Drafted and Deadly

On Tuesday, December 26, 1950, in Salem, Oregon, Randall Brent Woodfield was born. Randall, or Randy as he preferred grew up the youngest of three siblings in what most people considered an ideal situation. He was from a middle class family that seemed well put together and unproblematic. His father worked as an executive at Pacific Northwest Bell and his mother was a home maker. He was popular in school. Their family was well known and respected in the community of Otter Rock, Oregon.

Randy attended school at Newport High School where he flourished in sports. He ran track, played basketball, and played football. He made good grades and was the classic All-American boy next door. Nothing in his seemingly normal childhood would ever suggest he would turn into one of North America's most notorious serial killers. As he grew into his teenage years, he began to take on strange behavior. Randy had a habit of exposing himself to people, particularly young women. He was known as a 'peeping Tom' and no one ever really held him accountable for his actions, so he continued.

He once was apprehended for exposing himself to a group of girls on a bridge in town, which resulted in his parents forcing him to attend therapy. In school, however, his behavior was kept quiet among coaches who wanted to keep him on the football team. At age 18, he had his criminal record expunged. He graduated from high school in 1969 and attended Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon. In 1970, Randy transferred to Portland State University where he joined a student Christian group called Campus Crusade for Christ and played as wide receiver for the Portland State Vikings.

It was during these college years that his "harmless" exposure would escalate to full on violence. After years of having his behavior hushed up by his coaches for the sake of his football career, Randy felt like he couldn't be touched. He was arrested multiple times for diffrent things such as vandalism and public indecency. He was also arrested multiple times for indecent exposure in 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1975.

Randy chose to drop out of college and was drafted by the NFL in 1974 where he went on to play as the wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. His life on the team didn't last long. In fact, it didn't even last for a year. His arrests for indecent exposure and reports of over a dozen flashing incidents were drawing negative attention to the team, which earned him a formal cut from the NFL.

With his dreams of being a pro football player crushed, Randall's perverted behavior escalated from peeping and flashing to attacking women in horrific ways. He began holding women at knife point and forced them to perform oral sex on them while he robbed them. Officers in Portland noticed the rise in sex crimes and began using female police officers as decoys to catch the criminal. It worked. On March 3, 1975, Randy was arrested by one of the female officers. He confessed during interrogation claiming he lacked impulse control and had an addiction to steroids.

Randall Woodfield plead guilty to second-degree robbery and was sentenced to ten years in Oregon State Penitentiary. He didn't even serve half of his sentence. In 1979, he was granted parole after only four years. This unreformed and unrepetant serial sex offender was back on the streets, ready to harass and torture more women.

Fresh out of prison, Randy decided to attend his high school reunion and reconnect with several old classmates, including Cherie Ayers.

Cherie was an X-ray technician who was found dead in October of 1980. She was raped, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death in her apartment. She is considered to be his first victim in a five-month crime spree. Cherie and Randy had known each other since the 2nd grade and had even exchanged letters while Randy was in prison. Her family offered up his name as a suspect, but there was no evidence tying him to the crime, so he went free.

Darcey Renee Fix and her boyfriend Douglas Altig were found wrapped up in athletic tape and shot to death execution style a month later in Darcey's apartment. Randy was again questioned, but with no evidence tying him to the crime.. he was released. Again.

Over the next couple of months, Randy committed several robberies at gun point. He robbed gas stations, fast food restaurants, and an ice cream parlor. He wore disguises such as a fake beard and tape across his nose. During one of the robberies, he trapped a woman in the bathroom and held her at gun point. He then forced her to give him a hand job. He went from establishment to establishment along the I-5 robbing small businesses and harassing the female employees.

Eyewitnesses began describing him as a six-foot-tall man with dark eyes and curly brown hair and he was from then on known as the I-5 killer. He was questioned time and time again, but lack of evidence tying him to the crimes allowed him to continue to walk free.

On January 14, 1981, a man who matched police sketches was reported as having invaded a home and sexually assaulting two very young girls, aged eight and ten. Four days later, he sexually abused two more women, Shari Hull and Beth Wilmot, in an office building before shooting them both in the back of the head. Shari was killed and Beth was left for dead. She would eventually be the one to make sure that Randy was stopped once and for all.

