He Raped and Killed Before Turning 21
(“Clean Getaway,” Forensic Files)
Forensic Files viewers know the frustration of finding out that the justice system could have prevented a rape and murder if only it doled out a longer sentence the first time the perpetrator committed a sexual assault (Colvin “Butch” Hinton and Thomas Jabin Berry).
Kathy Woodhouse’s 1992 rape and murder falls into that category. “Clean Getaway,” the episode about the case, mentions that the killer spent some time in a juvenile detention facility before he committed the deadly attack on the mother of three. But the show doesn’t mention what he did to earn his bunk there or why he got out early.
Mysterious ring. For this week, I did some research and learned of the horrible crime he committed at the age of 14. I also looked into his whereabouts today.
So let’s get going on a recap of “Clean Getaway” along with extra information from online sources as well as Murder in the Heartland author Harry Spiller, who gave a phone interview to ForensicFilesNow.com:
On a Saturday on January 18, 1992, a caller told police that a woman had been raped and murdered in the back of a dry cleaning store in Herrin, Illinois.
Worst case scenario. It sounded like a legitimate concerned-citizen call except for two things: The man didn’t give his name and murders didn’t usually happen in the small town of about 12,000 people in Williamson County.
At first, police believed the call might be a prank.
But when they arrived at Fox’s Laundry and Dry Cleaners, they found a deceased woman beaten about the head, probably with a mop wringer that remained on the scene.
Pandemonium. The murder victim was Kathy Ann Woodhouse, a 40-year-old Herrin native who had three kids ranging in age from 13 to 22 and had been married to Joe Woodhouse for 18 years.
After hearing that something out of the ordinary had happened at Fox’s, Kathy Woodhouse’s mother headed to the scene.
“I saw all these cops around and they wouldn’t let me go inside,” Sybil East later recalled, adding that Kathy’s employer had been planning to transfer her to a store in Marion in just a couple of days.
Not a ‘secrete.’ Police questioned a customer who had left a check for $14.30 on the counter and retrieved her own dry-cleaning..
She gave a police artist a description of the tall white man who poked his head out of the backroom and asked if she needed help as she was exiting the store. The customer guessed the man’s age at 30 to 35.
Unfortunately, lab work on semen recovered from the victim revealed it came from a nonsecretor — someone whose bodily fluids carry no indications of blood type.
Locals shaken. A fingerprint found on the payphone used to make the 911 call didn’t match that of any known offender.
In the meantime, state police Captain William Barrett warned the rattled community to stay alert but not give in to “excess hysteria.”
Early on, police got a tip that threw them off course — and probably mortified a slightly perverted young customer. Kathy had told a friend that an anonymous man called the store and asked what color toenail polish she was wearing.
Nailed. Investigators tracked down the gentleman via phone records. Under police questioning, the suspect, a 25-year-old construction worker, disclosed that he knew Kathy from visiting the store and eventually admitted he made the call. He said it was something he liked to do every so often, but he had no involvement in the murder.
Luckily for him, he had an alibi that checked out.
Next up, an anonymous source suggested that the police look at a local man named Paul E. Taylor.
Odds against him. Paul, who was just 20 years old, had led a turbulent life. His parents divorced when he was 2 and his mother was reportedly an alcoholic. She remarried, to a man named Douglas Jackson, and he allegedly would physically assault her and verbally abuse young Paul.
“It’s my understanding that as he grew up and in school, he was picked on because he was extremely poor,” said Harry Spiller.
Paul also ran away and spent some time in a foster home.
By his mid-teens, he had landed at the Louisiana Training Institute, a detention facility for juveniles. But his offenses were way more serious than vandalizing cars or shooting garden gnomes with a BB gun.
Savage teen. In 1984, at the age of 14, Paul entered the women’s bathroom at a Baton Rouge hotel that was hosting a school administrators conference. He grabbed an attendee named Sandra Lott while she was drying her hands, according to court papers.
