Come and see a lecture on the Lawrence Singleton — Mary Vincent case, 10/10/13 —
Excerpts from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton
Lawrence Singleton
Lawrence Singleton (July 28, 1927 – December 28, 2001)[3] was an American criminal best known for perpetrating an infamous rape and mutilation of a teenage hitchhiker in California in 1978.
On September 29, 1978, Singleton picked up 15-year-old Mary Vincent of Las Vegas while she was hitchhiking in Berkeley, California, raped her, and then severed both her forearms with a hatchet, throwing her off a 30-foot cliff outside of Modesto, California, leaving her naked and near death. She managed to pull herself back up the cliff and alert a passerby, who took her to a hospital. By the time Singleton was arrested, Vincent was fitted with prosthetic arms.
At Singleton’s trial six months after the assault, Vincent faced her assailant and relived the traumatic ordeal in court. Her testimony helped convict him. As she left the witness stand, he swore he would kill her. Singleton received a 14-year sentence, the maximum allowed by law in California at that time.
While Vincent won a $2.56 million civil judgment against Singleton, she was unable to collect it when Singleton revealed that he was unemployed, in poor health, and had only $200 in savings.[5]
Along with the particularly gruesome and callous aspects of the crime, the case became even more notorious after Singleton was paroled after serving only eight years in prison. He was paroled to Contra Costa County, California, but no town would accept his presence, so he had to live in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin until his parole ended a year later.[2]
In the spring of 1997, a neighbor called police and reported seeing 69-year old Singleton strangling a nude woman in his house. When police arrived, they found Singleton drunk with his shirt open and blood smeared over his chest. Inside, police found the nude, bloody corpse of 31-year-old prostitute Roxanne Hayes; she had been stabbed seven times in the face and chest.[11
You must log in to post a comment.