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This page is a summary of the three incarnations of the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker, a summary of how the three lives of the Cat weave together and how when put in order they reveal what clues are the most relevant in order to pursue the identity of the Night Predator. These three incarnations are Cat Burglar, Cat Rapist, and Cat Murderer. The terms are conjuncts of his underlying method (cat burglary) with rape and murder as evolving manifestations as this unidentified serial escalated his crime spree— from home invasion burglary, to home invasion rape, to home invasion murder. This evolution appears to have taken place over a period off and on between 1972 and 1986.
Within the last few years EAR/ONS has finally begun to enter the mainstream of consciousness, having been previous to this a topic with true crime buffs. With a growing desire on the part of the public that this crime spree should be solved, there has been a greater amount of official information and investigative material released. Paradoxically, it has served to underscore the difficulty in identifying this villain.
To briefly summarize: The crime spree of the East Area Rapist was well publicized over its known period in the Sacramento area and northern California, which was 1976-1979. He turned murderer in So. Cal in late December 1979, and continued at a steady pace until mid 1981, but these murders were not connected for up to 15 years as the act of a single serial let alone as the act of Sacramento’s East Area Rapist. He paused for 5 years, and returned in May 1986 to claim his last victim. He vanished thereafter.
Previous to the crime spree’s re-debut on the public stage (about 2011), his crime spree was divided between rapes and then, late 1979 and thereafter to murders. This crime spree was frequently catalogued under the dual acronyms EAR/ONS; this standing for East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker. The home invasion rapes throughout northern California were placed under the EAR title, and the home invasion murders under the title Original Night Stalker or ONS.
In theory, a young age for EAR had been assumed when he first began home invasion rapes in 1976. Youth combined with his deftness at prowling inspired the assumption he had a peeping tom/prowler background. It was not suspected that he had been a skilled home invasion or high risk burglar, more frequently known in the argot of law enforcement as a Cat Burglar.
Recently Sacramento Sheriff Department (SSD) detectives in an effort to uncover some prehistory to this adroit home invasion rapist’s modus operandi spent thousands of hours within the boxes of old records and microfiche. Within the last few years this grueling effort has uncovered the existence of an unidentified cat burglar having operated within the Rancho Cordova, Carmichael and Citrus Heights areas of eastern suburban Sacramento, the exact and unusual turf used by EAR. Further studying the details of 50 or so home invasion burglaries over 1972-1973 revealed even more strands that linked these cat burglaries to the MO of the East Area Rapist. It seems almost certain that the “Cordova Cat” and EAR were one and the same. In positing this, it explains EAR’s already-developed adroitness at home invasion. It was the product of years of refinement at prowling. Moreover, an examination of the burglary crimes underscores a thrill motive rather than one of avarice or criminal profession. It also suggests that sometime in 1974 he lost his zest for cat burglary and stopped activities, or it is also possible he had briefly moved away.
A cessation to his activities is a logical deduction considering that SSD detectives during the terror of the East Area Rapist (1976-1979) were unaware such a cat burglar had been padding about the same neighborhoods only a few years before. The original detective on the cat burglary cases had died by this time and there was no one to call attention to the EAR Task Force that the MOs were largely identical. Thus it is logical to deduce there was a period of dormancy sometime between 1974 and 1976 else a new detective would have been assigned the cases and would therefore have been in a position to call to the attention of the highly publicized EAR Task Force that a cat burglar had been recently using the same MO.
Cat Burglar
The Cat struck Rancho Cordova, Carmichael and Citrus Heights. These communities are sandwiched between the main north/south thoroughfares of Watt Avenue (in the west) and Sunrise Blvd (in the east), but Rancho C is noticeably separated from the other two by the American River, which divides the blue collar town of Rancho Cordova (south of the river) from the communities north of the river. Both can be accessed  back and forth only by using Watt Avenue or Sunrise Boulevard, as both have bridges that cross the river. The Cordova Cat limited himself to these two thoroughfares and to those main roads that lead off, as veins do from a main artery.
Cat Burglars can and do strike many times in a single night, and indeed the Cordova Cat did so. Yet it seemed a bit unusual (and a valid clue) that the Cat chose such a wide field in which to prowl. In one night he struck two times in Rancho and once in Carmichael, having obviously crossed one of the bridges going northward to commit his final burglary before returning to his cat pad. This was an unnecessarily wide field in which to yowl when he could have ravaged Rancho Cordova several times that night. Because of the frequency of striking both north and south of the American River in these communities he was known in official dispatches only as “the cat burglar that strikes Rancho Cordova and the East Area.”
