The date was February 2, 1978. Location: Rancho Cordova.

     Brian Maggiore is 21 years old. Katie, his young wife, is 20 years old. They have been married less than 2 years. Their La Verta Court apartment was perfectly situated. The complex was an island of apartments amidst a sea of middle class neighborhoods. To its right Malaga Way led to Paseo Drive, which was a straight road to Mather Field AFB, where Brian (now a sergeant in the Air Force) was stationed. To the left, Malaga led to nice suburban streets in this sleeper community of Cordova Meadows. All around it was a convenient place for a young Air Force couple to live.

     Tonight they turned left on Malaga Way to take their little dog Thumper for a walk. They walked past the La Loma Drive intersection. Here, on the other side, Malaga is called Capitales. They turned right on the next street, La Alegria. La Alegria forks ahead. To the left it continues; the right fork is called La Gloria. They continue to walk La Alegria. It is a routine enough walk in a quiet, safe neighborhood.

     They usually didn’t walk this way when giving Thumper his evening stroll. They would walk the other way toward Paseo Drive. Had they known they were right now in the heart of a neighborhood that was plagued by strange hang-up calls, a nighttime prowler, and some strange home invasions and bizarre burglaries, perhaps they would have opted to go their usual way.

     One of the burglaries was in the 2700 block of La Loma, and they had passed it just by a few doors when walking across the intersection. Here a young couple had been vexed by someone entering their yard and house and then leaving the doors and gate open yet taking nothing inside. Until, that is, around Christmas time 1977. Then among other relatively inexpensive things, the burglar stole the wife’s underwear. Across the street in Toro Court, a pretty and single 25 year old female couldn’t keep this creep out. She would discover his shoe prints under her bedroom window. He would leave the side gate open here too. She finally secured it shut so it wouldn’t open, but he was so intent on getting in to peep in her window that he forced the gate open so it couldn’t be secured again. Finally, she found pictures written on her bedroom window, written in “bodily fluids” mind you. Behind the Toro Court house on Sobrante two households had been receiving weird hang-up phone calls and experiencing prowler activity. Recently, an “unusual” man was seen in the backyard of one of the houses. They had strolled along Capitales before turning right onto La Alegria. Here two other young couples had been receiving hang-up phone calls and experiencing heavy prowler activity. Brian and Katie may not have known it, but one of their neighbor’s on La Verta Court had also been receiving hang-up phone calls, always at 8 p.m. A house on La Gloria had been receiving them for the last week as well. However, this night their neighbor on La Verta did not receive one, but the house on La Gloria did, right at 8 p.m. All the homes had one thing in common— young couples or young, single attractive females.

     And, lastly, the same can be said for a single female in the 2500 block of Capitales. She’d had lots of prowler activity and hang-up calls, and right now a dark form was trying to pry open her back glass slider. But a secondary security device did not allow the gloved hands tugging on the handle to open the door. 

     Just north of this house, Brian and Katie continued to stroll west on La Alegria. Thumper’s chain jangled along. Just as they approached West La Loma, a jogger passes by in front of them and continues southbound on West La Loma. They probably did not notice a man standing under a big tree by the corner house on the south side. The jogger did, but only briefly. The man stood by bushes in the shadows near the sidewalk of W. La Loma. He had disheveled or curly brown hair. He wore a brown jacket.

     Brian and Katie turned right (north) on West La Loma and at the next street, La Gloria, they turned right again and walked back. But before they reached where La Gloria merges again with La Alegria, something happens. What? It’s not exactly clear. But it happened before the house that had received the hang-up phone call at 8 p.m. Somehow the couple winds up in the backyard of the house opposite. The 10 year old boy upstairs hears the ruckus in his backyard. He looks out the window. The Sacramento Sheriff states the following:

     “He observed the suspect and the victims in his backyard, and watched as they ran into the adjacent rear yard on La Alegria Drive (one street south of La Gloria) through a section of a fence that had been blown down. The witness at the La Gloria residence saw the suspect raise his arm and fire at the fleeing victims. He also witnessed the suspect fire towards the ground near the patio of the La Alegria residence (Brian was subsequently located in this location suffering a gunshot wound that rendered him unable to speak). The witness then saw the suspect run around the east side of the house near the residence’s chimney and disappear. It was too dark for the victim to make out specific details of the suspect even from his excellent vantage point.”

