Serial Killer executed in Florida today - 10 female victims.

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A serial killer who terrorized Florida with a murderous spree that claimed 10 women in 1984 was put to death Thursday, his execution witnessed by a woman who survived one of his attacks and aided in his capture.

The killer terrified the Tampa Bay area for eight months in 1984 as women began showing up dead, their bodies often left in gruesome poses. Most were strangled, some had their throats slit, and others were bludgeoned.

Law enforcement had few clues until the case of Lisa Noland, who survived one of Long's attacks. She witnessed Thursday's execution from the front row.

Just 17 in 1984, Noland was abducted by Long outside a church that year. He raped her but ultimately let her go free. She left evidence of his crimes on the scene and gave police details leading to his capture.

"The peace that came over me is a remarkable feeling," she said.

The day before her abduction, she said, she had written a suicide note, planning to end her life after years of sexual abuse by her grandmother's boyfriend.
But she ended up making heroic use of that history.
"At the time he put the gun to my head, it was nothing new to me," she told The Associated Press earlier this week.

She said she knew from her past abuse that if she fought Long, it would enrage him. "I had to learn who he was, what made him tick. If I did the wrong move, could it end my life?" she said.

Law enforcement had few clues until Noland told her story.

Noland said beforehand that she knew what she would have said if she could have addressed Long. Said Noland: "I would say 'Thank you for choosing me and not another 17-year-old girl.'"

"Another 17-year-old girl probably wouldn't have been able to handle it the way that I have," she said.

In the AP interview Wednesday, Noland described her attack in excruciating detail: the church where Long abducted her, the gun he pressed to her head, the bright light she could see on the car's dashboard beneath the edge of her blindfold. It said Magnum, as in Dodge Magnum.

She was menstruating and made sure she left blood evidence on the car's backseat. She could tell when they were on an interstate north of Tampa. When she was brought to the killer's apartment, she counted the steps up to the second floor. When he let her use the bathroom, she made sure she left fingerprints everywhere.
She knew she couldn't make him angry. She appealed to a glimmer of kindness he showed while he washed her hair after raping her repeatedly. She asked what made him do what he did. He said he had suffered a bad breakup and hated women. She told him he seemed nice and that maybe she could be his girlfriend. She wouldn't tell anyone.
Long later got Noland dressed. He let her loose and told her not to take the blindfold off for five minutes. She got out of the car and tripped on the curb. Long caught her before she fell.

And she's joined the ranks of the law enforcement officers who captured Long. She's a deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the same department she helped lead to Long's arrest.

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