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Within days of his California parole, Bittaker was picked up by FBI
agents in Louisiana, charged with violating the Interstate Motor
Vehicle Theft Act. Convicted on that charge in August 1959, he was
sentenced to serve 18 months at a federal reformatory in Oklahoma. His
behavior there soon earned Bittaker a transfer to the U.S. medical
center at Springfield, Missouri, where doctors released him after he
had served two-thirds of his sentence.
Arrested next for a Los Angeles robbery, in December 1960, Bittaker
was convicted in May 1961, slapped with an indeterminate sentence of
one to 15 years in state prison. A 1961 psychiatric examination found
Bittaker to be manipulative and “having considerable concealed
hostility.” Despite “superior intelligence,” he was diagnosed as a
“borderline psychotic” and “basically paranoid.” The following year, a
second psychiatrist noted Bittaker’s “poor control of impulsive
behavior.” These diagnoses notwithstanding; he was paroled in late
1963, after serving barely one-sixth of his possible maximum sentence.
Freedom never seemed to agree with Larry Bittaker. Two months after
his conditional release, he was jailed again for parole violation and
suspicion of robbery. Another parole violation sent him back to prison
in October 1964. Interviewed by a psychiatrist in 1966, Bittaker
confessed that stealing made him feel “important,” then curiously
added that his crimes occurred “under circumstances that were not
totally my fault.” Another diagnosis of borderline psychosis was
recorded -- and authorities released him yet again, only to again see
another parole violation in June 1967.
One month later, Bittaker was tagged for theft and leaving the
scene of a hit-and-run accident. Convicted on those charges, he drew
another five-year sentence, but he was paroled after serving less than
three years, in April 1970. Arrested for burglary and parole violation
in March 1971, he was convicted on both counts that October, receiving
an additional sentence of six months to 15 years.
The California prison system at that time was in such disarray that
it was hardly surprising that Bittaker was freed three years later, in
1974. His next crime began as simple shoplifting, shoving a steak down
the front of his pants in a supermarket. But it escalated to attempted
murder in the parking lot, when Bittaker stabbed an employee who tried
to stop him.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Robert Markman examined Bittaker before
trial and rejected the earlier findings of borderline psychosis. He
branded Bittaker a “classic sociopath.” As Markman explained that term
later, in his memoir Alone with the Devil (1989), the diagnosis
simply meant that Bittaker “was incapable of learning to play by the
rules, he would never learn by experience, and he would just keep
butting his head against the barriers of acceptable behavior.”
In short, he was a hopeless case, beyond any known treatment or
rehabilitation.
Dr. Markman also warned that Bittaker was bound to escalate his
criminal behavior, moving on to more serious crimes. He was “a highly
dangerous man, with no internal controls over his impulses, a man who
could kill without hesitation or remorse.” Bittaker later reinforced
this surmise, telling a cellmate that someday he planned to be “bigger
than Manson.”
Prison psychiatrists concurred with Markman. A 1977 jailhouse
evaluation found Bittaker “more than likely” to commit new crimes upon
his release. A year later, in July 1978, another psychiatrist dubbed
Bittaker “a sophisticated psychopath” whose prospects for successful
parole were “guarded at best.” Again the warnings were ignored, and
Bittaker was released in November 1978.
But not before he had made a special friend.
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