Updated at the bottom with where they found him. First posted at 11:56 a.m.

The crazy man who inspired Halle Barry to consider moving to France and who once threatened to “slice my throat from ear to ear,” Madonna claimed, is back in custody after he escaped into beautiful southeast L.A. County.

Cops say Robert Dewey Hoskins, 54, is a “mentally disturbed offender” with “very violent tendencies” who last week walked away from a Norwalk mental hospital where he was serving a sentence for stalking the Material Girl.

They nabbed him before Barry could decamp to France, however (thank God):

Hoskins was captured in the Norwalk area about 9 this morning, LAPD Officer Gregory Baek tells the Weekly.

Whew. Because L.A. needs just one more nutter on the loose.

The convict and Oregon drifter was seen near Madonna's L.A.-area home in spring, 1995 and even once scaled her wall when she wasn't there.

Madonna testified that her bodyguard relayed this message from Hoskins:

… He was there to take me away … that I was supposed to be his wife, that if he couldn't have me, he was going to slice my throat from ear to ear.

More recently Hoskins allegedly made threats to Berry to “slit her throat” (sound familiar?).

City News Service describes his incarceration history:

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and, after his release, was transferred to Atascadero State Hospital, where he was determined to be a :mentally disturbed offender,'' according to police.

Last July, about a year after he was released from Atascadero, he was arrested again and sent to the Metropolitan State Hospital.

LAPD's Baek tells us his latest folly could get him more time behind the white curtains.

Why doesn't L.A. get any psycho stalkers who target bad singers and actors? They never want to go after Lana Del Rey or Nicolas Cage, you know? (We kid).

[Update at 12:36 p.m.]: Long Beach police say that, after being briefed that Hoskins might be in their area, they found him at South Street and Cherry Avenue.


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[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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