Former Chronicle Editor Gordon Coe Dies Spokane Native, 82, Was ‘Shattered’ By Son’S Rape Conviction

Gordon Coe, a longtime editor at the Spokane Daily Chronicle and a figure in one of city’s most infamous criminal cases, died Saturday in Edmonds, Wash.

Coe, 82, died of complications from a stroke.

His son, Kevin, was tried and convicted in 1981 of committing four of the more than 30 attacks attributed to the South Hill rapist during 1980 and 1981.

Kevin Coe, then 34, insisted he didn’t commit the crimes and his family staunchly defended him.

Gordon Coe was the Chronicle’s city editor for 25 years before becoming managing editor in the 1970s. He stayed in that job until just before his son’s trial began in July 1981.

Kevin Coe’s convictions were overturned by the state Supreme Court. He was tried again in 1985 and convicted of three counts of rape. Three years later, the Supreme Court reversed two of those convictions because of trial errors.

Kevin Coe is due for release from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla in 2006.

In a 1988 interview, Gordon Coe described the impact of his son’s case on his family as a “hell and a horror.”

“He was shattered by it. He didn’t display it openly but it affected him deeply,” said Bob Hill, who served as the Chronicle’s city editor during Coe’s last years at the paper.

Between his son’s first and second trials, Coe’s wife, Ruth, was convicted of a felony. She was sentenced in 1982 to a year in jail for attempting to hire someone to kill the prosecutor and judge in her son’s 1981 trial.

After her release, Coe and his wife moved to Henderson, Nev., outside Las Vegas.

In a 1993 interview with The Associated Press, Coe strongly defended his wife and son. Their prosecutions - later the subject of a true-crime book, “Son,” by Jack Olsen - had a profound effect on the family, he said.

“We’re aware of it every minute of every day,” Coe said.

Ruth Coe died in 1996 from complications from emphysema.

Coe then moved to the Edmonds area to be near his daughter, Kathleen, and other relatives. He spent the past two years at the Edmonds Retirement Inn.

Family members provided an obituary for Seattle newspapers that included the following description: “Late in his life, when his son and his wife were defamed and unjustly punished, he remained steadfastly loyal to them.”

Hill said Coe was too modest and reserved to openly display resentment toward others.

“He had incredible patience. He constantly displayed courtesy toward all his staffers, even when some of them did not respond in kind,” Hill said.

Before his son’s arrest, Coe directed the Chronicle’s coverage of the police investigation of the South Hill rapist.

After Kevin Coe was charged with the crimes, Coe followed an office policy that prevented him from seeing or editing any of the stories dealing with his son’s upcoming trial.

“He stuck by that order,” Hill said.

Born in Spokane on Sept. 16, 1916, Coe graduated from Washington State University and became a reporter for The Spokane Daily Chronicle in 1938.

Coe was a U.S. Army veteran who attained the rank of colonel in the Army Reserve before retiring in 1975. His tour of duty during World War II included action in the North Africa, Sicily and Italian campaigns.

Serving as an intelligence officer, Coe earned 11 battle stars during the war’s final three years.

Funeral services are scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. at Evergreen-Washelli in North Seattle.

The family has asked that any memorials be made to WSU’s Edward R. Murrow Development Fund.