AUBURN, Wash. —One of Washington’s most infamous criminals, Frederick Harlan “Kevin” Coe — known as the “South Hill rapist” — was released from custody and is now living in Auburn, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Coe, now 77, was released on October 2, after more than four decades of trials, prison time, and civil confinement. He is registered at an Auburn address as a Level 3 sex offender, the state’s highest risk category, meaning he’s considered highly likely to reoffend.
Coe’s name made headlines in Spokane between 1978 and 1981, when as many as 37 women, ages 15 to 51, were attacked by a man who claimed to be armed with a knife. The assaults happened mostly in the city’s upscale South Hill neighborhood, giving rise to the nickname that would follow Coe for life: the “South Hill rapist,” according toHistoryLink.org.
Police arrested Coe in 1981. Many in the city were shocked by the revelation that he was the son of the managing editor of the Spokane Daily Chronicle. The same year, Coe was convicted of four counts of rape, but the convictions were overturned in 1984 after the Washington Supreme Court ruled that police had improperly hypnotized victims in an attempt to enhance their memories.
A second trial in 1985 led to three new convictions, two of which were later thrown out. Coe served a 25-year sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla on the single conviction.
However, he wasn’t released at the end of his sentence. In 2008, a civil jury ruled Coe to be a sexually violent predator. He was confined at McNeil Island’s Special Commitment Center for another 17 years.
Coe is under community supervision by the Washington State Department of Corrections.
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