SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Insane killer Phillip Arnold Paul says his escape during an Eastern State Hospital trip to the Spokane County Interstate Fair was on impulse and not planned.

He told KXLY-TV he saw an opportunity at the fairgrounds and took it. He was on the run for three days before he was arrested Sunday near Goldendale and returned to the mental hospital.

Paul says he hid in woods where he used to camp and expected to be caught. He says he wouldn't try to escape again.

Paul was committed to the mental hospital in 1987 after he was acquitted by reason of insanity for killing 78-year-old Ruth Mottley of Sunnyside.

Hospital CEO Harold Wilson has resigned. The escape remains under investigation by the Department of Social and Health Services.

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Information from: KXLY-TV, http://www.kxly.com/