|
EAR’s actions to cover his trail after both No 4 and No 8 are significant. This is already a developed prowler who knows not to be seen in any identifiable way in the community he is prowling. He parks at a distance and moved silently along the canals. When returning, he also parks the victim’s car mid block, so as to confuse investigators as to which way he then walked to his own car, or in whatever direction he made his escape.
None of the neighborhoods had public lighting.
Description
The EAR is clearly not a big male. He must average around 5 foot 9 inches tall. He was lean. He had a small penis. Except for Attack #7 he wore hiking or waffle stomper boots. He wore a size 9 shoe. At Attack #8 he wore desert boots. He wore black leather looking shoes at Attack #6, though it is not clarified if these were like military high tops. Attack #7 is the only one in which he wore black tennis shoes. During the summer his masks all seemed to be nylon balaclavas or perhaps even homemade masks. By Attack #8, he wore wool.
It is unlikely that he prowled neighborhoods with boots. He would rather, logically, have needed tennis shoes for silence, ease of running and climbing and jumping fences. When previously prowling the neighborhoods he may have worn tennis shoes. However, he clearly wore cumbersome hiking books on some of the nights of the attacks. At Attack #3 he wore what were brown ankle high shoes, which could be desert boots. He wore tennis shoes the night of Attack #7.
Time
The first 4 strikes of the EAR were roughly on the weekend— the 1st being on Friday, the 2nd on Saturday, the 3rd on Sunday, the 4th on Saturday. However, since the first was early in the early a.m. on Friday, EAR had been prepared Thursday night. The 5th is noticeably away from the weekend on Tuesday morning. This strike was so far the most afield from where he began. Number 6, back in Rancho Cordova, was on the weekend again, on Saturday. For No. 7 it was Monday morning on October 18, early a.m. and then, of course, that night when EAR struck again at Dawes & Los Palos (No. 8). For the first victim on that long October 18 the EAR had to be prepared Sunday night.
There is no reason to jump to conclusions and say this indicated EAR was off work weekends for the most part. He stalked for so much time in advance that the night he struck really doesn’t indicate his work schedule.
Stalking MO
Aside from Victim #1 having the subjective feeling that a young man in a “older” mid-sized blue car had stalked her, there is no car definitely linked with the EAR until Victim 5. It was what appeared to be a green Chevy Vega. In the case of Victim 4, EAR stole  the victim’s car and parked it a couple blocks away. At the Victim 7 attack he drove a car with 84 inch tires, indicating it was an American model but not a small car like a Vega.
EAR obviously had access to more than one model of car.
However, there is no real evidence that EAR primarily stalked a neighborhood by car, as that method would not tell him where canals are and doesn’t really afford him a clear view of the homes. A car can’t be used on levee walks, bike paths, jogging trails, fields, and canals. He may have driven the  neighborhoods a couple of times, but his in-depth stalking soon came to depend on the tactical proximity of the aforesaid topographical features. These he would have jogged and biked during the day, then entering the neighborhoods, especially around Del Dayo, he would merely be one of many such bikers and joggers. At night he would far more carefully prowl along here, then enter backyards and homes.
Descriptions of the EAR remain consistent in height and lean body shape. However, there are a few peculiarities that reflect his reliance and use of bicycles. One victim said EAR had no hair on his legs. Another said it was dark. All this would indicate a man who bikes or swims for more than just stalking his victims. In both sports, bikers and swimmers shave their legs.
There is no question that EAR was the hang-up phone caller in a number of these incidents. How did he get their phone number? The Sacramento phonebook is voluminous (copies are still kept at the Sacramento Room of the Capitol Library on I Street). However, it is impractical to skim the entire white pages looking for the address in hopes of finding the name and number of the owner. Evidence is abundant that in a number of cases the EAR entered the house beforehand and familiarized himself with its layout and the schedule of its occupants. This may be one method by which he learned the phone number. Many people have their number written on their phone rotary (in the days of rotary phones). He could also browse paperwork in the house, especially mail, and discover their name.
However, there is another method even more anonymous. I asked a retired police detective friend of mine, Steve Doran, and he told me of the various ways that reverse look up could have been done in the 1970s, merely by giving the operator the address. There were also back then (and today) Ex-Directories maintained by libraries, that would have all the phone numbers and addresses in then, even the unlisted numbers (also known as City or Polk Directories).
