Memo Results in Moving of Paroled Killer

A recently paroled murderer, who had been convicted of killing a police officer and mutilating a college student with a machete, was removed from his home in North Hollywood on Tuesday because state officials feared that a confrontation was brewing between the man and his alarmed neighbors.

Raymond Louis George, 36, was removed from an apartment where he had lived since Jan. 18, when he was paroled after serving nearly three years in prison on a conviction of carrying a concealed weapon, a knife.

George, who is on medication for a psychiatric condition, had previously served nine years in prison for killing a police officer, assaulting two others and attacking a 19-year-old student with a machete in 1974.

Parole officials would not say where he is now being housed.

Information on George’s criminal history and mental condition was made public in news reports and a strongly worded Los Angeles Police Department internal memo that was mailed anonymously this week to residents in his neighborhood.

Jerry DiMaggio, regional administrator of the Parole Division of the California Department of Corrections, said publicizing George’s location caused great alarm in the community.

“We moved him because . . . I was afraid there might be some sort of demonstration,” DiMaggio said. “George is a dangerous person, and we didn’t want him to ‘go off’ if a confrontation occurred.”

Full-Time Staff

DiMaggio said George has been temporarily moved to a facility that has a full-time Department of Corrections staff to supervise him. It has not been determined when or where George will be moved from there, he said.

“It depends on what happens once the interest dies down,” he said.

Parole officials are not required to publicly release a parolee’s address, and only local police have been notified of George’s location, he said, explaining, “We don’t want to exacerbate the situation by highlighting his location again.”

DiMaggio said George had become aware of the controversy surrounding his arrival in North Hollywood and readily agreed to be moved elsewhere.

Several residents of the neighborhood called his office after seeing news reports or receiving the police memo in the mail, DiMaggio said. The memo, which was intended for police officers only, outlined George’s criminal history and said he was a mentally ill man who “believes his mission in life is to kill police officers and women.”

An anonymous note that accompanied the memo in the mail said, “George is a time bomb waiting to go off.”

Memo Snowballed

“Somehow the memo got passed around the community, and it snowballed from there,” DiMaggio said. “The Singleton case comes to mind.”

In that highly publicized case, Lawrence Singleton, a convicted rapist-mutilator, was paroled from a California prison in 1986, but officials had to repeatedly move him from one community to another as his location was revealed and citizens protested.

North Hollywood police and most neighbors of the apartment used by George said Tuesday that they were pleased he had been moved.

“All things considered, I (would) just as soon not have him in my division--but he is still out there somewhere,” said Capt. Daniel B. Watson, patrol commander of the North Hollywood Division and author of the memo that was sent to residents. Watson said he has begun an investigation to determine who mailed the memo to residents.

Resident Tony Chavez, 32, said he realized George has a right to live anywhere he wants, but, “I would feel sorry for any neighborhood that he is placed into.”

“Everyone’s going to say they don’t want him,” he said.