The East Area Rapist's chilling response to police efforts (Part 2/6) | Forensic Files

[Music] this series deals with horrific sexual assault offenses and there's a lot of
them we feel it's a very important story to cover but it won't be suitable for all listeners so please use your
discretion if you decide to keep listening we will be releasing a map with each episode to help as you go
along or for you to refer to afterwards you'll find a link to the map in the show notes on our web site or you should
be able to access the link from the show notes in your app on June 18th 1976 the
Sacramento Sheriff's Department responded to a break-in and rape of a young woman by the end of the year there
were 10 attacks in total all attributed to one serial offender for the media dubbed the East area rapist
detectives with the Sheriff's Department noticed the mo of the east area rapist fairly early on they kept the
information under wraps they didn't want a state of panic they didn't want a copycat and they didn't want to alert
the east area rapist that they were on to him but by november 1976 the community started to become aware that a
violent serial predator was walking in their streets the Sacramento Sheriff's Department attended a local school
meeting their intention was general crime prevention but as people questioned rumors of the rapes that will
force the confirm that a serial rapist was at large the police was shocked at the brazen nature of the attacks into
the meticulous planning the east area rapist moved through the community with military precision he seemed to always
know where the police were did he have a police radio did he have years in the force or was he just lucky he had no
sense of fear his level of bravado was rarely seen in criminal investigations and he had only just gotten started
[Music] the Sacramento Sheriff's Department was dealing with the onset of panic washing
over the city like a tidal wave by the end of the 1976 it started small but soon more and more neighborhoods got
wind of the East Area rapist husbands boyfriends fathers and brothers were instructing women on self-defense giving
them guns and knives for protection some started fitting bars to their windows rumors were getting out of control some
suggesting the east area rapist was attacking every Ella and others stating the east area rapist was breaking down
front doors and tearing down windows the reality was he was stealth-like not many
victims heard him until he was already in the house the Sheriff's Department had to deal with a constant flurry of
calls from the community asking if these rumors were true parents talked to their
daughters about personal safety in households set up emergency plans but some questioned how much information was
necessary to give their young daughters one mother said quote how much do you tell them you don't want to build on
fear but maybe I should go into it further by just that know how detailed to get
when another resident was routinely cleaning her garage and thinking about the east area rapist she became so
frightened she ran inside and got a gun after this she encouraged other women in
the neighborhood to help arrange a meeting so that women in the area could discuss ways to protect themselves
groups of women arranged car patrols and everyone who was aware of what was going
on started taking more notice of people in the neighborhood anyone who was acting strangely or seemed out of place
very few men turned up to the early community meetings one of the organizers had mr. Sayle quote because rape had
been swept under the cover for so long our men didn't know how to handle it when it started happening near us
they've always been told that no woman is really raped but the women are scared out here really scared everybody is
paranoid we are going to inform our men we are hoping that were coming out to the meetings and see the fear in the
women and work with us maybe when the rapist sees that we are not going to be terrorized that we're going to get our
men organized and facing by God he will think before attacking another woman many people didn't even lock their doors
in 1976 but this changed locksmiths discounted door locks and deadbolts encouraging people to have better
locking systems women living alone received offers from neighbors to fit locks on their doors people got to know
their neighbors a little better those who knew what was happening became more aware of their surroundings but it
was an age when not everyone heard News the day it happened many lived simple lives and are not everyone kept up with
what was going on a lot of people in Sacramento were completely oblivious to the east area rapist most of those who
were aware of the East Area rapist lived in the immediate vicinity of prior attacks those neighborhoods rallied
together some local home security stores in those areas had waiting lists of up to five weeks for home security alarms
but a lot of the other neighborhoods had little to no idea what was going on a rape crisis clinic was formed in
Sacramento it proved to be an invaluable refuge for survivors of the East Area rapist and survivors of other
in 1976 the Sacramento Sheriff's Department investigated over 300 rape cases the majority were known offenders
not strangers in the night unreported rape cases were estimated to be at least double that the crisis clinic was a
place where survivors and their families could seek help comfort and have their questions answered no matter how
personal something they felt they weren't always able to get from police people were aware of the early morning
rapist and the copycat early bird rapist naturally they questioned whether they were all related especially since the
early bird rapist had last attacked only months before the east area rapist started but detectives by now had
identified both the early morning and early bird rapists no arrests had been made but both were being kept under
surveillance so detectives knew the east area rapist was in fact a separate third
serial rapist and in the beginning of 1977 he was about to step it up a notch the task force was busy putting
bulletins up conducting interviews and continuing covert surveillance on suspects the FBI requested a report to
be presented to them at their local office they wanted this guy caught and all tiers of law enforcement knew very
well that if he wasn't and it was likely to get worse captain stern put detective Shelby in
touch with the security office for Pacific Bell and telephone company the plan was to arrange a phone trace on two
of the survivors phones the trace would be able to determine where the incoming call was placed but only if the receiver
could keep the caller on the line long enough the traces were arranged but the east area rapist didn't call either
survivor again Shelby and Carol Daly teamed up as partners and continued to attend the community
meetings which were by now being held on a regular basis they attended to provide
support and to answer questions from the scared and confused the public at one of
these meetings while Shelby and Daly were inside talking they had other officers outside on foot and in vehicles
it was well known even then that some offenders liked to get close to an investigation either inserting
themselves in searches or watching and attending things like town meetings this resulted in several people who fit
the description of the East Area rapist things stopped and spoken to some names were marked down to be looked into
closer but it didn't result in any arrests the east area rapists mo was now becoming clear his prowling began at a
distance he liked to spend time in a neighborhood getting to know the area he likely chose a number of potential
victims in the one area he would prank call not only his chosen victim but neighbors and other potential victims as
well then he would circle closer scoping the house of his chosen victim sometimes
breaking in beforehand when no one was home sometimes breaking into other homes nearby he watched and waited for the
right time with victims being alone for the night or weekend of their attack that showed the level of stalking he was
capable of in some cases he was likely in earshot of conversations or phone calls to know that would be home alone
in the other break-ins where no rapes or attempted rapes were committed strange things of little value would be moved or
taken in the first 10 attacks he's ransacking of his victims homes also resulted in hardly anything of value
being taken it was believed this was just a method to create more fear in the victim it could have also been a reason
to take a break to build himself up to raping again he didn't always have sexual satisfaction during the rapes the
sexual element of the attacks was evident but the level of control also appeared to be a major factor for the
east area rapist he thrived on being in complete and utter control into the instances where things slipped Thor
didn't go according to plan well when he didn't cope with the situation he nearly always threatened to
kill him that whisper through clenched teeth over and over he would threaten but he had rarely inflicted non-sexual
physical injury the small number of times he had physically injured someone non-sexually such as when he punched one
survivor in the face during attack for there was when he didn't have complete control of the situation
attack for was an opportunistic attack and it came shortly after attack 3 where his chosen target was able to escape the
ten attacks of 1976 were all carried out in two distinct clusters technically it
was three suburbs four attacks in Rancho Cordova suing Citrus Heights and foreing
Carmichael which is including the two in don't do don't do being a neighborhood in karma who if you look at the map you
will see that attacks two and seven in del Deo are very close to attacks one three six and eight in Rancho Cordova
they are separated by the American River if we move north two attacks four and ten in the northern part of Carmichael
and attacks five and nine in Citrus Heights you will see they are also grouped very close together so although
technically it's three different suburbs the attacks are in two very distinct areas attack number eleven the first
attack of 1977 was the first to be carried out a little further west as far as the location goes he hadn't gone far
he was still hugging the American River in an area called Glenbrook just west of
Rancho Cordova it sat at the southern entry to the what Avenue bridge from early January in 1977 residents of
Glenbrook started noticing a young men wandering around in broad daylight one day in early January a man was seen
coming out of someone's backyard when asked what he was doing he casually said he was just taking a shortcut on
another day in the same neighborhood a man with a similar description was seen crouching in the bushes of another yard
On January 12th a resident on that same street who had recently had a break-in saw a man peering in the window of his
next-door neighbor he coughed loud enough to let napela know he was there the Prowler turned around and returned
his gaze he then calmly walked off that same night a woman on the same street stepped outside her front door actually
stood under her porch light she saw a man walking across her front yard when he saw her he ran
the following evening when she stepped back outside and went to put a porch light on she discovered someone had
removed the light from its socket more than one person saw a blue car parked in that neighborhood with a young man
sitting in the driver's seat no one recognized him nor the car all of the descriptions of the young man were
similar no older than late 20s slim or thin with a muscular build five foot eight to six feet tall around 170 pounds
he was singing tennis shoes one person noticed the tattoo on his upper right arm two described him with a neat 50
