Serial rapist who ambushed 20 women in cars before sex attacks demands jail release

A convicted serial rapist who admitted to ambushing and sexually assaulting 20 women is asking to be released from prison.

Phillip Pizzo, 70, is serving 11 concurrent life sentences at MCI Norfolk prison in Massachusetts for a series of violent kidnappings and rapes in the early 1980s . He was jailed for attacking seven women, although he later admitted to having 20 victims while in sex offender treatment, according to the Parole Board.

Pizzo, who was dubbed the ‘mall rapist’ because he targeted women at shopping centers, has indicated that he plans to ask to be paroled for the third time next month and his hearing is scheduled for June 25.

Prosecutors said that Pizzo began his violent crime spree in the summer of 1983 when he was in his early 30s. He later admitted he would drive to mall parking lots and wait for women walking to their cars. As they got in, Pizzo would approach them in a mask, threaten them with a knife and push them into the passenger seat before tying them up. He then put a mask on their face and drove them to his car, which he used to take his victims to his home where he would force them to drink alcohol before sexually assaulting them.

Pizzo said he would then make his victims take a shower or go into his pool to get rid of evidence before driving them back to the shopping area he kidnapped them from – sometimes leaving his victims completely or partially-naked. He would also rob his victims, although authorities said he came from an affluent background, according to The Salem News.

The series of attacks lasted until January 1984. He was arrested later that year and pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

Pizzo initially blamed his crimes on his anger towards women, which he said was caused by his mother’s inability to protect him from his father’s abuse. He also blamed it on a girlfriend who had broken up with him.

Although Pizzo’s hearing is scheduled for next month, it may be rescheduled because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has seen some prisoners released and court dates postponed.

‘The board will always put the health and safety of the public, including victims and families, first,’ said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Parole Board.