Singleton Evacuated as an Angry Mob Gathers : Parolee Is Removed From Contra Costa County Apartment as 400 Shout, Throw Rocks Outside

The strange odyssey of paroled rapist Lawrence Singleton continued Monday when an angry mob forced authorities to evacuate him from the studio apartment he had taken three days before in the small Contra Costa County town of Rodeo.

Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies hustled the 59-year-old parolee out the back door of the apartment building to avoid trouble from a rock-throwing crowd estimated at 400 that had gathered to protest Singleton’s presence.

The crowd, carrying signs that said “Drop Dead Singleton” and “Get Out! Move ‘Em Out!” shouted epithets as the former merchant seaman, wearing a bulletproof vest, was escorted to a police van.

No Place to Stay

One demonstrator was arrested for inciting a riot.

On Monday evening, Singleton was reported still “cruising” with law enforcement officers, who were looking for a safe place to house him.

Authorities have been looking for a home for Singleton since paroling him a month ago. He had served eight years of a 14-year sentence for raping a Las Vegas teen-ager and cutting off her forearms with an ax.

At first, parole agents ferried him from hotel to hotel in Northern California while eight counties fought in court in an attempt to bar him as a resident parolee. Then the state Supreme Court ruled that parole agents could place him where they saw fit.

For a few days, Singleton stayed in nearby Richmond. But local authorities called a news conference to focus attention on him, correctly anticipating that he would leave.

He registered as a sex offender with the Sheriff’s Department and moved to Rodeo where an unidentified couple had rented an apartment for him under a false name. The apartment manager said they told her the apartment was for “a cantankerous old grandfather who was coming home from the hospital.”

But the manager, Arlene Baldridge, reported that she became suspicious Sunday when law enforcement officers barred her from the apartment. She said she notified a local media outlet, whose reports spread the word that the newcomer was actually Singelton.

By Sunday night a small crowd had gathered outside the apartment building in the largely blue-collar town of 7,000. It was dispersed by sheriff’s deputies. Monday morning, a larger crowd assembled. It built steadily until Singleton was evacuated at mid-afternoon.

Some law enforcement officials described the crowd as generally peaceful. But the crowd’s sentiments were anything but.

“Let’s have a lynching party for him. I’ve got some rope,” United Press International quoted demonstrator Chris Clark as saying. She said her 13-year-old son often plays behind the building where Singleton rented. “I want (Singleton) out of here,” she said.

Pambra Hofmann, another of the protesters, carried a doll with its arms cut off. Her sign said, “Think About It.”

Parolee Remains Calm

Contra Costa County Supervisor Nancy Fahden, whose district includes Rodeo, met with Singleton two hours before he was taken away.

While members of the crowd threw rocks at his window, she said, Singleton calmly watched a television set and seemed “entertained by the whole issue” of his predicament.

“It was strange,” Fahden said. “He seemed not to be too concerned. I think that may have been because he’s been through this so many times now. . . . The man has become a pariah. No one wants him.”

Fahden said in a telephone interview that she suggested that he consider spending the 11 months remaining on his parole at a minimum-security prison where he would be safe.

But she said he reacted angrily to that idea. “He said that he had served his time and that he was innocent,” she recalled.

Assistant Sheriff Warren Rupf criticized the mob.

“Let someone show me how you can legally justify a mob reaction,” Rupf said at a press conference. “We have a mob reaction, a mob mentality. Where does it stop?”