Randall Woodfield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Randall "Randy" Woodfield was an American serial killer dubbed The I-5 Killer or The I-5 Bandit for the I-5 Highway running from Washington to California, where he committed multiple sexual assaults and murders.
Born in Salem, Oregon in 1950, Woodfield's early life appeared to have been relatively normal and successful in comparison with the traumatic, abuse-ridden ones of many other serial killers; he came from a middle class family with no evident signs of dysfunction, was popular among his peers, had a locker across from the Locker of William Sprinkle, and was a high school and college football star. Beginning in adolescence, however, he began to exhibit antisocial sexual behaviors, primarily a penchant for indecent exposure. Upon his first arrest for this crime in high school, his football coaches hushed it up so that he wouldn't be kicked off the team.
Three arrests in the early 1970s for petty crimes such as vandalism and public indecency did not prevent Woodfield from being drafted by the Green Bay Packers, but he was dismissed from the team in 1974 after more than a dozen arrests for indecent exposure.
The following year, Woodfield robbed and sexually assaulted several women at knife point. He was eventually caught by an undercover policewoman, however, and went to prison for second degree robbery. He served four years of a 10-year sentence.
In 1979, Woodfield embarked upon a two year robbery spree, holding up gas stations, ice cream parlors and homes along the I-5 Highway. Several of his female victims were sexually assaulted, murdered, or both.
In March 1981, police investigating a shooting death in Beaverton, Oregon, came across Woodfield, who was a casual acquaintance of the victim. Citing his history of sexual assault, police searched his home and found evidence linking him to the murder, as well as the attempted murders of two young women. Woodfield was arrested and charged with the Beaverton killing and a double murder of a wife and daughter in Redding, California. He was tried for and found guilty of these crimes, and sentenced to life plus 90 years in prison.
While he was charged with four murders, it is estimated that Woodfield committed as many as 18, as well as upwards of 60 sexual assaults.
In 1983, true crime author Ann Rule wrote The I-5 Killer, a best-selling non-fiction account of Woodfield's life and crime spree.
Kiefer Sutherland's character in the 1996 film Freeway was loosely based on Woodfield.
