Often when people hear the word psychopath, they conjure up the images of serial killers and torturers. They think of people along the lines of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer, the notorious ones known for their brutal methods of killing. However, not all psychopaths have to be killers in order to fall under this title. There are those out there that can do a different kind of physical, mental, and emotional damage to a person while still leaving them alive after the attack to have to deal with their pain. For many this pain becomes too much to bear and inevitably takes them in the end anyways. They say when a person is raped it feels as if the perpetrator takes a piece of their soul to keep with them forever. If you believe that then a man named Frederick “Kevin” Coe had taken a piece of over thirty-seven women’s souls. Also known as the “South-Hills Rapist” Coe became the reason so many women no longer felt safe in their own neighborhood. 

Mugshot of Kevin Coe from Seattle Pi

Coe lived in Spokane, Washington at the time of his attacks which took place over four years from 1978-1981. He was thirty-one years old when he committed his first known assault on a woman. It was a nineteen-year-old girl that had been out on a jog. Coe had hidden behind a car and as she ran past, grabbed her and dragged her to some nearby bushes. It was there that he raped her and repeatedly shoved his fist into her mouth in order to keep her quiet. This was a trademark of his, the fist in the mouth. Several other women would go on to report this in their reports and it was almost always the same. The unknown male at the time would take his hand covered in either a glove or an oven mitt and shove it into their mouths while talking to them and asking them questions about their lives. His reign of terror on the women of South Hills did last for years however he was thankfully arrested. Coe had parked his father’s car that he had been using at a nearby high school the night he attacked a fifty-one-year-old victim. A janitor was there that night and pointed it out to police which led them to Coe. After watching him for a bit and seeing him stalk the same areas and even expose himself to a woman on one instance, they decided they needed to arrest him as he was too much of a risk. He was able to be identified by multiple victims and was brought to court. He was initially sentenced to jail time for six counts of rape however, soon after more counts were brought on him and he was deemed a sexually violent predator. Being given this term meant that they were able to send him to live the rest of his life on McNeil Island in the Special Commitment Center.  

Photo of McNeil Island by NARSOL

An odd extra bit to this story is what happened with Coe’s mother. She was later arrested and tried after her son was as it was discovered that she had attempted to put a hit on the judge and the prosecutor. She felt that they did not “play fair” to her son and wanted them gone. It obviously did not work, and she was arrested and given the minimum sentencing for her actions.