Post by trabuco on Jan 4, 2018 2:23:34 GMT
I don't know much about Shelby. Just what I've read.
Here is that Sac Bee article from 1993.
‘EAR' STILL AT LARGE
70S RAPE CASES VEX RETIRING DETECTIVE
Sacramento Bee, 21 March 1993, pg. N8 (NEIGHBORS)
By Wendy McClellan
—A burdened detective Richard Shelby drove west on U.S. 50 one night in 1976.
He looked down from the foothills at the expanse of lights shining up from
Sacramento County. All those lights, and there's one weirdo out there, Shelby
remembers thinking. "And I'm expected to find him."
That weirdo was the East Area Rapist, referred to as "EAR," "pervert" and other
more obscene names around the sheriff's department downtown, where Shelby
worked.
The rapist assaulted dozens of women from 1976 to 1978, causing residents to
lose sleep and take self-defense classes. The county's gun sales doubled
between 1976 and '77.
"I had to pull over and think about it," said Shelby, who retires Tuesday after 26
years with the sheriff's department.
He was one of the key investigators who spent countless hours hunting for a man
who may have been blond, blue-eyed and about 19 years old. Or maybe not.
One victim said he had dark hair. Another said he had hazel eyes. Another said
she refused to look because she thought he would kill her.
He raped 42 women in Northern California, several of whom lived in Citrus
Heights, Orangevale, Fair Oaks and Rancho Cordova.
He was never caught.
Shelby was the first person to recognize that the rapes were being committed
serially, said Ray Root, who was put in charge of an 80-member task force out to
catch the East Area Rapist a few months after Shelby put the first pieces
together.
"Shelby was probably the most prolific and active member of the task force,"
Root said. "Though he was not thrilled about the task force helping him unless he
was totally and completely in charge of it."
Jim Bevins was the chief investigator in the case until he retired about a month
ago.
"Puddin' cup," as Shelby called the detective with soft brown eyes, is leaving the
state and wants to put it all behind him.
Although Shelby was taken off the case officially after rape No. 25, on Gold Run
Avenue in Antelope, he has never stopped working on it.
"He'd drive you crazy," Root said. "Once he got hold of a thread, he didn't want to
let it go 'til he unraveled it and found out what was there."
Shelby could be "occasionally abrasive with his superiors," said Root, who was
one of them.
"He has said really ugly things to me from time to time. Occasionally Shelby
would be assigned, by me, a suspect to investigate.
"He would look me right in the eye, and say, "This is wrong. This guy had nothing
to do with it. This is a waste of my time.''"
Then Shelby would investigate the suspect thoroughly for two reasons.
"One was so he would never be embarrassed," Root said. "The other reason was
to prove me wrong."
Shelby, 54, rummaged in vain for keys in the North Station desk he had already
vacated by Thursday. The desk's new occupant came in and found them, so
Shelby could open a shed mostly dedicated to the EAR.
Four file cabinets and several boxes hold files on 5,000 suspects, including many
law enforcement officials. Shelby recalled accusations that the sheriff's
department was protecting one of its own.
"Any one of us would have turned in our own son, we wanted this guy so bad,"
he said.
Shelby himself was not a suspect. "I'm too tall."
The EAR was no taller than 5 feet 9 inches and wore a men's size nine shoe.
Boots at first and later athletic shoes. He smoked a brand of cigarettes with two
yellow stripes around the filter. Butts were always found in yards surrounding the
residences he hit.
All this information is organized in the shed's files, charts and generic-looking
sketches of suspects, victims and patterns. They grow in response to a couple of
tips each month. Someone thinks they've seen him or a series of rapes
elsewhere resembles the series here in the '70s. But he is always too tall. Or too
careless.
"The pervert is a prowler par excellence," Shelby said.
His gut tells him the East Area Rapist is still alive somewhere, though he has
not acted since 1978. But Shelby hopes "he's done us all a favor and killed
himself."
Shelby and his family lived in Rancho Cordova from the late '60s to the EAR
years, but he said they did not leave for the foothills because of the rapist. He
now lives between Auburn and Grass Valley.
One night in the '70s his young son said a man's face had appeared in his
window, upside down. He shined a flashlight inside, then disappeared. The boy
couldn't sleep alone in his room until he was 13 years old.
