ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The man who called himself “Papa Pilgrim,” leading his wife and children on a spiritual quest to Alaska wilderness, has died in an Anchorage jail, where he was serving time for abusing them.
Robert Hale, 67, moved his 17-member family to Alaska in 1998 and eventually settled on private land within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, where they had run-ins with the National Park Service over access.
Hale claimed to be a devout, self-guided Christian who wanted his family isolated from outside influences, including churches. But his family broke with him in 2005 and reported that he had beaten and raped his oldest daughter for years and kept other family members in line with violence and psychological torture.
Hale eventually pleaded no contest to rape, assault and incest. He was sentenced in November to 14 years in prison.
Hale had been in declining health and appeared at his sentencing six months ago in a wheelchair. He was in hospice care in the Anchorage jail when he died at about 9 p.m. Saturday. A chaplain and family members were present, a corrections official said.
At his sentencing, Hale’s lawyer said he had received treatment for advanced cirrhosis, diabetes and blood clots.
Hale was originally from Texas and was once married to the daughter of former Gov. John Connally. The young woman died suspiciously and Hale said he began his quest as a “pilgrim” afterward.
He moved to New Mexico and eventually Alaska with his wife and 15 children.
The family might have remained out of the spotlight but Hale and his sons become embroiled in an high-profile dispute with the National Park Service over access to their property.
Family members used a bulldozer without permission to clear an abandoned mining road to get to their land within the 13.2 million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the nation’s largest.
National land rights advocates including the Pacific Legal Foundation rallied to the family’s cause and helped pay for legal bills.
But the family’s secrets unraveled after Hale’s daughter went to Alaska State Troopers with a horrifying story of being brutalized in January 2005 in a building Hale owned away from the family’s homestead.
Hale, who maintained his innocence despite his court plea, claimed that he was administering a “correction” to his daughter and that it consisted only of discussing her offense. He said he stayed with her for three days because they could not start their snowmobile in minus 60 temperatures. He said he might have accidentally bruised her face as he struggled to keep from going outside without warm clothing.
Investigators believed his daughter’s version: getting pummeled into submission, locked inside the building, then repeatedly sexually assaulted. Afterward, her sister described her face as looking like a black and blue basketball.
Other family members including his wife and sons eventually came forward with testimony that Hale beat them with a riding crop, denied them food or made them sleep outside in the cold interior Alaska winters as punishments.
There was also psychological abuse — refusing to teach the children to read and keeping them from contact with other people to make sure they did not question Hale’s authority.
Superior Court Judge Donald Hopwood said Hale had perpetrated “one of the worst cases of domestic violence I have ever seen” and that his denials in the face of overwhelming testimony made no sense.
Hale, the judge said, used religion for his own foul purposes.
“Mr. Hale believes he is omnipotent,” Hopwood said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
