Christopher Evans Hubbart: The Pillowcase Rapist

     In 1969 when Christopher Evans Hubbart attended high school in Los Angeles he reached out and touched a woman's breast as she walked by him on the street. He touched several woman this way until he quickly evolved into a rapist. In the early 1970s the sexual predator drove around Los Angeles in the morning hours looking for women to rape.

     Hubbart had a simple criminal modus operandi: in residential neighborhoods he'd look for open garage doors that revealed that the man of the house had left for work. If Hubbart saw toys in the yard or in the garage he knew children were in the house. Hubbart believed that mothers protective of their children were more likely to submit to him without a struggle. As a calculating sexual predator Christopher Hubbart represented one of society's worst nightmares.

     Once inside his carefully chosen victim's home Hubbart bound the woman's hands and while he raped her held a pillow over her face. In 1972 the so-called "pillowcase rapist" sexually assaulted 26 women in Los Angeles County.

     Detectives identified and arrested Hubbart in 1973. He pleaded guilty and instead of being sent to prison for at least fifty years the judge sent him for sex offender treatment at the Atascadero State Hospital. At that time criminal justice practitioners in California thought they could rehabilitate anyone. As a result the state became a haven for sex offenders. 

     In 1979 after a team of therapists, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists proudly proclaimed that the pillowcase rapist had been cured and was no longer a danger to society, these mental health experts decided to treat him as an outpatient. Mr. Hubbart must have been grateful for his clean bill of health and the chance to continue his career as a serial rapist.

     Within months of walking out of the state hospital Christopher Hubbart raped several women in northern California. Convicted in 1980, the judge sentenced him to prison instead of putting him back into the hands of counselors and therapists. But this was California, and in 1990, corrections experts released him on parole. As could be expected by anyone who knew anything about serial sex offenders, Hubbart re-offended. He raped a female jogger shortly after his release from prison.

      The authorities sent the pillowcase rapist back to prison. One would think that as a habitual rapist Mr. Hubbart was finally in prison for good. The parole authorities, obviously with warm spots in their hearts for serial sex offenders, released him back into society after three years behind bars.

     In 1996 while living in the Los Angeles County town of Claremont, California Mr. Hubbart told his parole officer that he felt he was losing control of himself. Later that year, pursuant to a new California law called the Sexual Predator Act, a judge committed Hubbart to the Coalinga State Hospital. The new law applied to serial sex offenders like Hubbart who were likely to re-offend. (Politicians in the state had grown tired of correction officials and mental health experts putting serial sex offenders back into society.)

     In May 2013 history repeated itself when a judge in Los Angeles County ordered Christopher Hubbart released from the state hospital. Once free he would come under the supervision of bureaucrats running the Forensic Conditional Release Program. Under this program, administered by the California Department of State Hospitals, Mr. Hubbart would receive free housing, continued psychological assessment, group and individual therapy and regular home visits. 

     Serial rapist Hubbart, under the release program, would be required to wear a GPS monitoring device. He would also be subjected to random drug testing, regular polygraph examinations and house searches. He was also prohibited from watching television shows and digital media that "acted as a stimulus to arousal." Under this program a security guard would be posted at his place of residence and he would not be allowed outside by himself at night. 

     In July 2013 District Attorney Jackie Lacey petitioned a state judge to block Hubbart's release from the state hospital on the grounds of public safety. The judge denied the request and the government appealed that decision. On August 25, 2013 the California Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's denial of the prosecutor's motion. The high court justices did not accompany their ruling with a written decision.

     Prosecutor Lacey, in speaking to reporters after losing the appeal, said, "We are now committed to working with law enforcement partners to ensure that all terms of conditions of release are strictly enforced. We will do everything in our power to keep all members of our community safe from harm."

     In July 2014 mental health authorities released the pillowcase rapist to his new home in Palmdale, California. Residents of this desert community northeast of Los Angeles were up in arms. A group of activists formed an organization called "Ladies of Lake LA Committed to Getting Hubbart Back into Custody". Members of the group held daily demonstrations in front of the rapist's house.

     The obvious problem with Hubbart's release was this: prosecutor Jackie Lacey could not guarantee that this serial rapist would not take off his GPS ankle bracelet and slip into the night and rape more women. The prosecutor knew this, the police knew it and so did the bureaucrats in charge of Hubbart's supervision.

    Sixty-three-year-old Christopher Hubbart had been kicked out of the state hospital to make room for younger rapists. The state was simply overrun with sexual predators. Christopher Hubbart's release had nothing to do with rehabilitation. Even the bureaucrats in California realized these people could not be fixed.

     In September and October 2014 Christopher Hubbart violated the conditions of his release by letting the power in his ankle monitor run low. Prosecutor Jackie Lacey charged Hubbart with parole violation and petitioned Judge Richard Loftus to send him back to the Coalinga State Hospital. Hubbart's attorney, public defender Christopher Yuen, argued that his client had not re-offended and that parolees routinely let their monitor batteries run down.

    At the parole revocation hearing on May 11, 2015 Judge Loftus ruled that Christopher Hubbart "was not a danger to the health and safety of others." As a result the rapist would remain free. The decision did not go down well with the citizens of Hubbart's neighborhood in Palmdale, California.

     On August 9, 2016, a Santa Clara County spokesperson announced that Hubbart had "failed to meet the terms of his release." As a result he was returned to the Coalinga State Hospital. The county official did not reveal how the serial rapist had violated the terms of his release. Hubbart's Palmdale neighbors were jubilant.

     In September 2024, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, the well-known criminal friendly prosecutor, announced that Mr. Hubbart would be released from the state hospital and placed back into the community. This decision did not please the residents of the community where this serial rapist would live.