Phantom Rapist

Murder Inc. Exclusive: Was Long Beach’s Phantom Rapist a Serial Killer?

AaronTimones is an anagram for I am not EARONS
During 1969 and 1970, the Phantom Rapist terrorized the Long Beach and Lakewood area by breaking into homes and assaulting women, sometimes even with their husband or parents present. The Phantom wore a hood or a ski-mask and usually entered the home between midnight and 6:00 am. He awakened victims by pressing a pillowcase over their heads, warning them not to scream and forcing them on their stomachs and then bound the victims with ligatures he had brought with him, venetian blind cords, clothesline or electrical cords. After binding the victims hands he rolled them over, gagged them with a cloth and covered their head with a pillowcase. The Phantom knew intimate details about his victims and bragged about stalking them for weeks. He attempted to use a rag soaked in ether in one attack and is also believed to have used a chemical to drug a victim’s dog. The rapist sometimes used Spanish and mid-western accents and claimed he lost his family during a violent revolution.

His first known attack was on New Years Day in 1969. The next attack was May 3 1969, when he attacked a 75 year old woman in downtown Long Beach. Two days later on May 5 1969, 69 year old Thelma Lewis was found stabbed to death in her home in neighboring Lakewood. Thelma’s murder was never linked to the Phantom, but he struck again the next night, May 6, attacking a 44 year old woman. On May 16 1969 the Phantom attacked a 16 year old girl and then a 60 year old woman on May 25. On June 6 1969, the Phantom attacked another woman, followed by the murder of Rose Parker on June 21. The Phantom was believed to be responsible for her murder, but never charged with the crime.

On August 30 1969 Kathleen Butts was found murdered in the bushes of a vacant lot in Long Beach. Her hands and feet were bound and there was a rope around her neck. It’s believed she disappeared while hitchhiking. On September 12 the Phantom struck, this time in Buena Park. On November 3, eighth grader Jan Marsh was found murdered on a dirt walkway in nearby Lynwood. That night on November 4, the Phantom attacked a couple in Long Beach while wearing a ski mask. He bound them and robbed them and then assaulted the woman.

The Phantom Rapist, next broke into a home on Christmas morning at 1:00 am. Wearing a ski mask and armed with a pistol he attacked a couple in their bedroom. He bound the victims with neckties and a terrycloth belt and stole cash. He then threatened to harm the woman’s husband and raped her. On February 9 1970, the Phantom again chose another couple in Long Beach. A 56 year old woman and her husband were awakened by a flashlight shining in their faces. In a low voice using a mid-western accent the Phantom warned them “keep quiet and you won’t get hurt.” He told the husband to “roll over on your stomach”, bound his hands behind his back with neckties and covered his head with a pillowcase. The phantom then ordered the woman to roll over but she fought back and was beaten and choked until she was unconscious. He bound her and assaulted her on the bed while her husband lay next to her. Afterwards the Phantom asked “where’s the money?” and left with the victims purse. On March 12 he attacked a 29 year old woman in Norwalk.

It had been over 14 months since the Phantom Rapist began his reign of terror. Then on March 20, 1970 came an arrest. Detectives were staking out 22 year old Albert “Corky” Savage Jr.’s residence in Lakewood for two weeks. While a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopter was trailing Savage in his truck, the chopper crashed to the ground at Del Amo Boulevard and Paramount Boulevard. Savage was arrested shortly after the crash and charged with possession of a weapon as a convicted felon. Detectives claimed they saw Savage place a .25 caliber handgun wrapped in a greasy red mechanic’s rag behind the seat of the trunk to his pickup truck. They also claimed to find a flashlight, gloves, sleeves from a black wool sweater and a sketch map.

But on May 21 1970, Albert Savage and three other men broke out of the LA County Jail. They sawed their way through the bars of a second story window and jumped 25 feet to escape. While still on the lam, Savage was charged with 19 counts of burglary and rape in connection with the Phantom Rapes.
On October 30, 1970 Vicki Lynn Miner disappeared while walking to school at Buena Park High. Two weeks later she was found bludgeoned to death in a vacant lot in Buena Park.

Meanwhile, in Hammond, Indiana, Albert Savage was arrested during a burglary at an automobile shop. He gave his name as Albert Johnson, and while being held in the Hammond Jail, Savage escaped again, this time by picking the lock to his cell. Detectives traced Savage to an auto-repair shop in Hammond. When they caught up with him, he fled on foot and was shot in the back, severing his spinal cord. As a result, Albert Savage was paralyzed from the waist down.

In May of 1971 the Phantom Rapist trial began as Savage was wheeled into court in a wheelchair. He was charged with seven counts of rape and eight counts of burglary. Savage pled not guilty and claimed he was innocent. Long Beach police criminalist Martin Klein testified that wool fibers found on two Phantom Rapist victims beds showed “no discernible difference” with fibers from a sweater belonging to the defendant. He also claimed that cotton fibers “were similar” to those from two work gloves removed from Savage’s truck at the time of his arrest.

As the trial continued, a bloody week of murder and mayhem befell the Phantom’s former arena. On August 11, 1971, Bellflower resident Margaret Makeig was found shot to death in the head on her living room floor. Three days after Margaret’s murder, on August 14, 1971, two sisters, Dorothy Truxa and Margaret Miller were found murdered in their car in a Downey shopping mall parking lot. They’d both been shot in the head with a small caliber weapon. Three more days later on August 17, 1971, Lakewood Village resident Velma Harris was found shot to death in her home by an intruder. She’d been shot in the back of her head on her bedroom floor. In her hands she clenched a bloody telephone cord and her bikini bottom was ripped off and lying nearby. She lived in the same area the Phantom Rapist attacked many victims and not far from where Rose Parker was purportedly killed by the Phantom in May 1969.

