Re-examining the 1991 Conviction of Matthew Lambert Thompson

The conviction of Matthew Lambert Thompson for a 1991 rape in Ada, Oklahoma, has long been contested. He served 6 years and seven months of a 15-year sentence and walked free—but he has never stopped insisting he’s innocent. And the more you look at the case, the more questions arise. What if the real perpetrator was never caught?

On March 17, 1991, a woman was found in Ada—bruised, disoriented, and traumatized. She told police she had been abducted, raped, and left near a railroad overpass. Her injuries included abrasions, blood, and torn clothing.

Twelve days after the incident, Matthew Thompson was arrested in a packed ECU administration building hallway. He admitted they had a sexual encounter but maintained it was consensual. They had no prior relationship. The case hinged on her statement and recordings of Thompson’s phone calls—none of which included a confession. There were no witnesses. No DNA evidence. No physical proof tying him to the scene.

Check out the full run-down of the case here:

Thompson narrative 2124.pdf

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Enter R.J. Thompson: a convicted serial rapist serving multiple life sentences for brutal attacks committed between the 1980s and 2015 across Oklahoma—Pontotoc County, Seminole, Tulsa, Coal. The list is long. But there’s a problem: a nearly 30-year gap in his known timeline.

What was he doing between 1985 and 2014?

His first known attack occurred in 1985. Then came decades of silence—until 2014, when he reemerged in Ada, violently abducting women, driving them to remote areas, and subjecting them to hours of assault.

There’s no record of him being incarcerated during that gap. And anyone familiar with predator behavior knows: they don’t stop. They get better at hiding.

R.J. Thompson operated in the same region as the 1991 assault. He was known to kidnap women in the early morning hours, isolate them, assault them, and leave them far from where they were taken. His survivors described eerily consistent experiences: fear, confusion, brutality, and being dumped in remote areas to find their way home.

The victim in the 1991 case described being forced into a yellow vehicle, but Matthew Thompson drove a red Firebird at the time. No physical evidence ever tied him to the scene. Instead, the case hinged on a tentative yearbook photo identification and a series of recorded phone calls and meetings that, while emotionally charged, included no confession of rape or sodomy.

Meanwhile, the method she described—being abducted, transported, threatened, raped, and dumped far from home—perfectly mirrors the later-confirmed behavior of serial predator R.J. Thompson. In one documented 2014 case, a victim told police she was approached outside her home, where R.J. Thompson—armed with duct tape and a knife—dragged her into his SUV, which had a tarp laid out in the back. Another survivor described being beaten repeatedly and left chained and abandoned miles away.

Compare that to the 1991 attack: an early-morning abduction, brutal assault, transport to a secluded location, and release near a railroad overpass. The parallels are chilling. As with many serial offenders, the compulsion eventually escalates. They grow bolder, sloppier, and more impulsive—until they slip up. That’s how predators like R.J. Thompson are ultimately caught.

He was finally arrested in 2017 and convicted in 2018. But justice came late. He served just over a year before dying in prison in 2019, taking any untold secrets with him. If he committed other crimes before his capture, the chance to identify those connections is rapidly fading.

Law enforcement has acknowledged he is likely responsible for dozens of rapes across the state. Many remain unsolved. Some victims are unidentified. And in some cases, it’s possible the wrong man was convicted.

This may have been a tragic case of mistaken identity—one that sent an innocent man to prison while the true attacker remained free.

Comparison of Matthew and R.J. - Photos courtesy of the OK DOJ.

And here’s where it gets worse: Matthew Thompson was informed that a rape kit was collected in 1991. But it was never tested.

If justice is truly about getting it right—not just getting it over with—then we owe it to survivors, to the community, and to the truth to look again. There’s only one way to know whether the right man was convicted.

If that kit still exists—if the swabs, clothing, or other samples remain in storage—it must be tested. The DNA should be run and compared against both Matthew Thompson and R.J. Thompson, as well as any other known possible suspects in the case.

I respectfully urge the Pontotoc County District Attorney’s Office and Ada law enforcement to locate the rape kit, test it, and compare the results. With the tools and technology now available, this is a rare opportunity to pursue clarity. After more than thirty years, the chance to ensure justice was done still remains.

Let’s not let it pass us by.

To learn more about R.J. Thompson’s criminal history and other cases from the region, see my book Allegedly: True Crime From Pontotoc County, OK. Find a retailer at www.ravenrollins.com.