No such tip or mistake has surfaced yet in the East Bay attacks. The latest attacks happened Wednesday, when a woman was raped at Chabot College in Hayward and a student was snatched off her bicycle on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and beaten senseless. The woman was listed in critical but stable condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland. And there are enough differences in the East Bay attacks to make police believe there may be more than one predator responsible. In four of the East Bay attacks, the rapist carried a knife and threatened to kill the woman, but in others, no weapon was seen.
Police have one sketch based on a victim's account.
The similarities in the cases are few, but significant. Most of the attacks have occurred on or near college campuses. The assailant wore a ski mask in nine attacks and an animal mask in two. He usually beats his victims with his fists, robs them and strips them. And with an increasing tendency toward violence, pounding his victims more viciously as the weeks go by, he may be planning to kill soon.