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This page shall act as an introduction to a new section on Q Files detailing as much as possible the crime spree of the Cordova Cat (1972-1973) and the similarity of the Cat’s M.O. to the M.O. of the East Area Rapist (1976-1986). Enough evidence exists (which will be presented here and in this section) to heavily suggest that they are one and the same perpetrator. This page is a more concise and thesis-based presentation than the earlier EAR The Cat: Was The East Area Rapist a Cat Burglar?
The evidence that the Cordova Cat and EAR are one and the same exists in several parts. First and foremost the link is found in the similarities in their M.O. and descriptions (height, weight, general physique). The second is more subtle and yet more powerful. It is found in their differences. They do not stand alone in and of themselves. They reflect a single perpetrator adapting to a change in conditions and motive. Two different perps can be of similar height and body proportions, but their crime sprees would still remain distinct. The crime spree of the Cordova Cat and the East Area Rapist do not remain distinct. The latter shows itself to be an evolution of the former. There are also a few hitherto “missing links” (incidents) that come between the two crime sprees that present themselves as significant benchmarks to the next stage.
Differences are easier to accept as the result of adaptability when this same adaptability is seen within the crime spree of both the Cordova Cat and EAR. The Cat underwent such a distinct metamorphosis that his crime spree can be divided into two phases. These phases are so distinct, in fact, that they can be (and have been) attributed to two difference perps. These stages are officially divided as Cat Burglar and Cordova Meadows Burglar. Officially the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department urge caution that these may indeed be two different perpetrators, but for arguments here, though dividing them, we will concentrate on how they can be viewed as evolving stages of the same perpetrator.
The Cat Burglar struck a specific area of Rancho Cordova around Coloma Road in 1972. The M.O. was so specific that it was easy to determine that it was the act of one perpetrator. He was a cat burglar in the truest sense of the word. He invaded the homes late at night, and quietly padded about the sleeping inhabitants. He stole mostly wallets and purses, and other portable but not highly fencible  items (coin collections, for example). To qualify as a cat burglar the home invasion high risk burglar must strike while the inhabitants are present and asleep in the wee hours. It is the uncanny knack of silence that merits them the name “cat burglar.”
The Cat Burglar’s turf in 1972.
The Cat Burglar did not set his financial motivation level too high. He remained a petty thief. The risk he took was way out of proportion to his gain. Odd things indicated his motive was thrill more than anything. He lingered in the house for far more time than necessary. He rummaged through the refrigerator and ate their food and drank their alcohol.
By spring 1973 it was clear that a home invasion burglar was afoot in Cordova Meadows, which is the western part of suburban Rancho Cordova. He was not a pure cat burglar. He usually struck a house while the inhabitants were away, though sometimes he was a Cat and crept through their house while they slept. He struck at all hours of the day, evening, and at night. A few incidents and encounters indicated he kept a close stalking watch on their movements and struck quickly while they were away for only a short time. Like the Cat Burglar he did not steal much of value. He took “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 d isregarded by the suspect.” Curiously, as noted above, he too liked to rummage the refrigerator and eat the residents’ food and drink their alcohol. However, he also liked to ransack the house.
The turf of the Cordova Meadows Burglar.
Cat burglary can and often (though not always) leads to or already has a sexual motive. There is little reason to invade basic middle class homes and pad silently about the sleeping inhabitants just to steal wallets and extra cash lying about. On a couple of occasions, it was clear that the Cat Burglar spent quite a bit of time in the bedrooms while the victims slept, and on one occasion he touched a woman’s breast, causing her to awake. The Cordova Meadows Burglar had more than a kink. He would take women’s undees and stack them in another room.
The Cat Burglar usually entered the house through the garage and then through the inside connecting door to the kitchen. He usually exited through a door, often the front door, that he opened as soon as he entered the house, using this as an emergency exit in case he had to immediately flee. The Cordova Meadows Burglar entered through a kitchen door or back glass slider and then straight away went to the back bedroom (usually master bedroom) and opened a window and removed the screen. This made for an emergency exit in case the inhabitants suddenly returned, as they would be returning through the front of the house and he could then escape out the back.
