Criminology - EAR's Youngest Victim Speaks Out

Episode Date: March 31, 2018

The EAR is still on the loose and terrorizing Sacramento County. But he will move out of his home area and strike fear in Stockton, California. In this episode, we talk to a number of people associated with the case. We speak with Detective Sgt. Ken Clark of the Sacramento County Sheriff's dept as well as Contra County investigator Paul Holes who is currently working on the EAR case. But in a very special interview, we get to hear from Margaret Wardlow who was the 27th and youngest victim of the East Area Rapist. Margaret tells us about the attack she suffered at the hands of EAR when she was only 13 years old. Her strength, resolve, and fight are amazing. You can help support the show by going to patreon.com/criminology    An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, it's Wayfair here, where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock, scrolling Wayfair's app, when you spot it, a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Oh, you need a new grill too? All right, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. is found brutally murdered. There's only one suspect, her handsome young lover. An open and shut case, right? Not so fast. The Shaw Festival presents Agatha Christie's

Witness for the Prosecution, a courtroom drama full of plot twists only Agatha Christie could weave. Don't miss, witness for the prosecution. For best seats at best prices, go to Shawfest.com. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. I'd like to welcome everyone to episode six, season two of criminology. So, Morf, can you believe it? We are at the halfway point. Yeah, we've come a long ways.

There's a lot of material that we've covered, but there's even more coming in the second half of the season. And I'm really stoked about that. I think that's what's so amazing. you know, these first six episodes, if you think about, you know, how much detail is in there, we have a whole other half just like that to go. All right, Moore, if we have some Patreon shoutouts, so let's go ahead and do those. We had Gemma Hind, Kate Burke, Penny Wilson, Tessa Alderton, Dan Modley, Kim Voo, Tim Harding, Deandra Lay, Aaron and L.

Oh, that's really awesome. We appreciate all of you reaching out and giving us the support that you have. Much appreciated. Yeah, that kind of support is amazing. We really appreciate it. It helps us to defray some of the costs of the podcast. So Morph and I are very thankful for that. And we've had a lot of people tell us that they're going to CrimeCon and that they want to stop by and say hi to us on podcast.

Castro. I can't wait more. If you know, Ghibie's going to be there, it's going to be the three of us. And true crime all the time listeners, criminology listeners, I mean, I hope everybody stops by. I can't wait. Yeah, I'm hoping it's like a little party there. It will be. That's for sure. But don't forget, if you haven't signed up, but you're planning on it, make sure you use our promo code at crimecon.com.

criminology, that's going to save you 10% off your standard badge. And one more order of business. We just wanted to talk real quick about our book that's based on season one of criminology on the Zodiac case. It's called Criminology True Crime Podcast Presents the case of the Zodiac Killer. And you can pre-order the Kindle version by visiting Amazon, or you can go to our publishing partner in the venture, Wild Blue Press. go to wild bluepress.com forward slash zodiac pre-orders.

And Wild Blue Press has some really good true crime books. And as a special offer to listeners of criminology, Wild Blue Press is offering a free audiobook download. All you have to do is go to wildblupress.com forward slash audio dash books. All right, Morph, now that we have all of that out of the way, let's get into the case. We've got a lot to cover. And like we mentioned up front,

this is the halfway point. So just a quick recap on episode five. We covered the case of a man that chased a prowler who was most likely the East Area rapist. And we also talked about the man who stood up at a town hall meeting was very vocal about the East Area rapist. And then later on, he and his wife became victims of the East Area Rapest. And then towards the end of the episode, we got into the case of the Visalia Ransacker.

And the possibility that the ransacker and the East Area Rapist may or may not be the same offender. In this episode, we picked back up after the attack on Sandbar Circle and Carmichael on May 17, 1977. The East Area Rapist was on a toward pace at this point and had attacked several times in the month of May. The frequent attacks had all of Sacramento County on edge, and the result was a flood of letters to the editor of the Sacramento B voicing their concerns. For the first time in my life, we have a loaded gun in our bedroom. The East Area rapists has all of us so fearful that we're all becoming dangerous. The police alone cannot handle the situation,

but private citizens should look to them for leadership. The police should organize neighborhood alert units. These units should consist of unarmed people who would patrol. the neighborhood or in some other way would be more alert than usual. These people must be trained and guided by the police, or we will kill some innocent people and not capture the rapists. Perhaps some good can come out of this. These same patrols guided by the authorities could be retained after the crisis to increase the safety of our homes.

Recently, as I sat reading my evening paper, I could not believe what I read. On the front page, I read of the 23rd rape victim. On another page, I read of parents picketing the police department because of the recent rape and murder of a 15-year-old child. These parents are afraid for their own children. They want more protection. I then looked over to another column, and I saw where Sacramento Vice Mayor, Robert Matsui, quote, suggested extra funds may be needed to beef up the police vice squad to combat street corner prostitution. On a one-year basis, I'd be willing to allocate extra funds.

I can certainly see that there are such pressing matters on the vice mayor's mind. As a parent and a woman afraid in my own home, I can see where extra funds should go to protect our citizens from rapers and murderers rather than a street corner prostitute. Don't you think our priorities are in the wrong place? A concerned citizen, Carmichael. The two letters that you just heard read aloud were printed in the May 26th, 1916. 77 Sacramento B. And we have to give huge thanks to our

true crime podcast friends. So the first was read by Gibby from True Crime all the time, my partner. And then the second letter was by Lainey from True Crime Fan Club. And if you haven't

checked out that podcast, you need to do it. Lainey is a very good friend and she puts out an amazing podcast. So big shout out to both of them for helping us read some of these articles. I think you can tell by what those people wrote into the paper just how worried they were. And the very next day on May 27th, an article ran in the Sacramento B detailing how fed up Sacramento residents were with the East Area rapists not being caught. They were. They were

so fed up at this point that they had their own citizens patrol working with police looking for this guy. More than 100 Sacramento residents armed with citizen band radios. Officially began their nocturnal patrols of East Area Streets Thursday. Members of the East Area Rapist Surveillance Patrol. Riding in vehicles plastered with identifying Ears Patrol stickers, set out in search of the man who has raped 23 women and is threatened to kill his next two victims. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department reports that it does not endorse the volunteer group, but is working in cooperation with it, said Captain Larry Stam of the

Detective Division, quote, we would rather do it as a control group than if people going out in mass, we've worked with them throughout the past week, unquote. The Sheriff's Office earlier this week said it was limiting ears activity to main business thoroughfares, but after deciding upon a list of stringent ground rules, is allowed to patrol into residential areas. The volunteers must ride in pairs, may not carry firearms or ammunition, and may not leave their vehicles during patrol. If the CBers see something suspicious, they are to report the location via code numbers to a base unit, which will contact the sheriff. The area is patrolled, as well as the CB channels, will be rotated nightly. One of the ears coordinators, Dr. James Gilmartin, a Sacramento dentist, said,

quote, the more eyes that are out there, the more we have in our favor, unquote. He and Chairman Ed Nannini report the organization is expected to grow much larger after all the applications have been screened. There was an atmosphere of anticipation and adventure at the Arden Fair Shopping Center Thursday when volunteers were given last-minute instructions and set off clutching maps. CB or Greg Luckett, 18, said he's prepared to patrol, quote, however long it takes to either capture the suspect or scare him off, unquote. One volunteer in East Area resident while waiting for her husband to pick up the map said, quote, I've been scared to death. I want him to get caught. I've lost enough sleep over him, and a few more nights won't do any harm, unquote. She said that

she didn't mind the late hour work. The CBiers will not only be on the lookout for the rapist, will also be on the lookout for any kind of crime, said Nannini. He reported that burglaries have dropped substantially in an advertisement by the group reported that during a previous unofficial patrol by the volunteers, a 70% reduction in burglaries was reported by the sheriff's office. At the end of the first four-hour shift, all was quiet and no incidents were reported. One set of volunteers slowly cruised the deserted streets in the Del Deo area, where the rapist made his latest attack.

The patrol was uneventful, as the pair drove past the well-lighted grounds. Most residents have installed extra floodlights and some have even removed tinted porch light covers, exposing bare bulbs for maximum illumination. Volunteers are given pre-selected one-mile square areas and may not wander into other neighborhoods. According to Gilmartin, some CBIRs are stationary units, staking out specific locations. It is their job to record the license numbers on passing vehicles. Gilmartin said that Ears will patrol the east area until the rapist is stopped. He said, quote, if he's apprehended or if he's scared off, we win either way. was a lot of attention given to the East Area rapist by this newspaper in just a two-day period,

especially considering that the East Area rapists had not struck in over a week before these articles ran, which was surprising considering how many attacks he had committed in May. But it seems as if these articles and the mention of a patrol out looking for him may have motivated him to make an appearance, and he would strike on the next day on May 28th. Perhaps the East Area Rapist took it as a challenge knowing a patrol was out looking for him. On the 7,000 block of 4th Parkway in Sacramento, a 28-year-old woman was home doing some chores on the night of May 27th when she noticed that her garage door was partially open.

The married library clerk didn't think a whole lot about it, and she shut the door before going back to do her housework. She put her young son to bed before going to bed herself around 1130, And then it was just after midnight on May 28th, her husband arrived home after work. The 31-year-old man had just finished his shift working at the county water treatment plan. Once the man arrived home, he sat down and watched a movie until about 2 a.m. And then got into bed, at which point his wife awoke. And the two began to become intimate with each other.

While they were in the process of becoming intimate, the man heard a noise behind him coming in from their sliding glass door. As he turned around to see what he heard, he was shocked to see a man in a red ski mask walking through the door towards him. In a second, the man was almost on top of them and shining a flashlight in their eyes. Despite the light in their eyes, they could see him holding a hang gun that looked to be a 45 caliber in his right hand. The first words out of the masked intruder's mouth, let the couple know that he meant business. He said, lay perfectly still or I will kill all of you. I will kill you. I will kill you. her, I will kill your little boy. And more, if you have to imagine being in their position, they are taken totally by surprise and immediately threatened with being killed. And it's not just

themselves that they have to worry about. They have to worry about their son. So it's perfectly understandable why this couple didn't try and fight back. In fact, it's the same reason why many of the East Area rapists victims didn't because they were surprised and they were at a severe disadvantage. The masked intruder told a terrified couple that he just wanted food and money and then he would be gone. It was then they instructed the woman to bind her husband as he threw her some shoelaces. The attacker told the man that he needed to lay face down and if he moved, his wife and son would be dead. The couple complied and the woman started to tie her husband's hands behind her. his back. The woman planned to tie her husband loosely, hoping that he might be able to escape.

