Obscura: A True Crime Podcast · Justin Drown

SERIAL KILLER: Paul Durousseau (Part 1 of 2) | Jacksonville, FL 1997

·48 min·3 clips

Tracy Habersham's nude body was found two days after she left a Jacksonville nightclub with Paul DeRusso.

1. Obscura: A True Crime Podcast covers "SERIAL KILLER: Paul Durousseau (Part 1 of 2) | Jacksonville, FL 1997" and frames him as the "Jacksonville Strangler." 2. The host narrates the case solo and uses Paul's life history to explain why DeRusso matters to the Jacksonville, Florida murders. 3. The episode asks what shaped Paul DeRusso before the killings and why witnesses, arrests, and medical records matter here. 4. DeRusso was born on August 10th, 1970, in Beaumont, Texas, to unwed parents, and his mother was battered while pregnant. 5. He was severely jaundiced at birth, stayed three extra days in the hospital, and medical records noted possible brain trauma in utero. 6. As a toddler, he fell backward in a baby stroller, hit the back of his head, and was taken to the hospital for swelling. 7. A doctor later compared that kind of injury to shaken baby syndrome and said the frontal lobes could have been affected. 8. He was diagnosed with thyroid disease, and the episode says that condition could have contributed to brain damage. 9. The host also links the thyroid disease to bipolar disorder, which DeRusso later struggled with in life. 10. Family members and school staff described him as respectful, courteous, kind, religious, polite, shy, and easygoing, even though records show he was not a good student. 11. Delores Sheen at Sheenway Educational and Cultural Center said she never once had to discipline him from 1985 to 1987. 12. John Sims said DeRusso avoided physical contact, did not play sports except track, and was afraid of getting hurt. 13. Several girlfriends described periods when he wanted sex constantly and then became distant, laying in bed most of the day. 14. The host notes that Paul DeRusso had an IQ of 82, was barely literate, and still showed skill with electronics and repair work. 15. In 1989 he became a security guard, then in 1991 he was arrested twice for carrying a concealed weapon and received probation. 16. In 1992 he enlisted in the Army, slept outside his sleeping bag in freezing Oklahoma weather, later heard voices, and eventually received a bad conduct discharge. 17. In Germany he married Nautica Spann, reenlisted in 1996, and was later arrested and charged with kidnapping and rape before being acquitted in court martial. 18. The episode then shifts to Tracy Habersham, whose nude body was found on September 7th, 1997, after she had danced with DeRusso at a nightclub in Columbus, Georgia. 19. The tone is narrated, chronological, and forensic, with repeated returns to medical records, witness statements, and police timelines. 20. Listeners who want detailed biographical true crime with case chronology will likely stay; listeners wanting a fast, spoiler-light mystery may skip it.

As heard by us

A bleak, methodical true-crime review that keeps the Jacksonville Strangler case in an investigation-first frame.

Obscura treats the Jacksonville Strangler case as a grim origin story, moving from DeRusso's birth in Beaumont, Texas, through the violence around his mother and the medical-record note about brain trauma in utero before settling into Jacksonville.

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Why you'd press play

You want a slow, source-heavy look at the Jacksonville Strangler, starting at the beginning and tracing the case's first cracks.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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