After dragging her to a stall, the teenager brandished a butcher knife, told her to take off her clothes, and sexually assaulted her; he made a failed attempted at penetration. When another woman entered the bathroom, he threatened to kill Sandra Lott if she made a sound.
Next, Paul let Sandra dress, forced her to go to a nearby field with high grass, and made her disrobe a second time. The victim, who weighed 84 pounds, said she suddenly realized that if he raped her, he would probably kill her. Sandra fled and got help from a man who gave her his coat and alerted police.
Guess who’s out. Paul evaded capture at first — no one knew his identity yet — but two weeks later, authorities arrested a male who trespassed in the same women’s bathroom. Sandra Lott confirmed him as her attacker.
Despite the severity of his assault on Sandra, Paul got a sentence for only the “remainder of his juvenile life,” that is, until he turned 21. He spent the time at both the Louisiana Training Institute, now known as the Jetson Center for Youth, and the low-security Ponchatoula Police Jail.
But Judge Kathleen Stewart Richey let him out a few months early after psychologists said he had made “maximum progress” and recognized the seriousness of his crime. He had a job lined up, and Illinois officials had assured the judge that parole officers would supervise the young man on the outside.
Free to flip burgers. After his release, he moved in with his mother two blocks from the future murder scene, and began working at Hardee’s.
The fast food restaurant used Fox’s to clean employee uniforms.
Paul’s manager at Hardee’s told police that Paul had just quit and had said he planned to return to Louisiana. The law nabbed him as he was leaving a Van Halen concert with friends.
Forensic Files stated that Paul Taylor’s appearance surprised authorities because he didn’t look like the artist’s sketch — but I disagree. The drawing lacked the mustache Paul wore in real life, but the facial features, especially the nose, were very similar. (The composite looked more convincing than the police sketch used to wrongfully convict Richard Alexander of rape.)
Nylons afoot. Many YouTube viewers who saw Paul Taylor’s photo expressed surprise that he was only 20 (“in dog years,” wrote Poelo Mokgotho19).
Whatever the case, a partial pair of pantyhose Paul hid under his bed looked similar to a piece of hosiery found near the murder scene. His palm print matched an impression left on a plastic bag near Kathy’s body.
Prosecutors alleged that Paul pulled pantyhose over his face, forced Kathy Woodhouse into the backroom and raped her.
Disturbed dialer. When he heard the customer come in, he took off his stocking mask and greeted her to make sure she wouldn’t come to the backroom, they contended. Then, the 6-foot-2-inch-tall rapist killed Kathy because she could have identified him.
Paul had robbed her purse of $3.
So why did he call the police to report the murder and rape?
“Sometimes you get people — especially the psychos — who think they’re smarter than everyone else,” Harry Spiller told ForensicFilesNow.com. “They have a tendency to think ‘I did it. You can’t catch me.’ You’ve heard about serial killers who write letters to the police.”
Curse in the courtroom. Under questioning, Paul Taylor confessed to the robbery and murder. Later, he reluctantly admitted that he raped Kathy Woodhouse, too.
Still, the case went to trial. In addition to Sandra Lott, the prosecution had Linda Schott, the accused’s first cousin, as a witness.
Paul audibly grumbled the word “bitch” as Linda took the stand. She told the court that he propositioned her for sex and mailed her threatening letters after she declined. He signed his name to the letters and wrote his return address on the envelopes.
Manson wannabe. A prison employee testified that he overheard Paul bragging to another inmate about the murder. Paul said he tried complimenting Kathy Woodhouse on her looks and said her jeans “were like a second skin.” He also confessed to the other prisoner that he “had to have her.” And once he had her, he “didn’t want her anymore” so he murdered her, and his only regret was not wearing gloves, according to the witness.
Paul Taylor definitely had loose lips. Linda Schott testified that Paul told her that he considered Charles Manson his idol and wanted to gather himself a band of followers.
On the defense’s side of the aisle, there was clinical psychologist David Warshauer. He testified that Paul Taylor suffered from alcohol abuse, depression, antisocial personality disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder.