But the man watched her closely, and he kept demanding that she tie her husband even tighter. Once the male victim was secured, the assailant forced the woman down and tied her hands behind her back. The man again warned them to lay face down and not to move or they would be dead. He rifled through their drawers and their closets, and then he walked over to the male victim, placed the gun to his head, and again warned him not to move. He then tied the man's hands very tightly and also tied his ankles. The masked man left the room and went to the bathroom. The couple could hear the unmistakable sound of him pumping a bottle of lotion. He returned to their bedroom and placed some glass items on the male victim's back and warned him that if you heard those items,

make a sound, everybody in the house would be dead. At that point, he tied the female victim's ankles as well, and then left the room and went to the couple's kitchen. A few minutes later, he returned with even more items that he stacked on the man's back. This time, he held a knife to the bound man's throat, once again warning him not to move. The masked man reiterated that he only wanted food and money and that he would soon be gone. Suddenly, the intruder untied the female's ankle bindings and removed her for the bed. He forced her to walk to the living room where the woman could see strips of torn towel

spread on the living room floor. The assailant forced the woman to the floor and then used one of the strips of towel to blindfold her. The man walked back into the bedroom to make sure that the male victim was secure and then shut the bedroom door and walked back into the living room. At that point, he sexually assaulted the woman. As the rapist sexually attacked the woman, he would whispered in your ear that I have something for you to tell the fucking pigs. The cops got it wrong last time. And then he said he would kill two people if news of this attack was on TV or in the papers the next day.

He made the woman repeat back to him what he had told her and she did. He warned her that he had TVs in his apartment and he would be watching them. Then he said something really odd, which was, it scares mommy when it's on the news. The woman thought the attacker was sobbing when he told her that. a few minutes, the house fell silent. The male victim thought he heard the sliding glass door open, but he didn't hear anything after that. So he thought the intruder was gone. He decided to try and free himself, knocking the dishes off his back, which made noise. But the intruder was in fact gone, and the man was able to free himself and then his wife. They called police, and again morph, like in a lot of

these cases, luckily the couple's son was unharmed and had not been disturbed. Police arrived at the home before 5 a.m. and immediately took inventory of the crime scene. And from the outset, they figured this was likely an East Area rapist attack. The couple told the police that their attacker was a 5 foot 9 to 5 foot 10, slender to a medium-sized man who weighed about 160 to 170 pounds. The female victim added that the rapist had a very small penis. They also told investigators that the man talked in what sounded like a low whisper that was raspy and that he may have had a slight stutter. They relayed all the conversation, which included the talk about delivering a message to the police, and they added that the man

also mentioned he would be eating the food in his van. It's unclear from the police report, what, if anything, the attacker took from the home. The female victim was, taken to the hospital for treatment, and then outside of the house, police found food from the home on the patio. They found a wine bottle. Tracking dogs were brought into the property, and just after 5 a.m., the canine units began to work the scene. The dogs followed the rapist's sent to the back fence and then picked up the scent on the other side of the fence, leading down towards the freeway and to another fence along the freeway that led to a cemented drainage area or canal.

Now remember this area because it's going to come up again. Around this area, tire tracks from a small car were found, but it's unknown if the tracks belong to the assailant. Police pieced together the events that led up to the attack. The couple had only moved into the home three weeks prior to the attack and the home still had a realtor sign on the lawn. Police were interested to learn that the treatment plant where the mail worked at was located very close to Sandbar Circle and Carmichael, the scene of the previous East Area Rapist attack. After questioning neighbors, it came to light that preceding this

attack, there was a lot of strange activity on this block. Several residents had received odd and hang-up calls in the days and weeks preceding the attack. There were reports of several people going door to door, everything from vacuum salesmen to men selling children's books to Mormon missionaries. A man representing a fictitious organization called Library Educational System was handing out survey forms. Several suspicious cars were seen and at least one prowler was reported. A few days before the attack, a man described as being 25 years old, 5 foot 9, and 100. 60 pounds with dark hair was carrying a camera case and asking neighborhood children if he could take their photos.

As we've seen in other East Area rapist attacks, this kind of activity was common leading up to an attack. And you have to wonder if one or more of these people seen in the area was the East area rapist surveying the neighborhood? And if he wasn't surveying the neighborhood, was he trying to slip in to some of these areas filled with activity to blend in. One very interesting event happened early in the month of May. While on patrol, police noticed a man in a small square-shaped car, possibly a Dotson or Chevy, watching a woman playing football at a park about a mile from the location of the attack.

As they passed the car, they noticed that the man was a blonde male in his 20s and then a short while later the same patrol car drove by and spotted the man in the same place still there watching the woman and this time they took note of the license plate and then drove past the car up the road away but they decided to turn around they wanted to check this guy out but when they got back to the spot where he'd been parked he and his car were gone they called in the plate number and discovered that it had never been issued. This most recent attack had been the 22nd confirmed attack by the East Area Rapist and his fifth attack in the month of May alone.

It seemed as if there would be no slowing down for the East Area Rapist. But then, without any warning, that's exactly what happened. Days went by, then weeks. There was not an attack in Sacramento County attributed to the East Area Rapist. Incidents of prowling seemed to almost be non-existent. May turned into June, and then, then July and August. The entire summer in Sacramento seemed to be East Area Rapists free.

Theories abounded as to where the East Area Rapist was and why he wasn't attacking. The fear in the community was still there, but for police, it gave them a chance to catch her breath. It wouldn't be until February 2018, over 40 years later, that police would announce that they were investigating a lead that might be tied to this sudden stop in East Area Rapist activity. Detective Sergeant Ken Clark of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Sheriff's, Department broke down this possible lead in great detail for us in this interview segment. One of the other leads that we featured on our media release for the 40th anniversary of the Brian and Katie Maguire murder was a lead we come across in files that we recently

discovered that dealt with a visit to American River Hospital. And it's an odd set of circumstances, and that's what struck us as being something that we might need to look into further, and why we chose it to put out into the public was the only way we could possibly get information was to release it into the public. We had previously investigated everything we could about the lead and hit dead ends along the way, and so really we, as a long-shot effort, we're hoping that somebody might remember the incident enough to give us something tangible. So in this particular case, as part of our work here, we obviously went several times, but when we read these reports, we went to all of the crime scenes and looked at different features and factors that you would as a detective. And sometimes we came up with thoughts that were not always represented in the case files.

And in this case, we had looked at the crime scene that occurred on Fourth Parkway. in South Sacramento. And that particular crime scene bordered Highway 99. And it was believed by investigators at the time that the suspect had parked on the shoulder or near the cloverleaf of Highway 99. And then jumped over the fencing that separated the freeway from this neighborhood and had emerged to commit the crime and then left via the same route. And when my partner and I, over the years have been out there. And I went out recently. And one of the things I noticed was that, again, there's a lot of conjecture involved here

because there was a dog track and some other things. And so, you know, I would give the caveat that, you know, this isn't a perfect science, so to speak. There's some supposition that goes into this type of analysis. And, you know, we can't know what did or didn't occur as we don't have an eyewitness to his escape from this scene. But one thing that we were struck by was given the best information we had about how this man

escaped, that he might have injured himself in the creek area. And it's like a drainage canal. So, at the time, right now there's a sound wall that prevents it. You wouldn't even be able to scale. It's many feet high, probably 10 to 12 feet high, that protects the freeway from, or protects the neighborhood from the freeway noise.

But at the time, it was just two chain-link fences, and both those fences were on either side of this drainage canal. And so it's kind of wide open, but there is a small grove of trees that has some advantages, if you're going to try to go over, because there is a locked gate that has some footing where you can get your footing and get over the fence, and it has a top bar on the chain link fence. The remainder of the fence is open, and it's got that kind of pointy, unfinished to look on top, and it would be a little bit more difficult to get over the fence in that section. It's also open to the view of the street or anybody.

But this grove of trees protected this little gate, and it appeared a good possible spot based on what we understood about the tracking that had been done for him to have tried to get over. But we were struck by the kind of sheer nature of this canal, which was different than some that he would run in. This was literally a V-shaped bottom. So you've got on each side about four and a half to five feet of canal below this six-foot fence. And we didn't really see a good way because there was no footing or no place to jump where when you landed, you would almost definitely fall because when you went into this V-shaped creek,

you can't, there's no way to gain footing. you would definitely kind of gain speed going down, and then you would end up, we would think, smashing on the other side. So from the other side of the fence, there is a bit of footing, and our thought was that maybe when he came over from the freeway direction,

you know, he probably didn't realize that it was going to be a more treacherous jump coming back across. And especially in the dark, we thought there was a possibility that it was a rather, dangerous jump. We made that observation. So now fast forward to when we get these reports. And I had found this report that showed that a guy had come to American River Hospital on May 30,

177, which was two days after the Fourth Parkway attack, and that during this time period, he entered the hospital and basically requested treatment for a broken shoulder. He told the medical staff that it had occurred on May the 28th, and he spoke to a clerk with the initials BK. And in fact, as of the release of this, I want to let you know that we actually have identified the clerk with the initials BK to a great deal of satisfaction that it is the person. And unfortunately, she has passed away. We had a couple potential candidates that were BKs, but this one is very much. is very clearly the name on the signature. We had a signature of this person, but it was rather illegible,

and then we had the definite initials of BK. But in looking at the signature coupled with the information we had about this individual, we determined that that was the case. And we got that information. There was actually some work done by Paul Haynes, who was a researcher for Michelle McNamara. And he's the one that basically approached us when he saw our press release and gave this information that he thought it was a woman who he had found that worked at the hospital, and then in looking at it, it all made sense.

So unfortunately, that's a dead end for us. But the remainder of the lead goes somewhat like this. The subject that's in the hospital arouses suspicion for an unknown reason from staff there. And he basically leaves the hospital without receiving treatment. He indicated to them, and is verified by the form, that he was an individual by a certain name, and he provided the name and a birthday of May the 12th, 1946, which made him a 31-year-old male at the time of this incident. He stated that it occurred, that he was employed by the Rice Growers Association, and that this occurred on a fall from scaffolding on May the 28th in the morning hours. the person whose name he used, and all of this turns out to be fictitious, the name that he used, that individual did work at the rice growers association. They went and visited him, and the result of that was that he had no injury to his shoulder and stated that he had had his wallet, including assorted identification cards and credit cards, either lost or stolen sometime around two years prior to this incident.

in that particular time period, he assumed, he thought it was stolen, but he figured it could be only lost because they'd never heard of any of the credit cards ever being used. But then all of a sudden, here we are a couple years later, and his card has popped up as an identification card being used by a man who, according to the report, fled when nurses started to look at him with suspicion. So that ended the lead for them at this point, because they didn't have too much to go on. And, you know, you've got to bear in mind there hadn't been a three-month, you know, a 13-week gap in crimes. This is two days after an offense. And after this particular offense, there are continued prowls and peeps going on throughout many of the areas that the East Area Rapists hit. So this was a lead that I think they viewed as, as, maybe not as valuable in that time period.

