mary Vincent has tried to put together her life since recovering from Lawrence Singleton's vicious attack. But she has found it impossible to get free of the assault's evil grip. "Nobody knows what it's like to wake up every day for 18 years having the worst nightmares," Vincent recently told San Jose Mercury News reporter Dan Reed. So far, psychologists and counselors have been unable to help her overcome her rage and bitterness at Singleton or her paralyzing fear that he will come back again to kill her.

Her fear for her own safety has not been unwarranted, according to those close to her. "She's been threatened," her mother, Lucy Vincent, says. "After Singleton was released, even before, he sent letters to our attorney threatening her life. I read those. This is why it really affected us when he was released from prison. He said he would get even. He said that he's the victim. Isn't that weird? What about this little girl? She was 15 years old! She was beautiful and bubbly, a ballerina, a dancer, and he snuffed this child out. Just snuffed her out. How could he be the victim?"

Friends in Tacoma, Wash., where Vincent now lives, told her on two occasions that they thought they saw Singleton, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Her companion and self-described "bodyguard," Bob Clayton, 56, says he also saw Singleton and that Vincent has received a number of harassing phone calls. When he and Vincent complained to the police, they were told Singleton was old and that "his time was over." Clayton says they stopped calling the police for protection, relying instead on their wits and the large, Neapolitan mastiffs they are now breeding for sale.

The bright spots in Vincent's life are her two sons, Luke, 10, whom she had with a man she did not marry, and Alan, 8, her son by her ex-husband. She says her life revolves around "her little men," particularly since she began home-schooling Luke.

But Vincent has found it hard to support herself and her family. Her dream to be a dancer was dashed by Singleton. She's been on and off welfare and Social Security payments, losing all her public support in 1995 after she was paid $15,000 to tell her story on a television program. With the money from the show, Vincent bought a house in Tacoma and for six months, her mother and Clayton both agree, she was happy for the first time since Singleton attacked her. But Vincent couldn't keep up the payments. The house was foreclosed on and at one point, Vincent told the media, she and Luke were forced to live in an unheated garage. She relinquished custody of Alan to his father out of fear for his safety and her inability to provide for him, she has said. Now, she, Luke and Clayton share a cramped mobile home.

Lucy Vincent, who works as a blackjack dealer in a Las Vegas casino, insists her daughter does not have to go without basic necessities. "My daughter will never be destitute, no matter what they've said in the media," her mother says. The real problem, her mother believes, are the men in Vincent's life. "Every man she's ever been involved with uses her," Lucy Vincent says. Her daughter has always been too trusting, she says, that's why she got in the car alone with Singleton. "Mary can't tell the difference in men. She can't see the difference between someone who is going to use her and someone who isn't. She needs help getting over that, badly. The main thing I want for my daughter is for someone to help her psychologically. That, and she also needs good prostheses and those are very expensive."

Her mother says that Mary's prosthetic arms have been only partially functional for a long time and neither she nor her family has the $15,000 they say it would cost to buy a new pair. "If she has good prostheses," her mother adds, "she can work. She can be a normal person, a more independent person."
March 5, 1997

-- Amanda Spake

Mary Vincent's family is raising money to pay for her new mechanical arms. Donations can be sent to the Mary Vincent Fund, c/o Mark E. Edwards Trust Account, Edwards and Hayden, 1800 E. 17th St., Suite 101, Santa Ana, CA 92705. Phone 714-835-1792.