William Gage Johnston

MURDER INC EXCLUSIVE:

July 17 1979 William Gage Johnston Murder Citrus Heights

At 6:30 pm on July 17 1979 firemen from the Citrus Heights Fire Department discovered the badly burned body of 51 yr old William Gage Johnston in the top floor bedroom of his home at 6309 Casa Alegre Drive in the Casitas Manzanita Townhomes in Carmichael. Neighbors called when they saw smoke coming from the roof of the home. The place was filled with smoke and the firemen had trouble locating the source of the fire. Johnson had been shot to death and the home was ransacked with dresser drawers emptied and strewn about. He was wearing white tennis shorts and one shoe. Johnston was a divorced furniture salesman. Detectives believed he’d been killed between 5 and 6 pm. A young white man was seen leaving in a silver or gray Corvette.

The car is interesting because was one victim from ’73 or ’74 was held captive by EAR in a green Corvette. Was EAR an arsonist? Wooden matches show up repeatedly from the pre-EAR Cordova Meadows Flasher through to the ONS murders. Was fire part of the GSK’s fantasy?

Casita Manazita Townhomes in Carmichael, CA
5039 Casa Alegre Next Door

Nearby on Via Casitas

Matches at the Witthuhn Murder Scene

In the 1980 Harrington murder one burned wooden matchstick was found and in the ’81 Domingo/Sanchez Murder more matches were found: “Partially burned matches found in the fireplace were similar to those found at the Witthuhn crime scene”.

Cordova Meadows Burglar & Matches

.”May 28 1978 Rancho Cordova Arson

January 7 1979 Carmichael Arson

February 10 1979 Arson Citrus Heights

1984 murder victim Diana Dalton disappeared near the location of this arson

April 28 1979 Carmichael Arson

May 15 1979 Citrus Heights Arson

May 16 1979 Arden-Arcade Arson

June 9 1979 El Camino High Arson

July 1979 Carmichael 22 Churches Burglarized

Kingdom Hall Jehova’s Witnesses (De-Angelo’s sister was Jehova’s Witnesses)

August 16 1979 Davis Arson

Corvette

Green Corvette Attack

“Apologies for posting 2x, (once in another folder)- Mods, delete it if you don’t like it. I keep reading posts in this thread by people who haven’t heard Shelby’s rambling podcast. So here it is again:

In 2015, Michelle McNamara was contacted by a victim who was abducted and raped in May of 1973. That’s 3 years and 3 months before the 1976 summer home-invasion ear attacks in Sacramento. By the time there were 3 attacks in Sacramento, this May, 1973 attack was over 3 years old. The M.O. was entirely different. There are no known attacks that link these two.

This victim (Let’s give her the pseudonym Amy Bell) moved away after this attack. Since the ear crimes weren’t reported outside of Sac., Amy never heard about them. None of the officers who took this report appear to have been assigned to ear case. So there was no connection made.

Decades passed and Amy B. heard about the ear/ons case from Michelle M’s recent articles. Amy contacted Michelle around 2014/2015 with the suspicion that her attacker may’ve been ear. Michelle tried to locate the old police report, but couldn’t. Michelle contacted Shelby regarding Amy B. Shelby began following this lead. Shelby believes the police report was thrown out around a year earlier (roughly 2014).

In 1973, Amy B was a student nurse whose car wouldn’t start after her shift. She headed home on foot, down Engle, then onto Watt Avenue. On Watt, a guy in a green Corvette pulled over and offered her a ride. He claimed to know a neighbor of hers or something (he’d been stalking already). He took her to a remote area outside of Sac. He masturbated while in the car in addition to the assault.. After 6 hours, he released her in an unfamiliar area in the city. Amy B. had to figure out where she was and how to get home in the middle of the night. She reported the attack. The officers told her they found an owner of a green Corvette who lived nearby. Meanwhile, the owner got his new green Corvette painted black. The Corvette owner’s friend owned the auto-body paint shop, and gave him an alibi. There was likely no DNA collection at this point (I can’t verify that but…) and the suspect had an alibi. It wasn’t a prosecutable case- especially in 1973. The victim left the area.

