- [Narrator] What is up, EWU crew?
Back in the 1970s, hitchhiking was a normalized way
of getting transportation.
People would ask strangers for a ride
without ever thinking twice
and for the most part, all that would happen
is that they'd arrive at their destination.
However, this was not always the case.
Sometimes a dark and sinister plan hid behind
the friendly smiles and seemingly genuine promises.
For 15-year old Mary Vincent, all she had hoped for
was a ride to her grandfather's house.
What happened instead would change her life forever.
Let's get into it.
Raised in Las Vegas, by the time Mary Vincent was 15,
she had gone through many troubling experiences
for being so young.
According to various news sources,
Mary didn't get along with her parents, often skipped school
and eventually left her home in Las Vegas
to go and live with her boyfriend in Sausalito, California,
although that didn't last long.
Soon after she went to stay with him,
he was allegedly apprehended on assault charges.
Not knowing where else to turn, Mary headed back home
to Las Vegas before running away once more in 1978.
For a short period of time, Mary slept in unlocked cars,
before eventually deciding to hitchhike her way
to Corona, California to get to her grandfather.
She also had the hope that once there,
she could eventually take up a career as a dancer
as she was quite passionate about it.
On September 29th, 1978, the determined, young teenager
made her way to a highway in Berkeley, California
and most drivers paid no mind to the people
standing on the side of the road looking for a ride.
Mary was among these people
holding a sign that read, Heading South.
Time went on until finally a van pulled up beside her.
Inside the van was a middle-aged man
and he kindly asked where she was looking to go.
Mary informed him that she was hoping for a ride
to Los Angeles and the man offered to take her there.
Allegedly a few of the women also waiting to hitchhike
glanced nervously at the man
and reportedly even warned Mary not to go with him.
Desperate to get to her destination
and feeling as though she could trust this stranger,
Mary hopped in despite the other women's alleged concerns.
This man reminded Mary of her grandfather
and seemed welcoming and friendly enough.
The two soon set off towards Los Angeles.
The man's name was Lawrence Singleton,
a 50-year old former merchant seaman.
The ride was pleasant enough,
that is until something happened,
that seemed a bit strange to Mary.
As they went, Mary sneezed
and Lawrence reached over to touch her neck,
before asking if she was ill.
Unnerved by the sudden physical contact,
she quickly moved away, so that he would stop touching her.
Although the situation was rather awkward
and uncomfortable for the 15-year old,
when nothing else occurred to increase her unease,
she began to relax.
A little while after, Mary started drifting off.
Lawrence had made no further advancements
and she felt as though it was safe once more.
She figured that it was a long way to Los Angeles anyways,
so why not take a nap?
Eventually down the road,
Mary woke from her comfortable slumber
to find that Lawrence had gone a different route,
one that certainly wouldn't lead
to her requested destination.
Angered and frightened by this,
Mary reportedly threatened Lawrence
with a sharp stick she found in the car
and demanded that he go the correct direction.
Some sources say that Lawrence reassured her
that they were going the right way,
while others state that he acted
as though it was simply a mistake and turned around.
Either way, Mary accepted his words,
believing he was telling the truth
and they eventually made it to a rest stop.
However, Mary was beginning to feel more and more
that the man's intentions were not only to get her a ride
to Southern California
and unease began to creep into her bones.
As Lawrence got out to take a bathroom break,
Mary noticed her shoes were untied.
Still unsure of how genuine this man really was,
she got out to tie her shoes
just in case she needed to make a quick escape.
As Mary bent over to tie her laces,
she had no idea that a shadow was lurking behind her,
waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Suddenly a sledgehammer slammed into the side of her head
and Mary fell to the ground completely defenseless.
She was then knocked unconscious.
When Mary finally awoke,
it was a completely different scenario
than when she had woken from a contented nap
only hours earlier.
In utter shock and horror, she realized
that her attacker was indeed Lawrence Singleton,
the man she had trusted.
After knocking her unconscious,
Lawrence had pulled her into the van
and drove further down a nearby canyon.
He then tied her up, securing her arms to the van walls,
so that she couldn't escape, no matter how much she tried.
The night that Mary then suffered through
was both cruel and sick.
Throughout the entire night,
she was repeatedly assaulted by Lawrence.
