Sudden Terror

497 Pages·06.748 MB·English

by  Crompton, Larry

COLD C ASE FILE
Sudden Terror
T T S
HE RUE TORY OF
C ’ M I
ALIFORNIAS OST NFAMOUS
S P
EXUAL REDATOR
T E A R
HE AST REA APIST
AKA
T O N S
HE RIGINAL IGHT TALKER
BY
L C
ARRY ROMPTON
AuthorHouse™
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Bloomington, IN 47403
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Phone: [phone]
© 2010 Larry Crompton. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
First published by AuthorHouse 7/23/2010
ISBN: 978-1-4520-5241-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4520-5242-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4520-5243-4 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010910823
Design and production by Cohographics.com
Salem, Oregon
Cover drawing by Tom Macris, San Jose P.D.
Printed in the United States of America
Th is book is printed on acid-free paper.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in
this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. Th e views
expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily refl ect the
views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
P
ROLOGUE
THIS BOOK IS BASED on the actual case of the East Area Rapist, later
also known as the Original Night Stalker, a masked man who terror-
ized California communities for ten years; 1976 through 1986, and
possibly to this day.
Because I was not involved in the initial rape investigations, they are
written from hundreds of reports, notes, memos, newspaper clippings,
conversations and interviews with those who were involved.
The crimes are factual. The crimes are real. While all characters and
events have direct counterparts in the telling of the story, I have cre-
ated some dialogue in the interest of readability. The cops in the initial
rapes are not factual, their actions are. Their names and descriptions are
completely fictitious. The names of the victims, witnesses and suspects
are fictitious; the terror, the dialogue during the crimes, and the inves-
tigations are real.
The cops involved in the cases after I was involved are real, their
names and dialogue is factual, the investigations are real.
The pain and terror may have diminished in the minds of the vic-
tims, I hope that the pain does not return. My intent is to tell the story
without endangering the privacy or the dignity of the victims. They
have suffered enough.
III
T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS
Prologue....................................iii
Introduction................................. v
Acknowledgments ........................... xii
One The First: Rancho Cordova Rape .................2
Two Contra Costa County......................... 10
Three Concord Rape .............................. 14
Four Concord Rape ..............................23
Five San Ramon Rape ............................ 33
Six San Jose Rape............................... 41
Seven Danville Rape...............................44
Eight CCC Task Force............................. 52
Nine The Beginning; Sacramento .................... 67
Ten The First Rape .............................. 69
Eleven Carmichael Rape ............................ 70
Twelve Rancho Cordova Rape ........................ 81
Thirteen Carmichael Rape ............................ 92
Fourteen Citrus Heights Rape, Rancho Cordova Rape...... 109
Fifteen Carmichael Rape ........................... 137
Sixteen Rancho Cordova Rape ....................... 147
Seventeen Suspects .................................. 156
Eighteen Fair Oaks Rape............................. 162
Nineteen Sacramento Rape ........................... 171
Twenty Psychiatric Input ........................... 175
Twenty-one Carmichael Rape ........................... 181
Twenty-two Rancho Cordova Rape ....................... 197
Twenty-three Orangevale Rape, Carmichael Rape.............206
Twenty-four Sacramento Bee News ....................... 219
Twenty-five Sacramento Rape ...........................220
Twenty-six Orangevale Rape ...........................227
Twenty-seven Prowlers .................................. 231
Twenty-eight Citrus Heights Rape.........................234
Twenty-nine Burglary Attempt...........................242
Thirty Carmichael Rape, Death Threats ............... 245
Thirty-one Sacramento S.O. Task Force................... 257
Thirty-two Sacramento Rape ...........................260
Thirty-three Serial Rapists .............................. 267
Thirty-four Stockton Rape ............................. 272
Thirty-five Rancho Cordova Rape ....................... 278
IV
Thirty-six North Highlands Rape....................... 281
Thirty-seven Carmichael Rape ...........................284
Thirty-eight Sacramento Rape ...........................290
Thirty-nine Sacramento Rape ........................... 294
Forty EAR Phone Calls ........................... 301
Forty-one EAR Phone Calls ...........................307
Forty-two Carmichael Rape ........................... 314
Forty-three Stockton Rape ............................. 318
Forty-four Convalescent Hospital ....................... 323
Forty-five Rape Attempt.............................. 325
Forty-six Modesto Rape ............................. 331
Forty-seven Davis Rape................................ 333
Forty-eight Modesto Rape ............................. 336
Forty-nine Davis Rape................................ 338
Fifty Sacramento S.O. Task Force................... 341
Fifty-one Davis Rape................................346
Epilogue.................................. 351
Fifty-two Contra Costa S.O. Task Force ................. 353
Fifty-three C.C.C. Task Force Shut Down................. 371
Rancho Cordova Rape, Fremont Rape
Fifty-four Walnut Creek Rape, Danville Rape ............. 390
C.C.C. Task Force Back
Fifty-five Danville Rape..............................420
Fifty-six Goleta Attempt Rape, Goleta Double Homicide ...434
Lack of Cooperation
Fifty-seven Ventura Double Homicide....................440
Orange County Double Homicide
Irving Single Homicide, Goleta Double Homicide
Fifty-eight Psychological Profile.........................447
Fifty-nine A suspect?.................................449
Sixty C.C.C. Task Force Shut Down................. 453
Sixty-one Contra Costa Times......................... 455
Sixty-two Irvine Single Homicide....................... 457
Sixty-three Orange County Sheriff CLUE Unit............. 459
Sixty-four Rapist/Murderer Through DNA ...............462
Sixty-five Another Suspect Eliminated................... 470
Sixty-six Geographic Profile, A&E Cold Case File......... 472
“The Original Night Stalker” aired
E! Entertainment “True Hollywood Story
Investigates The Original Night Stalker” airs
Dedication ................................ 478
The Attacks................................480
V
I
NTRODUCTION
ON JUNE 18, 1976 at 4:00 a.m., an unmarried young woman alone in
her Sacramento County, California home was sexually assaulted by a
ski mask wearing rapist.
