Reviled Rapist Gets Prison Release; His Location Is Secret

Threatened, reviled and shunned in this state and others, ax-wielding rapist Lawrence Singleton was released from prison at dawn Saturday after serving less than eight years in custody.

With the law mandating his parole, Singleton left the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo without incident at 5:15 a.m. and was driven by parole officers to temporary quarters in Northern California, Department of Corrections spokesman Robert Gore said.

Prevented by court order and public outcry from placing him in Contra Costa County, his last California address and the first choice of parole authorities, officials continued to search for a parole site for Singleton. “A final determination on his placement will be made in the near future. That’s as specific as I can get,” Gore said.

Local law enforcement officials in Singleton’s temporary home were not told of his whereabouts. However, parole officers were with Singleton around the clock and will remain with him until a permanent location can be found for him, Gore said. Although he is being closely watched, Singleton does have far more freedom than he had while in prison.

“If he wants to walk to a corner store, he can do that,” Gore said.

The spokesman said Singleton’s mood was good as he left prison, but the 59-year-old parolee had little to say to prison officials in San Luis Obispo. Members of his family in Florida and Georgia have offered him financial help, but the former Merchant Marine sailor has no job prospects, Gore said.

Before leaving prison, Singleton was required to sign a document saying that he will abide by conditions of his parole, which Gore called the stiffest allowed by law. An alcoholic, Singleton must not drink while on parole, and must stay indoors from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. He must attend group therapy weekly and is subject to unannounced searches and random drug and alcohol testing, Gore said.

He will remain on parole for three years and could be returned to prison for violating the terms of release.

Maimed Teen-Ager

Singleton was drunk on Sept. 29, 1978, when he picked up a runaway, Mary Vincent, who was hitchhiking in Berkeley. He raped her and used an ax to hack off her forearms, then left the then-15-year-old for dead in rural Stanislaus County.

Vincent, who survived, has said recently that her recurrent nightmares have gotten worse since she learned of Singleton’s release. He has denied committing the crime and contended that she lied in her testimony at his trial. He also has threatened the prosecutor.

Singleton was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1979, but his time behind bars was reduced with the help of a 1983 law that takes six months off prisoners’ sentences for each six months they work or attend school while in prison. The law’s aim was to instill a work ethic in convicts and give them training, but it also has served to ease prison crowding. The average stay in prison dropped from 39 months in 1975 to 22 1/2 months in 1985, state statistics show.

The release of a criminal convicted of such a heinous crime after such a short time predictably touched off protests. Thousands of people signed petitions and wrote letters to state officials protesting Singleton’s release. The outcry was particularly pointed in the Contra Costa County town of Antioch, where he was to be paroled. He had lived in nearby San Pablo.

Obtain Court Order

Attorneys for the county, along with several cities, convinced a judge on Friday to issue a temporary restraining order blocking the state from releasing him there. The state will file an appeal of that order on Monday. The Department of Corrections and the state attorney general are fighting the suit out of a concern that other municipalities will go to court to block the state from releasing other notorious parolees.

The legal actions filed in Contra Costa County were the first test of a 1983 statute that says that parole authorities should release parolees to locales where they have ties and a chance of finding work. County lawyers and local officials contended that the Department of Corrections failed to take into account that Singleton no longer had friends or family in the county.

State authorities tried to ship Singleton to Florida, his home state and the home of a brother. But Florida refused to accept him, while family members in Nevada also would not take him in.