The Mammoth Book of Killers at Large (35 page)

As the East Area Rapist he committed 50 rapes in northern California between 1976 and 1986 and killed at least ten – Orange County Sheriff’s Office says 12 – in southern California. We know the grand total because an enterprising Orange County criminologist matched DNA samples from the crimes in northern and southern California in 2001.

The Stalker began by raping women that were at home alone, then gradually moved on to couples, targeting “low-risk” victims – lawyers, medical professionals, computer programmers – people without a great deal of physical strength who were unlikely to fight back. He stalked upper-middle-class neighbourhoods looking for victims who lived in single-storey homes. He broke in late at night, then pulled a handgun. Always well-prepared, he brought pre-cut lengths of rope and cord with him to bind his victims. When attacking a couple, he would sometimes force the man to lie on the floor with perfume bottles or plates stacked on top of him while he raped the female, threatening to kill them both if the man moved enough to tip the bottles onto the floor or rattle the dishes.

The first 15 victims in late 1976 and early 1977 were women at home alone – though one attack was in the parking lot. Victims included a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old youth in East Sacramento who was shot in the stomach when he confronted and chased the prowler. The perpetrator escaped even though a police cordon was thrown around the neighbourhood. In one case, he seems to have waited until a woman’s husband left the house before he attacked.

At the beginning of November 1976, a reward of $2,500 was offered for information leading to his arrest. That was later increased to $25,000, with a local dentist adding $10,000 to the $15,000 offered by the
Sacramento Bee
’s Secret Witness programme.

The
Bee
said that the perpetrator entered houses though a window like a “cat-burglar” and gave a description. He was white with a pale complexion, between 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall, 25 to 35 years old, with a medium build and dark hair that hangs over his ears and collar.

Later descriptions make him younger – between 18 and 25 –of a slighter build. Though muscular, it was thought he weighed 140 to 180 pounds and was extremely agile.

“He has worn a mask, but descriptions are vague as to what kind,” the newspaper said. He also wore gloves, so left no fingerprints. “He has worn military type boots and black tennis shoes. His weapons have included a revolver, knife, a stick and a club. He has cut and beaten his victims, but none severely.”

The
Bee
added chillingly: “He frequently commits repeated attacks on individual victims over a period of three hours.”

This was a serial killer waiting to happen.

The suspect attacked a single-storey, single family dwelling in a middle- or upper-middle-class neighbourhood. Nearby there was usually a drainage ditch, vacant field, new construction, park area or one of the levees of the American River that runs through Sacramento, so he could approach and make his exit with little chance of being spotted. He entered a residence in the night time through an unlocked sliding glass door or window, though he pried open doors and windows if necessary. Once inside he threatened the victim with a knife, gun or club. He tied her with the ligatures – often shoelaces – he brought with him. Then he used strips of towelling and electrical cord found in the house to further bind, gag and blindfold his victims. He usually cut the telephone cord and covered a lamp to dim the lighting.

He spent between one and three hours in the house, sexually assaulting the victim several times. In between the assaults, he would wander about the house, eating and drinking. Sometimes he would even go out. Beverage containers were found outside where the suspect apparently stood, watching for anyone approaching the house. He would also look through photograph albums and lingerie drawers, stealing small items of costume jewellery, class rings, an earring and items of little value.

Because of the way he moved in and out of the house, the victim rarely knew when her attacker had left the premises. It would usually take her between 30 minutes and an hour before she was able to free herself. Sometimes she would be unable to do so and had to await assistance.

After April he began attacking couples, though he varied his pattern slightly when teenagers were involved. In one case, he raped two sisters who were at home alone together. He also molested a 13-year-old girl while her mother was tied up, and raped a 15-year-old babysitter in front of her eight-year-old ward.

On 7 May 1977, while attacking a couple in Carmichael, the rapist said that he would kill his next two victims. This was what the police had long feared. But he stayed his hand when he attacked a couple on the South Area of Sacramento, near the office of the dentist who had put up the $10,000 reward. Gun and lock sales soared.