Shelby believed this was a proto-ear attack. The victim was able to tell them (Michelle and or Shelby) exactly where the Corvette owner’s house was. Shelby found the corvette owner and the auto-paint shop owner. The auto-paint shop owner was originally talkative and remembered Corvette owners in the area, then he told Shelby he couldn’t remember stuff. Shelby says he’s “a lying’ sack o’ *.” In following up other Corvette owners et al., he came across the airplane in the garage, the Nazi, the guy with a loaded gun on the coffee table (no DNA collected there) and all kinds of crap neighbors.

Shelby didn’t make it clear on the podcast that the Corvette owner is his POI. In his interview with Pathfinder, it sounds more like he was looking at the possibility that the Corvette was driven possibly by someone else. Hence following up on plane owners, gun owners, and Nazis etc. But I believe the primary POI here is actually the Corvette owner. Ear/ons could also be the Corvette owner’s son, brother, paint shop buddy, or twin.

Shelby found another way to get this DNA submitted, so now it’s somewhere in the slooooow train.

During this interview, Pathfinder asked Shelby (abut ear/ons) “Do you think he’s still alive?” Shelby said (my paraphrasing) “I’m sure he was alive in 2013; I don’t know if he is now.”
How does Shelby know ear was alive in 2013? Who did ear/ons call in 2013?

Hope this helps.

“May 1973 Amy Bell
This assault was a vehicle abduction, not typical of known EAR attacks, and not linked to EAR/ONS until it was brought to the attention of reporter Michelle McNamara in 2015. It is believed to be a proto-EAR assault.In the weeks prior to her assault, Amy Bell’s apartment was broken into. A toddler sized doll had been moved. Clothing was moved; the burglar had masturbated on clothing, and stolen small items.Around Mothers Day, Amy Bell, a student-nurse at American River Hospital, whose Mustang had broken down that morning, walked home from work. After she turned off Engle onto Watt Avenue, a guy in a green Corvette pulled over and offered her a ride. He was 5’9″, wore light cords, a white tee, and shiny black shoes. He mentioned a common acquaintance.She accepted a ride, but he passed their turn. Amy tried getting the attention of other drivers. In ’73 the driver’s button to lock all doors was a new feature. He locked her in, masturbated in the vehicle, had a tiny penis, and said immature things. He drove to a location near Lake Natomas, a remote area on the Sacramento outskirts.

Amy Bell’s ordeal lasted 6 hours. She has PTSD as a result of this assault. She still has flashbacks. She got back in the vehicle and refused to leave it, which may have saved her life. EAR dropped her off in an unfamiliar area of the city, and she walked back to her apartment.

Ms. Bell made a police report. LE officers located a home where the Corvette had been seen. It was at a home on Marconi Avenue at Fulton. It was near where Amy had been picked up. LE also told Ms. Bell that the suspect had just had the new, green Corvette painted black by a friend who owned an auto-paint shop. The friend had alibi’d the Corvette driver the evening of the rape. LE told Ms. Bell that the DA wouldn’t prosecute the case because it might be too hard on her. DNA was not used in U.S. criminal cases for another 3 years.

In spite of her trauma, Ms. Bell spied on the home where the green Corvette had been parked. She saw a blue Volkswagen there on occasion. This car was repeatedly associated with EAR in the 1976/77 attacks.

Traumatized, Amy Bell relocated and did not hear of the EAR assaults until she saw a news piece by the late reporter Michelle McNamara. In 2015, Amy Bell contacted Michelle McNamara regarding the EAR/ONS case. Both women believed that the 1973 Corvette driver was EAR/ONS.

McNamara contacted Ret. Det. Shelby who discovered that a young man named Bruce had lived in the Marconi Ave home with his mom in the early 70s. His mother had since died, and Bruce had moved away. Attempts to find Bruce were unsuccessful. Amy Bell has seen pictures of Bruce and was certain he was not her assailant. Bruce would have been approximately 22 at the time. He has not come forward.

The automotive paint shop was located east of there several blocks in a commercial complex on the south side of Marconi. Shelby spoke with the paint shop owner. In their first conversation, the owner remembered many of the cars he had painted. In a later phone call, the paint-shop-owner told Shelby he couldn’t remember anything. Shelby believes he’s lying and possibly covering for this rapist, who is now believed to be EAR/ONS.”

July 5 1979 EAR Botched Attack Danville