Great work as always AK.
I have seen this case before, it’s certainly one that stays in the memory. The one aspect that leads me away from EARONS is the manner of the abduction – I believe the home invasion aspect to his M.O. was integral to the whole experience and this case is missing that one big piece. Of course he may have tried this type of abduction as a fresh angle, but we know he was a creature of habit and that seems quite unlikely.
There is another cold case in California where the victim(s) was buried with a dog – frustrating,I have just done some googling but can’t find the case again. From memory I believe it was a double killing of two young girls, and was in the general Sacramento area around the same time. Possibly just an odd coincidence, I will post details as and when I find them.

Thanks for the compliment. That’s interesting about the case that you mentioned, both for the fact that two young girls were killed in Sacramento during this time period, and that they were buried with the remains of a dog, similar to the Dorothy Jane Scott case. If you can relocate the details of that case, please do post the name of the case and whatever details you can find here.

You make a valid point that the GSK seemed to prefer home invasions in his activities. But keep in mind, the other elements of his crimes changed quite a bit over the years. The type of victims attacked, the type of crimes committed, the level force involved and the level of lethalness involved, all changed over time. Consider the following:

VR: break-ins at homes in the Visalia area, Homes were vandalized, break-ins mostly when people were not home, people were not attacked. Except for one case where a teenage girl was abducted and her father murdered.

EAR: Home invasions at homes in the Sacramento area, later in the Davis and Valley and East Bay Area. First single women were targeted, then couples. The victims were bound and the women raped. The victims were not killed. Except one case in which a husband and wife were killed while walking their dog.

ONS: home invasions in Southern California. At first couples are targeted, both are bound, the woman is raped and then both husband and wife are killed. Later, two lone females are targeted in Irvine and both are raped and killed. Dorothy Jane Scott is a lone female, abducted and killed, taken from a hospital in Irvine, that ONS victims the Harringtons worked at. Manuela Witthuhn was also last seen alive at a Irvine Hospital.

GSK had enough changes and surprises in his activities that doing an abduction from a hospital would not really be out of the ordinary for him.

HI Wilks
can you please elaborate on this one?

when did GSK contact a newspaper and what did the killer of DJS do/say when he did?

Ok I found the case I was thinking of that also involved a dog, and although my memory has let me down on the details it does turn out that the case is a pretty good candidate for EARONS.
victim: Veronica Perotti (age 19)
date: 1984
location: Chico, 90m north of Sacramento
crime: murder by bludgeoning with a blunt object, home invasion.
Victim had only recently moved into her place (there’s that real estate connection again… wasn’t JJD’s brother a realtor or similar?), and worked at a local restaurant. A lot of similarities to Janelle Cruz…. but Perotti looks nothing like most of the victims so that is a difference from some of the other suspected victims that are surfacing.
As for the dog connection, it seems quite tenuous. According to one article police were linking the crime to another case the same night where a dog had been killed and buried in the same area, but there is very little info available to confirm this. Sorry if that was misleading at all, I have been looking at an awful lot of cold cases recently and got mixed up with the double teen murder. however, on balance, this Perotti case looks promising.
*Edit* – credit where it’s due, this potential link has already been mentioned on the earons proboards forum back in February. The OP links to the newpaper article which mentions the dog killing. What is strange is the police attitude to the dog, they certainly seem to think it is related to Veronica’s murder, but details are very thin.

Veronica Perotti’s address (and murder location) was 803 West Second Avenue, Chico. Looking at google maps 35 years later is obviously subject to a lot of change in that time, however 2 things do stand out about this area which will not have changed. There is a train track 100m from the property, and this leads to a creek 500m to the south – classic EARONS planning/prowling/escape route built into the landscape.
It seems Veronica was also a nursing student at the nearby university – in the UK nursing and medical students become attached to a hospital or care district, I would imagine the same goes for the US. That’s another hospital connection.
According to the Sacramento Bee, JJD’s address from 1979-81 is unknown, but he was living in Citrus Heights from 1983. The fact he had relatives in Irvine can explain the long journey south, whilst a 90 mile journey north is perhaps easier to class as ‘local’ if he became fixated on a target.

