"Sudden Terror" - a new book about the Original Night Stalker

[MegtheEgg86]

Originally Posted by Charlie99909

It's terrible to see these women get stuck in a fear cycle where they are too afraid to say anything or even women rationiszing that they on some level deserve it. It's sickening.

I think this is a great deal of it and something that's generally very difficult for many people to wrap their minds around. The self-esteem of every woman that endures this kind of abuse is nil. For some, the very concept of self is nil. It's diseased thinking. It takes a literal rewiring of the brain--breaking thought patterns, and in turn, breaking behavior patterns.

I'm angry and sad this is happening to someone you know. It should never, ever happen to anyone, ever.

Originally Posted by Zlatko

OT but I think it's important to avoid any sort of victim blame. For outsiders, it's easy for anyone to say, "Oh, why doesn't she just call the authorities?" However, people in abusive relationships are often simply too frightened to go to the authorities. The abuser may have beaten them down, emotionally and physically, to the point that they feel helpless. The abuser may even threaten the victim's loved ones. (mother, father, etc.) I tend to think that the abusive lover feels the need for power over their victim.

Agreed. It's not a matter of hearing "I Will Survive" on the radio, having some sort of Hollywood-esque epiphany, and turning your car in the direction of the police station. It takes an enormous amount of psychological re-tooling and effort.

[MegtheEgg86]

Also, this is the legitimately scariest thread I have seen on the board in a long time. I couldn't even read through it at night over the weekend.

[Charlie99909]

Originally Posted by MegtheEgg86

I think this is a great deal of it and something that's generally very difficult for many people to wrap their minds around. The self-esteem of every woman that endures this kind of abuse is nil. For some, the very concept of self is nil. It's diseased thinking. It takes a literal rewiring of the brain--breaking thought patterns, and in turn, breaking behavior patterns.

I'm angry and sad this is happening to someone you know. It should never, ever happen to anyone, ever.



Agreed. It's not a matter of hearing "I Will Survive" on the radio, having some sort of Hollywood-esque epiphany, and turning your car in the direction of the police station. It takes an enormous amount of psychological re-tooling and effort.

It's very tough when you care for her on a higher emotional level. It's a shame, really.

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by Charlie99909

It's very tough when you care for her on a higher emotional level. It's a shame, really.

I feel your pain. My advice is don't give up, keep showing her she can do better, maybe someday she will find the strength to get out of that situation.

[WishfulDreamer]

Here I am, thousands of miles from the California where I used to live, and I will probably not sleep well tonight because I studied up more on this case. I found some interesting articles on the A&E forums and new theories. One of the murder victims in Southern California, Janelle Cruz, was just 18 years old and her family happened to be out of town just then. A male friend had been at her apartment before the murder and thought that he heard scratching noises, which Janelle dismissed as the washing machine being noisy. Unfortunately, that was more than likely the ONS himself, having watched her. Later, it was allegedly reported that a man had been seen looking at Janelle in a disturbing manner before her murder in a "sexually predatory" manner and had offered to let her look at some kittens to potentially adopt. There's a theory that this man was EARS/ONS himself. It seems he was definitely stalking her prior to the murder, as fit his MO, regardless of whether he was the "kitten man" or not. The posters here debate over it, but it's an interesting discussion. http://community.aetv.com/service/di...78284&d=562865

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Ok I have some theories that I want to throw out there after reading about these cases for a while. First off let me say these are just theories because I have an air force background. I have no other knowledge of the EAR/ONS other than what I've read online. I have not read that book.


I believe this person was in the US Air Force or the armed forces. The fact that he uttered being kicked out of the AF at one point(referenced in the book) was very eerie for me because his traits and the circumstances of the events seem to fit like a glove. This individual may have been in the US Air Force Reserve which would explain his ability to stay in the State of California over a long period of time. I think he was likely from Southern California or lived there permanently.

If you start at Travis AFB, the location he would have likely been stationed permanently or temporarily, it would explain the proximity to the Northern California cities where the EAR were committed. In fact if you connect the dots on a map they sort of make a circle.

Airmen are trained on paying attention to detail and being thorough. This person also seems to be very intelligent(another trait of most airmen enlisted or officer...although he is very sick and mentally unstable). it would explain a lot of the unstable behavior...yet ability to think things through and remain in control in most cases. The fact is that this person knew things that enabled him to remain free. He committed crimes in different jurisdictions. He seemed to follow or somehow know his victims on worked on their fears to keep them quiet or distract them from identifying him. I don't know the facts, but it almost seems as if he may have known the victims(more than just a peeping tom) and chose them before he committed the rapes. On the "Dark Minds" series the rape victim states that he told her that he saw her in her military uniform. Her husband was also working on a military base. What base? Travis? Travis AFB historically employs thousands of active duty, reservists, and civilians. Reservists can live far away from the base because they work part time. Active would tend to live on or near the base because they work full time. Either way he could have perhaps worked with some of these victims?

