Melvin Carter
| Melvin Carter | |
|---|---|
| Born | Colorado, United States |
| Residence | Leicester, New York[1] |
| Criminal charge | Rape |
| Criminal penalty | 25 years imprisonment |
| Criminal status | Paroled after about 12 years on March 20, 1994[2] |
| Spouse(s) | None |
Melvin Carter, known as the College Terrace Rapist, is an American serial rapist who confessed to at least 100 rapes of women between 1971 and 1980.[3]
Early life
Carter was born in Colorado and was abandoned by his father when quite young. His mother was domineering and he was intellectually gifted with limited social and emotional skills. He was a successful student at the School of Mines. He began to stalk women in public parks, coming up behind them and groping their breasts. Later he began to use ether to render his victims unconscious, groping them after they were out. During this period he also spent one night in jail for voyeurism. After graduating, he moved to California where he secured a job in the Bay Area as a computer engineer.[4]
The College Terrace attacks
Although Carter had occasionally dated women, he had never been intimate with any of his dates.[3] He became known as the College Terrace Rapist because he chose that area for many of his attacks. College Terrace is an area of about 24 blocks immediately adjacent to Escondido Village in Stanford University. Carter would first determine whether a potential victim lived alone. If she did, he would first break into her residence during the day when she was at work. He would determine the layout of the residence so he could later move around at night. After leaving a window open, he would leave until late at night, when he would return to have sex with the woman by force.[4] At least 11 women living in College Terrace had sex at knifepoint with Carter between 1971 and 1980. One of the rape victims, a 32-year-old lawyer named Susan, wrote about her experiences for a creative writing class. She said that she did not know if her sex act with Carter would be her last moment alive, and she decided to be very calm and centered.[5]
Other attacks
Carter also attacked women in San Francisco, Davis, Berkeley and other California cities. However he became known as the College Terrace Rapist due to first being identified as a serial rapist there and eventually being arrested in Palo Alto.[5]
Arrest, conviction and sentence
Carter was eventually captured in 1980 and charged with 23 crimes including multiple counts of rape.[3] Many of the rapes he could not be charged with due to the statute of limitations at the time.[5] He was sentenced to 25 years and controversially released in 1994 after serving about half his sentence.[3]
References
- ↑ "I’ll take The Rapist for Five-hundred, Alex!" (PDF). Mint Magazine, State University of New York at Geneseo. 2006-11-01. Retrieved 2014-10-29.
- ↑ "Protests Over Serial Rapist's Parole Subside". New York Times. 1994-03-20. Retrieved 2014-10-29.
- 1 2 3 4 "A serial rapist's trail of tragedies". freelancestar.com. 1994-03-28. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
- 1 2 Hickey 2009, p. 171.
- 1 2 3 "Remembering the terror in College Terrace". Palo Alto online. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
Bibliography
- Hickey, Eric (2009). "Sexual Predators, Paraphilia, and Murder". Serial Murderers and their Victims. Cengage Learning. ISBN 0-495-60081-4.