Original Night Stalker

The Original Night Stalker
Police sketch of the suspect
Other names	The East Area Rapist The Diamond Knot Killer The Golden State Killer[1]
Height	5 ft 8 in - 5 ft 10 in (from witness statements)
Weight	Approximately 170 lb (from witness statements)
Killings
Victims	10–13 (murder victims) 50+ (rape victims)
Span of killings	December 30, 1979 – May 4, 1986
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	Never apprehended

The Original Night Stalker is the name given to an unidentified serial killer and rapist who murdered at least ten people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986.^[2] The crimes initially centered on the then unincorporated areas of Rancho Cordova, Carmichael, and Citrus Heights east of Sacramento where at least fifty women were sexually assaulted between June 18, 1976, and July 5, 1979.^[2] The perpetrator was dubbed The East Area Rapist. In 2001, several of the Northern California rapes were linked by DNA to murders in Southern California. All of the DNA linked rapes occurred in Contra Costa County, but the distinctive MO of the rapist makes it extremely likely that the same man was also responsible for the attacks in the Sacramento area.

The Original Night Stalker/East Area Rapist was never apprehended; several suspects have been cleared through DNA, alibi, or other investigative means and methods.^[3][4]

Crimes

California law enforcement authorities estimate fifty rapes in the California counties of Sacramento, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara and Yolo were committed by the Original Night Stalker. DNA evidence conclusively links him to eight murders in Goleta, Ventura, Dana Point, and Irvine, California, with two other murders in Goleta linked by MO but not DNA.^[5][6] Some investigators also suspect the same perpetrator in three other murders, two in Rancho Cordova and one in Visalia.^[4]

Method of operation

East Area Rapist crimes

The Sacramento East Area Rapist is believed to have started as a prolific burglar, only later graduating to rape. His initial modus operandi was to stalk middle class neighborhoods at night looking for women who lived in single-story homes, generally located near a school, creek, or other open space that afforded a quick escape. He was spotted on a number of occasions, but sprinted away upon detection. On one occasion, a youth who closely pursued him was shot and seriously wounded. Most victims had seen or heard a prowler on their property before the attacks, and many had suffered break-ins. Police believed the offender had a pattern of using extensive reconnaissance on several homes in a targeted neighbourhood before selecting one for attack. As part of his surveillance, the stalker was also known to call victims both before and after the night of the attack, sometimes hanging up, sometimes pretending to have the wrong number, and sometimes (in calls placed after the attack) threatening them. In one of these messages which was recorded by the victim in January of 1978 the stalker repeats, "Gonna kill you."

Although he originally targeted women either alone in their homes or with children, he later came to prefer attacking couples instead. His standard procedure was to break in and awaken the occupants, threatening them with a handgun. Victims were generally bound with ligatures that the criminal brought to the crime scene, often blindfolding and/or gagging them with towels taken from the residence that he had carefully cut into strips. The female victim was made to tie up her male companion with bootlaces before being tied up herself. In many cases, these bindings were made so tightly that the victims had no feeling in their hands for hours after they were untied. He would then separate the couple, often stacking dishes on the back of the male, and telling him that if he heard the dishes rattle he would kill everyone in the house. The intruder at times spent hours in the home, ransacking closets and drawers, eating food in the kitchen, and coming back to utter more threats to the victims, who were often unsure as to whether he was still in the home. The perpetrator was believed to use a bicycle to travel to and from his car, and also made extensive use of parks, school yards, creek beds, and other open spaces that allowed him to stay off the street.^[4]

Original Night Stalker crimes

1979

• On October 1, an intruder broke in and tied up a Goleta couple. The attacker alarmed them by chanting "I'm going to kill them" to himself. When he left the room, the man and then the woman made attempts to escape during which the woman screamed. Realizing the alarm had been raised, the intruder fled. A neighbor, who was an FBI agent, responded to the noise and pursued the perpetrator, who abandoned the bike he was on and fled on foot through local back yards. The attacker also abandoned a knife at this point. The attack was later linked physically to the Offerman-Manning murders (see below) by shoeprints and the same roll of twine being used to bind the victims.^[4]