style haircut combed and neatly with the side part at the time none of the incidents were reported to police it
wasn't until police came knocking on their doors asking questions later that these residents revealed seeing the
young men it's possible they weren't aware of the Asteria rapist or if they were there's the chance that being a
suburb over they thought their neighborhood was safe it wasn't there was 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday the 19th of
January 1977 when a young woman and her son watched as a man walked from the street into the back yard of their house
in Glenbrook she went to the back window to see what he was doing the man was standing in her backyard staring
directly at her he took off like a rabbit jumping over the fence into the neighbor's yard
his hair was sandy colored and neatly styled he was wearing dark colored pants and a lightweight jacket the woman said
that if he didn't jump the fence like he had if he had just walked away normally
she wouldn't have given that another thought he just looked like a normal guy like someone from her neighborhood just
a few hours later in a nearby house a 25 year old woman who worked as a secretary
in the State Capitol building D antenna awoke to a flashlight beaming in her eyes and a knife at her throat she
wasn't usually home alone but her husband was away on business the a stereo rapist broke a hole in her
back window reached in removed the dowel that was holding it shut and climbed through in silence he quietly cut up
electrical cord and stashed it in his pocket before cutting the telephone line with the flashlight in her face she saw
nothing else at first like previous attacks he spoke with his teeth clenched in a whisper be quiet I won't hurt you
all I want is your money just your money and I'll be gone he moved with a lighter
way to get the cord and she saw he was wearing a dark ski mask his gloves and clothing were dark and his jacket was a
light ski jacket the rest of his description was the same as previous attacks he tied her hands behind her
back tightly and blindfolded her with a bandana the woman was five months pregnant she heard him leave the room
and start rummaging around the house he opened her top kitchen jaw and went through the cutlery he walked back into
the bedroom and she could hear the pumping sound of a lotion bottle he then raped her like previous attacks he left
the room continued green sucking the house then returned and raped her again at one point while he was in the kitchen
he started eating he remained in the house for four hours then the house fell silent she heard the sound of her car
revving in the garage and then he drove off and was gone the survivor got herself free and after realizing her
phone line had been cut she ran to her neighbor's for help the Sacramento City Police Department had jurisdiction of
this case not the Sacramento Sheriff's Department it was the first time anyone from the Sacramento City Police
Department attended an East Area rapist crime scene they founded the signatures that the Sheriff's Department knew all
too well but after consulting the Sheriff's Department they soon realized he had done something which he hadn't
done before in the living room they found a number of knives from the kitchen drawer he had broken the blades
of some of the knives and just left them in the living room like previous attacks
he had stolen some money he had also stolen some jewelry of little significance and a digital clock
he cut the survivor out of a photo she was in with her husband at 5 p.m. that day the survivors car was found parked
outside an apartment complex just a few blocks away her keys were never found tennis shoe footprints were discovered
at the driver's side door this location showed all the hallmarks of previous attacked locations open spaces all
around with Glenbrook Park close by levy walks behind and close proximity to the bike path along the American River
these walks and open spaces made it easy to explore Glenbrook and go unnoticed and drop behind at the survivors house
was a power pylon corridor essentially a permanently undeveloped strip of land which he could walk to the American
River then hit a trail and get to the what Avenue bridge or further on the city police set up their own task force
knowing full well they had not seen the end of the East Area rapist with the two
departments now working on the case and meant that more eyes were on the lookout
there were more investigators analyzing the growing amount of information that day the Sacramento Bee newspaper
reported on attack number 11 the residents of Glenbrook were alerted that the a stereo rapist had come to their
neighborhood in the early hours of Monday January 24th 1977 a young woman who lived alone had gone to bed sometime
after midnight she lived in Citrus Heights just east of the prior attacks there she had some friends over for a
small party earlier that night she was selling her house so it was a good excuse to celebrate before getting ready
to move she awoke to the pool of someone yanking her arms back behind her back she screamed and kicked to try and get
him away but it was of little use he had hold of her tightly he leaned in close and whispered scream again and I will
kill you she felt something sharp against the side of her neck this time it wasn't a large knife it was an ice
pick he tied her up and blindfolded her her hands became numb almost instantly and struggling only made it worse he
walked in and out of the bedroom raping her numerous times ransacking the house him
Twain rapes at one point he undid her bindings putting the string or rope into his pocket only to pull out different
material and retie her he used her name more than once but she was convinced that he had seen it on an envelope
somewhere in the house she didn't believe that he really knew who she was there were a couple of things that stuck
in her mind about him one was his odor she described it as a strong personal smell and not a nice one there was the
unusually small penis yet the excessive amount of lotion he used and she was convinced that although he seemed
adamant about raping her he didn't really seem to enjoy it he verbally abused her growling at her through
clenched teeth if he asked the question he told her to shut up while she was trying to answer just like he had done
during previous attacks eventually the east area rapist stopped ransacking the house and it fell silent the survivor
waited a while before she realized he had left she managed to get herself free and get out of the room he hadn't cut
her phone line so she was able to call police he had struck back in sheriff's jurisdiction and it wasn't long before
patrol officers arrived followed by detective Shelby the survivor described to the east area
rapist as being between 30 and 40 years old but police doubted this seeing as her
guest was on body and voice alone so they stuck with previous descriptions detectives found two empty Coors beer
cans on the kitchen counter they didn't belong to the victim they were found near a large block of
cheese with bites taken from it visible teeth marks could be seen the survivor confirmed that was not there when she
went to bed it was bagged with other evidence yeah saw it her sight gate was open they found both her garage door and
her back sliding door prior as this case was back in Shelby's jurisdiction he was
able to call the blood here on the back in the dog traced the east area rapist scent from the house around the two
corners to the Kirby outside the local elementary school at that time the Sheriff's Department
had three main suspects including art Pinklon who we spoke about in part one deputies had them under surveillance and
were able to confirm that none of the suspects left their homes the night of this latest attack the heavy body odor
described by the survivor led the investigation team to wonder whether the east area rapist had a labor-intensive
job during the day they discussed amongst themselves the potential of him being in construction with his ability
to open doors and windows with ease the boots he wore in earlier attacks and his
slim athletic build plus all the homes which had been targeted today were either for sale near a house that was
for sale or near a house having construction work or renovations done they were also still considering links
to the military and possible links to the medical field but they were all assumptions there was no solid evidence
linking him to anything yet as far as forensic evidence so far they had the two latent fingerprints collected from a
tack 7 they had determined he was a non-secretor and if he was the owner of the band-aid found at the scene of
attack 10 then he was blood group a but they couldn't prove he was the owner of the band-aid his physical description
was concrete in some respects like his height weight build and shoe size but they had little to go on in terms of
facial features and hair on the rare occasions his face had been seen there were conflicting reports or confusion
this could have been caused by him changing his hair color but it was impossible to know for sure during a
canvass of the neighborhood of this latest attack detectives spoke to two boys who lived on the same Road as the
survivor they walked to and from school together every day for three of the four
days prior they had walked to the top of their Road and dried at the corner where
their school was they had noticed a dark-colored American car a man sat alone in the driver's seat each time the
boys passed the driver would turn away and to look down as if he was doing something when Shelby went to the spot
the boys described he saw that it had a clear line of sight straight to the survivors home the for sale sign in her
yard clearly visible Shelby was convinced the man the boys had seen was the east area rapist
Shelby asked the boys and their parents if they would be willing to undergo hypnosis in the hope that would be able
to provide a facial description they agreed but it never eventuated as they later changed their minds sketch artists
began to produce facial composites from the witnesses who had seen the Prowler in their neighborhood but none were
released to the press that wouldn't happen for a little while yet the following day the 25th of January 1977 a
phone call was made for the Sacramento television station KX TV the caller informed at the switchboard operator the
name of the East Area rapist the name was investigated by police but it didn't amount to anything
detective Shelby and Daly spoke with a woman who said she was being followed by a man driving a car she was able to
write down the license plate Shelby and daily visited the man's apartment when questioned the men admitted he had been
following her he even admitted to writing down her license plate and going to the DMV to get her name and address
there was little Shelby and Daly could do but put this man on their watch list there would be another 13 years in 1990
before stalking would be criminalized in the state of California it was the first
state in the u.s. to introduce the law within three years every other state followed suit recognising the need for
the stalking law but in the 1970s stalkers were pretty much free to do what they wanted only when they
physically harmed someone were police really able to do anything about it it wasn't until 1994 that the driver's
Privacy Protection Act was introduced stopping people from being able to walk into the DMV pay a few dollars and get
the name and address of any one they liked a few days after speaking to this admitted stalker detectives were called
to a local store a customer had found a white envelope on the footpath the envelope was full of neatly cutout
driver's license photos all the women of different ages and races knowing that the a stereo rapist had often stolen
victims licenses from their homes this sparked the interest of detectives but no prints were found on them and without