On the face of it, the differences between the two are stark except for both haunting the unlikely place of small, blue collar Rancho Cordova. The Cat Burglar was silent and neat befitting a “Cat.” He struck only at night. The Cordova Meadows Burglar was a Cat when he wanted, but otherwise he was a ransacking nightmare.
Yet in each case the differences can be explained by circumstances. The Cat Burglar struck with people in the house and confrontation was not his desire. He remained quiet. He prepared an emergency exit immediately, usually the front door. With the inhabitants sleeping he obviously couldn’t and didn’t need to pry off a bedroom window screen. Yet in principle it is the same thing as what the Cordova Meadows Burglar did. He had to fear the family returning home suddenly, obviously through the front of the house, and immediately upon entering he had prepared an emergency exit out the back bedroom window. The Cordova Meadows Burglar was often alone, and this allowed him to take his time in the house. This allowed him to rummage and ransack looking for valuables. He didn’t take purses and wallets because those were usually missing when the homeowner was away.
Although the house looked like a shambles afterward, the Cordova Meadows Burglar nevertheless had shown obsessive cat burglar skills. He had pulled the plug on the forced air furnace to maintain a deadly silence while in the house. The Cordova Meadows Burglar wanted things so quiet that a yipping poodle and terrier irked him enough that he bludgeoned them to death. The Cat Burglar did not do this, but he couldn’t afford to do this with people sleeping in the house. He would simply have to flee. It is safe to say that the Cat Burglar avoided a house with dogs inside.
For each of these differences, the circumstances dictated the actions of the perpetrator.
The differences don’t seem enough to separate the two crime sprees when compared to another similarity between the two. Both the Cat Burglar and the Cordova Meadows Burglar struck the East Area of Sacramento— Carmichael and Citrus Heights. The Cordova Meadows Burglar struck the Whitney/Mission area and the Cat Burglar had struck the Birdcage area. Both areas were hit by  EAR a few years later. This is an unusually wide prowling ground for what looks initially like a local neighborhood burglar in Rancho Cordova.
This is not the only link that begins to connect this 1972-1973 burglary spree with the East Area Rapist. For example, after the Cat Burglar’s strike in the Citrus Heights area of Birdcage, he did something quite remarkable. He must have walked quite a distance, crossed Madison Avenue, walked through a dark golf course, and then into the apartment complex south of there. Here on a path he went through the purses and wallets he had stolen and dumped them there. Altogether this suggested that the Cat Burglar had prowled the area he struck from quite a distance. This is a mirror of how EAR prowled a neighborhood. This was revealed to us on a few occasions by his mistakes, such as with Victim 11 when he stole her car and drove it far away to the apartments on Great Falls Way where he ditched it.
Hang-up phone calls had not preceded the Cat Burglar, but a rash of them preceded the attacks of the Cordova Meadows Burglar. Hang-up calls were a hallmark sign of the East Area Rapist as he refined a neighborhood’s schedule. In like manner The Cordova Meadows Burglar usually wanted to make sure the homes were empty before he entered them. The Cat Burglar knew people would be asleep in their beds at late night and early morning. There was no need for hang-up phone calls. He didn’t waste his time with pulling out the forced air furnace plug, but EAR did do this on occasion just like the Cordova Meadows Burglar.
EAR was undoubtedly very agile, even to the point of gymnastic abilities. The Cordova Meadows Burglar’s habit of ensuring a window was open and the screen removed is an act that indicates he was very agile and could quickly get out windows, even the high casement windows of the homes of that era.
Thus if these are three distinct home invasion artists, each had perfected the hardest high risk crimes that can be committed in a middle class neighborhood, and each followed the same territory and each evaded identification. Each was very agile, and each has elements of their M.O. that overlap. But these are not normal elements. These are the odd elements that aren’t necessary in burglary. No real financial motive. Thrill. Rummaging refrigerators. Lingering. Sexual connotations. To do this each perfected prowling and stalking to a superlative degree, and in the case of the Cordova Meadows Burglar and EAR both used hang-up phone calls, ostensibly to determine the residents’ schedules. Despite the differences, many nuances sew these two crime sprees together.