During the Phantom Rapist trial it came to light how Albert Savage had come to attention as a suspect for the crimes. Albert Savage was employed as a car-lot boy at a Long Beach auto dealership. When one of the Phantom Rapist’s victims had dropped off her car to be serviced, Albert Savage was assigned to chauffeur the woman. The woman thought she recognized Savage’s voice, clothing, build and body odor as that of the Phantom Rapist who had attacked her on May 6 1969. A second Phantom Rapist victim had her car serviced at the same dealership before her assault on May 3 1969. A third woman whose house was burglarized on May 15 1969 while she was not home, testified that the .25 caliber gun recovered from Savage’s truck had been stolen from her residence. During the trial, Savage testified that he bought the gun in the bar where his wife worked, but he didn’t know the man who sold it to him.

The prosecution also produced testimony from a Long Beach police crime lab technician who claimed that there “was a very high probability” glove prints left at the scene of a Phantom Rapist crime matched the gloves found in Savage’s truck. Albert Raymond Savage was found guilty of the Phantom Rapist crimes and sentenced to 10 years to life.


January 1 1969 Phantom Rapist Long Beach
January 1 1969 Long Beach Burglar

May 3 1969 Phantom Rapist Downtown Long Beach

May 5 1969 Thelma Lewis Murder Lakewood





May 6 1969 Phantom Rapist Long Beach Traffic Circle


May 15 1969 Long Beach Burglar
May 16 1969 Phantom Rapist Long Beach City College Area


May 25 1969 Phantom Rapist Hawaiian Gardens CA


June 6 1969 Phantom Rapist Long Beach
July 21 1969 Rose Parker Murder Long Beach












July 27 1969 Phantom Rapist Long Beach








July 31 1969 Long Beach Cat Burglar (Date N/A)

August 7 1969 “Not the” Phantom Rapist Long Beach

August 14 1969 Letter to the Editor

Aug 17 1969 Phantom Rapist Profile






August 30 1969 Kathleen Marie Butts Murder Long Beach









Kathleen Butts was found bound and strangled in the same area the Phantom Rapist was active

September 12 1969 Phantom Rapist Buena Park
October 12 1969 Long Beach Cat Burglar


November 3 1969 Jan Marsh Murder Lynwood






November 4 1969 Phantom Rapist Cal State Long Beach


December 25 1969 Phantom Rapist Long Beach

February 9 1970 Phantom Rapist Long Beach

March 12 1970 Phantom Rapist Norwalk

March 20 1970 Phantom Rapist Albert Savage Arrest Lakewood




Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department crashed a helicopter while tailing Albert Savage

March 23 1970 Albert Savage Long Beach

March 24 1970 Albert Savage Long Beach

May 21 1970 Albert Savage Escape Los Angeles County Jail




May 29 1970 Albert Savage 19 Charges Files


October 30 1970 Vicki Lynn Miner Murder Buena Park



Vicki Miner lived and was murdered in Buena Park where the Phantom Rapist attacked in September 1969

November 5 1970 Albert Savage Escapes/Shot Hammond, Indiana



November 8 1970 Albert Savage Paralyzed Hammond Indiana


February 4 1971 Long Beach Cat Burglar


May 13 1971 Long Beach Rapist

May 16 1971 Albert Savage No Bail Long Beach

May 17 1971 Albert Savage Trial Delay Long beach

May 27 1971 Albert Savage Court Long Beach

May 28 1971 Albert Savage Trial Los Angeles
June 28 1971 Albert Savage Pleads Innocent Long Beach

August 11 1971 Marguerite Makeig Murder Bellflower





August 14 1971 Dorothy Truxa & Margaret Miller Murder Downey






Dorothy Truxa and Margaret Miller were murdered in Downey where Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo’s mother, stepfather and brother lived

Dorothy Truxa lived in Downey when she was murdered

Margaret Miller lived in Paramount just south of Downey and Lynwood

August 17 1971 Velma Harris Murder Long Beach




Velma Harris was murdered in her home near suspected Phantom Rapist murder victim Rose Parker, but Albert Savage was in custody in 1971. Were Rose Parker & Velma Harris murdered by the same killer?

November 2 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

November 3 1971 Phantom Rapist Albert Savage Trial Jury Selection Long Beach

November 5 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

November 5 1971 Phantom Rapist Albert Savage Trial

November 9 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

November 19 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

November 18 1971 Albert Savage Trial Glove Prints Questionable Long Beach

November 19 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

November 26 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

November 29 1971 Albert Savage Trial Long Beach

December 1 1971 Albert Savage Testifies Long Beach

December 2 1971 Albert Savage Jury Deliberations Long Beach

December 7 1971 Albert Savage Convicted Long Beach

Dec 29 1971 Albert Savage Sentenced Long Beach

December 1971 Joe DeAngelo’s Mother, Step-Father & Brother Live in Downey

Black Christmass

Was Denise Spangler murdered by the Golden State Killer in Exeter on Christmas Eve in 2017?

