2003 Sacramento Magazine EARONS article (thoughts/questions)
Jun 11, 2016 22:20:10 GMT
rocker, tmacchallenger, and 3 more like this
Post by cornbread on Jun 11, 2016 22:20:10 GMT
Just got a chance to read the October 2003 Sacramento Magazine article (available here) and it brought up some thoughts/musings/questions.
In Sacramento, he would commit nearly 40 home invasions and rapes before moving on and committing several more in Stockton,Modesto, Tracy, and the East Bay Area. (The first mention of Tracy, a community located between Stockton and Contra Costa. No official EAR rapes are listed as having been committed there. This article implies such an attack or attacks took place there around the same time as the Modesto-Stockton attacks in the first half of 1978.)
This is the first I’ve heard of Tracy; reappears later in the article. Was this ever confirmed/definitive?
By September 1976, however, rumors began to circulate throughout Sacramento that a brazen serial rapist was at work in the East Area Rapist—one who broke into the houses of middle- and upper-income single women and raped them in their beds in the middle of the night. The city stirred uneasily, especially
the residents on the east side. The odd thing was, none of the rumors could beconfirmed. There was nothing about the assaults in the newspapers or on theradio or television. It was confusing. What residents didn’t know was that the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department had already attributed four brutal rapes
in the East Area to one man, but had asked the city’s news media to sit on the story until they caught him. The media complied—a move they later admitted was a mistake.
(No real comment, other than SMH, again.)
By October 1976, concern in the East Area had grown to such a point that sheriff’s deputies held a series of unpublicized, informal meetings to reassure residents. More than 300 worried people showed up. The overwhelmed deputies admitted to the crowd that seven rapes, all committed by the same man, had been reported in the East Area since June. Residents expressed shock and outrage that they hadn’t been told. The media stuck to their pledge not to run the story until the rapist struck in the Del Dayo neighborhood, near the home of an editor of one of the city’s newspapers. As a magazine reporter for the now-defunct New West Magazine later wrote: “At that point, important people began ringing important phones.”
Wish we knew who the "important people" here were.
Undaunted, the rapist struck again on Nov.10 on Los Palos Way in Rancho Cordova (actually Citrus Heights?) and (again in December). Then twice more in January 1977, once in February and four more times in March and April, all in the East Area. Only once did deputies come close to catching him. “Late one night during that time, deputies spotted a prowler who fit the general description, right down to the ski mask,” says Stincelli. “They went on a foot pursuit after this guy, but he outmaneuvered the toughest, most athletic guy we had on the force at the time. I knew then he was going to be very, very difficult to catch.”
This could be exaggerating after the fact; no one wants to admit they were outsmarted by a little sociopath with a prominent nose. Did the deputy catch a glimpse?
Of the 20 couples that were attacked, 18 split apart within a year. Most had been married.
Another unfortunate and overlooked bit of carnage EAR caused.
He derided law enforcement and allegedly even sent the Sacramento City Council a taunting letter, the contents of which have never been revealed.
I’d not heard of this; guessing there’s no way to ever find out what it said, if it still exists (or ever did?).
To this day, there are bitter feelings among some who worked the case. “The detectives like to talk about how intelligent the East Area Rapist was, but that’s a bunch of baloney,” said a former deputy, who asked not to be identified. ”He wasn’t all that smart; he made a lot of mistakes, especially at first. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department was more concerned with who was going to catch him rather than how. Everybody wanted the glory of catching him, so nobody talked to each other. There was no sharing of information or coordination going on. He wasn’t smart; the department just let egos get in the way. It was disgusting, and it still infuriates me when I think about it. Had we caught him, a lot of people would still probably be alive today.” Daly agrees. “There was so much pressure on us from the community to catch him that it caused a tremendous amount of competition within the various jurisdictions,” she says. “Information wasn’t shared. The investigation never came together.”
To which I’d add: he was seemingly smart enough. But I believe the former deputy and Daly here: LE had a real shot at this guy then, and made myriad mistakes: the lack of communication, the press blackout, etc. Instead, they created a hysteria state which caused 100s of false prowler calls a week, further diluting resources.
Subsequent rapes that year in Stockton, Modesto and Tracy, and in Concord, Danville and San Ramon—all of which had MOs identical to the East area Rapist’s attacks in Sacramento—left no doubt he had moved on.
Another Tracy mention.
His crimes may have stopped 17 years ago, but the East area Rapist still is a wanted man. “The history and science of these types of cases tells you that he is either in prison or dead,’ says Larry Poole. These types generally do not stop committing crimes until they are caught or they die. But, as long as I am breathing, I’ll still be trying to find out his identity and what happened to him. This is a case unlike any other.”