Thanks for posting that information. Considering everything, could be a GSK case, but I tend to doubt it. Starting in 1979, all of his crimes were in Southern California. He killed lone female Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine, Orange County, then his daughter was born, then he seemed to take a break for 5 years before killing Janelle Cruz in Irvine, Orange County, in 1986. I think he felt he had become too hot, too well known in the Sacramento area, so he did crimes down in Southern Cal from 1979 – 1986. So I don’t think he would do a killing in Sacramento area in 1984. But who knows? I have made the point he did vary his MO, level of lethality and crime areas.

Also police said there was evidence she knew her killer. And a suspect sketch and description put the suspect age at 20 – 26. JJD would have been almost 40 in 1984.

But this is part of the process, running down info on possible similair cases. For every similair case, good lead or promising potential clue I look into maybe 1 out of 5, and sometimes less than that, actually bears some fruit.

HI Wilks
can you please elaborate on this one?

when did GSK contact a newspaper and what did the killer of DJS do/say when he did?

Both GSK and DJS killer made taunting cruel phone calls to victims or victims families. The DJS killer did the following, as far as contacting a newspaper. Keep in mind, like the "Afraid" letter sent in by GSK which likely pretended to be from a friend/relative of the killer, but was likely an attempt at misdirection from the killer himself, the letter sent by the DJS killer was likely a misdirection. The intent being to make police think a jealous boyfriend of Scott had killed her. From Wikipedia:

A possible motivation in Scott’s murder surfaced June 12, 1980. An unidentified man called the front desk at the Orange County Register (the paper had run a story that day about the case). A managing editor told police the man said, "I killed her. I killed Dorothy Scott. She was my love. I caught her cheating with another man. She denied having someone else. I killed her." The editor also said the caller knew Conrad Bostron had suffered from a spider bite the night of May 28. He also knew that Scott had been wearing a red scarf; she had changed her black scarf to a red one after the employee meeting.[10] Neither of these details had been published in the June 12 article.[2] The caller also claimed Scott phoned him from the hospital that night. Pam Head disputed that claim, saying she had been with Scott the entire time and she had not made a phone call.[1] Investigators believe the anonymous caller was responsible for Scott’s death.[6]

AK Wilks: GSK sent a poem titled "Excitement’s Crave" to media in Sacramento. Police believe it was likely GSK who sent it in, and not a hoaxer, because the last line in the poem is about adding the wife of a "Mafia lord" to his file, and GSK had just raped a woman who had a man’s Italian passport in her house, a detail not publicized. The police also received a letter from a person who called themselves "Afraid" and who reported to know and be close to the GSK. There were some details in the letter that only GSK (or someone very, very close to him) would know. Some police thought it may have come from the GSK himself.

This is the Excitement’s Crave poem sent in by the GSK:

Excitement’s Crave * * *

All those mortal’s surviving birth
Upon facing maturity,
Take inventory of their worth
To prevailing society.

Choosing values becomes a task;
Oneself must seek satisfaction.
The selected route will unmask
Character when plans take action

Accepting some work to perform
At fixed pay, but promise for more,
Is a recognized social norm,
As is decorum, seeking lore.

Achieving while others lifting
Should be cause for deserving fame.
Leisure tempts excitement seeking,
What’s right and expected seems tame.

"Jessie James" has been seen by all,
And "Son of Sam" has an author.
Others now feel temptations call.
Sacramento should make an offer.

To make a movie of my life
That will pay for my planned exile.
Just now I’d like to add the wife
Of a Mafia lord to my file.

Your East Area Rapist
And deserving pest
See you in the press or on T.V.

This is an article about the "Afraid" letter. The headline in the paper was the death of Elvis Presley. I tried FOIA requests to get the actual letter to Sac PD and SD, but they claimed they did nnot have it as almost everything was thrown away in the 1990’s, when the rape statute of limitations expired. A Sacramento Sheriff Dept. detective told me it was stupid to throw everything out just because the rape SOL’s expired, as murder has no SOL, and he fought against it, but to no avail.

