VR never seen?

[bob]

ITT: Ideas about how VR remained invisible during a crime spree involving over 100 homes.

One of AnyOfN's great charts compares VR to EAR. You don't need to believe EAR=VR to participate, but I'm going with that.

McGowan had a flashlight in VR's face the night McGowan was shot at by VR who escaped. McGowan described him as a teen. As part of his LE job, McGowan worked with local youth. He did not recognize the VR. McGowan assisted with a composite sketch that seemed chubby. So McGowan assisted with another sketch and it was better.
But neither sketch looks like a teen. VR is wearing a shirt with funky spots that is supposed to look like camouflage (army fatigues).  

How did VR remain invisible during a crime spree involving over 100 homes? Why did no one recognize him? Did he travel? So here are some possible ideas.

Was VR in an ROTC program somewhere else?
    Is that why he had a fatigue shirt on in the early 70s? Is that why he wasn't recognized locally?
Was he driven into town on weekends as part of a work crew?
    If his parent was part of a work crew, did he tag along and commit crimes while someone was at work?
Was he in a nearby mental or lock-up facility, and did he escape on weekends to commit crimes?
    This is a possibility that LE may have ignored. VR's behavior is classic problem-child. He may have been loosely incarcerated  but getting out and committing crimes.
Was he home schooled?
    He may have been an ignored teen
Was he homeless?
    It's hard to believe a homeless teen could manage any of this, but perhaps he had a place to crash and shower without being noticed- a church, an unused building with electric, a friend's home- what would his niche have been? Did he ever steal food-to-to? Like canned food? I don't believe so.
Was he a child of divorced parents and he attended school elsewhere?
    Was he driven into town to visit an aunt, grandpa, cousin, or parent?
Did he live in Fresno and come to Visalia to commit crimes?
    This might explain that Brian Maggiore recognized him (if Brian's murderer was VR). Teens do drive, but was VR EVER seen with a car?
Was VR part of a youth conservation core?
    I have no info on these.
Was VR a large, older looking 6th grader?
    I know that strains credibility, but let's * and whine about this theory after he's incarcerated, ok?

How is it that this guy broke into over 100 homes and was seen twice?

And can someone link to the description of the guy who saw VR vault the fence?

[locard]

Visalia Detective Bill McGowen, who was shot at by the Visalia Ransacker, worked with Visalia youths. McGowen didn't recognize the VR as being a local youth.
Visalia PD scoured their community looking for this offender, interviewing people, and interviewing businesses and nobody could find him.

Fatgiue Shirt
Army Surplus stores were common-place in California back in the 60's and 70's. Many people, who had no military ties, shopped in army surplus stores and wore military-type clothing. It was popular.

VR's Age
Detective Bill McGowen in his police report about seeing the VR up close and being shot at by him, described him as 20-25 years old, 5'10", 180 pounds.

[jabba4]

McGowan composite sketch?? Looks to me like all the other VR composites. 

[locard]

Aug 9, 2017 21:47:20 GMT jabba4 said:

McGowan composite sketch?? Looks to me like all the other VR composites. 

Visalia Detective Bill McGowen was unhappy with the composite. 

I don't know what kind of resources that VPD had to commit to a police sketch artist, the artist's ability to elicit descriptions from witnesses and accurately draw suspects. My small California farming town's police department didn't have money to spend on a good police sketch artist.  

[jabba4]

You are saying tis suspect was identified and cleared of VR crimes?

[bob]

There was another sighting in Visalia.
A young man saw a suspicious-guy standing near a fence. The suspicious guy saw the young man watching him and said something like, "Oh no Benny, we gotta go." Then he hopped the fence with surprising speed and agility. He may have been carrying a gun.

Does anyone have the details on this encounter?
Was a sketch made?

[Any of N]

Someone else made the VR-EAR chart. When I find it I will link to the post and give that person credit. I honestly didn't think much about the Visalia Ransacker case until I listened to the 12-26-75 podcasts recently.

