I really think the 12-26-75 people might be onto something with this spate of Exeter break-ins/ransackings that occurred from 1968-1974., but I can’t find anything online other than what they include in their podcast, so I am unable to verify anything through a second source. They have a great interactive map showing the Exeter Ransacking crimes alongside the VR ones, it’s quite striking
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=19lhw65w3EnyB2ZZJIqH-M5EviNgdkgkX&ll=36.31708889220639%2C-119.30617298589175&z=15
Here are some of the highlights of this topic:
– Exeter and Visalia are neighbouring towns
– JJD sister lived in Exeter in the 1960s
– Over 30 break-ins that stopped the same year the VR started up
– Spree started 2 years after JJD was discharged from the Navy
– Massive increase in stolen bicycles from 1973-74, where the bike were used and dumped, just as EAR did.
– General escalation in 1973, after JJD joins Exeter PD… could he have been more confident about police patrol information?
– Underwear strewn around, or stolen.
– Entry often made through screen windows or sliding doors, and perp(s) not put off by residents being present/sleeping.
– And here’s the kicker – Exeter PD provided a service where residents could inform police that they were going to be away, and the police would drive by the property on their night patrols. So JJD would have been handed empty properties on a plate. In 1975 he then became part of the Exeter PD anti-burglary team; even more access to privileged information to stay one step ahead.

Some differences to VR/EAR/ONS
– Burglaries did involve taking valuables, guns and cash, often to quite a high value (ie not just trophies). However there were multiple occasions when only ransacking occurred and even guns being left on the floor.
– Some indications that there was more than one perp, although we got that with quite a few EAR ones too.
– Commercial properties targeted as well as residential.
– Many incidents where the perp may have caused a distraction in another part of town (thereby tying up the sole cop car on night duty), before committing the true target crime. Some of these distractions involved arson or vandalism, not a strict EAR signature but it would be no surprise if EARONS had dabbled with arson.

All in all this is a very interesting line of enquiry.