• On December 30, Dr. Robert Offerman, 44, and Debra Alexandra Manning, 35, were found shot dead at Offerman's condominium on Avendida Pequena in Goleta. The bindings on Offerman were untied, indicating he had apparently lunged at the attacker. Neighbors heard the gunshots but failed to respond to them, attributing them to innocuous causes. Prints from a large dog were found at the scene, leading to speculation that the killer may have brought it with him. There is evidence that he fed the dog some leftover Christmas turkey from the fridge. The killer also broke into the adjoining residence, to the west of the crime scene, which was vacant at the time, and stole a bicycle from a third residence in the same complex. The bicycle was later found abandoned on a street to the north of the crime scene.^[7]

1980

• On March 13, Charlene Smith, 33, and Lyman Smith, 43, who was about to be appointed a Judge, were found murdered in their home in Ventura. Charlene had also been raped. A log from the fireplace was used to bludgeon both the victims to death. Their wrists and ankles had been bound with a drapery cord. An unusual Chinese knot, known as the diamond knot, was used on their wrists.^[4] The same knot had been noted in the East Area Rapist attacks in Sacramento, with at least one confirmed case publicly known.^[7]

• On August 19, Keith Harrington, 24, and Patrice Harrington, 27, were found bludgeoned to death in their home on Cockleshell Drive in the Niguel Shores gated community in Dana Point. Patrice had also been raped. Although there was evidence that the Harringtons were bound at the wrist and ankles, no ligatures or murder weapon were found at the scene. The Harringtons had been married for three months at the time of their deaths. Patrice was a nurse in Irvine, while Keith was a medical student at the University of California, Irvine.^[4] Keith Harrington's brother later spent nearly $2 million supporting California Proposition 69 (2004).^[8]

1981

• On February 6, Manuela Witthuhn, 28, was raped and murdered in her home in Irvine. Again, while the body showed signs of being tied before being bludgeoned, no ligatures, or murder weapon, were found at the scene. The victim was married, but her husband was recuperating from an illness in the hospital; thus she was alone at the time of the attack. A lamp and crystal curio were removed from her house, presumably by the killer. Also, detectives remarked that Mrs. Witthuhn's television was found in the backyard, which was possibly the killer's attempt to make it appear as a botched robbery.^[4]

• On July 26/27, Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, were bludgeoned to death in the Domingo home on Toltec Way in Goleta, several blocks south of the Offerman-Manning crime scene, with a tool taken from a small shed in the backyard. Sanchez was also shot, but not tied up. Police thought Sanchez may have realized he was dealing with the man responsible for the murder of Offerman and Manning, and made a desperate attempt to tackle the killer rather than be tied up. As in the Offerman-Manning case, no neighbors responded to the sound of the gunshot.^[4]

1986

• On May 4, Janelle Lisa Cruz, 18, was found bludgeoned to death in her Irvine home. Her family was on vacation in Mexico at the time of the attack. A pipe wrench was reported missing by Cruz' stepfather and was thought to be the probable murder weapon. She had also been raped.^[6][9]

These murders in Southern California (Goleta, Ventura, Dana Point, and Irvine, California) were not initially thought to be connected by investigators in their respective jurisdictions. One Sacramento detective strongly believed the East Area Rapist was responsible for the Goleta attacks, but at first the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department attributed them to a local career criminal who had himself subsequently been murdered. Investigating the crimes that did not occur in Goleta caused local police to follow false leads related to men who had been close to the female victims. One suspect, later acknowledged to be innocent, was charged with two murders. Linking all of the cases together was achieved almost entirely by DNA testing, which was not done until many years later.^[4]

Suspected murders

Claude Snelling

The Visalia Ransacker was the name given to the perpetrator of a bizarre burglary spree with several similarities to the later East Area Rapist break-ins in Sacramento. However, it is not certain that the Visalia and Sacramento crimes were committed by the same man. On September 11, 1975, Claude Snelling, a journalism professor at the College of the Sequoias, was shot dead while foiling an attempt to kidnap his daughter from the family home in the middle of the night. On December 12, 1975, a police officer on a night stakeout at a residence where traces of a prowler had been found attempted to arrest a masked man breaking into the residence. After the officer fired a warning shot, the suspect feigned surrender and fired back at the officer, hitting his flashlight and causing glass shards to fly into his face, temporarily blinding him. Other police officers were quickly on the scene but the prowler escaped by doubling back through the pursuit before a cordon was established. The burglary spree ceased in Visalia after the incident; the East Area Rapist began attacking victims in Sacramento County at about the same time.^[10]

Sketches released of two suspects in the Maggiore murders.

