Car Stuff

[Deleted]

Jan 9, 2014 5:56:25 GMT @latinmama said:

In 1986, I lived in Arcadia and worked at the mall off of the 210 freeway, however I dated by now husband who attended UCI and spent a lot of time in Irvine in 1986. My husband worked with UCI Med Students on campus and had roommates who were semi pro athletes in swimming, track and cycling. I also hung out at Bullwinkles. It crosses my mind that he may have met me any where in Irvine, on campus, off campus, Bullwinkles at the grocery store, who knows. I got threating phone calls at home and work. I know he obtained all my personal info from co workers over the course of a day. I also know that if your traveling from Northern California to Irvine that Arcadia is a city that you would pass and the mall in just off the freeway. I also know I angered him because I rejected him in a very nasty way. He tried to get to me three occasions, we moved and changed jobs. I am a Interior designer by trade and have always had a eye for small details like the car, his face what he wore and how he looked older then I by 10 + years but appeared youthful. There are other creeps out there but they don't look like the sketches of the EAR/ONS and the phone calls I heard are a chilling exactness. I have a hunch and going with it.

Those hunches might have been like a sixth sense. Whoever was stalking you (and it certainly could have been the EAR/ONS) sounds as if he was a dangerous and sick individual. From what you have related it seems clear that you handled the situation effectively. I'm sure you are aware that this guy has raped and murdered at least one interior designer that we know of. I wonder did you make a sketch of him back when you encountered him? Could you make one now from memory? In any event I am happy that you and your husband have remained safe.

[rocker]

Jan 14, 2014 4:01:04 GMT portofleith said:

LE observed a green 1952 Chevy parked in a field en route to a crime scene.  Later a police dog tracked back to the exact spot where the car had been parked.  At another rape, a neighbor of a victim took his garbage cans out an hour early and he observed the same car parked near a rape scene.

This is not a common car for 1976-1978.  Anyone in Sacramento, know someone who owned a green 1952 Chevy?

" Later a police dog tracked back to the exact spot where the car had been parked"

"At another rape, a neighbor of a victim took his garbage cans out an hour early and he observed the same car parked near a rape scene."

I think it's unlikely those sightings were merely coincidence. Especially in light of the dog tracking a suspect to that location. Very interesting. Thank you, Port.

[dengas]

Jan 14, 2014 4:01:04 GMT portofleith said:

LE observed a green 1952 Chevy parked in a field en route to a crime scene.  Later a police dog tracked back to the exact spot where the car had been parked.  At another rape, a neighbor of a victim took his garbage cans out an hour early and he observed the same car parked near a rape scene.

This is not a common car for 1976-1978.  Anyone in Sacramento, know someone who owned a green 1952 Chevy?

[dengas]

I haven't seen or heard about the car. Was it mentioned in either of the books?

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2014 5:43:00 GMT rocker said:

Jan 14, 2014 4:01:04 GMT portofleith said:

LE observed a green 1952 Chevy parked in a field en route to a crime scene.  Later a police dog tracked back to the exact spot where the car had been parked.  At another rape, a neighbor of a victim took his garbage cans out an hour early and he observed the same car parked near a rape scene.

This is not a common car for 1976-1978.  Anyone in Sacramento, know someone who owned a green 1952 Chevy?

" Later a police dog tracked back to the exact spot where the car had been parked"

"At another rape, a neighbor of a victim took his garbage cans out an hour early and he observed the same car parked near a rape scene."

I think it's unlikely those sightings were merely coincidence. Especially in light of the dog tracking a suspect to that location. Very interesting. Thank you, Port.

This is the kind of vehicle whose owner might be a member of a local car club.

[evaliant]

Jan 9, 2014 5:56:25 GMT @latinmama said:

In 1986, I lived in Arcadia and worked at the mall off of the 210 freeway, however I dated by now husband who attended UCI and spent a lot of time in Irvine in 1986. My husband worked with UCI Med Students on campus and had roommates who were semi pro athletes in swimming, track and cycling. I also hung out at Bullwinkles. It crosses my mind that he may have met me any where in Irvine, on campus, off campus, Bullwinkles at the grocery store, who knows. I got threating phone calls at home and work. I know he obtained all my personal info from co workers over the course of a day. I also know that if your traveling from Northern California to Irvine that Arcadia is a city that you would pass and the mall in just off the freeway. I also know I angered him because I rejected him in a very nasty way. He tried to get to me three occasions, we moved and changed jobs. I am a Interior designer by trade and have always had a eye for small details like the car, his face what he wore and how he looked older then I by 10 + years but appeared youthful. There are other creeps out there but they don't look like the sketches of the EAR/ONS and the phone calls I heard are a chilling exactness. I have a hunch and going with it.

