CA CA - East Area Rapist aka The Original Night Stalker 1976-86

[SecretAgentMan]

If he was breaking into homes to case them and set them up......back then phone numbers were often printed on the front of the land line phones, many of which were rental property of the phone companies...

Yeah, the 70's were definitely different than today's technologies. Who knows with GSK......he was doing recon on hundreds of homes, scouting his targets ninja style, probably learned all his talents in the military.

 

[SecretAgentMan]

I've read over & over the details of his attacks, the pre & post activities of this prowler/rapist/murderer.

Some think he was late teens up to 25 while doing these crimes, I thought he could be in his teens as well when he started in 1976, but the meticulous planning, recon scouting & targeting of his victims had training.

I can see a young 18 year old getting away with this many rapes. Maybe he went to Vietnam mid to late 60's, got out by early 70's, started burglarizing, etc......& by 1976, he doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, he's frustrated, etc.......pissed off at the world, he starts attacking in 1976 at age 25 to 30 years old.

I've seen budding serial killers start out young, but most if not all get caught if they start in their teens, they don't have patience when their young, 16 to 22, & are usually careless making too many mistakes.

Serial killers learn from their own mistakes, & if EAR/GSK was in Vietnam, there's a good chance he had the training he needed to be patient & careful with his planning abilities.

I also thought he may have had wealthy parents, maybe his mother passed away from an illness? And that's why he would cry about his mom not approving of his crimes towards women.

I definitely don't think he had any kind of steady job while he was raping those 50 women, those attacks took too much of his time planning & prowling.

Its hard to figure out what happened to him from 1981 to 1986, but I don't think he was ever incarcerated for long periods of time, if any, but his last murder of Cruz was his last hoorah, it was an itch he had to scratch & once he killed her, he probably thought, this is stupid, if I continue down this path, I will get caught......like an addict or alcoholic that quit for 5 years, & tries it again one more time, but don't like it as much anymore as they once did.

EAR/GSK biggest fear probably was not wanting to get caught, & that's what I call self control of an addiction.

Profilers would say serial killers can't quit, I think they're way off base with that statement.......there are plenty of serial killers that haven't been caught, even with today's technologies.......only way to catch these guys is if there's a law to extract DNA from every new born baby, but that does no good today.

 

[colette]

I think that after Janelle, he did kill again. He was too angry during that murder to suddenly stop. She was murdered in 1986, the same year DNA was first used in a court room. After Janelle he used condoms and took measures to not leave DNA.

 

[frisson]

IN the 70s and early 80s a person could just get the tag number of a car and then get the name, number, and address of the owner and birth year (yikes). (in the state I was in at the time) I always thought that was weird and unsafe.Things have since changed.

I can see how he may have gotten his info.

One guy got my mother's tag number and all her info and sent her flowers out of the blue. Freaked my dad out, needless to say and freaked her out too. He called her. She asked how she knows him. He said that he watches her at the gym CREEPY.

When neighbors see someone sneaking around they should call it in. You never know. I called one in and it only turned out to be a teen sneaking home late, but he was dressed in black and all hunched over and sneaking through the back. It looked odd and I did not recognize him.

I dont see how this person simply stopped his spree. Something must have stopped him, death or incarceration etc

 

[dotr]

I think that after Janelle, he did kill again. He was too angry during that murder to suddenly stop. She was murdered in 1986, the same year DNA was first used in a court room. After Janelle he used condoms and took measures to not leave DNA.

Suspecting that the perp had difficulty wearing condoms that uh.. fit him properly, making it difficult to contain his dna.
imo, speculation.

 

[DonDoe]

Hey everyone! First time posting on WebSleuths. I have been interested/obsessed with true crime for as long as I can remember.

Something I keep thinking about is why did he stop between 81-86? Judging by the case files he has never seemed to be someone that scares off bc “police are closing in” or he almost gets caught. If anything it seems to me that it only serves to embolden him to go further.

This makes me think that something big happened in his life to cause the sudden hault in attacks. Some type of new responsibility? Marriage? Prison? Child being born?

I’ve seen it posited that he could be a child of a wealthy parent/s. (Owners of a construction company or other business) which allowed him to prowl as often as he must have needed to. Maybe the parent passes away in 81 which leads to him having some type of new responsibilities with that company.