I wish the podcasts were transcribed. They contain a lot of primary source material that I'd like to have right in front of me.

The VR sounds like maybe he was even more elusive than the EAR-ONS. As I recall, the podcasters described how Visalia LE asked the residents to be on lookout for strange men prowling the area. No one ever saw anything. When you glance at their maps and see how tightly clustered most of the break-ins were, that story sounds crazy. I don't know how you come up with a theory to explain how the offender pulled that off.

[jthou]

I think the simple answer here is first that he was young but not likely a teen or if he was a teen then he was 18-19 and out of school. Him being out of school would not be suspicious if he was seen walking around during the day time. VR like later on when the same person likely became EAR probably blended in to the community. I'll go as far as to say he was likely known by most in the community. He probably knew at least a few of his victims. Not all kids that commit crimes are trouble makers and obvious criminals. Some are able to smile and act very normal and seem like a normal all-American teenager despite committing B&E or selling drugs or stealing cars. VR had to be hiding in plain sight. If he looked suspicious or out of place his crime spree would have been very short lived.

[bob]

I believe the vast majority of VR crimes were after 3 pm. So VR was very likely a teen or even a jr. high student. He could also have been a college student. But he must have been able to walk down the street sometimes without causing suspicion or being noticed. An adult on foot would attract more attention than a teen.

Adults use cars to travel. Teens don't.

[interesting]

Aug 12, 2017 2:03:33 GMT bob said:

I believe the vast majority of VR crimes were after 3 pm. So VR was very likely a teen or even a jr. high student. He could also have been a college student. But he must have been able to walk down the street sometimes without causing suspicion or being noticed. An adult on foot would attract more attention than a teen.

Adults use cars to travel. Teens don't.

I so agree. White male with blond hair differently would not show cause for alarm

[locard]

Aug 12, 2017 2:03:33 GMT bob said:

I believe the vast majority of VR crimes were after 3 pm. So VR was very likely a teen or even a jr. high student. He could also have been a college student. But he must have been able to walk down the street sometimes without causing suspicion or being noticed. An adult on foot would attract more attention than a teen.

Adults use cars to travel. Teens don't.

The majority of VR crimes happened on weekends, not weekdays after 3pm.  When Visalia Police Detective Bill McGowen was shot at by the Visalia Ransacker during a stakeout to catch him, McGowen did not recognize him as being a local youth. McGowen knew the youths in Visalia. McGowen also stated in his police report that the VR was about 20-25 years old. Visalia Police conducted a very thorough search of their community and an investigation of many years to find this offender, since he had shot and killed Professor Claude Snelling who saved his teen daughter from being kidnapped by the VR. VPD couldn't locate a local young man who was this offender. 

ear-ons.com/crimes_VR.html

[bob]

Aug 12, 2017 3:58:48 GMT locard said:

Aug 12, 2017 2:03:33 GMT bob said:

I believe the vast majority of VR crimes were after 3 pm. So VR was very likely a teen or even a jr. high student. He could also have been a college student. But he must have been able to walk down the street sometimes without causing suspicion or being noticed. An adult on foot would attract more attention than a teen.

Adults use cars to travel. Teens don't.

The majority of VR crimes happened on weekends, not weekdays after 3pm.  When Visalia Police Detective Bill McGowen was shot at by the Visalia Ransacker during a stakeout to catch him, McGowen did not recognize him as being a local youth. McGowen knew the youths in Visalia. McGowen also stated in his police report that the VR was about 20-25 years old. Visalia Police conducted a very thorough search of their community and an investigation of many years to find this offender, since he had shot and killed Professor Claude Snelling who saved his teen daughter from being kidnapped by the VR. VPD couldn't locate a local young man who was this offender. 

ear-ons.com/crimes_VR.html

Thankyou. You are correct. I wrote that incorrectly. I meant to say they VR crimes occurred when school was out. 