Denise Spangler was found murdered in Exeter on Christmas Eve 2017. She’d been stabbed to death in her home located two blocks from Joseph DeAngelo’s former residence. CBK posted on the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker forum 10 days before her murder…
December 24 2017 Denise Spangler Murder Exeter

Denise Spangler was murdered in her home two blocks from Joe DeAngelo’s old apartment on Orange Ave in Exeter. Joe and his wife Sharon resided here while he was a police officer serial killer known as the Visalia Ransacker

Denise Spangler attended Mt. Whitney High School where Jennifer Armour & Beth Snelling attended when they were victims of Joseph DeAngelo


12-26-75 Map

Denise Spangler’s mother Marilyn Spangler worked at the Kaweah Manor Convalescent Hospital where Joe DeAngelo’s step-father died in 2000

Kaweah Manor Convalescent Hospital in Visalia

Marilyn Spangler was working at the hospital in 1981. Was she still working there in 2000 when DeAngelo’s step-father died there? Was Denise Spangler’s killing a revenge murder?

Marilyn Spangler lived on West La Vida Court in Visalia in the 1980s. This is the same street that murder victims Jennifer Armour & Nellie McCarty resided on when they were murdered

Keddie Cabin

Was “Jack from the Town of Quincy” Responsible for the Keddie Cabin Murders?

In October 1973, 14 year old Kathy Ann Howard disappeared from Quincy in Plumas County, California. Her body was found in Strawberry Valley. Kathy Howard was a student at Quincy Junior-Senior High School when she was murdered. East Area Rapist victim Victor Hayes claims he thinks he met Joe DeAngelo for the first time at Bucks Lake near Quincy and Keddie in the summer of 1974. Five years later at the height of the East Area Rapist scare, a suspicious man appeared at Riverside Convalescent Hospital in Sacramento on April 10 1978. He told a nurse his name was “Jack from the town of Quincy”. Four days after on April 14 1978, the EAR struck near the hospital and it was suspected “Jack” may have been the EAR. On April 21 1978, one week after the EAR attack, Lynette Mollath was murdered in her home in Piedmont, CA. She was from Keddie and like Kathy Ann Howard had attended Quincy Junior-Senior High School in 1972. Her brother Gary later owned Keddie Resort.
On April 11 1981 Sue Sharp, John Sharp and Dana Wingate were murdered in their cabin in Keddie. The crime scene resembled the work of the Original Night Stalker who had just murdered Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine two months earlier. The victims were found bound with tape and electrical cords and had been bludgeoned and stabbed to death. Sue’s daughter Tina was missing and her skeletal remains were later discovered at Camp Eighteen in 1984, not far from Strawberry Valley where Kathy Howard’s body had been found in 1973. She was identified after police received an anonymous phone call suggesting the remains found at Camp Eighteen were Tina Sharp’s…

October 7 1973 Kathy Ann Howard Missing Quincy CA

Kathy Howard disappeared from Quincy just south of Keddie

She was a student at Quincy Junior-High School

October 13 1973 Kathy Ann Howard Murder Strawberry Valley CA




Kathy Howard was found near Strawberry Valley 5 miles south of Camp Eighteen where Keddie Cabin murder victim Tina Sharp was found in 1984

October 14 1973 Bonnie Ann Neumann Murder Chico



July 8 1974 Quincy Burglar

July/August 1974 EAR Victim Victor Hayes thinks he met Joe DeAngelo at a PG&E camp at Bucks Lake in Plumas County. Bucks Lake is southwest of Keddie

November 1975 Bucks Lake Ransacker

April 3 1977 Quincy Burglar

October 31 1977 Quincy Dog Poisoner

February 21 1978 Ski Mask Stabber Quincy




April 10 1978 “Jack from the town of Quincy” Riverside Convalescent Hospital Sacramento



April 14 1978 East Area Rapist Sacramento



This attack was extremely close to Riverside Convalescent Hospital only 4 days after “Jack from the town of Quincy” was seen there

April 21 1978 Lynette Mollath Murder Piedmont CA






Lynette Mollath was from Keddie and graduated from Quincy High School in 1972

Lynette Mollath’s brother Gary later owned Keddie Resort…


Lyn Mollath was murdered in Piedmont 1 mile from the 1964 double murder of Mary & Carolyn Martin committed by the Hogtie Killer

April 28 1978 Zodiac Letter


Joseph DeAngelo 1981

February 5 1981 Original Night Stalker Manuela Witthuhn Murder Irvine *Joseph DeAngelo Convicted*


March 8 1981 Zodiac Letter Atlanta GA


March 10-20 1981 Buck’s Lake Burglar



April 11 1981 Dana Wingate, John Sharp & Glenna Sue Sharp Murder + Tina Sharp Missing Keddie CA










































































April 16 1981 Portola Dog Poisoner


This dog poisoning was only four days after the Keddie murders. Portola is 30 miles south east of Keddie

April 22 1984 Tina Sharp Skeleton Found Camp Eighteen, CA





Police recieved an anonymous phone call suggesting the bones found at Camp 18 belonged to Tina Sharp





August 30 1984 Paradise Rapist


The Keddie victims were bound with tape and electrical cords


The East Area Rapist used electrical cords to bind victims

At Keddie Cabin, two victims were found tied to each other


The East Area Rapist used this same method in 1975

One of the Keddie victims was covered with a blanket

The Original Night Stalker covered his murder victims with blankets



Keddie Ligatures


 

EAR Ligatures

Janet Stallcup

On December 19 1976 Janet Stallcup disappeared from Garden Grove, CA on her way to a party. She was later found raped and murdered in her car parked in the back of an apartment complex. Janet Stallcup worked at the UCI Medical Center in Orange, CA, like Original Night Stalker murder victim Patrice Harrington had and where her husband Keith Harrington was a student. Dorothy Jane Scott disappeared from the same medical center in 1980 before she was murdered. Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo’s mother and step-father lived in Garden Grove in 1973-1974 and his brother John resided in Garden Grove for many years