And again, their judgment may prove completely sound in that. We don't know. But they took it as far as they felt that they could. And the phone number that he provided was no good, and I verified that in the modern era. And the address he provided for an emergency notification was another individual that worked at the Rice Growers Association, and he's been spoken to and knew the gentleman whose ID was used. So the only thing we can consider is that perhaps the individual who had the ID had some information with this guy or he knew in some way that they were associated based on information in the wallet. And so he used that as an emergency contact to try to make this story better.

The social security number he used is bogus. So basically everything in this report that he did was wrong. And we also spoke to and found out that the Rice Growers Association didn't have any scaffolding. there during that time period. And that again confirmed the original investigator's thoughts regarding this particular lead. But knowing that there had been a 13-week gap and knowing that there was a possibility, albeit again, it is possibility only that there was an injury that could have occurred on that particular egress from the crime on the North Park, I'm sorry, the Fourth Parkway case. We felt that it was worth getting it even 40 years later.

into the media in the hopes that BK, the clerk, was identified and maybe had more information about this man, or we got some more specificity on what made him flee the hospital. And, of course, our big hope was that somebody within the hospital recognized him for a more concrete reason than just a resemblance to a composite or something like that, where he felt vulnerable enough based on their having seen him, that he wanted to leave. We do know one of the victims worked at that hospital, and she had actually been working that day,

but it was in the graveyard shift, and she had heard about many of these, or she had heard about this going on at that time, but at that point, you know, it didn't, there was nothing she felt she could or should do. So we have this guy showing up, and we just really don't know why. So the lead is largely played out now,

every angle we have been able to explore has kind of reached a dead end. And now that we have the clerk BK identified, it's going to obviously be much more difficult, but we're still hoping that somebody might remember this specific visit. And, you know, whether or not the East Derry Rapist had a shoulder injury in the late spring, excuse me, early summer of 1977 is, you know, a point of conjecture only. and we don't know for sure, but we still would like to get this individual, even 40 years later, identified and see, you know, be able to verify that they were not or in any way involved with the East Area Rapist Crimes. The identification card that he took, the gentleman was older than that by several years. So that raised a couple thoughts for us.

One is that the offender, or whoever was in the hospital, knew that it would be tough pass. off his real age, vis-a-vis the age of the gentleman whose ID was stolen, so he got closer to it to where it was still reasonable. In other words, if he's born in 1952, this guy is born in the 30s, he backed it up a bit so that it was plausible. The other thought is he may have actually been born in or near 1946, and that he would state the age which he appeared so that it wouldn't raise any suspicion, maybe knowing that they wouldn't have the identifying information on the age of the guy who was actually using the, or the guy whose ID card had actually belonged to. The other possibility is that some of this behavior is what raised the hackles of people at the hospital, and that

that could have caused his flight because he thought that the gig was up regarding the fraud. But it just seems like an odd set of circumstances kind of coming together at once. And again, very strange that somebody within the hospital would believe, for whatever reason, that this was the East Area Rapist among all of the many young men that come into the hospital. This was a time period of very heightened activity of the East Area Rapist. A lot of sketches were floating around back then and description to the suspect were out there. But it seems kind of a leap given the number of young white males in this age group and general description that would have come into the hospital that they seized on just a man walking in.

looking like the East Area Rapist and caused this much scrutiny to come onto this individual. So that's why it's of interest to us. For some reason, they thought he was EAR, and we want to find out why. Ken detailed for us how the dog had tracked the East Area Rapist into the area where they suspect he may have injured himself while fleeing. There was no eyewitness. This is coming from a dog track and where they believed the freeway place where he had parked. would be a logical place to go over. If he doesn't go over here, he's really going to spend a whole lot of time in the neighborhood

away from his car before he can get to his car. And the most logical place is where they supposed back then that he went over, and that was that particular location. A lot of people, after hearing about these new leads being looked into, have been under the impression that law enforcement has been sitting on these for years and just decided to release them now. Ken wanted to set the record straight about that. One of the big considerations with the case of this volume is, and it's 40 years old,

most of these detectives have long since retired, and memories fade over time. And so we've got this giant case that came to us in many boxes to begin with that we organized it for the first time in 2005, six time period. and when I first got these cases, they were in a closet, and they had been examined about four years prior with the DNA hit. And then, again, it was really that the leads kind of stopped coming, and they went back into storage. And when I took them out and looked at them, we organized them and looked at everything and did not know what we did or didn't have. We had what we thought were complete case files that contained a lot of the original, investigation and certainly the case files for each individual sexual assault case.

And we had all of the files for the Maggioree double murder case, which was kept here in homicide, so we were largely convinced we had a more complete copy because it was among all of the other files that we have here. But we had heard over the years whispers that reports that were related to our case were still outstanding, they were in other jurisdictions, in other allied investigative agencies, et cetera. And we did our best to try and locate as much of run that down as best we could. And we kind of put our feelings out, let them know that we believe that these additional documents may exist. And we really didn't get too much back after that. when we put together the working group that we have with the Southern California agencies,

everybody uploaded all of their reports so we could all view them. And we put everything that we had up at that time. And it wasn't but a few years, just about a year ago, maybe a little bit more, that we got word that some reports have been located in one of the allied agencies that works this case and that they looked like. like original reports, and they were in the old original style folders that I was so familiar with from having seen the original East Area Rapist files when I first took the case on. And these reports contained a lot of good information that had not yet been seen by us in the

modern era. They were leads that were worked, and many of them were closed completely back in the time period, but we did not have knowledge of some of the results of these investigations. of these leads that were worked related directly to leads that we had also worked in the modern era. And then these leads were more complete than the ones that we had worked because so much of the missing documentation we had didn't have some of this information in it. So we were pretty happy to get these. And when we went through, this is where I found the American River Hospital lead. And at that time, the investigators worked in as far as they could.

and they didn't necessarily believe that it was a prime lead, if you will. So how we choose what to release is going back through and looking for those things that the public truly can help on. I mean, we don't release every lead we get or as we're working on things and read reports and find something interesting. If it's something that we as investigators can flesh out and eliminate or include, we do so. But every once in a while you get a lead like this that you take a lot. it as far as you can, but it has some promise and some closed or loose end feel to it. And even though it's been 40 years, we've kind of made a decision as an investigative team that the only way that if it was even a one-tenth of one percent chance that that somebody

remembered something really specific and it led us down a road that identified this individual or led us to the individual who this tip was actually about and we can exclude them, that it's worth doing. There's a lot of interest on this case. I don't think people, when they read this type of thing, they seem genuinely interested. We get a lot of passionate people that approach the investigation. They call, they send us email tips, and we're very gratified by that. And when things like this are put out, you would be surprised the number of people

who really try to help us through a lead like this. And they give us information. And, again, that's how we ended up figuring out who the clerk was. sadly she had passed away. But that could have led somewhere. It could have led to a little more than we knew about this lead going in. And while this particular lead isn't necessarily panning out for us, we feel that releasing some of this stuff even 40 or 45 years later

in the case of the 1973 burglaries we've discussed has value. People aren't getting any younger. This case, as I've said before, is in the fourth quarter, and we're on the two-minute drill now. Is there an argument to be made that some of this stuff, should have or could have been released back in that era. I really don't know. I wasn't part of that initial investigation. I know that the detectives I've spoken with did the best that they could.

And they were dealing with a fresh and active rape series that was ongoing and in real time with a media demand that was voracious with a city on the edge. And there really wasn't a method for them to get out all of this stuff without flooding the public with a bunch of potentially not just useful. but misleading information. But here with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight, we can kind of go through and look at things that we know about somebody now and make some assessments as to whether we think it's valuable,

whether we think this lead has any ability to solve the case, and it's a judgment call. And I don't do it alone. I submit what I'm thinking to my partner. We submit it to other partners and people that we work with on this case and get their opinion on whether or not it's worth going forward and we got basically feedback that this was something that we should be getting out in the public, even on the slim chance, or with the slim chance that it was going to identify somebody.

We are very careful. We try to be very careful and not assert something that's not in evidence, meaning we have no proof that the East Area Rapists suffered any injury at all during any day of this series. And so I wouldn't want anybody to assume that there's a shoulder injury here. This is a supposition. It is a possibility. That's all it is.

But yes, if it includes, if somebody remembers an individual that had a shoulder injury and may have been, you know, some circumstances that appear to fit in another way beyond that injury and they want to approach with that information. We're certainly interested in that. But we don't exclude anybody that didn't have a shoulder injury in the summer of 77, if you understand what I mean. This is something that you, unfortunately, the way these investigations work in something this mammoth, You have to sometimes look at possibilities that you wouldn't normally entertain on cases that are just easier to work.

You know, this is one where there's, is it an explanation for the summer gap? Yeah, it could be an explanation for the summer gap, but there's many others as well. But this just tied in with the American River Hospital lead in such a way that we felt it was a possibility and it was worth getting out there. If you have information about the man who may have sought medical attention at American River Hospital, for a shoulder injury in late May of 1977, please contact the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department by emailing them at E-A-R-Info at s-c-sheriff.com. Even if you have any information about someone

that may fit the East Area Rapist profile, possibly exhibited signs of a shoulder injury in Sacramento County back to, the summer of 1977, I mean, think about, you know, somebody wearing a sling, somebody wearing a cast. It's that type of information that could break this thing wide open. During the East Area Rapids Tiatis in August of 1977, a mysterious letter writer mailed a letter to the Sacramento Police Department. On August 18th, the Sacramento B at the request of police ran an article about the letter in an effort to get more information. Sheriff's detective said Wednesday

they are interested in an anonymous letter they've received about the East Area rapist. They appealed to the person who wrote it to contact detectives directly. Information contained in the brief letter may prove to be groundless and worthless, said Sheriff's spokesman Bill Miller, but it could provide a break in the long,

mystifying search for the sexual terrorist, he said. Detectives who received the letter late Tuesday afternoon have to check back with some of the rapist 24 victims before they can evaluate the new tip, Miller said. He would not disclose the contents of the letter. Miller said, quote, At the moment, it is just an interesting statement.

Miller asked the letter writer to call detectives anonymously if necessary. The typewritten note was signed Afraid. It was written on plain stationary and contained only two paragraphs, one of which told detectives to relay a message if they wanted to hear more. The rapist, who attacked May 28th in the South area, terrorized a 70-mile section of the eastern portion of Sacramento County for several months, as he increased the frequency and viciousness of the rapes. The attack started October 21st,

1975, at first, the unknown rapist broke into the homes of women who were sleeping alone and attacked them in the middle of the night. But his last seven rapes, which were concentrated in April and May, occurred in the homes of married couples, where the rapist bound the husband and led the wives into other parts of the houses to attack them. It turned out that the author of the letter provided information which police felt was possibly legitimate, and they asked publicly for the writer to come forward. The letter writer claimed to know who the East Era rapist was and provided sketchy details, but the author did not give their name, and instead they signed off the letter with Afraid. It was not known whether or not the letter or its author were ever identified.