any other information on any of the women and never went anywhere that would be naive to think
the east area rapist was the only offender operating in the area law enforcement was well aware that stalking
was more common than most people realized and during this time when a report of stalking came in it was
followed up agent Lee looking for links to the east area rapist with the east area rapist having
crossed over into their jurisdiction with the attack in Glenbrook the Sacramento Police Department was still
operating their own task force they had an agreement with the Sheriff's Department that if a they received the
call relating to the east area rapist they would urgently notify the other officers from both departments became so
entrenched in the investigation they worked a day and night and often after hours doing whatever they could to solve
it Shelby was aware of how close he was coming to catching the east area rapist he was sure he had seen him before
possibly crossed paths with him or missed him by just seconds he was going to give it everything he had lieutenant
root said Shelby was probably the most prolific and active member of the task force at that time two investigators
from the Visalia Police Department visited the Sheriff's Department and offered their help they had been
involved in the investigation into the Visalia rancic er who was linked to over 90 home break-ins between 1974 into 1975
Australia is just over two hundred miles or three hours south of Sacramento and halfway between Sacramento and Los
Angeles Shelby knew a fair bit about the Visalia rants occur from when he was looking at the files of both the early
bird and the early morning rapists they had looked for similarities and cross-checked suspects the Visalia
Rancic er abruptly stopped his crimes in December 1975 although he had ransacked
over 90 homes enflamed relatively under the radar especially with the press as he rarely stole anything of value and he
never physically harmed anyone for most of his spree but that changed on September 11th 1975 he broke into a
house and attempted to kidnap a teenage girl from her bed as he was dragging her
outside the girl's father came to her but the visalia ran sucker shot him dead a few months later detective William
McGowan stopped the suspicious mail the mail pulled out a gun shot McGowan and escaped McGowan was fine
the bullet hit his flashlight and saved his life but the Visalia ransack his crimes stopped that day he was not
linked to another break-in or attack again he was also never identified the east
area rapists first attack was six months later three hours north in Sacramento while 1977 it was clear there were some
similarities between the Visalia ran soccer and in the East area rapist some detectives had suspicions they were the
same man they had similar physical descriptions like height and agility and both were described as physically fit
white males in their 20s also the mo of the Visalia ran soccer ended the east area rapist was similar neither took
anything of much value from the homes they broke into both were known to carry a firearm both were known to carry a
short Club at times and both committed hot crowd burglaries in the middle of the night when the Visalia detectives
arrived in Sacramento they were a welcome addition to the investigation but it was something that would later
divide law enforcement as some including Shelby we're adamant device failure and
soccer and to be a stereo rapist were not the same man not long after this government officials decided that the
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department would not be involved in investigations inside the jurisdiction of the
Sacramento City police the city police chief was told not to call the Sheriff's Department when their officers responded
to a call related to the east area rapist this annoyed Shelby and all that the sheriff's office who had worked hard
and found a benefit in the two departments working together regardless of the new policy both police
departments continued to contact each other and still cooperated behind the scenes when a suspect came to light only
days later the Sheriff's Department didn't have enough officers that can't be at the suspects house she'll be asked
the Sacramento city officers for help and they came both departments regardless of what their superiors told
them can to help each other it was only by working together that on February 4th
1977 they had a suspect in custody behind the scenes the investigators still had their eyes on a few persons of
interest these suspects were watched the day and night and after an East area rapist attack if surveillance confirmed
the suspect had not moved from their home or work while the attack was being carried out they were moved from the top
of the suspect list they were still monitored just not as much the suspect they arrested on February 4th came to
light after a break-in that somewhat fit the east area rapists mo it occurred in
Orangevale just one suburb south east of Citrus Heights a man broke in bound and
blindfolded a woman but he didn't rape her although she was terrorized for quite a few hours there appeared to be
none of the tell-tale signatures that officers had grown accustomed to with the east area rapist a fingerprint was
lifted from the bedroom window where he gained entry and a match was found a 24 year-old man five feet 9 inches tall
with light brown hair this was the man the Sheriff's Department requested the help of the city police to effect the
arrest it was hard to deny the similarities between the suspect and the a stereo rapist but he could not be
linked to any of the attacks he remained high on the suspect list but was eventually eliminated from the east area
rapist investigation another suspect came to light that month a local California Highway Patrol officer had a
daughter who worked as a waitress often finishing work late at night her protective father sometimes waited
outside her bar without her knowledge and would follow her home just to make sure she was safe one night as the
father waited he witnessed the car pull up and a man Kadir the man stood in the dark and watched his daughter getting
her car the Highway Patrol officer then watched as the man got back in his car and followed his daughter home it's not
known where the father followed the stranger to or exactly what information was handed over to investigators that
night but it was enough for them to be granted a search warrant the men who followed the Highway Patrol officers
daughter was a preacher from a church in the top western corner of Carmichael he was
married with children he was questioned and had hair and blood samples taken it's unknown what explanation he gave
her his behavior he was closely monitored but it was also later eliminated from the east area rapist
investigation around this time the Sheriff's Department received a phone call the female caller was aware of the
East Area rapist but didn't call this information in straight away after discussing it with her boyfriend they
decided they didn't want to get involved she only felt compelled to call when she
read further articles about the attacks she told the Sheriff's Department quote at around 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning I
was stopped at a stop sign at Oak Crest and Joey Drive I looked to the left to check the traffic and saw a person
wearing dark clothing and a ski mask crawling on his hands and knees towards the front door of a residence I looked
to the right for traffic and when I looked back to the left he was standing next to my car knocking on my window
still with the mask on that scared me I mean really scared me so I drove off real fast I slowed down
and watched out my rearview mirror and saw him go to some bushes and pull up bicycle out he got on it and started
riding toward me so I drove off real fast another local couple were returning home after a walk when they saw three
police cars drive by then they saw a person dressed in all black wearing a ski mask coming up from behind a bush in
someone's front yard the men didn't see the couple the men walked out of the yard onto the road and watched the
police cars drive off police were baffled by the amount of people who only came forward with sightings and
information after they knocked on their doors because there had been an attack nearby the fact that this couple didn't
find the police shows the sentiment at the time people were really scared to get involved didn't want the hassle well
they just simply had no idea what this man was capable of a young woman lived with her husband a
Vietnam War veteran ended their six year old daughter in Citrus Heights right near the northern tip of Carmichael she
was studying her master's in social science at Sacramento State College they lived just around the corner from
the exterior rapists fourth attack which occurred ten months earlier on the woman
who was at her parents house doing washing their house like all the houses on their stretch backed on to the large
del Campo Park and over the back fence jutting into the park was a public parking lot which at the time could hold
around six to ten cars people often parked there to go walking in the park the park also neighbored
adult campout high school school kids often climbed to the fence near the parking lot this couple were aware of
the exterior rapist but police had still only released scarce details about the actual attacks so things such as the
hang-up calls and growling behavior beforehand weren't widely known early in the morning of Monday February 7th 1977
the woman was having breakfast with her husband he was about to leave for work into their six year old daughter was
still asleep what they didn't know was that a neighbor who lived a few doors up was standing at her kitchen window
watching a man walk towards their house he would later be described as being in his early 20s five foot eleven with a
thin build and short dark blond hair he was walking casually in the direction of their home the neighbor who was
watching the men wasn't overly concerned seeing as the park was so close she thought it was probably just going for a
walk in the park but she still noticed him she had been spooked the day before when she was out in her yard with her
husband a man who was in the park behind them was staring at her and every time she looked back at him he seemed to
start looking elsewhere when he walked away she noticed he had a walk she could only describe as awkward she wondered if
it was the same man she was seeing now back inside the couple were finishing off their breakfast the husband has said
he felt something was wrong the woman put it down to his post-war instincts well thought that maybe he was
just unsettled because they dressed we being broken into they had reported it to police who came and checked to the
place out nothing of value was taken so they didn't worry too much about it even
when the woman started receiving prank calls after the break-in she didn't think it was anything to concern the
police about even though they knew about the east area rapist the couple didn't know anything about his MO as the
husband exited the front door he noticed the white van parked on its own in the neighboring del Campo Park parking lot
he called back to his wife to let her know and told her to make sure all the doors were locked
she checked all the doors and windows except for the back sliding door which she assumed should still have been
locked from the previous night five minutes after the husband left the woman turned to see a figure in the doorway of
her kitchen he was wearing a dark-colored ski mask with Jessie's eyes showing into slit for his mouth he was
holding a 4-inch knife and a gun in his gloved hands she would describe him as young 23 at most approximately 5 foot 11
and to no more than 195 pounds he was wearing black trousers a waist length dark blue nylon sporty jacket and the
