Who is Oxane Taub? Ex of Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape says he's 'mentally ill' and 'paranoid'
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: The former partner of a man who allegedly brutally attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer has said the suspect was “mentally ill for a long time". Oxane Taub said she has known suspect David DePape for more than 20 years and is the mother of his children. Taub goes by the name “Gypsy” and is a noted activist for public nudity in the Bay Area.
"He is mentally ill. He has been mentally ill for a long time,” Taub told ABC7. Taub is now serving time in the California Institution for Women after being convicted in 2021 of abducting a 14-year-old boy near his high school in Berkeley.
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Taub and DePape met more than 20 years ago. They raised their sons and her daughter together. Recalling a time when DePape returned home after disappearing for a year, Taub said, "He came back in very bad shape. He thought he was Jesus. He was constantly paranoid, thinking people were after him. And it took a good year or two to get back to, you know, being halfway normal."
When Taub was asked whether DePape held extreme political views or was aggressive toward politicians, she said, “Well when I met him, he was only 20 years old, and he didn’t have any experience in politics, and he was very much in alignment with my views and I’ve always been very progressive." She added said she “absolutely” admires House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and extended her "deepest apology” to the California Democrat and her husband “for the terrible tragic thing that happened.”
DePape is now facing attempted murder and other charges. He has been accused of breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home on Friday, October 28, and attacking 82-year-old Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The suspect broke into the house and yelled, "Where's Nancy?" and then tried to tie Paul up, saying they were going to wait “until Nancy got home.”
Paul's skull was left fractured after the attack and Pelosi said her family is “heartbroken and traumatized”. “Yesterday morning, a violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband Paul,” she wrote in a letter to her congressional colleagues on Saturday, October 28, 2022. “Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop,” she added.