The Concord police are alerting the local community and other police about the release of inmate Lawrence Woodard, who has spent the past 33 years in state custody for repeated violent sexual assaults against women.

But they are doing it with some uneasiness. The police have no authority to supervise or monitor Woodard because he "maxed out" of his last sentence and isn't on parole.

But those who know Woodard's history, which includes periods of insanity and random violent attacks on women in their homes, fear he is too dangerous to ignore.

During a 1976 escape from state hospital grounds, Woodard fled to Glens Falls, N.Y., and raped and knifed a woman in her home. A year later, during a furlough from the hospital, Woodard confronted a Concord woman in her home with a gun. He has spent the past 26 years in the state prison for stabbing a female caseworker at the state hospital 19 times with a letter opener after threatening to rape her.

"Very seldom in my entire career was there someone I had fear of," said Thomas Winn, who served 29 years with the state police and investigated Woodard. "Rarely do you get a case where everybody who has dealt with a man knows he is dangerous."

Woodard was released from the state prison last Thursday and spent his first several days in Concord. But he may have left Concord yesterday for Glens Falls, N.Y., where he has family, police there said. Woodard could not be reached.

Since Woodard's release, Concord police Detective Todd Flanagan has kept tabs on him and shared old press accounts of Woodard's offenses with local shelters and other social service providers. Flanagan also contacted the Glens Falls police, who have shared Woodard's history with media there.

Flanagan said he has tried to balance Woodard's rights with the public's safety. Some of the shelters that have taken in Woodard have limited security and house men near women. Given that Woodard was released in Concord without supervision or a job and far from family after 26 years behind bars, Flanagan feared Woodard could feel desperate.

"He's a free man, and we are pretty limited on what we can do,"Flanagan said. "But we had a certain duty to the community to make sure they were protected."

Two weeks free

Woodard is now about 50. He's spent the past 33 years in the state but only two weeks as a free man. They were his first two weeks.

Woodard was 19 when he arrived in the Claremont area from Glens Falls in 1973. He was arrested two weeks later after knocking on doors and forcing his way into women's homes. The first homeowner wouldn't open her door, but the next two did in response to Woodard's request for directions, according to press accounts from the time.

The police charged Woodard with attempted rape and assault, but he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. State laws and criminal procedure at the time made it much easier to win an insanity defense than today. Woodard was sentenced to the state psychiatric hospital in a secure unit for life unless the court okayed his discharge, release or transfer.

But "life" wasn't life, and the court could discharge Woodard as soon as the hospital could prove he was no longer dangerous. And secure wasn't so secure.

Woodard escaped seven times over the next four years. Press accounts from that period show that Woodward wasn't unique. The hospital experienced several escapes every month, including arsonists, rapists and murderers. More than a few reoffended.

The first time Woodard escaped, in March 1975, he was charged with burglary for taking a radio from a North Spring Street home, press reports said. Three months later, he escaped a second time and pulled a knife on a woman who'd picked him up hitchhiking. Woodard talked about sex with her but did not sexually assault her.

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