Anyone having probed deeply into the case of The Night Predator (AKA the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker) cannot help but wonder where such a villain must have been based. Uncovering even the general area of his dwelling could be crucial to finally outing the miscreant.

     EAR’s lair conjures up images of an old Dragnet episode where the malcontent villain festers in a dank room amidst dreary mementoes of his boring job and frustrated life. EAR certainly had a number of souvenirs from his victims, none of which ever turned up again. I doubt they were displayed, but they were probably kept in that gym bag that he was known to have carried, stashed in a closet or hoarded away in a deep basement.

     What we do know, from the most obvious deduction, is that he stayed close to a telephone; a scratch pad with many numbers was next to it. He dialed, quietly listened to the “hellos” on the other end, and then calmly put down the receiver.

     Day or night he went about thinking how to reconnoiter his next victims. He stalked many neighborhoods before striking. In between he returned to his lair, sat at his little desk or hutch, and dialed again. At night he snipped out the little overhead light when finished. Then he was off to prowl.

     This can tell us much of his profile, but it is best to leave that theorizing to the appropriate page.

     This page is concerned with his attacks. They are not theory. They are solid strikes. He had to get to them and return to his lair. He had to get to these communities and return. Many times. Many times he stalked. He came and went many times. His entire crime spree helps us to get into his stalking mind. Study the map below before we continue. The East Area of Sacramento. . .

   It is impossible not to leave a progressive chain of clues. It is a physical impossibility. It violates an immutable law of physics. The Law of Cause and Effect. Nothing just happens. Everything is connected. No matter how hard a villain tries to cover his steps, he cannot. Attempting to cover steps leaves clues. Disguise can last only so long until the clues are unraveled.

     The map above tells us that EAR did not venture far from any main thoroughfare. This is true even of his first strikes. The area of Malaga/Paseo is quite close to Folsom Blvd, just 3 very short blocks away. 

     When EAR moved on to the Contra Costa County area, he followed this pattern. He stayed close to Highway 680 and to main thoroughfares. It invariably indicated he was not familiar with the area.

     When the EAR moved south to So. Cal, he did the same thing.

     The East Area map above can be interpreted by EAR’s unflinching pattern abroad. For the most part, the location of the strikes (in yellow numbers) do not indicate any in depth knowledge of the East Area. He remains close to the main thoroughfares. There are only 2 exceptions. These 2 times are attack No. 26. and No. 10. These are the furthest from a main thoroughfare that he struck.

     The map above marks the major arteries of Sacramento’s east end. Watt Avenue is traced in blue. Folsom Blvd is the crimson line south of the American River. Greenback Lane is the crimson line in the far north. Sunrise Blvd is the bright red line in the east. The un-traced “T” in the center of the cube marks Madison Avenue (the cross east/west) and the stem is Manzanita (running north/south). At the base of this “T” Manzanita merges into Fair Oaks Blvd which goes west and eventually connects with Watt Avenue. This is, in fact, the polar axis of the East Area.

       As the polar axis of the East Area, Manzanita Ave./Fair Oaks Blvd stand unique and special. These are main thoroughfares, yes, but they are markedly different than the others traced in various colors. They are not arteries that allow one to come and go to the East Area quickly. They are arteries that service the crisscrossing veins of the East Area.   

       EAR relies heavily, very heavily on Manzanita Avenue. And significantly a ski masked man seen fleeing the scene of No 26 dashed off on his bike in the direction of Manzanita. Yet it would have seemed best, if he wanted to flee the East Area, that he head in the Watt direction. Making his escape to Manzanita it is unlikely that he was then going to head for a highway.

       EAR’s actions suggest he had a lair in the area, one that could be serviced off the main polar axis of Manzanita. Naturally, we do not know if this was a permanent lair. This is the frustration with trying to trace EAR. He used empty houses as a base to prowl an area at night. He also seems to have used a bike which he brought in the back of a van. In Danville (No. 46) a suspicious van was seen, and the bloodhound traced the scent to Delta Place, the area to which it seems EAR had been seen to bike earlier. It would be easy to get a bike into the back of a van. It is interesting to note that No. 28, the victim would insist that the attacker had parked a van next to her house.

