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The Oregon Board of Parole declared Robert King, a man convicted of the contract killing of a Lake Oswego woman in 1984—and a string of other crimes in Washington—rehabilitated in August. Now, it must decide whether he’s safe to release.
Weighing in against him: two sheriffs in Etowah County, Alabama, where King grew up and his family continues to live. They both submitted letters to the parole board last month protesting King’s release, and detailed new, sensational allegations against the self-described con man, who has long claimed his crimes were confined to the short period he lived in Seattle following a traumatic brain injury suffered in an airplane accident.
“I sternly believe he is a danger to society,” writes Sheriff Jonathon Horton, who says he’s a “longtime friend” of the King family. “Bobby’s family members do not want him here,” he explains.
Former Sheriff Todd Entrekin gives a reason why. “Late in the year of 1996 or the early part of 1997, Robert ‘Bobby’ Haden King, Jr., sent a man to Etowah County to kill both his brother and father, causing the King family to live in constant fear,” he wrote.
King was not prosecuted. His brother “refused to cooperate for fear of what Bobby would do to him,” Entrekin continued.
King previously told the parole board that he would move in with his brother in Alabama when released. Lacking family support, he’s now offering the board more options, including staying in Multnomah County through the Central City Concern’s employment recovery program, or moving to Tennessee to live with a longtime friend.
King’s final hearing is scheduled for Feb. 16. His tentative release date is scheduled for May.