The wife of ------ owner of ---- Casilada Way called up victim on the evening at April 14, 1978, and asked her short notice if she could baby sit their young daughter that night. They (the parents) were going out for dinner and the other daughters went to their friends’ houses. Victim accepted.

   Victim arrived at the home at 9 p.m. She was soon left alone with her little 8-year-old charge, the family’s youngest daughter.

     About 9:30 p.m. a series of the neighbors’ dogs began to bark. At 9:30 p.m. victim put the 8-year-old daughter to bed. Victim tucked her in and returned to the family room, which was the former garage now converted into a family room. She started watching the movie The Two Five.

     Suddenly 2 huge bangs hit the side door to the backyard (the former garage side door). Victim turn to the door. In an instant, the door crashed in. A masked man lunged toward her, a gun was in his gloved right hand. He wore a blue plaid flannel shirt and dark blue windbreaker.

     “Don’t move or I’ll kill you! Don’t talk or say anything.” He spoke angrily through clenched teeth. “Lie on the floor on your stomach and put your hands behind your back.”

     Assailant now threw a baby blanket on her head. The victim told him that the family’s little girl was in another room sleeping and with dogs barking she might awake. She asked if she could get the dog.

     The intruder said “No” and instead held her arms and tied her wrists tightly. “Don’t move or I’ll stab you with my ice pick.”

     Victim asked intruder what he was doing, what he wanted, and if he was going to hurt her.

     “I’m not going to hurt you,” the assailant replied. “I’m just going to take money and I’ll leave. Just don’t talk or move.”

     Assailant then left the room and went into the adjoining dining nook and kitchen. She could hear him rummage, open and close drawers and cabinets. He then returned and lifted her off the floor. He tied a blanket around her head. Now blindfolded, she was led to another room. There he ordered her to lay on her stomach and he retied her feet. He left again and began to rummage about the house. She heard him rummaging about in the change in her purse. He returned next to her. He squatted down and said “Don’t move. Be quiet.” He put the gun barrel to her head. He now turned her over onto her back. He untied her ankles and unzipped her pants.

     “What are you doing?” she cried.

     “Be quiet or I’ll kill you.”

     Assailant pulled her pants and underwear off. Then he lifted her blouse. “Keep quiet.” He pushed her legs apart. “Relax or I’ll kill you,” he growled. “I’ve wanted to raped you for a long time ---- [name].”

     He started to raped her when the phone rang . . .and continued to ring. This upset him and he got up and left after the phone stopped ringing. He returned. She felt lotion being rubbed on her. He removed her socks slowly.

     “Relax, don’t scream or yell or I’ll kill you.”

     The phone rang again. Frustrated, he picked her up to her feet and pushed her to the phone. Then, standing over her, he ordered her to say hello. He picked up the receiver and placed it to her mouth.  She mumbled “hello” and then he hung up the phone.

     He now ordered that she “touch it” and placed his penis in her hands. The phone rang again. Angry, he walked her outside on the patio and again he attempted to rape her.

     Then a car’s headlights swept up in front of the house. Victim did not hear the assailant leave, but she could hear her father calling out front. She called back.

Investigation

Because it was obvious that EAR was in the immediate vicinity, a K-9 unit was dispatched and so was a helicopter.

     Despite the rape, the 16 year old victim remained a virgin. The EAR was not fully aroused and too small.      

     Investigation uncovered a curious clue. At 10:15 p.m., a lady fishing on the Sacramento River (along with her husband and nephew) at Minnow Hole was walking on the levee returning to her car. She was startled by a white male approximately 25 years old, 5 foot 8 inches tall, medium build, mustache and brown hair. He was running along the levee and asked her: “Did you catch any fish?” She replied” No, I didn’t get any.” Strangely, this jogger replied: “Oh my wife is going to be mad” as he continued to run off to the apartments on Riverside Boulevard. According to witness, the man did not appear to be a jogger. He was out-of-breath and was not dressed properly to be a jogger.

   Investigation uncovered that the 14-year-old daughter of the Casilada Way homeowner had heard something while watching TV on April 11, 1978. The girl alerted her mother, who looked outside and saw a man standing on the patio.

   Several blocks away on Rio Lane, on April 13, 1978, at 11 p.m.,  a homeowner heard something at their side window. It was a scratching noise. It started their dog barking. A couple of side gates had also been found left open along Rio Lane over the last 2 weeks.

Description

Assailant wore gloves, blue plaid flannel shirt, and dark blue windbreaker. Face was covered with a dark mask; however the victim did not recall what type of mask specifically— i.e. eye holes, mouth hole, etc.

Geography

The geography of Little Pocket, as it is known, fits the East Area Rapist’s pattern perfectly. It is a very closed-in community with only a few distantly placed main roads in and out, and the levee and Sacramento River on 3 sides.

House

The house is a two story, detached middle class home.

Analysis

The Casilada Way attack reveals much. The area has great similarities in some ways of the area of EAR’s attack on No 24, in which he seemed to have used a POC in order to stalk the  neighborhood of the victim. Simply park on the other side of the highway, cross the POC, and none are the wiser about where you came from. He is simply a biker about the neighborhood.

     But Casilada Way reveals another clue. In previous attacks where EAR struck an impromptu victim (No 4, No 8, No 11) he took the victim’s car and parked it far away (one one occasion a mile), which tells us in those cases that he had indeed stalked a community from quite a distance. The same seems to ring true here. He had not parked close by Casilada Way. The lady on the levee near Minnow Hole perhaps truly did see him. This creates a problem. Minnow Hole is hell and gone from Piedmont and Casilada Way. It is a fishing spot on the Sacramento River just across from Oak Hall Bend, south of Little Pocket by some distance (about half a mile). If the “witness encounter” was with EAR then he had parked much further away to the south on Riverside Blvd by the apartments and apparently walked the levee, crossed a backyard, then Piedmont and then into backyards on Casilada Way. This is an unnecessarily long distance if he was intending to attack a victim this night.

