From the archives: Fear, panic gripped Stockton after attacks

STOCKTON — On the morning of Sept. 8, 1977, readers of the Stockton Record woke to a frightening banner headline: “Rapist Fear Spreads Over City.”

The paper reported that weapons sales were soaring and that fear was gripping many in Stockton. The paper also included a profile of the rapist by psychologists.

“Sacramento’s East Area rapist ... may be a ‘paranoid schizophrenic’ with deep feelings of inadequacy,” the Stockton Record reported, quoting a group of psychologists at the California Youth Authority.

Attention turned back to the events of 40 years ago on Wednesday when law enforcement officers announced the arrest of 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo in connection with at least 12 murders and the rapes of dozens of women.

Known as the East Area Rapist, the Golden State Killer and the Original Night Stalker, it is believed DeAngelo committed at least two of the rapes in Stockton.

One took place Sept. 6, 1977. On that day the East Area Rapist is believed to have raped a 27-year-old woman in her home in Lincoln Village West.

“The man is, ‘without a doubt,’ the same person who is responsible for 24 rapes which have been reported to Sacramento law enforcement officers since October of 1975,” a story on the front page of the Lodi News-Sentinel said on Sept. 8, 1977.

The suspect spent about an hour and a half after the attack ransacking the victim’s home, typical of the East Area Rapist, the story said.

He is also suspected of having committed another Stockton rape March 18, 1978, in the Park Woods area. This attack was his 11th on a married couple where the husband was present, and like in the other attacks, he lingered for about two hours in the home, a UPI story on the front page of the March 20 edition of the NewsSentinel said.

The story mentions a third Stockton woman who may have been a victim of the East Area Rapist before the March 18, 1978 attack. However, lists of confirmed EAR attacks do not include another Stockton victim.

“It sounds as though he has a very real problem with demonstrating his masculinity,” Dr. Andrew Kopac told the Stockton Record following the 1977 rape.

Psychologists also speculated in 1977 that DeAngelo could have come from a middleor upper-class family and was raised by a “very domineering mother” and a largely absent or weak father. And they said they believed that if the East Area Rapist had attended college, he would have gravitated toward criminal justice courses or joined the ROTC. As it turns out, DeAngelo is a former police officer. He also joined the U.S. Navy after graduating from Folsom High School in 1964.

The Stockton Record also reported that panic spread through Stockton following the 1977 rape.

“Ever since (the rape) Stockton has talked of little else,” the Stockton Record reported. “Sales of locks, guns and dogs have skyrocketed. Stockton police have been deluged with telephone calls. Husbands worry about their families. There are dozens of prowler calls.”

But authorities at the time were open about having few leads leading them to a suspect who at that time was accused of sexually assaulting 23 women.

Six months after the first Stockton attack by the serial rapist, he struck again.

“There’s absolutely no doubt who it was,” a Stockton police detective said.

Stockton police Sgt. Patsy Noble struggled to offer advice to women following the East Area Rapist’s second and what turned out to be final attack in Stockton.

“I cannot begin to tell a 100pound woman facing a 200pound man armed with a knife and gun and bent on rape what to do, for I have no idea what I would do under those conditions myself,” Noble told the Stockton Record.