The Cordova Cat appears largely to have been a young thrill burglar. He didn’t steal much of value. The most favored items were purses and wallets. He usually only took money, but sometimes he took identifications and small items. Other items stolen from the houses include coin collections, silver, and even food and alcohol. Usually, the purses and wallets were found nearby in an adjacent yard or on the sidewalk of the house. “Occasionally they were left elsewhere in groups with other victims’ property from the same night.” Altogether it seemed small pickings for such high risk crimes and the effort that the Cat took to obtain them. “Evidence from many of the scenes indicated the burglar had spent extensive time searching the residence, but most of the time items of value outside of the purses and wallets were disregarded. . .The burglar also spent considerable time in the bedrooms of the victim(s) as they slept, without disturbing them. . . In a few instances, victims awoke as the suspect was in the residence. The suspect would flee the residence out of one of the open doors, sometimes with the victim in pursuit. Additionally, the suspect would frequently strike multiple houses in a single night.”
A subset of these burglaries began in western Rancho Cordova in 1973, and though it is suspected this was the same cat burglar of late 1972 he was called the Cordova Meadows Burglar. Yet his MO is largely the same. “Some of the items taken include coins, piggy banks, jewelry, binoculars, hunting knives (some in scabbards), photographic cameras and movie cameras, two-dollar bills (numerous,) Blue Chip Stamps, handguns, food, alcohol, and prescription medication. Larger items, most electronics, and other items of value were noted to be disregarded by the suspect.”
Enough linked the two sprees to suggest one perpetrator. Some of these links were considered quite quirky. The cat burglar sometimes unplugged the forced air furnace, possibly to assure silence in the house.  He ransacked bedrooms and scattered clothes about, but stacked the female underwear in another room. Other oddities that he stole were magnets for car doors (such as advertising a business). He seemed to like cars. In one house he stole after shave, quite possibly because it was contained in a glass bottle shaped like a Model T.
There was also a certain amount of sexuality creeping into the Cat’s prowlings. “The burglar also spent considerable time in the bedrooms of the victim(s) as they slept, without disturbing them. . . On one occasion, the suspect touched a woman’s breast as she slept, but left when she told him he needed to leave her house. Also taken during some of the burglaries were photos of female occupants, including a set of nude photos taken by the model’s husband. Additionally, single earrings were taken from pairs.” In addition:
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. 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."
The Cordova Cat had a few encounters with his victims, but left the house when they awoke and he was challenged. Yet he had deadly bursts of anger, but only when prowling an empty house. On two occasions, and possibly later a third, he bludgeoned a small dog to death. It was assumed the dog would not keep quiet and instead of leaving the house (and possibly attracting neighbors’ attention because of the incessant yipping of the family pet) he killed the dog. Once he hit one so hard he disemboweled it.
In the collective crime spree of the Cat he left no clue leading from the house. He took with him only what he wanted. Anything he brought with him, remained on him. He bludgeoned the dogs with something he found on hand in the residence. Since he did not frequently steal expensive articles, there was no need for a fence, and nothing he stole turned up again on the black market.
On only one occasion did he leave a clue external to the house. This was the use of one victim’s gas credit card. He got gas and tires for his car from locations all at a distance but within the orbit of Sacramento (Marysville and Lodi, for example). At one service station the license of his car was taken down. The plate was traced to a car that had been wrecked a month before the robbery of the victim.
Thus it is apparent that the Cordova Cat’s modus operandi, like all experienced cat burglars, left no clue leading from the house to him. He did not steal for any great profit. It seemed to be thrill, thrill that was becoming mixed with sexual motives.
Such collectively is the Cordova Cat.
Cat Rapist
In June 1976 the East Area Rapist strikes his first victim. This residence is on Paseo Drive in Rancho Cordova. It is a disturbing home invasion rape. The crime spree escalates from there to Carmichael a month later in its Del Dayo community, just north of the American River. About a month later he strikes in Rancho Cordova again, just 2 doors from the first victim. Again he is back in Carmichael, in the Crestview area in September for Victim 4. The 5th victim is in Citrus Heights, and No 6 is back in Rancho Cordova, a block away from 1 and 3 and, incidentally, this family had also been a victim of the aforementioned Cordova Cat in 1973. Again, he is back in Del Dayo for Victim 7; again in Rancho for Victim 8 (within a 24 hour period); No 9 is in Citrus Heights, and 10 is in Fair Oaks, just east of Carmichael and south of Citrus Heights. Eventually he is back to Rancho for Victim 15. It is the strange MO of the Cordova Cat. Only now EAR had expanded but still followed the north/south of the American River strike zones. Victim 11 had been in La Riviera, which is west of Rancho but still south of the American River. Victim 12 was again in Citrus Heights. Victim 13 in Crestview. Victim 14 in the Whitney area where also had struck the Cordova Cat in 1973 and killed a yipping dog. In that theft he had indulged himself and stole 80 two dollar bills after he beat the dog to death.