December 18 1976 East Area Rapist Fair Oaks



December 19 1976 Janet Stallcup Murder Garden Grove































Janet Stallcup lived in Garden Grove


Janet Stallcup worked as a nurse at UCI Medical Center like 1980 ONS victim Patrice Harrington. Dorothy Jane Scott was last seen at UCI Medical Center before her murder in 1980


Janet was a nursing student at Cypress College

Janet Stallcup’s body was found one mile from where Joseph DeAngelo’s mother lived in Garden Grove from 1973-1974


John DeAngelo (Joe DeAngelo’s brother) lived in Buena Park in 1974

November 21 1978 Patricia Neufeld Murder Garden Grove









September 7 1985 Nikki Ann Trollinger Murder Garden Grove



Nikki Trollinger’s mom lived 800 feet from where Diane Gurule was found murdered

September 25 1985 Diane Gurule Murder Garden Grove

Diane Gurule was last seen in Norwalk at Varsity Billiards

Diane Gurule and Nikki Trollinger were both murdered in September 1985. Diane’s body was found near Nikki Trollinger’s mother’s home in Garden Grove and not far from where Patricia Neufeld was murdered in 1978

April 24 1986 Garden Grove Jane Doe


December 30 1987 Garden Grove Rapist



July 4 1992 Garden Grove Cat Burglar


June 30 1994 John DeAngelo Burglary Arrest Los Angeles

Bad Lieutenant

Is the Long Island Serial Killer a Suffolk County Police Department Lieutenant?

In October 1994 current Suffolk County Police Lieutenant Michael Murphy was allegedly sexually assaulting sex workers at the Patchogue Motor Inn on his beat in the Fifth Precinct in Patchogue. SCPD Lt. Michael Murphy is also alleged to have impregnated an underage girl but still remains a Lieutenant with the Suffolk County Police Department. Both Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee were working in this area when they were murdered by a serial killer in 1993 and 1994. John Bittrolff was convicted of their murders but the DNA certification used to convict him was falsified. Was John Bittrolff framed to cover up the fact that the Long Island Serial Killer is a member of the Suffolk County Police Department?


November 2 1993 Rita Tangredi-Beinlich




Rita Tangredi’s daughter Amanda claims to have been friends with LISK victim Melissa Barthelemy

November 20 1993 Sandra Costillo Murder North Sea



Sandra Costillo lived in Queens

January 30 1994 Colleen McNamee Murder Shirley






Colleen was last seen getting into a blue car at the Blue Dawn Diner in Islandia


Colleen McNamee’s body was found in Shirley

Colleen McNamee was found in the same area Manorville John Doe was dumped by LISK in November 2000

Lt. Michael Murphy Suffolk County Police Department Serial Killer Suspect

In October 1994 Michael Murphy was accused of sexually assaulting sex workers at motel in Patchogue where Bittrolff’s victims worked.

Rita Tangredi and Colleen McNamee were working in Patchogue when they were murdered

Colleen McNamee lived at the Patchogue Inn in East Patchogue

The Suffolk County Police Department destroyed the evidence potentially linking SCPD Sgt. Michael Murphy to the homicides because of a “paperwork error”

Lt. Michael Murphy is alleged to have impregnated an underage girl

SUFFOLK POLICE SGT. WAS SUSPECT IN DOUBLE-MURDER, WITNESS SAYS

By Andrew Smith andrew.smith@newsday.com Updated June 21, 2017 8:09 PM

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Less than a year after two women were strangled and bludgeoned more than two decades ago, Suffolk police identified one of their own as a possible suspect, a former homicide detective testified Wednesday in Riverhead.

In 2014, Suffolk police arrested Manorville carpenter John Bittrolff and charged him with second-degree murder after his DNA was linked to the badly beaten and similarly posed bodies of Rita Tangredi, 31, and Colleen McNamee, 20.

Tangredi of East Patchogue was killed on Nov. 2, 1993, and the body of McNamee of Holbrook was found Jan. 30, 1994. Both women worked as prostitutes.

Back then, one of the many men police investigated was Sgt. Michael Murphy, retired Det. John McLeer testified in state Supreme Court.

Murphy was a uniformed sergeant in the Fifth Precinct in Patchogue, McLeer said during cross-examination by defense attorney William Keahon of Hauppauge.

Detectives then were aware that a sergeant in the precinct was forcing prostitutes to give him oral sex, McLeer said. One of them identified Murphy by name in October 1994 and said he had demanded “sex for nothing” seven or eight times next to the Patchogue Motor Inn over a two-year period, McLeer said.

Until Wednesday, jurors knew Murphy had been a suspect but hadn’t learned why. Prosecutors have refused to say why police investigated him and in 1998 secretly searched his police car for evidence in the killings.

Murphy, whose father was chief of detectives then, was ruled out as a suspect and has since been promoted to lieutenant. The police department Wednesday declined to discuss the case, or make Murphy available for comment. Previous efforts to reach Murphy have also been unsuccessful.

McLeer acknowledged to Keahon that detectives kept a “cast of characters” that swelled to more than 100 men, and that they collected DNA from 56 of them.

The case lay dormant from 2006 to 2012, McLeer said — a period in which evidence collected from both crime scenes, Murphy’s car and another police officer suspect was destroyed. Then came the DNA link to Bittrolff and his arrest.

“John Bittrolff didn’t give you a problem all day long [after the arrest], right?” Keahon asked.

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” McLeer said.

McLeer also said Bittrolff declined offers of food, saying he was too nervous and upset to eat.

At the end of that day, McLeer said Bittrolff asked him how they focused on him and got his DNA. McLeer said when Bittrolff’s brother got arrested on an unrelated charge, scientists determined his DNA was such a close match to the DNA found in both victims that it probably was left by a relative.

