[Part 3 of 5]

1977 started off with a task force being created by the Sacramento Sherriff’s Department to catch the East Area Rapist. The crime lab was able to determine that the rapist’s blood was Type A.

The rapist continued following his earlier MO until the local papers made special mention of the fact he had never attacked a woman with a man present in the house. He adjusted, and from that time on the targeted couples.

As the year went on, and attacks grew more and more frequent, so too did the press coverage. But still, it was a time when not everyone got news the moment it happened. While there were many people terrified of the East Area Rapist, there were those who were still oblivious.

Despite the east area rapist having a very specific MO, it was not released to the public. The police didn’t want a state of panic and they didn’t want a copycat. But that meant when women got hang up phone calls, or heavy breathing calls, or when there was a break-in with nothing of value taken, only strange items moved around or stolen, the community had no idea these were related to the East Area Rapist case.

In mid may 1977 the rapist showed everyone he may have been in attendance at a community meeting that took place towards the end of 1976. At this meeting, a man stood up, paced up and down yelling that no man would stand by and let his wife get raped, he certainly wouldn’t. Just seven months later, the East Area Rapist targeted this man and his wife. During this attack, the rapist said he would kill his next victims. But there was confusion as to what exactly he said.

According to the survivor, he said he would kill two people if he heard about the attack in the media. But according to her husband, he said he would kill two people if he didn’t hear about the attack. When we left part 2, the police were deciding what to do…

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Open and download map #3 of the attacks here

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

– Michelle Cruz

– Debbi Domingo

– Patti

– Orange County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Erika Hutchcraft

– Contra Costa County DA Cold Case Investigator Paul Holes

– Detective Richard Shelby

– Detective Larry Crompton