East Area Rapist-Boston Mall Rapist = same guy? - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

XCalibur · 09-09-2012, 10:55 PM

Ok I know this is almost a complete shot in the dark and highly unlikely, but someone got these guys confused in another thread. Plus people were comparing the I-70 killer with the killer in the Northeast thought to be Michael Nicholeau, so I figured why not discuss this possibility?

The strange thing about EAR, is that he was not linked to any crimes after 1986. However, he was reported to have phoned some of his victims in the early 1990's, make it unlikely that he was dead like many people thought.

Guys like that typically don't stop, so I've always wondered if EAR didn't move to another part of the country and possibly change his MO. What if he moved to Boston changed it to attacking women in shopping centers instead of home invasions?

The Boston Mall Rapist I am pretty sure attacked women in the late 80's, this was directly after the EAR attacks stopped. So the timeline at least fits. We know that if indeed the mysterious phone calls in the early 90's came from EAR, he was still alive, and I figure if he was still sick enough to call his victims, its unlikely that he stopped attacking woman. Someone mentioned the possibibility he got married, maybe he just couldn't attack women as often once he did.

But interestingly, the Boston Mall rapes I am fairly certain stopped sometime shortly after 1990, so maybe something happened to this guy sometime in the early 90's which incapacitated him. Because as far as I know the phone calls from EAR stopped after the early 90's as well.

Like I said, I know this is highly unlikely, but I've always believed that EAR almost had to be somewhere else still attacking women when he was making the phone calls to his victims in the early 90's. But you got these interesting facts.

1. The East Area Rapist/ONS was thought to be fairly young, so its highly unlikely he died after his last known crime in 1986.

2. The Boston Mall Rapist appeared in the late 1980's, after EAR's last known crime. But he was not known to be active prior to the late 80's that I know of.

3. EAR was known to be making threats to his past victims in the early 90's, so its pretty unlikely he had stopped attacking women at this time if he was still sick enough to do this. He most likely lived in a different part of the country and changed his MO.

Any thoughts anyone?

unsolved1981 · 09-09-2012, 11:19 PM

No, because the DNA would have hit when it was ran nationally.

Not that it matters, though. The Statute of Limitations is out on the Boston rapes.

XCalibur · 09-10-2012, 06:31 AM

First of all, I don't think thats a clincher. I'm fairly certain that national database for DNA was not set up until the late 90's at least. I doubt a complete DNA profile for every rape or crime committed before hand found its way into it for one reason or another, its probably not infallible. With EAR, they had a lot of samples to put together a profile cause he committed a lot of rapes. With this guy there were only a few at a time when DNA sampling was not perfected. So I don't know how good a profile they had on him.

Second of all, I would hardly say it doesn't matter, even though he can't be charged with the rapes of the Boston Mall Rapist, it would be some solace to the victims if he were found to be charged with another crime or discovered to be in prison.

I mean I myself acknowledged that its probably a million to one shot, but I think it makes for more interesting conversation personally than band names derived from Unsolved Mysteries. But thats just me.

unsolved1981 · 09-10-2012, 06:37 AM

(EDIT: DOUBLE POST)

unsolved1981 · 09-10-2012, 06:37 AM

I would completely reject it just based on the details of both cases without the DNA. EAR snuck into homes at night and usually surprised sleeping victims. Strip Mall Rapist waited until businesses were nearly closed and operated fairly openly. EAR was athletic and probably a former cat burglar. Strip Mall rapist was overweight.

1990 UM fan · 09-10-2012, 12:47 PM

I do know that the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker are one and the same. It was in 2000-2001 that they linked the two together. That's the only kind of connection involving the EAR so far.

justins5256 · 09-10-2012, 02:23 PM

An interesting idea, but I think the MOs are too different. The EAR/ONS murdered at least ten people. He escalated to murder from rape and escalated to rape from burglary. I think it's unlikely he would have deescalated back to rape just to commit the relatively benign (compared to EAR/ONS) Boston area attacks.

