This is Murder in the Rain, where each week Emily Rowney, Alicia Holland and Josh McCullough

tell true crime stories of the Pacific Northwest.

Murder in the Rain contains graphic content, listener discretion is advised.

From 1978 to 1981, the South Hill rapist, who disguised himself like a jogger, raped,

assaulted, groped, and flashed dozens of women across one posh Spokane Washington neighborhood.

After a car belonging to his father Gordon was spotted illegally parked at a junior high

running track at the time one of the rapes took place, it was traced back to his son,

Frederick Harlan Coe. This connection, along with strong identifications of Coe,

for many of those attacked, resulted in his arrest for the South Hill rapes.

And though it seemed to be an open and shut case, the crimes of Fred Coe would later be brought

back to court again and again and again. Fred Coe had a release on bail available to him,

but both he and his parents, Gordon and Ruth, lacked the funds to bond him out,

so he sat in jail at Spokane police headquarters. One evening after work, Jay Williams,

a deeply religious man and realtor, though not a terrible one like Fred, and Coe's best friend

since childhood, visited him in jail. The visitation room was like the hundreds you've seen in

movies and on television, with dingy white tile floors and telephone handsets used to speak between

the glass partition booths. Jay sat across the glass from Fred. They picked up the phones and Fred

began speaking, claiming his innocence of this or any rape. Jay agreed, but his gut was whispering

something different. Then Fred said they couldn't use the phone for the next portion of their visit

because the calls were monitored. Fred then unfolded and pressed a note written in all caps

against the glass. Quote, go to police. Do not refer to me as eccentric. Tell them you and I

were trying to catch South Hill rapist. Say that you were my decoy and I followed you in car.

...