Criminology - The Homework

Episode Date: April 21, 2018

In this 9th episode of Season 2, we delve into more crimes committed by the EAR/GSK. We hear from a victim that has chosen for the first time to publicly come forward to talk about her ordeal. We hear more from some of the detectives that worked the case back then as well as those working it now. And we talk in-depth about "The Homework", papers found near one of the crime scenes that many felt may have been dropped by EAR.  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

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch.

Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. 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 nine, season two of criminology. And more if it's hard to believe that we're already on episode nine of 12 for this second season. We're coming into the home stretch of our East Area rapist, Golden State Killer coverage. But we've got a lot of material yet to come this season. And as dark a season as this has been, unfortunately, it's going to get much darker as we finish up.

But before we dive right into this episode nine, let's give some shoutouts to our new Patreon supporters. We had Katie Burjie, big true crime all the time supporter as well, so I appreciate that. We had Jamie Hester, John Singh, Gwen Ma, Justin Redding, Justin Redding, Sean Simpson, Andrew Eastwood, and then we had Cato Caelin. Can you believe that more? D. Cato Caelin? Nah, it's spelled differently. It's still a really cool name, though. I thought we had our first celebrity supporter. I know. Wouldn't that be something?

So a huge shout out to all of our new Patreon supporters and all the people that have supported us this season continue to support us month after month. It really helps us put out this podcast. Yeah, we can't thank you enough. It means a lot that what we're doing is important enough for you to help support it in any way you can, whether that's through Patreon or on social media. A lot of people are finding out about criminology from word of mouth. So any way you can help, we definitely appreciate it. So we've been telling you about our book based on season one, The Zodiac.

It's Criminology True Crime Podcast. presents the case of the Zodiac Killer. So you can find the book at Amazon or you can go to our partner in this project, Wild Blue Press. Of course, they also have some other great true crime books that you might be interested in. You can get more details by going to

wildbluepress.com forward slash zodiac pre-orders and Wild Blue Press is offering our listeners a free audio book download. All you have to do is go to wildblupress.com slash audio dash books to get your free audio download. And don't forget about CrimeCon.

We're just a few weeks away and more. If I know you and I have talked about it, we're very excited. We've had a lot of listeners tell us that they're going. They want to meet up. They want to say hi. I love it. We can't wait to see all of you. And if you've been putting off getting tickets until the very end, that's okay.

You still have time. Go to CrimeCon. com. Use our promo code criminology. and you'll get 10% off your standard badge. So when we left off at the end of episode 8, the East Area Rapist had come to Contra Costa County and struck there. And we heard from retired Contra Costa County investigator Larry Crompton,

who told us about how his department handled the bad news that the East Area rapist had come to his county. And that attack occurred on October 7, 1978. And unfortunately, for Larry, and his team, they didn't have to wait long for the East Area rapists to strike in their county again because it would happen only six days later. Once again, it would be on Concord on the 2,700 block of Ryan Road, only a quarter mile from his attack less than a week earlier. At around 4.30 a.m., a 29-year-old woman and her 27-year-old boyfriend were fast asleep when their bedroom door burst open,

waking the woman immediately. She screamed waking her boyfriend up. standing in front of them was a man shining a flashlight in their eyes. The stranger warned them, don't scream. If you scream again, I'll kill you. The man told the couple that if they cooperated, they would be all right in that he just needed money for him and his girlfriend. He ordered the couple to roll over face down on the bed before throwing a shoelace to the female victim ordering her to tie up her boyfriend.

The assailant ordered her to tie her boyfriend's hands tightly behind his back. After she tied him, the assailant ordered her to lie down and tied her hands behind her back and then her ankles. He then retied the male victim's hands behind his back even tighter. The attacker placed the gun to the head of the male victim and was in the middle of threatening to blow his head off when the female victim's seven-year-old daughter walked into the room after being alarmed by the events. when the young girl saw the attacker with a gun, she started to scream.

The assailant warned the woman to shut the little girl up, and the terrified mother told her daughter to get in the bed with her. But their attacker didn't like this idea, and he told the child to come with him. He forced her into the bathroom and then placed items against the door to keep the youngster from getting out. Once the intruder had everyone secured, he started to search through items in the couple's bedroom. He left the room for a short time, but returned. returned and placed the gun to the male victim's head saying, all we want is food and money and then we'll get the hell out of here.

