Editing Carroll Cole (section)

===First murder===
At age 8, he retaliated against one of his classmates, a boy of the same age named Duane, by drowning him in a lake in [[Richmond, California]]. The death was regarded an accident by authorities until Cole confessed to it many years later in an [[autobiography]] he wrote in prison. During a press interview, Cole said of this event, "I was primed, I had made the mental commitment I was going to get even with my mother, and things just built up and built up and became an obsession."<ref name="auto"/><ref name="L.A. Times 1"/>

As a teen, Cole committed several [[petty crime]]s and was frequently arrested for drunkenness and minor thefts. After high school, he joined the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]], but was given a [[Military discharge#Bad Conduct Discharge (BCD)|bad-conduct discharge]] in 1958 for stealing pistols.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="L.A. Times 1">{{cite news |title=Claims He Killed 3 S.D. Women, Many Others: Death Row Inmate Won't Appeal Dec. 6 Execution |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-28-me-9130-story.html |access-date=17 August 2018 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=28 November 1985 |language=en |quote=He was given a bad-conduct discharge in 1958}}</ref> In 1960, Cole attacked two couples parked in cars on a [[lover's lane]]. Soon afterward, he called the police in Richmond, California, where he was living, and told them that he was plagued by violent fantasies involving [[strangulation|strangling]] women.<ref name="auto"/>