Patricia Trimble (r.) raped two nine-year-old girls, and orally and anally raped, pimped and tortured a man before killing him. After 3½ decades in prison, he was sexually attacked by another inmate and began identifying as a transgender woman a short time later. He is shown in a December 7, 2017 photo with fellow transgender inmates. Jasmyne René Cooley (c.), Trimble’s former cellmate, discovered his gender identity as a result of Trimble’s influence and literature he shared.

US — Missouri. VICE Magazine and Harvard Kennedy School’s Student Publication LGBTQ Policy Journal are promoting the cause of Patricia Elane Trimble, a transgender-identified inmate serving life in prison after the rapes of two small children whom he had carried off into the woods, as well as the routine rapes, pimping and beatings he administered to a vulnerable man whom he eventually murdered with the intent of elevating himself from the bottom of the prison’s pecking order.

Abduction and Rape of Small Children

The 1983 Missouri Court of Appeals case State v. Trimble, 654 S.W.2d 245 describes the disturbing details surrounding the man convicted as Patrick Edward Trimble on two counts of kidnapping, four counts of sodomy, one count of rape and one count of sexual abuse in the first degree for victimizing two nine-year-old girls.

Mr Trimble, then aged 20, came upon the girls playing outside. He gained their trust, fetching a rope from a tree that they wanted but couldn’t reach, and joining them in play. Later, he lured the children into his vehicle, and drove them to a marshy, wooded area. There, he had each child perform an indecent act on him before penetrating one of the little girls with a finger and his genitals.

Mr Trimble was convicted and sentenced by jury to “seven terms of imprisonment for fifteen (15) years and one term of imprisonment for five (5) years.” He filed an appeal.

Physical and Sexual Torture and Murder of Vulnerable Male Cellmate

While in jail awaiting disposition, Mr Trimble “made a ‘punk’ or homosexual slave of his mentally retarded cellmate,” Judge Elizabeth Hogan stated in State v. Trimble, 654 S.W.2d 245. The cellmate, 20-year-old Jerry James Everett, had been awaiting trial on charges of stealing a van. The 6’1″, 210-lb Mr Trimble overpowered his 5’10”, 145-lb cellmate, subjecting the other man to routine physical and sexual abuse and humiliation.

According to Judge June P Morgan in State v. Trimble, 638 S.W.2d 726:

He forced the victim to have both oral and anal intercourse with him, compelled him to wear a ‘bra’ around the jail for the entertainment of the other inmates, and forced him at one point to display to the other inmates a rag that had been stuffed into his anus. Appellant made his victim offer kisses to the other inmates and offered to sell him to a jail trustee for a carton of cigarettes. He completed this pattern of torture and homosexual abuse by repeated beatings and by compelling Everett to sweep and mop the four jail cells in the block on several different occasions, following Everett around while he worked and beating him with his fists when he failed to comply.

Mr Trimble feared that he would be in great danger if sent to the state penitentiary for crimes against children. He told three inmates he planned to “catch something bigger” before transfer by killing a fellow inmate or a guard. He later informed other inmates that Mr Everett would be the perfect victim for his murderous machinations.

The scheming inmate forced Mr Everett to write a suicide note. Mr Everett was “mentally slow and may never have fully comprehended what was happening to him,” evidence showed. Fellow inmates testified that they witnessed Mr Trimble strangle his cellmate with a towel. When guards arrived, Mr Trimble was removing a towel from the victim’s neck, according to court testimony. He argued in his defense that the youth had committed suicide.

Mr Trimble was found guilty of capital murder on July 3, 1980, and was sentenced to die in the gas chamber. Following a series of denied appeals, the Missouri Court of Appeals commuted Mr Trimble’s death sentence on August 15, 1985 to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 50 years.

Epiphany and Transition After Rapist is Raped

Mr Trimble told VICE he was sexually attacked by a male inmate in 2015. Terrified by the experience, the prisoner, who then identified as a gay man, began writing letters to “every LGBTQ organization for which she could find an address, asking for help in advocating for herself.” One organization sent him a pamphlet entitled “Still We Rise,” and Mr Trimble learned for the first time the definition of gender dysphoria. Mr Trimble claims the pamphlet inspired an epiphany that caused him to realize he is a woman, VICE sympathetically reported earlier this month.

According to VICE, the inmate put pressure on his prison psychiatrist to diagnose him with gender dysphoria, and was finally successful in 2016. In 2018, he was prescribed Estradiol and testosterone blockers to feminize his appearance. He now wears makeup daily, and changed his name to Patricia Elane Trimble on September 17, 2018.

Transgender Prison Activist is Born

Mr Trimble authored the article “Ignored LGBTQ Prisoners: Discrimination in Education, Rehabilitation, and Mental Health Services During Incarceration,” and it was featured in LGBTQ Policy Journal on May 22, 2019. In it, the vicious murderer and repeat rapist reports that he feels oppressed by the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) after being compelled to pay out of pocket the processing fee to have his birth certificate altered with his new legal name. He said the Missouri DOC initially agreed to pay, but then stalled in providing him with forms necessary for the name change and fee waiver. He denounced the experience as an example of systemic mistreatment of transgender inmates: “[T]hese are simple processes made complicated by a non-affirming agency that is unwilling to even offer guidance.”

The inmate published “Finding Purpose as an Elderly Trans Woman in Men’s Prison” on Medium in January 2019. “I stand in awe. (OK… and with tears in my eyes.),” Victoria Pendragon, an artist and author of books on DIY Emotional Cellular, fawned adoringly in the comment section. Todd Mccallister, an investment banker, inquired, “This sounds naive, but why isn’t Patricia in a woman’s prison? Wouldn’t most of these issues go away?” Mr Trimble’s Medium post had 1.8 thousand positive ratings at press time.

With “hundreds of photocopied pages of literature related to trans issues” by his bedside, Mr Trimble distributes the literature to teach other inmates housed in Missouri’s prison system the process to becoming understood as transgender, as well as which treatments to get and how to advocate for themselves. “You have a bunch of psychologists and therapists talking to us that really have no clue. So we kind of have to educate one another,” the 59-year-old told VICE. His work has led other inmates to arrive at the conclusion that they are transgender, including Jasmyne René Cooley, with whom he shared a cell. Mr Trimble has continued his written correspondence with LGBTQ organizations.

Mr Trimble’s author biography on Harvard Kennedy School’s Student Publication website describes him as “a transgender feminist, activist, and advocate for the incarcerated LGBTQ community” who “lobbies Missouri legislators and prison administrators for changes to both Missouri laws and prison policies to end mandatory minimum sentences and institute meaningful programs for the rehabilitation of LGBTQ offenders.”

Call to Action

To voice your opinion on a man serving out his sentence in a women’s prison following conviction on charges of raping little girls and sexually and physically torturing and killing a vulnerable man, write to:

Anne L. Precythe, Director of Corrections

Matt Sturm, Deputy Director of Corrections

Office of the Director: 573-526-6607

Office of Governor Michael L. Parson

P.O. Box 720

Jefferson City, MO 65102

Phone: (573) 751-3222

Fax: (573) 751-1495

https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us