Serial 'Jogger Rapist' Will Be a Free Man

Richard Gillmore of Oregon admitted 9 assaults, was convicted in only one
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 9, 2022 6:48 AM CDT
Serial 'Jogger Rapist' Going Free From Prison
In this 2008 photo, convicted rapist Richard Gillmore is pictured during his parole hearing in Salem, Ore. Gillmore is set to be released from prison in December after serving nearly 36 years.   (Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian via AP)

An Oregon serial rapist is set to be released from prison in mid-December after serving nearly 36 years behind bars, almost all of his maximum sentence. Richard Gillmore, arrested in 1986 and called the “jogger rapist” because he staked out victims as he ran by their homes, admitted to raping nine girls in the Portland area in the 1970s and '80s but was only convicted in one case because of the statute of limitations, per the AP. In 1987, a jury found him guilty of raping 13-year-old Tiffany Edens, his last known victim, in December 1986.

The AP generally does not name people who have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly. Edens has spoken out about the assault and recently wrote on social media that she received a voicemail in August from the state’s Victim Information and Notification Service telling her of his impending release. “I have been slowly processing the reality of it all,” she wrote. The Oregonian reported that Gillmore was transferred in August from Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla to the minimum-security Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland to help him prepare for his re-entry into the community. He will be 63 at the time of his release in December.

KOIN, which first reported his upcoming release, said Gillmore will remain under supervision until 2034 and could be sent back to prison if he violates his parole. A judge in the Edens case sentenced Gillmore to at least 30 years in prison with a 60-year maximum. But a parole board cut his sentence in half in 1988, the year after he was convicted. Danielle Tudor, who has said she was a teenager when Gillmore raped her in 1979, also has spoken out against his release. "If he had been able to have been charged for all the rapes he committed, he’d never be getting out,” Tudor told KOIN.

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Gillmore has been classified as a sex offender at the lowest risk of reoffending. He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life due to his rape conviction, but the classification means the state and county aren’t required to notify surrounding residents that he’s living near them. His victims are angered that Gillmore isn’t considered a high-risk sex offender, which would require notification to the community wherever he lives or moves.

(More Oregon stories.)

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