In his younger days, Eugene Gall looked like a Hollywood bad boy. But, say his name and those who helped lock him up still react in disgust.
"This guy is just horrible," said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who prosecuted him for rape in 1978 in Greene County.
"He's a bad man. He's a child killer and he should never be let go," said retired Oakwood Detective Lance West.
Thirty-six years ago, no one knew this bad man was looking for trouble in Oakwood.
In October, 1977, Beth Ann Mote was walking to school on Greenount Blvd. when Eugene Gall stopped to ask for directions.
"She said fourteen. She looked far younger than that. She was just a very small girl," said West. He said Gall put a knife to Beth Ann's throat and forced her into his car. He drove
her to a wooded area in Miami Township where he raped her and stabbed her to death. Her body was not found for a week.
Longtime Oakwood resident Jean Long said she and other parents did not want their children to walk alone to school.
"It was a very scary time for all of us. There was anger, but there was more fear, I think," said Long.
Over the next six months, Gall terrorized southwestern Ohio. Authorities know that he abducted and raped at least four more girls in Dayton, Beavercreek and Cincinnati. He took Lisa Jansen, 12 off the streets of her Cincinnati neighborhood and drove her to Kentucky where she was raped and shot to death six months after the Mote murder.
In 1979, Eugene Gall pleaded guilty to killing Beth Ann Mote. He was already on death row in Kentucky for the Jansen murder. No one in the courtroom that day ever though he would have a chance to go free. However, the Kentucky conviction was later thrown out and Gall was sent to Ohio, where authorities have given him credit for time served out-of-state. So Gall, now 67, is being considered for parole eight years earlier than anyone expected.
"No, I never expected him to be eligible for parole," said Doris Mote, mother of the murdered Oakwood girl. "He needs to stay in jail for public safety.
Mote taveled from out of state last week to plead with the Ohio Parole Board to keep her daughter's killer behind bars. She has support from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and from Montgomery County prosecutors who handled the Mote case.
"The only thing I can tell you is, I would hope that his chances are nil to none," said Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. Authorities believe that the Eugene Gall today is the same man who went on his rampage of rape and murder over three decades ago.
"He has said before that he feels that he will be impulsive and kill again and that needs to be considered by the Parole Board when they take this into consideration that he should not be released," said Assistant Prosecutor, Mary Montgomery.
Gall gets his chance to go before the Ohio Parole Board on Monday and prosecutors said they expect a decision in about two weeks.
DeWine sent a letter to the Parole Authority on Tuesday, strongly opposing any consideration of parole for Gall.
In the letter DeWine said, "He has taken at least two lives that we know of and preyed on countless innocent children. If released I have no doubt that he will revert to these unspeakable ways again."
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