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True Crime/Cold Case Files     EAR Crime Index

The Case of the East Area Rapist AKA The Original Night Stalker

Assault/Attempted homicide

Not cataloged

Ripon Court

  He is the real life Michael Myers. He looked like the average teen, except for his morose eyes. Yet he is the No. 1 serial offender in history. He was so careful, he is known only by his DNA. The East Area Rapist, as he was known, struck California communities for 10 years— 1976-1986. Toward the end he became a murderer now known as the Original Night Stalker. He has 50 rapes and 12 murders to his record. Then he vanished. He would be about 58 years old now, living what appears a normal life. These are the files on his crimes.

Sacramento/ College Glen

Feb. 16, 1977 

Bounding Lurker

10:30 p.m.

East Area Rapist

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It was about 10:30 p.m., a cold, dark February night in College Glen. This is the Sacramento subdivision just south of Glenbrook where Victim 11 had been struck on January 19. Despite it being divided from Glenbrook by Highway 50, the two communities were connected by a bridge over the highway on Occidental Street. This made Occidental the main street to and from both areas. Ripon Court-aerial-angle-icon

     EAR must have known this area. Occidental had to be the street by which he had got to Victim 11’s house, for it is off Occidental on Great Falls Way where the sheriffs found the victim’s car. EAR had driven it to the apartment complex and disappeared into the night, as he often told his victims he would. This means that EAR had somehow come to Glenbrook through the College Glen area to begin with. It seems reasonable to deduce that he had come from around Folsom Blvd, the main road east and west from Rancho Cordova, and this must be how he escaped. Ripon Court-aerial-icon

     So to cut to the chase, EAR had to know the main areas of College Glen already by January 19, 1977.

     A few blocks into the community from Occidental was Ripon Court. It was a short cul de sac across the street from a school and its park. There wasn’t much else about this area of College Glen that fit EAR’s prowling modus operandi. Only this area. By February, sheriff profilers had already been collating EAR’s MO, noting that invariably he struck a block of homes on or one row over from a canal, park, school, or levee. And the part of the school directly across from Ripon Court was a huge grassy park. Citadel Way, the street off which was Ripon Court, was also lined by tall trees whose branches formed a dark canopy over Citadel and the entrance to Ripon Court. It was a clandestine area, full of shadows, and this fits EAR’s tactical MO.

     Therefore it seems more than coincidental that the following incident would happen here.

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     Young Rod Miller just came into his house from the garage door of their Ripon Court home when both he and his father, Ray, heard something in the backyard. It sounded like someone had bounced into Ray’s barbecue. Ray flicked the outside light on and both saw a young man “lurking” in the dark corner of the backyard. Ray yanked the sliding glass door open.

     The “lurker” bolted straight for the front yard along the side of the house. Rod immediately gave chase, with Ray close behind him. The lurker was incredibly agile. He dashed through the gate and across Ripon Court to the house opposite the Millers. He bounded over that home’s side fence, but Rod did not stop. He braced a foot against the fence and leapt up, hands clutching the top of the palings, ready to bound over in hot pursuit.

DSC05428-50%-icon     At this very moment, from the darkness below him, he heard a gun cock. There was nothing he could do. He was completely exposed, and momentum didn’t allow him to fall back.

     A loud burst spit forth. His stomach burned. He fell back into his father’s arms. “I’ve been shot!” he cried. HisLurker hands clutched his stomach, blood oozing out between his fingers.

     Another shot roared from the other side of the fence. Ray pulled his son back to safety behind the front of the neighbor’s garage door.

     Shouting, screams of pain of course, echoed over the court. Lights came on in the houses. Soon every neighbor was on the phone calling the police. It wasn’t long before squad cars screeched up, followed by an ambulance.

     Police were quick to cordon off the general area. But the perpetrator had silently escaped.

     Rod Miller had 13 holes in him. The bullet had ripped through his internal organs. Fortunately, he would survive.

     The Sacramento Bee expressed its worry that the shooter might have been the East Area Rapist. Lt. Shelby believed it was all but a given that the lurker was EAR.

     In retrospect, there is every chance that the lurker was indeed EAR. Aside from the fact the area fit his MO— the school grounds right across the street— the Millers’ house backed the second house to the corner on Notre Dame Drive behind them. More frequently than not EAR had struck the corner house or the house next to it. From his earliest strikes, it was clear that EAR also accessed homes from the house behind them. For No. 1 and 3, for example, it seems he used Del Rey Court.

     In terms of pace, an argument can be made that this was EAR. He had struck January 19 in Glenbook, his first strike in La Riviera. His next victim was February 7, but there would be no more victims in all of February. Yet in March he would take up his pace again and strike at least two more (March 8 and March 18), each spanned by about week. In April he would do likewise. Considering he attacked on February 7, his next attack was due near to the 16th of February. But there would be no other attack in February. There was only this unexplained incident where a young prowler saw fit to carry a gun, like EAR did, and shoot to kill to protect himself.

     Sacramento Police did an Identikit of the “lurker.” The kit below is promoted as the Ripon Court Lurker. It shows a young man with a long face and morose eyes and an almost dead expression.

                                   EAR-Composite5-35%

       There had been no string of robberies in the neighborhood and there was little reason to expect some crazed burglar about. So what was this lurker doing there if he was not EAR prowling? Why would an ordinary prowler opt to wait on the other end of the fence and attempt to kill his pursuers? Obviously, he had to delay them. At the very least we must assume this. So we must accept that somehow he had come from the other side of the court, probably having parked on Chestnut Hill or Reed Miller fam3Court. If not here, then he was heading for the quickest way out and didn’t want to be followed to his car or bike wherever he would have to backtrack to find it.