[floater]

I know a lot of folks believe The Earons was LE, but I tend to believe VR was more likely LE than the Earons. Maybe even a security guard. Something about VR always makes me wonder how so many house were burgled without the cops actually getting close.

Also am I the only one who questions McGowen's account? The physics of a bullet striking center on the flash light would cause the glass to eject outward and foreword from the flashlight not backwards towards the detective holding. And it's way easy to test this at home.

I wonder if the McGowen got outran that night and fearing the backlash shoot hos own flashlight in an attempt to save face. McGowen could only got glass in his eyes if the flash light casing was completely exploded and shredded, or the officer was facing his own weapon when he fired at it and was hit buy the flash erupting forward out of an in shredded case. Does that explainarion make sense?

[jthou]

Aug 29, 2017 5:17:03 GMT floater said:

I know a lot of folks believe The Earons was LE, but I tend to believe VR was more likely LE than the Earons. Maybe even a security guard. Something about VR always makes me wonder how so many house were burgled without the cops actually getting close.

Also am I the only one who questions McGowen's account? The physics of a bullet striking center on the flash light would cause the glass to eject outward and foreword from the flashlight not backwards towards the detective holding. And it's way easy to test this at home.

I wonder if the McGowen got outran that night and fearing the backlash shoot hos own flashlight in an attempt to save face. McGowen could only got glass in his eyes if the flash light casing was completely exploded and shredded, or the officer was facing his own weapon when he fired at it and was hit buy the flash erupting forward out of an in shredded case. Does that explainarion make sense?

It's really hard to take anything you say seriously. VR had already shot and killed Professor Snelling so we know he's not afraid to shoot. LE get outran by criminals everyday but you're suggesting the detective would be so embarrassed by this that he'd risk shooting himself and losing his job by shooting his own flashlight? The instant the bullet struck the lens it would immediately blow backwards and up or to the side which would blow glass backwards and in every direction. I've had my windows on vehicles shot out more than once and shattered glass goes everywhere. Furthermore, we don't know if the integrity of the flashlight case held either. If it didn't hit dead center the glass could've blown backwards through a fracture in the case. To suggest that McGowen shot his own flashlight is asinine to say the least.

[portofleith]

Aug 29, 2017 15:24:38 GMT jthou said:

Aug 29, 2017 5:17:03 GMT floater said:

I know a lot of folks believe The Earons was LE, but I tend to believe VR was more likely LE than the Earons. Maybe even a security guard. Something about VR always makes me wonder how so many house were burgled without the cops actually getting close.

Also am I the only one who questions McGowen's account? The physics of a bullet striking center on the flash light would cause the glass to eject outward and foreword from the flashlight not backwards towards the detective holding. And it's way easy to test this at home.

I wonder if the McGowen got outran that night and fearing the backlash shoot hos own flashlight in an attempt to save face. McGowen could only got glass in his eyes if the flash light casing was completely exploded and shredded, or the officer was facing his own weapon when he fired at it and was hit buy the flash erupting forward out of an in shredded case. Does that explainarion make sense?

It's really hard to take anything you say seriously. VR had already shot and killed Professor Snelling so we know he's not afraid to shoot. LE get outran by criminals everyday but you're suggesting the detective would be so embarrassed by this that he'd risk shooting himself and losing his job by shooting his own flashlight? The instant the bullet struck the lens it would immediately blow backwards and up or to the side which would blow glass backwards and in every direction. I've had my windows on vehicles shot out more than once and shattered glass goes everywhere. Furthermore, we don't know if the integrity of the flashlight case held either. If it didn't hit dead center the glass could've blown backwards through a fracture in the case. To suggest that McGowen shot his own flashlight is asinine to say the least.

Det. Shipley was also present in a nearby location and saw the subject sneaking into the area.  There were 3 other officers in the vicinity who corroborated the timeline.  McGowen's training to hold the flashlight away from his body ultimately saved his life.  The Ransacker, like EAR, did not hesitate to shoot when challenged.