In fact, this type of reasoning about MOs is partially why some profilers don't believe that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Stranger. While the brutal and sadistic stranglings were being committed by the Boston Strangler, DeSalvo was simultaneously committing burglaries and sexual assaults - He smooth talked his victims into letting him inside their apartments and he almost always apologized to his victims after the rape was over. DeSalvo was also married and had children. Whoever the Boston Strangler really was, he was a sadist, he hated women, and most likely wouldn't be in any sort of functional relationship with one, and he sure wouldn't apologize for his crimes. He also wouldn't escalate to sadistic and brutal torture and murder for some, and then simple rape for others.

Don't mean to get off track, but I thought the comparison might help.

XCalibur · 09-10-2012, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unsolved1981

I would completely reject it just based on the details of both cases without the DNA. EAR snuck into homes at night and usually surprised sleeping victims. Strip Mall Rapist waited until businesses were nearly closed and operated fairly openly. EAR was athletic and probably a former cat burglar. Strip Mall rapist was overweight.

fair point there, I didn't remember the the Strip Mall Rapist being described as overweight, it may have been just the guy in the reinactment I was thinking of and he wasn't overweight, I do tend to make that mistake from time to time.

Sometimes UM gives misleading reinactments, remember Megadeath? He was portrayed as a huge intimidating looking guy, but the eyewitness account said he was actually about medium build. Probably to dramatize it.

As to your other point, sometimes criminals change their MO's.

I think the main point I'm trying to make with this thread is to spark discussion of what happened to these guys. Cause EAR was thought to be fairly young, and thought to be making threatening calls to his victims in the early 90's, so its strange nothing was linked to him aftr 1986.

UMFaninMD · 09-10-2012, 09:05 PM

While quite a few rapists have moved to different cities and started their crimes up again I don't think it's the same guy. If we believe the UM segments, the Boston rapist made no attempt to hide his identity while the EAR-ONS only had his eyes uncovered. Of course, criminals do tend to get a lot bold after the first few crimes and they can shed their disguises, but I think we're dealing with two separate attackers here. The one thing that connects them is that to this day, we still don't know their identity.

unsolved1981 · 09-10-2012, 10:44 PM

Yeah, DNA evidence aside, they were just too different. Strip Mall rapist was 'nice' to his victims, ie reassuring them he would otherwise not harm them, and as I said operated very openly, making no attempt to disguise himself. EAR had a progression from cat burglar to serial rapist to serial killer. I doubt he moved across the country, put on 75 pounds, and became a 'nice' guy.

The Strip Mall Rapist was another case of an UM segment where the actor portraying him didnt match the composite of the suspect.

justins5256 · 09-11-2012, 08:39 AM

Not to get too far OT, but I see some confusion about the different appearance of the actor in the re-enactment and the composite of the Boston Mall Rapist shown at the end of the segment on that case.

For an unknown reason, the Lifetime version of the episode substituted a completely different series of composites for the composites shown during the NBC telecast. The composite shown on the NBC version very closely resembled the actor - face and build.

unsolved1981 · 09-11-2012, 08:46 AM

Could it be because the earlier sketch was inaccurate? I would tend to believe they wouldnt replace it unless there were problems with it.

justins5256 · 09-11-2012, 08:48 AM

Maybe I'm over thinking this, but I always wondered if just perhaps the UM coverage of the case caused the Boston Rapist to hang it up or move on to another part of the country. It just seems odd to me that the crimes stopped so abruptly after they were publicized on a national level.

justins5256 · 09-11-2012, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unsolved1981

Could it be because the earlier sketch was inaccurate? I would tend to believe they wouldnt replace it unless there were problems with it.

It's possible. I read a newspaper article on the case years ago that indicated a Boston area veterinarian was considered a suspect because he resembled the descriptions and composites. He was located, interviewed and cooperated with investigators and ultimately cleared as a suspect. So, I suppose it's possible that the composite was altered because of this and possibly other wrongful identifications. On the other hand, I wonder if he could have committed more of these crimes and a better composite was made.

