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.

Part 3 began with an emergency press conference in mid-1977.

A composite sketch as well as a physical and psychological profile of the East Area

rapist was released.

The public were warned to be vigilant.

Police received thousands of tips, and there were countless sightings of the rapist.

Unfortunately, these sightings weren't always reported at the time.

Many persons of interest made the suspect list.

Some even looked like prime suspects due to many similarities, but these turned out

to be nothing more than strange coincidences, and are most were eliminated from the investigation.

The East Area rapist enjoyed communicating with police, the press, and survivors.

In August 77, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office received a letter known as the

Afraid Letter, from someone claiming to know who the East Area rapist was.

The letter writer requested to be contacted through the press if the police wanted further

information.

The police did what the letter writer asked, but they never heard from the person again.

...