Daniel Joseph Blank was born on June 28, 1962, in Louisiana, United States. Details about his early childhood and upbringing remain limited in public records. As an adult, Blank worked as a mechanic, living within Louisiana’s River Parishes region. Known to be quiet and seemingly unremarkable, Blank struggled financially and developed a gambling habit that worsened over time.

By the mid-1990s, Blank’s life had unraveled. He was unable to manage his debts and frequently sought money to fund his gambling activities. Authorities later concluded that these financial pressures, coupled with personal instability, drove Blank into a violent spree targeting elderly residents within his community.

Blank’s first known murder occurred on October 27, 1996, when he killed 41-year-old Victor Rossi, his own employer, during a robbery at Rossi’s home in St. Amant. Several months later, on March 18, 1997, Blank broke into the home of 58-year-old Barbara Bourgeois in Paulina. He disconnected her telephone lines and ransacked her house for cash. When Bourgeois awoke and confronted him, Blank attacked her with a vacuum cleaner, inflicting massive blunt force injuries that led to her death. On April 9, 1997, Blank entered the Gonzales home of 71-year-old Lillian Philippe. After ransacking the property, Blank encountered Philippe exiting her bathroom. He stabbed her repeatedly before fleeing. Philippe’s body was discovered the next day by her sister-in-law.

Blank’s killing spree continued into May 1997. On May 9, he invaded the LaPlace home of elderly couple Sam Arcuri, aged 76, and his 69-year-old wife Louella. During a robbery, Blank bludgeoned both to death. Five days later, on May 14, 1997, Blank targeted 55-year-old Joan Brock, the wife of one of his former employers. At her LaPlace residence, Blank assaulted Brock in her backyard during a robbery and killed her before escaping with stolen items. These murders brought his confirmed total to six victims. Authorities also connected Blank to a failed double murder attempt on July 7, 1997, when he shot Leonce and Joyce Millet, both aged 66, outside their Gonzales home. The couple survived the attack.

After leaving Louisiana, Blank relocated to Texas, where he opened a mechanic’s shop. On November 14, 1997, five months after the last murder, he was arrested in Onalaska, Texas. During police interrogations, Blank gradually confessed to killing six people and attempting to murder the Millets. In December 1997, a grand jury indicted him on five counts of first-degree murder, which was expanded to six counts by early 1998. Prosecutors announced their intention to seek the death penalty.

Daniel Blank’s first trial, for the murder of Lillian Philippe, began on July 21, 1999, in Ascension Parish. Although Blank maintained his innocence and claimed that his taped confession had been coerced, detectives testified that he confessed voluntarily, providing details only the killer would know. After deliberating for just over two hours, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder on September 3, 1999. The following day, the same jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. On December 9, 1999, State District Judge John Peytavin formally sentenced Blank to death by lethal injection.

In 2000, Blank stood trial for the murder of Joan Brock. Despite his plea of innocence, a second jury convicted him of first-degree murder, and Judge J. Sterling Snowdy sentenced him to death on October 20, 2000. However, clerical errors in that trial led to his sentence being vacated in 2006, and in 2009 Blank accepted a plea deal for life imprisonment without parole, sparing him another death sentence. In February 2001, Blank pleaded guilty to murdering Barbara Bourgeois and received a third life sentence without parole. Later that year, he pleaded guilty to the murders of Sam and Louella Arcuri and was given two additional life terms. Although indicted for the murder of Victor Rossi, Blank was never tried for that case.

Blank’s legal team filed numerous appeals against his convictions and death sentence for Philippe’s murder, all of which were rejected. In January 2016, State District Judge Jessie LeBlanc signed Blank’s death warrant, scheduling his execution for March 14, 2016. However, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a stay of execution, citing ongoing appeals and the state’s lack of lethal injection drugs. In 2021, Blank successfully petitioned a federal court to allow new DNA testing of evidence from the murders, but as of 2025, the results remain under review.

In 2023, Louisiana lawmakers rejected a bill to abolish the death penalty. Shortly afterward, 56 of the state’s death row inmates, including Daniel Blank, filed clemency petitions seeking to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. The Louisiana Board of Pardons denied all petitions, citing filing rules. In February 2025, state officials announced plans to resume executions after a 15-year hiatus, and in March, convicted killer Jessie Hoffman Jr. was executed, signaling a renewed commitment to carrying out death sentences. Daniel Blank remains on death row at Louisiana State Penitentiary, one of 55 inmates awaiting execution.