     Although not clarified in the Sheriff statement, apparently the shot fired to the ground was the second shot fired by the killer into Brian Maggiore— the intent obviously to make sure he was dead. He had been shot in the chest (while standing) and in the back of the neck (while helpless on the ground).

     Either before or after he ruthlessly shot Maggiore the second time, the killer turned his gun on Katie who was fleeing down the east side of the residence, past the house’s chimney. He ran after and apparently took her down with a shot to the head. He then jumps the fence near where she lay. This places him on the driveway of the Ottlingler’s house facing La Alegria.

     Neighbors had heard the cries and two separate “gunshot events.” After the first 2 shots, a woman had shouted “Help me!” More gunshots (3 shots). Neighbors were outside already on La Alegria. One, young Karl Nollsch, is just two doors down La Alegria from the Ottlinger’s residence. He hears someone scaling a fence and then land in bushes. Soon a man is running on the sidewalk toward him. However, the man stops about 25 feet from him (abreast to a tree planted in the middle of the house’s front lawn). The fleeing assailant has seen the 17 year old, turns and runs back around La Alegria to Capitales. Nollsch specifically said that the man disappeared around the curve in the the street, near where there is a fire hydrant.

     When sheriff deputies arrived the scene is thus: Brian Maggiore’s body is found in the Ottlinger’s backyard, shot in the chest and back of the neck. Down along the narrow side of the yard, by the Ottlinger’s side gate, is found the body of Katie Maggiore. She had been shot in the head before she could get out of the gate. Other deputies approaching from the front of the house noticed her blonde hair sticking out from under the gate to the driveway. A bloody footprint in on the driveway. One bullet had gone astray, smashed through the Ottlinger’s back patio window and then lodged in their wall. The bullet missed the homeowner, Nicholas Ottlinger, by inches. (“I threw my wife to the floor, and we just stayed there for a while.”) The Maggiores’ little poodle Thumper is found shivering in the neighbor’s pool.

     Investigators didn’t know what to make of this pointless double murder. Things were then complicated by one piece of unexplainable evidence. Twelve feet west of Brian’s body there was found a blue shoelace, looped at one end with a cinch knot. It did not belong to either household. It was suspected that the assailant had dropped it by accident. The following is the crime scene photo:

     All said and done, a young couple had been murdered while simply taking their dog for a short evening stroll.  It’s a nice neighborhood. Some of the people still live there to this day.

       What to make of this tragic and pointless crime?

       Little, very little was released to the public at the time, and that which did make it to the newspapers was very confusing. Investigators disagreed on the motive. Months before, Katie had reported a stalker at her place of work, the Regal gas station at 8651 Folsom Blvd. But that really didn’t explain such unexpected events as those which had seized this community. The neighborhood canvas turned up the incidents of petty burglary, peeping and prowling. This was all highly suggestive of the prelude to the East Area Rapist’s attacks. But it had been a long time since he had hit Rancho Cordova. There was no link made to EAR at the time. Rather the newspapers carried sketches of two suspects who had been seen minutes before the shooting. They had been seen walking on La Gloria.

     In the newspaper accounts at the time, “the prime suspect” is described as in his mid-20s, short brown hair, slender, about 160 pounds, about 6 foot to 6 foot 2 inches tall, and wearing a brown leather jacket with a “peanut shaped” stain on the lower right side in back. He also wore dark pants and soft dark shoes. (The description came primarily from Nollsch, and the bloody shoe print confirmed the sole of the shoe and hence its type.)

     To confuse things, however, over a month later the sketches were amended. A “new description” was added for one of the men.

     The sketch on the left is the “new description.”

     The idea that the sketch above (on the left), along with the description, represented  a better description of one of the two men in the previous report dominated the popular discussions on this case for the last 40 years. However, on February 27, 2018, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office released qualifying information.

     The two men seen walking away on La Gloria were confirmed to have been identified back then and later ruled out, though some original investigators held reservations about their innocence. The “New Description” sketch above was confirmed to not be a revised sketch of one of these men. This is the sketch of the suspected murderer. However, the description of mid-20s, short brown hair, slender, about 160 pounds, etc., was correct. It is and was always the description of the killer, and not of one of the two cleared men.

     Along with the release of more information, the events of that night can be  reconstructed in more than one way. Despite a few differences, each way heavily suggests that EAR was the murderer.