“I [expletive] knew it,” Bittrolff replied, according to McLeer.

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Keahon suggested that was in response to realizing his brother inadvertently led police to him.

Michael Murphy’s father Tom Murphy was chief of detectives for SCPD and Michael Murphy (serial killer suspect and alleged rapist) now holds the rank of Lieutenant in the Suffolk County Police Department


In 2010 Michael Murphy was a Lieutenant with the Suffolk County Police Department


Lt. Michael Murphy was stationed at the 1st Precinct in West Babylon


In May 2010 Shannan Gilbert disappeared while on the phone with 911 screaming that she was about to be murdered. She was later found dead in a marsh in Oak Beach. The Suffolk County Police Department has continually denied she was murdered and denied that her death is connected to the Long Island Serial Killer. Oak Beach resident Dr. Hackett called Shannan’s family after she disappeared and told them he “ran a home for wayward girls”. Hackett lied and claimed he’d never made the calls but records later showed otherwise


Dr. Peter Hackett

Dr. Hackett is a former Suffolk County Police Surgeon


Dr. Hackett’s neighbor Suffolk County Police Officer John Brunkard




Is Suffolk County Police Officer John Brunkard the missing link between Shannan Gilbert, SCPD & LISK? Since Shannan Gilbert’s murder, the District Attorney Thomas Spota and James Burke, the police chief in charge of the Long Island Serial Killer investigation, have been convicted of corruption. How can anyone be foolish enough to believe the Suffolk County Police Department or the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office have even an ounce of credibility? Why is new Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart and the Suffolk County Police Department still protecting serial killer suspect and alleged rapist Lt. Michael Murphy?

Anaheim Zodiac

Murder Inc. Exclusive: Did The Zodiac Murder Paula Watson & Dorothy Jane Scott in Anaheim in 1980?

Dorothy Jane Scott disappeared from the UCI Medical Center in Orange, CA on May 28, 1980. She appeared to have been kidnapped from the hospital in her car that was later found burning in a Santa Ana alley. Dorothy had been receiving threatening calls at her home and work prior to her disappearance. Six months after Dorothy disappeared actress Paula Ann Watson was found murdered in her car in a parking lot at Bingo Palace in Anaheim. Bingo Palace was located extremely close to Swinger’s Psych Shop, the store where Dorothy worked that was owned by her father. Dorothy’s parents received calls nearly every week for years after Dorothy disappeared until her body was found located in a shallow grave in Anaheim Hills in 1984 buried with the bones of a dog. Her parent’s received a call from her killer afterwards asking “is Dorothy home?”

August 11 1975 Beverly Stapp Murder Anaheim



Beverly Stapp was bludgeoned to death in her bed on Ball Road, the same street the 1978 Zodiac letter was mailed from two years later

May 2 1978 Zodiac Channel Nine Letter Anaheim



The Channel Nine Letter is strikingly similar to the East Area Rapist poem Excitement’s Crave mailed to the KVIE 6 TV Station six months earlier in December 1977

Both letters bring up making a movie about the killer. The East Area Rapist: “Sacramento should make an offer. To make a movie of my life that will pay for my planned exile.” The Zodiac: “Hey – – – you actors – this is your lucky break. Remember – whoever plays me has his work cut out for him.” The letters end almost identically as well. The East Area Rapist: “See you in the press and on TV.” The Zodiac: “See you in the news!” Neither letter was released at the time, indicating the same individual wrote both the Excitement’s Crave and the Channel Nine Letter

The 1978 Zodiac Channel Nine Letter was mailed a few blocks from Dorothy Jane Scott’s parent’s house in Anaheim

May 28 1980 Dorothy Jane Scott Missing Anaheim








Dorothy Jane Scott received threatening phone calls before her disappearance that were very similar to many of Joseph DeAngelo’s victims

EAR/ONS taunting phone call examples 

Dorothy’s family received taunting calls for years by a man with a soft-spoken voice who didn’t stay on the line long enough for the calls to be traced

Dorothy’s killer not only called her family but also called the editor of the Santa Ana Register newspaper


Dorothy Scott’s parents lived not far from where the 1978 Zodiac Channel 9 Letter was mailed in Anaheim

Dorothy Jane Scott disappeared from the UCI Medical Center where 1980 ONS victims Keith & Patrice Harrington met


Dorothy’s car was found burning in a Santa Ana after she disappeared

Zodiac victim Kathleen Johns’ automobile was found burned after her kidnapping in 1970


Dorothy Jane Scott worked at Swinger’s Psych Shop in Anaheim



December 6 1980 Paula Ann Watson Murder Anaheim





Paula Watson lived in Anaheim. Police believed she was transported to the Bingo Palace parking lot where she was found murdered in her car after she was killed

Paula Watson was found murdered in her car in the parking lot under 400 feet from Swinger’s Psych Shop where Dorothy Jane Scott worked

August 6 1984 Dorothy Jane Scott Murder Body Found Anaheim














Similar to the calls received by Dorothy’s mother, David Witthuhn received taunting calls for years after his wife Manuela Witthuhn was murder by Joseph DeAngelo




In 1974 Joseph DeAngelo’s brother John lived in Buena Park about three miles north of Dorothy Scott’s parent’s home in Anaheim

Judy Nesbitt

MURDER INC. EXCLUSIVE: Was Judy Nesbitt Murdered by the Original Night Stalker in 1980?

