HIGH POINT, N.C. � In three months, the man local police and media nicknamed The Paddler had established himself as Public Enemy No. 1 in the High Point, N.C., area.

HIGH POINT, N.C. � In three months, the man local police and media nicknamed The Paddler had established himself as Public Enemy No. 1 in the High Point, N.C., area.

Pretending to be a police officer � an added insult to those who wore the badge for real � The Paddler had been luring young boys into his car, driving them to secluded areas and paddling them relentlessly before finally letting them go. By mid-May of 1966, five boys � ranging in age from 11 to 16 � had fallen prey to The Paddler, and law enforcement authorities had little more to show for their efforts than a composite drawing of the suspect, a tentative description of his car, and a growing culture of fear in the communities they had vowed to serve and protect.

Moreover, the assaults were becoming more frequent and more violent, and The Paddler was gradually expanding his target area for locating victims. After kidnapping two boys from High Point and then two from Greensboro, he snatched his fifth victim from Thomasville.

Where would he find his sixth victim? And when?

As it turned out, police didn't have to answer those questions. They found The Paddler before he found his next victim.

Thanks to an officer with a keen eye and an even keener memory, police got their man on May 19, 1966 � only five days after he had assaulted Thomasville teenager Jerry Hazel. The break came when a Winston-Salem Police officer saw the composite drawing of the suspect and recognized him as someone he'd encountered before. That night, he and other officers arrested 25-year-old truck driver George Kent Wallace � aka The Paddler � at his home in Winston-Salem, charging him with impersonating a police officer, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon on a minor.

According to newspaper accounts, Wallace made a statement to police about the charges against him. Police stopped short of saying the suspect had confessed, but they found some pretty damning evidence in his possession � a wooden paddle, a fake police badge and a 1962 blue Pontiac Tempest matching the victims' descriptions of the car driven by The Paddler.

When confronted with the charges, Wallace led officers to his car, where he reached under the front seat and pulled out what appeared to be a school paddle � 18 inches long, 2� inches wide and half an inch thick. Written on the paddle were the words "Board of Education" and the phrase "A child should never be punished without a definite END in view," accompanied by a drawing of a little boy and girl bending over as if they were about to receive a spanking. The paddle also included the words "Victim Sign Here," but no signatures. According to a price tag still on the paddle, it cost Wallace 69 cents.

The small, plastic badge, described in a High Point Enterprise article as "the type which can be purchased at any dime store," featured the words "Deputy Constable." Wallace kept the badge in a black, billfold-sized folder to make it look more authentic.

Following Wallace's arrest, several of the five victims identified him in a police lineup as the man who had abducted and paddled them, the Enterprise reported.

Wallace was transported to the High Point jail, where he was held under a $10,000 bond as his case slowly advanced through the court system. In a series of court appearances in Thomasville, High Point and Greensboro, The Paddler offered little explanation for his violent actions. The closest he came to doing so was when he told a magistrate he simply felt an "uncontrollable urge" to spank the boys.

After pleading guilty to charges of kidnapping and assaulting a minor with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, Wallace was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Though he likely would not serve the entirety of his sentence, the lengthy term surely triggered a sigh of relief from local parents, children and law enforcement officials.

The severity of the paddlings played a key role in persuading the judge to hand down a harsh penalty. During the sentencing phase, Detective J.D. Cook of the High Point Police Department testified that both of Wallace's High Point victims were "black and blue from their belt line to the bend of their knees," newspapers reported.

Also during sentencing, Wallace's attorney told the judge the case had been "a great burden � a great burden to me, a great burden to Wallace's parents and a great burden to the parents of the boys involved." The attorney also read a statement from a state psychiatric hospital, Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, where Wallace had been sent for evaluation. The report stated the defendant was mentally capable of standing trial, but "the sole avenue open to him is prison psychiatric treatment." It also indicated Wallace had "abnormal sexual tendencies."

Wallace ended up serving 10 years in state prisons, getting out in January 1976.

Fifty years after The Paddler's reign of terror, at least one of his victims thinks he got off easy for his crimes.

"I think he should've stayed in prison a lot longer instead of getting out the way he did," says Hazel, The Paddler's Thomasville victim. "I don't know exactly how long he was in prison, but it wasn't enough � not for what all he did."

Hazel may be right.

You might think 10 years in prison would be long enough to sway Wallace from returning to his violent tendencies � but you would be wrong. As it turned out, the man they called The Paddler was just getting started.

COMING WEDNESDAY: After release from prison, The Paddler becomes even more violent.