Other incidents now come into play, at precisely the times one would expect if the same perpetrator was escalating his motive. These link the Cordova Cat perpetrator to the East Area Rapist. The first is the home invasion rape of October 21, 1975. It was originally regarded as EAR’s first strike. It was later removed from the list. The reader can consult the article for the detailed information.
This home invasion rape was preceded by a “mini storm” of what would become standard EAR pre-strike activity. (See Moments in Crime). The street was being heavily prowled. Hang-up phone calls were vexing residents. Porch lights were being put out. Petty burglary was being committed by someone who didn’t take much in value. Then on the night of the attack the rapist entered the home through the garage door and then through the connecting kitchen door. All in all, everything that preceded the attack was a combination of the crime sprees of the forgotten Cordova Meadows Burglar and Cat Burglar, and what would soon come to be the M.O. of EAR.
The events in the house would also be a foretaste of EAR’s actions. The perp cut the phone lines and awoke the mother and eldest daughter at knife point. He wore a ski mask and camo pants. He wore black gloves. He raped both with gusto, but didn’t hurt the little 7 year old girl. He bound and gagged her and put her in another room.
By today’s reckoning, the East Area Rapist’s first strike was (Victim 1) on Paseo Drive on June 18, 1976. The clues left here were thought to reflect the hallmarks of a beginner. He had tried to cut the phone line from outside the house, but had failed. He then whittled on the back kitchen door (not the one leading into the garage) until he finally got in the house. He didn’t cut the phone lines inside. These would seem the contradictory actions of a muddled beginner, especially the gesture of trying to cut the phone line into the house commando style. But through successive attacks EAR showed he was indeed already a developed and skilled prowler. It was thought he had a prowler or peeper background, but no connection was made between him and the previous Cat Burglar or Cordova Meadows Burglar because the cases had already been forgotten.
Yet today with the much more detailed information coming to light on the previous crime sprees, it seems EAR is one of the previous burglars mentioned, if they are two different perpetrators. As such,  his known skill did not come from peeping and prowling but from high risk burglary. In light of this, his actions at Victim 1’s house should be interpreted with this knowledge.
The first interpretation that he was a beginner at home invasion was a perfectly legitimate interpretation. The backyard of the victim’s house revealed the clues. The perp had clumsily tried to cut the phone line leading to the house from the power pole which ran along the fence line. He placed a board on the ground and then a birdbath on top. He stood on it and tried to cut the wire. The birdbath cracked and gave way. He gave up and then whittled his way in but, amazingly, didn’t cut the phone lines inside.
However, this is not necessarily the act of a beginner. Unlike with the October rape, Victim 1’s house was locked all the way ’round. There could be no quiet entry through the kitchen door. He knew therefore he had to whittle his way in. He may have preferred to cut the phone line on the outside first to make sure she didn’t awake and call the police. He seems to have wanted rape rather badly and didn’t want it foiled. This was not something he had to do on October 21. However, after securing the victim in bed he realized he was in control and there was no need to cut the phone lines anymore. He raped her with gusto, just like the victims on October 21, 1975. He may have been a beginner at breaking in and raping, but not necessarily at entering and raping.
At first, the sequence of clues suggested he had never broken into an occupied house before. His inexperience therefore dictated the mistakes. All timelines place the June 18, 1976, attack as Number 1 in the crime spree of the perp who would become known as the East Area Rapist or EAR, then later the Original Night Stalker— California’s and perhaps history’s No 1 serial offender.
But when comparing EAR’s crime spree to the previous burglar crime sprees, it is no longer tenable to say that EAR was not one of the previous burglars. Perhaps he was even the October rapist. That attack looks more and more like a significant bridge for him after returning from a period of dormancy (1974-1975). He is returning now as a thrill rapist rather than just the thrill burglar and ransacker he had been. His first 11 rapes are all very energetic, but slowly he begins to lose the gusto, indicating rape was a relatively new thrill for him and now he was getting bored with it. It is also a fact that when EAR’s stalking M.O. is put together, his early attacks in Rancho Cordova indicate he was already familiar with the area. Indeed, Victim 6 of EAR on El Segundo Drive had also been a victim of the Cat in 1973.
