Papa Pilgrim dies in prison

MAT-SU — The patriarch of a McCarthy-area family imprisoned for sexual assault, incest and coercion has died in prison.

Robert Hale, better known as Papa Pilgrim, died at the Anchorage Correctional Complex on Saturday, according to prison records. He was 67.

Alaska Department of Corrections officials were unavailable Monday at press time to speak to the circumstances of Hale’s death. But Monday, an online prisoner-tracking database listed his status as “out of custody” with the reason given as “death.”

Hale was arrested in September 2005 after 12 days on the lam that began when Alaska State Troopers went to arrest him. He was eventually charged with 30 counts of sexual assault, incest and coercion relating to incidents prosecutors said were spread out from Jan. 1, 1998, through Jan. 10, 2005.

Prosecutors said he abused the same victim in Anchor Point, Fairbanks, Homer, Kenai and McCarthy.

Prior to his sexual assault charges, Hale had become a celebrity of sorts as the patriarch of a large, rural, musical family that included 15 children and who followed Hale’s personal brand of Christianity. Hale also made headlines after a fight with the National Parks Service over access he punched through Wrangell St. Elias National Park to his mining claim.

A number of Hale’s court appearances were made in Palmer, oftentimes attended by his immediate family and the Lazy Mountain-area clan that took them in.

But when it came time enter his no contest plea December 2006, Hale denied sexually assaulting anyone and said he was pleading to the charges in the best interest of his family. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

During his change of plea hearing in December 2006, Hale told Superior Court Judge Donald Hopwood that doctors had given him months to live. Hale held out for more than a year.