Long dorment serial killings solved

[Pinkerton]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/30/westside.killings/index.html

Sounds like this guy had been killing for 30+ years. For a minute I had hoped this was related to the East Area Rapist/Original Nightstalker murders but I'm pretty sure they're unrelated. It sounds like they both operated in California in the 70's and 80's.

If you've never heard of the East Area Rapist/Original Nightstalker murders here is a site dedicated to catching the perpetrator. This is among the greatest unsolved cases of the last 50 years, up there with the Zodiac murders (with a far higher body count).

http://www.ear-ons.com/

[Pinkerton]

Here is a picture and background on the suspect arrested. Definitely not the Original Nightstalker.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-serial-killer30-2009apr30,0,4540481.story

[sdreid]

Yes, I just saw this on HLN. At least Thomas is still around to be punished unlike some of these sorts of cases.

I guess this gets serial rapist/killer and chief suspect Brandon Tholmer off the hook - for these murders anyway.

[diana]

It is early days yet and they might find more crimes which he did later, but as of now his last killing was 1989. He is now 72 years old which means he quit when he was 52. This goes to the issue of "can they quit?". It appears in this case that old age caught up with him.

[sdreid]

I'm 62 - what do you mean old age?

This guy is black and I think it's pretty well established that EAR was white.

[Christine]

They solved this with DNA, and they apparently have EAR-ON DNA on file also, although I'm not sure how they managed that. That's why the guy had two nicknames; until DNA they didn't apparently didn't know it was the same guy.

[Pinkerton]

I'm 62 - what do you mean old age?

This guy is black and I think it's pretty well established that EAR was white.

Yeah that's why I later said it was definitely not the EAR/ON after I saw his picture.

[Nemo]

A couple of thoughts...

Wouldn't the diamond knot be an indicator that the suspect was a boating/sailing man?

It's a bit of an unusual knot that does not slip and is used extensively by sailors

It might tie in with the use of the bicycle which is a mode of transport often carried on boats to facilitate travel when the boat docks

[it's_me]

So far as I have been able to determine, the diamond knot isn't used extensively by anyone. It's decorative rather than functional.

[DarkPassenger]

"The original Nightstalker?"



Are you being serious? Jeez, you guys are running out of nicknames

[sdreid]

I don't like that name either but he's also called the Diamond (Chinese) Knot Killer, the East Area Rapist and the Bedroom Killer. In some respects, the problem is not settling on a name.