red white and blue tennis shoes he growled through clenched teeth don't scream or I'll shoot you I just want
your money I don't want to hurt you he forced her into a chair and then pulled shoelaces from his pockets and
tightly behind her wrists together he held the knife to her throat do what I say or I'll kill you when he told her to
get up and go to her bedroom she started yelling no he placed the gun at the side
of her head and forced her to her bedroom as they passed her daughter's bedroom down the hall the woman noticed
the door was closed she knew it had been open earlier and realized the intruder had likely closed
it he threw her down on the bed and grabbed her ankles but she thrashed around and tried to kick free he held
the knife to her throat and she stopped but as soon as he moved the knife away and tried to tie her ankles again she
yelled get the [ __ ] out of here she then yelled at a dog to get the intruder while trying to keep his gloved
hand over her mouth he struck her on the head she ended up flat on her back with
the a stereo rapist sitting on top of her telling her to shut up she could feel this gun in his right hand
jacket pocket during the struggle she managed to get the gun out of his pocket they scuffled for some time the knife in
his hand hitting the side of her head at one point cutting her as they fought the
woman managed to get her thumb onto the trigger of the gun but she didn't know which way it was facing if she pulled
the trigger it could go through the bedroom wall into her daughter's bedroom she wasn't
taking that chance the east area rapist was able to get the gun back into then he started violently
stabbing the mattress over and over again right next to the woman's head the yeast area rapists pants were off and
she noticed he's a ladies were very white and covered in black hairs she also noticed his unusually small penis
he was mad he was able to tie her up blindfold her and karriker she felled him run the edge of his knife over her
he raped her then went rummaging and ransacking through drawers and cupboards walking back into the bedroom to check
on her regularly what he always did at one point he saw the six year old girl walk past sleepily he grabbed her be
quiet or I'll cut you up he pushed her towards her mother's room and put her in the bed the young girl started screaming
out for help the east area rapist reached over pulled the telephone from the wall then left the house it was
sometime close to 8:00 a.m. the next-door neighbor saw a young man with short dark blond hair black pants and a
navy sporty jacket jump her back fence and go into del Campo Park only a moment later she heard the survivor cry out for
help as the neighbor phoned of the Sheriff's Department two high school students on their way to del Campo High
School saw a man of the exact same description running up the street away from the direction of the survivors
house disappearing out of view towards the high school a woman that lived across the road saw the man just before
the high school students did and to talk detectives along the route she had seen
the man run when detectives followed the trail they found his exact tennis shoe prints a few empty beer cans and a few
cigarette butts from the witness accounts it appeared that he had parked a car on the other side of the high
school far enough away not to raise any suspicion allowing him to slip away from
police for the 13th time because of the large amount of witness accounts surrounding this attack and to the
similar descriptions that had been given a composite was made by the Sacramento Sheriff's Department there was still a
fairly strict media hold on the case so the sketch was not released it was believed that if the composite was
released and it wasn't the east area rapist it may bring harm to an innocent man it would be some months before a
composite would be released to the public although extremely frightened the six-year-old daughter was unharmed
detective Carol Daley was looking after the survivor and her daughter discussing
the protocol of going to the hospital to be checked out and to have swabs taken to preserve any forensic evidence
Shelby attended the scene also the survivor had a small cut on the top of her head which was bleeding as she
recounted a story detectives noticed that she also had a drop of blood lowered down on her face which didn't
appear to be from the same injury they cut a piece of bloodied hair from her head and swamped at the other blood job
for testing the victims blood type was easily extracted from the cut on her head she was taught be most expected the
second a separate drop of blood would also come back as the victims thought be but it didn't it came back type a that
second blood drop wasn't the victims as well as being type-a it also came back as a non-secretor it was determined from
semen samples the previous year that the east area rapist was a non-secretor he was in the 15 to 20% of the population
that carries the gene which inhibits them from secreting tiny particles of blood in other body fluids so detectives
felt confident that if a suspect arose and they had the appropriate court order they could now check the suspects blood
type and to secrete a status with 34% of the population having an a blood type and conservatively 20% of the population
being non-secretor 'he's only six point eight percent of the population would come up as both the net was wide but the
east area rapist had a fairly unusual combination they also felt more confident that the bloodied band-aid are
left on the picnic table and attacked number ten was the left by the east area rapist but what was unknown in forensics
in 1977 was that unfortunately someone is able to have both non-secretor and a secretor status at the same time this
meant that in the years that followed until this discovery was made some suspects may have been falsely
discounted based on secretest status once the discovery that you could have both was made suspects were placed back
on the list for further checking where possible within hours of this latest attack the
Sacramento Bee covered the story with a little information given by police I mentioned that the east area rapist had
gained access through an unlocked sliding glass door which was true however the survivor was sure that door
should have been locked leading detectives to believe that he may have gained access to the house earlier in
order to unlock the door waiting for the husband to leave ten days later in a cul-de-sac
just over highway 50 and only minutes south from attack number 11 in Glenbrook one month prior a 19 year old man was
returning home just before 10:30 at night there was a school with a large open park across from his house the
street was quiet he greeted his dad inside just before hearing a crashing noise in the back yard
the father switched the backyard light on and they saw a young man who they described as around 20 years old 5 foot
10 and around 170 pounds standing in the darkness of their backyard they bolted out the sliding door and chased the
Prowler as he ran down the side of their house towards the street they followed him across the street and over a fence
as the son was at the top of the fence ready to jump down and continue the chase he heard a gun [ __ ] the Prowler
was waiting for him as the bullet ripped through his stomach he fell back off the
fence onto his father who dragged him away they were both screaming and shouting
for help within seconds neighbors came to their aid and a police were called the area was cordoned off but the
Prowler had slipped away they located a 9-millimeter shell casing the 19 year old underwent surgery but survived the
Sacramento Bee wrote about it the following day the question was asked if this was the east area rapist
detective Shelby he had no doubt it was believing he had been prowling for his next victim when he was chased
it was clear from past attacks that when faced with an unexpected situation the Asteria rapist often didn't handle a
well and acted violently the Sheriff's Department worked hard on predicting his next move but wherever they placed their
surveillance vehicles the east area rapist always evaded them he had a way of blending in so that he didn't raise
suspicion and it was only when he was caught by surprise prowling on someone's property that the community really
seemed to notice him he was likely to have spent weeks scoping out a neighborhood working out the best route
through the night across parks pathways levees and canal systems which linked communities with the other doubt every
home attacked had one of these geographical elements in its immediate vicinity the task force was trying to
put the pieces together they had extensive notes on possible links to the military hospitals and doctors
construction real estate agents and houses for sale the scope of the investigation was widening every day on
March 8th 1977 one month after attack 13 the a stereo rapist had spent on stalking an area of East Sacramento he
hadn't yet hit a neighborhood between Robertson Avenue and Whitney Avenue which borders Carmichael the areas of
his previous attacks were likely too hot with police presence for him to risk going back five large blocks west of
Carmichael was a neighborhood that suited his MO it was linked by a narrow walking path tucked behind a long row of
houses to another neighborhood that path crossed the canal system and at the time
ran alongside a wooded park area and a school with a running track he could easily park his car at the end
of the path and approach the streets hidden by countless means at 3:00 a.m. that Tuesday morning March
8th a 37 year old elementary school teacher was asleep her young son was staying over at a friend's house she was
separated from her husband so was alone she had been receiving hang-up calls for
weeks every time she answered the person on the other end would remain silent after
a few moments the caller would hang up the calls had stopped the week earlier so she didn't think anymore of them
while she was sleeping the east area rapist was sliding open her glass door at the back of the house he had broken a
small hole mirror latch and was able to reach through and unlock it something he
had successfully done before it's difficult to determine exactly how many times he did this given the amount of
break-ins he committed in total but it was enough that he had perfected it and was able to do it in complete silence he
crept through the house into her bedroom and stood silently at her side do you feel this butcher knife the woman opened
her eyes and felt a knife at her throat if you scream or do anything I'll kill you all I want is your money I won't
hurt you if you don't scream he took both black and brown colored shoelaces and wrap them around the woman's wrist
so tightly she almost immediately felt her hands go numb he gagged her with some fabric and blindfolded her the
survivor felt he got much more pleasure out of tying her up and having complete control over her than he did from raping
her he walked out of the room and roamed the house rummaging and ransacking as he
went he seemed as though he was pulling every drawer and cupboard open looking for something but again nothing of value
was taken like previous attacks there were many things of value he could have taken but didn't
she heard him go way out to the patio and sit down for a while later she heard him eating in the
kitchen over a period of three hours he roamed the house and repeatedly raped the survivor at one point he took her
thumb and squeezed it tightly for no apparent reason he also took his gloves off it's
believed it was only the second time he took his gloves off during an attack after there was silence for long enough
to think he was gone the survivor got herself free and healed to a neighbor for help Shelby found a size 9 tennis
shoe footprints both at the back door and at the bathroom window the ones at the bathroom were noted as being older