He pulled blankets over the man's head and then placed plates on his back. The assailant warned the couple that he would use a knife on them if they tried anything. He then went back to rifling through their drawers. He left the room but returned later on and ordered the female victim out of the bed. He removed her ankle bindings and forced her to walk into the living room. Then he forced her to lay face down on the floor. He put towels over her face. As she lie helpless on the floor, the attacker continued to look around for stuff going in and out of the garage.

He wasn't gone long before he returned and asked the woman a question. Do you want to live? The woman said yes. The intruder's reply let her know what was going to happen when he told her, then this had better be the best fuck I've ever had or I'm going to kill all of you. The attacker then sexually assaulted the woman. After the assault was over, the rapist left the female victim lying on the floor and started to once again go in and out of the garage. It sounded like he was handling trash bags full of items.

At one point, she heard the attacker in the garage say, here, put this in the car. The victim lay there on the floor straining to hear anything she could, but she didn't hear much. and in fact she never heard her attack her again as he quietly had slipped the way. The bound pair managed to get themselves loose of their bindings using a pair of scissors. Then they let the seven-year-old girl out of the bathroom before calling police at 532 a.m. This was just an hour after the intruder had initially attacked the couple. Police took a description of the assailant and the couple was able to tell police that the man was an adult male wearing gloves and a ski mask.

He was about 5 foot 10, and the female victim added that he had a very small penis. Morph, I think we've heard this one before. And of course, this is one of those little tidbits that comes up over and over again. As police searched the home, they found several shoelaces. They also found an empty box of trash bags in the garage. They discovered metal shavings in the living room near the front door. and the police noted in their report that a TV set had been unplugged and the cable wire had been ripped out of it. The victims were able to determine that the assailant had made off with about $8 in cash on alarm clock and two cartons of cigarettes.

Hardly the kind of stuff a desperate burglar would seem to want. At this point, the male victim relayed something of interest to the police. He told them that on the day before, he had heard the neighbor in the house behind him pounding on his fence. When he went out and talked to the neighbor, he learned that the fence had been damaged and a board was knocked off of it. Police went out and checked this fence and found weird gouges and markings on the victim's side of the fence. While investigators looked outside of the home, they found that the screens for some of the windows had markings and gouges in them, but there didn't appear to be any prime marks. The point of entry was likely through the garage or one of several windows that was left open for ventilation. And dust on at least one of these windows seemed to have been disturbed.

The police wanted to question neighbors to see if they could glean any helpful info. And they heard that almost 24 hours before the attack at around 7 a.m. on October 12, a nearby neighbor on Ryan Court discovered that her gate was open and her bike was missing. A few neighbors reported hearing noises in their backyards overnight leading up to the attack. Some of them said that they had heard similar sounds over the previous month. Other residents reported receiving obscene and hang-up phone calls during the weeks prior. One homeowner's window screen had been removed and an attempt was made to get indoor house via the window. Lots of strange activity in this small section of the neighborhood leading up to the attack.

On October 16th, three days after the attack, the bike stolen out of the neighbor's backyard was found near an apartment complex on Ryan wrote. Police concluded quickly that this was definitely the East Area rapist. So these are two attacks, days apart, and less than a quarter mile away from each other. This shows that the East Area rapist was not afraid to stay in a small area, even if police were focusing on it. After the second attack in this Concord neighborhood, police were not taking any chances. They stepped up patrols in the area and in the city of Concord in general. The East Area Rapists would strike again, but it wouldn't be in Concord. San Ramon is a town about 20 miles south of Concord, and the East Area Rapist would choose that town for his next

attack in the early morning hours on October 28, 1978, just over two weeks since his last attack in Concord. This attack would happen on Montclair Place. The victim, would be a 23-year-old woman and her 24-year-old husband. And while we will go into some details of this attack, we wanted the woman who was the victim of this attack to tell her own story. Her name is Michelle, and she has only recently decided to come forward and open up about her story. In fact, we're the first people to record her account of the events that happened almost 40 years ago. But Israel here, this is still very difficult for Michelle to deal with.

My name is Michelle. I was the victim number 40 of the East Area rapist. My day started, well, my week started. We were in the process of moving and had that afternoon begun moving boxes, furniture, etc., from our current residents to our new residents. I had been very moving boxes in my vehicle with my son, who was three years old at the time. My husband had been moving more furniture, larger items, using a friend's truck along with a couple of his friends. And as the evening progressed, I came home around 10.30 that evening with my son to put him to bed. and my husband, they continued moving. They finished moving. Apparently around 1.30 got back to the house. And we're sitting in the driveway talking to each other when our porch light went on.