The hang-up phone calls served a couple of purposes. He could judge when the occupants were home and when they weren’t, thus learning their schedules. In calling the neighbors, he would also learn when they were most consistently not home. This would help him remain faceless in the daytime, as he knew the best times to stalk the neighborhood when no one was immediately around.
Like Victim 1, Victim 5 experienced a preamble of hang-up phone calls for weeks in advance, and Victim 5 even suffered a previous entry into her house. This substantiates the theory that EAR carefully stalked victims and familiarized himself with their house in advance.
Apparently, neither victim 2 & 6 had hang-up phone calls preceding their attacks. Victim No. 1 and No. 5 received the most hang-up phone calls so far. This should be regarded as significant. This perhaps indicates that the rapist could not readily determine the movements of that household whereas in in the others he could. No. 4 and No. 8, apparently stand-ins, had not received any hang-up phone calls.
This is not reading too much premeditation into EAR’s modus operandi. Somehow he kept tabs on a neighborhood and on the intended victim. This is seen in other ways. For instance, it is certain that EAR struck no house while the husband or grown male was present. In each case, father or husband was away. Since observation from afar cannot give him such knowledge, he must have obtained it by entering the home beforehand, perhaps days or even weeks in advance and learning from some bulletin board or desk notes what the future movements would be of members of the household. Victim #1’s father had been away in Boston; Victim #3’s husband began a night shift just 2 days before; Victim #5’s husband went to work early in the morning, EAR apparently waiting for him to leave.
Residents in the neighborhood when questioned reported much prowling had been going on. Side gates had been found left open. Dogs had been barking more frequently. Footsteps had been heard, fences rustling as someone had jumped over. One must conclude that out of all the houses he entered, he chose those that had a woman to his liking and one in which the male of the house would be away on given dates. Homes harder to observe perhaps required the hang-up phone calls as a means to determine the schedule of those within. It is interesting to note the neighbors of No. 1, 3, 5 also reported hang-up phone calls preceding the attack. It almost seems as if the EAR was also trying to determine when the neighbors would be away.
It is clear from the foregoing on this page that EAR was a very developed prowler. From the looks of his assault on the first house, however, one might draw the conclusion that he had not intruded into a home intending rape before. His attempt to cut the first victim’s telephone line outside the house is clumsy. It would seem that no more inspiration than an old movie would tell any prospective burglar to enter the house and then cut the phone line. This he would do in future.
This is at odds with the skill of the prolific serial cat burglar the Cordova Cat over 1972-’73. But if they are the same person, EAR may just have wanted the commando thrill of cutting the phone wire now that he was intending to actually assault the victims. A cat burglar intends no confrontation. A rapist obviously does.
An earlier rape on October 21, 1975, on nearby Dawes Street was initially considered EAR’s first rape, then removed, and now somewhat shakily reconsidered again. In this attack the assailant (wearing camo fatigues/mask) cut the phone lines inside. EAR left them intact inside Victim 1’s house but had attempted to cut the main line outside first.
Nevertheless, there is more that connects the two cases. On October 21, the rapist used a knife as a weapon and raped both mother and eldest daughter. It is considered a “perverse, profligate” rape. EAR’s rapes were similar, as if he was enjoying a new thrill. He almost exclusively used a knife to keep his victims in line.
Whatever the case, EAR was indeed a very skilled and confident house breaker. In like manner as he refined his stalking of a community, he meticulously assessed the viability of a potential victim’s house. For example, victims’ window screens revealed an intriguing and essentially unsolved calling card— scratch marks. They were invariably on the lower left side. Lt. Larry Crompton (Contra Costa County Sheriffs) referred to this as his signature, for it  never had a logical explanation. These marks could be found even on some of the victims’ neighbors’ screens. I would suggest here something logistic in terms of an explanation— that he scratched these screens to see if it would arouse a pet in the house or to see how heavy a sleeper the occupants were. There is no proof he left these scratches the night of the attack. He may have done so nights in advance to see how safe it was to attack here. Heavy sleepers and homeowners without threatening pets thus became viable targets. No one would likely notice these little scratches on their screen until after the attack when the sheriffs searched for the break-in point. It was only then indeed that the screens, some on bedroom windows, some on other windows, were noticed. The very fact they were on the lower left side, where the windows are usually open, tells us he was interested in acoustics and responses within the home.