     Following the basic reasoning that EAR would avoid prowling in the area where he lived (lest he be recognized by local neighbors), we can safely assume that the blank places on the main map above are of more interest than his “comfort zones,” those areas where he repeatedly struck. Arden Arcade is completely blank, though it borders Watt Avenue itself, one of the biggest thoroughfares linking all the areas north and south of the American River. Within this area there is a “T” with several crosses. This is Eastern and El Camino/Marconi/Arden Way. Eastern runs north/south between Fair Oaks and Whitney. The others run east/west between Watt and Manzanita. EAR never struck here. He never seems to have prowled here either. Could it be this is his lair?

     EAR knew Del Dayo well enough so that with his first strike there (No. 2) he did not rely on the levee and park area. It was off Jacob Street, which is the main street into the area from Fair Oaks Blvd. No. 7 was also nearby off Jacob, and then No. 21 was also close by but off the levee in Sandbar Circle. These are quickly accessed by Eastern, going south to Fair Oaks Blvd. All of La Riviera is direct south on Watt Avenue, which is the main road just west of Arden Arcade. We know EAR did not know La Riviera well, for he relied on the CATs and then the levee walk.

     No. 26 has always bothered me. The offending organ is described as much thicker and larger than the other times. Only a few victims described this— 11, 17, for examples. A pumping device is a possibility, since on a few of these occasions the victims heard a popping sound as if a pump was being operated beforehand. They also heard the zipper of a gym bag. EAR had no ability to conceal a bag or pump at No. 26, for a witness saw him(?) retrieve the bike out of the back of the dump truck and ride off toward Manzanita, mask and all. Had he pumped himself up at his lair nearby and then struck at the Woodson Ave. area before the effects diminished? It would indicate his lair was nearby. Both Arden Arcade and the area east of Manzanita qualify.

     The trouble with trying to peg a lair in this area is that we are dealing with a blank space. The attacks themselves are only moments in crime. We have no real evidence of EAR’s behavior in between these attacks. They are only dots and we must draw a line through blank space. But this is not true of everywhere.

    EAR’s activities in Rancho Cordova suggest more than a passing acquaintance with the area. His attacks remain confined to a specific area of western Rancho. He doesn’t use any tactical ally here until No. 8. Here he steals the victim’s car, but he does not flee south toward Folsom Blvd. He ditches it north down El Segundo Drive mid block between La Presa and Los Palos. This location indicates he fled deeper into Rancho, not closer to Folsom Blvd. There is no way out up here except by jumping fences and getting on the canal and levee walk.

     Recently, the details surrounding the double murder of Brian and Katie Maggiore have been released by the lead detective Ken Clark. These details not only support that EAR committed the murders, but the details also help us fill in the blank spaces between attacks. This space is filled with the storm of prowling, home invasion, and hang-up phone calls that afflicted the general area where the murders took place on February 2, 1978. These incidents had been occurring up to 4 months in advance, with a mini storm occurring the week proceeding the tragic shooting. Hang-up calls, heavy prowling, and home invasions, as we know, always preceded an EAR strike, and hang-up calls in particular appear to have been used by him to determine residents’ routines.

     It is not necessary to touch on all the events of the “prowling storm.” The most important to the question at hand are the hang-up phone calls. They were occurring nightly to more than one household and at around 8 p.m. The last seemed to have been placed the night of the murder to the neighbors across the street from the house where the confrontation would take place between Brian and Katie Maggiore and the ski masked assailant. Three women lived within this house. They had been receiving these frustrating calls for a week already.

       Prior to the confrontation/murder at about 9 p.m., a young female homeowner along the 2500 block of Capitales suffered an attempted burglary, but the miscreant was prevented from getting in the glass sliding door because she had a secondary security device on the door. This incident was just the last in a string of burglaries and home invasions that had plagued the area over the preceding couple of months. She had had a lot of prowler activity during that time, as had so many other residents.

     Putting the chain of events together, EAR must have been based very close to the area in order to have made hang-up calls at 8 p.m., to have gotten to the neighborhood and prowled along Capitales and attempted home invasion in the 2500 block, and then gotten to the house he had last called in the 10100 block of La Gloria— all this had to be done within an hour.