It is also a fact that the Cordova Meadows Burglar could be paradoxically silent when he wanted to be and still make a mess of the house. EAR seldom ever woke the sleeping children in the house and yet inflicted unimaginable terror on the parents. In one case he didn’t even wake up the sleeping father-in-law despite the fact he was “crazier” with these victims than any others.
The East Area Rapist was himself a jumbled dichotomy. There are times when he was calm and calculated in home invasions. Other times he kicked in doors. At one house, he leapt feet first through a high bedroom window. There was no doubting EAR’s cat-like agility. One can see a quiet cat in him, but also a tumultuous ransacker. It all depended on what he wanted to do. He was adaptable to his changing motives. The discovery of the Cordova Cat’s previous existence calls our attention to yet another perpetrator who evolved and adapted to suit his new thrills.
In this introduction, a few more anecdotes may be useful to highlight the advancing sexual and stalker motives that came to dominate the odd Cordova Cat.
As the Cat Burglar, he left evidence that he liked to stand in the bedrooms and watch the occupants while they slept. Things were disturbed in the room that indicated he had been in the room but not really looking for loot. Then on one occasion a woman awoke and saw him standing there by her dresser. He said something stupid: “I just took a dollar from your dresser.” She told him to get out. On another occasion a woman woke up when he lightly touched her breast. It wasn’t a fondle or squeeze. Just a touch.
Aside from taking women’s underwear to another room and stacking them, the Cordova Meadows Burglar used his prowler abilities to become a stalker and mix his ardor with murderous “love letters.” Of this incident, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department states: “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."
“This victim lived next door to the home where the killer of Brian and Katie Maggiore jumped the fence and fell into bushes in his escape from the crime scene on La Alegria Drive five years later.”
Again, EAR is heavily suspected now of having killed Brian and Katie. The events preceding their double murder were identical to both the EAR and Cordova Meadows Burglar’s pre-strike M.O.s. See Moments in Crime.
Over the crime spree of the “Cordova Cat” about 50 houses silently fell victim to being robbed. Then he vanished in late 1973. In the interim, before the EAR emerged in the same area in 1976, there had been the October 1975 rape. Both crime sprees (or three if the Cat Burglar and Cordova Meadows Burglar are different perps) began in Rancho and expanded to both La Riviera and the East Area.
There is clearly an interim between the two crime sprees. This dormancy appears to have begun in late 1973. There may have been a few minor incidents in 1974, but there was no crime spree. Then there was the October 1975 rape. Again there is dormancy until June 1976. After this, EAR’s crime spree continues to escalate until it comes to a crescendo of terror in May 1977.
The archival records for 1974 are still not researched by current SSD detectives. But a period of dormancy cannot be denied because in 1976 no sheriff detective on the EAR case knew there had been such a cat burglar in operation a few years before. The detective who had handled the Cordova Cat cases had already died. And detectives didn’t share cases back then. When EAR began his terror campaign starting in Rancho Cordova, there was no detective to bring the Cordova Cat to the attention of the EAR Task Force. Had he still been active, another detective would have had the current cases and therefore would have been in a position to call the Task Force’s attention to this fact. Thus the crime sprees did not overlap. The Cordova Cat’s spree had ended, and later EAR emerges using the same M.O.
A curious clue links the two crimes sprees even more today. It was recently discovered that after one robbery, the Cordova Cat used the victim’s gas credit card. He also liked to  drive. Receipts were coming back from Marysville and Lodi. He bought more than gas. He bought tires for his car at one location. In those days (those of us old enough to remember that credit cards were manually processed can feel very old now), the attendant put the card on the little tray under the paper and carbon and then ran the slider over it to make the impression. Then they wrote down the license plate. Fortunately, they did that at one place where the Cat had his car serviced.
The area of La Alegria where the Maggiore murderer jumped the fence and fled. The house next door is where the 17 year old received the love threat in 1973.