Brian and Katie Maggiore

On the night of February 2, 1978, a young Sacramento couple, Brian and Katie Maggiore, were walking their dog in the Rancho Cordova area, close to where several East Area Rapist attacks had taken place. A confrontation in the street caused the couple to flee, but they were chased down and shot dead. Some investigators suspected the couple had been murdered by the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker due to the location, and the fact that bootlaces were found at the scene.^[4]

The Original Night Stalker speaks

Letters and writings

"Excitement's Crave" poem (December 11, 1977)

In December of 1977, letters were sent to the editor of the Sacramento Bee, the Sacramento mayor's Office and the KVIE 6 TV station, entitled “Excitement’s Crave” written in poem form by an individual claiming to be the East Area Rapist.^[4]

’’Excitement's Crave’

All those mortal’s surviving birth
Upon facing maturity,
Take inventory of their worth
To prevailing society.
Choosing values becomes a task;
Oneself must seek satisfaction.
The selected route will unmask
Character when plans take action.
Accepting some work to perform
At fixed pay, but promise for more,
Is a recognized social norm,
As is decorum, seeking lore.
Achieving while others lifting
Should be cause for deserving fame.
Leisure tempts excitement seeking,
What’s right and expected seems tame.
“Jessie James” has been seen by all,
And “Son of Sam” has an author.
Others now feel temptations call.
Sacramento should make an offer.
To make a movie of my life
That will pay for my planned exile.
Just now I’ d like to add the wife
Of a Mafia lord to my file.
Your East Area Rapist
And deserving pest.
See you in the press or on T.V. ^{[4]:p. 304}

"The homework" pages (December 9, 1978)

During the investigation of the 42nd attack in Danville investigators discovered three notebook pages not far from the scene of the attack where a suspicious vehicle had reportedly been parked.^[10]

First page: “General Custer” essay

Written on the first page is what appears to be an essay on General Custer.^[10]

Front side of the "Mad is the Word" page.

Reverse side of the "Mad is the word" page.

Second page: “Mad is the Word” journal entry

The second page contains a journal style entry where the author writes about a school teacher who made them write lines, and how humiliating they found the experience to be.^[10]

Mad is the word that reminds me of 6th grade. I hated that year

I wish I had know what was going to be going on during my 6th grade year, the last and worst years of elementary school. Mad is the word that remains in my head about my dreadful year as a 6th grader. My madness was one that was caused by disappointments that hurt me very much. Disappointments from my teacher such as field trips that were planned and then cancelled. My 6th grade teacher gave me a lot of disappointments that made me very mad and made me built a state of hatred in my heart, no one ever let me down that hard before and I never "hated anyone" as much as I did him. Disappointment wasn't the only reason that made me mad in my sixth grade class, another was getting in trouble at school especially talking thats what really bugged me was writing sentences, those awful sentence that my teacher made

me write, hours and hours I'd sit and write 50-100-150 sentence day and night I write those dreadful paragraphs which embarrassed me and more important it made me ashamed of myself which in turn, deepdown in side made me realize that writing sentance wasn't fair, it wasn't fair to make me suffer like that, it just wasn't fair to make me sit and wright until my bones ached, until my hand felt ever horrid pain it ever had and as I wrote, I got mader and mader until I cried, I cried because I was ashamed I cried because I was discusted I cried because I was mad and I cried for myself, kid who kept on having to write those dame sentances. My angriness from sixth grade will scar my memory for life and I will be ashamed of my sixth grade year forever

Front side of the "Punishment" map.

Third page: “Punishment” map

Reverse side of the "Punishment" map, showing the word punishment scrawled across the page.

A hand drawn map of what appears to be a suburban neighbourhood. Investigators were unable to identify the area depicted in the map. Detective Larry Pool believes the map to be a fantasy location representing the Original Night Stalker’s desired striking ground.^[10]

Phone calls

“Merry Christmas” call (December 9, 1977)

A previous victim received a phone call during the christmas period of 1977, she identified the caller as the man who had previously attacked her.^[4]

“Merry Christmas, it’s me again!” (hangs up)

“Watt Avenue” call (December 10, 1977)

On December 10, 1977 a Sacramento Sheriffs operator received a call threatening an attack. The call was recorded, and the caller was subsequently identified as the same individual who had made the "Merry Christmas" call. No attack took place on December 10.^[4]

“I am going to hit tonight. Watt Avenue.” (hangs up)

“Is Ray There?” call (January 2, 1978)

The same victim who had received the "Merry Christmas" call later received another call on January 2, 1978. The call was recorded and the victim identified the caller as the same individual who had made the previous call.^[4][10]

“Yeah, is Ray there? Is Ray there?”