I can't recall, but did he ever steal anything? If so, it was probably an afterthought or secondary to the rapes.

justins5256 · 09-11-2012, 08:59 AM

Does anyone have the segment handy so we can get an idea of the dates and exact nature of the offenses? I believe the UM report re-enacted two rapes - one at a doctor's office and another at a strip mall, but it was mentioned that a task force was handling the matter and I recall a map pinpointing other attacks. I would like to try to profile this guy.

09-09-2012, 10:55 PM	#1
XCalibur Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 16, 2010 Location: Belfast, Va Posts: 980	East Area Rapist-Boston Mall Rapist = same guy? Ok I know this is almost a complete shot in the dark and highly unlikely, but someone got these guys confused in another thread. Plus people were comparing the I-70 killer with the killer in the Northeast thought to be Michael Nicholeau, so I figured why not discuss this possibility? The strange thing about EAR, is that he was not linked to any crimes after 1986. However, he was reported to have phoned some of his victims in the early 1990's, make it unlikely that he was dead like many people thought. Guys like that typically don't stop, so I've always wondered if EAR didn't move to another part of the country and possibly change his MO. What if he moved to Boston changed it to attacking women in shopping centers instead of home invasions? The Boston Mall Rapist I am pretty sure attacked women in the late 80's, this was directly after the EAR attacks stopped. So the timeline at least fits. We know that if indeed the mysterious phone calls in the early 90's came from EAR, he was still alive, and I figure if he was still sick enough to call his victims, its unlikely that he stopped attacking woman. Someone mentioned the possibibility he got married, maybe he just couldn't attack women as often once he did. But interestingly, the Boston Mall rapes I am fairly certain stopped sometime shortly after 1990, so maybe something happened to this guy sometime in the early 90's which incapacitated him. Because as far as I know the phone calls from EAR stopped after the early 90's as well. Like I said, I know this is highly unlikely, but I've always believed that EAR almost had to be somewhere else still attacking women when he was making the phone calls to his victims in the early 90's. But you got these interesting facts. 1. The East Area Rapist/ONS was thought to be fairly young, so its highly unlikely he died after his last known crime in 1986. 2. The Boston Mall Rapist appeared in the late 1980's, after EAR's last known crime. But he was not known to be active prior to the late 80's that I know of. 3. EAR was known to be making threats to his past victims in the early 90's, so its pretty unlikely he had stopped attacking women at this time if he was still sick enough to do this. He most likely lived in a different part of the country and changed his MO. Any thoughts anyone?

09-10-2012, 12:47 PM	#6
1990 UM fan Unsolved Mysteries fanatic Senior Member Join Date: Jul 14, 2011 Location: United States Posts: 2,510	I do know that the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker are one and the same. It was in 2000-2001 that they linked the two together. That's the only kind of connection involving the EAR so far.
	__________________ Join my Unsolved Mysteries page (Facebook): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unsolv...899616?sk=wall

09-09-2012, 11:19 PM	#2
unsolved1981 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jun 28, 2012 Posts: 166	No, because the DNA would have hit when it was ran nationally. Not that it matters, though. The Statute of Limitations is out on the Boston rapes.

09-10-2012, 06:31 AM	#3
XCalibur Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 16, 2010 Location: Belfast, Va Posts: 980	First of all, I don't think thats a clincher. I'm fairly certain that national database for DNA was not set up until the late 90's at least. I doubt a complete DNA profile for every rape or crime committed before hand found its way into it for one reason or another, its probably not infallible. With EAR, they had a lot of samples to put together a profile cause he committed a lot of rapes. With this guy there were only a few at a time when DNA sampling was not perfected. So I don't know how good a profile they had on him. Second of all, I would hardly say it doesn't matter, even though he can't be charged with the rapes of the Boston Mall Rapist, it would be some solace to the victims if he were found to be charged with another crime or discovered to be in prison. I mean I myself acknowledged that its probably a million to one shot, but I think it makes for more interesting conversation personally than band names derived from Unsolved Mysteries. But thats just me.