Then in 86 he couldn’t hold off any longer and he gives in to that urge to go back out and commits what was arguably his most horrific murder of all. Binding, raping and then bludgeoning her to death “beyond recognition”

Possibly bc of his responsibilities he knew he couldn’t keep it up so he then stops altogether ala BTK. I know that is rare especially for such a violent rapist/serial murderer but he did stop for 5 years which shows that he did have some type of restraint.

Just my thoughts and maybe this has been hashed out but I thought I’d offer my two cents on at least that 81-86 period.

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

:welcome6:

Hey everyone! First time posting on WebSleuths. I have been interested/obsessed with true crime for as long as I can remember.

Something I keep thinking about is why did he stop between 81-86? Judging by the case files he has never seemed to be someone that scares off bc “police are closing in” or he almost gets caught. If anything it seems to me that it only serves to embolden him to go further.

This makes me think that something big happened in his life to cause the sudden hault in attacks. Some type of new responsibility? Marriage? Prison? Child being born?

I’ve seen it posited that he could be a child of a wealthy parent/s. (Owners of a construction company or other business) which allowed him to prowl as often as he must have needed to. Maybe the parent passes away in 81 which leads to him having some type of new responsibilities with that company.

Then in 86 he couldn’t hold off any longer and he gives in to that urge to go back out and commits what was arguably his most horrific murder of all. Binding, raping and then bludgeoning her to death “beyond recognition”

Possibly bc of his responsibilities he knew he couldn’t keep it up so he then stops altogether ala BTK. I know that is rare especially for such a violent rapist/serial murderer but he did stop for 5 years which shows that he did have some type of restraint.

Just my thoughts and maybe this has been hashed out but I thought I’d offer my two cents on at least that 81-86 period.

 

[ReggieHammond]

My thoughts and questions after watching the recent 4-part series "It's not over" and listening to the Criminology podcast on this topic:

* I can understand how EAR/ONS might have gotten phone #'s, after he committed the breakins - he stole Driver's licenses which would have names addresses. But the calls he made prior to the breakins, and some became victims, was he just dialing randomly and getting lucky? was he pouring through phone books for many hours looking for certain streets? or was he so successful at stalking that he got name/address prior to the crime?

* possible jobs of EAR/ONS
- some have speculated about many occupations = law enforcement, military, real estate development/construction, real estate sales/broker etc.
- his almost obsessive eating/drinking at the crime scenes and some victims reporting that he smelled bad, could he possibly have been homeless? maybe he stole the cars he used and lived in them until he ditched them

* on the Criminology podcast, an FBI agent (IIRC) said they came upon a suspicious individual in a car watching a woman at a park. The mand in the car, was similar to many EAR/ONS descriptions by the victims (blonde, collar length hair, 20's)They took down the license plate and ran it. The license plate came back as not issued.
- how would one gain possession of a non-issued license plate from any state?
- who would have the access to do this?
- could EAR/ONS have been savvy enough to somehow alter stolen license plates? alter a letter or number with paint etc?

Hey everyone! First time posting on WebSleuths. I have been interested/obsessed with true crime for as long as I can remember.

Something I keep thinking about is why did he stop between 81-86? Judging by the case files he has never seemed to be someone that scares off bc “police are closing in” or he almost gets caught. If anything it seems to me that it only serves to embolden him to go further.

This makes me think that something big happened in his life to cause the sudden hault in attacks. Some type of new responsibility? Marriage? Prison? Child being born?

I’ve seen it posited that he could be a child of a wealthy parent/s. (Owners of a construction company or other business) which allowed him to prowl as often as he must have needed to. Maybe the parent passes away in 81 which leads to him having some type of new responsibilities with that company.

Then in 86 he couldn’t hold off any longer and he gives in to that urge to go back out and commits what was arguably his most horrific murder of all. Binding, raping and then bludgeoning her to death “beyond recognition”

Possibly bc of his responsibilities he knew he couldn’t keep it up so he then stops altogether ala BTK. I know that is rare especially for such a violent rapist/serial murderer but he did stop for 5 years which shows that he did have some type of restraint.

Just my thoughts and maybe this has been hashed out but I thought I’d offer my two cents on at least that 81-86 period.

Possible he moved away, then came back? A five year gap, then a "one and done" has always seemed odd to me also.

 

[dotr]

:welcome3:
Any possibility that EARS does not live in CA, but travels to the US or from another State to live go to school or to live with a divorced parent?
Speculation.

