SPOKANE -- Ruth Coe, who tried to hire a hitman in a plot to kill the judge and prosecutor in the trial of her notorious rapist son, has died at age 75.
Coe, the mother of convicted "South Hill rapist" Kevin Coe, died March 16 in Henderson, Nev., where she lived. She had suffered from emphysema and other illnesses for several years.
The Coes' case was the subject of a best-selling book, "Son," by true-crime writer Jack Olsen.
Ruth Coe continued to maintain her son's innocence long after he was convicted.
"Ruth Coe was a very dutiful and loving mother," said her defense attorney, Carl Maxey.
Kevin Coe was convicted in 1981 of four counts of rape, which were among more than 30 sexual assaults that occurred in and around Spokane's fashionable South Hill neighborhood over three years.
Three of his convictions were overturned, and he is scheduled for release in 2006 from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. He did not ask to attend his mother's funeral, a prison official told the Spokesman-Review newspaper.
During his rape trial, Ruth Coe offered several alibis for her son, saying he was with her when three of the assaults took place.
After his conviction, police said, Ruth Coe agreed to pay an undercover officer $4,000 to kill then-Superior Court Judge George Shields and then-County Prosecutor Donald Brockett. The plot was exposed and the killings never took place.
The former model served most of her yearlong sentence on work-release.
She moved to Nevada after her conviction with her husband, Gordon Coe, former managing editor of the Spokane Chronicle newspaper.
Ruth Coe, a Spokane native, was diagnosed in 1973 as manic-depressive. She took lithium carbonate and other drugs, which served as her defense in her murder-for-hire trial.
In a 1993 interview with The Associated Press, she alluded to the emotional problems the trial caused her.
"Obviously, maybe we did need psychiatric help," she said. "But when you live a life as we did, all very normal, just ordinary people, and all of sudden, your name, honor, life is completely destroyed. Your loved one is jerked and put into prison ... for something he didn't do ...."
In addition to her husband and son, Ruth Coe is survived by a daughter, Kathleen Higgs of Seattle.
Private cremation was held last week.