     Therefore one must ask: was EAR merely prowling and he took advantage of an impromptu victim or was he intending to attack? If it is the latter, it opens up a can of clues. For you see, if he was only prowling he may have parked on Riverside Blvd by the apartments. He had parked by apartments in other cases and stalked his intended community from afar. Therefore there was no witnesses to his car.

     In all cases, he had nevertheless had prepared himself with mask and weapon.

     It should be considered certain that the victim was on his radar for an attack. The victim’s family had been receiving hang up phone calls— one of EAR’s signatures means of establishing the routine of a victim’s household. Yet if she was the intended victim this night, how did EAR know where she was?  One cannot explain this by saying he was already on the levee watching the house when he saw her leave. Her home was on Piedmont, the main cross street. She walked down Piedmont and then down Casilada Way. He could not have rushed out from the darkness of the homes backing the lush levee area and have seen to which house she went. Casilada curves out of sight and the attack house is out of view from Piedmont. One can only imagine that he had been sitting in a car and watched her. Or he was in an empty house and saw her pass. If he was in a car this negates the Minnow Hole suspect. The conundrum is illustrated below in pictures.

     Victim left this area of Piedmont and walked into the distance to Casilada Way

On Piedmont, looking down Casilada Way. From this vantage or the levee behind me, it is not possible to see the house to which the victim had gone that night.

   The section of Casilada Way involved that night, far from the curve in the road.

     Perhaps EAR did not follow the victim. He had a number of alternates should one end up not at home. After discovering the victim was not at her own home, he may have prowled Casilada and intended to strike the 14 year old. Either scenario tells us to what extent he prowled a neighborhood. Thus the question how he knew the victim was at another house has been answered. He didn’t.

     But the conundrum also remains: Was he prowling or had he intended to strike?

     In his intended attacks he parked close by on the night of the attack; for example, in the case of No. 21, No 28, right by the house. If the Minnow Hole person of interest is him, then this is the furthest he ever prowled since Crestview and No 4. And we know that wasn’t an intended attack.

     Little Pocket’s unique geography may explain it. Riverside Blvd is really the only way in or out, north or south, or where it intersects with Seamus. . . except for the POC. He may have felt safer parking just outside of it by the apartments on Riverside.

     “Running toward the apartments” on Riverside Blvd is a bit nebulous to me, but I suppose that meant going south in that direction. The levee is so tall here that no one can scale down in the dark to the street to the 2 (then) apartment complexes along Riverside Blvd and the much larger one at the bend in Riverside Blvd. They must jog to the end, where the levee lane descends in a U curve to the street or goes straight and descends into a park.

   The mystery of the Minnow Hole person of interest is not a small one. The faux jogger made a lame attempt to look nonchalant. No jogger would be out of breath unless he came from a far, and the publicly accessible area of the levee is a short distance. There is little reason for a jogger on Riverside Blvd to suddenly mount the levee and jog for a couple of hundred yards. It seems more reasonable that only EAR, after having fled on the restricted part of the levee behind Little Pocket, would continue on the short “Delta Walk.” 

       At an opposite, an old car was reported before-the-fact, and this too is a signature of EAR. Larry Crompton (Sudden Terror) reports that a 1960 blue/black vinyl top Cad was seen parked in front the of the attack residence about 9:15 p.m. When a car drove past, it drove off. How can this report be reconciled with the Minnow Hole POI? It can’t. The attack occurred a little after 9:30 p.m. EAR had fled before 10 p.m. The mysterious Minnow Hole jogger is encountered around 10:15 p.m. He is out of breath and makes a point of feigning a reason why he is running the way he looks:
   “Did you catch anything?” he asks the witness.
   “No.”
   “Oh, my wife’s gunna be mad.”

     Pointless except to make it look as if there is a reason he is late somewhere.

     By this time, of course, the police were going absolutely ape. They had a K-9 unit and a chopper on the way.

     The only way the old car fits is that the Minnow Hole POI is coincidence. Instead EAR drove off from having traced the victim to the baby sitting house. He parked on Sagamore behind Casilada Way and jumped fences, thus accounting for the dogs barking. Therefore it would seem he had watched the victim leave home, cruised on slowly, watching her walk down Casilada Way.

     Either scenario may fit. He may have prowled from afar. He may have been driving the older car.    

    Pondering the Minnow Hole POI, it would seem foolish to propose that EAR was stupid enough to stalk from apartments where he rented and then drive the victim’s car back to the complex, as he did with Attack No 11, and think he’d remain obscure in his apartment. But could he have been staying at a friend’s house nearby and walked several blocks from the apartment complex on Great Falls Way to the house, there to feel secure he could not be traced?

     The same must be asked here. Could EAR have been staying in Greenhaven off the Zacharias Park somewhere for a brief period and this explains why Little Pocket was an isolated attack and why he may merely have jogged back to his lair? Little Pocket, we must also remember, is quite different from Sandbar Circle where EAR had parked within the tight community, risking being cut off if police arrived and sealed off the only way in or out. It was a small community and EAR could get out quickly after the rape if something went wrong. But here Little Pocket is a much bigger place and police could arrive more quickly and seal off Riverside Blvd. at the narrow valves of entrance to the community. A driver is therewith locked within the community. But skulking along the levee to a parked car or lair just outside the narrow valve to the south would be much wiser.

     Things to consider.

     EAR never returned here. And he doesn’t seem to have used a car. . . if he was the Minnow Hole person of interest.

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