Ex-con charged with killing 2 rapists

PORT ANGELES, Wash., June 5 (UPI) -- A former prison inmate has been charged in the killing of two convicted sex offenders in Washington state.

Patrick B. Drum, 34, of Sequim, Wash., who served four years for drug crimes, appeared in court Monday, where he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one of burglary, the Peninsula Daily News of Port Angeles, Wash., reported. He was being held without bail.

Drum intended more killings, Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said. She told the court that Drum "had stated his intent not to stop with two victims but to continue as long as he could until he was stopped by law enforcement."

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies cooperated in a manhunt that ended Sunday afternoon with Drum's arrest. He was armed with a 9mm pistol.

The victims were identified as Gary Lee Blanton Jr., 28, who was convicted of rape in 2001, and Jerry W. Ray, 56, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in 2002. Blanton and Drum had begun sharing a house about a week before the killings, while Ray lived about 5 miles away east of Port Angeles.

Investigators have not said if Drum was sexually molested as a child.