The Coes

We’ve had a little flutter of excitement here in Spokane this last week as Kevin Coe, the “South Hill Rapist,” was brought to the city jail for a hearing about his future. He was found guilty and sentenced in 1981 and has just become eligible for release.

Coe was convicted of raping four of the many women who have asserted that he attacked them. He went off to jail avowing his innocence, with his mother, Ruth, backing him up. But not many people believed them, and now that he could get out of jail there’s a buzz about what might happen.

Something tells me that even if they let him go he won’t stay here where he is so well known and so well hated. A hearing will be held in six weeks to determine whether he is a sexual psychopath and should spend the rest of his days in a secure psychiatric facility. Not many folks are rooting for his release.

All of this is being reported on the evening news and curiosity has sent me to re-read Jack Olsen’s 1983 book about the affair called “Son:” A Psychopath and his Victims. I have to quit reading it at about 2 PM or I wouldn’t sleep at night. He’s a scary guy.

His mother, by the way, didn’t like the verdict and tried to hire somebody to kill the prosecutor and the judge. That didn’t do her son a lot of good and landed her in jail, too.