From at least 1973 to 1986, a unique brand of serial offender preyed upon California. Over 50 home-invasion rapes, 13 murders, and nearly 250 burglaries were eventually tied through either M.O. or physical evidence to a criminal known widely as the “East Area Rapist,” “Golden State Killer,” and “Visalia Ransacker.”
He offended in Visalia, Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, Davis, all throughout the East Bay area, Goleta/Santa Barbara, Ventura, Dana Point, and Irvine. For decades, he invaded home after home without anyone knowing his identity. What set this case apart from other cold cases of the era was the fact that investigators had his DNA — biological evidence preserved from crime scenes that had occurred before forensic DNA was even in use. This DNA had made it so that the case was eminently solvable and, while it took over forty years to see justice done, an arrest was finally made on April 24th, 2018 based on a DNA match.
This criminal was, as one of us put it on one of the recent televisions shows, a “nightmare come to life.” His attacks would usually start with the victim(s) being awakened from a sound sleep in the middle of the night by a flashlight beaming into their eyes.
He’d have the woman tie the man while he stood over them with a knife or a firearm. He’d issue threats. He’d tell them he only wanted food and money — but he was lying.
The woman’s wrists and ankles would be tied, and then the offender would retie the male victim. He’d rummage through the house, look through all of their drawers, tear towels into strips to use as blindfolds, turn off thermostats or anything that made noise, and he’d “prepare” the living room, with low-level lighting.
The “EAR”/“GSK” would then retrieve the female from the bedroom and tell them that he needed her help to find her purse so he could take their money, or use some other ruse. He’d take dishes from the kitchen and stack them on the man’s back and warn him that if he heard the dishes move, then he’d “kill everyone in the house.”
He would then sexually assault the woman in the other room, often stopping to eat in the kitchen or ransack the house in between assaults.
Threats were issued through harsh whispers. The offender wore a different mask and different articles of clothing to almost every assault.
Because they were tied up, blindfolded, had blankets over their heads sometimes, they never knew when he left. They couldn’t call the police right away because he’d cut their phone lines. They were bound too tightly to use a phone, anyway. He was long gone by the time the police arrived.
He stole cash and personal items like wedding rings or class rings and little else.
These offenses occurred over fifty times, the first half in Sacramento and the others occurring in other areas of the state. By the time he got about 325 miles south of Sacramento, he not only raped his victims but he began killing them as well. He killed ten people in Southern California this way, most of them by bludgeoning.
Before any of this had even occurred, the offender had spent over two years in a town called Visalia, California, where he burglarized over 100 homes. He also attempted to kidnap a teenage girl from her home, and he shot her father to death when he intervened to save her.
After decades of investigation, a break was finally made in the case and an arrest was made. This website follows the court hearings, the trial, and anything beyond.
This is the final chapter of the Golden State Killer case — a decades-long nightmare that has affected the lives of thousands of men and women. This is where the nightmare finally ends.