The Trailside Killer, Part 1

This month I’ll be sharing a 3-part miniseries. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Northern California was terrorized by a series of random murders that took place on hiking trails in state parks, national forests and coastal lands. The public began to suspect that a serial killer was lurking among them and the media began referring to him as “The Trailside Killer”. In this first part, I’ll detail some of the Trailside Killers earliest victims and describe how he was allowed to slip through the cracks in the criminal justice system and set loose to stalk and kill more than ten people. Resources: The Sleeping Lady: The Trailside Murders Above the Golden Gate by Robert Graysmith, Penguin Books, (1990) People v. Carpenter, Supreme Court of California, Nov 29, 1999.

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