On November 26 1980, Judy Nesbitt was murdered on her boat at Marina Dunes in Newport Beach. She’d received a call at her home in Irvine that morning from someone who claimed he was interested in buying her boat. Judy was seen meeting the prospective buyer at the marina shortly before her murder. She was found bludgeoned and shot in the head aboard her boat, the Felicidad IV. Judy Nesbitt’s home in Irvine is only a mile and a half from the murder locations of both Manuela Witthuhn and Janelle Cruz. Five years after Judy’s murder, her husband’s home in Tustin was broken into by a burglar who stole a handgun and a television. As usual, no one has ever linked Judy’s murder to the Original Night Stalker, even though Manuela Witthuhn was murdered nearby in her Irvine home only two months later. Joseph DeAngelo later named his own boat Scary

November 26 1980 Judy Nesbitt Murder Newport Beach




































Judy Nesbitt was murdered at a marina in Newport Beach. Joseph DeAngelo was an avid boater and familiar with the area. 

Judy Nesbitt lived in Irvine, the same town where the Original Night Stalker murdered Manuela Witthuhn in 1981 and Janelle Cruz in 1986. Joseph DeAngelo had relatives in Irvine at the time

Judy Nesbitt lived in Irvine less than a mile a half from ONS victim Manuela Witthuhn who was killed only two months later but police have failed to link their murders

Joseph DeAngelo was living in Long Beach in 1980

Judy Nesbitt lived in Irvine near Bullwinkle’s where Janelle Cruz worked in 1986


January 24 1985 Fred Nesbitt Burglary Tustin

The Golden State Killer was active in Tustin throughout the 1970s and 1980s but no Tustin crimes have been linked to him by law enforcement at any point in the last 40 years, despite the fact that Tustin borders Irvine

Fellow Irvine resident and ONS murder victim Manuela Witthuhn’s husband David Witthuhn received taunting phone calls from Joseph DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, after his wife’s murder

Judy Nesbitt’s twin brother was a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy & FBI Agent

Judy Nesbitt grew up in North Hollywood in the 1940s



August 18 1959 Judy Nesbitt North Hollywood

Judy Nesbitt lived in North Hollywood with her husband Fred in 1959

April 24 2018 Joe DeAngelo’s Boat Scary

Corcoran

Murder Inc. Exclusive: Were Carol Bella and Her Son Bobby Murdered by the Original Night Stalker in 1982?
https://abc30.com/video/embed/?pid=1261891On November 17 1982 21 year old Carol Jane Bella and her three year old son Bobby were found murdered at their home in Corcoran, CA. The victims were found side by side on the bed and both had been stabbed to death. The only clue was a green car spotted near the house by a witness around the time of the murder. Corcoran is just south of Visalia and west of Porterville where Joe DeAngelo is known to have been working in 1981. In 1977, Carol Bella’s two sisters were the victim of a cat burglar in Tulare

November 17 1982 Carol Bella & Bobby Bella Murder Corcoran





















September 8 1977 Tulare Cat Burglar Robs Carol Bella’s Sisters


Carol Bella’s sister Linda lived in Tulare in 1977 but was living in Visalia when Carol was murdered in 1982

Forensics may shine light on 1982 double homicide in Corcoran

• By Joe Johnson
• Dec 28, 2012 Updated Dec 28, 2012

CORCORAN — New funding for DNA analysis may help the Corcoran Police Department catch the person responsible for the city’s only unsolved murder.

Carol Bella and her 3-year-old son were stabbed to death on Nov. 17, 1982. The crime shocked the community and has remained unsolved for 30 years.

Following on the anniversary of Bella’s death, the Kings County Board of Supervisors recently allocated $50,000 in state funds to Corcoran police and the county District Attorney’s Office.

Officials say the funds will help renew their search for the killer.

“We’re committed to solving this case. It’s our only unsolved homicide, and we’re not just going to let it lie,” Deputy police Chief Gary Cramer said. “The family deserves some closure.”

On the night of the murder, Robert and his 2-year-old sister, Jennifer, had been staying with their grandma. Bella came to pick them up, but found her daughter fast asleep. She left Jennifer there to sleep and took Robert back to her home.

Police said they believe Bella allowed the killer into her home, since there was no sign of forced entry. Investigators speculate that the suspect grew agitated and attacked her with a knife before turning on Robert.

Bella’s mother discovered their bodies the next morning, when she came by to drop Jennifer off.

“We reopened the case several years ago and have reinterviewed a number of people,” Cramer said. “But we’ve never arrested anyone.”

In 2006, investigators named then-57-year-old Marcos Vallejo as a person of interest in the case. Officials said he worked with Bella and dated her.

Bella’s older sister, Denice Holm, told The Sentinel at the time that Bella wanted to end her relationship with him, but Vallejo wouldn’t let her go.

“I know she was afraid of him,” she said in a 2006 interview.

Cramer confirmed on Thursday that Vallejo is still a suspect in the case.

Officials are optimistic that analyzing their old evidence for trace DNA could yield new information that wasn’t available 30 years ago.

“Technology is improving every day. We’re hopeful these advances will give us some answers,” Cramer said.

Unfortunately, forensic science does not come cheap. The Corcoran Police Department lacks the budget to pay for advanced evidence processing, which is why the District Attorney’s Office stepped in to help.

“They’ve been very helpful in getting us the money to push this case forward,” Cramer said. “We’ve already done several thousand dollars’ worth of DNA analysis in the past. But this $50,000 should allow us to finish our testing.”

The answers won’t come right away. Cramer estimates it could take anywhere from six months to a year before the analysis is completed. But if it provides some answers, he said, “it’ll be worth the wait.”

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Corcoran Police Department at 992-5151.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2425 or by email at jjohnson@HanfordSentinel.com.

