Lisa Rinna Says Mom Lois Was "So Brave" to Share Her Story of Being Attacked by an Infamous Serial Killer
Lisa Rinna's mom, Lois, once had a near-fatal experience with Trailside Killer David Carpenter.
Lisa Rinna's mom, Lois, always brings the fun whenever she hangs out with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills squad. But Lois' visit in Tuesday night's episode of RHOBH ended on a more sober note when she opened up about a harrowing experience from her past.
Lois revealed that she had been attacked by a man named David Carpenter, with whom she worked, in 1960, years before Lisa was born. According to Tuesday night's RHOBH and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season 9 After Show (clip above), Lois got in the car with her co-worker after he invited her to see his newborn baby (Lois also knew his wife). He then drove down a deserted road in The Presidio in San Francisco.
Lisa described what happened next during the RHOBH After Show: "David Carpenter straddling my mom at that point so he could see out the back window, and he went at my mom with a knife, and she grabbed the knife with her hand, and he saw the military police. And then he reached in the back and got the hammer and tried to kill her, trying to kill her when he drove down. And then he somehow got out of the car and then the military police shot him in the stomach, and he didn't die."
Lisa explained on RHOBH that a military police officer had followed the car down that road because no one was supposed to be driving down it. "My mom was saved that day because of the military policeman," she said.
Lois said during the episode that Carpenter was sent to prison, and he was later released. Carpenter would go on to be convicted of murdering at least seven people and was connected to several other rapes and deaths, becoming known as the Trailside Killer. He currently sits on death row at the age of 88 and has long maintained his innocence.
Lisa said she didn't learn about her mom's traumatic past until she was about 18 years old. "When I had finally learned the truth, I had such great sadness and empathy for my mom knowing that not only did this happen to her but that she basically just stuffed those feelings for how many years," Lisa said on RHOBH. "She never dealt with it, she never talked about it, she never even told her daughter about it."
However, Lisa said that she still "grew up with a lot of fear." "You know, I think I probably have trust issues because of that," she said during the RHOBH After Show. "Think about it: My mom's stuff and attack is probably in my DNA. When I was in her womb, I picked it up."
Lisa also said that she believes this has had a profound impact on how she raises her own daughters, Delilah Belle Hamlin and Amelia Gray Hamlin. "I'm very open and honest about how I am because I've been very much like that in my life and terrified [for] my children and what might happen to them, so I'm over-fearful," she explained. "But I am overly hyper-sensitive to walking by myself. I would never go into a garage by myself, like a parking garage. I grew up with a lot of fear, which I think has saved my life. I do. I think it's saved me on a lot of occasions."
Lisa opened up more about the experience of watching her mom be so vulnerable on RHOBH during the Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen After Show Tuesday night (clip below), sharing that it "brought me to tears." "I haven't seen those headlines since I was 21 years old, so it really hit me tonight harder than it had in a long time," Lisa said. "And I was in tears, and I thought my mom was so brave to be that open and honest on TV."
