David Carpenter

David Joseph Carpenter (born May 6, 1930), also called the Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered various people in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1979 and 1981. He was sentenced to death for two murders in Santa Cruz County and later for five additional murders in Marin County. He was also confirmed to be responsible for an eighth death in San Francisco through DNA evidence and remains the prime suspect in at least three other cases.

Carpenter began committing sexual assaults at age 15. He was admitted to a mental hospital at age 17 where a psychologist measured his IQ at 125. After his release his crimes escalated to kidnapping, carjacking, stalking, and attempted murder. From August 1979 through May 1981, Carpenter is believed to have murdered eleven people in various state parks in Northern California. He would hide along tree lines on secluded trails and wait for his target to approach and then would restrain, rape, and sometimes torture them until killing them. He used a .38 caliber handgun in all but one of the killings. According to pathologists, Carpenter would get so much enjoyment from tormenting his victims that he would lose his stutter.

Physical descriptions of the killer initially varied until a survivor pinpointed Carpenter. At age 95, Carpenter is the oldest death row inmate in California. Provided by Wikipedia