Fred Coe - Serial Rapist

Fred Coe is one of those many incarcerated people who insist they are innocent, despite all the evidence stacked up against them.  (When you read biographies of British criminals, they all insisted they were fitted up)  But what were the circumstances that drove this man to commit dozens of rapes?  Was it his overbearing mother who regarded him as very special?  That he grew up believing that no matter how much in the wrong he was, it did not matter because his mother saw no wrong in his acts?  Therefore, if mother said it was right to do what he wanted, it would be ingrained in his psyche? ( Here I go again with my trouble stirring guesswork.  No worries dear readers, this is for the benefit of a certain supercilious twat)   Think of Marie Barone in "Everybody Loves Raymond" only more extreme.  There are pointers in his early life that raise red flags.

    Coe was born in 1947 in Spokane in Washington State.  His father was the Managing Editor of a major local paper, so his family had status in the city.  But his mother had an obsession about her appearance and those of her family.  She convinced her son and daughter that they needed cosmetic surgery, despite the fact that none of them needed any.  All were attractive people.  But Fred grew up altering his exam results, by breaking into his teachers desks and giving himself top marks.  He acquired the gift of the gab, by talking his way out of trouble when it was discovered what he was doing.  When he married, he carried on with the same philosophy that whatever was done, was right, basically because he said so.  The word "No" was obviously not in his vocabulary.  He sponged from his family for years, but developed delusions of grandeur about his supposed great abilities as a writer or salesman.

    Coe started his series of sexual attacks in 1978, in the South Hill area of the city.  He went on to commit possibly as many as forty rapes, or even more, but it took Police quite some time to convict him.  His family wielded influence n the town.  His mother would say anything for him.  But it all ended in tears for her in August 1981, when he was sentenced to seventy five years in prison.  His mother was so outraged that her perfect son could be labelled a multiple rapist and on top of that, be jailed!  How dare they!!  So she decided to take it out on the Judge and managed to hire a hitman.  Unfortunately for her, it turned out to be an undercover cop.  She went down too.  When somebody is never told "no", when do they ever know when to stop, what is right and wrong?  No inbuilt brakes on actions?  At least women in Spokane have been spared his sexual violence, though it would raise the question about whether in his mind, would murder have been justified?