She was the first of thirty-eight women and children attacked by this
serial rapist over a two year period.
Although millions of dollars were spent, law enforcement was not
able to identify the man named by the news media as the East Area
Rapist due to his first series of rapes occurring in the eastern area of
Sacramento County.
His attacks occurred in several Sacramento County areas, and in
the northern California cities of Sacramento, Davis, Modesto and
Stockton.
Even though thousands of leads were followed up and thousands
of suspects eliminated, law enforcement was no closer in identifying
the rapist when in 1978 he began another string of attacks in the San
Francisco Bay Area counties of Contra Costa and Santa Clara and the
cities of Freemont and San Jose.
I became deeply involved in the investigation and saw the pain, the
terror: the pain and terror that may have now diminished in the minds
of the victims. The crimes are factual, the crimes are real, the cops are
real. The names of the victims have been changed to protect them. My
intent is to tell the story without endangering the privacy or the dignity
of the victims. They have suffered enough.
I’ve thought a lot about the case since the rapes stopped. For years,
as a member of an East Area Rapist Task Force investigating a serial
rapist, it was my life twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Two in
the morning, wide-awake, wondering, “Where is he? What am I miss-
ing? Who is he?” The years have slipped away, fewer sleepless nights, a
little less intensity. We learn to live with life’s unanswered questions.
But I still wonder, not so much of who he is, but more of where he is.
Does a serial rapist simply stop his hideous crimes?
Psychiatrists working with rapists tell us that many start out at an
early age abusing, mutilating and killing animals. Soon they graduate
to “Peeping Toms” and then, to rape. Seldom if ever are these sexual
predators rehabilitated, their attitude towards women ingrained forever.
Some return to mutilations and killings, the full circle. Unfortunately
VI
I
NTRODUCTION
this circle ends with the rape and murder of women, and often to their
families.
I wasn’t part of the investigation when the rapes began but I thought
through them all. I talked to many of those who were involved and
read the many volumes of reports. Then I was involved, a part of it.
There with the fear, the smells, the dark nights, the trembling victims,
the stained sheets, the neat stacks of evidence, the sharp, echoing noises
that come from nowhere.
More than sixty attacks by a rapist/murderer who terrorized Califor-
nia communities from Sacramento to Orange County. No one felt safe:
not old, not young, not male, not female, not me. Hardened cops would
check the locks on their doors and windows every night and would
sleep with their guns within reach. Serial killers instill fear in certain
segments of society, and readers of the newspaper account bristle with
indignation and disbelief only to turn to Ann Landers, the want ads, or
the comics. This serial rapist turned killer, entered and terrorized entire
communities and left behind memories more terrifying than a child-
hood nightmare, memories that never really disappeared.
Ten years of terror, real to the victims and their families, real to the
communities, and believe it, real to the cops. All of them felt the fear,
the rage towards the man, and each of them knew that someone in
their family might be next; a wife, a daughter, a girlfriend. No one was
safe. The serial rapist/murderer doesn’t need to be sensationalized, but
the story needs to be told because people need to know that life is not a
movie and these things actually happen and we must be prepared. And
maybe finally somebody will come forward with the identity we need.
I never spoke to the man responsible for so much ruination, but
I heard his voice on tape. Still, I don’t know how his mind works.
I have interviewed psychiatrists and psychologists, sex offenders and
their counselors and learned their views. I have my own. I interviewed
victims over and over. Some I watched under hypnosis, so I know what
they experienced; stark fear. Those who didn’t die believed that they
would. I must assume that those who died spent the last hours of their
lives knowing that they were about to die a painful, unfair death at the
hands of a madman. Their last thoughts must have been only violent,
terrible horror.
