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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Singleton’s First Victim Lives In Fear

Associated Press

The woman raped by Lawrence Singleton nearly 20 years ago still lives in fear of the man who chopped off her forearms and says she was devastated to learn of his latest attack.

“Right now I’m not sleeping. I can’t hold any food down. I think I’ve been put through enough,” Mary Vincent said Friday from her home near Tacoma.

Vincent, 34, was a 15-year-old runaway in 1978 when Singleton picked her up, offered to drive her to Los Angeles and then repeatedly raped her before hacking off her forearms with an ax and leaving her for dead.

Singleton, 69, denied the attack on Vincent - a crime for which he served eight years of a 14-year sentence in a California prison. But he confessed to Wednesday night’s stabbing death of a woman in Tampa, Fla.

He should have been locked up forever in 1979, Vincent said. But she says she has yet to feel anger over the attack that forever changed her life.

“I haven’t gotten that far yet to get angry. Right now, I’m still stunned and very disappointed and horrified.” Vincent, who works with runaways, also said she worries about young people, “who think they’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof and nothing’s going to happen to them, because I used to think that myself.”

Vincent, an unemployed mother of two boys, won a $2.56 million judgment against Singleton, but has collected virtually nothing because he’s broke.

A few years ago, she filed for bankruptcy after she was thrown off welfare and lost her home. She spent much of the last year living with Bob Clayton, who said she hopes to make money by selling her story.

Her $15,000 prosthetic arms, which should be replaced every year, haven’t been replaced in three years, Clayton said.

“They’re both broken,” Vincent said. “I’m struggling. I’m really struggling to get by, but I can’t stop being a mom.”