Mother fumes. Nonetheless, on cross-examination, Warshauer admitted that Paul probably knew right from wrong.
For Kathy Woodhouse’s 77-year-old mother, Sybil East — who often held hands with older daughter Nancy Burlison during the trial — the proceedings were an exercise in terse self-control.
“In the courtroom, I couldn’t cry,” Sybil told the Southern Illinoisan years later. “I was just so angry. I wanted to kill him.”
Chamber closes. For a while, it looked as though she might get to see him perish. On Oct. 15, 1992, a jury decided that the case against Paul contained no mitigating factors that would preclude capital punishment. Paul “stared intently” as jurors individually confirmed the decision, according to a Southern Illinoisan account.
Paul Taylor, then 21, received a sentence of death by lethal injection.
But in 2003, Gov. George Ryan gave a blanket commutation to all 167 convicts on death row in Illinois because of inequities in the legal system.
Husband lawyers up. Paul ended up resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole — and he declared that he would stop appealing and resign himself to life behind razor wire unless Illinois reinstates his death sentence.
He later said he had no remorse for the murder but didn’t realize Kathy Woodhouse left three children behind and felt sympathy for them.
In December 1992, Kathy’s widower and children filed suit against Louisiana for letting Paul Taylor out of the juvenile facility early. The release enabled Paul to murder Kathy, they contended. (Of course, if the state kept him until he was 21, he probably would have raped and murdered someone else.)
He got lots of ink. Today, Paul Taylor resides in the Illinois River Correctional Center, a medium-security facility in Canton.
The Illinois Department of Corrections’ website states clearly that the 230-pound inmate — whose collection of tattoos includes a smiley face, a dog, and a rose — is ineligible for parole.
No word on how the Woodhouses fared with the lawsuit, but the family took comfort in an outpouring of support from friends and neighbors. The Southern Illinoisan published a letter written by Frank Starkweather, the minister of the Christian Life Center, where the Woodhouses attended services, to thank the community for its kindness.
Author, author. According to older sister Nancy Burlison, Kathy Woodhouse had experienced a religious awakening in early adulthood.
“Everyday life is so mundane and boring,” Kathy once said. “I want to live in the heavens.”
That’s all for this post. Coming up next week is a Q&A with Harry Spiller, who has studied Paul Taylor’s homicide case and written a set of books on true crime in the Midwest.
Until then, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Thanks, Rebecca, esp for the researched ‘extras’.
Rape, or attempted, aged 14, certainly augurs badly for later serious criminality. Of course the dilemma is whether one throws away the key at that young age of someone who could – after a huge glitch -proceed to a law-abiding life. Statistics have a bearing here (for those around that age who commit a serious sexual offence, what proportion re-offend following release in what crimes?) On the one hand one can’t incarcerate for what offenders MIGHT do if released; on the other, if ‘dangerous’, assessment of risk (likelihood) has to happen – yet that can only be rough and ready: there’s no crystal ball. Where a fine balance is discerned following risk assessment, does one air on the side of freedom or incarceration?
While we all understand the heartache and anger of the Woodhouse family, I think the only basis of a law suit would be whether: (i) the sentence was unusually short for that offence at that age; (ii) early release was unusual; (iii) norms of risk assessment were ignored. For, as you say, release a matter of mere months, or even a few years, early seems unlikely to’ve prevented this perverse character from raping (with attendant risk of murdering) again… On the face of it, five-odd years’ imprisonment following the rape isn’t unduly lenient (in British terms, anyway).
As fragile ‘earthen vessels’ we experience risk daily – and one of those is predation by our fellows in a free society. Is the alternative – locking ‘dangerous’ children up for decades ‘cos of what they might do (history as destiny) – better? Easy for me to say… If Taylor was psychiatrically assessed before release- you’d think he should’ve been – what was the outcome? How well was he monitored post-probation?
All we can say is that were Taylor not released the murder wouldn’t have happened – but in order to be confident about that he’d have had to be incarcerated for many decades at 14, which I think few would advocate. I’m not sure there is much, then, we can learn from this tragic case.
