This story has been in our local paper the last couple of days, and FS's thread on the death penalty reminded me to share it with you all.

Do YOU think this guy should be let back into society?

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CSUF killer claims cure

COURTS: Allaway, who killed 7 in 1976, has a hearing this week. Prosecutors dispute his assessment.

February 12, 2001

By TONY SAAVEDRA

The Orange County Register

Edward Charles Allaway said Sunday that he is not the same mentally ill man who killed seven people at California State University, Fullerton, in 1976 - the bloodiest shooting rampage in Orange County history.

Allaway, with the support of staff doctors, said he is ready to be released after nearly 25 years in state psychiatric hospitals.

Despite vehement opposition by prosecutors and victims' advocates, state psychiatrists say he is no longer mentally ill, and that under California law he should be treated as an outpatient and eased back into society.

"I want people to know that everything that can be done has been done. My rehabilitation is 100 percent," Allaway, 62, said in a brief telephone interview Sunday from Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino. "My hopes and dreams are the same as everybody else, to be put in society and be a taxpayer. The only way I can show my remorse is by living the very best life that I can."

Allaway has been hospitalized since a judge declared him not guilty by reason of insanity for the shooting that left seven dead in the campus media center. He has tried three times since 1987 to win his freedom by arguing that he is now mentally fit and no longer a danger.

Allaway is preparing to again take his case before an Orange County judge, this time with the endorsement of state psychiatrists, who had sided with prosecutors at previous hearings.

In 1998, however, state doctors began arguing that Allaway should be let go.

Judge Frank Fasel is expected to set a date Friday to hear Allaway's request.

Patricia Almazan, whose father, Frank Teplansky, 51, was killed in the rampage, has spent more than two decades trying to keep Allaway locked up. Allaway, who was a library janitor, said at the time that he opened fire for fear that people were conspiring to force him to commit homosexual acts and to force his wife to appear in pornographic movies.

"They just cannot set this kind of precedent as to allow this maniac out on the streets. There's no such thing as rehabilitating mass murderers," Almazan said. "This man should never see the light of day for the atrocities of his crime. My father made it through the Korean War, only to be shot in the back by a coward."

Deputy District Attorney Daniel V. Wagner disagreed Sunday with state doctors that Allaway is rehabilitated.

"The same things that made him dangerous in 1971 (when he first sought psychiatric treatment) and 1976 are still present today," Wagner said. "I don't think that he is really a changed person."

Wagner said he has psychiatric experts to rebut the hospital doctors.

Allaway's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender John Bovee, could not be reached.

Through his years of hospitalization, Allaway has become an avid weight lifter, also helping with holiday decorations and setting up the hospital karaoke equipment, though he doesn't sing, adding, "They'd keep me here for the rest of my life."

Allaway said he understands feelings that he should not be released because of the gravity of the crime, but he reiterated his right under state law to seek his freedom once he is no longer deemed a threat. Allaway said arguments that he couldn't possibly be healed are based largely on misperceptions about mental illness.

"I have no problem whatsoever being put on the outside, other than the stereotype that people see on TV about mental illness," he said. "(The hospital) is a place of learning, and 'rehabilitation' is the word. It's not punishment, it's not cruelty."

Allaway emphasized that if released, he would be under strict supervision and not "running around loose."

He acknowledged that many people will never see him as anything other than a mass murderer.

"I would really like to be known as a person who's been rehabilitated under mental health and has come back to society to show his remorse with proper living," he said.

-- (cin@cin.cin), February 13, 2001

Answers

Here's a commentary on the subject: -----

Freeing a mass killer a crazy idea

February 13, 2001

By GORDON DILLOW The Orange County Register

It's enough to make you wonder who's crazier: the killers and rapists who are locked up in state mental hospitals, or the guys in white coats who are treating them.

It must be the latter. How else can you explain why the shrinks would think that a guy who killed seven people - in the process becoming the worst mass killer in Orange County history - should be returned to a free society?

The mass killer in question is Edward Allaway, who shot nine people at Cal State Fullerton in a 1976 rampage, killing seven of them. Although he was charged with murder, an Orange County judge ruled that Allaway was not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered him confined to a state psychiatric hospital.

The judge apparently expected that Allaway would never see the free light of day again. Still, under the law, he could only be kept locked up until he was "cured" of his mental illness and no longer presented a danger to others. He was legally entitled to an annual review of his case.

And guess what? Within a year after the judge sent him to the state mental hospital, Allaway was claiming that, gosh, he was all better now, thank you, and therefore he had a legal right to walk free.

Well, you might suspect that a guy who's suddenly sane enough to demand release after such brief "treatment" just might not have been all that insane to begin with -- and that perhaps a review of the not guilty by reason of insanity ruling might have been in order. Unfortunately, the judge's ruling was set in legal stone; there was nothing anybody could do about it.

So for the past 20 years this mass killer has been claiming that he's cured and demanding that he be freed.

And what's really scary here is that psychiatrists in state mental hospitals have actually backed him up. In 1992, for example, they recommended that Allaway be transferred to an "outpatient program"; they did the same thing in 1998.

Fortunately, a judge denied the 1992 transfer, while in 1998 other, cooler heads in the mental-health community backed off from supporting Allaway's freedom bid.

But Allaway and his shrinks keep on trying. Now the guys in white coats at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino are once again recommending that Allaway be transferred to an outpatient facility - the first step in making him a completely free man.

