Lubrication used in SoCal? Positions of NorCal victims?
Nov 2, 2017 14:20:04 GMT
ronin, trabuco, and 8 more like this
Post by winters on Nov 2, 2017 14:20:04 GMT
I really like this foray into analysis by Winter's.
winters , what would your opinion be on whether or not EAR's crimes were primarily motivated by rape, which is intimate, or through sexual gratification achieved via fantasy enactment or assertion of power/control over his bound victims?
In other words, which was more gratifying, the intellectual/emotional gratification experienced as a feeling state or the basic sexual component?
My conclusion is that he evolved from one motivation to another early on but always retained components of both. I feel that while there was always an anger component in his life, his crimes actually started out as fantasy enactment. I believe this is most evident through his initial brazenness -- the offender was mentally operating in a world where he couldn't lose and where the rules of reality didn't apply. When he began in earnest in June 1976, he escalated from one resident in the home, to two, to three, in a rapid-fire format, and likely would've continued even more brazen attempts had the mother in Attack #3 not brought the boom.
Going by the timeline, by the time he'd had his failure at Attack #3, the area of Attack #4 had clearly been thoroughly stalked. Attack #4 was only a few days later and it was impromptu -- the victim was at her parents' doing her laundry and there's no way he could've known she'd be there. This attack has a very serious anger component to it and it's savage beyond belief. It was clear that the failure at Attack #3 upset him greatly for him to change his methods so radically. Attack #5 was extremely well-planned and the area was scouted well -- I feel that there was extra effort and enjoyment received from the assertion of control not only over the victim but over the entire situation. By the time Attack #7 rolls around, the fantasy element hasn't disappeared but it's taken a backseat and there's not just anger but a sadistic bent to the attack. We clearly see an offender getting off on the assertion of power over his victim. Most of the next several assaults feel like an offender who is somewhat detached and is experimenting with methods and tactical exercises. There are a few victims who aren't even sexually assaulted during this period, and Attacks #9 and #10 are identical in almost every way except for a few variations and the outcome. Attack #10 seemed like a refinement of what didn't work for him in Attack #9. He begins assaulting women in their bedroom at night again or waiting for them to come home and it's at this point that he begins regularly spending long amounts of time in the homes, and with each one I feel the offender getting more and more of a rush from the control and the "owning" of the victim. In Attack #14 he spent over three freaking hours in the house.
Careful planning went into attacking his first couple in Attack #16, and we see an offender who is primarily getting high from his control and dominance of the situation and not feeding a fantasy. As the attacks on couples wear on his sexual performance suffers and he's unable to climax on a regular basis. I feel that the power/control element was personally satisfying but it's not what originally motivated the rapes. On assaults that we see more of his fantasy character, he seems to be able to achieve better erections or climax. If one believes that the later crying fits (the last 7 or 8, not the first 1 or 2) are real, I think it's because reality had intruded too much into the fantasy he was trying to cultivate for himself.
I feel that anger had taken over by the time he moved to SoCal, and I'm honestly surprised that he hadn't started killing sooner. The geographical move was made, I feel, because the stakes were about to be raised. Goleta has the hallmarks of being considered a "safe space" by the offender, just as I feel Orangevale did during the Sac attacks. It was a place where he felt comfortable experimenting, either because he had absolutely no ties there or because it was a comfort zone (yes, I realize that those are opposites but I don't think the answer lies in the middle). Orangevale was where he first attacked couples and also where he accosted the couple while they were in their driveway (he almost always attacked sleeping couples), so that's why I see the similarities. For some reason he felt that Orangevale was a place where he could risk more (it wasn't connected to the rest of East Sac by the bike trail yet at that point, which may tell us something about how the offender thought or traveled). Goleta was the same way. He attacked the Goleta couple on Oct 1st 1979 and even as it fell apart very badly, he continued the assault because for some reason, he felt that Goleta was a place where he could afford to take more risks. He very likely intended to kill them, making Goleta a place where he thought he could get away with murder. When he fled, he didn't take the safest route, he took a riskier, probably more direct route out of there.
He ran rampant throughout the small neighborhood of the Offerman/Manning murder, committing 5 burglaries (and 7 separate incidents) and he was seen clearly in one of them and it didn't even deter him. He left pieces of twine and physical evidence all over town. He wasn't sneaky and he wasn't careful. He ended the night by killing Offerman and Manning which seems like it wasn't intended per se, but he still did it. For some reason he thought he could risk all of this in Goleta and still get away with it. And he did. Mental decomposition? No longer caring as much about getting caught? Complacency? Or just something about this locale being so remote from his real life that he felt he'd never be tied to it once he committed these crimes and left? And note that he didn't rape either Goleta couple in 1979 (perhaps because he didn't get a chance to, or perhaps because of other factors including motivation).
I'm probably wrong about most of this, but every once in awhile I like to take what I've learned and see what happens when I apply it. That's what these boards are for, anyway. The book wasn't the place to do it (neither was the website) because I don't want to fill people's head with my personal junk. Those are venues to just get facts.