HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- For 10 days in July 2018, a Texas parolee terrorized the city of Houston.

Jose Gilberto Rodriguez's violent spree exposed cracks in the criminal justice system, devastated families, and set off a manhunt that became a race against time.

"We started to realize that the bodies were stacking up and in a very quick amount of time," remembered Samantha Knecht, a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney's Office. "We had to find the guy because we just knew that it wasn't going to stop."

The first victim, 62-year-old Pamela Johnson had been discovered in her Cypress home by her brothers. Then, there were two more murders, employees working alone at two separate mattress stores.

"Once he realized a business with a single worker was an easier target, he rep

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