SPOKANE -- Gordon H. Coe, whose long newspaper career ended when his son and wife were prosecuted in a notorious serial rapist case, has died of complications from a stroke. He was 82.
Coe died Saturday in Edmonds, where he lived in a nursing home.
He was born in Spokane on Sept. 16, 1916. He graduated from Washington State College, now Washington State University, and became a reporter for The Spokane Chronicle in 1938. He served for 25 years as city editor and became managing editor in 1975.
It was as managing editor that Coe headed the newspaper's coverage of serial attacks by the so-called South Hill rapist. His son, Fred -- who later legally changed his name to Kevin -- was charged with some of the attacks in 1981.
Gordon Coe, who oversaw a reader's hotline for tips on the serial rapist, turned over day-to-day coverage of the case to others and retired after his son's arrest.
Coe was remembered Tuesday by those who worked for him at the Chronicle as a thorough editor and stickler for accuracy, with an encyclopedic knowledge of Spokane.
"We used to joke that if somebody's name came up in a story, he'd be able to supply the middle initial without any prompting," said Chuck Rehberg, a longtime Chronicle employee. "He was a great help to reporters. He knew the background of a story to get you off and running without having to go to the library."
Kevin Coe was convicted in 1981 of four counts of first-degree rape and sentenced to life in prison. After the convictions were overturned on appeal, he was convicted of three counts in a 1985 retrial. Two counts were later vacated, leaving a single count and a 25-year sentence in the Washington State Penitentiary. He is scheduled for release in September 2006.
The younger Coe, 51, did not ask to attend his father's funeral, prison spokeswoman Mary Christensen said Tuesday.
Gordon Coe's wife, the late Ruth Coe, was convicted in 1982 of trying to hire someone to kill the judge and prosecutor in her son's rape trial.
In a 1993 interview with The Associated Press, Coe staunchly defended his wife and son, blaming their prosecutions on a conspiracy of Spokane County elected officials.
The prosecutions -- later subject of a true-crime book, "Son," by Jack Olsen that was made into a television movie -- had a profound effect on the family, Coe said in the 1993 interview.
"We're aware of it every minute of every day," Coe said. "We're never going to live a normal life."
Coe was a World War II U.S. Army veteran who attained the rank of colonel in the Army Reserves before retiring in 1975.