They had been discussing whether or not to come into the house. And when the light went on, they decided that would probably be a bad idea since clearly I was awake. I was probably upset. because it was so late. So they just dropped my husband off and left. As it turns out, I was not awake when he came in. He came to bed, 1.30, and it was approximately, I'm taking wild guesses here, around 2.30 when I was awakened with a flashlight in my eyes.

The ear was standing at the foot of the bed at the... end of a hallway that entered into our room. And he threw, I believe it was, shoelaces at me and instructed me to wake up my husband and tie him up. So I did that. And then he wandered around, he tied me up, and then he began wandering through the house, asking for money, insisting we had money, where was it? I told him I had money in my purse and where it was located. He went, got that money and came back and said, no, that's not enough. I need more money.

I instructed him that there were some silver dollars and some $2 bills on a box on a dresser. He continued wandering through the house, continuing back and forth. the room, at which point he, at one point he got up, he grabbed me, had me get out of bed, walked me out of the room down the hall and into the family room, or he pushed me on to the family room floor. He moved around quite a bit in the house, sometimes outdoors, sometimes it sounded like out through the garage door, back and forth. He came into the kitchen and turned on. He actually opened to the refrigerator.

There are a couple things that have been reported that I don't believe were quite accurate. There was an empty Coors 12-pack, I believe it was a container on the kitchen counter. The beer cans that were located on our property, we believe, were just from my husband and his friends having some beer while they were packing. I need to take a break. No, I'm not ready to do this, Mike. You can hear her in Michelle's voice just how tough it was for her to talk about this after 40 years. Michelle decided that this was just too much to talk about for her right now, but wanted us to use what she had given us. And we greatly appreciate her courage in coming forward to talk about this.

And we know this could not have been easy for her. As Michelle mentioned, she had been moving from one home to another. So the theme of real estate comes up again here in the East Area Rapist case. The East Area Rapist went through all of his usual script routines in Michelle's attack, waking her and her husband up, binding them, separating them, stacking dishes on her husband's back and then sexually assaulting Michelle in another room. During the attack, the East Area rapist told Michelle that he had seen her at the lake. And when she asked him which lake, he angrily cut her off and said, whisper, whisper, or I'll kill you. During the

assault, Michelle asked the rapist if she could have a drink of water. And he walked to the sink and filled a glass of water and brought it back to her. But instead of the same, of allowing her to drink it, he threw the water in her face. When the East Area Rapist left Michelle's home, he took a couple of her rings and about $64 in cash and coins. Police at the scene had noticed empty beer cans in the yard, something that was not out of the ordinary East Area Rapist's crime scenes. But as you heard Michelle say, those cans were from her husband and her friends. Michelle and her husband had described the rapist mask as being one that covered his entire head. He was about 5'9 to 6 feet tall.

She told police that he took breaks walking outside through the sliding glass door and out to the patio. Michelle heard the Easter rapist going for a refrigerator and drinking. It was about 4.30 a.m. and Michelle had someone coming to pick her up at 5.30 a.m. And she told the rapist that somebody would be there any minute. He must have been spooked by this because he left the home almost immediately. Police looked around Michelle's home and yard and they discovered that the fence in her backyard had been damaged. Size 9 and a half footprints with a herringbone pattern were also discovered in the backyard. Multiple witnesses saw a man dressed in dark clothing walking away from the area of Michelle's home between 4.45 and 5.20 a.m.

Although Michelle was not able to finish telling her whole story to us, her rape could be. spoke volumes. Contra Costa County did a great job in preserving their evidence, including the rape kit evidence. They carefully bagged and stored what they collected from Michelle's crime scene, and while they had no way of knowing what they had in 1978, well over a decade later, Michelle's case would be the first of the entire series to yield DNA, linking the East Area rapists to other crimes both in Northern and Southern California. Michelle's attack had been the third Contra Costa County attack in the month of October. The East Area Rapists Task Force there was on high alert as residents talked about the

attacks and fear spread through the community the way it had done back in Sacramento County. We asked Larry Crompton how vigilant people were in Contra Costa County during this part of the East Area Rapist series. Those of us on the task force that he would come seen the deputies that day because he didn't come back there in the house and I had my gun out. I think by them possibly seeing the deputies that as you heard Larry Crompton mentioned the East Area Rapist Task Force in Contra Costa County was not taking possible East Area Rapist activity lightly and they wanted to prepare for any other possible attacks by him. The East Area Rapists would attack again in less than a week

