Since, his father was killed during the Vietnam War, Collins was raised by his mother in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

[3] At age nine, Collins was temporarily sent to a juvenile detention center for assault, shoplifting, larceny, and attempted arson.

Soon after, he met 30-year-old April Gates, a blackjack dealer at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City.

[4] Afterwards he stuffed her body in the back of his car and drove three blocks down to the house of Alicia Chappell, where April Gates was partying for her friend's birthday.

Collins walked over and, to the horror of party guests, shot Gates once in the ear, then two times in the stomach, knocking her to the ground.

Smith survived her gunshot wound, and was rushed to Cooper Hospital University Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey, ultimately recovering from her injuries.

[4] The next day, Collins entered a gas station in Haddon Township, where he pistol whipped the attendant in the face and robbed the place of $854.

[6] Collins' spree had alarmed outer-state police forces and authorities in New York feared he might have been sheltering there.

New Jersey officials contacted the New York Police Department (NYPD) and informed them that Collins might be hiding with his aunt in her home in Harlem.

[4] On June 19, Collins approached 38-year-old gas station attendant Jose Gabriel Escarpetta in the parking lot near the Avenue of the Americas.

Once again needing to flee, he left the building and wound up on East 126th Street in Harlem, where he shot Norma Acosta in the head, but she survived her injuries.