Golden State Killer (AKA East area rapist & Original night stalker) caught!

[MichaelWinicki]

Something turned them on to this guy and I’m anxious to hear what it was/is.

You mean turned them onto the existing suspect of the rapes & murders?

In other words he was connected (legally) to the rapist cases and the later murders. While many thought he was also the Visalia Ransacker, there aren't any existing Ransacker cases that could be prosecuted except for the Snelling murder.

As far as I know there was no DNA evidence involved in the Snelling case.

It almost had to be gun. I'm thinking the authorities found the gun at his residence, knew that it had been stolen during a Ransacker burglary (the original owner of the gun had the serial number) and matched the bullets that killed Claude Snelling to that gun.

IF THAT HAPPENED, it would prove the suspect was the Ransacker and the Ransacker shot & killed Claude Snelling.

 

[Beaker42]

You mean turned them onto the existing suspect of the rapes & murders?

In other words he was connected (legally) to the rapist cases and the later murders. While many thought he was also the Visalia Ransacker, there aren't any existing Ransacker cases that could be prosecuted except for the Snelling murder.

As far as I know there was no DNA evidence involved in the Snelling case.

It almost had to be gun. I'm thinking the authorities found the gun at his residence, knew that it had been stolen during a Ransacker burglary (the original owner of the gun had the serial number) and matched the bullets that killed Claude Snelling to that gun.

IF THAT HAPPENED, it would prove the suspect was the Ransacker and the Ransacker shot & killed Claude Snelling.

It’s a shame whoever was the GSR and then GSK was able to do it to so many people. SMDH.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

It’s a shame whoever was the GSR and then GSK was able to do it to so many people. SMDH.

Agreed.

He was smart and he was lucky.

He spent time scoping out residences before he attacked.

The thing is he was almost caught when he was the "Ransacker". Police had staked out an area, saw him and did pursue. At least one policeman got a look at him. He (the Ransacker) pulled out a gun (probably the one he used to shoot Claude Snelling) and shot at the trailing policeman. The bullet ricocheted off his flashlight into the side of his face– Thus ending the chase.

 

[Tabascocat]

Agreed.

He was smart and he was lucky.

He spent time scoping out residences before he attacked.

The thing is he was almost caught when he was the "Ransacker". Police had staked out an area, saw him and did pursue. At least one policeman got a look at him. He (the Ransacker) pulled out a gun (probably the one he used to shoot Claude Snelling) and shot at the trailing policeman. The bullet ricocheted off his flashlight into the side of his face– Thus ending the chase.

Remember, this happened before all of this technology. There were no home/phone cameras or other means of tracing him. I imagine it was pretty easy to keep slipping past police, especially since he was one at one point.

I don't think there could be another serial killer like him(and the notorious others) in this day and age. There are far too many ways to get caught. Even if someone could slip by after a few murders, the list would not reach those kind of numbers.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Remember, this happened before all of this technology. There were no home/phone cameras or other means of tracing him. I imagine it was pretty easy to keep slipping past police, especially since he was one at one point.

I don't think there could be another serial killer like him(and the notorious others) in this day and age. There are far too many ways to get caught. Even if someone could slip by after a few murders, the list would not reach those kind of numbers.

Absolutely true. It sounds weird but the "golden age" of serial killers in this country started in the late 60's and ended about the turn of this century. DNA, video camera's everywhere and everyone having a phone on them has made it much more difficult to randomly murder folks in numbers like Dean Corll, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy.

 

[Beaker42]

Absolutely true. It sounds weird but the "golden age" of serial killers in this country started in the late 60's and ended about the turn of this century. DNA, video camera's everywhere and everyone having a phone on them has made it much more difficult to randomly murder folks in numbers like Dean Corll, Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy.

I know it sounds horrible, but those guys were so evil they couldn’t die enough times to suit me. The terror they caused, and I remember Bundy and Gacy and especially Son of Sam, was beyond words. They needed to die several times, not just once. Berkowitz is still in prison.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I know it sounds horrible, but those guys were so evil they couldn’t die enough times to suit me. The terror they caused, and I remember Bundy and Gacy and especially Son of Sam, was beyond words. They needed to die several times, not just once. Berkowitz is still in prison.

Cordll is the first one I remember.

There was a huge article with pictures in the weekly news magazines at the time, which just whigged me out as a young kid.