 
The above alone does not detail the overlap in the Cordova Cat’s territory and in EAR’s subsequent use of the same territory. Click on the pictures above. In addition to similar territories, the killer of the poodle on Dolecetto was observed to bound from the roof, scamper across the yard and vault over the back fence. Such gymnastic abilities were noted in EAR’s interrupted prowlings as well. At Victim 3 he vaulted into a high window. At Haskell Avenue with only one hand he vaulted over the fence. EAR was between 5’6” and 5’10” and this is also the measurement of the Cat. It is also the measurement of the October 75 Rapist on nearby Dawes.
In the sum of his crime spree EAR used many different guns and knives, provenance unknown unless he had been stolen them years before as the Cordova Cat.
 
Unlike a cat burglar, however, a rapist clearly cannot strike several times in one night or even in a 24 hour period. Home invasion rape is also a far more complex crime than burglary since it requires confrontation with the inhabitants of the house. Thus a successful perp must engage in more preplanning. Many of EAR’s rapes had been preceded by hang up phone calls and general prowling in the neighborhood, the former the Cat’s old method of determining the schedules of intended victims, the latter the actions of an adept Cat. But there was no real significant burglary. Instead residents noticed that it seemed someone had been in their house. A few things were rearranged, maybe a personal photo was taken— things that a homeowner might feel they had mislaid. Thus EAR had put to use the art of cat burglary in selecting a victim and learning the routines of the neighbors without any actual major burglary to cause the neighborhood to take precautions and lock up.
Compared to the frequency of the Cordova Cat’s nightly prowlings, EAR’s rapes are relatively rare. His most busy month was May 1977, and though 5 rapes are 5 too many this is still not the same thing as 20 rapes in one month, and a cat burglar can average that number of burglaries per month. The reason EAR’s rapes were spaced out can only be that he was now methodically preplanning his home invasion confrontations, and this limited him to a lesser number of strikes. It was far more important now that the house not just be situated for quick escape to another yard or street, the community itself had to be right to allow him to escape it should the police quickly respond. This requires a lot of prowling. This dedication also reveals how rape was his new thrill. He could suborn all else to this goal. He continued with a cat burglar’s pace of prowling neighborhoods in preparation for his goal to commit a home invasion rape and safeguard his escape and anonymity, but he refrained from any real burglary.
The progression from Cat Burglar to Cat Rapist is obvious. With home invasion rape he had jacked-up the thrill level. He pre-plans accordingly. Now instead of a number of robberies per night, it is 2 or three rapes a month, with the robbery of odd and sometimes expensive things restricted to the night of the attack only. A thrill cat burglar’s MO is now subordinate to and put to the use of his new thrill of rape and terror.
Twice within the crime spree EAR seems to have murdered (Maggiores) or attempted murder (Miller) in order to protect his identity. Due to the impromptu nature of the crimes, neither could have been premeditated. He continues his schedule of raping. On only one occasion, it seems, infuriated he planned on revenge  (Haskell Avenue Incident) but this was thwarted.
Beginning with Victim 12, a curious pattern emerges. The victim feels EAR had little interest in rape. Thereafter in subsequent rapes this lack of gusto is noteworthy. His ennui is, in fact, a stark contrast to the profligate effort he had put into his first 10 rapes. Nevertheless, he continues his reign of home invasion terror, expanding to include Stockton, Modesto, Davis, then Contra Costa County. Close to 30 more victims fall prey to his home invasion tactics, but there are no murders. Eventually, the thrill of rape, like that of mere cat burglary, seems to pass. The greater thrill indeed may have been the terror he inflicted for hours. Later victims began to note their fear of torture and death was greater than anything else. “Shut up or I’ll kill your daughter!” he threatened one victim. “I’ll cut off her ear and bring it to you.”