prints and it was believed that they had been made some days earlier a canvass of
the neighborhood was conducted this would again show the east area rapist had extensively Prout the area and
planned this attack some neighbors had received hang-up calls for weeks in the lead up a few had seen a man feeding the
east area rapist description acting suspiciously but none had thought to call these in most had the attitude that
it was no big deal or not sinister enough to bother the police with other neighbors described two nights where
their dogs barked which was unusual at 6:30 that morning the exact time the east area rapist left the survivors
house a neighbor saw a man fitting the description peering in the front window of another house he was wearing a great
jogging suit on the street that runs parallel behind to the survivors house a neighbor noticed the yellow pickup truck
parked in the same spot for three nights in a row leading up to the attack he saw
the driver the man he described this five foot nine in his 20s walking into the front yard of a house so he assumed
he was just visiting someone but this house was directly behind the survivors house
another young girl on that same street said she saw the same pickup parked a few times they've been earlier than this
in the weeks leading up this time a canvass was done on the other side of the neighborhood as well where the
nearby path leads to the other side of the school on a closed off court on the other side of the school through a
wooded area residents told police that a yellow pickup truck had been seen parked
there the past few days the description of the yellow pickup truck was thought to be a late 40s early 50s afford one of
the residents remembered a partial license plate and Shelby took it to the DMV a trace was done on every model of
pickup truck from the 40s and 50s registered in the state of California officers all over the state were issued
with details of registered owners of pickups matching the description but it amounted to nothing when looking into
people who had close contact with a survivor of this latest attack attacked 14 sergeant Bevan made two discoveries
one was that the preacher who followed the Highway Patrol officers daughter home lived close by and to the other was
that the milkman who delivered to the survivors home lived very close to the previous attack attacked 13 when
officers paid the milkman a visit he told them that on the day of attack 13 a window screen had been removed from his
house again there were nothing more than coincidences which led nowhere in previous attacks the use of the
Bloodhound had been vital in tracking the Asteria rapist as the Bloodhound was getting old a new dog was brought in a
German Shepherd that belonged to one of the patrol officers the dog led detectives to the front of a house on
the corner of the street they noticed the same tennis shoe prints in a concentrated area as if someone had been
standing there a long while they were rolled in new prints and a fair few cigarette butts they knocked on the door
of that house and were greeted by a young man the man showed them his hedge which spent at the front of his property
he and his mother had found a cloth bag hidden in the hedge a few weeks prior inside the bag was a pair of gloves a
small flashlight and a ski mask they called the sheriff's office when they fee under the bag but the officer
they spoke to told them to throw it away which they did but they kept the flashlight as it seemed to worth keeping
the young man gave detective Shelby the flashlight it was small and silver and held a single D sized battery he felt
that it easily matched descriptions of flashlights used in previous attacks it didn't seem like a household stole a
flashlight but it was unbranded making it difficult to trace although this seems like a great piece of evidence no
fingerprints were found on it and it was never able to be traced to a manufacturer a few people described the
flashlight as looking like something used by Special Forces or navigators working within the military Shelby knew
that at the time navigators were being trained that the local made their Air Force Base so it was one of the first
places he cooked the flashlight he found that it was not standard issue for navigators or anyone else he did however
discover that may their Air Force Base had only just become responsible for training navigators one year earlier
January 1976 Air Force navigator trainees were moved from Texas to Mesa that same year the Marine Corps
transferred their marine aerial navigator school trainees to the Mather Air Force Base they had previously been
stationed just outside Irvine in Southern California Irvine will come up later on also in 1976 the
Navy established the Naval Air Training Unit at Mather this naval unit along with the Marines previously based in
Irvine were under their own command and not under the command of the Air Force they could have been anywhere between 20
and 130 Marines and enable their trainees stationed at Mather at the time that day the Sacramento Bee ran a story
titled rape may be linked to series it said little more than other articles stating a woman had been raped in her
home under the Sheriff's Department felt it had been committed by the east area rapist
it included a simple map marked with X's showing the locations of the 14 attacks
the article mentioned one other thing quote the rapist has never attacked while there was a man in the home during
the investigation of attack 14 detectives obtained a search warrant for a suspect they had reason to believe
knew the survivor the search was carried out by sergeant Bevins the suspect was a
photographer and had naked photographs of the survivor in his possession the suspect told detectives he was hired to
take the pictures and it turned out he was telling the truth there was just another lead that looked extremely
promising but turned out to be nothing more than coincidence it was 4:15 p.m. on Friday March 18th
1977 when the operator at the Sacramento Sheriff's Office took a call Sacramento
Sheriff's Office cannot help you I'm the east side rapist the line went dead 15 minutes later the phone rang again
Sacramento Sheriff's Office can I help you I'm the East Side rapist the caller started laughing before
hanging up thirty minutes later at 5:00 p.m. another call Sacramento Sheriff's Office can I help you on the east side
rapist and I'll have my next victim already thought you guys can't stop me the line went dead the Sheriff's
Department had no way of knowing if the phone calls were legitimate they had no way to trace the calls as they were too
short in lights around at the same time the Sheriff's Office received too those calls a 16 year old girl in Rancho
Cordova entered her home telephone the male caller told her he was a roof up and he needed to speak with her father
she told him her parents were away for the weekend and she hung up the phone she thought about the hang-up calls her
mother and sister had been getting for six months one time recently her mother was so angry when the prank
caller rang that she blew a whistle into the receiver seeing as they hadn't had one of these calls for around a week she
didn't think anymore of it and went to her shift at the local KFC around an hour and a half before she got
home from work her neighbor noticed their dogs growling nearby another teenage girl watched the strange man
crossed the road in front of her house and walk into a yard she was spooked enough to close all her
curtains and check the locks but she never called police after her shift at KFC the 16 year old girl returned home
she only planned on being there briefly to pack a bag she was going over to her friend's house to stay the night the
front of our house was shaded by a huge tree and with no street lights on her Street the front of their house was very
dark the hind of the houses opposite to hers was the canal that same part of the
canal system went to the nearby location of attack 6 which occurred five months earlier the attack where the east area
rapist tied the clothesline back and forth across the hallway that survivor was also a teenager whose father was
away the night of the attack they would have been receiving prank calls at the same time as each other
it was also only minutes walk away from attack number 8 when she walked inside she picked up the phone from the kitchen
bench to call her friend as she went to dial a noise behind her stopped her she turned to see a dark figure wearing a
ski mask and a dark green jacket but it wasn't the mask that she saw first there
was the small axe who was holding a bubbies head don't scream or I'll kill you the intruder said in a hoarse whisper
she froze he kept the axe above his head with one hand his eyes fixed on her with
the other hand he took the receiver and gripped the phone from the wall he pushed her toward the living room and
onto the floor he beyond her wrists behind her back with shoelaces and when it was found later that her ankles were
bound with the cord cut from the iron it was clear he had been in the house before she arrived home that night using
scissors he also got from the house he got strips from a towel my car is only a block away if you don't do what I say I
will kill you he blindfolded and gagged her his actions not ordering much from previous attacks
he drifted around to the house rummaging and ransacking then returned to the bedroom and raped her while taunting her
with a pair of scissors at one point she heard him go out the back sliding door but he wasn't gone he was doing
something outside possibly drinking in a can of dr. pepper which was found out there later the phone in her parents
room started ringing that seemed to ring forever going until it rang out the whole timer was ringing the Asteria
rapist stayed still in silent the girl knew it would be her friend wondering where she was the phone rang again the
yeast area rapist remained completely still while her rang out when it rang out he
removed her gag when he's your family coming home when she tried to answer he told her to shut up
he then bragged about the large size of his penis suddenly the doorbell rang by now it was 11:40 p.m. the girl's friend
had been the one calling and after getting no answer she went to check on her in person when Nolan answered the
doorbell she started knocking furiously on the door the east area rapist ran straight
at the back door the survivor then cried out for help when Shelby into the team arrived they felt they knew exactly what
they would find into they did size 9 tennis shoe prints a pried open garage door a lotion bottle empty cans this
time dr. pepper and again nothing of value taken except the survivors driver's license a couple of her rings
and her sisters school ID card to local real estate signs were found lying in the backyard the survivor described
hearing a thud on her roof shortly after the east area rapist left her house they
checked the roof and found a jar of Vaseline that didn't belong to the household they found that the small axe
discarded along the back fence the axe belonged to the house he would have grabbed it as he came in through the
garage the German Shepherd tracking dog was brought quickly to the scene who followed the east area rapist sent to
the street behind in the survivors house up to corner where it suddenly stopped it
appeared he may have parked the car there as opposed to escaping via the canal a neighborhood canvass revealed
sightings of a vehicle on and off for the previous month the vehicle was not known to the area and it was seen parked
in the exact same spot the dog lost the scent there was a gray Chevy Belair from
66 or 67 during the attack the east area rapist told the survivor his car was parked only a block away that looked as
though he was being truthful other neighbors told police during their door knocks that they had seen a suspicious
