Inset: Christopher Hubbart (Los Angeles County Sheriff). Background: Picketers protest Christopher Hubbart being released into Los Angeles County in 2014 (KCAL/YouTube).
A man known as the “Pillowcase Rapist” who admitted to sexually assaulting 100 women going back decades is about to be released from a California state hospital to an address in Los Angeles County for the second time after he violated the conditions of his first release there nearly a decade ago.
A court hearing is set for Oct. 1 to determine where Christopher Hubbart, 73, will be released, the District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release on Wednesday. The Department of State Hospitals has recommended placement at an address in the Antelope Valley in the desert about 80 miles north of downtown LA.
Hubbart was granted conditional release in March 2023, against prosecutors’ objections, the DA’s Office said.
“Continuing to release sexually violent predators into underserved communities like the Antelope Valley is both irresponsible and unjust,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said. “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.”
Hubbart was convicted in 1972 of raping 14 women. He got his nickname because he used pillowcases to muffle the screams of some of his victims, the Los Angeles Times reported. The day he was released on parole in 1983, he raped a woman, then raped nine more women in the San Jose area that year before he was caught and returned to prison, then-LA County Sheriff John Scott wrote in a letter to a Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge urging against releasing Hubbart to LA in 2014.
Hubbart was again released in 1990 but was rearrested after he took a woman hostage, the sheriff said. Hubbart admitted to raping more than 100 women throughout California between 1971 and 1983, including 26 in LA County, the sheriff wrote.
“Very few American criminals create the public fear Christopher Hubbart generates,” Scott wrote. “I cannot overstate my objection to Christopher Hubbart’s placement in the greater Lancaster community. He is the most prolific and violent rapist I have encountered in 45 years of California law enforcement. He has been declared a mentally disordered and extremely dangerous violent sex offender and his presence in the Lancaster community will strike fear in nearly all of its residents.”
Two years after his first release in LA County, Hubbart was sent back to the Department of State Hospitals for violating the terms of his release. He failed five lie detector tests about his “thoughts and fantasies,” The Associated Press reported.
But in 2021, the Department of State Hospitals recommended he was suitable to be conditionally released, which cleared the path for his pending release next month.
It’s not clear why the decision was made. A media representative for the state hospitals declined to comment, citing federal and state patient privacy laws.
City leaders in Palmdale, near where Hubbart is set to be released, strongly objected to the news about his possible placement at 28800 Cruthers Creek Road in Pearblossom, 15 miles east of Palmdale.
Palmdale Mayor Austin Bishop acknowledged in a statement that while the placement address is outside Palmdale city limits, he said his presence would create fear for many women in the area. The decision by Northern California to release him to a legally required LA County location — for the second time — has exacerbated community angst, officials said.
“Our greater Antelope Valley community has been through this before with rapist Hubbart,” Austin said. “The only place this dangerous criminal belongs is in confinement. Both the city and myself personally will be submitting comments objecting to his release and his placement in Pearblossom. We need to protect our community. Hubbart’s mere presence will haunt and strike fear in many women.”
One woman who had to live near him before told local CBS affiliate KCAL that the news that the serial rapist could live in the community again reminds her of her own trauma.
“Being a rape victim when I was 14 years old, it’s very terrifying,” she said. “We can’t have him around here because he will take off again and he will rape again.”
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