Being in the Air Force would have provided this person the shield that he needed to remain free of being a suspect. It also explains to me how thorough he was and how he was able to go from place to place without being recognized or known. Out of uniform most airmen fit the "middle to upper class profile" to a T. They ride bikes, they walk dogs, they go to the park, etc, etc, and they are very intelligent. They do all of the things that everyone else does. If he was a reservist that lived in Southern California he would have never been suspected by anyone of these crimes. In fact outside of being apprehended in the process of a crime, it would have been darn near impossible to be caught...which is what happened.

This just makes sense to me because he started in Northern California with rapes(close to the base and far from home). He progressed over the years to couples, then murders in Southern California as he got more comfortable(perhaps closer to where he lived permanently). He fit the air force physique to a T(swimmer's build).

There is also a cowerdly trait to this person. It's as if his crimes were him acting out in fantasy. Perhaps he did come from an abusive home. A lot of people focused on his mom being abusive, but what if his dad treated his mom like that in front of him for years? It may have been something that he fantasized about and could not do on his own in his personal life. Perhaps it all started with one victim and it just progressed from there.

The air force would have provided the cover. As he got older I believe that he got married and had kids which would explain the long break between 1981 and 1986 and then stopping from that point on. He may have simply realized that he was close to being caught and stopped. This person clearly was terrified of being caught and that fear propelled him to be so thorough with his actions. That fear could have led him to the realization that he had to stop as well. Interestingly the last victim was apparantly raped by someone that was in the military? I don't know if that is true or not....

From there I'm wondering if this person had law enforcment training in the air force due to the way he apprehended his victims.


Sorry for the long winded comments, but I feel like this is very possible.

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Originally Posted by kadrmas15

Despite the common believe that serial killers and thus according to many people sociopaths cannot adjust to situations that deal with authority, this is not true. Dennis Rader did it in the Air Force during his time there from 1966 to 1970 and was discharged honorably. David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1974 and also was honorably discharged. Jeffrey Dahmer served in the U.S. Army as well from 1978 to 1981. Dahmer was given only a general discharge as he was discharged largely due to his alcoholism. William Bonin 'the Freeway Killer' served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965 to 1968, serving in Vietnam as a tail gunner and winning decorations and was honorably discharged. Roy Norris who along with Lawrence Wittaker also terrorized southern California in the late 1970's, Norris served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1969 and was honorably discharged. Charles Cullen the so called 'killer nurse' in New Jersey and Pennsylvania served in the U.S. Navy from 1978 to 1984 and was honorably discharged. Leonard Lake of the sick duo of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, Lake served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1965 to 1971 including two tours of duty in Vietnam. Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer served in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1971. Arthur Shawcross served in the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1969 and was honorably discharged. Michael Swango served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1972 to 1980. Robert Yates served in the U.S. Army from 1976 to 1995.

that is a great post. The military provides the stability that so many people long for. These serial killers do not represent 99.9 percent of the military who are all great people. Unfortunatley there is a disconnect with the military and american society. Military members are simply a reflection of american society. they come from all different backgrounds, education levels, socio-economic, religion, etc. I think many people from all backgrounds tend to flock to the military because they desire to make something of their lives, but their issues from the past or their desires to do something out of the ordinary never go away. Out of the ordinary in most cases is good, but for the small crazies like these guys above out of the ordinary was really bad. Also many troops that see fierce combat(that aren't cut out for it) struggle to deal with it when they move on in their lives. This was especially difficult for the Vietnam Vet that probably dealt with the worst combat trauma and never received the recognition that they deserved. Many of the vietnam vets simply moved on with their lives and became great citizens and bottled up their emotions. But a few of them continued to kill people (like possibly the New England Serial Killer)and it gave everyone a bad rap.

Today's military is very different than the old days. If EAR/ONS was in the military like I think he was...there would be no way he could get away with that type of crime now. They do DNA extractions on all members today. This was not something that would have been done back then. Also today's military(especially air force) does a lot more screening on anyone who serves. Sadly most american youth do not qualify for the Air Force/and other branches out of high school because they are so strict on the type of applicant that they want.

[WishfulDreamer]

I just finished watching E's version of this case and am about to watch Investigation Discovery's version. The E special had so much more information that I wasn't aware of before.

I have to say that the police work in this case is fantastic, and I'm not being sarcastic. They really put out so many efforts trying to nail this guy, including nighttime stakeouts and phone-tapping and he STILL has managed to evade detection. It bothers me so much that he hasn't been caught and we can only hope he really has not attacked since 1986. I think something happened to him and that if he's not incarcerated, he's dead or unable to commit crimes of this caliber any longer. I just don't believe someone who committed so many assaults then whose rage escalated to extremely brutal bludgeoning murders would stop unless he was forced to. The E special noted that his bludgeoning murders were so violent that the victims literally could not be recognized. I wonder if something happened in EAR's personal life that made him shift from being sadistic and slowly staying in homes but not killing to actually beating and killing his victims in a rage? I have to wonder what would cause that change. We also have to take into account the double homicide by gunfire he did up in Northern California, which doesn't fit the MO of any of his other crimes.

[Truth Sleuth]

Just have to say that the death of the more well-known Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, has me wondering if the ONS is still alive out there somewhere or if he too is dead. Will we ever know?

[DALLASTEXAN!!]