A study looked specifically at adolescent perpetrators of rape (1999); the ten-year follow-up of 50 adolescent rapists released from custody in Wisconsin showed that most were convicted of further crimes, but not of a further sexual assault. For those who committed a further sexual offence, the pattern of assault remained stable in years 6 – 10 as it did in years 1 – 5, meaning this group seems to commit such offences at a fairly steady rate for at least 6 – 10 years after release. No decrease in the risk of sexual recidivism was apparent even up to ten years after release.
Thus most of those who committed Taylor’s crime at 14 don’t do it again – but, unsurprisingly, they continue to commit less serious crime. A hardcore minority are repeat sexual offenders, and Taylor’s rape and murder places him in a small minority of the very worst.
Thank you for never shying away from sharing particularly disturbing FF cases. Paul’s is a landslide pro Me Too stance against any debate of authenticity. There needs to be longer harsher sterner sentences towards all sexually violent offenders, in order to right past injustices and prevent future possible victims from the same tragical fate.
Exactly!
Maybe it’s just crankiness, but cases like this seem to blink ‘capital punishment means less burden on society, whether it’s a deterrent or not.’ It might reduce recidivism. In any case, Taylor lacks any redeeming qualities. Why feed the gent?
For sure, the man is a lost cause.
Perhaps now – but not at 14, in which case the horse had bolted. There are, of course, multiple murderers who only get life. Taylor’s bad, but there are quite some worse…
[And while, as Rebecca says, he was – or it was claimed he was – brutalised by a bad background (the usual defence), it doesn’t wash with me nor most people: it might mitigate delinquency, but it goes nowhere near violent rape and murder, never mind the standard objection: that others with similar backgrounds didn’t do what he did.]
I agree — sure, he was only 14, so a sentence of a few years would be reasonable for something like armed robbery. But his crimes against Sandra Lott were very serious.
It was indeed. A question is whether he served too little time for that relative to other younger ‘teens who sexually assaulted under threat of deadly weapon (and whether all should serve, say, a min of 10 years c that age). But even if he’d done 10 yrs, the chance of his doing it again in his mid-20s was significant. And I think few would suggest that a 14-y-o should be imprisoned for more than 10 years for very serious crime.
‘What should be done with a 14-y-o rapist who had a deadly weapon’ isn’t, for me, an easy question. How long should they serve? You’d hope that therapy for rehabilitation would be part of it, since there surely must be attempted rehabilitation for a child? But how do you know they are unless you release them?
The US does imprison for life 14-y-o murderers – which I disagree with – so perhaps on that basis Taylor should’ve received a significantly longer sentence than he served. Here in UK I think he’d get approx what he got.
It is another tragic tale of a child who got a poor start in life, and quickly morphed into a criminal.
It’s sad we cannot spot all the kids who start down this path and intervene and perhaps stop the downward spiral before it’s too late. TX prisons are full of people who have a similar profile. Until or unless we restore the family unit in America, we will see more stories like this. As a public librarian for 25 yrs. I saw enough homeless adults and troubled kids to make me shudder. The govt. can’t raise anyone’s kids. But after all the school shootings we’ve had, that should be a wake up call. I’m 64, and you never saw the types of crimes which happen today when I was growing up. Guns were very easy to get in the 60s even 70s, but mass shootings and school shootings were very rare. Now schools are like prisons with so much security. 40% of all children today are born out of WEDLOCK. This is not good for society or the kids in that situation. Too many will end up losers, criminals, or ruined. One in three teen girls gets pregnant before age 19. Sorry we got some an elephant in the room folks.
There might not be much society can do now to shelter a child from abuse that leads to a warped personality but training to avoid being a victim of such a twisted predator is worth considering. Young people – particularly girls and young women need to be instructed on how to best avoid being a fatal victim. We need experts and professionals in that field to initiate classes in the school system. It might make taxpayers less resentful of school taxes.