after Michelle's attack on November 4th, 1978, but it wouldn't be in San Ramon. In fact, It wouldn't even be in Contra Costa County. The East Area Rapids had his site set on a new hunting ground, San Jose. San Jose is a historic city, 40 miles south of San Ramon and Santa Clara County. In 1978, the city consisted of about 600,000 residents and many areas in San Jose were middle or upper class. There were some pockets that were pretty wealthy. One of these pockets included the section of Haven. Wood Drive, which today boasts million-dollar homes all along the street. On November 4th,

on the 130 block of this street, the East Area rapist would target his next couple. At about 3.45 a.m., a. A.m., a 34-year-old woman was asleep, alone in her bed, when she felt pressure and weight on top of her. She opened her eyes to find a man pressing down on her. It was dark, and she couldn't see the intruder clearly, but she felt impressing something sharp against her. The man spoke in a harsh whisper. Don't make a sound. If you do, I'm going to kill you. I have a knife. The man forced her face down and tied her hands behind her back using heavy string. And then her ankles were tied. The terrified woman's thoughts then turned to her baby who was sleeping in another room. The dark figure whispered to the woman that he was hungry and wanted food. After she had been fully

secured, the attacker stood behind her and started making weird sounds. The victim thought he was masturbating. She started to cry and the man put a knife to her temple. He walked out of the room and into the bathroom but returned after a few moments, blindfolded her and gagged her using ripped up towel pieces. He untied the woman's ankles and sexually assaulted her. After the sexual attack, the assailant walked out of the room and looked around her house.

He came back and asked her where her money was. He spent time looking through her house and then once more raped the woman before vanishing from the house. Shortly after the man left, the victim made it to a push-button phone and actually used her toes to dial for help. And police got the call at 4.35 a.m.

They arrived at the woman's house before 5 a.m. The woman had freed herself by the time police arrived and she checked on her baby who was unharmed. Authorities questioned her about her rapist, but she couldn't provide very much in the way of details as it was very dark. She said he was approximately 5 foot 11, but other than that,

she really couldn't add much more. Police discovered that the entry and exit was made through the sliding glass door, which the victim felt was unlocked. And there were no signs of, of it being tampered with. She told police that the rapist originally used gloves, but had removed them during the attack. Police dusted for prints, but didn't find any.

Outside, they looked around the yard and determined that the suspect had likely entered the victim's backyard via a nearby school yard, but they didn't see any scuff marks on the fence. Additionally, the windows and doors to the home were checked, and there were no signs of prying or damage. It seemed as if the San Jose Police Department didn't initially link this case to the East Area Rapist. After all, they had not had an East Area Rapist attack prior to this. In hindsight, we can look back and see how much of this attack matches the MO of the East Area Rapist, but this was a new area for him. And he chose a two-story home in this attack, something that he normally steered clear of, but even though this was the first East Area rapist attack in San Jose,

it would not be the last. 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. The next attack by the Easterer rapists wouldn't come from most a month. But when he struck again, it would be back in San Jose on the 2,700 block of Kessie Lane in the early morning hours at December 2nd. Like many of the Easterer rapist attacks on couples, this attack started out in a similar fashion. At around 2 a.m., a 27-year-old woman awoke to the light of a flashlight beam in her eyes. She screamed and her 32-year-old husband woke up. A voice in the darkness hissed, don't look at me or I'll shoot you.

All I want is some fucking food and money, and then I'll leave. The man mentioned that he had a van waiting. He ordered the couple to lie face down. The intruder threw white shoelaces to the female victim and told her to tie her husband's hands behind his back. Once the husband was tied, the attacker tied the female victim's hands behind her back and tied the feet of both victims. Once he had secured the couple, he walked off and started to go through the home. The couple called out to the man telling him that there was food in the fridge and cash in a linen closet in the hallway. The intruder found the cash and scooped it up.

He then came back into the bedroom where he used torn. strips of towel to blindfold and gag both victims. He left the room but returned after a few minutes. When the attacker returned, he placed plates on the male victim's back and he forced the female victim off the bed. He made her walk to the front room of the house. He shoved her down on the floor. After a moment, she could hear the intruder masturbating.

He called out to the woman saying, I've been watching you for a long time and I've been wanting to fuck you for a long time. He then placed his penis in the woman's bound hands. After a moment, he held a knife to her throat and threatened her. He told her that she had better make it feel nice or he would cut her throat. The woman was then sexually assaulted. During the assault, the rapist held what felt like a gun to the woman's head and told her not to make a sound or he would blow her brains out.

