May 6, 1930 - 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 victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1979 and 1981. He was sentenced to death for seven murders and is believed to be responsible for several more.

Carpenter began committing sexual assaults at age 15 and was admitted to a mental hospital at age 17. He committed all of his murders while on parole for rape and kidnapping convictions. Active primarily in Marin County and Santa Cruz County, Carpenter would hide along tree lines on secluded trails and wait for his target to approach and then would restrain, rape, and sometimes torture them before killing them. A .38 caliber handgun was his preferred weapon, which was used 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.

Both of Carpenter's trials had to be moved to Southern California due to extensive publicity.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David Carpenter under CC BY-SA 4.0.