In reading the old report, modern investigators came upon a startling clue. The detective on the case had traced the license plate number. It led to a car that had been junked one month before the robbery. At the time this didn’t mean much probably. But today it rings bells and sounds whistles. This was one of the M.O.s of the East Area Rapist. Several car license plates had been taken down over the years of his terror campaign. These were noted by homeowners who paid attention to unknown cars that had been slowly cruising their neighborhood. When traced, all led nowhere or to cars that had been wrecked and towed away and were either dismantled or sitting in a wrecker’s yard. In other words, the plates had obviously been lifted by EAR somehow and used on his car.
Since EAR was associated with so many different but older cars, it suggests he had access to more than license plates. He had access to older cars, jalopies, and wrecked vehicle plates. For me this began my pursuit of auto wreckers— someone with authority who owned his own yard or a trusted employee.
The identical use of this M.O. in 1973 reveals the importance of following on the silent padding trail of the Cordova Cat. Auto wrecking is vast and has many tiers of trusted employees. But somewhere in the crime career of the Cat there may be a mistake or a lead that will help narrow down who the Cordova Cat was and thus likely who EAR was. A serial makes his mistakes early on, but EAR’s mistakes could not be found.  They could not be found because it seems now he was not a beginner. Years before he had perfected prowling and stalking to a remarkable degree, all for some demented thrill. (See Three Lives of the Cat).
The records are hard to get through. It takes about 6 months for a pertinacious homicide detective to go through one month of historical cases. But there may be a few gems waiting to be discovered. Although there had to be a period of dormancy, the Cat may have returned for a few strikes here and there. Lt. Richard Shelby personally remembered a case in Rancho in 1974 while he was a patrol officer. In this home invasion case, the perp had bludgeoned a small dog to death— something the Cat had done twice before.
Above, standing near the house where the dog was bludgeoned to death in 1974 and looking to where EAR struck Victim 8 in 1976.
Just as there is the damnable coincidence of the October rape, so is there the coincidence arising from the Sarda Way Incident of September 1973. After this very EAR-like attempted home invasion rape gone awry, there was no more Cordova Cat activity (pending discovering more records). He seems to have fled or desisted. EAR also showed that tendency. If he felt he had been clearly seen or identified, he fled to another part of California. Does the Sarda Way Incident explain the period of dormancy in 1974 to late 1975? Where had this perp gone?
There are those who wish to link the Cordova Cat to the strange home invasion ransackings that were plaguing the California farm town of Visalia at this time. This town is about 4 hours south of Sacramento on Highway 99. The Visalia Ransacker, however, was described radically different, though he too seems to have developed a sexual motive and even became a murderer in order to protect his identity. In many ways, this was EAR’s motive for what appeared to be his early murders or attempted murders, such as the Ripon Court Shooting and the Maggiore Double Murders.
These two composites reveal what vital clues may await in old archival records. The one on the left is the identikit of the Sarda Way perpetrator. The identikit on the right is the Ripon Court Shooter, the latter heavily suspected of being EAR.
 
Four years exists between these two composites. The one on the right looks a bit healthier, but the similarities are disturbing. I can imagine those detectives who found this old case were stunned and believed they found a rare gem that may help uncover the identity of the most elusive and profuse serial predator in history.
In short, this new series on Q Files’ Night Predator section must weave all this together and balance the arguments. It must take into consideration the confusing case of the Visalia Ransacker as objectively as possible. The VR was described as radically different than EAR, but the similarity in his M.O. to that of the Cordova Meadows Burglar is striking.
Altogether the problems are as vexing as the clues are intriguing. The M.O. of the Cordova Cat and EAR seem one and the same. Yet the Visalia Ransacker’s M.O. was very similar but he was described radically different. How many perps could be involved? All of the problems and intriguing mystery must be addressed in this series and rationally thrashed out into something cohesive. Details and more evidence will update and amend the series as it gets released and the cases evolve.
It still amazes all who examine the case of EAR-ONS that one villain so prolific has covered his trail so effectively that there never has been a main suspect. He seems to have made no real mistakes. At any rate, none that lead anywhere. No clue left as EAR has so far yielded his identity. Unraveling the Cordova Cat’s identity may be a stepping stone to the identity of the supreme night predator EAR-ONS. This old evidence is the only new evidence we have.
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