Criminally insane killer escapes during field trip to county fair

**Moongirl** · September 19th, 2009, 11:35 AM

Phillips Arnold Paul, Insane Killer, Escapes On Field Trip To County Fair

This image provided by the Spokane County Sheriff's Office shows 57-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul. Phillip Arnold Paul, a killer committed to a mental institution has escaped during a field trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Spokane County Sheriff's Office)

SPOKANE, Wash. — A criminally insane killer who escaped during a mental hospital field trip to a county fair remained on the run Friday, and furious residents and officials wondered why such a dangerous person was out in public.

Authorities believe Phillip Arnold Paul, 47, is heading to the Sunnyside, Wash., area, where his parents and many siblings live. The Spokane County Sheriff's Office used a helicopter to search Friday, and officers also searched transient camps along railroad tracks in the area. The public was urged to call 911.

"He is in a bad mental state," his brother, Tom Paul, told The Associated Press. "Why would they load him on a bus and take him to a fair?"

That's a question many are asking.

Authorities at Eastern State Hospital are being criticized for allowing Paul to visit the fair despite his violent criminal past and history of trying to escape. Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richard has called it unacceptable, and the state Department of Social and Health Services ordered an immediate end to such trips and launched an investigation into the practice.

Paul was committed after he was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1987 slaying of an elderly woman in Sunnyside. He soaked the woman's body in gasoline to throw off search dogs and buried the remains in her flower garden.

"Why was he allowed to take such a trip?" Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday. "Why did they go to a location that was so heavily populated with families?"

Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, said those questions would be answered in an investigation she has ordered that included both state mental hospitals. She was peppered with questions at a news conference, but deferred nearly all of them until the 15-day review, which will be in part conducted by the state Department of Corrections, was finished.

Dreyfus said it is not unusual for so-called "forensic" patients, who are being held against their will, to earn the opportunity to go on field trips as part of their therapy. The mental hospitals also treat people who are mentally ill but have not committed crimes.

Thirty-one patients from the mental hospital were on the trip Thursday with 11 staff members. Dreyfus said she did not know how many of those had violent criminal backgrounds. Patients must be cleared by a treatment team before they can go on trips to stores, parks, and other sites, said Dr. Rob Henry, director of forensic services at Eastern State. They wear street clothing and staff members are required to keep each patient within eyesight at all times.

Henry said trips to the fair were an annual event. The last escape from the forensic unit occurred in 1992, he said.

It is possible the review will end such outings, Dreyfus said.

Members of an employees union at Eastern State put out a statement saying they had long opposed such field trips.

"They believe he was an extreme escape risk and the administration should never have allowed him on the field trip," the statement from the Washington Federation of State Employees said. "The workers have unsuccessfully fought to stop the outings for murderers, rapists and pedophiles committed to the hospital as criminally insane."

The union said workers alerted superiors "within two to three minutes of discovering Paul's escape." But administrators waited nearly two hours before calling law enforcement. That gave Paul plenty of time to disappear.

Dreyfus said it was not clear how long it took for law enforcement to be alerted. Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich insisted on the two-hour delay.

Sheriff's officials were told Paul had $50 at the time of his escape.

"Fifty dollars will buy you a bus ticket," sheriff's spokesman Dave Reagan said.

In addition to local law enforcement, the Washington State Patrol joined the search, as did an inmate recovery team from the state Department of Corrections.

Paul is a white male, 5-foot-8, 220 pounds, with brownish-gray hair, blue eyes, and a goatee. At the time of his escape, Paul was wearing a red windbreaker jacket, with a T-shirt and jeans.

The sheriff's office said Paul's medication should keep him stable for 14 days, not 48 hours as previously reported.

His brother said Paul was a high school and junior college wrestler and a martial artist who should not be approached.

"I'm a tough guy but I wouldn't take him on," Tom Paul said. "I hope he doesn't hurt anybody."