A Quarter-Century After He Struck, a Small-Town Force Returns to a Killer’s Trail

Cmdr. Randall Leach of the Corcoran, Calif., police force outside the house where Carol Bella and her son were stabbed to death in 1982.Credit…Max Whittaker for The New York Times

By Jesse McKinley

• Nov. 28, 2006

CORCORAN, Calif. — Cmdr. Randall Leach has been in law enforcement in and around this usually peaceful rural town for 30 years, following a family tradition. His grandfather was a county sheriff, his father was a district attorney, and his son is about to enter the police academy. Even his sister-in-law, Elizabeth George, has at least a passing tie, as the author of successful detective novels.

And like a character in one of Ms. George’s tales of crime, Commander Leach says he is determined to close one more case before he retires in January: the only unsolved murder in Corcoran, and one that he thinks he has cracked.

On Nov. 17, 1982, someone savagely killed Carol Bella, 21, and her 3-year-old son, Bobby, stabbing them more than a dozen times each. Another child, Jennifer, then 2, was spared by chance: her mother had left her at her grandmother’s house, sound asleep.

The case drew little notice for nearly a quarter-century. Then in early November, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responding to an appeal from the Corcoran police chief, announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, the largest sum the California penal code allows in a case not involving the death of a police officer or a firefighter.

Mr. Schwarzenegger said in a statement that the reward was meant to help the Corcoran police solve a case that had “exhausted all investigative leads.” But Commander Leach says he believes he knows exactly who committed the crime: a spurned suitor of Carol Bella who still lives in the next county over.

“I knew from the very first time I looked at the case,” said Commander Leach, who reopened the inquiry in 2004 and who, he says, quickly eliminated other potential suspects after looking at the original case file.

His opinion is shared by Reuben B. Shortnacy, who decided after becoming police chief several years ago that he would reopen any cold murder cases. “We believe we know who did it,” Chief Shortnacy said.

But both men, who are guarded about exactly what they know, and how, admit that they lack the evidence or probable cause to take the suspect into custody. No murder weapon was ever found, and Chief Shortnacy said, “If we had scientific evidence, we would have made an arrest.”

Given all that, the police have never publicly disclosed the man’s name. A reporter did obtain it and confirmed it with the Corcoran police, but several calls to a residence listed in that name in the city where the man lives were not answered.

The police say the man apparently met Ms. Bella on the job when they both worked in insulation. Investigators spoke to him soon after the killings but believed his account that he had been at a movie in another town at the time.

Commander Leach says the man has only a limited criminal record, mainly minor offenses involving alcohol. But the findings of the reopened investigation, which has involved more than 60 interviews with neighbors, co-workers and other potential witnesses, suggest that he was in Corcoran, not elsewhere, when Ms. Bella and her son were killed, the police say.

Carol Bella in 1979, in her high school senior photo.

One of her best friends, Lori Kendrick, says Ms. Bella briefly dated the man, was afraid of him and began seeing someone new. The day of the killings, Ms. Kendrick says, she spoke by phone to Ms. Bella, who told her the man was coming to the Bella home.

“She wanted me to come over that night,” Ms. Kendrick said. “She said how frightened she was, and wanted me to come over when this man came, and I didn’t. I had other plans, and I’ve regretted it to this day.”

Corcoran, about 240 miles southeast of San Francisco, measures only four square miles or so and has a police force of just 21 officers and a population of 11,000 (not counting the thousands of inmates at the two state prisons in town). The community is remarkably free of violent crime: before a family squabble led to a killing in early 2005, Chief Shortnacy says, there had not been a murder here in seven years.

Residents welcome the new reward, though some of Ms. Bella’s relatives, who say they have known the suspect’s identity for years, refuse to get their hopes up after so much time. “He’s not going to come forward and say he did it,” said Linda Miller, Ms. Bella’s sister, who lives in nearby Visalia. “Why should he? He’s got away with it for 24 years.”

The surviving daughter, Jennifer Bella, now 26, is engaged and has two children herself. She lives in the same city as the suspect.

“I don’t ask about him, and I don’t care to know where he is,” she said. “He’s not in jail, he’s not where I want him to be, so it doesn’t really matter.”

Commander Leach’s case file is four times as thick as the original. Faded Instamatic photographs of the crime scene show the clothed bodies of Carol Bella and her son, laid out across a bed, eyes still open. Blood has spattered the walls and sheets.

Last year, Commander Leach says, he confronted the suspect — now in his 50s — near his place of business.

“It was cordial, a very brief encounter,” the investigator recalled. “He said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you right now.’ ” The man said he would arrange to speak to the police at a later date, but did not make an appointment.

And with only a circumstantial case, that was all Commander Leach could do.

“I can’t arrest him without probable cause,” he said. “He has a constitutional right to remain silent. And I believe in that.”

And so Commander Leach waits, hoping for “some trusted close confidant” of the suspect to come forward with information that will give the police enough to make an arrest. “Fifty thousand dollars can change a person’s life,” he said of the reward. “That’s a down payment on a house, a new car, a new life.”

But time is running out, at least for Commander Leach. His retirement is planned for Jan. 31, two days after his son enters the police academy. After that, he will take classes in creative writing, he said, and maybe write detective novels, like his sister-in-law.

The Bella murder, meanwhile, will fall to another small-town officer to solve.

“I have every bit of confidence in the people I work with; they’ll continue on with it,” Commander Leach said. “But it would be nice to finish it before I go.”

Kathleen Neff

Was Kathleen Neff Murdered by the Original Night Stalker in Sacramento in 1980?