The morning after, she pleaded with him to be freed.
Coldly Lawrence taunted her saying,
"If you want to be set free, I'll set you free."
Lawrence brought her to the road and laid her down,
before pulling out a hatchet from his van.
Mary watched in fear and confusion as he approached her.
He then lifted the hatchet
and began to hack away at her arms.
Writhing in pain and agony, Mary could do nothing,
but sit and let her arms get mutilated,
until both of her forearms had been severed off of her body.
Suffering such pain, while still conscious
is something nobody should have to experience
and yet even after the pure torture
he had just put the young girl through,
Lawrence was still not done with his inhumane crime.
Mary was then tossed over a 30-foot cliff
near Del Puerto Canyon and stuffed into a concrete pipe.
Once finished, Lawrence sickeningly remarked,
"Okay, now you're free."
He left Mary to bleed out inside of the pipe
and as he went on his way,
he believed that he had just committed the perfect crime.
And yet even as Mary bled out
and suffered excruciating pain,
she was not ready to give up.
One thought remained with her, how terrible it would be
if she let this man commit the same crime
against other teenage girls.
Miraculously Mary managed to cover what was left of her arms
in mud and mustered the strength to try and find help.
She dragged herself back up the cliff
and then proceeded to walk an entire three miles
to the nearest highway, all the while holding her arms up
to keep the bleeding to a minimum
as well as prevent her muscles from falling out.
Allegedly the first sign of help she found was a car.
However, when the occupants of the vehicle
caught sight of her, they sped off in fear
and Mary was left hopelessly by herself.
Two individuals found Mary soon after
and immediately rushed her to the hospital.
Even after her harrowing captivity,
she managed to make it out of the brutal situation alive.
Mary was determined not to let Lawrence get away
with the horror that he had committed against her
and she later gave a detailed description of the man,
who had attempted to kill her,
one that would help the police find and arrest him.
By the time Lawrence was arrested,
Mary had been given prosthetic arms and parts of her leg
were used to help salvage what was left of her right arm.
Because of this crucial operation,
Mary was no longer able to dance
and has since been forced to forget her dreams
of ever becoming a dancer.
Although Mary had gone through so much already,
there still was more that had to be done
to ensure Lawrence would be brought to justice.
When a trial began
six months after the crime had been committed,
she was ready to testify against him,
even though the idea of facing her attacker
must have been thoroughly horrifying.
Lawrence ended up receiving a mere 14 years in prison
for his disturbing acts, even worse,
Lawrence could eventually be eligible for parole.
While in court, he had whispered
a disturbing threat to Mary, "I'll finish this job,
even if it takes the rest of my life."
Mary, who was still only a teenager
paled and left the courtroom
and only later did she reveal what he had whispered.
Mary received little compensation
after everything that she had endured,
even though it was extremely difficult to find a job
due to her life-altering injuries.
Although she was supposed to receive $2.56 million
from Lawrence after winning a civil judgment,
she ended up with nothing,
since he had no money to his name.
Lawrence was whisked off to jail
and Mary was left permanently damaged
by the horrific acts he had inflicted upon her.
She went into hiding for a time,
terrified that Lawrence could somehow reappear
and continue the nightmare she had managed to escape.
Various news sources alleged that she developed anorexia,
reportedly dropping below 100 pounds for a time.
Later on in life, Mary found comfort in a man,
whom she fell in love with and the two married.
However, they eventually divorced.
Meanwhile in jail,
Lawrence was telling his own bizarre version of the story.
He reportedly insisted that Mary had threatened him
with the sharp stick from his vehicle
and acted as if she was going to accuse him of assault.
Lawrence even attempted to sue Mary,
but the suit was unsurprisingly dismissed by the courts.
Shockingly, after only eight years in prison,
Lawrence was paroled for his good behavior
and because he had worked as a teaching assistant
in the prison classroom.
However it was extremely difficult to find a place
for him to stay during his parole,
as many residents in different towns protested strongly
to keep him away from their families.
In one particular case, Lawrence was transported
from a hotel room under armed guard in Rodeo, California,
when a whopping 500 people had swarmed the area in protest.
After attempting to place him in numerous different towns,
he was eventually placed in San Quintin,
where he lived in a trailer at the state prison.
