I still don't like the GSK moniker

[jacob93]

Feb 6, 2019 10:10:08 GMT paulienyc84 said:

Feb 5, 2019 21:23:57 GMT @endoftheworld said:

She did not have noble intentions in inventing the name "Golden State Killer". She had purely selfish intentions. This was her attempt to "own" the case, since she wrote an inconsequential book about it. She probably saw the movie about The Grim Sleeper. The journalist who was writing a lot of newspaper articles about the case made a big deal out of coming up with her own nickname. That way, whenever people discussed the case, for perpetuity, her name would come up as the one who invented the nickname.

But a case could be made that The Grim Sleeper needed a nickname, since he did not have one yet. Not so with the EARONS, who already had a few nicknames. Michelle just invented another one, to show everybody she was a "take-charge gal" who would take charge of the situation.

Just the acronym EARONS, pronounced "ear-ons" was good enough and it's still the one I use. Or just "the EAR", pronounced like the auditory body part, which, IIRC, is what Shelby called him.

I have to agree that giving EAR/ONS a new name was pointless.  I know nothing about Michelle McNamara and I did not buy nor have I read her book.  I don't know why she felt the need to rename an offender who had a known nickname for decades.  But you're right; whenever the origin of the name comes up, Michelle is brought up.  Maybe that was her intention.  I don't know.  I also don't know why all of LE and the media jumped on the bandwagon and starting to refer to the unknown offender as the GSK.  The documentaries that have aired in the past referred to him as the Original Night Stalker so why change that?

The honest reason is that Killer is a more sensational title. See the Zodiac Killer, BTK etc. "GSK" has served its publicity purposes. Night Stalker or even my GSS proposal (I humbly suggest) does all the victims justice.

[nick]

Feb 5, 2019 0:38:09 GMT steelbike said:

I think of him as the east area rapist. I like ‘VREARONS’. I wonder about his “best friend” and what he knows and if the EAR committed an attack on March 28, 1978 on McGregor drive at Ambassador drive.

There is one on what I list in my own personal records on Ambassador Drive that date is within the time frame I would have to look it up to see if that is the exact date to make sure we are talking about the same one different. There was also some prowling reports in the Rivertrails Circle area a new development built in 1976 in that same timeframe that was thought to have been EAR. There were a ton of new young families living on Rivertrails Circle in 1976-1979 and many were Air Force families combined with the American River backing up to Ambassador Drive it was a good potential EAR hunting ground. There was also a POI that lived on Georgetown and the River's edge way which connects to Ambassador and RiverTrails area. This suspect was of course not EAR but he was a good fit at that time for the activity in that area if it was not EAR maybe even today.   

[Fairoaks]

Wish I would have known what Nick knows now about the area before we bought our house there.

EAR is the way I identify this sicko.... it's where he became famous and terrorized us. For years we never knew of any other locations.

[goldcountry]

Inmate Deangelo for the rest of his life.

[f1guyus]

I think GSK is a good big picture name for this creep. I always call him EAR when I write about him but if you were in California in the late 70’s you’ll know why GSK is apt. The State had begun its decline and the EAR crimes didn’t help either the image or the reality.

[Any of N]

DeAngelo is in custody and we're years away from trial. There's not much of consequence we can do at this point, so why not grouse about an old issue. We're allowed to vent once in awhile.

The Golden State Killer moniker was your proverbial solution in search of a problem.

The Original Night Stalker? Wasn't that Richard Ramirez?

No. Ramirez was just the "Night Stalker". This guy came before.

That was hard, not.

The earlier lack of public awareness was not due to a confusing nickname or to a varying set of nicknames being thrown around. It was because the individual murder cases had long grown cold before they were linked together via DNA and to the the long series of rapes. McNamara's best seller is what really helped break the dam. That would have been true no matter what label she happened to use, whether it be the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Staler, the Creek Bed Killer, or the Twinkle Toes Killer. 

The public is quite capable of distinguishing between similar names.

John Denver? Didn't he play Gilligan, the guy stranded on an island?

Adam Ant? Didn't he write an old book about the economy and invisible hands?

Ingrid Bergman? Didn't she direct Scenes from a Marriage?

Elvis Costello? Didn't he sing Heartbreak Hotel? No, wait. Didn't he have a partner named Abbott?