       One reconstruction is given here:

     EAR was the lurker under the tree on West La Loma. After the jogger passes and then after Brian and Katie turn north on W. La Loma and right onto La Gloria, he comes out of the shadows and walks down La Alegria. His objective is the house at 10100 block La Gloria, the house he had made his last hang-up call this very night. He knows it has three eligible females inside. He has also prowled enough to know the fences are down between the homes opposite this house. He gets into the backyard through a gate (perhaps Ottlinger’s) and then through the open fence. Here he lurks, watching the house with the three eligible females across the street.

     After a little bit, he hears the jangle of Thumper’s chain. The pooch got off his lead and trundles ahead of his masters into the open backyard of the house and starts yipping at him standing in the shadows. EAR hates yipping little dogs. There is more than enough proof he hated little yippers. There is only one way to quiet it. He picks it up and throws it in the pool.

     At this moment Brian and Katie come into the yard looking for their little poodle. They see the dog in the pool. Maybe they walked in right as EAR threw him in. They realize they have a prowler who doesn’t belong here. Brian is a part of the base police. He is not shy about confrontation. He demands I.D.! EAR goes berserk. The kid upstairs hears the confrontation and looks out the window. In the darkness he sees a shadowy form kill Brian and Katie.

       EAR hesitates for a moment— the “dance of indecision.” How to get out of here? The block is alive with dogs barking. Sliding glass doors are opening. Nollsch had said there was a pause of silence between the gunshots and the sounds of the fence rattling and the guy landing in the bushes. It is speculated that in this pause the EAR pulls out his ski mask and puts it on in order to protect his identity. When taking out the ski mask, the ligature falls out. He flees down the side of the yard to the gate. Katie’s body is in front of it. He cannot open it, so he steps around her. He steps in her blood while doing so. He jumps the fence and rushes across the driveway, leaving a shoe print in blood.

     Crossing the neighbor’s lawn near the sidewalk he halts. He sees Nollsch standing in his driveway looking at him. He turns around and runs down La Alegria (eastward) and disappears around the bend in the street near the fire hydrant.

     The Sheriff statement declares:

     “In his brief observation, the witness noticed the suspect was wearing a black or blue knit ski mask that left only his eyes and nose exposed and was possibly holding a handgun. He further stated the subject was wearing a brown leather jacket, gathered at the waist, with a peanut-shaped stain on the lower right side of the back. The subject had dark, quiet shoes. He described him as 6’0” to 6’2” inches tall with fair skin. He worked with a sketch artist and the following composite was drawn.”

       On the face of it, this would immediately make the reader question how there could be a reliable description of the killer’s face and hair, as circulated in the newspapers at that time. “The new description.” However, the Sheriff’s Department qualified that there were many other witnesses, one of which got an unguarded look at the perpetrator. 

     According to the Sheriff Statement:

     “Several other witnesses apparently saw the same suspect (based upon their general agreement on clothing description and other features) on Capitales and other nearby streets generally heading northeast, away from the crime scene. By this point, the suspect had removed his ski mask, but was likely holding it. Odd behavior was noted by several of the witnesses, including strange comments such as ‘Excuse me, I’m trespassing’ when seen by a resident in his yard. One witness saw the suspect carrying a football-sized object in his hand that appeared to be made of cloth. The suspect would jump behind objects and shield his face with his arm and jacket whenever he encountered a witness. Another witness saw the grip of a handgun protruding from a right hand rear pocket of his pants.”

       To fill in some details— after the perpetrator had run around the bend in La Alegria, he went through a side yard, was heard to run past by a woman inside the house, and then heard to hit the fence in back, jumping into the backyard of the duplexes along the 2600 block of Capitales. He emerges on the street and is no longer wearing his mask. However, though seen by a number of people as he retreated along Capitales, there is no clear description of him because he was shielding his face with his jacket. They could only get down the general description of a WMA and his weight and height. One witness thinks she sees a gun in his back pocket, clearly enough to identify it as a revolver (the weapon had, in fact, been a revolver).

     A bit later some see him carrying cloth the size of a football, and it could be this was his ski mask with the gun wrapped in it. This would have been smart on his part. If the police approached, he could easily throw the mask and gun away first. And it seems the killer was limited to foot. He beat a strange retreat from the crime scene, doubling back twice.

     It was during this time that one witness got an unguarded view of him. She really wasn’t sure of the significance of this person until the news of the event circulated. About a month later she came into the Sheriff Department and assists in the drawing of the sketch below.