Nice find AK! She looks a lot like GSK’s Bonnie. Yes this is different than most of his crimes, but he was still escalating.
So many calls to the parents ,makes me think of how Zodiac tormented Joseph Bates and Darlene’s mother. Maybe the killer killed Dorothy to get even with one or both of the parents?
Too bad that they didn’t think to have their phone tapped, being the caller was calling every Wed. They must not have reported the calls to the police or the police would have done that I would think?
This case needs to be looked at by LE and see if this is another one of the GSK kills! Why haven’t the parents called the police , knowing that Dorothy was in the right area at the right time for her to be his victim? Like you, I think there are a lot more we don’t know about yet. Perhaps that is why Paul Holes is saying it could be years before GSK goes to trial?

Nice find AK! She looks a lot like GSK’s Bonnie. Yes this is different than most of his crimes, but he was still escalating.
So many calls to the parents ,makes me think of how Zodiac tormented Joseph Bates and Darlene’s mother. Maybe the killer killed Dorothy to get even with one or both of the parents?
Too bad that they didn’t think to have their phone tapped, being the caller was calling every Wed. They must not have reported the calls to the police or the police would have done that I would think?
This case needs to be looked at by LE and see if this is another one of the GSK kills! Why haven’t the parents called the police , knowing that Dorothy was in the right area at the right time for her to be his victim? Like you, I think there are a lot more we don’t know about yet. Perhaps that is why Paul Holes is saying it could be years before GSK goes to trial?

Thanks Sandy.

They did call the police, and they did try to trace the calls, but never could, as the caller always hung up before they could trace. JJD, as a former cop, would know when to hang up to prevent a trace.

Following up on Sandy’s suggestion that there was a similarity, a picture of:

Bonnie, the former fiancée of JJD, who called off the wedding, and who JJD was obsessed and angry with, and a picture of Dorothy Jane Scott.

I think Sandy was correct. IMO a strong similarity. What do other people think?

The author of the ‘Afraid’ letter was found, and was NOT EAR/GSK. It was a person that had a real feeling that somebody they knew was EAR/GSK. Police checked out the person, and they too were NOT EAR/GSK

AK< Great thread, I think she too may be a GSK victim. The dead dog, the UC IRVINE Med ctr, all like GSK without the abduction-then again GSK was also VR who abducted Beth Snelling, so maybe

The author of the ‘Afraid’ letter was found, and was NOT EAR/GSK. It was a person that had a real feeling that somebody they knew was EAR/GSK. Police checked out the person, and they too were NOT EAR/GSK

Just so bizarre to me someone would do something like that. Crazy, creepy seems to be contagious.

The author of the ‘Afraid’ letter was found, and was NOT EAR/GSK. It was a person that had a real feeling that somebody they knew was EAR/GSK. Police checked out the person, and they too were NOT EAR/GSK

Just so bizarre to me someone would do something like that. Crazy, creepy seems to be contagious.

agreed

I still struggle with linking the abduction element of this case to earons. The Snelling attempt makes sense as it occurred in her home and, whilst quite a jump from ransacking, was not an entirely unexpected development. There were probably 2 primary motivations for his attacks being at the victims’ houses: control of a known (scouted) environment, and the added violation the victim(s) would feel. These seem very important to him as he could have simply waited in the dark and attacked passing women outside as many other rapists do. He lacks control of the environment in the car park, but I suppose he could gain the ‘violating private space’ feeling by invading her car.

The Scott abduction is very odd in its execution to the extent that it seems spur of the moment. If the perp knew her or had been stalking her, why attack in public when you can wait until she’s home? Such a public place suggests to me either a random targeting in the car park, or a decision made under the cloudy rage of spurned/imaginary love etc.
I don’t know what to make of the calls – as far as I know Earons only called a handful of his 55 surviving victims? I don’t know if a concrete number is available anywhere, but it doesn’t strike me as being a normal part of his game, more of something he thought about on a rare occasion (who knows why). More importantly, he didn’t harrass any of the ONS victims’ relatives by phone, which would be more in keeping with the Scott incident.