Penis Severed to Avenge Slaying, Police Say

A woman allegedly bent on avenging the slaying of a friend bided her time for more than a decade before she seduced the killer and then cut off his penis, police say.

The woman went home last Thursday with Alan Hall, 48, a pipe-fitter convicted in the 1983 strangling of a young woman. Hall told police he had known the woman for years, but only as “Brenda.”

Before attacking him with his own X-Acto knife, Hall reported, “Brenda” hinted that the woman he killed was a friend, which “caused him to believe that she was seeking revenge,” police said Wednesday.

Doctors were unable to reattach the organ.

Few details were available about the woman, who remained at large Wednesday.

Police also were investigating the possibility that “Brenda” does not exist.

Hall, who spoke to police Monday, said he ran into the woman, an acquaintance, at a gas station Thursday in downtown Fairfield, 38 miles east of San Francisco. She agreed to go to his trailer parked outside his brother’s house, he told police.

About 3 a.m. Friday, after they had sex, the woman grabbed a pen-sized device with a razor blade three-quarters of an inch long and sliced his penis, police said Wednesday.

After trying for hours to stop the bleeding himself, Hall stumbled outside, where a passerby spotted him, Lt. Bill Gresham said. Hall was rushed to NorthBay Medical Center, but surgeons were unable to reattach the organ. Hall was discharged in good condition Monday.

Hall was convicted in July 1983 of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Denise Denofrio and served four years of an eight-year sentence, according to Solano County Superior Court records.