man in the area in the weeks leading up to the attack one even saw a man with a stocking over his face other neighbors
reported they too had been receiving hang-up calls it started the seemed like every second house had something
suspicious to report yet nothing had been reported at the time due to the masks the survivor barely saw much of
the East Area rapist but later she would give a description while under hypnosis
the holes in his ski mask were open enough that she saw his eyes this description was used in conjunction with
other descriptions to form the first composite released to the public a few months earlier under hypnosis she
described how his mouth was at the same level as her nose from this they determined he was in fact 5 foot 9 to 5
foot 10 detectives got to work on putting together all of the witness accounts under the information given by
the survivor they weren't surprised to learn the survivors father was not expecting a call from a roofer further
stories ran on the a stereo rapist after this latest attack one headline from the
Sacramento Bee read east area locks itself up in fear as crime soars the be reiterated quote he has never attacked
while there was a man in the home although occasionally there have been children those in the community who were
still oblivious to what was happening we're encouraged to get better locks for their doors and windows and told to
start watching out that weekend a local hardware store sold 200 dead bolts the survivor of attack 15 was shown a set of
photos of knowns offenders as well as high school yearbooks from nearby schools she had
not seen much of the East Area rapist but she had seen his eyes and had some close-up descriptions better than others
up to that point when flicking through the yearbooks she stopped at a picture she didn't necessarily think it was him
but she felt he looked similar he graduated from Kennedy High School three years prior with little else to go
on they looked into him closer his physical description matched he lived right near Mather Air Force Base just
south of Rancho Cordova his father was based there he liked to wear military clothing while
at high school he was on the track team he joined the Marines after school only to be kicked out for stealing from a
vending machine he owned relatives all over very close to some of the other survivors homes
this guy seemed to fit the east area rapist perfectly but when they covertly took the teenage survivor to his
workplace at a gas station she didn't feel it was him at all and it didn't go any further when this guy was arrested
for a rape in Sacramento years later he seemed a likely suspect again but he was
cleared from the east area rapist investigation the links and similarities between this suspect and the east area
rapist like suspects before him were uncanny but time and time again leads which seemed like sure things fell flat
today there had been 15 attacks carried out by the east area rapists he had remained
relatively consistent with this MO with the exception of a few instances where he appeared panic pill caught off guard
the fact that he had struck on the night of the three phone calls made to the Sheriff's Department from someone
claiming to be the east area rapist showed it was highly likely he was the caller he had toyed with the police that
night and now he was about to toy with the media it seemed he had read their news reports and decided to show them it
didn't matter who was in their house women or men he would take control of anyone and if your husband or boyfriend
was home it made no difference things were about to change Orangevale is one suburb southeast of Citrus
Heights on the night of April 1st 1977 a woman went to the local drive-in with her boyfriend and her eight-year-old
daughter and seven-year-old son the couple both worked in the Kaiser pharmacy at the Medical Center close to
Arden arcade the pharmacy was a fair way west of the woman's home but it was very
close to the location where the envelope full of cut-up female driver license photos was found she had been receiving
hang-up phone calls but thought nothing of it the local papers had not reported anything about the hang-up phone calls
so women who were getting them had no idea how seriously they should have taken them they got home late from the
drive-in and all went straight to bed sometime after 3:00 a.m. the woman and her boyfriend woke to a bright flashing
torch in her eyes see the gun in my hand don't make a move turn over onto your stomach's I have a 45 with 14 shots and
two clips they both froze in shock there were white shoelaces and neatly laid out on
the bed the east area rapist ordered her to tie her boyfriend's wrists and ankles
he created her to make the bindings tighter before taking over and doing it himself
he then tied the woman up he said he would be gone in a few minutes if they did what he said he then asked for money
the boyfriend told him where his wallet was if you move I'll kill you both just like I did those people in Bakersfield
it was the second time he had mentioned to Bakersfield during an attack he then held the gun to the boyfriend's head
don't look up if you see me I'll have to kill you both after I take the money I'm
going down to my camp on the American River he left the bedroom they heard him opening and closing drawers and
cupboards before walking back into the bedroom he didn't want to leave them together in the room in case they untied
each other so he said he was taking the woman with him she felt something sharp in her back as he led her down towards
the lounge room he ordered her to light down on her stomach and he walked off to
the kitchen he came back with dishes from the kitchen and to play some on the woman's back he told her if she moved he
would hear and he would come back and kill her he then walked into the bedroom and did the same to the boyfriend
placing a cup and saucer on his back he then returned to the woman he asked her if she had had sex with her husband at
night she said no he blindfolded her with a towel and raped her things happen to the same as previous attacks in
between the rapes he rents act at the house he made something to eat he asked her where the matches in a candle were
and at one point he unplugged the heater and cut the cord to the TV both of the children stayed fast asleep
in their beds and had no idea what was going on the east area rapist had never asked about them she noticed his legs
were scratchy like they were shaved just before leaving the east area rapist walked back into the bedroom he stood
next to the boyfriend and said next place next town then he was gone the boyfriend had detected a hint of a
German or similar accent when the east area rapist spoke even though he continued to speak through clenched
teeth in a whisper he was certain there was a hint of an accent the boyfriend wasn't completely sure the
east area rapist had left so he spent the next 10 minutes wriggling the cup and saucer of his back without making a
sound once it was off he was able to untie himself and he shuffled silently down the hall to check on the children
he made his way to his girlfriend who was still bound and blindfolded on the lounge room floor that had been nearly
two hours of Terror sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 that morning just after the east area rapist left a neighbor
heard a small foreign vehicle circling the block several times when Shelby arrived he arranged for the German
Shepherd to track the track the son of the East Area rapists around the corner before stopped at a curb the spot was
not directly in front of another residence line of sight there was a good position to get away quickly two other
main roads a neighborhood canvass revealed a similar story unusual cars had been seen parked in the area the day
before the attack someone's for a great station wagon go up and down a nearby street five times there were more
incidents of suspicious people and vehicle sightings in this case than there had been before but not one was
reported until the police came knocking after the attack there were prowlers seen in yards matching the description
of the East Area rapist a number of break-ins nearby which seemed unusual for the area
one man found a tennis shoe imprints on his fence and an empty meat wrapper in his yard he had not given the meat to
his dog someone else had many had received hang-up calls including a woman and her two daughters
who had been receiving heavy breathing calls for months there were sightings of a possible phony meter reader in the
area a young man dressed as a meter reader was seen looking suspiciously around yards the utility company had no
record of anyone working in the area at the time of these sightings one woman out gardening saw a man in a grey
jogging tracksuit Chris crossed the street stopping and staring at each house the man got a
surprise when he realized who was being watched he said good evening and walked quickly to a bluish-gray car parked
nearby and sped off she took down his number plate but lost it before police came knocking not one of these things
was reported until after the attack already occurred it was clear the community had no understanding of the
warning signs of the East Area rapist but police felt if they told the public what to watch out for
there would be citywide panic and it would hinder their chance of catching him it was difficult to prove there was
a link to the real estate market seeing a sales and lettings were common everywhere in the developing area but
detectives found it hard to deny there was a strong connection it came up again in this case the next-door neighbor's
house was for sale there was no estate agent involved just the owners meeting and greeting potential buyers the
neighbors confirmed that a man stopped by to look at the house before the attack he told them he was being
transferred from Las Vegas to the McClellan Air Force Base he fit that a stereo rapist physical description
perfectly the east area rapist took his gloves off during attack 16-under the forensics
team found a fingerprint on the victims wrist the problem was they couldn't lift
it they sought the help of the FBI and the learn there could be a way to lift it however after a few attempts the
method was scrapped it was unsuccessful the east area rapist also left two chewed a chewing gum in the kitchen at
attack 16 it would take only two weeks for another couple to be targeted in the early hours
of April 15th 1977 this time in the far northern part of Carmichael in the Crestview area close to where he had
struck twice before once two months prior attacked thirteen in Citrus Heights and attack for seven months
prior in Carmichael he knew the area well apart from the fact there were no children in this house attack seventeen
mimicked the last attack the woman had been receiving heavy breathing hang-up phone calls for three weeks she awoke to
a flashlight in her eyes the east area rapist made her tie up her boyfriend just like in attack 16 he called the
boyfriend husband indicating he might not have stalked them well enough to know they weren't married he separated
them stacked dishes on them and told them here we killed them if he heard them move the constant roaming rummaging
and ransacking of the house in between rapes continued and he ate in the kitchen there was almost a carbon copy
of attack 16 twice the boyfriend had dropped the dishes off his back as his hands were in agony from being tied so
tight the first time the east area rapist pressed the gun to his head and said he'd do that again and I'll kill
you the second time that happened he said next time I'll kill her one unusual thing the east area rapist he knew about
this survivor was that she had codeine in the house she'd had some dental work done and had a few tablets left in a
bottle at one point he demanded to know where the codeine was she said he sounded desperate like a drug addict she
