This Story Of A Serial Killer In Nashville Will Make You Think Twice

Here’s the thing: ANY kind of murderous rampage gives us the willies, as it rightly should. But did you know there was a serial killer in Nashville…? A serial killer, by definition, is someone who murders for abnormal self-gratification, with a cooling off period that averages a month between kills. In this case? We’re talking about Paul Dennis Reid, The Nashville Fast Food Killer.

Wikipedia / No Source Noted

Originally from Texas, Reid was actively killing residents of Clarksville and Nashville from February to April, 1997. He claimed seven lives, viciously, brutally, and without remorse.

Bizarrapedia / No Name Noted

Reid ended up in Nashville to pursue a music career. He wasn't successful and he reacted by going on a murderous rampage that stretched for months and targeted low-income, fast food workers.

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Captain D's Franchising Options

On February 16th, Reid entered the Captain D's on Lebanon Road in Nashville. He found a young teenage employee and the manager working, and shot them execution style in the restaurant cooler before emptying the cash register.

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On the same road, Lebanon, but in Hermitage, Reid made his way to a McDonald's that was only a couple of miles from the Captain D's. He shot three employees to death - again, execution style - and stabbed young José Antonio Ramirez Gonzalez seventeen times when the gun jammed. Gonzalez survived the attack by playing dead and Reid once again made off with the money from the cash register.

Bizzarepedia / No Name Noted

The last killing, in Clarksville, is possibly the most brutal. He kidnapped two female employees, both under the age of twenty-two, and took them to Dunbar Cave Park. The bodies were found the next day, throats slashed.

Reid was arrested in June, after accosting the manager of a Shoney’s who had fired him for violence during work hours. He had been fired the day before the first murders. Gonzalez, the lone survivor, testified against him in court and Reid was ultimately convicted on seven counts of first-degree murder. He received the death penalty – times seven. One for each life he had taken.

End of the story? Reid died on death row in 2008, from complications from pneumonia.