Not to be rude, but can you explain why you were hanging out at Bullwinkles in 1986 while you were dating your college age boyfriend that was attending UCI at the time?

[Deleted]

It's not rude, it's a question right? I was at Bullwinkles with my girlfriends, I had friends who lived in the area. Since I made lots of trips to Irvine. It wasn't uncommon to met friends and then met up later with my boyfriend who is now my husband and remembers all of this too.

[lepke]

On the general subject of cars, and I was wondering if any the cars that EAR/ONS has been linked to, are thought to have had manual gearboxes, or to translate into Yankee, stick shift.

In England, most people pass their driving tests on manual cars, and if they take the test on an automatic, then they are only allowed to drive automatic cars on their licence.

As someone who has a licence to drive manual cars, I can tell you that 90% of the effort required, from being at the stage where I had never driven, to being able to pass my driving test first time, went into getting the coordination right, for driving a manual car.

It isn't as easy as it people who haven't tried driving a manual car may think, to get your coordination to the point where you are always in the correct gear, don't grate the gearbox, don't stall the car, don't let it roll on hills and so on, especially when in my case, size twelve shoes were interacting with small pedals on a Fiat.

If it could be established that EAR/ONS was able to drive a manual car well, without making regular mistakes, which someone who was only really familiar with automatics cars would do, then that would probably put EAR/ONS in a minority in America, where the vast majority of cars are automatic, and most people would have trouble driving a manual car.

[Relentless]

Most guys (and lots of women) in the USA can drive a manual car, it's not a big deal here. We don't have to take a test for manual driving either.

[lepke]

I think that it is pretty ridiculous, not to mention unsafe, to allow people who have only passed a driving test on an automatic car, to drive a manual car. Driving manually is a much more complex skill, and only someone used to driving a manual car, would be good at it.

An American family friend of mine, came to England for two years, and was driving a manual car, on an international driving licence, despite only having ever having been taught to drive an automatic car. It was horrible to be sitting next to him when he was driving, and to see that he was regularly failing to engage the clutch properly, selecting the wrong gear, and so on.

I don't think that it took him too long, to do some real damage to the gearbox of the car, all because he had the attitude, that he already knew how to drive.

If EAR/ONS could drive a manual car well, I would suggest that he had some kind of lessons.

[Relentless]

We get our lessons on manual from our yelling Dads. Really not a big deal here in the USA. My first car was a manual and my dad taught me how to drive it in 2 hours.

[lepke]

I was also taught to drive a manual car by my yelling father. The theory is simple, but in practical terms, to get good enough to pass a test, where you will not make any mistakes that would fail you, takes a lot more than a couple of hours of experience. I doubt that most Americans have the required experience on manual cars, to drive them well, without making errors on a pretty regular basis. In 2007, only 2.91% of cars purchased in America were manual, whereas the majority of British cars have always been manual. I am not writing all this to be xenophobic, but to make the fair point, that most Americans cannot drive a manual car, to a standard that would have a hope in hell, of passing the practical part of a British driving test.

[ice]

Lepke, as a fellow Brit and having lived in the US, I know what you mean.

How do we know the Golden State Killer could drive a manual car?

[evaliant]

Jan 16, 2014 19:23:28 GMT lepke said:

I was also taught to drive a manual car by my yelling father. The theory is simple, but in practical terms, to get good enough to pass a test, where you will not make any mistakes that would fail you, takes a lot more than a couple of hours of experience. I doubt that most Americans have the required experience on manual cars, to drive them well, without making errors on a pretty regular basis. In 2007, only 2.91% of cars purchased in America were manual, whereas the majority of British cars have always been manual. I am not writing all this to be xenophobic, but to make the fair point, that most Americans cannot drive a manual car, to a standard that would have a hope in hell, of passing the practical part of a British driving test.

Ha, it seems like everyone had a yelling father while learning to drive a manual. I can assure you that there are plenty of people in the states that can drive stick. It certainly isn't the majority, but it's also probably not a small enough pool to narrow down the population to pluck out EAR.

Like Relentless, I too learned after a few one hour sessions. Was I good at it? No. Could I drive well enough to go out on my own? Yes. Teenagers love to drive. A couple of one hour learning sessions turn into hundreds of road hours very quickly.

I'm also pretty sure that vehicles with standard transmissions were much more prevalent in the mid to late '70's than they are today. If there is a resident gear head maybe they can confirm.

[Relentless]

It does not matter if EAR drove manual or automatic because that detail will not solve this case.