Some have theorized the letter was a red herring sent by the Easterer rapist himself. However, in researching this case, I talked to multiple investigators that verified that the letter writer had been identified, and they had written the letter because they legitimately suspected somebody of being the Easterer rapist. Investigators ruled out both the author and the person that is suspected as having anything to do with the East Area Rapist case. At the time, it seemed as if this letter might be a valuable clue. But like so many other things in this case, was really just another dead-end lead. The summer of 1977 had come and gone without an East Area Rapist attack.

But residents of Sacramento County were still vigilant. They hoped the East Area Rapists was gone, but they were very guarded. Meanwhile, in the town of Stockton, California, in San Joaquin County, this about 50 miles south of Sacramento, residents had just wrapped up their summer. They weren't paying a whole lot of attention to the East Area rapist crimes that were occurring in the state's capital of Sacramento. To them, Sacramento might as well have been another planet. Like many other areas of California, Stockton was building up. new homes and new developments. There was the Stockton Civic Auditorium, a huge theater, perfect for concerts.

I mean, they had bands like Journey, Rush, Kansas back in that time period. But in September of 1977, about 13 weeks after the East Area Rapest had last attacked in Sacramento, he showed up in the city of Stockton. And the 150,000 residents there would soon experience the fear that the communities back in Sacramento County had come to know. The East Area Rapist made his presence felt in Stockton prior to the attack, whether purposefully or not. In August, about three weeks before the attack, several residents in the area of North Portage Circle started to find footprints in their yards. Dogs began barking at night for no known reason. People would hear noises in their yards.

Still others began to receive hang-up phone calls. Towards the end of August, some people reported seeing an out-of-place white station wagon cruising slowly on local streets. And in the first week of September, the strange activity increased with even more hang-up phone calls and more barking dogs. But the residents of Stockton didn't know to look for these signs. After all, back in Sacramento County, authorities had never even alerted residents there of these signs that often preceded

East Area Rapist attacks. In the early morning hours of September 5th, a woman was talking on her phone when she heard someone trying to get into her back door. She hung up her phone call and grabbed a handgun that she had nearby and she was prepared to use it on whoever was going to come through that door.

But the person on the other side was never able to get the door open. The next day in the early morning, hours of September 6th at around 1 a.m. on North Portage Circle, neighbors heard a car driving on the circle, followed by the sounds of barking dogs. Just a short while later, at about 1.30 a.m., a 29-year-old woman on North Portage Circle was awakened by the sound of something at her sliding glass door. This sliding glass door led directly into her bedroom. She opened her eyes and caught the sight of a masked man, nude from the waist down, coming through the door and carrying a hand.

gun in one hand and what appeared to be a doctor's bag in the other. The man saw that she was awake and warned her to be quiet, but she turned quickly and started to wake up her husband. Her 31-year-old husband awoke to the beam of light in his eyes from the intruder's flashlight. The masked man in a low hoarse voice told the male victim he would kill him if he moved. At that point, what had become a familiar script in the Easterer rapist case started to unfold. The intruder ordered the man to roll over onto his stomach. He threw shoelaces to the woman and had her tie her husband up. But unlike most of the other East Area rapist cases, he didn't bring the shoelaces with him.

He actually got the shoelaces by removing them from a pair of the male victim's shoes. Once the woman had tied her husband up, the intruder retied him even tighter and tied his ankles as well. Then he tied the female victim. the attacker told the helpless couple that he just wanted money and some food for his apartment. The assailant then asked if there was anyone else in the home and the couple told him that they had two small children who were asleep in their rooms. It was then that the man told them something that shook this couple to their core. He warned them that if they gave him any trouble and didn't comply, that he would chop up their chubble. children and bring back their ears to the couple.

The couple decided then and there they were not going to risk any harm to their kids and they fully comply. The attacker left their room for a bit and the couple was worried about their children, but the man came back after a couple minutes and held a knife to the male victim's throat and threatened him to cooperate. He then ordered the female victim out of bet. The woman was nude and uncomfortable and asked the man. man for a robe. The attacker gave her robe, placing it over her shoulders. At knife point, he ordered

her to walk through the home with him, all the while he carried the doctor's bag with him. When they got to the living room, the woman saw that a blanket had been placed over a lamp, giving off a soft glow to the room. He forced the woman to the floor and then walked away from her. He showed up back in the bedroom a minute later, where her husband was still bound on the bed, face down, the assailant placed dishes on the man's back, and then he placed the gun to his head, and he cocked it, and he warned the husband, if these rattle, I'll kill you. The attacker walked back to the female victim and approached her from behind. She was facing away from him, but she could hear him masturbating behind her.

He told her that ever since he had seen her in a store, he had wanted to fuck her. He then climbed on the woman and raped her. He stopped for a minute and pulled away from her. After a moment, he started the rape again. But this time, something was different to the woman. What had before felt like a very small, thin penis now seemed large and firm. And she got the distinct impression that the man was using some sort of sex toy or dildo to assault her with. The rapist left the woman bound in the living room and walked through the home, once again checking on the husband who hadn't moved.

At one point, he went into the kitchen, made himself something to eat. After he finished eating, he talked to the couple one at a time, mentioning things like, I only live a few blocks away, I need stuff for my apartment like soap, towels, and a portable TV. During this conversation, one of the couple's young children walked out into the hallway and saw the man standing there. And he spoke to the child. and he said, I'm playing tricks with your mom and dad. Come watch me.

Morph, this is just further proof of how warped and demented this man was. But he didn't hurt this child. You know, the child went on to the bathroom, then walked back to the bedroom and went back to sleep. After the child had gone back to bed, the man once again walked over the female victim and masturbated before raping her again. and once again she felt he was using both his real penis and a fake one. He then climbed off the woman and walked away from her.

After several minutes of silence, the couple, their young child, and a neighbor all heard what sounded like a loud VW start up and drive off. The couple scrambled to get free and called police. When the Stockton police arrived on scene, they found what looked like a random break-in and rape. They didn't know that this attack was the work of the East. area rapist. Now, Sacramento police would have known that the single story home, the use of both a gun and a knife, and the lines used by the assailant were all straight out of the East

Area Rapist playbook. The victims described the man as being about 5 foot 8 to 5 foot 10, weighing about 150 to 160 pounds and having a slender bill. The female victim described the man's small penis. The couple described the attacker's mask as being a brown ski mask. And one detail they added was that the rapist had a foul-smelling body odor. They told police that the man was naked from the waist down, but he did have a belt around his waist. The entry point to the home was the sliding glass door that led into the couple's bedroom. But the victims felt that it was most likely unlocked. It was determined that the intruder had removed ketchup and peanut butter from the refrigerator.

Outside, a Pepsi can was found in the yard. Police felt that the attacker had left by jumping over their back fence. The attacker didn't get away with much. His haul included a few silver dollars and a money clip with the word missile carved into it. He also took the male victim's wedding band. It was yellow gold with the inscription for my angel on the inside, along with the date the couple got married. He took some yellow gold cuff links with the male victim's initials on him and a few other odds and ends. So most of the stuff that he took had more of a personal or sentimental

value. There really wasn't a lot of monetary value to the things that he took off with. Police wanted to question a couple's child about what they had recalled and they actually later put the child under hypnosis. While under hypnosis, the child recounted in detail about a tattoo that was described as being on the attacker's left arm of a bull similar to the Schlitzmalt liquor bowl, a black bowl with white horns. She also detailed a distinct belt buckle with two pistols crossed toward each other. In the days following the attack on this couple, their phone would ring in the late morning, but nobody would be on the other end when they answered.

In fact, their phone didn't seem to work properly in general. and the couple had the phone company come out and fix it, but even after that, it seemed to work intermittently. Sometimes during a conversation, the victims would hear a click, and they became convinced that someone was listening to their calls. One day, the police were at the home when a call came in, and a young man on the other end of the phone told the female victim who had answered that his office had fixed her phone recently,

but he needed for her to verbally tell him her phone number. Yeah, Mike, that's really odd. If somebody at the phone company calls you at your house and says that they did work on your line, but they don't know your phone number, that seems pretty strange to me too. And it did to the woman as well. She handed the phone over to the police officer who was there so that he could hear the man's voice. The officer asked the man to repeat what he had said to the woman, but the caller hung up. police decided to place a phone trap on the line so the incoming calls could be recorded.

But once the trap was installed, no more odd phone calls came in, and the trouble with their phone line seemed to clear up. Three months later, in December of 1977, the female victim received an obscene phone call. She was sure that the caller was the man that had raped her. In January of 78, after victim number one had recorded a call from her attacker, Investigators played that recording for many victims of the East Area Rapist. And this included this latest victim as well. She verified that the person on that recorded call was her attacker.

So there was no doubt at this point. The East Area Rapist had come to Stockton, California. The September 1977 attack in Stockton was confirmed to be an East Area Rapist attack. And it was a wake-up call proving that the East Area Rapist. rapist wasn't afraid to leave the confines of Sacramento County to commit his crimes. Back in Sacramento, residents were taking any chances. Self-defense classes were being offered. Gunsale sword. Hardware stores sold out of locks and dead bolts. People wondered if the East area rapist was gone for good, or if he would return. They wouldn't have to wonder for long. On September 30th, a young couple

was arguing. A 17-year-old maid and her boyfriend, a 21-year-old electronics rep, had been feuding about personal issues that they were dealing with. And this was occurring at the man's home on the 9,100 block of Tuolumni Drive in Sacramento. The fight escalated and at one point got so bad that the young woman asked her boyfriend to drive her home to her apartment, which was nearby. Once they were there, she started feeling ill from the effects of a medical procedure that she had undergone a day or two earlier. Despite the arguing, her boyfriend didn't want to leave her there alone, so he decided to take her back to his house around 11.30 p.m. When they got back to his house, the couple went inside and went to sleep. About an hour or so later, just after 1 a.m. on

the morning of October 1st, the couple was awakened by a masked man holding a gun. And gun in his right hand and a flashlight in his left. The intruder warned the couple, shut up, don't move or I'll kill you. He added that he had a 357. He then told them that he wanted their dope and he knew they had some and he would look for it until he got it. The young man still half asleep looked over at the shotgun he had next to his bed and for a second thought about going for it. The intruder shined his light on the shotgun and then stared at the young man as if he was waiting for him to go for it. He decided not to, and the intruder sensed that and took a step forward. Speaking through clenched teeth, he told the pair to roll over on their stomachs, which began

a very familiar script. He threw shoelaces to the female, ordering her to tie up the male before retying the man tighter, then tying the young girl's wrists. The intruder cocked a gun and placed it against both of their heads, threatening them to comply. The next act in the script fell into place as he left the room and started to rummage through the house. At one point, he was in the room with the bound couple. The male victim's pit bull jumped on the bed and growled at the masked man. But this pit bull was a puppy, and it didn't attack the man, didn't even scare him. He simply took the young dog into another room and locked it.

up. As expected, the intruder took the female victim out of the room, tied her ankles, and blindfolded her. He returned to the male victim with a tray and salt shaker placing it on his back. As the attacker turned to walk away, the male victim started moving to see if the items on his back would make noise. As he did this, the mass assailant turned and walked up to the man and placed the gun to his head and told him not to move again. After feeling that the male victim was secured, the intruder walked into the room where the female victim was located. He whispered to her through clenched teeth that if she didn't cooperate, he would slit her throat. The next thing she knew, she could hear him masturbating using lotion.