After the rape was over, the attacker got up off the woman and walked into the kitchen. She was still blindfolded, but she could hear the intruder going through the cupboards and the refrigerator. She heard the man walk out of the house through the sliding glass door, and for five minutes there was silence. Thinking that the rapist was gone, she tried to get up to move closer to her husband, who was still tied up in the bedroom. And then all of a sudden, the attacker stepped back into the house and told the woman to lie still or he would kill her. The horrified woman lay still on the floor while the rapist once again looked around the kitchen. She could hear him talking out loud. It sounded as if he was sobbing.

He said, you motherfucker, and repeated it over and over. Once again, the man exited the home through the rear sliding glass door. This time, he didn't come back. After several minutes, the female who was still bound crawled to her husband who was in the bedroom. They were able to knock the phone off the receiver and called police. received the call at 4.30 a.m. and raced to the house arriving in just a few minutes. Police quickly saw that the attacker had gained entry through the rear sliding door. He had broken out a nearby window and then reached in and unlocked a slider.

The screen covering the window was lying against the house. Outside in the yard, police found a box of crackers and a Coors beer can. The couple were able to determine that the attacker had gotten away with the husband's gold nugget wedding band, a digital clock radio, and about $60 to $70 worth of cash and change. The man had also made off with six packs of courage beer. The victims couldn't describe the intruder with great detail, but felt he was between 20 and 30 years old, and he sounded somewhat educated. Police asked neighbors if they had seen anything unusual, but the only thing that was reported was by a neighbor. that found one of their flower pots broken in their yard. This was the second attack in San Jose in a month,

and these would end up being the only two attacks committed there by the East Area rapists. Now, one thing to mention is that both the San Jose rape victims were Asian. Typically, it seemed as if the East Area rapists targeted Caucasian females. not always, but the majority of the women that he targeted were Caucasian. And it also seemed as if the East Area Rapists targeted areas and neighborhoods and not necessarily people. The two attacks in San Jose had brought Santa Clara County into the East Area Rapist mix. It was now anybody's guess where the East Area Rapids would strike again and win. At around 2 a.m. on December 9th, just a week after the second San Jose attack,

32-year-old woman was asleep on Liberta Court in Danville, Contra Costa County. Suddenly, she was jolted awake by the feeling of somebody on top of her. She opened her eyes only to find a man holding a long but blunt object to her throat. The intruder told the frightened woman that he just wanted money for his van and that she had better not make a move or a sound. He forced the woman to turn over under her stomach and then tied her hands behind her back with white shoe laces before also tying her ankles. The man left. the room and went to the kitchen where he went through drawers and cabinets. He made his way back towards her room, stopping to go through a hall closet.

When he arrived back in the woman's bedroom, he asked her if she was expecting anyone. She wasn't, and she told the man no. The intruder asked her if she liked to fuck. This terrified the woman even more. She didn't answer him. He then asked her what to me sounds like a very strange question. He asked her if she liked to raise dicks. The woman blurted out no emphatically.

The man said with a very smart tone, then how come you always raise mine? The conversation with this woman seemed to imply that the rapist had seen her or knew her from someplace. But as we've seen in other Easterer rapist cases that we've talked about, there were times when the victims felt that he was lying to them and he didn't really know them. The assailant used an orange towel to blindfold the woman. He walked into her bathroom and then returned a minute later. It sounded to her as if he was masturbating. She caught the smell of lotion that she kept in her bathroom.

The man untied her feet and then he raped her. Afterwards, he retied her ankles before leaving the room and heading back to the kitchen where she could hear him looking for something. After a short while, the man once again appeared in the bedroom. He untied the woman's ankles and raped her again. Afterwards, he tied her feet again, but very tightly. In a moment, he walked out of the room. A few minutes after that, she heard the sliding glass door on the back of her house open.

She felt that the rapist had left her house, but laid still for a while just in case. After what seemed like an hour, she finally tried to get free. and using a serrated kitchen knife, managed to cut herself free. She tried to call police, but her phone cord was cut. So she ran out of the house and to the neighbors across the street. They called police at just after 5 a.m. And police were there within minutes. Police jumped into action, immediately thinking that the woman was probably a victim of the East Area rapist.