couldn't stop wondering how he knew she hadn't codeine he took them over to the sink and ran the water it sounded like
he had taken them and the bottle was found empty but the next day a plastic bag with the wet codeine pills was found
in the neighbor's yard when Shelby pulled up at the house the first thing he noticed was the real estate sign in
the yard of the house across the road it was for sale it was currently unoccupied
and strangely it was also unlocked so he went in in the laundry he found a cigarette
butts the same type he had seen before and a tennis shoe prints enough to make sure we think the person had spent a
fair bit of time in that laundry when he looked out the laundry window the line of sight took him straight to the
survivors house across the road by now officers were on dedicated East Area rapist task force shifts patrolling the
streets at night looking for anything suspicious they were no longer just staking out known pockets have already
hit neighborhoods now they were cruising wide areas and on alert for relevant dispatch calls others were stationed on
either side of main roads and highway 50 so they could pursue any car that contained a soul young male driver it
was just over two weeks before he struck again May 3rd 1977 attack number 18 this
time I would be the Sacramento City police who would receive the call their second call to an East Area rapist crime
scene it was back on their turf and very close to the first attack in their area
attack 11 at Glenbrook near the bridge south of the American River it was the first time the east area rapist would
attack a two-story home a woman her husband and two children resided there the woman was taking a course in real
estate at the Sacramento City College she also worked at Mather Air Force Base her husband was an Air Force major there
about 1 a.m. Tuesday May 3rd she heard a thottie outside she went and checked the
windows and doors were locked then got back into bed with her husband their children were asleep down the hall at 3
a.m. she awoke to find a figure in the doorway of the bedroom he had a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the
other he shone the torch across the gun and whispered angrily it was a 45 caliber he said if they moved he would
kill everyone in the house this time as he was making the woman bind her husband on the bed he kept
repeating that he could kill them and made a strange reference to having a camp across the levy he also said that
he got kicked out of the military it was the first time that the east area rapist
took a sheet and covered up the man's head he then placed a cup and saucer on his back he said he wanted money for
cocaine the husband motioned to his wallet on the dresser when the east area rapist
looked he seemed furious saying he'd better have more money or I'll kill you both the woman said there was more money
in her purse upstairs in the kitchen area before leaving the bedroom he tired the husband's wrists tighter then put a
jewelry box on his back along with the cup and saucer he forced the woman upstairs with his gun pointed at her the
woman said he started shivering as if he was having drug withdrawals but it didn't seem legitimate to her there was
like an act as they passed the upstairs bathroom near the kitchen he made her lie on the floor outside the bathroom
door while he tied her ankles tightly he took a shower cap put it over her face and left her for a few minutes when he
returned he tied her to the leg of the dining table while he wandered around the kitchen rummaged through drawers and
looked for food like previous attacks in between raping her he ransacked the house and ate
at one point he zipped up a bag in the kitchen that sounded like he had put things inside one time when he asked her
for drugs she felt his voice was soft and clear and did not think he was whispering through clenched teeth he
checked on the husband and numerous times but again didn't go near the sleeping children both the survivor and
husband told police they felt like the east area rapist was acting during this attack it seemed like the whole thing
was scripted and at times that even sounded like he was reading from script the requests for drugs and his shivering
were an act in their opinion to make it seem like he was a drug addict again the
survivor described him as having an unusually small penis the Sacramento City police brought in a tracking dog
the dog track to the east area rapist sent to the levy walk directly behind the couple's home in the levee police
found a knife from the survivors home and along the top of the levee they found two empty beer cans when they
canvassed the neighborhood there were no surprises when they learned six nearby homes had been receiving hang-up calls
and the two had been broken into recently another neighbor reported finding a plastic bag that contained a
pair of gloves and a flashlight hidden in a bush under her window again nothing was reported until after the attack when
police came knocking it has been well recorded the amount of things that weren't reported to police some caught
boyfriends or male relatives instead to come to their aid with guns for protection others just didn't want to
involve themselves some wanted to pretend it wasn't happening at all and believed if they ignored the whole thing
it would go away while others simply just didn't put two and two together and realized the suspicious activities were
related to the east area rapist less than 48 hours later he was ready to strike again
May 5th 1977 the neighborhood of winter Brook Orangevale was one with lots of construction going on houses were going
up and too much of the undeveloped delay and delay open the east area rapist had been here
before just a month earlier when he attacked two blocks away attacked 16 there was a home which had just been
purchased by a young man who worked for his thought brokers office in downtown Sacramento
he had only moved in ten days prior he was still relatively unpacked and he'd had no time to purchase curtains he was
waiting for his friend from work to visit for dinner and hang out while checking out his new place he had met
her six months earlier when she started at the same firm as a sales assistant that were purely platonic while the
woman was driving towards his house she had an uneasy feeling the uneasiness stayed with her as she got out of her
car with her two small dogs when she put her dogs into the back yard they barked
constantly as if someone was there they also stayed very close to the back door the pair chatted over dinner the
uneasy feelings still remaining with the woman but she thought that maybe it was
just because the house felt open and exposed without curtains at 12:15 a.m. the men walked her out to her car to go
home her car was parked in the driveway right at the front door but when she walked out and put our dogs down they
ran towards the front of the house barking the east area rapist stepped out from the shadow is pointing a 45 caliber
handgun directly at them get back inside or I'll blow your brains out once inside
he forced them onto the lounge room floor face down the dogs ran in after them barking this time he had black blue
and white shoelaces he ordered the woman to tie up the men they believed he was speaking through clenched teeth to
appear mad like he was exaggerating a bit and his voice seemed naturally high-pitched he repeatedly told them if
they didn't follow his orders he would kill them all while the woman tied the male victims wrists she yelled at the
dogs to be quiet fearing that would get them killed the east area rapist tried the man's wrist slider making his wrists
go numb he told them he was only after money he ordered the woman to get up and to lock
her dogs in a bedroom he followed closely behind her before forcing her back down onto a Landrum floor and tying
her tightly he cut the phone lines then collected dishes from the kitchen the stack on
their backs he threatened to kill them if they moved he then went back to the kitchen and started zipping something
open and closed that's unknown if it was a bag or his jacket he went through drawers and cupboards before going back
to the lounge room to check on them he was taking strange deep breaths which the male victim thought sounded like him
trying to build up courage the woman felt she heard a slight accent he forced the woman up held a knife to her throat
and pushed her into the bathroom near the kitchen he forced her down and blindfolded her she then heard him
lubricating himself with lotion you'd better swear to God you didn't see a vent down the street he repeated that
line to her three times he never took his gloves off during any of the three times he raped her he ransacked the
house between rapes at one point he walked into the bathroom and said she was not to make a sound while he was
eating and drinking or he would kill her he was then heard going into the kitchen
and opening the refrigerator after that the house fell silent they knew he was gone after breaking free the male victim
ran to the neighbors for help when detectives examined the crime scene they found a foot scuff marks on the trunk of
the large oak tree next to the living room window there were tennis shoe prints underneath empty beer cans were
found at the back door and a piece of chewing gum found thrown into a clothes basket in the laundry there was a knife
located behind the sofa the theory with this attack was that the east area rapist plan to strike
elsewhere possibly his chosen victims weren't home he then came across this house it's believed to be an
opportunistic attack due to the fact the survivor was only visiting and wouldn't
usually have been there detectives found a Zippo lighter in the bedroom which did
not belong to either victim although Zippos were available to the public they also went hand-in-hand with the Army
especially around at the time of the Vietnam War the Zippo lighter indicated a possible military link again although
the method didn't work for them since the day they discovered that good possibly touched fingerprints off skin
the east area rapist hadn't taken his gloves off again Shelby had requested that all patrol officers not discuss
this on their police radios when he found that that some had not listened to him and there had been chatter about
this process over the airwaves that's when it was considered he may have a police radio if he didn't have ears
inside the force that is that day the Sacramento Bee reported on the latest attack the tac-19
as well as attack 18 that occurred only two days prior it was apparent that the east area rapist was reading the papers
since the Sacramento Bee reported that he only attacked when women were home alone or with children he had
specifically targeted houses where there was a man home there was only nine days
until he struck again in the two weeks leading up to this next attack attack 20 which occurred on May
14th 1977 there was one Road which had an unprecedented amount of suspicious sightings of a man fitting the
description of the East Area rapist it was Merlin Dale Drive in Citrus Heights a young girl and her brother spotted a
man hiding in the bushes on the street when he realized they had seen the man ran off jumping fences until he was out
of sight at 12:45 a.m. May 13 a couple on the street heard someone on their roof then
the neighbor's dog started barking they immediately rang the Sheriff's Department just after they hung up their
neighbor rang them to say someone was walking around on their roof they were pleased to hear that a squad car was on
its way the police arrived in five minutes but the roof crowler was gone within any hour of the police leaving
someone tried to pry open the neighbor's door but they were unsuccessful the police weren't called back another woman
nearby heard noises in her garage she was too scared to go check it out and again police weren't caught at 6:30 a.m.