The mind reels.

The only bright spot here is that it will be a judge, not a psychiatrist, who will determine whether Allaway remains locked up after a court hearing this spring.

True, a judge is bound by the law. But as we all know, the law is a fluid thing, subject to individual judgment and interpretation by the courts. And I can't believe that there's a judge in Orange County who'd be crazy enough to let this guy go.

Let's hope that, after a hearing, the judge will find sound legal reasons for keeping Allaway safely locked up. And let's remember that there are also seven sound moral reasons for doing so: Frank Teplansky, Stephen Becker, Seth Fessenden, Paul Herzberg, Bruce Jacobson, Donald Karges and Debbie Paulsen.

All of them died at Edward Allaway's hands. And to let their killer ever again walk the streets as a free man would be absolutely insane.

Gordon Dillow may be reached at (714) 796-7953 or by e-mail at

gldillow@aol.com.

-- (cin@cin.cin), February 13, 2001.

Cin, I have been reading Gordon Dillow’s pieces for many years. He never hesitates to speak his mind in the interest of justice and fair play. His tenure at the OCR must be secured for life, as he will not let the normal wishy-washy PC mindset interfere with his opinions. He Rocks!!

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), February 13, 2001.

25 years ago. The guy's 62 now. You really think he'd be a threat? I'd trust the parole board.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), February 14, 2001.

*NEWS FLASH*

62-year-old former mass murderer declared "no longer a threat" --

no empirical evidence offered whatsoever

(though if one were to do the most cursory of info searches, the very idea would be blown completely out of the solar system)

-- Chicken Little (cluck@cluck.com), February 14, 2001.

Carlos, I don't really believe you can "cure" a mental illness of this nature. Sure you can treat the symptoms with mediaction, but short of a lobotomy, the brain chemistry. UNLESS it was a drug- induced psychosis. BUT, would you want this guy living next door to your family?

I think Allaway should be grateful that he didn't lose his life, and that he can live safely inside where he can never harm another person.

BTW...the commentary states that he was trying to get out only a year after the killings; says he was cured in ONLY A YEAR, and has been trying each subsequent year. YEAH RIGHT

-- (cin@cin.cin), February 14, 2001.

Of course he needs to be freed. We have to make room for all the marijuana smokers, remember? DUH!!!

-- Pot smokers should be executed (and@buried. in unmarked graves), February 14, 2001.

Carlos ya damn Liberal.

-- (doc_paulie@hotmail.com), February 14, 2001.

Carlos is right. His crimes took place a long time ago and he's now 62. To keep him institutionalized any longer would be to make *him* the real victim in this sad story. And considering the advances that have taken place in psycho-therapy during the last decade, there can be little doubt the man is now every bit as stable as you or I. Let this rehabilitated man free! Free to follow his dreams. Free to enjoy a meal of fava beans and a fine chionti any time he wants. Free to silence his lambs!

Sincerely,

Dr. Hannibal J. Lector

.

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), February 14, 2001.

LOL, CD..I just finished reading Hannibal a few days ago and the memory is graphically fresh (((involuntary shudder)))!!!

-- Peg (pegmcleod@mediaone.net), February 14, 2001.

(I read that book when it first came out and it STILL gives me the creeps. Nope; I won't be seeing THAT film any time soon.)

-- (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), February 14, 2001.

Stop it CD, you are killin’ me. TOO FRIGGIN’ FUNNY!!!!

-- Barry (bchbear863@cs.com), February 14, 2001.

25 years ago. The guy's 62 now. You really think he'd be a threat?

Once a sociopath, always a sociopath. They'll say and do anything and everything to get "one-up" on you then revert to their old ways when you least expect it. Sociopaths can NOT be trusted under ANY circumstances. Yes, this man remains a threat in my eyes and should remain incarcerated. FWIW

-- Quiet (Knight@Camelot.com), February 14, 2001.

If the mental health professionals feel he should be freed, then let us test the veracity of their convictions and professional expertise.

He should be freed, but his only legal residence for the rest of his life should be in the household of one of the "mental health professional" advocates for his freedom. Will the charlatans of psycho babble allow him to live in their home, with their wives and children? Not just for a few months, but in each of their homes for a part of each year for the rest of his life?

Put up or shut up. Put your life, and the lives of your wives and children, at risk if you're wrong. That's EXACTLY what you're asking us to do! And the odds are astronomically against your "patient" taking up residence next door to you in your gated community with your rent a cops.

Accountability and shared risk, boys and girls. You advocate his release, put him, and the child molesters you've "cured", in the house next door to yours.

Ivory tower idiots in white jackets. Insulated by money, political power and privilege from the risks they unleash on the world. (Unfortunately, many of these are the same type of elitist, idealistic idiots that think the "average" citizens are too ignorant, or uncivilized, to have firearms to protect ourselves from the predatory animals they release into the "herd".)

To add insult to injury, these aren't the top professionals in the field, these are the "state psychiatrists". You know, the folks that can't drum up enough "stress disorder" or "PTSD" business to make a living from SSDI and workers comp insurance. Yeah, I know I'm discounting the dedicated few who have a calling to help. But it's in the interest to be statistically accurate for the number that join the government medical cadre because they can't compete for the lucrative insurance dollars in the private sector.

God save us from the government "experts". Common sense doesn't seem to have any credibility.

-- (Wolverine_in_nc@hotmail.com), February 14, 2001.