And as we talked about frequently, he placed his penis in the woman's bound hands and ordered her to play with it. Then he sexually assaulted the woman. afterwards he went into check on the male victim. Everything here was a normal part of the East Area rapist M.O. But this is where things would take a strange turn. The doorbell rang. The two-bound victims heard the intruder walk outside where he stayed for several minutes.

The attacker then came back into the house and once again turns his attention to the female victim and raped her again. He held the cock gun to her head in the process. The man then made his way to their kitchen to eat. outside of the house, they heard a car horn honk two times. After a couple minutes, the doorbell rang several times. And then they heard a knock on one of the windows. The helpless pair could only listen trying to determine what was going on. The female victim heard the rapist talking to somebody.

The voices were muffled, but she thought that there was a female voice. While the female victim was listening to the conversation, her boyfriend in the other room used this opportunity to roll over and free himself. He was able to get to his pants pocket and pull out a pocket knife and cut himself free. He then retrieved a loaded revolver that he had under his mattress and he raced out of the room expecting to shoot the rapist. But instead he found that the home was empty. The young man stepped out into the yard and fired around out of frustration. He freed his girlfriend and then called police. Police arrived at the home shortly after 3 a.m.

They took statements and called an ambulance to take the female victim to the hospital. The victims described the assailant as being about 5 foot 9 and 170 pounds, with a medium to husky build. As usual, the female victim described the man's penis as very small. The pair also said that the attacker had very bad breath. The female victim also added one more odd detail before she was taken to the hospital. She said that during the rape, the man called her by her sister's name. While searching the home, the young man's shotgun was found stashed under a couch. Prim marks on the sliding glass door indicated that the intruder had entered the house there

and likely exited the same way. Now, Morph, we have to talk about this attack because while much of what the East Area rapists did in this crime was normal for him, some things were very different. One of those differences being that the home that the attack was. took place in was actually a duplex. And as we've talked about, the East Area Rapists typically attacked single-story, single-family homes. Also, there was a lack of any prowling activity or odd events leading up to this attack.

Yeah, Mike, this was different in many ways. But the thing that really stands out is the possibility that the East Area Rapist may have had a willing accomplice with him and possibly a female accomplice at that. In at least one other attack, the first confirmed East Area Rapist attack, the victim thought she heard a female voice, but thought that the East Area Rapist was actually talking to himself. So we have to wonder here if the doorbell, knocking, and Carhorn were part of some elaborate plan by the rapist to make this couple think he had help. But in a later episode, the possibility of a female accomplice will come up again. And there's evidence to suggest that it wasn't out of the question. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. One final note about this attack. Five years later, October of 1982, this young woman would receive a call from her attacker described here by Contra Costa County investigator Paul Holes.

The 1982 phone call was made to victim number 24. It was five years after she was attacked up in Sacramento, actually in Rancho Cordova. and at the time she's working at a diner in 1982. She's at her job when she receives a phone call. And this phone call based on the content of the phone call, I am convinced was the East Area rapist. And it's significant because it's in that 1981 to 1986 gap where we don't have any cases. It's also significant in that it is after all but one of the cases that occurred down in Southern California.

And going to that diner today and taking a look at its configuration and how it sits off the street and where the victim was living at the time, which was completely across town, I believe our offender was most likely a customer of that diner and saw one of his previous victims there. So I believe that our offender was back in Rancho Cordova in 1982. So that's after he's been down in Southern California. Some people felt that that five-year gap could be accounted for by him being in custody. He got popped for a burglary and did a five-year stint at CDC. This was not a phone call in which, you know, there's a collect call coming out of the CDC. He is not in custody in October of 1982.

So he's out and about. You heard Paul Holes mention a gap from 1981 to 1986, as well as referencing Southern California crimes. This timeline in Southern California events are important, and we'll be covering them as we move along this season. This most recent attack was the first committed by the East Area rapist in Sacramento County in a four-month period. His return led to questions from citizens about what was being done to catch the East Area rapists.

And these questions prompted the police to respond in this October 8, 1977, Sacramento B article. More than 5,000 names have been offered to police and sheriff's detectives trying to track down the sexual terrorists known as the East Area Rapist. All but a dozen of the thousand names of possible suspects received by city police have been cleared. Lieutenant Hal Taylor said this week. The sheriff's office is not being as candid about the 4,000 suspects they have or are investigating. Sheriff Wayne Lowe's officials refused to say what they have done with the 4,000 tips provided to the department in the past five months. Only the police department responds to the question, what happens to all the names, all the information gathered on so many citizens in the Sacramento area. Lieutenant Taylor says the city police have discarded any information reported to them or developed by them on all but the

remaining 12 persons still considered a suspect. However, the other 900 plus names are being kept on file, so detectives can avoid reinvestigating men they have already cleared. If the rapist is ever identified, Taylor explains, the names of the innocent will be discarded. The sheriff's department is continuing to sort out names of possible suspects, says Chief Deputy Fred Reese, saying, quote, we are not going to tell how we eliminate people, unquote. Bill Miller, the sheriff's public information officer, also refused to discuss the handling of names, or personal files that have accumulated during the rape investigation. But one detective, Ronald Buchanan, said, quote,

about the only thing we are certain of at this time is that the rapist is white and male, unquote. Taylor, the head of the city's homicide squad, more candidly, said most of the 1,000 names offered by city, police as possible suspects, were eliminated quickly, saying, quote, some have been from anonymous calls, many through the B's secret witness program, some have been obviously vindictive, like someone who didn't like the kid next door, some have been malicious, unquote. Detectives first screened the names by the collective description of the East Area Rapist and by the times of the attacks, Taylor said. The backgrounds of men not eliminated in that screening were checked for possible criminal readings or sexual perversion, Taylor said. Men still not eliminated from suspicion then were contacted by detectives and interviewed.

Taylor said, quote, we have kept information concerned. those who fall under the good suspect classification if we have verified they have backgrounds of major sex offenses and then they cannot be ruled out in the other points they continue to be possible suspects in this or other sex crimes unquote there are 12 names in that good suspect file about 1% of all the names offered city detectives in the case most of the names flooded into the sheriff's office and police station in may after sheriff's detectives widely publicized their profile of the east area rapist and announced that he has a small penis. Detectives said then they believe the man is a paranoid schizophrenic, acting in

what psychologists call a homosexual panic because of feelings of sexual inadequacy. The rapist has struck 24 times at irregular intervals since October 1975. 22 attacks have been in homes in the East area. One has been in the South area, one in Stockton. The last rape in the series was early last Saturday, when the rapist broke into a duplex in the La Riviera Folsom Boulevard area and attacked a 17-year-old girl who was spending the night with a boyfriend. He followed his pattern of overpowering the couple in bed, tying the man and leading the girl into another part of the house for repeated sexual assaults. Once the East Area rapist was back in Sacramento, reports of odd activity, prowling and the like,

started to come in. On the 6,700 block of Gold Run Avenue in Sacramento, several residents started to get hang-up phone calls that started in early October. One of the families receiving these calls had a teenage daughter who arrived home after school one day to find the door leading from her garage into the kitchen partially ajar. She dismissed it thinking her parents or younger sister must have left it open. But a few days later, she noticed that the door was open once again. Earlier that year, they had arrived home to find their sliding glass door open,

but didn't find any signs of anybody entering the home or burglarizing it. On the morning of October 21st, 1977, this home would be targeted by the East Area Rapist. Sometime after midnight, the youngest daughter had gotten up to use the bathroom. She heard movement in the house but dismissed the noise thinking that one of her family members had also gotten up. So she went back to sleep. At about 3 a.m., the young girl's mother, a 32-year-old homemaker, and her husband, a 13-year-old homemaker, and her husband, a 35-year-old contractor, were awakened to a flashlight shining in their eyes.

A masked man was pointing a gun at them. He growled in a harsh whisper through clenched teeth. I have a 357 magnum. If you don't tie him tight, I'm going to blow your fucking head off. Then he proceeded to throw shoelaces to the woman. The intruder instructed the woman to tie her husband's hands tightly behind his back. after she tied him, the intruder tied her as well. He then left the room and started rifling through the home.

After a short while, he returned with dishes that he stacked on the male victim's back. He then left the room again, but returned swiftly after the dishes made a slight rattle. He warned the victim not to move, and they would cut his wife's throat if he did. The attacker dragged the woman off the bed and forced her to walk to the family room. Once there, he raped the woman. after the rape, he walked to the kitchen and got some food and started to eat. The female victim could hear the rapist crying in the kitchen. After a few minutes, the man walked to the bedroom to check on the male victim

before returning the female victim and raping her again. After the second sexual assault, he stepped away from the woman and he seemed to be sobbing. The rapist composed himself and returned to the woman's side. When he did, he told her that he had a buddy in the car outside waiting. He told her to give the police a message. Tell the pigs, I'll be back on New Year's Eve. And it sounded as if he stuttered when he said the word pigs. Before he left, he pulled the rings off of her fingers and then just like that, the house was silent. After a little bit of time, the couple felt it was safe and they called out to their children who had slept through the entire attack. The children came in

and were able to free the couple, at which point they called police. Police arrived at the scene close to 5 a.m. And immediately started the investigation. First, they took a detailed description of the attacker. The couple concluded that he was about 5'10, not large, and possibly in his 20s. They mentioned that the man spoke softly, but was nervous and hyper at times. The woman added that his penis was fairly big around, which clashed with many other statements made by East Area rapist victims. She also said that despite raping her multiple times, that the man had been very

gentle with her. During the attack on this couple, the rapist had held a lengthy conversation with them. They detailed for police very specific things that the man said. Some of the things he mentioned were that somebody had told him that there was a large amount of cash in the home. He also mentioned that there was no money in this town and he was going to have to leave town. He added that he wanted to fill his bag with food. As investigators moved to around the house, they found a lamp with a sweatshirt partially covering it, which resulted in a softly lit room. And we've talked about this in other East Area rapist attacks. This was a very common tactic that he used. The point of entry was determined to be through the garage and then

through the door that led into the kitchen. Outside of the home, they found the victim's rings on the patio, as well as three Miller beer bottles. The only thing missing from the home seemed to be a baseball cap with a logo on it. Neighbors were questioned and the only sign that the attacker had been in the neighborhood that night was the telltale report of dogs barking around the time of the attack. The police left the scene of the crime confident that this had been the 25th confirmed attack by the East Area rapist. More than 900 residents of the Foothill Farms area

poured into Foothills Junior High School Thursday night to hear Sacramento County Sheriff's detectives talk about the East Area rapist who struck in their neighborhood last Friday. Detective Carroll Daly told the concerned neighbors the police have done, quote, everything possible in an attempt to identify and catch the sexual terrorist who has attacked 25 times in the last 16 months.