Shelby did not tell his wife, Ann, that he thought it was the EAR for years.
"If he had known whose house it was, he would have come in," Shelby said.
The department released information intended to intimidate the rapist. They
called him a coward and said his penis was deformed.
"We didn't know that," Shelby said. "We'd insult him any way we could."
Shelby believes the rapist felt challenged, and began raping women who were in
bed with their husbands to prove his bravery.
He would appear without warning at the foot of a bed, kick it, and shine the
flashlight into the victim's eyes.
Wielding a gun or knife, he would force the woman to tie the man up, turn him
face down and stack dishes on his back. He would take the woman to another
room, telling the husband he'd kill her if he heard anything.
He would remain in the victims' homes for hours. When they thought he had
gone, he would reappear and begin it all again.
Shelby said his approach to EAR was "pro-active," whereas Bevins' was
"reactive."
Bevins would trace the rapes backward to try to find out who had done them.
Shelby would try to predict the next hit and catch him.
After several rapes in Rancho Cordova and Carmichael, EAR raped in Citrus
Heights, then Oct. 18, 1976, he raped two women in neighborhoods near, but on
opposite sides of, the American River. Then back to Fair Oaks and College
Greens. Shelby compared the neighborhoods and guessed where the next hit
would be.
A superior told him he was crazy.
Then a woman in the 5800 block of Primrose Drive in Citrus Heights was raped
Jan. 24, 1977, where Shelby had predicted.
"He's very intense, very aggressive," Root said. "Kind of like a bulldog."
Shelby said administrators in city and county law enforcement did more to let the
East Area Rapist evade capture than the rapist himself did.
"There were a lot of problems with that case," he said.
Though he said some superiors would undo his work, Shelby credits the EAR
case with the creation of a sexual assault unit and the addition of a helicopter to
the department.
He said he believes his use of a bloodhound to try to find the EAR contributed to
the eventual formation of the department's K-9 unit.
Shelby said luck was the main thing on the EAR's side. He can tell stories
endlessly of how many times they came close to catching him.
Shelby, the father of two sons, said he does not know what he will do in
retirement, other than pursue a favorite hobby, gold dredging. But he won't say
where.
Here is that Sac Bee article from 1993.
‘EAR' STILL AT LARGE
70S RAPE CASES VEX RETIRING DETECTIVE
Sacramento Bee, 21 March 1993, pg. N8 (NEIGHBORS)
By Wendy McClellan
—A burdened detective Richard Shelby drove west on U.S. 50 one night in 1976.
He looked down from the foothills at the expanse of lights shining up from
Sacramento County. All those lights, and there's one weirdo out there, Shelby
remembers thinking. "And I'm expected to find him."
That weirdo was the East Area Rapist, referred to as "EAR," "pervert" and other
more obscene names around the sheriff's department downtown, where Shelby
worked.
The rapist assaulted dozens of women from 1976 to 1978, causing residents to
lose sleep and take self-defense classes. The county's gun sales doubled
between 1976 and '77.
"I had to pull over and think about it," said Shelby, who retires Tuesday after 26
years with the sheriff's department.
He was one of the key investigators who spent countless hours hunting for a man
who may have been blond, blue-eyed and about 19 years old. Or maybe not.
One victim said he had dark hair. Another said he had hazel eyes. Another said
she refused to look because she thought he would kill her.
He raped 42 women in Northern California, several of whom lived in Citrus
Heights, Orangevale, Fair Oaks and Rancho Cordova.
He was never caught.
Shelby was the first person to recognize that the rapes were being committed
serially, said Ray Root, who was put in charge of an 80-member task force out to
catch the East Area Rapist a few months after Shelby put the first pieces
together.
"Shelby was probably the most prolific and active member of the task force,"
Root said. "Though he was not thrilled about the task force helping him unless he
was totally and completely in charge of it."
Jim Bevins was the chief investigator in the case until he retired about a month
ago.
"Puddin' cup," as Shelby called the detective with soft brown eyes, is leaving the
state and wants to put it all behind him.
Although Shelby was taken off the case officially after rape No. 25, on Gold Run
Avenue in Antelope, he has never stopped working on it.
"He'd drive you crazy," Root said. "Once he got hold of a thread, he didn't want to
let it go 'til he unraveled it and found out what was there."
