Child predator who called self ‘Mr. Rape, Torture, Kill’ arrested after harassing victim’s mom

PHOENIX — An admitted California child molester who called himself “Mr. Rape, Torture, Kill” has been arrested in Phoenix after failing to abide by sex offender registration guidelines.

Cary Jay Smith, 61, moved to Arizona following his July 2020 release from a state mental hospital, where he had spent 21 years. According to ABC 15 in Phoenix, Smith was committed in 1999 based, in part, on a letter he’d written about his fantasies involving sex with a 7-year-old boy in his Costa Mesa neighborhood.

Smith’s wife at the time turned the letter over to a psychiatrist, the news station reported.

>> Read more trending news

The Arizona Republic reported that Smith’s arrest this week stemmed from his failure to properly register his email address and social media accounts as required. He is accused of using his Facebook account to harass and intimidate the mother of the boy mentioned by name in the letter.

Court records obtained by the newspaper indicate that he sent the woman messages claiming he was back in California. He referred to himself as “Mr. RTK” in the messages, authorities said.

“RTK” is similar to the moniker “BTK,” a calling card used by Kansas serial killer Dennis Rader, who murdered a total of 10 people from 1974 to 1991 in Wichita. Rader, whose self-appointed nickname stood for “Bind, Torture, Kill,” was captured in 2005.

Smith admitted to police that he wanted to scare the California woman because he was unhappy with things she wrote about him online, the Republic reported. He sent her multiple messages saying he was “back around.”

He is being held in the Maricopa County Jail in lieu of $10,000.

His alleged victim, Lynn Rinner, told reporters she tried to keep her cool when the messages started.

“I didn’t respond. I just let him be, hoping he would keep doing it,” Rinner told CBS 5 in Phoenix. “I notified the attorneys out here.”

The Orange County Register reported that Smith was never criminally charged in connection with the 1999 letter that got him hospitalized. He did have at least one prior conviction stemming from a 1983 crime.

In that case, Smith paid a young boy $1 to run through the sprinklers naked, the Register reported.

Though Smith’s crime was a misdemeanor, he was reportedly required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, ABC 10 in San Diego reported in 2020.

Smith “openly fantasized about raping and killing children,” according to the San Diego affiliate.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told reporters in 2020 that Smith’s pervasive fantasies kept him locked up on a psychiatric hold long after any criminal sentence was completed. The Register reported that Smith was allowed to seek his release every six months, but that in each hearing, he testified that his fantasies continued.

“He calls himself ‘Mr. RTK,’ which stands for Rape, Torture, Kill,” Spitzer said at the time. “That’s what I think has kept him in. He says, ‘If you don’t cut off my penis and hands, I will molest again.’”

Smith’s attorney, Staycie Sena, argued that her client was no longer a threat.

“In not renewing the commitment, the state hospital determined that Mr. Smith was no longer a danger to others,” Sena said, according to ABC 10. “He has received decades of treatment. We must trust the rehabilitative process.”

>> Read more true crime stories

During a 2012 civil jury trial — one of dozens Smith was granted as he sought his freedom over the years — he admitted to the fantasies but said he would not act on them. The Register reported at the time that he wrote poetry about raping, torturing and killing young boys.

“I’m a pedophile and I always will be,” Smith wrote in a letter to a hospital psychologist. “I’ll always be addicted to little boys. That will never change, and I don’t want it to.”

The newspaper reported that Smith once told a psychiatrist that he had molested more than 200 boys and killed three of them. No evidence was ever found to back those claims.

After Smith was released from the hospital, he bounced from one California halfway house to another as protesters followed him to each location.

“Please understand that by continuing to chase him down, you are contributing to a potential community disaster,” Sena said. “He is being monitored closely by law enforcement officials and working closely with mental health professionals. Releasing his whereabouts so that angry crowds appear is not beneficial to anyone and only increases the risk of community harm.”

Smith ultimately left California for Arizona.

According to the Republic, court records most recently put him living at a home in Phoenix. Police officers went there Wednesday to verify that it was his address.

During questioning over the intimidation of Rinner, Smith told the court that he discovered “by accident” that he had the social media app on his cellphone, ABC 15 reported. Police investigators were able to confirm that he used the social media site to contact the woman.

Rinner, who was among the people who fought Smith’s release from the hospital, accused him of stalking her son decades ago. She told CBS 5 that she hopes he might actually serve prison time for his latest alleged crime.

“It’s frustrating that he’s never been criminally convicted of anything, and he more than deserves it. But the system has kept a back door approach to keep him locked up,” Rinner said. “It is really nice to finally, hopefully have some criminal charges that stick for him, and you know, hopefully he’ll spend some time locked up so we don’t have to worry about him getting out.”

©2022 Cox Media Group