“Gonna Kill You” call (January 2, 1978)

Later that evening, the same victim received another call, much more sinister in nature. This call was also recorded and identified by the victim as being the voice of her assailant.^[4][10]

“Gonna kill you...gonna kill you...gonna kill you...bitch...bitch...bitch...bitch...fucking whore.”

Investigation

Detectives connect the crimes

Even prior to 2001's connection of the Original Night Stalker to the East Area Rapist, some law enforcement officials, particularly several from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, sought to link the Goleta cases separately to the East Area Rapist^[11] and the Original Night Stalker.^[11] These postulated links were considered primarily due to similarity in modus operandi. One of the already linked Original Night Stalker double murders did take place in Ventura, California, 40 miles east of Goleta, while the remaining murders took place in Orange County, California, an additional 90 miles to the southeast. In 2001, several rapes in Contra Costa County believed to have been part of the East Area Rapist series were linked by DNA to the Smith, Harrington, Whithuhn, and Cruz murders. In 2011, DNA evidence proved that the Domingo-Sanchez murders were committed by the Original Night Stalker.^[4][12]

Suspects eliminated

Throughout the course of the investigation into the Original Night Stalker murders, the following persons were suspected of committing the crimes, only to be determined to not be the culprit:

• Brett Glasby – From Goleta, California, Glasby was considered a suspect by investigators in Santa Barbara County. He was himself murdered in Mexico in 1982. Glasby's death, prior to the murder of Janelle Cruz, eliminates him as a suspect.
• Paul "Cornfed" Schneider – A high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Schneider is a career criminal who was living in Orange County, California, when the murders of the Harringtons, Manuela Witthuhn, and Janelle Cruz occurred. In the late 1990s, while serving time at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California, Schneider provided a DNA sample to authorities. This sample cleared him as the Original Night Stalker.
• Joe Alsip – A business partner of the victim Lyman Smith. Alsip was a friend of the Smiths and visited their home on High Point Drive in Ventura the day before the murders. Alsip's pastor claimed that he had confessed to him, during a family counseling session, but this confession was considered dubious by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office. Nevertheless, Alsip was arraigned for the murders of Lyman and Charlene Smith in 1982. After the preliminary hearing, however, all charges against him were dropped.

It would not be until 1996 when DNA testing came on-line that the murders would be linked.

In November 2002, journalist Colleen Cason wrote a newspaper series about the Original Night Stalker murders for the Ventura County Star. According to Cason's articles, Detective Larry Pool of the Orange County Sheriff's Department visited California's Death Row at San Quentin State Prison in an attempt to locate the Original Night Stalker. Detective Pool suspected that the Original Night Stalker had been captured and sentenced to death for some other violent crime. Nevertheless, none of the genetic samples collected from Death Row inmates at San Quentin matched the DNA of the Original Night Stalker.

Psychological profile

After criminologists matched serological evidence found at the southern California murder scenes, a psychological profile of the Original Night Stalker was compiled. According to Leslie D'Ambrosia, who was the primary author of the profile, it's likely that the Original Night Stalker would possess the following characteristics:^[13]

• White male
• Emotional age of 26 to 30 at the time the crimes were committed
• Likely began as a voyeur in his late teens or early twenties
• Lived and/or worked near Ventura, California, in 1980
• Had some means of income, but did not work in the early morning hours
• Drove a well-maintained car
• Dressed well and would not stand out in upscale neighborhoods
• Would appear harmless
• Intelligent and articulate
• Neat and well-organized in his personal life
• Possibly unmarried and did not enter into long-term relationships
• Would have been described by those who knew him as arrogant, domineering, manipulative, and a chronic liar
• Had some knowledge of police investigative methods and evidence-gathering techniques
• Was a skilled and experienced cat burglar and may have begun that way
• Was in good physical condition
• Had a criminal record as a teenager that was expunged
• Engaged in sex with prostitutes
• Peeped into the windows of many potential victims who were not attacked
• Engaged in deviant paraphilic behavior and brutal sex in his personal life
• Sexually functional and capable of ejaculation with consenting and non-consenting partners
• Self-assured and confident in his abilities
• Hated women for real or perceived wrongs
• Would continue committing violent crimes until incapacitated by prison, death, or some other intervention
• If married, probably has a submissive spouse who tolerated his sexually deviant behavior