     Arguments can be made that EAR could have used pay phones and therefore been at hand already. Arguments can also be made that EAR used empty houses as a base of operations and he therefore could have been using that absent homeowner’s phone. All of this is true. However, we have more:

     In fleeing the Maggiore murder scene, the assailant went up Las Casas northeast deeper into Rancho Cordova. In fact, he went back close to where EAR had ditched Victim 8’s car mid block. Again, there is only one way out up here— jump the fences at Los Palos. Behind here is the levee walk, the canal, and opposite that a whole different part of Rancho dominated by the apartment complex on Moraine Circle. If he followed the levee walk westward, he would have returned to La Loma Drive at its apex. If his lair was here he certainly would not have wanted to head straight back to it along La Loma after the shooting. Going to Los Palos actually would have been brilliant.

     Here at Los Palos/Las Casas he still didn’t want to be seen, though this is quite far from the crime scene. He lurks in a house’s bushes and takes a breather. When he comes out he realizes he is seen by a man and woman. He hides his face with his coat and says something odd and trite: “Oh, I guess I’m trespassing.” If he was soon to jump fences that would then lead to his lair, he certainly wouldn’t want to be seen here.          

M marks the location of the Maggiore Double Murder, and the blue line traces the killer’s escape on foot. The star marks where EAR ditched Victim 8’s car. Circles mark points where prowling, burglary and hang up phone calls had been received, sometimes weeks in advance. Green line marks the levee walk behind the homes and along the canal.

   In fleeing along Las Casas the Maggiore Double murderer fled past Del Rey Court, from which EAR had possibly accessed both Victim 1 and 3. After attacking Victim 3 unsuccessfully, EAR sauntered down Malaga Way. He could have been going to jump fences further down and be back on Del Rey Court. He smelled strongly of after shave here. The general circumstances suggest some kind of lair nearby— either an empty home across La Cumbra, a rental or an apartment/house on Moraine Circle.       

   With the recent release of information by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department concerning the existence of the Cordova Cat and the probability that he was EAR, we are led back to this exact area of Rancho Cordova. During 1972, this cat burglar first struck in this area, centered on the canal that divides this part of Rancho Cordova from its northern part. He struck as far west as Paseo Drive. But in 1973 he went further west and east, expanding to strike the exact area where the Maggiore Double Murders would occur in 1978.

     Richard Shelby (Hunting a Psychopath) discusses from memory an incident that he said occurred in 1974 involving the two corner homes on the canal on Dolecetto, the other side of Dawes Street from Los Palos. The homeowners on the corner house reported a prowler in their neighbor’s yard. Shelby said he is the one who responded. Shelby found nothing and left. He wasn’t blocks away when the call came back in. The prowler was back. Shelby returned to find the garage door rolled up, a bloody log from the fireplace at its foot. The neighbor said the perp had jumped off his roof into his backyard and then the agile villain vaulted over the back fence and into the canal area. Shelby checked the house cautiously. He found the family dog beaten to death in the master bedroom. It had been hit so hard that it was disemboweled.             

   The canal in Rancho Cordova seems to have been at the center of the Cordova Cat’s early and strange night prowlings in 1972, and this seems to be the area to which EAR fled twice, once after striking Victim 8 on the canal in 1976 and then again in February 1978 after the Maggiores were brutally gunned down blocks away.

   EAR could have used empty houses (where the occupants were gone or on vacation) and made hang-up calls from their phones. He could have used pay phones. Thus at least in the case of the Maggiore Double Murders the quickness with which he is in the neighborhood does not mean his lair was nearby. However, in his crime spree he fled twice to the north, to the apex of Los Palos. These two events are spaced by a year and a half.

     This location and the areas that connect off the levee walk and canal bear consideration.

     Adding the odd cat burglar the Cordova Cat to the equation, and it seems that the area of Rancho Cordova on either side of the canal is where it all began, both as the Cat in 1972 and as his more sinister incarnation the East Area Rapist in 1976. A year and a half later (February 2, 1978) he still flees up to this area, a dead end except for someone agile who can jump fences.

Night Predator
Files on the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker