Original Night Stalker

The Original Night Stalker

The "Original Night Stalker", or "East Area Rapist", is the name given to a serial rapist and murderer who raped over 50 women from 1976 to 1979, and killed at least 9 people from 1979 to 1981, in the Southern California area. In 1986, after a five-year hiatus, another murder was directly linked to the Original Night Stalker. To date, no convicted criminal has been positively identified as the Original Night Stalker, and nobody has ever been charged for his crimes.

Known for his distinctive MO, the Night Stalker would break into middle-class homes, usually inhabited by a single woman, and bind them using a rope tied with an unusual knot. One several occasions, however, he attacked couples, forcing the wife to bind her husband before being raped. Usually, he would stack dishes on the husband's back, warning him that if he heard them rattle, he would kill everyone in the house.

According to those that encountered him, the Original Night Stalker came across as relatively young, perhaps in his early 20s by the late 70s attacks, and had quite a high-pitched voice. He wore a Pendleton shirt and a balaclava. He carried a knife, a pistol (which he rarely used), and a flashlight, which he "held like a cop" (overhanded).

He was also consistently described by his victims as coming across as somewhat nervous - stuttering and whispering to himself. He would repeatedly say things like "I'm going to kill them, I'm going to kill them".

He is thought to have planned his escapes routes carefully, and his preferred method of transport was on stolen bikes. He was often spotted by the victim's neighbors during his hasty escapes, but rarely did anybody pursue him; one young man who tried to apprehend him ended up being shot and wounded. A police officer who spotted the Night Stalker was temporarily blinded when he shot the officer's flashlight, smashing the bulb.

Victims of his attacks would sometimes receive calls from an anonymous person that they identified as their attacker. These calls ranged from heavy breathing and cursing, to short simple messages such as "Merry Christmas!".

Police received an anonymous call from a man whose voice sounded similar that of the other phone calls to the victims. The man mocked the police for failing to catch him. It was impossible to verify whether this was actually the Night Stalker or simply somebody taking credit for his crimes.

In late 1976, the local police organized a town hall meeting to warn people of a string of rapes in the area. One man spoke out against the police for failing to catch the notorious rapist and derided any man who would allow their partner to fall victim to such attacks. That same man fell victim to an attack from the Original Night Stalker 7 months later - he was tied up in his own home while his wife was raped. The implication seems to be that the Night Stalker actually attended the meeting himself, and specifically targeted the man after surveying him for months. Either that, or it was a sick coincidence.

The Original Night Stalker is known to have meticulously planned out his crimes. It is likely that he would survey his victims for weeks before attacking them. A common tactic the Night Stalker would employ is that he would often break into the victim's house in advance; i.e. he would unlock doors, windows, etc. days before committing the actual crime.

In one instance, he allowed one of his victims to reach for their shotgun, which he had already unloaded upon entering the house beforehand.

The Night Stalker would often stay in the victim's house for prolonged periods of time, eating food from their kitchen and stealing things (though never money or anything of particular value) over the course of hours. The victims, who would be tied up whilst he did this, would become numb in their hands and feet due to the length of time in which they were bound.

He also apparently owned a large white dog, which he once brought to the scene of the crime, feeding it food from his victim's refrigerator. Paw prints investigated by police determined that the dog had only three toes on one foot. This, of course, never led to anything substantial.

Found near the scene of the 42nd rape were a few pages from a notebook which police believe may have been linked to the suspect. The first two pages seem simply to be some kind of homework project. Page one is an essay on General Custer, and page two is an essay about the writer's experience in sixth grade. The writer describes being made to write lines by his teacher, and how humiliating he found the experience to be, blaming the punishment for his apparent anger issues.

Page three was more relevant to the case at hand. It depicted a hand-drawn map of a suburban neighborhood, the location of which police ever unable to verify. Whether it exists at all is not known. On the flip side of the page, the word "PUNISHMENT" was written in jagged text.

Other than perhaps lending insight into the mind of the Original Night Stalker, the pages did little to further the investigation.

After a botched attempt to subdue a couple in Goleta in late 1979, the Original Night Stalker began murdering his victims. From December 30th, 1979, to July 27th, 1981, the Night Stalker killed 9 people in their own homes. After a five-year hiatus, another murder was linked to the Night Stalker in 1986, after which his crimes mysteriously ceased.

So what happened to him?

- In the late 1980s, DNA profiling became practice in police investigations and many criminals were convicted on the grounds of DNA evidence. Some have theorized that this is the reason the Night Stalker stopped his activities. His crimes were definitively linked through DNA samples collected from old evidence.

- It has also been theorized that he was deterred by the AIDS outbreak of the 1980s.

- Perhaps the most comforting theory is that the Night Stalker was caught by police and convicted of an unrelated crime after 1986. Detective Larry Pool of the Orange County Sheriff's Dept. took DNA samples from inmates on death row in order to verify whether the Night Stalker had been sentenced to death for some unrelated violent attack, but none of the inmates were a match.

- Some victims reported receiving anonymous phone calls as late as the 1990s and even early 2000s, sometimes even after having moved house. It is not possible to verify whether these calls were made by their attacker, or were simply an elaborate and cruel hoax.

- Perhaps the least comforting theory is that the Night Stalker simply settled down and maybe had a family. It sounds unlikely that such a man would simply stop committing these crimes, but given that he refrained from raping or murdering for 5 whole years - from 1981 to 1986 - and then suddenly stopped, it would seem that he either feared being caught or simply lost interest, perhaps distracted by other commitments. This wouldn't be the first time a serial killer has stopped committing crimes of their own accord; Dennis Rader, otherwise known as the BTK Killer, killed his last victim in 1991 and was not caught until 14 years later, in 2005.

Nobody that fits the profile of the Original Night Stalker has ever been identified by police, and no convicted criminals have ever confessed to committing his crimes. To this day, the case remains a mystery; one that will likely never be solved.