If a Crime Defies Explanation, How Do You Decide When to Set the Perpetrator Free?

That’s the topic of this week’s Dive podcast.

Robert H. King Jr. in 1980s headlines. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times)

For someone who proudly lived a life of crime, what does it mean to be rehabilitated—and who decides?

That’s the question Lucas Manfield’s cover story, “The Redemption of Robert King,” asks about an aging career criminal as he approaches possible parole. King has served more than 40 years of the three life sentences he was sentenced to for the murder of single mother Jule Salter, and plotting an aborted murder of a Seattle jewelry dealer. Both the murder and the plot are interwoven in scandal, vice, money and a criminal cruelty against women, possibly as leverage against powerful men.

Listen on Spotify.

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Pelican Brewing—now making zero-alcohol, fruit-infused sparkling water Sparkle Hops.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.