Yet his desire for night thrills remains paramount. With rape and prowling being old hat now, and terror reaching no real crescendo anymore, a new thrill must come about, one dependent on the original thrill of cat padding about a neighborhood and home invasion, one at which he was highly adept.
Cat Murderer
Somehow the East Area Rapist was able to easily relocate from northern California to southern California. But it could be the relocation was upsetting to him. He strikes a couple in the small town of Goleta, next to Santa Barbara. He loses control, and they escape. This was in October 1979. It was now months of failure. (He had failed with his last victims in northern California in July.) He is particularly agitated here, repeatedly being heard to say to himself: “I’m going to kill them. I’m going to kill them.” In late December, a span of over 2 months— quite a dry spell for EAR— he returns to Goleta. Nearby in a condo unit he kills his first 2 victims— Drs. Offerman and Manning.
In retrospect this double murder is atypical. It speaks more of his rage murders. As such it is hard to say that it was premeditated. EAR shot them both; Offerman first, vengefully, and in circumstances that indicate  Offerman challenged him. He now walks around the bed and puts one bullet into the back of Manning’s head to end the game. He leaves.
EAR may have been in a bad humor already. Earlier that evening, 5 home invasion burglaries plagued Goleta. They were minor thefts, which included 2 dollar bills, a favorite of the Cordova Cat. In addition, a prowler was observed in a home on Windsor Court, observed mind you by the family as they drove up into their driveway. He was seen fleeing the living room into the backyard. What greeted them inside is reported in two different ways. Richard Shelby (Hunting a Psychopath) said their little poodle’s left eye had been hurt. Larry Crompton (Sudden Terror) says the little poodle was found beaten to death. The latter case starkly suggests the old Cordova Cat when in a rage.
The murder of Offerman/Manning is the only time that EAR killed people with a weapon he brought to the house. This is the only time he left a clue behind— ballistics. He may have intended murder this night, but this was not the way he had planned it. His behavior may have been so wild that Offerman realized there was only one chance of salvation— take him on. He failed.
Thereafter EAR’s murders follow the same jacked up thrill as his rapes had reflected when compared to his previous thrill cat burglaries. Those rapes were spaced over weeks. The murders are now spaced over months, greater care obviously given to the preparation and perpetration of the ultimate crime. Just as in the rape spree he learns the neighborhood beforehand, the schedules of his intended victims and their neighbors. He selects a viable target. He prowls the premisses beforehand. He finds a murder weapon to use. Like with the killing of the yipping dogs, EAR uses a bludgeon he obtained at the residence. He leaves it behind.
The arrogance and premeditated nature of this thrill seeker is hereby triply confirmed. When one thrill grew old, he replaced it with another— rape— more dangerous thrill until finally it was the ultimate crime. Murder being even more serious than rape, without any statute of limitations, he pre-plans the most. He waits months between— from 2.5 months to more than 6 months. Yet his skill at prowling remains the base of it all. He continues with raping the female, but both now have to die, die like the dogs he bludgeoned as the Cat. Two of the male victims are killed by a single blow. Not surprising from a man who disemboweled a dog with one blow in Rancho Cordova.
At the murder of the Smiths (above photo, right) , he left the bludgeon, a log from the wood pile, on the bottom of the bed after having covered the victims. All clues remain in the room. This is a metaphor for his entire crime spree. All evidence remains. It leads nowhere.
It is not tragedy that overwhelms the beholder of such a scene. It is the tremendous presumptuous arrogance of the perpetrator. He takes over the home, subjects it owners to unimaginable indignity, then kills them in their own bed, and leaves the murder weapon as a token of violation on the foot of the bed. He takes his stupid, odd thrill pieces of thievery but leaves expensive jewelry behind. In other words, nothing that requires a fence. Nothing traceable. The Cat never left a trail.
The East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker never knew his victims. That would make them a link to him. I would imagine that to him they were not worth knowing; they were only worth using. They were selected according to the ways of a cat burglar— the neighborhood and house had to be viable, viable to prowl, viable to attack, and viable for escape without leaving a trail.
In total, the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker never left a clue that could lead away from the house to him. Size 9 shoe prints weren’t crystal slippers. They could belong to thousands of men. No fingerprints. No trail of fenced items. There is only DNA. But like a fingerprint, it does not lead anywhere. Fingerprints identify. They do not reveal. In like manner DNA identifies the perpetrator. It does not lead to him.