Originally Posted by WishfulDreamer

I just finished watching E's version of this case and am about to watch Investigation Discovery's version. The E special had so much more information that I wasn't aware of before.

I have to say that the police work in this case is fantastic, and I'm not being sarcastic. They really put out so many efforts trying to nail this guy, including nighttime stakeouts and phone-tapping and he STILL has managed to evade detection. It bothers me so much that he hasn't been caught and we can only hope he really has not attacked since 1986. I think something happened to him and that if he's not incarcerated, he's dead or unable to commit crimes of this caliber any longer. I just don't believe someone who committed so many assaults then whose rage escalated to extremely brutal bludgeoning murders would stop unless he was forced to. The E special noted that his bludgeoning murders were so violent that the victims literally could not be recognized. I wonder if something happened in EAR's personal life that made him shift from being sadistic and slowly staying in homes but not killing to actually beating and killing his victims in a rage? I have to wonder what would cause that change. We also have to take into account the double homicide by gunfire he did up in Northern California, which doesn't fit the MO of any of his other crimes.

I just watched the e special as well. I had no idea that he killed an Air Force cop and his significant other.

[WishfulDreamer]

Bump!

It's a very unsettling thought that EAR/ONS could still be out there. If he continued offending after his last known murder, he may have changed him MO, particularly due to the advance in DNA technology.

I personally feel (and hope!) that something happened to him and he became unable to keep offending. I believe he is either dead or incarcerated (since DNA being extracted from felons in California is not compulsory). I hope one day there will be answers revealing his identity, mainly for the sake of his 50+ rape victims and the families and friends of the people he murdered.

I amend my earlier view that he was unlikely to be married/ a family man. As we all know, Dennis Rader (BTK) and Gary Ridgeway (The Green River Killer) were both married and able to kill many times without their spouses realizing what they were doing.

[jjmcgr]

[QUOTE= her. Later, it was allegedly reported that a man had been seen looking at Janelle in a disturbing manner before her murder in a "sexually predatory" manner and had offered to let her look at some kittens to potentially adopt. There's a theory that this man was EARS/ONS himself. [/QUOTE]

I have had more than a few spooky nights reading up on this case too late at night. Every noise outside alerts you.

But there is a lot of flotsam in it. For example, the poster who related the "kitten man" story (which he originally posted on the anniversary of the murder) proved to be as a minimum unreliable. He claimed the police had never interviewed him but the lead police investigator did in fact interview him two days after the murder (I talked to him on the phone and he quoted from the transcript of the interview) and the kitten man was not mentioned.

Do people remember better after two days or 20 years? {The guy later also said his father was a murderer who was never caught!]

Things such as this are why message boards will never replace good police work.
In this case the killer has managed to ensure that his DNA has not been tagged with his name on it. This pretty much precludes more recent rapes (and probably murders as well as he could not guarantee he wouldn't somehow leave DNA at a murder) after 1986. I think the killer, at least in his mature form, tried hard to ensure his crimes were not linked because they gave a trail of places he had lived or worked. That's why I think the two Irvine murders were singles not couples. Even though they were only several blocks apart (although several years apart in time), the crimes were not linked until done so by DNA. That area had had a bunch of murders called the "Bedroom Basher" crimes right before (one guy was imprisoned wrongly for one of those crimes-- I think that was on UM). The real basher wasn't caught until the 90s (he was a convict and formerly a Marine stationed at Tustin).

However, the unsolved case resulted in a law in California (after a convict who wasn't a good suspect in the case but was from Irvine had refused) that directs the taking of DNA from all convicts. The targetted convict who would have been 15 years old during the earlierst crimes, did not match.
But since that law was enacted, numerous unsolveds have been solved, including several from UM. The most famous one was the case where a couple were murdered in northern VA and then later a woman (think her name was Veronica Jefferson) kidnapped from a popular supermarket (a cop saw her in her car at a light with the kidnapper) at Bailey's Crossroads in VA. The DNA matched for the two crimes but a few years ago it also was matched with a murderer in prison in CA. The killer was never a suspect.

[jjmcgr]

Originally Posted by DALLASTEXAN!!

I just watched the e special as well. I had no idea that he killed an Air Force cop and his significant other.

the Air Force murders happened near the rapes but there has never been a proven connection. the two victims were chased through several back yards so the killer really wanted to kill them.

A ton of documents about this case can be found online, although not updated for several years. Google "Bedroom Killer"

[jjmcgr]

I would only conject that the EAR was in the military because the earliest crimes were committed right outside the gate of Mather AFB near Sacramento. Otherwise I'd think a person such as the EAR would probably not survive very long in the military in most cases and did not otherwise display any particular military knowledge.

There was a drug ring on Mather at the time, eventually resulting in a bunch of arrests. it was in the MP unit on the post, the same unit in which the airman who was murdered with his wife on a Rancho Cordova street belonged. Whether these murders and the EAR crimes were linked to the ring has never been proven. One would presume that would have been a lead the police would have pursued.

[jjmcgr]

several new books on this case have recently been released:

Hunting a Psycopath by Richard Shelby, one of the EAr investigators,
and
Hot Prowl by Jack Gray

both have e-books