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This series deals with horrific sexual assault offences, and there's a lot of them. We feel

it's a very important story to cover, but it won't be suitable for all listeners, so

please use your discretion. If you decide to keep listening, we will be releasing a

map with each episode to help as you go along or for you to refer to afterwards.

You'll find a link to the map in the show notes on our website, or you should be able

to access the link from the show notes in your app.

On June 18th, 1976, the Sacramento Sheriff's Department responded to a break-in and

a rape of a young woman. By the end of the year, there were 10 attacks in total, all

attributed to one serial offender, who the media dubbed the East Area rapist. Detectives

with the Sheriff's Department noticed the M.O. of the East Area rapist fairly early

on, that kept the information under wraps. They didn't want a state of panic, they didn't

want a copycat, and they didn't want to alert the East Area rapist that they were

onto him. But by November 1976, the community started to become aware that a violent serial

predator was walking in their streets. The Sacramento Sheriff's Department attended a local

school meeting. Their intention was general crime prevention, but as people questioned

rumours of the rapes, they were forced to confirm that a serial rapist was at large. The

...