Lisa Rinna recalls terrifying details of how her mum survived trailside serial killer attack

Lisa Rinna has recounted the horrifying story of how her late mother narrowly survived an attack by a notorious serial killer in 1960.

The 62-year-old American actress recalled how her mum, Lois Rinna (née DeAndrade), was viciously targeted by David Carpenter, also known as the Trailside Killer.

She talked about the spine-chilling experience in her new memoir, You Better Believe I’m Gonna Talk About It, as well as in a new exclusive clip viewed by PEOPLE Magazine, from this week’s IMPACT x Nightline.

Carpenter was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered various victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1979 and 1981.

He was sentenced to death in the 80s for seven murders; however, he is believed to be responsible for several more.

Lisa's mother, Lois, who died in November 2021 following a stroke at the age of 93, knew Carpenter from work while living in San Francisco and 'felt sorry' for him because he had a stutter.

Lisa's mother Lois was attacked by a man she worked with in 1960 who went on to become a serial killer (Lisa Rinna/Instagram)

However, when he asked her to get in his car to visit his new baby, she quickly noticed something was wrong, before the terrying events of the attack unfolded.

As per PEOPLE, Lisa recalled: "One morning, she was waiting at the bus stop to go to the dentist. And he came by the bus stop and say, ‘Lois, I want you to meet my new baby!’

"And she was like, no I have to go to the dentist. And he was like, ‘Oh, I’ll drive you.’ And she got in the car with him."

She continued: “He started talking to her, and he wasn’t stuttering. That was the first sign. He was driving in a weird direction. And she said, ‘David, what’s going on with you? You’re not stuttering. You’re speaking clearly.’

"And he said, ‘I don’t know Lois, something just comes over me.’ And that’s when she knew she was f***ed."

A violent attack followed, where Carpenter brutally attacked Lois with a knife, severing two of her fingers and hitting her on the head with a hammer.

“As David Carpenter parked the car, he literally straddled my mom, grabbed the knife out of the glove box… goes at my mom,” Lisa recalled, “My mom grabs it with her hand. And it severs these two fingers, so her fingers are like dangling.

"Then David starts to freak out because he sees the car coming. So he grabs a hammer... And starts smashing my mom over the head with a hammer."

David Carpenter later became known as the Trailside Killer (MediaNews Group/Marin Independent Journal via Getty Images)

Thankfully, a military police officer had seen the car driving down a deserted road and turned up just in time.

He didn't kill the attacker but shot him in the stomach, leaving Lois in the hospital for three months, where she had to get a metal plate put into her head.

Carpenter pleaded guilty and was convicted for the attack on Lois, which led to him serving seven and a half years in prison; however, shortly after his release, he went on a deadly killing spree in the 1970s and ’80s.

Lisa's mother had no idea that she was one of his first victims.

In 1984, Carpenter was convicted of multiple murders and sentenced to death - he currently remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison, aged 95.

IMPACT x Nightline: Terror on the Trails, featuring Lisa's interview, streams Thursday, April 9, on Hulu and Disney+.