09-10-2012, 06:37 AM	#4
unsolved1981 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jun 28, 2012 Posts: 166	(EDIT: DOUBLE POST)

09-10-2012, 02:23 PM	#7
justins5256 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 08, 2002 Posts: 3,866	An interesting idea, but I think the MOs are too different. The EAR/ONS murdered at least ten people. He escalated to murder from rape and escalated to rape from burglary. I think it's unlikely he would have deescalated back to rape just to commit the relatively benign (compared to EAR/ONS) Boston area attacks. In fact, this type of reasoning about MOs is partially why some profilers don't believe that Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Stranger. While the brutal and sadistic stranglings were being committed by the Boston Strangler, DeSalvo was simultaneously committing burglaries and sexual assaults - He smooth talked his victims into letting him inside their apartments and he almost always apologized to his victims after the rape was over. DeSalvo was also married and had children. Whoever the Boston Strangler really was, he was a sadist, he hated women, and most likely wouldn't be in any sort of functional relationship with one, and he sure wouldn't apologize for his crimes. He also wouldn't escalate to sadistic and brutal torture and murder for some, and then simple rape for others. Don't mean to get off track, but I thought the comparison might help.

09-10-2012, 09:05 PM	#9
UMFaninMD I love a mystery Senior Member Join Date: Apr 19, 2011 Location: Maryland Posts: 1,287	While quite a few rapists have moved to different cities and started their crimes up again I don't think it's the same guy. If we believe the UM segments, the Boston rapist made no attempt to hide his identity while the EAR-ONS only had his eyes uncovered. Of course, criminals do tend to get a lot bold after the first few crimes and they can shed their disguises, but I think we're dealing with two separate attackers here. The one thing that connects them is that to this day, we still don't know their identity.

09-10-2012, 10:44 PM	#10
unsolved1981 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jun 28, 2012 Posts: 166	Yeah, DNA evidence aside, they were just too different. Strip Mall rapist was 'nice' to his victims, ie reassuring them he would otherwise not harm them, and as I said operated very openly, making no attempt to disguise himself. EAR had a progression from cat burglar to serial rapist to serial killer. I doubt he moved across the country, put on 75 pounds, and became a 'nice' guy. The Strip Mall Rapist was another case of an UM segment where the actor portraying him didnt match the composite of the suspect.

09-11-2012, 08:39 AM	#11
justins5256 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 08, 2002 Posts: 3,866	Not to get too far OT, but I see some confusion about the different appearance of the actor in the re-enactment and the composite of the Boston Mall Rapist shown at the end of the segment on that case. For an unknown reason, the Lifetime version of the episode substituted a completely different series of composites for the composites shown during the NBC telecast. The composite shown on the NBC version very closely resembled the actor - face and build.

09-11-2012, 08:46 AM	#12
unsolved1981 Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jun 28, 2012 Posts: 166	Could it be because the earlier sketch was inaccurate? I would tend to believe they wouldnt replace it unless there were problems with it.

09-11-2012, 08:48 AM	#13
justins5256 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 08, 2002 Posts: 3,866	Maybe I'm over thinking this, but I always wondered if just perhaps the UM coverage of the case caused the Boston Rapist to hang it up or move on to another part of the country. It just seems odd to me that the crimes stopped so abruptly after they were publicized on a national level.

09-11-2012, 08:59 AM	#15
justins5256 Member Forum 3000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 08, 2002 Posts: 3,866	Does anyone have the segment handy so we can get an idea of the dates and exact nature of the offenses? I believe the UM report re-enacted two rapes - one at a doctor's office and another at a strip mall, but it was mentioned that a task force was handling the matter and I recall a map pinpointing other attacks. I would like to try to profile this guy.