And they didn't want to waste any time. They immediately ordered bloodhounds to be brought to the scene. and while they waited for the dogs to arrive, they questioned the victim about the attack. Several investigators, including Larry Crompton, were at the scene. The woman told them that her attacker was about 5-9 to 5-11 and weighed somewhere around 150 to 160 pounds. He also wore a ski mask. Investigators noticed how cold the residence was and discovered that the thermostat had been turned off by the rapist. A stereo that had been left on by the victim was unplugged, and one of her rings was on top of it.

She discovered that her driver's license and some cash was missing from her purse. The victim relayed to police that her home had been broken into about six weeks earlier. She was then taken to John Muir Hospital. Police took notice that the home was currently for sale and later found out that it was listed with a real estate agency in Davis, California. As she was being taken away, the bloodhounds arrived on. on site. Their handlers brought the dogs into the home and let them work their way around. They allowed the dogs to become familiar with the items that the rapist had handled, and then they brought the dogs outside. The dogs started following the rapist's scent outside of the home.

As they made their way, the dogs paused and sniffed a Schlitz malt liquor bottle that was lying on the ground in the victim's yard. The dogs tracked the rapist to the backyard fence, and the handler sure that the assailant had gone over that fence. It led into another neighbor's yard. It appeared that there were scuff marks on the fence, perhaps from a tennis shoe. It was now around 7.30 a.m. While the dogs worked the scent, police knocked on doors to see if neighbors had seen or heard anything unusual. They started with the resident who lived on the other side of the fence. And although they had not seen anything specific, they did relay that their young child had woken up screaming hysterically at around the time the victim was attacked.

Another neighbor reported that a few hours before the attack, just before midnight, a van was parked in the victim's driveway. Another resident on nearby El Capitan Drive reported that her driver's license went missing from her purse, but she wasn't sure if it was related to the attack. As police talked to neighbors, the dogs continued to track the rapist's scent. They made a beeline towards a railroad right away and followed a trail, paralleled to the tracks heading south. Then they suddenly came to a stop.

It was as if the scent trail ended abruptly. The dog's handler felt that the attacker most likely had gotten into a car at this spot and drove off. The handler later noted that the bloodhounds were acting very erratically during the search. And this was something that they typically only saw in the dogs when they were tracking someone who was either on drugs or had some sort of disease. Police fanned out and searched the area closely where the scent had ended. And it didn't take them long to find evidence where they felt the rapist had been parked.

On the ground were three pages of paper torn from a spiral notebook. Police looked over the papers briefly and then carefully placed them into evidence bags. At the time, they didn't know that they had found possibly the largest clues in the East Area rapist case up until that point. One of the pages contained a hand-drawn map of a community or development on one side and on the other some words or phrases that were scrawled and scratched out. The second piece of paper contained an essay about General Custer. And the last piece of paper contained a ranting essay or letter about how badly someone

hated their sixth grade school year. The three pages seemed almost unrelated to each of. but had obviously come from the same notebook. No prints were found on the pages and nothing that could identify the author was included. The pages were booked into the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department evidence room where they would sit for years until investigator Paul Holes decided to look through the evidence room in an effort to dig up something on an East Area rapist suspect he was looking into. I think it's important to understand how I came across that evidence. I was actively investigating a suspect that was what I consider a prime suspect back in 1979. He was a railroad guy out of Sacramento that could be put in every single location in the Northern California series at the same time those attacks were occurring.

And back when he was contacted by. Larry Crompton and Larry Crompton's partner, the guy immediately lawyered up. He was uncooperative. Everything was suspicious about that particular individual. During that investigation, I found that the original investigators had recovered a ski mask that this suspect had worn back in 1978, 1979, and had put it into sheriff's property.

So I went after that ski mask trying to get that suspect's DNA to compare to see if he was the East Area rapist. When I'm in the box at the property room that had that ski mask, at the bottom of that box, and there's many items in the property, in each box that's inside a property room, at the bottom of that box, I just happened to see a plastic bag, evidence bag, that had a, tag on it that said collected from railroad right of way. Well, since I was looking at the suspect that was a railroad worker, he was a brakeman for the Western Pacific Railroad, that really caught my eye. So I dug down to that little bag and pulled it out, and it was folded pieces of torn out spiral notebook paper that was in that plastic bag. And when I pulled that out, what I saw was rudimentary essays, the Custer essay, the Matt is the word essay, and then this hand-drawn diagram.