       The one thing that doesn’t match EAR in the description is the height of 6 foot or better. EAR simply wasn’t that tall. But let’s resume now the Sheriff release of information. It bears on how the killer was actually not so tall, but was rather closer to the height usually attributed to EAR. According to the Sheriff statement:

     “A witness who lived across the street [from Nollsch) reported to detectives that she had seen the subject run onto the lawn from the sidewalk as described by the first witness [Nollsch], and change direction upon seeing him. She observed the subject to be approximately 5’9”, which came from a direct comparison of the height of the suspect to the height of the young man (witness #2)[Nollsch] who was in his driveway, and was known to her. A young lady in the same home reported the suspect ran through her side yard, jumped a fence in the backyard, and ran onto the adjacent street, Capitales Drive.”

     This witness actually came back out and saw Nollsch reenacting the events with the detectives. She walked over and added her 2 cents. She qualified she had been across the street and saw it all. In comparison to a knot or mark on the tree, and knowing Nollsch’s height (he is 5’6”), she said the assailant was about 5 foot 9 inches.

     All of these are significant and startling revelations. The ski mask and the shorter stature draw an undeniable and closer description to the East Area Rapist’s stats. This is the Sheriff Department’s intent. They go on to qualify that the ligature with the cinch knot matched the ligatures and knot gathered from at least 20 other EAR attack scenes, where the police had to cut the ligatures off the victims and bag them as evidence.

     In addition, there is the canvassing information in the neighborhood. It too draws a disturbing parallel to EAR’s known modus operandi when prowling a neighborhood. The release states:

     “Twelve homes in the immediate neighborhood of the murders reported incidents in the weeks and days leading up to the murders as well as the night of the murder. These incidents included prowlers, hang-up and/or silent phone calls, and burglaries. Additionally, other residences along the American River Parkway to the east and west were burglarized that night.”

     When all is put together, everything heavily suggests that the East Area Rapist is to blame for the murders. What is missing is the motive. The theory which I had championed was that Brian and/or Katie recognized him and recognized him in some compromised act that indicated he was EAR.  Therefore they had to die. Everything about the circumstances says that they had to die. This made the Maggiore Double Murders a critical clue. The circumstances indicate that either Brian or Katie could actually identify EAR or they had gotten such a good look at him that he knew they would both be able to inspire a really accurate sketch of him for the first time.

     Which scenario is accurate? Obviously, since 40 years have gone by there was no link uncovered. But it must be said that the original homicide investigators made no link to EAR with this incident. This came much, much later. It appears those in the EAR Task Force and the homicide unit didn’t speak much to each other. As such the homicide inspectors didn’t even realize the significance of the prowler activity and hang-up phone calls.

     However, in this theoretic reenactment there is room for Brian and Katie to have recognized their murderer. Otherwise it makes no sense that they were so ruthlessly pursued. There is no explanation for why their killer had ligatures, for why the ligatures fell out unless he reached in to put on his ski mask, and there is certainly no explanation for why Thumper was in the pool.

     Several theories have existed over the decades, but the Sheriff Statement helps clarify the rumors that Katie Maggiore had a stalker. They state:

     “Katie Maggiore had reported stalking incidents occurring at her work in the months leading up to her murder. She told a co-worker that a blue VW occupied by a white male would park across the street from her workplace — the Regal gas station on Folsom Blvd. — and watch her. Following repeated events, she finally decided to confront the man after he’d just spent two hours watching her, but the man drove off as she was crossing the street in his direction. Once she returned to the business, the subject reappeared a couple of hours later. Katie quit her job shortly after this stalking event. In addition, Katie and the same co-worker were receiving calls from an unknown male subject who said, ‘Your turn is coming.’ ”

     Those who have studied the case recall that EAR did not make these personal type of phone calls except, it would seem, for a short time in early 1978; the “Gonna Kill You” call to Victim No. 1 is a notable example. It was made on January 2, 1978, and the recording still exists. This was during the period, apparently, when Katie Maggiore received her call.

     Was their killer the East Area Rapist? If so, it is difficult to determine a motive unless he was indeed recognized. The current detectives stated that they do not believe the murder was intended. So in some ways this favors the idea that the Maggiores accidentally disturbed their killer.

     But the scenario can be reworked in a different way to include and springboard from another clue gleaned in the neighborhood canvas.