Shelby could be "occasionally abrasive with his superiors," said Root, who was
one of them.
"He has said really ugly things to me from time to time. Occasionally Shelby
would be assigned, by me, a suspect to investigate.
"He would look me right in the eye, and say, "This is wrong. This guy had nothing
to do with it. This is a waste of my time.''"
Then Shelby would investigate the suspect thoroughly for two reasons.
"One was so he would never be embarrassed," Root said. "The other reason was
to prove me wrong."
Shelby, 54, rummaged in vain for keys in the North Station desk he had already
vacated by Thursday. The desk's new occupant came in and found them, so
Shelby could open a shed mostly dedicated to the EAR.
Four file cabinets and several boxes hold files on 5,000 suspects, including many
law enforcement officials. Shelby recalled accusations that the sheriff's
department was protecting one of its own.
"Any one of us would have turned in our own son, we wanted this guy so bad,"
he said.
Shelby himself was not a suspect. "I'm too tall."
The EAR was no taller than 5 feet 9 inches and wore a men's size nine shoe.
Boots at first and later athletic shoes. He smoked a brand of cigarettes with two
yellow stripes around the filter. Butts were always found in yards surrounding the
residences he hit.
All this information is organized in the shed's files, charts and generic-looking
sketches of suspects, victims and patterns. They grow in response to a couple of
tips each month. Someone thinks they've seen him or a series of rapes
elsewhere resembles the series here in the '70s. But he is always too tall. Or too
careless.
"The pervert is a prowler par excellence," Shelby said.
His gut tells him the East Area Rapist is still alive somewhere, though he has
not acted since 1978. But Shelby hopes "he's done us all a favor and killed
himself."
Shelby and his family lived in Rancho Cordova from the late '60s to the EAR
years, but he said they did not leave for the foothills because of the rapist. He
now lives between Auburn and Grass Valley.
One night in the '70s his young son said a man's face had appeared in his
window, upside down. He shined a flashlight inside, then disappeared. The boy
couldn't sleep alone in his room until he was 13 years old.
Shelby did not tell his wife, Ann, that he thought it was the EAR for years.
"If he had known whose house it was, he would have come in," Shelby said.
The department released information intended to intimidate the rapist. They
called him a coward and said his penis was deformed.
"We didn't know that," Shelby said. "We'd insult him any way we could."
Shelby believes the rapist felt challenged, and began raping women who were in
bed with their husbands to prove his bravery.
He would appear without warning at the foot of a bed, kick it, and shine the
flashlight into the victim's eyes.
Wielding a gun or knife, he would force the woman to tie the man up, turn him
face down and stack dishes on his back. He would take the woman to another
room, telling the husband he'd kill her if he heard anything.
He would remain in the victims' homes for hours. When they thought he had
gone, he would reappear and begin it all again.
Shelby said his approach to EAR was "pro-active," whereas Bevins' was
"reactive."
Bevins would trace the rapes backward to try to find out who had done them.
Shelby would try to predict the next hit and catch him.
After several rapes in Rancho Cordova and Carmichael, EAR raped in Citrus
Heights, then Oct. 18, 1976, he raped two women in neighborhoods near, but on
opposite sides of, the American River. Then back to Fair Oaks and College
Greens. Shelby compared the neighborhoods and guessed where the next hit
would be.
A superior told him he was crazy.
Then a woman in the 5800 block of Primrose Drive in Citrus Heights was raped
Jan. 24, 1977, where Shelby had predicted.
"He's very intense, very aggressive," Root said. "Kind of like a bulldog."
Shelby said administrators in city and county law enforcement did more to let the
East Area Rapist evade capture than the rapist himself did.
"There were a lot of problems with that case," he said.
Though he said some superiors would undo his work, Shelby credits the EAR
case with the creation of a sexual assault unit and the addition of a helicopter to
the department.
He said he believes his use of a bloodhound to try to find the EAR contributed to
the eventual formation of the department's K-9 unit.
Shelby said luck was the main thing on the EAR's side. He can tell stories
endlessly of how many times they came close to catching him.
Shelby, the father of two sons, said he does not know what he will do in
retirement, other than pursue a favorite hobby, gold dredging. But he won't say
where.