The Sheriff's Department has even consulted a psychic who wanted to discuss the case, and tried to have a biarrhythm chart made of the rapist, Ms. Daly told the audience. Neither unorthodox venture worked, she told a reporter today. The psychic who called detectives offered a tip that did not check out. And the biarrhythm chart proved to be impossible to construct without the rapist's birth date, the detective said. Half of the overwhelming number of police hours devoted to the rapist have been spent,

quote, tracking down rumors, Ms. Daly told the foothill Farms audience. That article from the October 28, 1977 Sacramento B detailed the concern that area residents had after this latest attack. The next attack by the East Area Rapists would occur just the very next day on October 29th. And this would be on the 4,400 block of Woodson Avenue in Sacramento. Now, in the days and weeks prior, suspicious minutes, were seen walking through the area as if they were looking at houses.

Multiple cars that didn't belong to anyone that lived on the street were witnessed. The residents of one home had found on multiple occasions that their garage door was partially open. On October 27th, a day after these

same residents had new phone service installed at the home, the 22-year-old housewife that lived there answered the phone. On the other end was silence. This woman and her husband would become the next East Area rapist victims. On Friday night, October 28th, the woman and her 27-year-old husband, who was a salesman, went out to dinner at around 7.30 p.m. They arrived home at around 10 p.m. and were asleep just before midnight. On early Saturday morning of the 29th at about 1.45 a.m. The husband was fast asleep,

when he felt something tapping his foot. He opened his eyes only to be blinded by a flashlight. A voice from behind the light said, Don't move or I'll blow your brains out. The hissing voice went on to say, I know you have a gun around here someplace. The husband motioned towards the nightstand and told the man that it was in the drawer.

By now, the wife was awake too and was horrified to see the scene unfolding. The man warned the couple that he only wanted food and money for his van. The intruder tossed shoelaces to the woman and ordered her to tie up her husband. But she was panicking and she only tied one of her husband's hands and the attacker noticed this. He warned her that if she tried that again, he would blow her brains out. He tossed her another shoelace and told her to tie both of her husband's hands tightly behind his back. The woman tried to tell the man that they didn't have any cash.

and offered to write him a check, but he told her, shut your fucking mouth. Once the mail was secured, the man retied him even tighter and then tied the woman before leaving the room. The couple could hear the man going through their stuff. After a few minutes, he returned with dishes that he stacked on the male victim's back and brought the female victim out of the room at night point. He led her to the living room threatening to kill her if she tried anything.

When they got to the living room, the woman saw strips of torn up towel on the floor. The man used these strips to blindfold her. He walked out of the room but returned a few minutes later and straddled her. He placed his penis in her bound hands and ordered her to play with it. He then sexually assaulted the woman. As soon as the assault ended, the rapist stood up and started crying. And he said out loud, mommy, please help me. I don't want to do this mommy.

The man walked across the room and he was still sobbing loud enough that the male victim in the other room could hear him. Mommy, I don't want to do this. Someone please help me. And both victims would later tell police that they thought this crying, this sobbing was genuine. But after a few minutes, the man composed himself and snapped back into the predatory attacker that he was. earlier. He called the female victim a bitch and said that he was going to watch TV and told her that she had better keep her mouth shut. He returned later with a cup and saucer that he placed on the woman's back. He noticed that she was wearing a wedding and engagement ring. He grabbed her fingers and pulled off the rings. He then left the room and after several minutes of silence,

the couple realized the attack her was gone. They worked to get free and then called police who were arrived on the scene a little after 4 a.m. The couple detailed for police what they could about the man. They described them as being about 5'8 to 5 foot 10 with average build and weight. The woman told police that the man's penis seemed bigger than she expected based on all the news accounts. Police found that one of the telephone cords have been cut and like most of the other East Area rapist attacks, the point of entry was a sliding glass door. Bloodhounds were brought in to try and track the rapist's scent.

They followed it to a curb on the 4,400 block of Whitney Avenue, not far from the scene of the attack, but it was there that they lost the scent. At this point, police were pulling out all the stops trying to apprehend the East Area rapist. And one of the things that they decided to do was to vacuum the areas in the home where the East Area Rapest. rapist had been. And when they analyzed what they were able to vacuum, they found blue specs of some type of blue architectural paint on hairs that were collected. And this blue paint would also be found on shoelaces that the East Area Rapist had handled. And it would be determined that this type of paint was associated with waterproofing. Throughout the East Area Rapist investigation, lab work would continue to find specs of this blue paint.

Later on in Southern California, it would also result in a possible lead in the case, but we'll get into that later on this season. Later that morning, around the spot where the bloodhounds had lost the rapist scent near Whitney Avenue, police found a woman who ran a beauty shop and often went to work very early in the morning to get started. They questioned the woman to see if she had seen anything unusual that morning, and it turned out she had. She had arrived that morning for work at around 4 a.m. At about 6.30 a.m.

While looking across the street, she witnessed a man stand up in an open trailer that was attached to a dump truck. The man was wearing dark clothes and had a ski mask on. He pulled a bike up from the trailer and jumped down onto the bike and took off very quickly. Police were left to wonder

if the man witnessed by this woman was the East Area rapist. And if it was, this was a missed opportunity to catch him. They could only sit back and wait to see when and where the East Area Rapists would strike next. During late October and November of 77, area residents on the 8100 block of La Riviera Drive were experiencing activity that was typical leading up to an East Area rapist attack. One woman and her husband had received hang-up phone calls.

Six months earlier, this same couple spotted a prowler shining a light into their bedroom window from the outside. On November 7th, a message was found scrawled on a bathroom wall close to this area at the California State University. It read, the Easterer rapist was here. We'll rape my first black girl tonight. Dumb cops will never find me. Back on the 8100 block of La Riviera Drive, people heard prowlers in their yards at night on November 9th. and early morning hours on the 10th. Barking dogs broke the silence.

Somebody was moving around in the darkness. One man flipped his outside light on, but didn't see anything unusual. Only minutes later, his mother was awakened by pounding sounds coming from outside. Only a few houses away from this commotion, a 13-year-old girl was asleep in her bed with no idea that she would become the next victim of the East Area rapist.

That girl's name was Margaret. and she joined us to share her story. We won't lay out all the details of how the Easterer rapists got in what he did and what he said. Instead, we'll let Margaret tell you what happened in her own words and how it affected her over the years. My name is Margaret Wardlow, and I was the 27th victim of the East Area rapist in Sacramento on November 10, 1977. I was the youngest victim. I was 13 at the time. For me, you know, looking back on the day that it happened,

I've been, had the benefit of meeting with Sacramento Homicide. And, you know, it's been 40 years, of course, and, you know, I didn't remember everything that I did as a kid that day. So, of course, it was a school day. And we met with a sex homicide. They let me go over the case file. And I read that I had gotten home from school. and I don't think the dog had a golden retriever at a big golden retriever that we kept in the garage during the day.

And the garage was open. So I just, when I got home from school, I'd open up the garage door. The dog wasn't in the garage at the time, I believe. And so waded around to the dog to come home. He lived right on the American River at a condominium that backed up to the American River. So when the dog came home, I got on my bike and rode across the river to a soccer game that was being. held at a private school called Country Day and took the dog with me, met a girlfriend over there, and then came back after the game and met up with my mom.

We went over to a neighbor's house, put the dog back in the house, but didn't lock our front door or anything. And we really were very lax about walking our house up, you know, even though we knew this guy was prolific, you know, rapist running around. My mom really felt that she was too old to be a victim. I was definitely too young. And so we really, I don't think we really thought of ourselves as being vulnerable to this guy. But anyway, we went over to a single guy who was a neighbor in the area, just a neighbor,

and listened to an album, had dinner with him, and then went back home about 8 o'clock. And in between this time, we left our front door open and the dog was in the house. And then we were awoken, or I was awoken, you know, very early in the morning, it was dark still, flashed, I'd shine out in my face. And so you're telling me, you know, turn over, I'm going to tie you up. And I thought for sure it was this guy that you just had dinner with. And it was a school morning. And I thought it was my mom had let him in to joke around and wake me up for school, you know,

because he was just a prankster. And I refused. And I said, no, no, you know, I'm not going to tell you time me up. And he said, this isn't a joke. And I said, quit joking, you know, numerous times. And he said, this isn't a joke. And finally I just kind of played along with it, playing along with it, thinking that this is still a joke. And then finally, once you got me tied up, I turned over and looked at the clock radio, and I thought it was about 2.30 in the morning.

And I realized, this isn't a joke. And I realized, yeah, this is probably the stereotypists. I mean, it just kind of went, and my head went right to it. And as a kid, we got the newspaper. I think he got the afternoon union, I believe it was, it was delivered in the afternoon. or maybe the B was delivered, the second one of B was delivered in the afternoon. And my mom subscribed to the B, and I was just an avid reader of anything that used to a rapist. And so I was number 27, and everything that had been written about this guy, every single profile, anything that came out in the news,

I remember reading one particular article three times over and thinking, why can't I agree more about this guy? Why don't they write more about him? What is making this guy check? why is he doing this? Why is he attacking these people? And by that time, he had already started attacking couples in their homes and putting a place on the husband's back

and taking a woman into another room and attacking her. And, you know, all the more reasons for both my mother and I to believe that we weren't, you know, possible victims of his. And anyway, he was, you know, very threatening every time you, you know, Every time he talked to you or spoke to you, he spoke to you in a very harsh whisper,

and it was usually in a question, you know, do you want to die? Do you want to kill you? Do you want me to kill your mother? And from what I understood from reading all these articles is that this guy just really got off on scaring the but she was out of his victims. He just really got off on fighting people. And I was just found and determined not to let him get to me. So as soon as he started threatening me and threatening to tell my mom, I just, you want me to kill your mom, you want me to kill you,

I just told him I don't care. And I just continued with, you know, I don't care. You know, I don't care. And as soon as you started to answer his questions, he'd say, shut up, shut up, shut up, you know, and it's really harsh with him. It's just really the best way to explain how he spoke. And, you know, you couldn't even get a word out when he started to answer him. So it was really frustrating.

