Bobby Joe Long was born on October 14, 1953, in Canova, West Virginia, to Joe and Loretta Long. He was born with an extra X chromosome, a variant of Klinefelter syndrome known as 47, XXY, which causes excessive estrogen production and results in some female characteristics, including breast development. As a child, Long was teased about his large breasts and underwent breast reduction surgery as an adolescent. He also suffered multiple head injuries from various accidents during his childhood.
Long married his high school sweetheart in 1974 and had two children with her before she filed for divorce in 1980. In 1981, he was charged, tried, and convicted of rape, but he was acquitted on appeal. Long is believed to have committed at least 50 rapes in Fort Lauderdale, Ocala, Miami, and Dade County while being known as the “Classified Ad Rapist,” a name he earned by contacting women through the Pennysaver and other classified ads beginning around 1981. In 1983, he relocated to the Tampa Bay area.
The series of murders that would define his legacy began in 1984. Long raped and strangled 20-year-old artist Wick in March 1984 while on probation for assault. Her body was discovered in a rural area on November 22, 1984. She was engaged to be married and had hitchhiked from Gas City, Indiana, to Tampa.
On May 13, 1984, 19-year-old exotic dancer Jun T. Lana Long, who performed at Nebraska Avenue’s Sly Fox Lounge, was discovered dead in a field. She was naked and tied with a cord around her neck, with a white scarf tied in a knot beneath her body. Two weeks later, 22-year-old Michelle Sims, a former beauty pageant contestant, was discovered dead off an Interstate 4 overpass.
Sims was naked and bound, with her throat slit. Her clothes were found on the floor next to her. Sims worked as a receptionist but was also reported to be a drug user and involved in sex work. On June 24, 1984, 22-year-old Elizabeth Loudenback was discovered fully clothed in an orange grove.
She had been raped and strangled. Loudenback worked in a factory and had never been involved in prostitution. She was walking down Nebraska Avenue, just blocks from her home, on the evening of June 8 when she was abducted by Long. Forensic analysis confirmed that these murders were connected.
Tiny red nylon fibers, likely from carpet, were discovered on Sims’s and Loudenback’s clothing, as well as on the white scarf found under Lana Long’s body. Long’s fifth victim was 21-year-old Vicki Elliott, who disappeared on September 7, 1984, on her way home from waitressing at the Ramada Inn. Elliott’s body was not found until November 16, 1984. She had been strangled.
On October 7, 1984, 18-year-old Chanel Williams was discovered dead. Williams, a sex worker, was kidnapped on Nebraska Avenue. Her profile was distinct from the previous victims: she was the only Black victim, she had not been bound, and she died from a gunshot wound. She was naked with her clothes lying next to her.
However, forensic examinations of Williams’s clothing revealed the presence of the same tiny red fibers. One week later, Karen Dent’s friend, 28-year-old Dells, was discovered dead in an orange grove. She had been strangled and beaten to death. Dells had been a prostitute on Nebraska Avenue as well.
She had been bound and had ligature marks on her neck. On October 31, 1984, the remains of 22-year-old Kimberly Hopps were discovered on the side of U. S. Route 301 North, but her murder was not immediately attributed to Long.
She was naked, but the elements had rendered her body unrecognizable. Too much time had passed for forensic evidence to be collected from the scene. Lisa McVay, 17, was riding her bike home from Krispy Kreme around 2 a. m.
on November 3, 1984, when a man charged at her, knocking her off her bike and dragging her into his car. He blindfolded her, drove her to his house, and raped her over the course of 26 hours. Unbeknownst to law enforcement, McVay had seriously considered suicide just hours before the attack due to years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of her grandmother’s boyfriend. She had even written a note.
Despite the repeated rapes and assaults, McVay attempted to communicate with her captor. She asked Long why he had done this to her. In a strange act of kindness while Long washed and brushed her hair in his bathroom, he blamed it on his hatred of women. Her attempts to connect with the serial killer likely saved her life.
McVay used the bathroom in Long’s apartment while blindfolded and touched everything she could to leave her fingerprints. Long ordered her, still blindfolded, back into his car in the early hours of November 4. She took note of his red carpet and counted the steps in his house. He drove a short distance to a 24-hour bank machine, then drove a little further, pulled over, and instructed McVay to get out of the car, keeping her blindfold on for another five minutes before driving away.
Lisa McVay immediately went to the police station and told them everything. She explained that her kidnapper had used a bank machine shortly before her release. Forensic tests on McVay’s clothing revealed the same red carpet fibers found on the other victims. The remains of two more victims were then discovered: Virginia Johnson on November 6 and Kim Swann on November 12.
Johnson’s bones were all that remained, but a ligature cord was discovered at the scene. Swann, a former Sly Fox dancer, had ligature marks on her neck and wrists. Both crime scenes had the same red carpet fibers. Long first confessed to his crimes against McVay during his interrogation.
He initially denied any involvement in the other murders, but after hearing the evidence—particularly the red carpet fibers from his car—he confessed. By the end of his interrogation, detectives had linked Long to 10 murders as well as McVay’s rape and kidnapping. The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office and the Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office reached a plea agreement. Long pled guilty on September 24, 1985, to eight of the homicides and the abduction and rape of Lisa McVay.
He was later sentenced to life in prison for murder, rape—including those committed as the Classified Ad Rapist—and kidnapping. He was also sentenced to death for the murder of Michelle Sims. Long’s death warrant was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on April 23, 2019. It was DeSantis’s first death warrant since taking office in January 2019.
Following the denial of his subsequent appeals, Long was executed by lethal injection on May 23, 2019, more than 30 years after his conviction. Lisa McVay Nolan sat in the front row watching Long’s execution. Based on her experiences, she pursued a career in law enforcement and is now a deputy at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office—the same office that brought Bobby Joe Long to justice.