This case in a nutshell: Poole cites history and likelihoods, then cites the uniqueness of the case. Can we have it both ways?
In Sacramento, he would commit nearly 40 home invasions and rapes before moving on and committing several more in Stockton,Modesto, Tracy, and the East Bay Area. (The first mention of Tracy, a community located between Stockton and Contra Costa. No official EAR rapes are listed as having been committed there. This article implies such an attack or attacks took place there around the same time as the Modesto-Stockton attacks in the first half of 1978.)
This is the first I’ve heard of Tracy; reappears later in the article. Was this ever confirmed/definitive?
By September 1976, however, rumors began to circulate throughout Sacramento that a brazen serial rapist was at work in the East Area Rapist—one who broke into the houses of middle- and upper-income single women and raped them in their beds in the middle of the night. The city stirred uneasily, especially
the residents on the east side. The odd thing was, none of the rumors could beconfirmed. There was nothing about the assaults in the newspapers or on theradio or television. It was confusing. What residents didn’t know was that the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department had already attributed four brutal rapes
in the East Area to one man, but had asked the city’s news media to sit on the story until they caught him. The media complied—a move they later admitted was a mistake.
(No real comment, other than SMH, again.)
By October 1976, concern in the East Area had grown to such a point that sheriff’s deputies held a series of unpublicized, informal meetings to reassure residents. More than 300 worried people showed up. The overwhelmed deputies admitted to the crowd that seven rapes, all committed by the same man, had been reported in the East Area since June. Residents expressed shock and outrage that they hadn’t been told. The media stuck to their pledge not to run the story until the rapist struck in the Del Dayo neighborhood, near the home of an editor of one of the city’s newspapers. As a magazine reporter for the now-defunct New West Magazine later wrote: “At that point, important people began ringing important phones.”
Wish we knew who the "important people" here were.
Undaunted, the rapist struck again on Nov.10 on Los Palos Way in Rancho Cordova (actually Citrus Heights?) and (again in December). Then twice more in January 1977, once in February and four more times in March and April, all in the East Area. Only once did deputies come close to catching him. “Late one night during that time, deputies spotted a prowler who fit the general description, right down to the ski mask,” says Stincelli. “They went on a foot pursuit after this guy, but he outmaneuvered the toughest, most athletic guy we had on the force at the time. I knew then he was going to be very, very difficult to catch.”
This could be exaggerating after the fact; no one wants to admit they were outsmarted by a little sociopath with a prominent nose. Did the deputy catch a glimpse?
Of the 20 couples that were attacked, 18 split apart within a year. Most had been married.
Another unfortunate and overlooked bit of carnage EAR caused.
He derided law enforcement and allegedly even sent the Sacramento City Council a taunting letter, the contents of which have never been revealed.
I’d not heard of this; guessing there’s no way to ever find out what it said, if it still exists (or ever did?).
To this day, there are bitter feelings among some who worked the case. “The detectives like to talk about how intelligent the East Area Rapist was, but that’s a bunch of baloney,” said a former deputy, who asked not to be identified. ”He wasn’t all that smart; he made a lot of mistakes, especially at first. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department was more concerned with who was going to catch him rather than how. Everybody wanted the glory of catching him, so nobody talked to each other. There was no sharing of information or coordination going on. He wasn’t smart; the department just let egos get in the way. It was disgusting, and it still infuriates me when I think about it. Had we caught him, a lot of people would still probably be alive today.” Daly agrees. “There was so much pressure on us from the community to catch him that it caused a tremendous amount of competition within the various jurisdictions,” she says. “Information wasn’t shared. The investigation never came together.”
To which I’d add: he was seemingly smart enough. But I believe the former deputy and Daly here: LE had a real shot at this guy then, and made myriad mistakes: the lack of communication, the press blackout, etc. Instead, they created a hysteria state which caused 100s of false prowler calls a week, further diluting resources.
Subsequent rapes that year in Stockton, Modesto and Tracy, and in Concord, Danville and San Ramon—all of which had MOs identical to the East area Rapist’s attacks in Sacramento—left no doubt he had moved on.
Another Tracy mention.
His crimes may have stopped 17 years ago, but the East area Rapist still is a wanted man. “The history and science of these types of cases tells you that he is either in prison or dead,’ says Larry Poole. These types generally do not stop committing crimes until they are caught or they die. But, as long as I am breathing, I’ll still be trying to find out his identity and what happened to him. This is a case unlike any other.”
This case in a nutshell: Poole cites history and likelihoods, then cites the uniqueness of the case. Can we have it both ways?