     In any case, the lurker got away clean. The shells left at the scene were supposedly 9mm, which may have been the gun EAR had brandished to others previously.

   The Miller family, left. If the lurker was EAR, then it is possible that the sister was a future intended victim.

     The young lurker came armed. This we do know.

   He never returned. The area south of Highway 50 would never be struck by EAR. He would return to La Riviera north of it, but never come south on Occidental again, though we know he knew the area.

   Was this EAR? For now, in the sequence of crimes as they unfolded, Sacramento Police didn’t know what they had. Speculation was that it was EAR prowling for a new victim. As time would go by, EAR’s modus operandi would become painfully repetitive, and Ripon Court’s location fits perfectly in the assault tactics of a night stalker who wouldn’t quit.

     The existence of the Cordova Cat (1972-1973) had been forgotten by Sacramento Sheriff’s Department by this time, as had a strange home invasion and attempted rape in Rancho Cordova in September 1973 on Sarda Way, by a perp who looked remarkably similar to this Identikit. Sac PD had no way to know that this so far might have been the real face of the night stalker.

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RiponVid

Files on the EAR/ONS

QQ

Preliminaries

Introduction

A Word About Rape

   Notes on Personal Investigation

Logic verses Instinct

The Folklore of “Copycat”

Updates

 

Prehistory

The Summer of ’76

Victim #1
— The Beginning—
Rancho Cordova

Victim #2
—Careful Selection—
Del Dayo

     Victim #3
— Foiled Attack—
 Rancho Cordova

Victim #4
— Violent Improvisation—
 Crestview

   Victim #5
— Selected Target—
 Citrus Heights

Victim #6
— Curious Tactics—
 Rancho Cordova

     Victim #7
— Baring Down—
 Del Dayo 

     Victim #8
— Interrupted Arrival—
 Rancho Cordova

Analysis of First 8 Strikes

Victim #9
— Revealing Mistake—
 Citrus Heights

Victim #10
— Fair Oaks—
 Undaunted

  Living Dangerously
— The Year of the EAR—
1977

Victim #11
— Cats and Fields—
Sacramento

Victim #12—
 Blind Spot Reveals—
 Citrus Heights

Victim #13
— Unexpected Jogger—
Carmichael

Ripon Court Shooting

 Victim #14
— Over the River . . .
and Through the Woods—
  Sacramento

Victim #15
— Tactical Misuse—
 Rancho Cordova

Victim #16
— Opportunity Knocks a Clue—
 Orangevale

Victim #17
— Unexpected Spoke in the Hub—
 Crestview

Victim #18
— Moving Upwards—
La Riviera

Victim #19
— Presentiment
 of
 Impromptu Danger—
Orangevale

Victim #20
— Blind Spot
 and a
Stop Watch—
 Citrus Heights

Victim #21
— Tactical 1—
Del Dayo

Victim #22
— Tactical 2—
South Sacramento

Panic!

  After the Lull—
1977’s Autumn of Fear

 

Victim #23
— Tactical 3—
 Stockton

Victim #24
— Switcharoo—
 La Riviera

Victim #25
— Follow Diablo—
 Foothill Farms

Victim #26
—  Dump Truck Biker—
 Carmichael

Victim #27
— Condo Commando—
La Riviera

Victim #28
— Tail of Diablo—
 Foothill Farms

Victim #29/30
— Assault!—
 Carmichael

Maggiore Double Murders
— Critical Clue—
 Rancho Cordova

   Yet Another Year— 1978

       Witness in Charcoal

Victim #31
— Distant Roaming—
 Stockton

Victim #31B
— Back to Rancho—
 Rancho Cordova

Victim #32
— Little Pocket, Big Clue—
 South Sacramento

Victim #33
— The Deep Dig—
 Modesto

Victim #34
— Co-Ed—
Davis

Victim #35
— Back—
 Modesto

Victim #36
— Forth—
 Davis

Silent Victim
— Lateral—
 Modesto

Victim #37
— Forth North—
 Davis

A New East—
 Contra Costa Corridor

Victim #38
—  Surreal Schedule—
 Concord

Victim #39
— Opportunity Kicks—
 Concord

Victim #40
— Cats and Fields Again—
 San Ramon

Victim #41
— The Way to San Jose—
 San Jose

Victim #42
— Sobbing in San Jose—
 San Jose

Victim #43
— Danville—
 Playing it Close

 

   No Stopping Him— 1979

Lacing with Ligatures— Thunderbird Place

Victim #43B
— Auld Lange Syne—
 Rancho Cordova

Victim #44
— Along the 680—
 Fremont

Victim #45
— Follow the Cats—
 Walnut Creek

Victim #46
— Sticking to Routine—
 Danville

Victim #47
— Walnut Creek—
 Dig and Retreat

Victim #48
— Shouted Out—
 Danville

Victim #49
—  The Unsuspected —
Goleta

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Murder
—Original Night Stalker—

Goleta
— Doctor Duo—
 Dec 30, 1979

Ventura
— Cats & Murder—
 March 13, 1980

Laguna Niguel
— Exclusive—
August 19, 1980

Irvine
— Home Alone—
 Feb. 6, 1981

Goleta
— Dig & Retreat Again—
 July 27, 1981

Irvine
— Epitome of MO—
May 4, 1986

 

         Phantom Predator—
  Analysis of EAR Crime Spree

       Analysis of EAR Prowling MO

Portrait of Terror

The Lair of an Arch Rapist

     The Mystery of the Silent Dog

 

Persons of Interest

Introduction

 

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

 

The Website of Gian J. Quasar