Lawrence was paroled for about a year,
before he was released and became a free man once again
and chose to move back to his home state of Florida.
Knowing that Lawrence had been released
must have only heightened Mary's fear and anxiety.
It appeared to be devastating to both Mary and the public,
that he had been set free so early
and might have the chance
to follow through with his disturbing threat.
After Lawrence had settled in Florida,
a neighbor made an intriguing comment on his behavior.
Tom Bennett stated that they were afraid of him at first
and then continued quote, "But every day he'd talk to you,
he'd cook steaks and bring them to you.
He fixed up his property really good.
He was the neighbor you dreamed of.
I started to believe him, maybe he was framed."
Another neighbor, who reportedly
knew nothing about his disturbing past
let her two-year old daughter play in the yard
with Lawrence's Rottweiler puppy, Calla,
while she and her husband would talk to Lawrence.
However, it soon became clear that Lawrence's mental state
was still a very dark place.
Even after beginning a new life in Florida,
neighbors started to feel as if something was wrong,
when they witnessed Lawrence repeatedly
getting in and out of his vehicle.
When they went to check up on him,
they found him unconscious, they promptly called 911
and it was soon revealed,
that he had been funneling carbon monoxide into his van.
A note was later found and starts out by saying,
"I hope that I find peace," before continuing,
"I would like to thank everyone who helped me.
Please have me cremated and have my ashes thrown
into Palm River on the outgoing tide.
Surviving the attempt to take his own life,
Lawrence was then taken to a psychiatric care center
and soon released.
Despite Lawrence's issues,
including two petty crimes of theft,
he seemed to live a mostly normal life.
However, this new life of his didn't last long
and another horrifying crime soon occurred.
In 1997, a 31-year old woman by the name of Roxanne Hayes
met Lawrence at his home, Roxanne was a prostitute
and worked to support her three young children,
all of whom she loved deeply.
A house painter, who had shown up
to Lawrence's residence unexpectedly just after Roxanne
stumbled upon something unforgettable.
As he looked in the window, he realized he was witnessing
Lawrence beating and strangling a screaming, young woman.
Instead of helping her,
the painter drove away and called 911.
When the police arrived at his house,
Lawrence, who had blood all over his body
tried to tell the police
that he had cut himself while chopping vegetables.
This bizarre excuse wasn't believed for a second,
as authorities had already spotted
Roxanne's dead body on his floor.
Roxanne had been stabbed brutally numerous times
and it was reported that her fingers
had nearly been severed off in the struggle.
News sources reported that Lawrence
had a rather strange explanation for Roxanne's death.
He said that Roxanne had actually been stabbed
as they struggled to take control of a knife,
after she threatened to cut his head off.
Lawrence also admitted to being depressed
and intoxicated at the time of Roxanne's death
and claimed that it had all been an accident.
To make things even stranger,
Lawrence allegedly claimed that as she was bleeding out,
she requested that he hold her and the two embraced.
After she had died, he cried
and tried to talk to her to no avail.
Upon hearing the news of Roxanne's death,
Mary Vincent did not hesitate to testify once more
against her attacker, Mary was asked to identify him
and was later quoted as saying,
"I wanted to see his eyes. Eyes are important.
When he was on top of me,
I was looking at the ax, trying to stay alive.
I asked later if I could look him in the eye,
but it didn't happen."
With her help, Lawrence Singleton ended up
on Florida's Death Row.
Despite his numerous strange explanations and excuses,
Lawrence was later quoted as saying,
"I was framed the first time, but this time I did it."
Roxanne's children, who were all very young at the time
remember their mother fondly.
Her four-year old son recalled a fun game
the two used to play together
and the other children made similarly emotional statements
about their mother.
In 2001, years after committing his first devastating crime,
Lawrence Singleton died of cancer at the age of 74,
before an execution could occur.
Mary Vincent was finally able to live
free of the fear that her previous captor
would try and complete his terrifying promise to her.
Mary has since learned to live and cope
with not only her traumatic memories,
but also her prosthetic arms.
She has taught herself to cook
and draw with her prosthetics and even become an artist.
She started raising a family and makes sure
that her two sons are careful and wary towards strangers.
Mary's ability to survive and adapt
to her difficult situation is truly inspiring.