It became plain to the police that the attacker had detailed knowledge of his victims. He knew that the father of one victim was out of town for the weekend and that another’s father was on vacation. The rapist knew families’ habits and work hours. He caught one victim when her sister was visiting friends and her parents were at a Christmas Party; another when her parents were out; another when her parents were away for the weekend.

He knew the schedule of spouses, catching one woman when her husband had relocated to the Bay Area where she was to follow; another when her husband was on a business trip; another when her husband had just left for work; and a fourth when her husband had started on the night shift just two days before the attack. And he attacked one woman who was separated from her husband when her son was visiting his father.

He knew the purse of one victim was in her car. In another attack he knew where the garage door opener was. In another case where the outside lights were on a timer, he knew how to turn them off.

During one attack, the assailant said that he had seen the victim at Mather Officer’s Club and knew her husband was a captain in the Air Force. However, his intelligence was not always 100 per cent accurate. In one case, he mentioned that his victim attended American River College. She did not, but a neighbour, who strongly resembled the victim, had attended American River College. It was thought that the offender had been in the other woman’s home as well.

It was clear how he got this information. Old footprints from herringbone-pattern tennis shoes were discovered under the bathroom window in numerous cases where he could have overheard conversations. He also returned to the same area repeatedly, making maximum use of the intelligence he had gathered.

The police almost caught the attacker on 12 December 1977, when officers spotted a man wearing a ski mask on a stolen bicycle on the Watt Avenue bridge in the East Area of Sacramento. He was seen again two hours later by city patrolmen near an apartment complex on La Riviera Drive near Watt, a place where he had struck three times before.

As his career as a serial rapist lengthened, he got more violent, cruel, abusive and threatening. He made nine more increasingly savage attacks before he finally lived up to his word and became a killer on 2 February 1978, when he shot dead Brian K. Maggiore, a sergeant at Rancho Cordova Air Force Base, and his wife of 18 months Katie. They confronted a prowler when walking their dog down a quiet residential street. Katie was shot in the head. Brian was pursued into the backyard of a home on La Alegria Drive where he was shot fatally in the chest. The suspect was spotted by residents as he fled the scene. He was described as white, in his mid twenties, 6 feet to 6 feet 2 inches tall with dark hair and wearing a brown leather coat with a large stain on the back and dark pants and shoes. He may have been with an accomplice. A pair of shoelaces were found at the crime scene. Two weeks later composite drawings of the suspects were published in the
Sacramento Bee
. After that, the East Area Rapist never struck in the Sacramento area again.

He moved on to Stockton, Modesto, Danville, Fremont, Concord, San Ramon, Davis and Walnut Creek, and attacked couples and, occasionally, women on their own. A student at UC Davis was attacked in her apartment with extreme physical violence on 7 June 1978. A month later another woman was attacked in Davis and raped in front of her two sons. And on 25 June 1979, a 13-year-old girl was attacked while her parents were at home asleep.

On 1 October 1979, a man in a ski mask entered the home of a couple in Goleta, Santa Barbara County. They were awakened, a flashlight shining in their eyes. The woman was ordered to tie up her boyfriend with pre-cut lengths of cord that the attacker had brought with him. While the masked intruder ransacked the house supposedly looking for money, the woman managed to get out of the house and scream for help. The intruder pulled her back inside. While he was doing this, the man escaped into the backyard. While the intruder pursued the man, the woman escaped again, running into the arms of a neighbour who had been alerted by her screams. Having lost control of the situation, the intruder fled. He was seen escaping on a bicycle and he disappeared down a creek bed.

After this couple escaped, the attacker turned to killing in earnest. Two months later, on 30 December 1979, another couple was attacked a few blocks away. Dr Robert Offerman and Alexandria Manning were found shot to death. Both of them were tied up and Manning had been raped. Examination of the crime scene led detectives to believe that Offerman had managed to loosen his bindings and lunge at the intruder before he was shot and killed. Neighbours who heard the gunshots thought that they were firecrackers.