Before she was able to turn him in, however, he would go on to attack and murder many more women. In February 1981, he murdered and raped Donna Eckard and her 14-year-old daughter. Both mother and daughter were found together in bed, both shot multiple times in the head. That same day, a clerk in was kidnapped and raped in a holdup. An identical crime was reported by another female clerk only miles away.

Days later, Julie Reitz, a former girlfriend of Randy, was found raped, shot, and killed in her home. From February 15th through February 28th, more crimes were reported as he continued his disturbing road trip. Store clerks reported being held at gun point and being sexually assaulted, and three more women were raped and murdered.

On March 3, 1981, Randall was finally caught and questioned about the crimes. On March 5, his apartment was searched. Inside, shell casings from the same type of gun fired as well as a roll of tape matching the tape found on the victims were located. On March 7, he was picked from a police line up multiple times by multiple victims, including Beth Wilmot. Evidence finally began to pile up and indictments came rolling in. Randall was accused of multiple counts of rape, illegal possession of a firearm, sodomy, murder, attempted kidnapping, and armed robbery.

Though Randall was good at running, he made multiple stops to call women from payphones. Beaverton Police Chief, David Bishop, was quoted as saying that, "All of a sudden, it became obvious. Randall Woodfield was addicted to women and the phone." Randall apparently had no issue getting women's phone numbers. He had made thousands of phone calls using calling cards and pay phones to his multiple girlfriends during his killing spree and this also helped catch him and tie him once and for all to the crimes.

In 1981, Randall went on trial for charges of sodomy, attempted murder of Beth Wilmot, and the murder of Shari Hull. He plead innocent of all charges. Beth Wilmot testified against him. Her testimony was what solidified the prosecutions conviction. Randall was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life in prison plus 90 years. Throughout the entire trial, Randall maintained his innocence. He swore multiple times that he would never rape a woman. He claimed he didn't have to, women wanted him.

It was noted that during the trial, Randall neither felt or demonstrated any remorse for any of the crimes or cases of rape and murder. He was said to probably be one of the "Coldest, most detached defendants ever seen".

Randall Brent Woodfield is currently 71 years old and is serving a life sentence plus 157 years at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. The male guards when questioned about his behavior claim he spends his time in his cell ignoring everyone. The women on the other hand say that whenever they are around, he is up prancing around his cell and fixing his hair.

Despite solid evidence of being linked to at least 12 rapes and murders, he has never confessed. He only ever admitted to a history of exhibitionism and robbery. Never murder. He claims the real killer is a man named Larry Moore and that he is an innocent victim of conspiracy. Over the years. Portland's Cold Case Unit have combed through multiple binders of case files in an attempt to solve any cases in which Randy may have been involved.

He has been a suspect in at least 44 different homicides. In 2006, he was linked through DNA to two more murders. After his conviction, Randall's dad visited him in prison. It was said to be a very short visit in which he claimed that "He's not the son I know." He said he refused to help put his son away and niether he nor any other family member has spoken of the incident publicly since.

Since his arrest, Randy has been married three times and divorced twice. He has made quite a profit off of being a criminal and is currently said to be worth around 1 million dollars. Some letters he wrote to a journalist name Jennifer Furio from prison were sold online and published in a book. In October 1983, he was injured in prison by another inmate.

In 1987, he filed a $12 million lawsuit against true crime author Ann Rule but it was dismissed almost immediately. He has denied Ann Rules written claims about him having "small hands, a low I.Q. and herpes."

Randy became pen-pals and considered himself romantically tied to Diane Downs while both were in prison. She was in Oregon Women's State Penitentiary for shooting her three children which resulted in one death and two serious injuries. She described him as "Charming, supportive, and stimulating." She wasn't the least bit concerned that he was a convicted rapist and murderer. She told everyone that he was a "handsome, nice guy." Letters exchanged between them would show him asking if he was allowed to pleasure himself over one of her pictures, promising that he wouldn't disrespect her by ruining the picture. He would later deny any involvement with her.

He is considered to be one of the most violent killers in U.S history.