Around 11 p.m. 19 year old victim pulled into her house’s driveway. Her father and brother were not home but soon to arrive. This was their typical schedule. She had a small dog in the back seat. She opened her car door and held the door open with her foot. She twisted around to get her dog. At this moment a gloved hand clutches her head and violently yanks her out of the car. She resisted until the assailant placed the point of a knife at her throat, drawing blood. He hissed through clenched teeth:

     “Stop fighting. I only want your car. I won’t hurt you.”

     She noticed he was wearing a light gray woolen ski mask, which only had holes for the eyes.

       She went quiescent.

     “Get out!” he ordered.

       He closed her car door and walked her in front of him to the side of her house.

       He ordered again: “Turn around.”

     She pled, but he snapped: “Shut up!”

     A moment later he commanded: “Don’t look at me.”

     He tied her wrists tightly. “Do you have any money? All I want is money and your car keys. I’m not going to hurt you.”

     “I’ve just got a dollar in my wallet”

       “Shut up!”

       She heard him rummage in her purse.

     “Please don’t hurt my dog. Let her go.”

     “Shut up! I’m not going to hurt your dog.”

     He led her back to the driveway, holding her crossed arms tightly behind her back. They crossed into the neighbor’s yard and up to their side gate. The gate was already opened. He pushed her through.

     “Sit down!”

     He forced her down. She saw 3 strips of pre-cut towel laying on the ground. He tied her with white cord, then used one of the pieces of towel as her blindfold and shoved the other in her mouth.

     She made some frightened sounds.

     “Shut up!” He jabbed the knife at her ribs.

     He now tied the other strip of cloth as the gag.

     She could feel him standing over her, remaining silent. She didn’t know what to expect. Then she heard her car keys jangling.

     “I’m going to leave for 5 minutes. If you move, I’ll slit your throat and cut your guts out. If you move, blam, blam, blam,” he added, imitating gun fire.

     A while later she heard her car start. Finally, she freed herself.

Investigation

   Investigation uncovered contradictory evidence. The victim could not have been the intended target. Her father and brother usually arrived home near this same time. Moreover, the assailant’s strips of towels were neatly laid out in a neighbor’s yard. The yard belonged to a couple who were senior citizens. They obviously weren’t the intended target. Her car was found on El Segundo Drive, about a block away, mid block between Los Palos and La Presa Way. The dog was locked in the trunk.

Description

The victim described the mask as woolen, the first time that detail was given. It was light gray. At one point she stumbled, noticing the assailant’s shoes. They were desert shoes.

 Geography

The canal back of Los Palos. Dawes Street is the next main street over into this side of Rancho Cordova from Paseo Drive, where the rapist first struck.

Analysis

   The assailant appears to be the same rapist that had so far struck 7 victims, the last one in Del Dayo in the early morning hours of this very day. This night, however, he did not attempt rape, for whatever reason.

   The conduct of the rapist is interesting. He, in fact, did what he told the victim he was going to do. He merely wanted to get out of there quickly. Yet it was not hurry after a rape. The horrid tools of rape and bondage were neatly laid out, unused, in the neighbor’s backyard. Why was he in such a hurry he needed to steal a car? How had he gotten there to begin with?

     He had also attacked Victim 4 early around 11 p.m., and that rape too was impromptu as this one seemed. After that attack he also stole the victim’s car and parked it a block or so away.

     Curiously, he did not escape toward Folsom Blvd., but drove the car more deeply into Rancho Cordova, though a quick escape via a main artery was but a block away. Had he driven to the location of the attack, he could have parked his own car in the parking lots along Folsom or nearby along the wide Malaga Way. But he drove it to a quiet residential block further in to the community, but like with Oakgreen Circle in Crestview, just a block over from a location closer to the beginning of the canal that ran behind the homes.

   The number of strips he had laid out indicates he had intended to strike a lone victim, though who this was is not known. From his language, shoes and conduct, its seems this was the same assailant as in all the others. He had struck the Del Dayo victim (7) in the early morning darkness of this very day. Now, as October 18 was about to close he attacked this victim back in Rancho.

   This would be the last strike before the news blackout was lifted. The suspect would now be known as the East Side or East Area Rapist. However, this would not be counted as the 8th victim in the news announcements. An earlier rape in October 1975 was initially accepted as the first evil work of the East Area Rapist.  

     The utterly pointless act on the villain’s part was, of course, underscored in the above Google Aerial. Why steal the victim’s car only to take it a few blocks away and park it on El Segundo?

     In retrospect, these would only be the first 8 attacks in a record that would swell to over 50 rapes and at least 10 to 12 murders. The perpetrator would remain ominously calculating and premeditative. As such, this rash act may be one of the most significant clues. Not even the villain who committed these crimes and who, in a couple of weeks after this attack, would be dubbed the East Area Rapist, could appreciate how far his crime spree would spread and to what evil lengths it would finally go. A serial makes their mistakes in the beginning, and this may be one of his.

     But it is best to remain chronological and analyze the first 8 attacks. With the news announcements, the period of EAR’s prehistory ends. Widespread news coverage over the next years to come will leave no doubt as to his pattern and victims. And the analysis will reveal how careful he already was.

Analysis of First 8 Attacks

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