On 13 March 1980, the Stalker moved just 35 miles down the coast to Ventura, where he killed Lyman and Charlene Smith. Charlene was raped and both were bludgeoned to death with a log from their fireplace. The Smiths were found still bound in their bedroom by their 12-year-old son. Their wrists and ankles had been tied with drapery cord and an ornate “Chinese knot” was used on their wrists. Though there were similarities to the attacks in Goleta, the Smiths’ murder was not immediately linked to the others. Ventura Detectives suspected Joe Alsip, a former business partner of Lyman Smith, who was later exonerated.

Keith and Patrice Harrington were the next to die, also bludgeoned to death in their home in Dana Point on 19 August, as the killer moved south of Los Angeles for the first time. This time the murderer untied his victims before leaving, but left some cord lying on the bed. He took the murder weapon with him when he left. A single burnt match was found in the home by investigators. Patrice had been brutally raped before her death. Law enforcement agencies theorized that the male victims were bludgeoned to death first. Then the terrified female victims were raped before they too were killed by bludgeoning.

Next the killer attacked 28-year-old Manuela Witthuhn on 5 January 1981, while her husband was in the hospital ill. Her killer entered her home in Irvine, Orange County. He raped her and beat her to death, then disappeared, taking with him the bindings along with the murder weapon and, curiously, Witthuhn’s answering machine, a lamp and a crystal curio. As in the Smith’s case, burnt matches were found in Witthuhn’s home.

Cheri Domingo and Gregory Sanchez were killed on 27 July 1981 back in Goleta, just half-a-mile from the scene of the Offerman-Manning murders. Sanchez had been shot once in the face and then bludgeoned to death. Cheri Domingo was bludgeoned. Again, the killer took the ligatures he had used to bind his victims and the murder weapon with him. The attacker’s familiarity with the area lead police to believe he lived near the San Jose Creek.

Then for five years, the killer lay low. He struck one last time on 4 May 1986, killing Janelle Lisa Cruz only a mile from Witthuhn’s home in Irvine. Her family was away on vacation in Mexico at the time. Cruz was raped and beaten to death like the previous victims. The murder weapon was thought to be a pipe wrench that was found to be missing from her home. Cruz was slain soon after a male friend left her house. The man told police he had heard strange noises outside Janelle’s bedroom window before he had left, but she said they came from the washing machine.

Then the killer vanished completely, though it is thought that he made a telephone call to one of his victims in 1990 or 1991.

It was actually not until 2001 that his murders as the Original Night Stalker in the later part of his career and his rapes as the East Area Rapist earlier were definitively linked by DNA evidence. It is also thought that this prodigious criminal committed many other crimes, including two other home-invasion attacks where couples were killed in Goleta, California, from 1979 to 1981. In these crimes, a gun and bludgeoning were used and the victims were bound, but no sexual assault took place and there is no DNA evidence to link the Goleta crimes to the unsolved rapes and murders of the Original Night Stalker.

The killer has never been caught or identified, and is probably out here now. Younger victims put his age as middle to late twenties, while older ones said he was only 18 or 19. That means that in 2007, he would only be in his forties or fifties.

He had blue or hazel eyes. Type “A” blood was found after he cut himself with a knife – this victim’s blood was type “O”. He wears size nine shoes. Victims saw him wear brown lace-up boots, black high top military boots, ankle-high brown lace-up shoes, brown leather desert boots, black square-toed boots, black tennis shoes and red, white and blue tennis shoes. Impressions left by the prowler outside victims’ home and footmarks left within show a herring-bone pattern.

The hair protruding from his ski mask was described variously as dark, medium brown and dirty blonde. The pubic hair he left behind at the scene of his rapes was medium brown.

His height was narrowed down to between 5 feet 10 inches and 5 feet 11. His build was athletic, not heavily muscled like a weightlifter, more like a runner or swimmer.

His voice was higher in pitch than the average male, though he made it husky or gruff when he talked to younger victims. He often talked through clenched teeth, possibly trying to disguise his voice. He had no hint of an accent. He favoured dark clothing, particularly army green, and was seen wearing fatigue pants with baggy pockets.