This was the second escape for Paul. In 1991, he walked away during a day trip in Medical Lake and was later captured. He attacked a sheriff's deputy in the jail booking area, knocking him unconscious, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.

Phillip Paul had a normal childhood in Sunnyside, 200 miles southwest of Spokane, but he started acting strangely as a high school student. He said he was hearing voices and thought they were witches, Tom Paul said. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Phillip Paul has been on and off a variety of medications over the years, and also been in and out of institutions, Tom Paul said. He has repeatedly proven unable to live in society, he said.

Paul was living in a halfway house in Spokane last year, but ended up back at the hospital in a very agitated state, Tom Paul said. Hospital officials said Paul hadn't exhibited violent behavior in years. They argued in the past that he should be released, but his petition for release was rejected in 2003.

**sparkly** · September 19th, 2009, 12:34 PM

He doesn't need to be going on any trips! Lock his ass away somewhere til he croaks.

**McJag** · September 19th, 2009, 12:42 PM

Who thought this was a good idea?? They should stand trial. No one is really safe until he gets caught. Even his own family!

**angelais** · September 19th, 2009, 01:11 PM

A field trip to the county fair for a bunch of crazy folks? Shit, just check with the carnies- he's probably hanging out at the tilt-a-whirl.

**KrisNine** · September 19th, 2009, 01:37 PM

Must be nice to get out to go to a fair....christ.

**greysfang** · September 19th, 2009, 01:42 PM

WTF?! Are the administrators taking all the patients' drugs?

**Aella** · September 19th, 2009, 01:42 PM

Oh, well done. Geniuses.

**Moongirl** · September 19th, 2009, 01:55 PM

Escaped killer still at large in Washington state

Story Highlights
-Paranoid schizophrenic escapes during hospital field trip to fair

-Phillip Paul killed community activist in 1987, believing she was a witch

-Questions raised about mental hospital's policies on public safety

-Patient was most frightening he'd ever seen, psychiatrist says in documents

updated 1 hour, 46 minutes ago

(CNN) -- A legally insane killer was on the loose in the state of Washington on Saturday, two days after he escaped during a field trip to a county fair, authorities said.

Authorities are combing Washington state for Phillip Paul, who is described as a criminally insane killer.

Phillip Paul was able to elude a massive manhunt in Spokane County, Washington, after escaping on Thursday, a spokesman for the sheriff's department said.

Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to be part of a trip to a county fair Thursday.

Paul, 47, escaped from the fair around noon, which launched the massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials. Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer.

A review has been launched on the incident along with the policy that allows patients to take trips, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the state's Department of Social and Health Services.

Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.

"These incidents, separate and coincidental, have raised serious questions about the security readiness of our two state psychiatric hospitals," Dreyfus said.

Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head.

He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according the documents.

The extent of Paul's illness was disturbing even to mental health professionals, KREM reported.

"He's the only paranoid schizophrenic -- I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of them -- that frightened me," Dr. Frank Hardy, a licensed psychiatrist, says in one of the documents, according to KREM. "The first time I took one look at him -- and I've never done this before or since -- I asked the jailer to remain in the room while I examined him.

"I believe he would respond to his delusions and his voices again" if released, Hardy wrote.

But Paul "Coyote" Neumann, a disc jockey at Spokane radio station Kix 96-FM, has an entirely different view of the escapee. Neumann has known Paul for 12 years through volunteering at the hospital and correspondence by mail.

Paul is a talented artist, Neumann told KREM-TV.

"I was just amazed by his ability. I always took him as a savant," Neumann said. "I never knew that he had murdered somebody until three or four or five years later."

Neumann described Paul as a "gentle soul."

"I've never seen him raise his voice; I've never seen him get frustrated; I've never seen nothing but kindness from him," he told KREM.

"I get mixed emotions because I do see the sweet, softer side of this individual, but I've never seen him unsupervised, I've never seen him not medicated," Neumann said. "But that's not to say in another 12, 15, 20 hours without those medications that he doesn't revert to those demons."

Escaped killer still at large in Washington state - CNN.com