And I almost just folded it back up, put it back in the plastic bag, sealed it up, and put it back into property without thinking about it. But that diagram caught my eye because it was something unusual. And my initial thought as many people who first see that diagram's initial thought was, oh, this could be somebody who's out prowling a neighborhood and, you know, trying to make a map of where he's prowling and possibly where he wants to attack. So fortuitously, I decided, well, I better take this back to my office and look at it more closely. And so that's what I did. I took it back and I read the essays and was looking at the documents.

and I realized that the diagram contained a lot more detail than what somebody needed to put into it in order to just be a prowling map. And then on the back of the diagram, there was, you know, some female names, Melanie scratched out, Jen or Jerry scratched out. The words come from and then maybe Smelanies. Some people think it's Snelling, which I don't think so. that kind of caught my eye and then there was this big bold word scrawled diagonally across the back of the diagram and I was struggling to try to figure out what was written there and my clerk came in and I said hey what does this say and she immediately said oh that says punishment and I was like what and I said oh and all of a sudden it became very obvious what that word was. And then I started looking at it and I'm going, you know, that is entirely consistent with who the East Area rapist was. He's punishing his victims. And then when

he start looking at the mad is the word essay and the psychology behind the person who wrote that essay, I started to see that, well, that is entirely consistent behaviorally with who our offender is. As Paul mentioned, the Mad is the Word essay was a bitter recounting of someone's, quite possibly the East Area Rapist's sixth grade year of school. And it gives you an insight into how his mind may have worked, as you can hear in this reading of the essay. Mad is the word, the word that reminds me of sixth grade. I hated that year. I wish I had known what was going to be going on during my sixth grade year, the last and worst year of my elementary school. Mad is the word that remains in my head about my dreadful years of sixth grader. My madness was one that was caused by disappointments that hurt me very much.

Disappointments from my teacher, such as field trips that were planned and cancelled. My sixth grade teacher gave me a lot of disappointments, which made me very mad and made me build a state of hatred in my heart. No one ever let me down that hard before, and I never hated anyone as much as I did him. Disappointment wasn't the only reason that made me mad in my sense. sixth grade class, another was getting in trouble at school, especially talking. That's what really bugged me was writing sentences, those awful sentences that my teacher made me write. Hours and hours I'd sit and write, 50, 100, 150 sentences day and night. I wrote those dreadful paragraphs which embarrassed me, and more importantly, it made me ashamed of myself, which in turn deep down inside

made me realize that writing sentences wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to make me suffer like that. It wasn't fair to make me sit and write until my bones ached, until my hand felt every horrid pain it ever had. And as I wrote, I got madder and matter until I cried. I cried because I was ashamed. I cried because I was disgusted. I cried because I was mad, and I cried for myself. A kid who kept on having to write those damn sentences. My angrieness from sixth grade will scar my memory for life, and I will be ashamed for my

my sixth grade year forever. There are actually some possible clues in the essay that might narrowed who the Easterer rapist was. One of the clues is that the sixth grade teacher referenced was a man. Assuming that the Easter rapist attended sixth grade approximately between 1960, 1970 based on his age description, there were not nearly as many male elementary school teachers back during that time. Another clue mentioned were field trips and punishment dished out by the male teacher,

which included writing sentences. Very recently, a teacher who had taught in seven years. Sacramento County, who may be the one mentioned this letter, was identified. Efforts are underway by investigators to look back at male students that came through his classroom during that time frame. Perhaps one of those students went on to become the East Area rapist. The assignment the man is the word. You know, most certainly there is the one person who called in, who felt that what was

written in that essay described her father who was a teacher in the Rancho Cordova area. And that was very interesting in that she recognized that as a possibility. And that is something that investigators, we've definitely taken a look at to the best we can with the records that exist many, many years later. You talk about our offender's age and back calculating to when he was in the sixth grade. We're approaching 50 years later and many school districts don't have good records as to what was going on at that time. Some do. I've been very successful in tracking down sixth grade teachers on some suspects.

So that is one possible avenue that could lead to identifying our offender. Paul went on to tell us more about his research into the map that was found at the scene. I recognize that that diagram was not done by some middle school kid. It was much more sophisticated and possibly was unique enough to lead me to identify the occupation of the person who dropped it. And ultimately, I came to believe that it was the East Area rapist that dropped that diagram based on where it was, found in the circumstances that it was found at the crime scene along his escape route. Initially, as I was talking to people, I formed the opinion based on these various experts across many different disciplines within the development industry that this individual was somehow

affiliated with the development field. And I marched down that path because I thought, well, that really limits the population base. And I should be able to find somebody who's a developer. But as I continued with my investigation, I found that there are additional occupations, somebody within the development building real estate arena, that most certainly would have a reason to draw that type of diagram. So I thought I was narrowing the scope and then eventually that scope started to broaden as I continued with my investigation, which was very disheartening. but it's still relative to anything else,

I believe that it is still unique enough that it is a limited population that would have reason to possess that particular diagram. So in the lake, there are two sets of handwriting. There's the upper handwriting that's cursive, that says Lake Spope or Lake Spape. and then there's a printed set of handwriting underneath that that says lake and it's S-U-P-R maybe for maybe Lake Super, not sure.

