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David Carpenter
Carpenter after his arrest in 1981
Born	David Joseph Carpenter (1930-05-06) May 6, 1930 (age 94) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Other names	The Trailside Killer
Conviction(s)	Attempted murder, attempted rape, kidnapping, murder, rape, robbery
Criminal penalty	Death
Details
Victims	8–10+
Span of crimes	August 19, 1979 – May 2, 1981
Country	United States
State(s)	California
Date apprehended	May 14, 1981
Imprisoned at	San Quentin State Prison

David Joseph Carpenter (born May 6, 1930), known as The Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist known for stalking and murdering a variety of individuals on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California. He attacked at least ten individuals and was convicted in seven murders and was confirmed to be the killer in an eighth murder; Carpenter is also suspected in two additional killings. Two victims, Steven Haertle and Lois Rinna, mother of television personality Lisa Rinna, survived. Carpenter used a .38 caliber handgun in all but one of the killings. A .44 caliber handgun was used in the killing of Edda Kane on Mount Tamalpais.

Early life

David Carpenter, a native of San Francisco, was physically abused as a child by his alcoholic father and domineering mother. As a boy he had a severe stutter, a persistent bed-wetting problem and exhibited cruelty to animals. At age 13, Carpenter was incarcerated for molesting two of his cousins.

Homicides

Carpenter's first attempted murder occurred in 1960, for which he spent seven years in prison. This was committed against Lois Rinna, the mother of future television personality Lisa Rinna. He was arrested for kidnapping in 1970 and spent another seven years behind bars. After his release, Carpenter became a suspect in the Zodiac murders, although he was eventually cleared.

From 1979 to 1981, Carpenter raped and killed five women in Santa Cruz County and Marin County. On May 10, 1988, a San Diego jury convicted him on five counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Richard Stowers, Cynthia Moreland, Shauna May, Diane O'Connell and Anne Alderson. He was found guilty of raping two of the women and attempting to rape a third. Carpenter was sentenced to die in the gas chamber and remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison.

Following his conviction for the Marin County murders, Carpenter was tried and convicted by a Santa Cruz jury for the murder and attempted rape of Ellen Hansen, the rape and murder of Heather Scaggs, and the attempted murder of Hansen's hiking companion, Steven Haertle. Hansen, who was a University of California-Davis student, has a memorial scholarship dedicated to her in honor of her courage during the attack, which allowed Haertle to escape alive. In 1995, the Santa Cruz convictions were overturned due to juror misconduct. The California Supreme Court later reinstated the Santa Cruz convictions.

In December 2009, the San Francisco Police Department reexamined evidence from the October 21, 1979 murder of Mary Frances Bennett, who was jogging at Lands End when she was attacked and stabbed to death. A DNA sample obtained from the evidence was matched to Carpenter through state Department of Justice files. In February 2010, police confirmed the match with a recently obtained sample from Carpenter. Carpenter is still a suspect in the murders of Edda Kane and Barbara Schwartz.

In popular culture

The Trailside killings provide the context for Joyce Maynard's 2013 novel After Her. On television, both The New Detectives and Born to Kill? made an episode about the case. In 2023, he was featured on a two-part episode of “Very Scary People”.

See also

• List of death row inmates in the United States
• List of serial killers by number of victims
• List of serial killers in the United States

References

1. Schechter, p. 102.
2. Clifford L. Linedecker (1997). Smooth Operator: The True Story of Seductive Serial Killer Glen Rogers. New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks. pp. intr. at xi. ISBN 0-312-96400-5.
3. Ramsland, Katherine. "The Trailside Killer of San Francisco: The Man Behind the Predator". TruTV Crime Library. Retrieved 5 April 2012.
4. ^ Smith, Chris (2 December 1980). "Local Slaying Victims, Point Reyes Bodies Identified, Cotati Women and Fiancee Were Shot". Newspapers.com. The Press Democrat. pp. 1, 12. Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
5. ^ Bergstrom, Mark (1981-07-31). "5 Trailside Murder Charges". Santa Cruz Sentinel. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
6. ^ Turner, Wallace (April 5, 1981). "SLAYING RENEWS FEARS OF A KILLER IN CALIFORNIA PARKS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
7. ^ Keraghosian, Greg (October 25, 2020). "'Do not hike alone': For 21 months, the Trailside Killer terrorized Bay Area's outdoors". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2020-10-25.
8. Penrose, Nerisha (April 19, 2019). "Lisa Rinna's Mother Lois Was Once Attacked by a Convicted Serial Killer". ELLE.
9. "People v. Carpenter (1999)". justia.com.
10. "As end to death row nears in California, we meet condemned inmates held in extreme conditions". Yahoo News. 2024-04-04. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
11. "People v. Carpenter - 15 Cal.4th 312 S004654 - Mon, 04/28/1997 | California Supreme Court Resources". scocal.stanford.edu.
12. Blair-Medeiros, Sara (August 8, 2018). "Scholarships". Women's Resources and Research Center.
13. "In re Carpenter - 9 Cal.4th 634 S011273 - Mon, 03/06/1995 | California Supreme Court Resources". scocal.stanford.edu.
14. Van Derbeken, Jaxon (February 24, 2010). "DNA ties Trailside Killer to '79 S.F. slaying". The San Francisco Chronicle.
15. "Five more slayings charged". Boca Raton News. May 27, 1981. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
16. Maynard, Joyce (August 14, 2013). "Echoes of the Savage and Sublime on Mount Tamalpais". The New York Times.

Sources

• Schechter, Harold (2003), The Serial Killer Files: The Who, What, Where, How, and Why of the World's Most Terrifying Murderers, Ballantine Books, ISBN 978-0-345-46566-5

Further reading

• Graysmith, Robert (April 3, 1991), The Sleeping Lady: The Trailside Murders Above the Golden Gate, Onyx, ISBN 978-0451402554

• 1930 births
• 1960 crimes in the United States
• 1979 murders in the United States
• 20th-century American criminals
• American male criminals
• American people convicted of attempted murder
• American people convicted of attempted rape
• American people convicted of kidnapping
• American people convicted of murder
• American people convicted of rape
• American people convicted of robbery
• American prisoners sentenced to death
• Serial killers from the San Francisco Bay Area
• Living people
• Murder in the San Francisco Bay Area
• People from San Francisco
• People convicted of murder by California
• Prisoners sentenced to death by California
• Serial killers from California
• Violence against women in California