Editing Carroll Cole (section)

==Later life==
Cole spent time in various [[Psychiatric hospital|mental hospitals]] over the next three years. At the last of them, [[Stockton State Hospital]], a Dr. Weiss wrote: "He seems to be afraid of the female figure and cannot have intercourse with her first but must [[Necrophilia|kill her before he can do it]]."<ref name="auto"/> Weiss approved his release in April 1963, despite hospital staff having diagnosed Cole with [[antisocial personality disorder]].<ref name=TLS>{{cite web|last=Richmond|first=Jessica|title=Cole, Carroll|url=http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Cole,%20Carroll%20-%202005.pdf|work=Department of Psychology|publisher=Radford University|accessdate=27 December 2016}}</ref>

Upon his release, Cole moved to [[Dallas]], [[Texas]], where his brother Richard was living. There, he met and married an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] [[stripper]] named Billie Whitworth, but this did not change his perspective towards women. After two years, the marriage ended when Cole burned down a motel after convincing himself that Whitworth was having sex with men there. As a result, he was arrested for [[arson]]. Upon his release from prison, Cole attempted to strangle an 11-year-old girl in [[Missouri]]. He was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison.<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|last=Greig|first=Charlotte|title=Evil Serial Killers: In the Minds of Monsters|year=2005|publisher=Barnes & Noble|location=New York|isbn=0760775664|page=[https://archive.org/details/evilserialkiller00char/page/190 190]|url=https://archive.org/details/evilserialkiller00char/page/190}}</ref>

After the sentence was up, Cole ended up in [[Nevada]], where he attempted to strangle two more women. Once again, he checked himself into a mental hospital. The doctors there noted his murderous fantasies but still elected not to detain him and he was given a ticket back to [[San Diego]].

===Serial murders===
Cole's first victim as an adult was Essie Louise Buck, whom he had picked up in a San Diego [[tavern]] on May 7, 1971. He strangled her to death in his car and drove around with her body in the trunk before eventually dumping it. Just two weeks later, he killed an unidentified woman and buried her in a wooded area. He later claimed that they had proven themselves unfaithful to their husbands, and so reminded him of his adulterous mother.<ref name="auto1"/>

In July 1973, Cole married barmaid Diana Faye Younglove Pashal, who was also an alcoholic. They argued and fought frequently, and Cole regularly went off on his own for days at a time. He would commit murders while he was away, including one woman he allegedly [[Human cannibalism|cannibalized]] to a degree. In September 1979, Cole strangled Pashal to death. A suspicious neighbor called the police eight days later, but although they found Pashal's body wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a closet, they decided that she had died because of her heavy drinking, and Cole was released without charge after questioning.

Cole left San Diego and started moving around again. In 1979, Cole met Marie Cushman at a bar in [[Las Vegas]]. That same evening, the two went to a motel where they had sex; he then killed her by strangulation.<ref name="UPI December 1985">{{cite news |last1=RYAN |first1=CY |title=Carroll Cole, who romanced at least 10 women before... |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/12/05/Carroll-Cole-who-romanced-at-least-10-women-before/5705502606800/ |accessdate=17 August 2018 |work=UPI |publisher=United Press International, Inc. |date=5 December 1985 |location=CARSON CITY, Nevada |language=en}}</ref>

Following the Las Vegas killing, he returned to Dallas, where he fatally strangled three more women in November 1980. Cole was a suspect in the second of these killings and was also found on the scene of the third murder.<ref name="auto1"/> He was arrested and held in custody. The police then came to the conclusion that the victim had probably died of [[natural causes]], and Cole was about to be ruled out as a suspect before he confessed to, along with this murder, all of the other killings. Cole claimed that he had murdered at least fourteen women over the previous nine years, although he added that there may have been more and he couldn't remember exactly, as he was usually drunk when he committed his crimes.