Subtle, calculated at the very least, are the best words to describe such an individual. Yet we have a strange contradiction. He often left side gates open— telltale clues someone uninvited had been in the yard. Would this not give away that someone had been prowling the neighborhood and would return? Alas, neighbors seldom reported it.
Even more curious than this is his behavior in two of his attacks. At the attacks of Victim 3 and 7 he arrives naked from the waist down. In both instances he is unstoppable. At Victim 7 in Del Dayo the yipping dog and the boy slamming the door do not stop him. At Victim 3 he is seen by the girl as he is wedging the screen, then later by the mother, and this does not deter him. Wrestling with the mother does not stop him. There is nothing subtle in these attacks.
A strange thing now happens at Victim #3’s. He walks away down the street, bare as birth from the waist down. Yet the sheriffs, who are quickly there, spot no man. No car starts and drives away.
Due to the circumstances, it seems impossible to believe that EAR would merely leave pants folded over a bike somewhere in the shadows. From the events surrounding Victim 8, it is clear he used yards or perhaps even homes where people were gone for the night or, more likely, on vacation. (His prowling would have revealed vacations beforehand rather than just a spontaneous night out.) For Victim 3, I suggest to you he used a house and yard that was empty, and thus walking away he entered it again and laid low until morning. This will also become significant later.
At the neighbor’s of Victim #8 he already had all the implements he used in binding a victim laid out in their backyard. The owners were, however, senior citizens who were away. Who the actual victim was intended to be is unknown. But I would suggest he knew the home was empty and had much earlier positioned himself there. Why he bothered to attack Victim 8 and steal the car is ponderous. He takes it only a short distance away.
Peculiarly, half naked he didn’t stop no matter what. Yet at Victim 8, when fully dressed, he must have been confused and left her alone. Though violent with her, he just stole her car, as he said he would. In other cases, the lines he fed the victims were pure red herrings, such as with Victim 6, saying he lived just down the street, or with the others when he said he just wanted money. It was to put them at ease before he raped them.
Striking twice in a 24 hour period does suggest the skill and employment of a cat burglar, one now turned rapist.
Thus we have a skilled prowler, even burglar, but not someone who had tactically assessed a home with the intention of assaulting a person within. Consumed with the thrill of conquest, EAR either develops his MO slowly (adding topographical features tactically) or he had already refined this MO as the Cordova Cat and has now returned after a respite of a couple of years. He now uses these parks, schools, and canals to prowl a neighborhood both night and day and therewith remain completely faceless to the communities. He comes back in the dark of night and assails the home. Evidence and clues reveal a young man growing obsessed with careful selection, a man who knew he was leaving his victims as potential witnesses against him He disguised his voice. He carefully stalked a community. He carefully assessed a house. He committed double, even triple jeopardy by entering it more than once in advance. The sheriffs had good reason to worry this guy was not going to stop and that he was going to prove a unique problem in the annals of crime.
Politics on the “4th Floor” (administrative level) of the Sheriff Department would not play a part in the actual investigating. Misterly had long been gone as sheriff, abandoned even by the Sheriff Association (Misterly didn’t want his deputies college educated), and replaced by Duane Lowe. Lowe was updating the Sheriff Department not only with the latest technology but with the latest approaches to crime solving. He may have been accused of drinking his breakfast at his desk and his lunch under his desk, but he would have little direct influence in the case.
Sgt. Jim Bevins was in charge of the EAR task force, but Sgt. Richard Shelby acted quite independently, reporting to Lt. Ray Root who in turn answered to Captain Stamm, chief of detectives.
In any case, EAR was now news. Few in the public knew the details, but the public knew the home was the target. There had been 8 known victims since June 18. Neighborhoods were now on the alert. This was more than a rapist. This was a calculating terrorist. Neighborhood watches and a task force, however, would not curtail him. Indeed, he would dominate the year to come.
|
