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Menace to SocietyThe sexual psychopath is one of the most dangerous individuals in our society.The problem has always existed. For many reasons, fhere is more discussion of the situation today than ever before. Thus there are those who contend things are no worse than they were except that “we just talk more about it now, and people are more aware of it.” Perhaps.The most disturbing aspect of the matter is that as the issue has come more to light, not much has been done to deal with itmore directly and more properly. In an age when a trend of permissiveness toward the criminally minded exists, there appears to be an actual regression in this important category.* * ♦Not too long ago, a man with a known record of sex offenses escaped from a Missouri institution and was missing for several years. The next time he turned up, a little girl who had been attending a family affair at the Des Moines YMCA was dead and there was evidence the Missouri escapee was guilty.Recently a man named Richard Dean Guetling walked away from the Lincoln, Neb., State Hospital. He later was identified as the man who assaulted a 15-year-old girl in Omaha. Fortunately, she was not killed.Upset, like many, over such apparently careless administration of such people, the Omaha World-Herald probed into the category of the sexual psychopath in Nebraska and came up with revelations like these:• About 40 sexual psychopaths have the freedom of the grounds at Lincoln State Hospital.• When these people walk away from the hospital, and some of them do from time to time, authorities in their home towns sometimes are not even notified, or are notifiedin a roundabout way.• There are such psychopaths on the loose now in Nebraska but the hospital superintendent refuses to divulge their identities except to law enforcement agencies.•* * *Back to the case of Richard Dean Guetling in Nebraska:On May 31, 1968. when the man was declared a sexual psychopath and ordered committed to the State Hospital, Guetling had a record of four arrests and three convictions for the rape and molestation of girls, the victims ranging in age from 8 to 12. Charges on the fourth incident were dropped when he pleaded guilty on another count.The Douglas County (Nebraska) Board of Mental Health recommended that because of his record, Guetling be confined in maximum security. The State Hospital declined to follow that recommendation. Guetling was given freedom of the grounds and 10 months later he walked away, turning up in Omaha charged with another as-lault.The Omaha World-Herald asks:“Why should it take multiple offenses against girls to convince authorities a man la dangerous and should be locked up instead of released on bond or permitted to roam unsupervised around the State Hospi-ill crrminHs?
Newspaper Details
Lawrence Journal World
Lawrence, Kansas, US
Mon, Aug 25, 1969
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
IA, USA 30 Sep 2021
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