Diane Whipple was 33 years old when she was attacked and killed by a neighbor's two 140-pound Presa Canario dogs outside her San Francisco apartment in January 2001. Whipple was the lacrosse coach at Saint Mary's College of California at the time of her death in 2001, and lived in the apartment with her partner Sharon Smith.
In 2002, the owners of the Presa Canarios, Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, were convicted of second-degree murder, and involuntary manslaughter respectively, although a judge later reduced Knoller's sentence to manslaughter as well. At the behest of the California Supreme Court, charges against Knoller were reinstated, and she was re-sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, on September 22, 2008.Los Angeles Times: Woman whose dogs mauled neighbor sentenced to 15 years to life
Neo-Nazi Ties
The Presa Canarios owned by Knoller and Noel were allegedly being trained to fight on behalf of the Aryan Brotherhood, a neo-Nazi white supremacist organization. Knoller and Noel's adopted son, Aryan Brotherhood member Paul "Cornfed" Schneider, was in Pelican Bay state prison at the time of the mauling, and the prosecution maintained that Knoller and Noel were raising the dogs on his behalf.
References
Fast Facts
-
Fact:
Whipple was reportedly terrified of the dogs and they had bitten her on the wrist before
-
Fact:
Knoller and Noel's lawyers maintained that pheromones in Whipple's perfume instigated the dogs to attack
-
Fact:
Evidence emerged that Knoller and Noel may have been having a sexual relationship with the mastiff crossbreeds
-
Fact:
After the dogs mauled Whipple, Knoller did not call 911, even though she witnessed the attack
-
Fact:
Knoller and Noel were both defense lawyers
-
Fact:
Whipple was born in Princeton, New Jersey, but grew up in Manhassett, a town on Long Island, New York.
-
Fact:
Whipple had survived thyroid cancer
