Manhunt for 'insane killer' Phillip Paul ends with his capture and orders for his return to mental hospital in Washington state. Authorities claim Paul planned escape after his request for release to residential facility was denied.
Last week Phillip Arnold Paul escaped from a Washington state mental institution for the criminally insane while on a field trip, as reported in
Digital Journal. On Sept. 21
The Seattle Times reported that Paul was recaptured on Sunday and ordered back to Eastern State Hospital.
After disappearing during a field trip to a county fair, Paul, 47, was captured in Goldendale, Wash. Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told
The Seattle Times:
Paul conned a friend into giving him a ride from Spokane to Goldendale. The friend believed Paul had been legally released. When the friend saw news reports of the escape, he contacted authorities and led them to the point where he had dropped off Paul on Thursday.
Twice in the past, Paul had been released to a residential facility in Spokane called The Carlyle. Paul fathered a child during one of those releases; however, after his mental condition deteriorated, his most recent release ended in January.
Authorities contend that Paul planned his escape after a judge rejected his request earlier this month to be moved from the mental hospital to the residential facility.
The Seattle Times reports that when captured, Paul was found with a backpack with food, sleeping bag, a hand scythe, and other personal items including a guitar.
Paul is an amateur musician who posts song on his My Space page and calls his band Philly Willy and the Hillbillies.
Details of the crime that landed Paul in Eastern State Hospital were outlined in the report. Paul was 25 at the time he snapped the neck and twice slashed the throat of 78-year-old Ruth motley in 1987.
Mottley, a retired school teacher and founder of Sunnyside, Washington’s historical society, was listed as one of “Washington’s 100 most influential women.”
Paul was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after telling authorities voices told him Mottley was a witch casting spells on him.
On his My Space page, Paul wrote of the murder of Mottley saying, "A four second mistake took Phil on a path no one could have imagined. A person lay dead at his feet," reports
The Seattle Times.
Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich is planning “to ask the state Legislature to ban field trips for the criminally insane,” according to
The Seattle Times. Knezovich is also planning to bill the state for the overtime hours worked by 10 deputies and helicopter flight time, expenses incurred during the manhunt for Paul.
