In the history of the draft in sports, several athletes in other sports or celebrities have been taken by teams in late rounds. The Chicago Bulls drafted Olympic track star Carl Lewis in the 10th round of the 1984 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Rams selected future WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg in the 11th Round of the 1990 NFL Draft, and the Montreal Expos took legendary quarterback Tom Brady in the 18th Round of the 1995 MLB Draft, to name a few notable examples. Well, in 1974, the Green Bay Packers, coming off a less-than-stellar 5-7-2 season (The last time an NFL team tied twice in the same year), took a swing at a little-known wide receiver from Portland State in the 17th round, named Randall Woodfield. Woodfield would never play a snap for the Packers; in fact, he was cut during training camp. However, Woodfield would become infamous in the years following, not for his athletic abilities, but for the fact that he took the lives of what is believed to be up to 44 people. This is the story of how the Green Bay Packers drafted the I-5 Killer.
Randall Brent Woodfield was born on December 26, 1950, to an affluent and wealthy family as the youngest and only boy out of three older sisters. He grew up in the coastal community of Newport, Oregon, and became a very popular football star at Newport High School. While in high school, he had a habit of peeping into girls’ windows and was arrested after exposing himself to a group of teen girls. However, his coaches helped sweep the incident under the rug, and later got the charge removed from his juvenile record when he turned 18. After high school, he attended Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario and later Portland State University to play for the Vikings’ at the time Division II Football Program. While at Portland State, he continued his deviant behaviours, being arrested for indecent exposure again in 1972 and 1973, and once for vandalizing an ex’s apartment in 1970. Despite his actions, he stayed on the Vikings Football team and led the team in receptions his senior year, which was impressive enough for National Football League front offices to keep their sights on him come draft season. Dan Devine, the head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers at the time, thought the team’s receiving game needed improvement, as the year prior, the team had ranked third to last in receiving yardage. As a way to fill this hole, Devine took a shot in the dark with their final draft pick and selected Randy Woodfield 428th overall. In his scouting profile, Woodfield was noted for running a 4.7-second 40-yard dash (about average for a receiver back then) and having good hands and route-running abilities. Woodfield’s time with the Pack wouldn’t last very long as he was cut before the regular season had started, and while the team didn’t give a specified reason for cutting him, it is believed to be due to Woodfield’s alleged involvement in 10 indecent exposure cases in Wisconsin, ten incidents in around 8 months before the regular season. While in high school and college, his sexual deviancy may have gotten by through coaches sweeping it under the rug due to his athletic capabilities, it wouldn’t pass in the Pros, and he was swiftly cut. That year, he would play for a semi-pro team in Wisconsin; however, he was later cut by that team, most likely for the same reasons. After his past had finally caught up with him and his dreams of being a professional football player ended, he moved back to Portland, and would begin a disturbing string of events, that would later result in him taking the life, robbing, kidnapping, and sexually assaulting a confirmed number of 12 people in the early 1980s.
In 1975, Woodfield was arrested and pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery after a string of incidents where he would rob and sexually assault women at knife-point in Portland. He was initially sentenced to ten years in prison; however, he was freed on parole in 1979. In 1980, he began a string of murders and robberies along the I-5 corridor, hence giving him the nickname of “The I-5 Killer.” His first targets were women he knew personally and went to school with. He’d then begin robbing diners and homes along Interstate 5, and often assaulting and murdering the women he’d encounter. During his year-long crime spree, he murdered a total of six confirmed victims; however, criminalologists in years since have linked Woodfield to anywhere from 25 to 44 unsolved murders through DNA and other connections. These connections were made to several unsolved homicides of young thin blonde women along the west coast. Woodfield’s reign of horror was brought to an end in March 1981, after being brought in for a police lineup in Salem in connection with a shooting, he was positively identified. This led the police to search his apartment in Springfield, which is where they found evidence that linked him to a string of robberies and assaults. He was positively identified by several of his victims, which lead to him being indicted on charges of murder, rape, sodomy, attempted kidnapping, armed robbery, and illegal possesion of firearms in Washington and Oregon. That summer, he was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life in prison plus 125 years. He has served his sentence at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem since 1981, and in the years since has been connected to a multitude of other murders and crimes along the West Coast.
