It is not easy finding love but being 6ft4 with bulging muscles surely helps, right?
If those things sound attractive, Daniel Jacob Craven Jr might be the man for you, but there are some things you should know first…
Craven is on Death Row after repeatedly stabbing his cellmate with a shank. He was in jail in the first place for drowning his handcuffed love rival in a dog bowl. Not so charming after all (but more on those crimes later).
READ MORE: ‘I was in jail with UK’s hardest man – he was like Hulk but making jokes was dangerous’
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(Image: Facebook)
Despite the obvious red flags, the Daily Star can reveal that the evil double killer is still hoping to find love, all from his prison cell.
He is seeking companionship on a penpal site that was started by a woman who moved 4,000 miles to marry and have a baby with a Death Row inmate.
This means women can contact the killer and begin a romantic relationship – and on his profile he included a picture showing him flexing his muscles.
In his bio, where he outlined his expectations in a woman, he wrote: “I am hoping to find one serious friend. So far, people write for a month and fall off. I am looking for a true connection. Because of my size, affiliations and charges, I’ve been on solitary / heightened security for eight years.
“I was just released and am capable now of contact visits, photos, daily email and phone calls, plus snail mail if I must. Please ask what you want. I seek honesty and loyalty. I hope for love, I expect nothing. Thank you for your time, as I know how important it is.”
What is his criminal history?
Craven is as evil and dangerous as they come.
(Image: Wire of Hope)
His criminal endeavours all started when he began having an affair with a woman who was already married to a man called Ronald Justice.
But not only did he destroy Ronald’s marriage, on April 6, 2011, Craven battered him with a baseball bat before putting him in handcuffs and drowning him in a dog bowl after he begged for his life. The body was later burned in a pit in Craven’s garden in Apopka, Florida.
Bragging about what he did, he later said: “I wouldn’t have burned and killed [Ronald] if I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d get a lawyer… pro bono just like Casey Anthony.”
And according to the Panama City News Herald, Craven’s sister later told cops her brother had boasted about killing four others in Florida, although this was never proven.
However, what we do know is that Craven went on to kill again after he was given a life sentence for Ronald’s brutal murder. It happened four years later on June 28, 2015, when Craven stabbed his cellmate, John H Anderson, to death with a shank.
(Image: MTC)
The shocking incident took place at the Graceville Correctional Facility where Craven admitted to officers that he killed his “bunkie” – before telling them the murder weapon was in the shower drain.
The thug, who had already been handed extra charges for attacking prison staff, was found guilty of first degree murder and was given the death penalty. He is still awaiting his execution and he now hopes to find love from behind bars.
Wire of Hope
The penpal site was started by two friends who are striving to help change the lives of incarcerated people.
A statement on the website reads: “A prison correspondence helps them escape the daily monotony and darkness, feel human again, appreciated, and sometimes even loved. To sum up, by writing to an inmate, you could brighten up someone’s day, week, month, even, Actually, you could change a life.”
One of the founders is a woman called Sigrid who herself began sending letters to a killer before moving from France to live closer to the Union Correctional Institution in Florida.
(Image: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
The man she fell for was Alan Wade. He was sentenced to die after the robbery, kidnapping and murders of retired couple Reggie and Carol Summer who he – along with accomplices – buried alive in 2005.
She later had a baby with Alan behind bars and said in 2021: “I started writing to Death Row inmates because I was against the death penalty. I believe in second chances and rehabilitation.
“When I started to realise I was having feelings for him and him for me, we both got scared. We took a step back and we tried to stop writing to each other and we were both miserable. And after six weeks he wrote back – his first words were ‘I love you’.”
She added that her family were angry at her decision – saying they thought she was the “worst person ever”.
But Sigrid said Wade, whose death penalty sentence was overturned to a life sentence, was the man who makes her happy and she therefore does not see why it bothers other people.