Who is ‘The Pillowcase Rapist’ Christopher Hubbart and why is he being released?

He was first convicted of rape in 1973, but that wouldn’t be the last black mark on his rap sheet. Christopher Hubbart, 73, is well-known in the Los Angeles, California area as the “pillowcase rapist,” because he would sometimes use a pillowcase to muffle the screams of his victims. Recently, he was granted conditional release and may potentially be placed back into the community. Understandably, people aren’t too happy about this troubling true crime tale. So why is he getting out? It’s complicated.

Hubbart was convicted in 1973, 1983, and 1990 for sex crimes and rape in both L.A. and Santa Clara counties. He’s admitted to raping over 40 women, according to CBS News, but police think the number hovers somewhere closer to 100.

After his first arrest, he was deemed a “mentally disordered sex offender” and sent to a state hospital in Atascadero for treatment. After being in the facility for seven years, he was released after physicians said he was no longer a threat to society. They were wrong.

Hubbert raped over a dozen women after his release. He was put back in prison and then another hospital in 1983, and paroled in 1990. When he was released he quickly assaulted another woman and was sent back. In 2000, he was designated a “sexually violent predator” under the Sexually Violent Predator Act and committed to the Department of State Hospitals.

He got out in 2014 after his lawyer successfully argued that being detained for so long violated his rights, and he was allowed to rent a small white house in Lake Los Angeles. That stay only lasted a year or so and he was once again incarcerated after he let the batteries on his ankle bracelet get too low.

“I’m glad he’s gone. He needs to be in the hospital where he can get the help he needs,” a neighbor named Sharon Duvernay said at the time. He almost got out again but was sent to the hospital again because therapists didn’t think he was being truthful about his thoughts and fantasies, and that he hadn’t yet come to terms with his “distorted thinking,” according to the NY Post.

He failed five lie detector tests and his treatment supervisor Alan Stillman didn’t think he was “coming to grips” with how he felt about women. He was originally deemed competent enough to live in the outside world on his own after he was given a strict 16-page agreement that stipulated he be subjected to random searches, drug tests, a curfew, and polygraph tests.

On Sept. 4, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office (LADA) announced that he was going to be released from the Department of State Hospitals and placed somewhere in the area.

“The Santa Clara Superior Court determined that Los Angeles County is to be Mr. Hubbart’s domicile, setting the stage for his potential release to the Los Angeles County area.”

District Attorney George Gascón releasing “sexually violent predators into underserved communities” is not fair to the residents where he’s going to be placed and shows serious flaws in the judicial system in California.

“Repeatedly placing these individuals in the same community shows a blatant disregard for the safety and well-being of our residents. Our deputy district attorneys will persist in opposing Mr. Hubbart’s placement in the Antelope Valley. We must demand more from our judicial system, ensuring decisions serve the best interests of our communities while exploring alternative locations for these placements.”

In an interview with CBS News, Gascón he did not think Hubbart’s release was “fair” and that he didn’t think the rural community of Antelope Valley should have to shoulder the burden of housing him, nor should it be a magnet “for housing sexually violent predators.”

Back in 2014 when Hubbart was originally allowed to try and live in the public again, then LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich said Hubbart’s “past behavior” showed that his actions were not a “one-time occurrence where he made a mistake.”

“We’re talking over and over again. It’s an outrage, whether he’s placed in Lake Los Angeles, in Claremont or any of these areas where we have children.”

His short stint in his small house in Lake Los Angeles required a 24-hour guard because he was getting constant death threats. A group called the Ladies of Lake LA  regularly protested outside his house, yelling for his incarceration and saying he should “burn in hell.” Where he’ll be placed will be decided at a court hearing on Oct. 1.