 

[juli99]

Phew... I just read through all the posts or at least skimmed. My perception is the strongest POI seemed to be the one connected to Russell Boston. I can't find a link that is still up with a photo though, and the Reddit thread seems to have gone cold with no update on the DNA hunt. One thing I wonder is if they asked the girlfriend about his "size?"

The idea of someone who had connections to criminals somewhat makes sense to me... As far as getting Intel, burglary methods, etc.

Setting that aside, I see GSK as a cyclist because of the toned and shaved legs. Perhaps he had a job that involved riding a bike. A psychopath with sexual deviancy. Taking trophies from his crimes. No remorse. Methodical/fixating. Violent. But this was hidden if he attended that Town Hall. He might have even gone there with friends or with a girlfriend. Remember Ariel Castro went to the vigils in Cleveland and everyone knew him.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

 

[colette]

As far as EAR/ONS smelling bad or being homeless. He actually only smelled bad a couple times which I think was due to excessive activity. With all the prowling he was hungry, plus it was another form of control over the victims to eat their food while they were tied up.

 

[jdog17]

Watched a 4-part documentary recently in which the tape was analyzed. They concluded, pretty definitively, that it was a television program - even found the old TV guide that showed the exact program.

 

[juli99]

For people who haven't read about Russell Boston's POI, these are the key points he listed. I've been trying to figure out the name of the real estate development company or to find an obit for this guy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EARONS/comments/6nwast/russells_poi/

was born in 1950
ex-Vietnam vet
attended American River College in the early 1970s and Sacramento State in the late 1970s
He always attended college, earned degrees but didn't apply them to work, instead just kept going to school on his GI bill and never working a real job until the early 1980s, when he worked as a real-estate agent in Carmichael, CA.
While at that real-estate job, he also moonlighted by painting the rental homes and apartments
Bears a resemblance to the Ripton Prowler composite
Blood type A
Committed a series of home invasions and robberies with Boston in the 1970s, particularly in June of 1976 (month of the first EAR attack)
Boston was ex Coast Guard, Merchant Marines etc. and was a knot expert and taught this to his apprentice
They always wore ski-masks, gloves and had specific houses they targeted, (cul-de-sacs or backyards which didn't butt up against another home, for a quick getaway if needed).
He and Boston could tap into phone lines outside of houses, or down the street to make free calls or eavesdrop on homes.
He had an aunt who lived on Watt Ave
He moved from Sacramento back to his parents house in Reseda, north of Los Angeles in either late 1979 or 1980, where he grew up. In 1980 he started a real estate development company with his dad, building very high end homes. He was in charge of delegating construction and would often paint them himself. He and his dad had a small private plane at the Van Nuys Airport they would use to fly around to the different construction sites.
His "crew" in SoCal had a tow-truck they used to steal cars without it being obvious, getting cars on a "list" and driving around until they saw one, hooking up to it and driving away, making it look like a legal tow.
He died in 1988 in a motorcycle accident. His autopsy reports his height as 6'3", but he was crushed under several wheels of a semi truck.

 

[the champ]

wasnt there a phone call in 2001

 

[SecretAgentMan]

wasnt there a phone call in 2001

Yes there was & in 1991.

 

[juli99]

Yes there was & in 1991.

I had heard about the 1991 one but not the 2001 call. I thought maybe the 1991 could have been a fake or someone in the inner circle... is there a link describing the 2001 call?

 

[the champ]

there was talk of a bull tattoo on his arm did he own a large dog at one point there was large dog tracks found at one of the scenes thought
to be the killers dog

 

[folieadeuxnola]

He's blamed for 12 killings, 45 rapes - and authorities don't know who he is

http://www.wfmz.com/news/cnn-nation...and-authorities-dont-know-who-he-is/727728701

Jane's 1976 rape sparked the hunt for a man the FBI says went on to commit 45 rapes and 12 killings across California over the next decade. He's been dubbed the "East Area Rapist," "the Original Night Stalker," and more recently the "Golden State Killer."

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

Sorry if this was posted upthread and I missed it.

The My Favorite Murder podcast posted a new, hourlong interview about this case and Michelle’s book, with Patton Oswalt and researchers.

It went up Monday. For some reason, I can’t get the link to copy/paste right now. But it’s available for free via iTunes. Probably other streaming sources, too.

Here’s a link to the My Favorite Murder official website.

https://www.myfavoritemurder.com/

 

[jdog17]

They've determined it was the TV in background; we're able to use voice analysis and then check the TV guide for that day and time and figure out the show.