Cecil Henry Floyd was born in 1945 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the only child of Cecil Moses Floyd and Sarah Pearl Farlow. Very little has been documented about his early life. His first recorded brush with the law came in 1959 when, at just 14 years old, he was fined for careless driving and not having a license. This early trouble foreshadowed a future riddled with crime.

Floyd's life took a darker turn when he met and later married 23-year-old Lorna Jean Kern in 1971. Lorna later claimed she was coerced into marrying him under threats to her children. According to her, Floyd was paranoid, violent, and abusive. She described disturbing behavior, including washing children’s mouths with soap, using hot peppers as punishment, and physically beating them. Whether out of fear, loyalty, or manipulation, Lorna would eventually become his accomplice during his brutal crime spree across several states.

Despite their unstable and abusive home life, Floyd maintained a low profile for several years until a string of violent robberies and murders began surfacing between 1973 and 1974.

Cecil Floyd’s first confirmed victim was 15-year-old Henry Michael Maser, who vanished near the Boone County Fair in Lebanon, Indiana, on July 23, 1973. Maser had been attending the fair with a friend but went off alone. Floyd, reportedly traveling with two others, approached Maser, shot him three times in the head, and stole his wallet, which contained only $5. Maser's body was discovered nearly a week later. The murder appeared senseless and random, driven by pure opportunism.

Months later, on November 14, Floyd—accompanied by accomplice Thomas Mattingly—broke into the Durands Motel in Union Park, Florida. They brutally bludgeoned 56-year-old motel owner Barney Rycyk with a claw hammer 66 times before stuffing his body in the bathroom. While attempting to flee, they were seen by Rycyk’s brother Stanley, who returned from shopping. Floyd and Mattingly escaped, but Stanley caught a glimpse of their license plate—information that would later prove critical.

On February 20, 1974, 17-year-old Karen Chitwood was found bound, gagged, and murdered in her Orlando apartment by her husband. She had been stabbed, bludgeoned, and left partially clothed, yet not sexually assaulted. The brutal nature of the crime shocked investigators, but the case soon went cold.

Just months later, another victim surfaced. Leslie Johnston, a 22-year-old medical student, was reported missing on May 11. A week later, her body was found in a wooded area—shot three times. Floyd later claimed the killing was accidental, saying Johnston tried to shoot him first, but authorities doubted this account.

Then on July 13, Nebraska State Trooper Paul Harding discovered 24-year-old gas station attendant Lester Schmidt dying from three gunshot wounds. He later died in the hospital. Police found the station’s register missing and $500 stolen. This killing turned the heat up on the Floyd investigation.

Just eleven days later, Floyd left another body on a Kansas dirt road. The victim, a hitchhiker in his mid-20s to early 30s, has never been identified. Floyd claimed he pretended to need car help, then shot the man and stole his money. The unidentified body became known as the Dickinson County John Doe.

His spree came to an end on July 24, 1974, when he and Lorna were arrested in Arkansas after being tracked down for a federal kidnapping warrant. Floyd had abducted 18-year-old Harold McQuinney weeks earlier, holding him for a day before the teen escaped. After arrest, the couple’s three children were placed in state care. While in custody, Floyd confessed to six murders and claimed he’d killed eleven in total.

Lorna, meanwhile, maintained that she had been an unwilling accomplice—sometimes not even present during the killings but aware of them after the fact.

In 1975, Floyd was convicted for the murder of Lester Schmidt in Nebraska and sentenced to life. He was later convicted of Henry Maser’s murder in Indiana and given another life sentence. The Kansas case involving the unidentified hitchhiker was officially closed after authorities decided further sentencing was unnecessary.

Years later, in 1998, Florida prosecutors sought to extradite Floyd and pursue the death penalty for the Orlando murders. But whether he was ever sent back is unknown. Floyd remained in Indiana State Prison until his death on June 17, 2011, at age 66.

In 2016, efforts were made to exhume and identify the Kansas hitchhiker. As of January 2025, the victim remains unidentified.