Robert Hale (Alaska)
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Robert Hale (1941 - May 26, 2008) was a religious zealot who mentally and sexually tortured his family in the Alaskan wilderness.
Robert Hale, known also as Papa Pilgrim, had gained notoriety through his family's iconoclastic lifestyle. A devout Christian, Hale moved his family of 17 to Alaska from New Mexico in 1998 and kept them isolated from nearly all outside influences, including churches.
In 2002, Hale launched a legal battle with the National Parks Service over his plan to bulldoze a road to land his family owned inside the remote Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
The Papa Pilgrim saga ended in 2005 when family members told police Hale had routinely beaten and raped his eldest daughter for years. He was incarcerated in 2007 and died months later on May 26th 2008.