It's funny, he was really the first big number serial killer post 1970 and you never see any shows on his rampage.

 

[Beaker42]

Cordll is the first one I remember.

There was a huge article with pictures in the weekly news magazines at the time, which just whigged me out as a young kid.

It's funny, he was really the first big number serial killer post 1970 and you never see any shows on his rampage.

Never even heard of him. Gotta Google him now. The POS that terrorized Gainesville was a bad one too. Danny Something.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Never even heard of him. Gotta Google him now. The POS that terrorized Gainesville was a bad one too. Danny Something.

Corll was the original "Candy Man". He and his mother owned a small candy factory in Houston and he would drive around town in his van offering free candy to kids.

He was the first big body-count serial killers of 70's.

Some of the things he did caught the attention of John Wayne Gacy if you can believe it.

 

[Tabascocat]

Corll was the original "Candy Man". He and his mother owned a small candy factory in Houston and he would drive around town in his van offering free candy to kids.

He was the first big body-count serial killers of 70's.

Some of the things he did caught the attention of John Wayne Gacy if you can believe it.

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston in the 70's, we were VERY aware of him. There were even a copycat or two in the same timeframe. Some candy had needles, glass, etc in it in my neck of the woods. Mom would always inspect every piece of candy and we were not allowed to eat one piece while trick-or-treating.

 

[Beaker42]

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston in the 70's, we were VERY aware of him. There were even a copycat or two in the same timeframe. Some candy had needles, glass, etc in it in my neck of the woods. Mom would always inspect every piece of candy and we were not allowed to eat one piece while trick-or-treating.

Sickos who target kids are real POS’s, like Wayne Williams, the Atlanta Child Murderer.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Sickos who target kids are real POS’s, like Wayne Williams, the Atlanta Child Murderer.

Corll was the "grand-daddy" of sicko's.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston in the 70's, we were VERY aware of him. There were even a copycat or two in the same timeframe. Some candy had needles, glass, etc in it in my neck of the woods. Mom would always inspect every piece of candy and we were not allowed to eat one piece while trick-or-treating.

I don't know what it was with the Houston police in the 70's but there were a number of serial killers operating within that area.

Time after time the police told the parents of missing boys that their kids had simply run-away. I saw a map once of all the houses in a neighborhood that had kids that supposedly ran-away but were ultimately found to be victims of Corll and his "crew"... The map was stunning in that the houses were so clustered.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Sometimes I wonder what kicked off the whole "serial killer" wave starting in the late 60's with Zodiac.

I mean we had the Cleveland Torso Killer in the 1930's and the Phantom of Texarkana in the 40's but serial killings were relatively rare until the end of the 60's.

Kinda of like how mass school shootings suddenly started happening.

 

[yimyammer]

It sounds weird but the "golden age" of serial killers in this country started in the late 60's and ended about the turn of this century.

Did a “broken generation” of soldiers returning from World War II spawn America’s so-called “golden age” of serial killers?

That’s the shocking hypothesis put forth by author Peter Vronsky, whose third book, “Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present,” catalogs 17,000 years of homicidal maniacs, from Cain to Jack the Ripper to the Green River Killer.

While researching his exhaustive history, Vronsky mined for reasons behind the atrocities he was documenting, specifically what was behind the enormous glut of serial killers between 1950 and 2000.

The controversial conclusion he reached to explain the 2,065 butchers who grabbed headlines for spilling blood in the second half of the 20th century: A “hidden surge of war-traumatized fathers” returned home from battlefields in Europe and the Pacific and spawned a generation of murderous emotional cripples

source

 

[Tabascocat]

I don't know what it was with the Houston police in the 70's but there were a number of serial killers operating within that area.

Time after time the police told the parents of missing boys that their kids had simply run-away. I saw a map once of all the houses in a neighborhood that had kids that supposedly ran-away but were ultimately found to be victims of Corll and his "crew"... The map was stunning in that the houses were so clustered.

Around the same time, we also had the Calder murders, The Killing Field, going on. Bodies found along Calder Rd and I45

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Around the same time, we also had the Calder murders, The Killing Field, going on. Bodies found along Calder Rd and I45

Yeah, I don't know what the authorities from that area were doing... They really didn't capture or stop anyone. Corll would have kept on killing if one of his own crew hadn't shot him first.