It's possible that it's two different individuals that are writing. The Lake Spope or Lakes Papine cursive, that handwriting is the same handwriting that is present in the essays. So I believe that handwriting is our offender's handwriting. The printed handwriting could be our offender who's just decided to print there. But I think that it is possible that you have a second person that is collaborating with our offender and has written the printed writing lower. And there's other markings on that diagram that also show the possibility that you do have some. some collaborative effort going on. You have some pencil marks that are on some of the buildings

that tend to indicate that somebody is talking to another individual and they're swirling the pencil, hovering it over a particular location saying, and here, this is what I'm thinking. And then over here, this is something else that I think we can do at this particular location. Now it's very subjective interpretation, and I can't be concerned.

inclusive that this diagram is demonstrative of a collaboration. But I think it's a possibility. And what excites me about that is that whoever our offender was possibly collaborating with that diagram, maybe that person will remember that, see that diagram and call in. I pass that diagram out like it's like candy in the various jurisdictions where I'm walking. I'm literally boots on the ground walking through these jurisdictions where our offender was, passing that diagram out to developers, to real estate agents, to builders. I'm talking to them.

I'm emailing that diagram out. So, yes, I am distributing it far and wide as I go through my investigation. We asked Paul if there's any possible solutions as to what community the map diagram might represent. It's interesting because depending on. on the person's own background, where they're from and what they're familiar with. They place the possible locations for that diagram within their own experience.

So individuals out of Stockton, for example, are placing it and recognizing it as a Stockton development. People in Modesto recognize it as possibly a location in Modesto. The same thing for Davis, et cetera. So that's part of the complexity when you start looking at this, such a large geographic spread that our offender covered, is that we have kind of built in biases, both us as investigators, as well as people that we are talking to,

because they have their own world concept that they're trying to relate that diagram to. Based on what I have come across in terms, of talking to individuals and experts within, you know, professors of landscape architecture, practitioners in the development field, surveyors, civil engineers, you name it, I've talked to them. I believe the diagram is a, it's a brainstorm session. To date, the homework, as these three pages of writing has come to be known, has not led to the East Area Rapists being identified, but perhaps maybe the right person has not yet seen it.

Someone may eventually recognize the writing. Perhaps the East Area Rapist realized they had made a huge mistake by dropping the homework evidence, or maybe he just needed a break. Whatever the reason, he wouldn't strike again until March 20th, 1979, four months after dropping the homework evidence. The March attack would be the beginning of the end of his attacks in Northern California. California before heading the Southern California, whereas already sadistic and brutal attacks would turn deadly, and this serial rapist would become a serial killer. We have to wrap it up here, but in episode 10, we will close out the East Area rapist crimes in Northern California.

Remember, if you have any tips or info about the East Area rapist, Golden State Killer, please call the FBI tip line at 1-800. call FBI. And we want to once again thank our Patreon supporters. If you want to support the podcast, you can do so at patreon.com slash criminology. If you want to find us on social media, you can find us on Twitter at Criminology Pod or search Criminology Podcast on Facebook.

You can also join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans. And if you like the show and haven't done so yet, please take a minute and rate and review the show on whatever vehicle that you listen to the podcast. As we wrap up, we'd like for you to get a sense of a podcast we really enjoy called California Dreaming, hosted by our friend Roseanne. It covers a lot of California true crime mysteries. Hi, I'm Roseanne, host of the California Dreaming podcast, a show that delves into the darker side of the not-so golden state. Together, we will visit some of the most unhinged and chilling crimes that ever shook California and beyond.

Join me as I take you on a journey into a new story each week with a different backdrop from all around California, from the bright lights and glamour of Hollywood to the picturesque and tranquil wine country. No crime, no town, nobody is off limits. Listen to California Dreaming on the Orphoenix. Orbital Dixon Network, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The cases. We got to find who wrote this note. We do that.

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