It was almost like he had a script that he went by and, you know, you weren't part of, you weren't part of it, you know. You didn't have anything to say in his steps. It was all of, you know, what he had to say. You didn't have any role in the part, right? You just had to be scared. So I remember just not just being scared, but just feeling like so. so offended like what are you doing here there's nothing here for you you know you know he asked me a couple times you know if i had had sex and i was a virgin and i told him no and i think he probably

thought i was older than i was you know but i can definitely see why he chose me i was very visible um i was very visible in the area i was always outside i was always you know running around my bathing suit we lived in this condominium that my mom had waited for. They were really, at the time, 40 years ago, they were very coveted, it was a real coveted real estate area. They were these condos that sat right up against the levee on La Riviera Drive in Sacramento, and they butted up right up to the levee, and they were unique in that you had your

kitchen, your dining room, living room area upstairs, so you had a view of the river and the trees and everything, you know, back along the river area. And then all the bedrooms were downstairs. And the only thing about that was in the evening when all the lights were on in the house, anyone walking up along that levee could really look into the house. So you could see exactly what was going on in that home. So, you know, anyone that was up there, and I'm sure he, you know, anyone that was a victim of his, he was watching their home.

He was in their home. he was familiar. I'm sure he was familiar with my dog. My dog was very protective of the house, and anyone that was outside of the home, my dog was always barking, but my dog didn't let out at peak. My dog was throughout the whole attack.

So I know this guy was in the house. He had to have been, and like I said, we were not very, we weren't very vigilant about locking the house also. But anyway, so after realizing that, you know, of course, this is the U.S. I could hear him talking to my mom. I knew, you know, he was upstairs.

He was, you know, in and out of the room. You never knew when he was in or out. I was blindfolded. I was tied up. I had gotten my feet in tight at one point. I got my feet untied and he came into the room and was serious. And I was debating like, should I get up? Should I stand up and try to walk out the door?

What should I do? Because I thought, you know, I can't see that because I was blindfolded. I thought, where am I going to go? How am I going to get out the door? And tied my hands were tied behind my back. I just didn't know what I was going to do. But I could hear him, once you got the plates from, like I said, my kitchen was upstairs. Once he had those plates, I took him coming down the stairs.

And I just knew at that point, like, okay, mazette. He's coming downstairs with those plates. If he comes into my room, he's going to rate my mom. If he goes into my mom's room, he's going to rate news. And I could hear him going into my mom's room. And I just prepared myself because I knew, you know, I just knew from everything I had read, everything I had known. You know, this is one thing you can't get yourself out of, you know.

You're a kid that, you know, as a kid, you know, you can get yourself out of a lot of things, but I know it's just something I was going to have to say that too. You know, just be tough and it's going to be over with. And it's almost like I had like a little angel on my shoulder just telling me, you know, if you're going to get through this, you're going to survive. And I knew just by talking to him and telling him, you know, just refusing him the pleasure of showing fear, I knew that he wasn't going to hurt me.

He was going to kill me because he hadn't hurt but killed anyone as far as I knew. And I knew he wasn't going to hurt me. He wasn't going to kill my mom. He wasn't going to hurt me. And that's what I based all of my actions on and my behaviors on with the fact that he hadn't hurt and he wasn't told him.

And then once later on I found out that he had murdered people. I thought, well, that's not the guy. He's not killing people. There's no way. He's a mother. But of course, now, you know, I'm a little climb glass. I love watching, you know, all these shows.

And, of course, these guys escalates. And I know that, of course, he became a murder. Of course, it makes total sense that, you know, he asked me to and this is exactly what he became. And it's very frightening to think that, you know, I tangled with this person like a good. But as a kid, you're, you know, you're immortal, right? That's kind of, you know, what happened. And then once the attack was over, you know, you never knew when he left. He turned on the fan upstairs.

He turned, you know, the kitchen fan. He ran the kitchen water. And then once he departed, we just really didn't know when he had left. My mom started screaming for the next-door neighbor. The next-door neighbor came over with a rifle or a shotgun and came into the house. And by that time, I had hopped all the way upstairs. And my feet were tied to the same up to the stairs. two-fighted stairs and got up to the powder room upstairs and had locked myself up inside there.

And then the neighbor's wife came upstairs and tied me. And then shortly after that, the police home and, you know, the second-noe sheriff's department came. And, you know, again, they asked me, like, what did you say to him that didn't care? You know, they couldn't believe the way it responded to the guy. And even my brother, who I spoke with just a few months ago about him showing up to the house, He came as quickly as he could. He was working at the Rights Scholars Association. He came to the front door and he said, Maggie, you opened the door and I came out of his way and you opened the door and you said, Tim, what are you doing here?

I thought, what I said to him, I said, aren't you supposed to be at work? He said, you and your mom were just in fact that you started a rapist and you're asking you like, aren't you supposed to be at work? He said he couldn't believe how cool you were. He just says, I can't believe how cool you were because, you know, he just didn't. handled it so well, and I just did. I didn't know, you know, I was a tough. I don't know. I just don't know. I can't explain it other than, you know, it was just a tough kid, and I did the best I could do it today. I don't know how to tell you this, but I just was tough. We asked Margaret how much time the Easterer rapist was in our home.

I don't want to say, you know, I don't want to say maybe an hour, maybe, but I, I You know, but maybe I may be short as 45 minutes to an hour. I don't know. As a kid, you know, it's hard to, it's so hard. It's such a hard thing to gauge. I would say an hour, maybe hour and 15 minutes. Margaret told us how it was that she was able to not only cope with the attack, but to also cope with the attacker not being caught.

Well, I was just fearless. I was just, I had no fear. I remember seeing, I remember just feeling indignant. Like, what are you here for? Why are you here? I was just indignant. I just was like, I was pissed. I was more angry.

Like, I don't really remember the fear so much. Just like, what, there's nothing here for you. This is not, this, I have nothing for you, you know. This is not, I'm not your victim. I'm not your, you know, I just, it's such a weird. I don't know. It's such a weird thing. I just don't have, it's almost like, I mean, I had, I had like a,

some kind of predisposition that I had to know that, to read every single article and know everything about this guy before the attack. And then after the attack, I didn't follow up on the, well, I mean, I watched it after attack after attack after a while. I was just, like, so disgusted that, you know, they hadn't found him and they couldn't get him. And, you know, and I had no real real rules towards the sheriff's department. I mean, I know, I knew they were trying to find him.

They worked so well with me. And, I mean, I knew they were trying their best to get him. I knew they were out and they were stopping people. And I talked to numerous people that they had stopped. So, yeah, I mean, I understand that there was a lack of communication between jurisdictions, you know, because they didn't have the Internet. They didn't have all the, everything we have nowadays. Margaret shared her opinion on what the Easterer rapist thought of his encounter with her.

He definitely was less interested in me because I wasn't as sexually experienced because he asked me, you know, have you fucked before? He asked me that a couple times. And he was more interested in girls that were experienced. Yeah, no, he wanted girls that were more experienced. And then because he wasn't getting that satisfaction, I wasn't playing along to his script. I believe he, yeah, he wasn't getting what he came for, you know, that fair fact. your thing. So, yeah. And then the weirdest thing about it is, you know, you didn't keep you really angry with me for not being playing along. I was shivering at the end of, after he

attacked me, before he left, I was shivering like it was no remembers, right? So I was cold and I didn't sleep with any, I didn't sleep with any clothes on. And I was shivering. I didn't have any covers on me at that point. And he said, what's wrong? Why are you shaking? And I said, I'm cold, and he took a blanket and picked it up and, like, covered me with it. And I thought that was, like, weird. Like, why would he be compassionate towards me after I was such a little bitch? We asked Margaret how she thought the East Area rapist may have targeted her. My parents were divorced.

My mom was working for the state of California. And she was, you know, she didn't come home until my mom left early, didn't come home until late. I was attending a private school called Waldorf, and I'd go out and wait a bus stop by myself. Sometimes I'd miss the bus, so I'd have to take the regional transit bus, and I'd walk like a couple miles at you, Sarah Oaks. I was highly invisible.

I was down at the river all the time. I'd go fishing after school. If I missed the bus to school, then I'd walk a couple miles through the river area on my way to school, my school had 55 acres next to the American River, like in the woods and stuff. I mean, like right up along the American River. So I'd be walking through those woods, and I mean, I'd be, I was like, he could have seen me in so many places. I was highly visible. My mom was not a protective mom. My mom let me do whatever I wanted. Stay out until after dark.

I did whatever I wanted. Even after the attack, like, I never looked over my shoulder. I was never, I was never fearful after that. I mean, I knew he never attacked again. I knew he never chased down his, you know, anybody afterwards or came back again. So I wasn't fearful of that. I know he called his victim. So we had a recorder on our phone, you know, so whenever we answered the phone, we had to turn on the recorder.

I was waiting for the guy to call. I was going to give him a fearful, you know. I was ready for that, you know. I couldn't wait to tell him to fuck off. Margaret told us about how reading about the East Area rapist helped her know what was going to happen to her, and it enabled her to deal with it better when it happened. Why wouldn't you, though? No, the guy's like raped 26 women in your city, and no, you're definitely freaking, you're on the case, right?

Because it's fascinating. Like, what is driving this guy to do? It was like the number one story. People were obsessed with him. In Sacramento, when this stuff was going on, let me tell you, there was a. That's one person in that town that wasn't, you know, paying attention to the story. I mean, it was, you know, front page news. It was not like, you know, it was, everybody knew about it.

In fact, one of my classmates said that the day that it happened, that I was having a conversation with her in music class about the guy. And I'm like, I don't, I said, what we were talking about. She goes, I don't remember what we were talking about the guy. We talked about the guy that day. the day that it happened, she goes, we were talking about him. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. She goes, no, we had a conversation about him.

Everyone at school knew, of course. Everyone at school knew. I didn't share it with very many. I mean, I shared it with a few people. It's just a long story. And then, you know, once you told it too few times, and he just got so. And then people's reaction, of course, people's reaction went, oh, my God, that happened to you. Despite what happened to her at such a young age,

Margaret didn't let this affect the rest of her life. In Sacramento, people really reacted to it adversely, and I was just like not that affected by it. And years would go by. Like a lot of victims are going to tell you, you know, I get a bad feeling towards that time of the year. I get kind of spooked or I have a very, you know, uneasy feeling. I'll tell you, like years would go by.

