Allan Patterson Newman

Allan Patterson Newman (February 22, 1951 – October 7, 2000) was an American criminal and serial killer. In a crime spree lasting nearly two years across three states, Newman committed four murders and a dozen bank robberies prior to his capture at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for his crimes and imprisoned at Jessup Correctional Institution, where he was found dead in his cell in 2000.

Early life Little is known about Newman's early life and upbringing. A native of Wheaton, Maryland, he attended Virginia Tech in the 1970s and 1980s, but failed to earn a degree, earning money as a self-employed house painter. In 1978, after a girlfriend dumped him, he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head and chest with .22 caliber handgun. While working as an insurance claim adjuster, he began a relationship with a woman from Rockville, but she too would dump him in early 1982. Months later, on November 13, he attempted to burgle an automobile dealership in Silver Spring, but was intercepted by two maintenance workers: 30-year-old José Escobar and 39-year-old Maura Portillo. In retaliation, Newman shot and killed both of them using his .357 Magnum, and fled the scene.

On April 9, Newman carjacked a man in Falls Church, and the day after, used it as an escape vehicle after robbing the Citizens Bank of Maryland in Bethesda. He was also suspected in the murders of 34-year-old businessman J. Schuyler Alland in Baltimore and 29-year-old Reynaldo Patdu, who was shot dead in the same apartment complex where Newman lived.

When confronted with the evidence, Allan Newman cut a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty and accept multiple life sentences in exchange for withdrawing the death penalty. Newman was convicted of the four murders and several weapons offences, receiving five terms of life imprisonment, plus 100 years in prison for five counts of using a handgun in the commission of a violent crime. He was sent to serve his sentence at the Jessup Correctional Institution, where several years later he would be found unconscious in his shared cell. Medical personnel were unable to resuscitate him, and Newman was declared deceased. His death was investigated and his cellmate questioned, but no conclusive cause of death could be determined.