later that morning the Prowler was still around a woman saw a strange man fitting
the east area rapist description in the same street she was well aware of the east area rapist and she immediately
called the police by the time they arrived he was gone that evening around a 6:30 p.m. a woman saw an older black
car with a sole male driver parked suspiciously it appeared that the man inside was wearing an old brown uniform
of some description she thought the car looked like an old cop car and assumed there may have been
a stakeout going on but it wasn't a cop car there was no stakeout happening a young couple from out of town had just
bought a house on Merlyn Doyle Drive Citrus Heights she was a waitress and he was a restaurant manager from the day
they moved in the woman had been receiving hang-up calls and only recently they saw a strange men in their
backyard at 3:15 a.m. May 14th the couple woke to a dark figure in their bedroom doorway his head covered in a
nylon stocking the first time he was seen in this type of mask he's shown a flashlight into their eyes you make a
sound and I'll kill you I have a 45 and I'll kill you if you move I'm going to take your money and I want some food
then I'll leave in my van he forced them onto their stomachs and did exactly what he had done during
previous attacks he did however say slightly different things I'm going to take you in the van with me how would
you like to be in the river he also specifically mentioned food only in the last few attacks did he actually
mention food as opposed to just going to the fridge and getting it other than that everything happened as per previous
attacks that appears he may have been telling the truth about having a van at 5:20 a.m. which is right about the time
he fled the house a local paperboy saw a van sped away from the area there was blue and the
paintwork looked like it had been sanded back when police were at the scene speaking with the survivor a woman who
lived nearby approached them she was the person who sold the house to the survivor and her partner and had only
been week since she herself had lived there she told police that she was receiving hang-up calls for weeks before
she moved out and when she moved out of the house into a new place around the corner the calls continued despite the
fact she had a new number while she was selling the house she had an open for local real estate agents to come through
on one particular day a young man who she now realized to fit the description of the East Area rapist walked in
without an appointment which for an agent is a strange thing to do he introduced himself as Frank
William dubbins jr. for an estate agent his car was unusually old and beat up when he told her the real estate company
who worked for she felt it was odd because agents from that firm had already been to the house twice when he
walked around he didn't look at the usual things she expected he looked at the windows and the questions he asked
were more about her husband and daughter than about the house he frightened her but she didn't report it until after
this latest attack attack number 21 occurred just three days later his target was an
italian-american family who lived in the del Deo neighborhood of Carmichael close
by to attack number two and attack number seven the husband's father was visiting from Italy at the time a couple
of weeks earlier the couple found two BB pellets had been shot through one of their windows they thought it was odd
but put it down to kids then they found a part of their garage door had been pried at the top making it almost
impossible to open the strange thing about the place of the prying was that if you were familiar with that make of
garage door then you would know there is a place at the top where you could slip
in a tool and get the door to open it seemed to them that the person knew this but was unsuccessful they reported it to
the sheriff's department that heard nothing more about it in the days leading up to the attack the woman saw a
man outside her kitchen window he was on her neighbor's lawn carrying something he then disappeared down the side of the
neighbor's house others also saw a man wandering around the neighborhood looking at the front of people's houses
in that same week in the lead up a man was seen shining a flashlight near the victim's home a Breann Dodge Charger was
seen parked nearby no one recognized the car but no one called the police or approached the victims to check if what
they saw was unusual at 1:30 a.m. a hand to gently pried the lock on the patio door to the victims bedroom the east
area rapist silently crept in elsewhere in the house two children were asleep as
was there visiting grandfather the husband woke and noticed the figure this family knew all about the east area
rapist in this husband knew instantly what was happening he pretended to be asleep wake up
wake up wake up look at me look at me do you hear me the woman woke as he's shown his
flashlight into her eyes in the other hand he had a gun he was wearing a beige ski mask and debris on leather gloves
with slits at the sides his shoes seemed very heavy and they squeaked as he walked the woman pulled the sheet up
over her head and started yelling to her husband the husband went to get up by the east area rapist shone the
flashlight in his eyes sit down the east area rapist forced them onto their stomachs and they were tied up the same
as previous attacks he forced the woman to tie her husband up first then he retied him before tying up the woman the
husband went to say something shut up if you say one more thing oh she's dead she's dead
the east area rapist reopened at the patio door and it sounded like he was rummaging through a toolbox he walked
back in the bedroom holding what appeared to be a money box he rested it on the husband's back he was taking deep
breaths he told them he was going to fix himself some food if I hear anything I'll kill everyone in the house and I'll
leave into the night he left the bedroom for about 30 minutes when he returned he
demanded money the woman said her purse was in the kitchen he forced her up and took her
with him she showed him the purse and he shoved her towards the land room she noticed he had taken a rug and draped it
over a lamp creating dull soft lighting he forced her onto her stomach and retied her wrists and ankles so tightly
she felt them going numb the east area rapist appeared more angry during this attack calling her by name and
threatening to kill her over and over as he prepared to rape her when he stopped
he returned to the kitchen to eat he then told her he was going to get some food and beer and going to the backyard
to eat for an hour he stacked plates on her back he leaned in and whispered that
if the plates rattled he would come back and kill for the first time when he returned he said the following he seemed
excited and studied his words a little bit those [ __ ] those [ __ ] those pigs I've never killed before but I'm
going to now listen dear me I want you to tell those [ __ ] those pigs I'm going to go home to my apartment I'll
have bunches of televisions I'm going to listen to the radio and watch television
if I hear about this I'm going to go out tomorrow night and kill two people people are going to die
he then walked directly to the husband went down and whispered angrily you'd tell those [ __ ] pigs that I could
have killed two people tonight if I don't see that all over the papers and television
I'll kill two people tomorrow night then there was silence when the woman heard her husband called out for his father in
Italian she knew the ordeal was over the dog was able to track the east area rapist sent through the survivors
property to the side gate then along the road to a small closed off Street two blocks away detectives had no doubt he
had a car parked there they found the house in the same condition that they had grown accustomed to it had been
ransacked there were empty beer cans left behind and partially eaten packets of crackers in the backyard
the first thing Shelby saw when he arrived was the for sale sign in the yard of a nearby house there was also a
school across the road they'll do elementary school Shelby had been there the year before for the parents meeting
on crime prevention the one where residents first started asking questions about a possible serial rapist when
Shelby walked inside he was introduced to the survivors husband he realized immediately who he was he was the man
who stood up at that town-hall meeting seven months prior a dildo elementary school the one who paced up and down
yelling that no man would stand by and let his wife be raped he for one certainly wouldn't
was the east area rapist at that meeting the next day police debated whether or not to hold a press conference it was
clear they were no longer able to keep quiet and give brief details about the rapist he had now attacked 21 times but
they didn't know what to do the survivor stated that the east area rapist told her if he heard about the attack on
radio or television he would kill two people the next night but her husband was adamant the east area rapist said
the opposite he would kill two people if he didn't see it all over the papers in
television they had conflicting versions and they weren't sure what to do to be continued next week
[Music] you

Case 53: The East Area Rapist 1977 (Part 2)

[Part 2 of 6]

On June 18th, 1976, the Sacramento Sherriff’s Department responded to a break-in, and rape of a young woman. By the end of the year, there were ten attacks in total, all attributed to the one serial offender, who the media dubbed, “The East Area Rapist”…

Download the map of the attacks here (https://casefilepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Case-53-The-East-Area-Rapist-1977-map-part-2.jpg)

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anna Priestland Production, scoring – Mike Migas Additional scoring – Andrew Joslyn

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://www.casefilepodcast.com/case-53-east-area-rapist-1977-part-2

Brief Summary

The episode details the East Area Rapist's attacks, community panic, and law enforcement's struggle to capture him.

Key points

The East Area Rapist Emerges. In 1976, a series of assaults in Sacramento led to the emergence of a notorious serial rapist.
The Brazen Attacks. The East Area Rapist displayed meticulous planning and military precision in his assaults.
Community Panic. As rumors spread, the community took drastic measures for safety against the East Area Rapist.
Women Unite for Safety. Women in the community organized meetings and patrols to protect themselves from the rapist.
The Task Force Forms. Law enforcement agencies collaborated to catch the East Area Rapist as attacks escalated.
Witnessing the Masked Man. A woman reports seeing a masked figure crawling towards a house, raising alarms.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He had rarely inflicted non-sexual physical injury.

Discussing the rapist's method of control during attacks.

9:57WatchNov 19, 2018

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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