial murders incorporated every age group, every gender, people from different ethnic groups with diverse characteristics. This man was an opportunity killer with no specific taste and references for killings. He lacked having any modus operandi behind the crimes.

Another victim was a police officer named Eugene Campbell. On November 17, 1974, Campbell found a stolen car. He traced the vehicle, where he found himself face-to-face with Knowles. Campbell tried arresting him; however, during his scuffle with him, his gun was lost.

During the summer year of 1974, Knowles drove through Georgia, Florida, Connecticut, Nevada, and Texas, leaving behind series of dead bodies along the way. His murder crimes enlist the death count of 18 people. However, he claimed to have murdered 35 lives.

Knowles had a short term relationship with the journalist Sandy Fawkes. He hinted to her about his previous crimes, murders, and misdeeds. She was then very aware of his identity, behavior, and criminal records.

Moving average is a powerful technique to smooth out variations in temporal trend and is done by taking an average of past observations. We’ll see how to visualize moving averages in the following section but here’s how the code works.

Resampling is a way to group data by time units — day, month, year etc. Below is an example of resampling by month (“M”). You can also use “A” for years and and “D” days as appropriate.

The Casanova killer started committing crimes in his early childhood. In one of his petty crimes, his father disowned him, denying his rehabilitation, and gave Knowles up for adoption. This made him spend the rest of his childhood days in foster care homes and reformatories.

Charlynn Hicks, a motorcyclist, was also kidnapped, raped, and murdered brutally. Similarly, Karen Wine from Connecticut was raped by Knowles along with her 16-year-old daughter. Both of them were later killed by strangulation.

The day after the sister’s murder, Knowles met Marjorie Howie (aged 49) in Atlantic Beach, Florida. He murdered her by strangulation with his stockings. Subsequently, he killed a 13-year-old hitch-hiking runaway, Ima Jean Sanders. Consecutively, the very next few months, Knowles escaped, wandered, and continued killing.

Apart from being labeled as Casanova Killer, he significantly was nicknamed Daryl Golden and Lester Daryl Gates. Knowles terrorized civilians across the country with his inhumane killings since the 1970s. Some of the forms included rape, physical assaults, and murders. Among the techniques involved, strangulation was his most common murder method. However, Knowles shot a few of his victims as well.

Setting his terrifying acts, once Carswell Carr from Georgia invited Knowles to his house. He ended up killing Carr and strangulated his 15-year-old daughter to death. He subsequently attempted necrophilia with the girl’s corpse; however, his attempt failed.

By early 1974, Knowles was imprisoned and got into a relationship with Angela Covic, a San Francisco divorcee. Things blossomed between the two, chemistry sparked, and a reliable bond ignited their relationship.

During one of her visits to the prison, Angela was proposed to by Knowles for marriage. Having accepted the proposal, she subsequently fought legal battles for his release. Her efforts resulted in the release of Knowles in May 1974. After his release, he immediately fled to San Franciso to marry Angela.

Another victim was a 65-year-old Alice Curtis, murdered by Knowles through a home invasion. After having killed Curtis, he sacked her house and stole her car. On his way, he was recognized for the crime by Mylette Anderson (aged 7) and Lilian (aged 11). Knowles kidnapped and strangulated the sisters and buried their dead bodies in a nearby swamp.

Another American serial killer, “Ted Bundy” committed vicious crimes. Often referred to as charming and handsome. However, Paul John Knowles is considered more dangerous than Ted Bundy.

Apart from the interview, Knowles left many other informative pieces. Some of them included letters, notes, drawings to his parents, lady love, and attorneys. These informational pieces helped in understanding the psychology behind his criminal mind.

Time series data is best analyzed and understood through visualization. We can write all the codes to do resampling and moving averages etc. and create new data frames all we want but in the end, we can’t understand anything until they are visualized.

Below is a sample of 8 different techniques for visualization. Is that all you need to know? The short answer is — if you know how to create and interpret these 8 visualizations, you are in pretty good shape!

Our current dataframe is in long format, meanin

Written by Al sakib