On October 16 1980 Kathleen Emilia Neff disappeared after dropping her car off at a Mazda dealership in Sacramento. Her body was found in a drainage ditch on Elliott Ranch Road in the south area of Sacramento on November 8 1980 by pheasant hunters. On August 19 1980 the Golden State Killer Cop, Joseph DeAngelo, murdered the Harringtons in Dana Point. Police haven’t been able to link another murder to DeAngelo until February 1981 when Manuela Whitthuhn was murdered in Irvine. When DeAngelo was identified as the East Area Rapist, Kathy Neff’s boyfriend suspected DeAngelo may be responsible for Neff’s murder. But Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department officials stated the circumstances of Neff’s murder lead them to believe it is not connected to the East Area Rapist crimes. That’s the same serial killer Joseph DeAngelo, who the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department claimed was not the Visalia Ransacker, not the Original Night Stalker, not the Early Morning Rapist/Early Bird Rapist. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department is terrible when it comes to linking crimes committed by the Golden State Killer because the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department suffers from a debilitating disease endemic to law enforcement known as LINKAGE BLINDNESS

October 16 1980 Kathleen Neff Missing Sacramento




Kathleen Neff lived and disappeared not far from an East Area Rapist attack


November 8 1980 Kathleen Neff Murder Body Found Sacramento







Kathy Neff was found by pheasant hunters in the south area of Sacramento

Joe DeAngelo’s wife, Sharon Huddle’s victim impact statement claims DeAngelo told her he was pheasant hunting to cover his absences

November 25 1980 California State University, Sacramento Rapist

Joseph DeAngelo attended California State University, Sacramento in 1971

May 18 2018 Sacramento Bee







Kathleen Neff’s murder is one of only 14 unsolved murders listed on the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department cold case website. There’s information on dozens if not hundreds of more unsolved Sacramento County homicides featured on Murder Inc. than there is on the official website of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department

 

Visalia Night Stalker

Murder Inc. Exclusive: Was Retired Visalia Police Officer Floyd Depew Murdered by the Original Night Stalker in 1985?

On October 11 1985 21 year old Claudia Bush was bludgeoned to death in her Visalia home. She lived halfway between Visalia and Exeter. Police never linked her murder to the Original Night Stalker. About a month later former Visalia Police Officer Floyd Depew was shot in his rural home in Ivanhoe on November 4 1985. Before he died, Depew described struggling with an intruder and being shot with his own gun. His home was four miles straight north of Claudia Bush’s. Law enforcement has not linked these crimes or a single sexual assault to Joseph DeAngelo in Tulare County and they’ve covered up his involvement in the murders of Jennifer Armour and Donna Richmond (which were committed while he was an Exeter Police Officer). Three years after Claudia Bush and Floyd Depew’s murders, Nellie McCarty was strangled in her home in Visalia. She lived a few doors down from Jennifer Armour’s house…
Based on the 12-26-75 Map

April 16 1980 Tulare Rapist

April 20 1980 Exeter Rapist


This Exeter kidnap rape victim was thrown into the Friant-Kern canal just like Jennifer Armour near the same location as Jennifer Armour

November 23 1980 Tulare Ransacker


February 19 1981 Lindsay Rapist

Lindsay is just south of Exeter

February 27 1981 Exeter Obscene Caller

April 16 1981 Joseph DeAngelo Mechanic’s Lien Porterville

Joe DeAngelo was working on a home in Porterville in 1981. Porterville is in Tulare County south of Lindsay

September 15 1981 Visalia Cat Burglar


November 6 1981 Tulare Rapists


November 21 1981 Visalia Kidnap Rapists

October 26 1982 Visalia Rapist

November 4 1982 Exeter Rapist

August 7 1984 Visalia Rapist

April 6 1985 Visalia Kidnapper



Dr. Richard Jopling lived on West Dartmouth Ave in Visalia during the 1970s when the Visalia Ransacker was active in the area


April 6 1985 Exeter Arsonist


April 25 1985 Visalia Police Impersonator

May 25 1985 Tulare Rapist

September 2 1985 Visalia Rapist

October 11 1985 Claudia Hope Bush Murder Visalia


From the 12-26-75 Map

October 19 1985 Visalia Ransacker 222Urit’s House/Visalia Rapist

222Urit lived behind two homes struck by the Ransacker on November 2 1975


If this Visalia attack occurred on October 19 it was only 8 days after the murder of Claudia Bush

November 4 1985 Floyd Depew Murder Visalia









Floyd Depew retired from the Visalia Police Department in 1974 while Joseph DeAngelo was an Exeter Police Officer and the Visalia Ransacker was active


Floyd Depew and Claudia Bush were both killed during home invasions in their rural houses in under a month and less than 5 miles apart

November 6 1985 Tulare Burglar

These burglaries were near reports of the 1973 Tulare Prowler


November 17 1985 Tulare Burglar


March 25 1986 Tulare Cat Burglar


April 21 1986 Tulare Rapist

June 25 1986 Visalia Rapist



November 4 1986 Tulare Hot Prowler


April 26 1987 Exeter Rapist

May 31 1987 Visalia Burglar

July 9 1987 Christine Rodriguez Gonzales Murder Lindsay





August 19 1987 Murder Victim Lindsay


October 18 1987 Visalia Rapist


December 10 1987 Visalia Burglar


July 10 1988 Visalia Cat Burglar


August 1 1988 Nellie McCarty Murder Visalia





Nellie McCarty was murdered in her home only 700 feet from Jennifer Armour’s residence. The murders were never linked

August 2 1988 Visalia Burglar


There was a series of burglaries in the days surrounding Nellie McCarty’s murder including one burglary the next day only two blocks from the crime scene

July 29 1989 Nancy Hernandez Murder Visalia