Tomorrow We'll Go To The Fair

Parents who have had small children in the last 20 years or so may recognize that post title as a song from a very popular collection of children's songs. For some reason this story reminded me of that title:

A criminally insane killer from eastern Washington is on the run after escaping during a field trip to the county fair that his mental hospital organized.

Why such a dangerous person was out in public was a question many, including Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, were asking as authorities searched for Phillip Arnold Paul.

Authorities at Eastern State Hospital, where Paul is a patient, are being criticized for allowing him to visit the fair despite his violent criminal past and a history of trying to escape.

"Why was he allowed to take such a trip?" the governor said Friday. "Why did they go to a location that was so heavily populated with families?"

Authorities believed Paul, 47, was headed for the Sunnyside, Wash., area where his parents and many siblings live.

Paul was committed after he was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1987 slaying of an elderly woman, whose body he soaked in gasoline to throw off search dogs. Paul buried the woman's remains in her flower garden.

In 1991, Paul walked away during a day trip to a Washington lake and was later captured. He attacked a sheriff's deputy in the jail booking area, knocking him unconscious, and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.

Spokane County sheriff's officials were told Paul had $50 when he escaped Thursday—enough money to buy a bus ticket, said sheriff's spokesman Dave Reagan.

Paul also had time, according to a union that said hospital administrators waited nearly two hours before calling law enforcement. The union said workers alerted their superiors minutes after discovering Paul's escape.

It's "Take a Criminally Insane Person to the Fair Day"! This is what happens when liberal ideas of rehabilitation are allowed to control our institutions.