Robin Leach Got Nothing On Jack
Review by Kim Cantrell
Frederick Kevin Coe was a mama’s boy of the worst kind.
Following childhood years filled with an eccentric mother and a lackadaisical father, Coe would exhibit signs of being a sexual deviant in his teenage years, yet it wouldn’t be until the age of 34 that he would begin a reign of terror on the women of the South Hill community of Spokane, Washington.
Believed to have raped and brutalized as many as 43 women, Coe would eventually be tried for five of those rapes, and convicted of only three.
His sentence was one of the harshest handed down for such crimes in the history of Washington state.
But the drama wouldn’t end there.
Coe’s mother, Ruth, couldn’t accept her son’s convictions. She sought justice by hiring a hitman to eliminate those she perceived as enemies of her son; specifically, the Prosecutor and Judge.
Son: A Psychopath and His Victims by the late Jack Olsen is a 538 page true crime book detailing the chaotic life and crimes of the man dubbed The South Hill Rapist.
Just as Coe’s life never experienced any lulls, neither does this book. Addicting from the very first page, I struggled to break away from this book even to sleep.
Although Son is now more than a quarter of a century past publication, it still ranks high on the list of true crime fans’ recommendations – it’s just that good!
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UPDATES FROM THIS BOOK:
In 1988, the Washington state Supreme Court overturned two of the counts for which Kevin Coe was convicted; leaving a conviction on one single count of first degree rape. Coe was resentenced to 25 years, and his sentence was complete as of September 2006. However, prosecutors petitioned to have Coe recognized as a violent sexual predator; being successful in their endeavors, Coe is presently being held indefinitely at the Special Treatment Center on McNeill Island.
Ruth Coe passed away at her Nevada home in 1996. Gordon Coe died in January 1999 in Seattle.