     Canvas of the neighborhood at the time also revealed the identity of the jogger. “A seventeen-year old witness possibly observed Brian and Katie Maggiore and an unknown subject approximately 10 minutes prior to the shooting. He was interviewed less than 24 hours after the murders, and reported he was jogging southbound on West La Loma Drive at La Alegria Drive on the east side of the street. He observed a white man and woman walking a dog, though he only heard the dog’s chain, but didn’t see the dog. The couple was on La Alegria Drive nearing West La Loma Drive when he saw them. On the opposite corner of the same intersection, near some bushes, he saw an unknown subject standing alone. He said he was wearing a padded type brown jacket, was 5'10" to 6"0" tall, with brown curly hair. After a brief glance, he continued jogging.”

     To an extent the clothing and height matches the assailant, except the hair is  curly. This last feature starkly does not match the “New Description” sketch which is now promoted as the only reliable sketch and a sketch, moreover, of EAR. It may simply be an error in the darkness. Or EAR had worn the mask already to get into the Capitales residence and in taking it off he hair was disheveled.   

     The location of the “man in the shadows” at the corner of La Alegria is quite intriguing. It would be the most likely direction that the prowler of the Capitales residence would take in order to get to the house on La Gloria. Also, it is to this direction that the fleeing assailant first went until he saw Nollsch in his driveway in front of him. He then turned around and made it to Capitales, but then went westward again. All subsequent reports of the man the deputies believed to be the assailant, were heading northeast, which is the exact opposite way the fleeing assailant originally tried to go. One would imagine that after he shot them he would take the quickest route possible to get to his car, but the subsequent reports that night indicate the killer fled on foot and had not come by car.

     There can be no doubt that the Maggiores had to die. Their killer shot Brian pointblank in the chest. Then fired another one into him while standing over him. He went for head shots on Katie in the dark. He wasn’t scaring them off. He wasn’t wounding them to buy himself some time to escape. They had to die. He was a good shot. It was dark. He could see well in darkness. They had to die. That is the thing. They could not be allowed to survive.

     Even if a connection is never found, the Maggiore Double Murder may provide the critical clue need to solve the entire and vast crime spree of EAR-ONS. He fled on foot. He not only fled on foot he fled deeper into Rancho, to an area where in 1976 he had ditched a victim’s car. He didn’t try to flee closer to Folsom Blvd and then to some far away lair.

     This introduces the idea he was based in Rancho Cordova and had perhaps lived there for a while. Recently, investigators uncovered a link to EAR from a lost crime spree. It is the case of the odd Cordova Cat. He was a strange cat burglar who had a very, very similar MO to EAR.  He began striking Rancho Cordova in 1972 near where EAR began his rape crime spree in 1976. He soon spread out to Cordova Meadows as well in 1973. The Sheriff info dump touches on some of his MO.

       Hang-up phone calls and odd communications were also present in this series, and were reported by victims in the area. One particular victim, a 17-year-old girl, was living in the 10100 block of La Alegria Drive [Nollsch’s neighbor]. She received a suspicious unsigned letter stating:

                                             "I love you."

       She then received numerous hang-up phone calls and a final call where a subject with a low, adult male voice, stated:

                         "I love you, this is your last night to live."

     This was 3 years before EAR became active in the Rancho Cordova area.

       Hang up phone calls were a signature of EAR. It was apparently his way of determining the residents’ daily routine.

     At the time of the EAR crime spree (1976-78) in the Sacramento area  no link was made between EAR and the earlier Cordova Cat  because of the way cases were handled. One detective did not bother to inquire of another detective’s workload. And by a sad coincidence the detective in charge of these cat burglaries had already died by 1976 and wasn’t there to say that EAR’s pattern reminds him of a perp he worked in Rancho 3 years before.

     The number of cat burglary cases are still uncertain. There could be more than 50 home invasions, and the crime spree may have extended beyond 1973. (It takes about 6 months for a detective to go through the reports for only a single month from that period.)

     When everything is put together, this case indicates that EAR-ONS was the perpetrator, that he had a lair in Rancho Cordova, and that he was the Cordova Cat of a few years before, the odd cat burglar who started getting a taste for sexual motives. The clues regarding the Cordova Cat are only now coming to light. But a serial makes his mistakes early on. An examination of the Cat’s patterns may indicate where his lair was, and this will help identify him. This is also the first murder associated with EAR, and he seems to have not thought out his retreat so well. It suggests he was fleeing to where he had fled in 1976 after his botched attack on Victim 8 nearby. It is a moment in crime, a significant moment in crime that could domino (finally!) and lead to the solution of the identity of the worst serial villain in history.