One clue has so far not led to EAR, but it remains in orbit to the crime scenes. This is the existence of older cars possibly prowling the neighborhood before-the-fact, many of them bearing license plates that when taken down and checked could be traced to a different car that had been wrecked or junked months or years before the crimes. Aside from the many elements of MO that have linked the Cordova Cat to the East Area Rapist, this one orbital clue also links them. It was uncovered once in the case of the Cat. Several times in the case of EAR.
Summary
Clearly there is no one case that leads to the identity of EAR. In 50 cases of Cat Burglary, he had perfected leaving no clue behind. In over 50 cases of rape and home invasion assault, he left no clue behind. He left no clues behind in perhaps hundreds of home intrusions of neighbors while surveilling. In the 10 home invasion murders in So. Cal he left no clue behind with anything he had brought with him except ballistics in the first murders and then DNA in the others. (Ballistics have not let led to a handgun the Cordova Cat had stolen.)
When all three incarnations of the Cat are put together there is a heady atmosphere of thrill as the underlying motive. His losing the thrill of rape is so evident it can be gauged. Premeditated murder did not seem to interest him until he had to relocate down south. Then he plans carefully again. Instead of the pace of a few victims a month, he strikes over a period of 2.5 to 6 months. His caution causes him to subordinate his desire for thrill until he is ready to safely strike. Mission accomplished, he leaves the bludgeon and plans his next home invasion murder.
Between 1972 to 1981, EAR clearly had lots of time on his hands. Five years later (after his last murder in 1981) he comes back for one last time in 1986. Then it is over.
Intermediate
Because thrill and time are so toxically combined above, a few interim incidents suggesting intermediate transitions between the three phases above must be considered.
With the Cordova Cat’s increasing interest in sexuality, the Sarda Way Incident becomes of interest. It is not just because it seemed the assailant wanted rape. Rather it seems the assailant was trying to see if the house was empty and therefore a target to be hit. Discovering he was thwarted by the young mother, he became enraged and forced entrance. This combines some of EAR’s attributes and MO. A similar tactic was used by a man prior to some of EAR’s rapes. He rang the doorbell and if no one answered he went into the back yard to scout the exterior of the house.
The October 1975 Rape. Originally regarded as EAR’s first rape, it was later reassessed and now should be reconsidered again. Circumstances suggest the rape came as the crescendo of a week long prowling of Dawes Street, only about 8 houses down from two EAR strikes plus the dog bludgeoning incident on Dolecetto. Thrill factor being so acute in EAR’s combined crime sprees, the perverse rape fits better as his first, one in which he completely indulged.
The Haskell Avenue Incident (both articles) may bear on understanding EAR turning murderer. There he had been chased off by a big man and a sheriff. That so seemed to enrage him that he intended the couple’s murder as revenge. With his failure at Victim 48, and hence the need to leave northern Cal, with Victim 49, his first So. Cal attempt, he was probably now sufficiently motivated to murder for sport.
Conclusion
I do not know how affluent EAR’s background was, but he clearly had lots of time on his hands between 1972 and 1981. He also had access to the license plates of wrecked or junked cars. As the Cordova Cat, he may have used this cover to conceal his car on more than one occasion, but it was only proved once. As EAR, it was far more frequently done. The wrecking yards to where the plates could be traced were as far as Windsor, California. Both the Cat and EAR liked to drive.
Auto-wrecking is the only lead I have, and I am not alone in pursuing  this to ultimately identify the Night Predator. But his position within an auto wrecking concern is a little more tenuous to extract. It seems he could not have been a mere employee. He would have to be a favored family member of the nominal owner. Yet, if so, why the need to charge on credit cards to buy basics for his own car? (The Cat did this, but years later EAR never did.)
Putting in order the three lives of the Cat, we can safely deduce that the Night Predator felt very safe with the use of bogus license plates. It remained his one steady cover. It is possible that he was a member of a car dealing family that also had a towing and wrecking franchise, far less glamorous aspects of car dealing which it did not openly advertise.
On only one occasion was a car identified with the Cordova Cat. It was a green Opel Kadett. It was seen parked in front of the burgled residence by a witness on Palo Vista, Rancho Cordova. The man who was associated with the car left little impression on the witness, but he distinctly remembered the green Opel Kadett. This is a German car maker that was essentially a subsidiary of General Motors at the time. The age of the car is not reported. If it was a new car, this would be the only time a new car was ever associated with the crime spree.
Auto-wrecking and extensive driving/unsupervised time remain the only clues that can lead somewhere.
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