And I never thought twice about it. And I never, you know, in fact, in fact, I had even mistaken the date. I thought it was November 27th. Well, actually, it's November 10th. I was the 27th victim. So, yeah, I had even messed up the date. I didn't even remember

the exact date of the attack. So for me, you know, I really got tired of telling the story and people, you know, I kind of thought sometimes people got a different idea about me, maybe, or they felt sorry for me or something.

And I didn't want anybody to feel sorry for me. I really felt that it was a victory in my life, you know, rather than a tragedy, you know. And it was nothing that ever defined me. And it was nothing ever, like I could even be a rape advocate or something or a help somebody else because I would have been like, hey, girl, it's time to walk down that dark alley because, you know, you can't let somebody affect your life so adversely because there's been something terrible to you, to you. You can't let somebody have so much power over you. Margaret told us just how scary it was when she realized how closely her life paralleled the movements of the East Area rapist. Initially, I went online to find out if there had been any news about the, you know, the, or any development in the case. But I really didn't know very much about it.

I didn't know if they caught him. I didn't know. And I had heard some rumors, some weird rumors about this. been a couple of homicides in Dana Point, which was interesting to me because I had lived in Dana Point. I had gone to Danny Hills High School in 1980. I was in, I was living on Blue Mansion. And so that was interesting to me because I had heard that the East Area Rapist had gone

to Gain A Point and killed a couple of people. And I thought that was ludicrous, right? I had heard that years ago and I just really dismissed it. But in 1980, I was living in Dana Point with my mom. We had moved three and a half, I think about three and a half years after my attack. We were living in Dana Point. I was going to Danny Hills High School. And the couple that was murdered in Dana Point, there was a double homicide.

And I remember very well there was a double homicide, but I thought, well, it was a triangle or something like that. And the Harringtons, I believe, were murdered there. And I remember the murders, but, you know, it was never linked, obviously, because he was. until after 2001 when they got the DNA and everything was pulled together. But had I known at the time, I think I really would have, you know, being as cool as I am, I think I would have really freaked out if I would have known how close those double homicides were to my home. I was really literally right around the corner from those murders. That's an interesting coincidence, really, really interesting coincidence.

I mean, and it's just maybe very, just a coincidence. really weird, you know, that I was so close, three and a half years later, if a double homicide bit happened, where he was involved. And I was living right around the corner, you know, 500 miles away. I would have been gone.

I mean, my mom would have moved, I mean, my mom would have freaked out. Yeah, no, she did not handle the attack well, and she had a lot of therapy, and it was really hard on her. She just did not do well with that whole situation. But, you know, who would with your kid being attacked in a situation like that.

We asked Margaret to tell us about her choice to come forward publicly. But what got me interested was I went online. I saw that there were, you know, a bunch of sleuths that were, you know, giving their idea about what was going on with the case. And so I told my story. I got on there and said, you know, hey, I was this victim. And then I had a few people that said, oh, this girl was called the end. And I kind of got offended by that.

I thought, why would I want to say something like this and not, you know, make up something like that? Why would you want to tell a story like that and not have it be true? Or, you know, why would you want to make yourself, put yourself in that place? But, you know, I guess people make up all kinds of things. But anyway, so I told my story. I had a girl from Sacramento contact me. And she asked me if it would be okay. if a gentleman named by the name of Todd Lindsay got a hold of me.

He was going to do a special for CNN. And I said, yeah, that'd be fine. And so he got a hold of me, and he asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for a show that he was doing. And I said, okay. And then that was how I got introduced to some of the other girls, and it's just taken off from there. And once I met them, it was just life-changing.

It was absolutely life-changing to hear Debbie Domingo's story about her mother and how, you know, she was 15 years old. And, you know, that was the last time she saw her mom, you know. And I just, and then Janelle Cruz and, you know, being home alone. And I can't imagine being, you know, in her shoes and just being by yourself there in your house and having an intruder like that. It was just absolutely frightening and horrific.

So for me, it was just, it was so nice just walking in the door where we were filming and having the girls just like embrace me and hug me and hold me and just like unconditional love. I've never had that ever before. And it was just, it just brought me to tears. And that's how I got involved. Margaret told us about how meeting other surviving East Area rapist victims and family members of his murder victims

changed her outlook on the case and on the East Area Rapist himself. For me, you know, I never really felt like it could help anyone. I never felt that I, I never felt that anybody really cared about my story, to be quite honest. I never really, I never really cared if you even got caught to be honest with you until I met these other women now. within the last year I met Debbie Domingo, I met Michelle Cruz, I met James Sandler, I met these lovely, lovely women, and heard their stories. And their stories are incredibly moving and tragic and horrific, you know, losing family members. The way these people were killed, just I can't even imagine.

the terror that went through Janelle Cruz's mind and her entire body before he murdered her, you know, he did. And just, you know, I can't even imagine. I can't imagine the majeure is walking out walking a dog one night and seeing, confronting some guy probably who's peeping or trying to break into somebody's house or whatever he was doing. I'm sure he chased them down and shot them point blank. I mean, how horrific.

In my wildest dreams, I can't even imagine that kind of a terror and that kind of a moment. So for me, it's become very personal in the fact that I've met these people whose lives have been changed unimaginably. So that's how I've been affected within just the last year. of meeting some of the other victims and people who have been affected by this guy. So now I really want to see justice done, not for me, but for others. The story that needs to be told is that, you know, this guy is still out there. The story that needs to be told is that we have his DNA. The story that needs to be told is that somebody has information about him and somebody knows

something about him. You know, somebody was his girlfriend. Somebody with his classmates. Somebody in Sacramento knows something about him, and maybe in Vaissela as well. Somebody knows this guy. There's a few people out there probably that know this guy and are suspect who this guy may be. And he may very well be alive in Sacramento, still live in his life for all we know. You know, he's got to, if he is out there, he needs to be held accountable for what he's done to these people.

So that's where my story comes in, and that's where I think it's important that I, you know, I contribute if I can. If somebody like yourself wants to hear my story or, you know, if there's anything that I can do to help bring light to this, to these crimes, or if I, bring interest, more interest to this, these crimes or, you know, bring more people to the table and hear about what's going on with. this with the history of these crimes, then that's what I want to be able to help do. And hopefully bring some results for the people that have lost their loved ones. That's the most important thing to me. What's the most important part of it is that, you know, more people that are made aware of what happened with these crimes and the facts that we're still looking for this guy, I think that's the most important story that needs to be told, is that we're still

looking for this person. He's never been held accountable for these murders and that we need to find who he is. I mean, he may be, he may very well be dead by now, but we need to find out who he was and have some answers, give some answers to these families because it's just, it's not fair and it's just not right. And it's horrific what they've had to go through

and not have answers to, you know, who he was or why he hasn't been brought to justice. Margaret gave us her thoughts about the possibility of other victims coming forward. I'm just amazed that there's only, there's really literally only, as far as victims are, and family members of victims, there's only really four of us that are out there right now. I'd like to see more of us, but I mean, you know, I do know, from my own experience, Carol Daley, and that was another person I was able to get back in touch with, which was just huge for me.

I remember after the attack, my birthday was shortly after my attack, and I came home from school one day, and there was a cop car in front of my house. The sheriff's patrol car, and I thought, oh, my God, why is my cop car in front of my house? And I walked up to her, and it's Carol Daly. She's waiting for me with a gift for my birthday. She's got a card and a gift for me.

And I was just, oh, my gosh, I've never forgotten that. So I was able to thank her after 40 years. You know, this has brought S back together. I've been able to see her again and thank her for being there for me. She was just such a wonderful person and an incredible woman. And so I've been able to thank her for being there for me and she's awesome. She asked me at that point, would it be okay if I had lunch with another one of the victims? One of the other victims had asked me, a married woman, she'd asked me if I,

could, if she could take me out to lunch. And I said, yeah, I'm not a problem. I don't mind going out to lunch with another lady. And so she took, a woman took me out to lunch. And so we kind of compared stories. And this woman started telling me about, like, she had been, her husband had been tied up. She was taken into another room.

He had raped her multiple times. He went back to her multiple times. And her and her husband couldn't talk about it anymore. Their marriage was falling apart. It was at that point, I realized this guy really screwed up people's marriages. He had really, really done a number on this couple's life, you know. So I really did realize at that point, you know, this guy has really, really, really messed people's lives up.

I realized, obviously, that, you know, I was very lucky. But so I do understand that I think a couple of victims have passed away. I understand that there's people that don't want to talk about it, and I understand there's good reasons for it. So, you know, whatever, whomever wants to talk about it. I understand that they're right. If they don't want to, I respect that. I do wonder why after 50 rape victims, there's not more of us out here that are coming forward and telling our story.

Yeah, people ask, are you afraid he's going to come back and get you? I'm not afraid he's going to come back and get me or get loose. I know, I'm not afraid. I wasn't afraid then. I'm not afraid now. We can't thank Margaret enough for coming on to talk to us about what she went through and for sharing something that's so personal. You can't blame any victims that chose not to come forward publicly,

but it's the brave stories of people like Margaret and Jane that help us understand what kind of predator we were talking about here. And for me, Morp, I am blown away by the strength. When we talk to Jane, when we talk to Margaret, it's that strength and that resolved that comes through to me. And like I said, it just, it really, it almost gives me chills. Yeah, and I think their accounts are very powerful. All right, Morp, this episode was jam-packed, but I think this is a good place to stop here and wrap up this episode six. If you want to help support the show, all you have to do is go to patreon.com slash criminology. And if you want to find us on

social media. You can find us on Twitter with the handle Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching Criminology Podcast. If you want to join our discussion forum on Facebook, simply search for Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. And if you haven't done so, please take a moment to go out on iTunes and rate and review the show. And before we go, we want you to hear from Ali and Charlie who do the amazing True Crime Podcast Insight. And I love this podcast. I've been on this podcast. They have a great style. So check them out. Insight is a podcast that explores true crime and mysteries. We've two hosts from two continents. We recommend trying some of our recent episodes like Marcia Sylvia and Stonewall that explores

gay rights movement in the U.S. and the unsolved death of activist Marcia P. Johnson. Or our episode on Jaden Liskey, an Australian child who's not a child who's murder seemed to have been solved. Or perhaps a lion's sisters, two missing American children who have seen justice, but was it complete justice? We also covered the Parker Hume case out of New Zealand, a story of teen girls who did the unimaginable, yet went on to live their lives out from the shadow of their crime. That is, until the press discovered one of them became a famous author under her new name. We release episodes every Monday and Thursday. You can find insight in your favorite podcast app or all across social media just by searching

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