Madonna? Oh yeah, that was a statue carved by Leonardo da Vinci, right?

Questions that don't get asked.

[f1guyus]

The lack of public awareness was because when EAR morphed into ONS he was, due to his LE experience, able to provide enough confusion that the SoCal LE establishment could ignore the similarities in the murders and pretend they were isolated incidents. Which they did until DNA crammed the facts down their throats. Kinda like Walnut Creek. When you see the current hero talking about JJD being “all the way up there in Auburn “ you know the LE establishment knows they screwed the pooch in Sacramento and 10 people died as a result. It’s max 30 minutes.

[warren]

Thank God he didn't kill in Wyoming, or we'd be saddled with "The Equality State Killer".

[woofytreats]

Hah!! Rader becomes the "Sunflower State Killer" and Gary Gilmore becomes the "Beehive State Bandito"...you're right, I guess it could've been worse...

[spodey]

I don't like that a group of nerd scientists decided the planet "Pluto" was not a real planet but a "dwarf planet" without any debate from the global community.  And they laugh about it to our faces!

[Any of N]

Look on the bright side, spodey. If it had been up to California law enforcement in conjunction with crime writers, they would have renamed the former 9th planet to the Nitrogen Ice Ball (NIB).

Because... Pluto? Wasn't he the Greek god of the underworld?

[mistress9]

Feb 5, 2019 21:23:57 GMT @endoftheworld said:

Feb 5, 2019 17:29:14 GMT jacob93 said:

I agree that GSK is too general a name and sanitizes his motives, but I understand McNamara had noble intentions when she coined it to bring attention to the case. Frankly, rape is a more sensitive subject to tackle even than serial murder. East Area Rapist is accurate but geographically specific to California, so the best nickname available is indeed The Night Stalker. But of course, the best name we have is the one no longer hiding in the shadows.

How about the Golden State Stalker? At least this would convey the predatory nature of the crimes.

She did not have noble intentions in inventing the name "Golden State Killer". She had purely selfish intentions. This was her attempt to "own" the case, since she wrote an inconsequential book about it. She probably saw the movie about The Grim Sleeper. The journalist who was writing a lot of newspaper articles about the case made a big deal out of coming up with her own nickname. That way, whenever people discussed the case, for perpetuity, her name would come up as the one who invented the nickname.

But a case could be made that The Grim Sleeper needed a nickname, since he did not have one yet. Not so with the EARONS, who already had a few nicknames. Michelle just invented another one, to show everybody she was a "take-charge gal" who would take charge of the situation.

Just the acronym EARONS, pronounced "ear-ons" was good enough and it's still the one I use. Or just "the EAR", pronounced like the auditory body part, which, IIRC, is what Shelby called him.

completely agree. everything about her and her elitist trump obsessed husband is filled with dark ukterior motives. Anyway it doesn't matter anymore, the more time passes the more irrelevant her book and involvement with the case becomes. I'm quite satisfied with that. I do wonder what would have happened had she lived, I guess eventually the detectives would stop talking to her, since she was stealing their case.

[kg]

Feb 5, 2019 0:38:09 GMT steelbike said:

I think of him as the east area rapist. I like ‘VREARONS’. I wonder about his “best friend” and what he knows and if the EAR committed an attack on March 28, 1978 on McGregor drive at Ambassador drive.

Where did the 'best friend' reference show up? I seem to remember reading that somewhere but cannot remember the context.

[magnumforce73]

EAR/ONS.  That's the moniker--and it's fine because just lookit!--that is catchy in and of itself.

nick : agree with you on your thoughts.  I'm glad that Michelle's book put the series further out into the general public, and although I've mentioned my displeasure at the new moniker she gave J.J.D., I must again.  I don't care for this "G.S.K." handle--and yes, it was weird seeing actual investigators refer to him as "The Golden State Killer."  He was an evil spirit in the night--and that's why East Area Rapist or Original Night Stalker (EAR/ONS) fits him flawlessly.

mf73

P.S.--One of my own concoctions--no pun--and inspired by Lt. Shelby: "Limp Wick."  The night he revealed himself to his victims pantless was the nanosecond his nether-regions became fair game for ridicule.

[goldcountry]

"Golden State" is a positive phrase, "Killer" is a negative word, so it grates on the ear. And it sounds generic. There are thousands of "golden state killers."