I’m a decent guy, maybe I was even a decent cop. Hardheaded, opin-
ionated, yet dedicated to my job as most cops are, regardless of what
you read in the papers or see on television. As a six-year veteran when
I became involved in the search for the rapist, I had worked with the
VII
L C S T
ARRY ROMPTON UDDEN ERROR
(cid:85)
Sheriff’s Crime Lab, and prior to that, Patrol Division, Vice and Nar-
cotics. I saw the ugly side of life as most cops have, and I learned to
deal with it.
Most people think cops become hardened to crime. They don’t. They
just come to accept it. They cry when they see injustices of death and
sometimes they cry when death doesn’t come to someone who deserves
to die. Cops are just a small part of a big cycle, just as you are. The only
difference is, they are in the ugly part of the cycle. They see life, they
deal with it, and they don’t always like it.
I was stopped in traffic one day and wasted time reading bumper
stickers on the cars creeping by. One bumper sticker stuck in my mind:
“Old golfers never die, they just lose their balls.” It made me think.
What about rapists? What about serial murderers? What would their
bumper stickers say? Do they keep on raping and murdering until they
die? Do they suddenly find God and live a normal life? Someday, we
may have the answers. For now, there is no answer; there is no end. Not
yet, anyway. As a cop you learn fast that people are not always kind.
Our job creates a moral loneliness that makes our lives so difficult. I
knew this case would be like a cancer, destroying everyone it touched.
The crimes went on for ten years and they may still be going on today.
In my mind they are, especially when it creeps into my dreams, tugging
at me, mocking me.
This case brought me into the lives of over sixty men and women vi-
olated by one sadistic crimina(cid:2)l, to the edge of presidential politics, and
to the fringes of San Francisco’s gay community. It scared the living hell
out of me to learn what humans can actually do to one another.
What is it like to be raped? How does it feel to be violated? How does
it feel to violate someone? A lot of time would need to be spent working
on details to describe those feelings, and it really isn’t necessary. This
isn’t a story about sex; it’s a story about terror; the terror one feels when
they know they are going to die and the feelings of helplessness when
waiting to die. The rapes were horrible, make no mistake about it; but
the victims all described the terror, the horror of the direct and constant
threat that this man had over all of them. Every one of them, men and
women, knew they were going to die. Rape was an acceptable alterna-
tive. For some it didn’t end with rape.
The rapist tied them, blindfolded them, gagged them, and put guns
to their heads; they listened while he cocked the weapon and they waited
VIII
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NTRODUCTION
for that final pain that they knew would soon follow. He put knives to
their throats, drawing blood from the passive, and he smashed his fists
and clubs into the faces of those who resisted. He shot and clubbed to
death those who kept resisting and then he clubbed to death those who
didn’t resist.
He broke into their homes while they slept, while their children
slept. He kicked in doors, he slipped through open windows, he broke
windows, and he prowled neighborhoods. He terrorized. Always he
terrorized. If he had a pattern in choosing his victims, it was never
understood. The victims certainly did not know why he chose their
homes to invade.
One way or another, most of us believe we pretty much get what we
deserve in our lives. We look back and see how things might have gone
differently if we had acted differently. We accept responsibility for what
we get. When we finally think it all through, we can understand why
what happens to us happens. In this country we believe, or at least pre-
tend to believe, that each of us is responsible for our own actions, and
with that comes our acceptance of getting what we deserve: pay backs
are hell, what goes around comes around, what you sow you shall reap,
you make your bed and you lie in it.
But rape; personal, intimate terrorism goes against everything we
are taught from birth. Retribution? For what? What could anyone do
to deserve it? Stripped of all power, completely at his mercy, strug-
gling to save life, self respect, freedom, sanity; most of all, sanity. A
mother and her child, side by side, a husband and his wife, a woman
alone, each were living with the terror of death. Could any of us remain
sane? This is the worst crime in a horrible hierarchy of human abuse.
Sexual violation is unspeakable. The breath against the victim’s face,
the smells, and flesh against flesh. A life will never be the same. How
could it? And then to add to the terror, he made all of them know, deep
within their hearts, straight to the marrow of their bones, that there
was no question, he was going to kill them.
Marriages were destroyed because husbands could not live with the
knowledge that they did not protect their wives. The love they had
held could not overcome their feelings of inadequacy. Women left their
homes screaming after being freed, unable to force themselves to re-
turn. A thirteen-year-old girl, not yet really understanding her virginity
or the pleasure of losing her virginity to someone she loved, instead lost
hers to a monster who had no human feelings. The pleasure of sex, the
importance of it for a healthy life, was ripped away from these women.
IX