Charles William Davis Jr. was born on June 18, 1947, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the son of a police lieutenant who worked in the city. Little information is available about his early life or childhood.

In the late 1960s, Davis entered the workforce and held several jobs. He worked as an electrician and a security guard. He was also a volunteer assistant chief of staff for the Baltimore Volunteer Rescue Squad. During this time, he met various people and made connections with local law enforcement.

In the early 1970s, Davis started taking classes at a medical school. He wanted to become a laboratory technician. At one point, he got married and had a son. However, Davis later divorced his wife. After the divorce, he moved in with a single mother he met during his volunteer work.

In 1973, Davis was convicted for a handgun violation. It is unclear whether he served a prison sentence for this crime. His knowledge of law enforcement and his work experience allowed him to learn about investigative methods used by the police.

In late 1974, Charles William Davis Jr. witnessed a traffic accident involving a 23-year-old woman. He offered her help but instead dragged her to a nearby wooded area. There, he raped her and attempted to strangle her. He left her thinking she was dead. The woman later regained consciousness and returned to town, where she reported the incident to the police.

On September 11, 1975, Davis went on a date with Lydia Victoria Norman. After proposing sex and being refused, he strangled her, then dumped her body outside of his car.

A few months later, after losing custody of his son, Davis targeted a female social worker, believing she had played a role in his loss. On New Year's Eve, he convinced Kathleen Diane Cook to join him in the car, but then he realized she was a stranger. He disregarded her threats about her connections to a high-ranking police officer and drove to a vacant lot to assault her. After raping her, she continued to insult him, which led him to shoot her four times. She survived this attempt on her life but was stabbed multiple times afterward, which killed her.

On August 24, 1976, Davis encountered 23-year-old Peggy Ellen Pumpian while driving on I-95. He offered to help her with directions but later forced her to pull over. Once inside her car, he took out a gun and demanded money before raping her. Pumpian fought back, but Davis ultimately shot her five times, killing her. To cover his actions, he wiped the car of fingerprints and fled to New York.

On September 3, Davis attacked another woman he met while driving, but for unknown reasons, he let her live after the assault. On February 23, 1977, he encountered a pregnant woman named Carol Willingham and lured her into his car under the pretense of helping her. He drove her to a woods, where he beat, robbed, and raped her before letting her go.

Charles Davis was arrested on July 20, 1977, when police stopped him for stolen license plates. Although he initially claimed innocence, his situation changed when the stolen CB radio in his car was traced back to a crime. This led to the identification by Carol Willingham, who recognized him as her assailant. He was captured in Reno, Nevada, and extradited to Baltimore.

While in custody, Davis confessed to killing Peggy Pumpian and Kathleen Cook on videotape. He faced multiple trials for various murders, with the outcomes resulting in several life sentences without the possibility of parole. Since his conviction, he has remained in prison and has been interviewed several times to assist in understanding criminal behavior. As of June 2022, he is still alive and continues to serve his sentence at the Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland.