American Notes California

On warm summer nights, many residents in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys of Los Angeles enjoyed sleeping with windows and doors open for fresh air. No more. Since March, a killer has been creeping into those open houses, shooting, stabbing and beating victims chosen apparently at random. The "Night Stalker," as the newspapers have named him, has killed at least 14 people. Homeowners in once sleepy communities are buying door bolts, locking windows and organizing neighborhood watch groups. The killer is believed to be a man with curly hair between the ages of 30 and 35. Police have been pursuing him with a task force led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sergeant Frank Salerno, who in 1979 helped solve the "Hillside Strangler" sex slayings of ten female victims. Last week police said they believe the Night Stalker traveled north to San Francisco earlier this month, where he entered an open window and attacked a sleeping couple, shooting to death Accountant Peter Pan, 66, and seriously injuring his wife.