In addition to describing the characteristics of the Original Night Stalker, the profile also speculates about the fate of the killer. According to the profile, the Original Night Stalker could have been incarcerated following Janelle Cruz's murder or killed in the commission of a similar crime. (However, the last known contact with the Original Night Stalker was in 1991 when he made a taunting phone call to one of his victims.) As to the latter point, the profile indicates that law enforcement agencies should look into attempted "hot prowl burglaries" in the late 1980s that resulted in the death of a lone male offender. The profile also indicates that there is a slight chance the Original Night Stalker committed suicide; furthermore, it is speculated that it is unlikely that he is confined in a mental institution.

The profile reveals that following the original homicides in this series, teletypes were broadcast to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. These teletypes requested information on similar home invasion attacks involving sexual assault, murder, bludgeoning, multiple victims, and/or bondage. As of 2015, no similar crimes have been reported in the United States. The profile propounds the possibility, however, that the Original Night Stalker could have continued committing his crimes in another country where records were not consulted for linkage purposes.

As a psychological profile is based on a probabilistic analysis, its accuracy cannot be assessed before the offender has been apprehended.

The Original Night Stalker/East Area Rapist case was the motivating factor in the passage of legislation leading to the establishment of California's DNA database, which authorizes the collection of the DNA of all the accused and convicted felons in California. California's DNA data retrieval and storage program is considered by researchers to be second only to Virginia's in size and effectiveness in solving cold cases. While the California DNA database motivated by this case has solved numerous previously unsolved cold cases across the country, the original case remains unsolved.

See also

• Delroy Easton Grant, a serial rapist who operated in London during the 1990s and 2000s, sometimes referred to by the British media as the "Night Stalker"
• Richard Ramirez, a serial killer based in Los Angeles, whose murder spree in California in the mid-1980s led to him being known as the "Night Stalker"

References

1. McNamara, Michelle (February 27, 2013). "The Five Most Popular Myths About the Golden State Killer Case". Los Angeles. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
2. Hallissy, Erin; Goodyear, Charlie (April 4, 2001). "DNA Links '70s 'East Area Rapist' to Serial Killings". San Francisco Chronicle.
3. Cold Case Files, "The Original Nightstalker" - (Episode #46), A&E Network, most recent broadcast March 20, 2009
4. Crompton, Larry (August 2, 2010). Sudden Terror. ISBN 1452052417.
5. "A Memorial to the Victims and their Loved Ones". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
6. "EAR/BK MASTER TIMELINE" (PDF).
7. Shelby, Richard (2014). Hunting a Psychopath: The East Area Rapist / Original Night Stalker Investigation - the Original Investigator Speaks Out. Booklocker.com
8. Chawkins, Steve; Santa Cruz, Nicole (May 6, 2011). "DNA testing sheds new light on Original Night Stalker case". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
9. "East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker". Retrieved 23 April 2016.
10. McNamara, Michelle (February 27, 2013). "In the Footsteps of a Killer". Los Angeles. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
11. Wayne Wilson, "Link to East Area Rapist Probed in Couples’ Slaying," Sacramento Bee, February 26, 1980, p. B1; Wayne Wilson, "Police Debate Tie Between East Area Rapist, Killings," Sacramento Bee, March 13, 1980.
12. Chawkins, Steve (May 5, 2011). "30-year-old slayings of Goleta couple linked to serial killer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
13. http://www.aetv.com/cold_case_files/web_exclusives/ep46/nightstalkerprofile.pdf

External links

• Website devoted to East Area Rapist-Original Night Stalker's capture
• Arts & Entertainment Channel's COLD CASE FILES program #46 about Original Night Stalker
• A website devoted to this and related cases debuted in 2006 and features maps and documents related to the cases
• A Los Angeles magazine article describing the case in detail (includes numerous photos and maps)
• Discussion Board about the East Area Rapist-Original Night Stalker-Golden State Killer
• Website that details each of the Original Night Stalker's crimes
• Online version of "Sudden Terror" by Larry Crompton.