ESCAPE

Escape - Is a story of a serial killer in California who operated in 1960's - early 1970's. His identity remains unknown. The killer used to send coded messages to local news-press agency and contained four cyphers. Out of four cyphers, only one cypher is solved definitely.

On July 4, 1969, an unknown man attacks Darlene and Mike with a handgun at a lovers' lane in Vallejo, California. Only Mike survives.

One month later, a local newspaper agency "Good Morning San Francisco" receives encrypted letters written by the killer calling himself the "Escape," who threatens to kill a dozen people unless his coded message containing his identity is published. A part time cartoonist Robert Raven, who correctly guesses that his identity is not in the message, is not taken seriously by crime reporter Paul Embark or the editors and is excluded from the initial details about the killings.

When the newspaper publishes the letters, a married couple deciphers one. In September, the killer stabs law student Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepard at Lake Berryessa in Napa County; Cecelia dies two days later.

At the office, Embark makes fun of Raven before they discuss the coded letters. Raven interprets the letter, which Embark finds helpful, and he begins sharing information. One of Raven's insights about the letters is that the Escape's reference to man as "the most dangerous animal of them all" is a reference to the film The Most Dangerous Game, which features the villainous Count Zaroff, a man who hunts live human prey.

Two weeks later, San Francisco taxicab driver Paul Stine is shot and killed in the city's Presidio Heights district. The Escape killer mails pieces of Stine's bloodstained shirt to the newspaper agency along with a taunting letter. San Francisco police inspectors Dave Duncan and his partner Bill Arthur are assigned to the case by Captain Marty Lee, and work closely with Vallejo's Jack Mulanax and Captain Ken Narlow in Napa.

Someone claiming to be 'Escape' continues to send taunting letters and speaks on the phone with lawyer Melvin Oliver on a television talk show hosted by Jim Dunbar.

In 1971, Detectives Duncan, Arthur, and Mulanax question Jeromy Saddler, a suspect in the Vallejo case. They notice that he wears a 'Escape' wristwatch, with the same logo used by the killer and Duncan heavily suspects him. However, a handwriting expert insists that Saddler did not write the Escape letters, even though Saddler is said to be ambidextrous. Duncan receives a letter threatening his life; becoming paranoid, he turns to drugs and alcohol. He shares information with the Riverside Police Department that the killer might have been active before the initial killings, angering Duncan and Arthur. The case's notoriety weighs on Duncan, who is unable to sit through a Hollywood film, "The Man on Loose", closely based on the Escape case.

In 1978, Embark moves to the Sacramento Bee. Raven persistently contacts Duncan about the Escape murders, and eventually impresses him with his knowledge of the case. While Duncan cannot directly give Raven access to the evidence, he provides names in other police departments where Escape murders occurred.

Arthur transfers from the San Francisco Police homicide division, and Duncan is demoted for supposedly forging a Escape letter.

Raven continues his own investigation, profiled in the "Good Morning San Francisco", and gives a television interview about the book he is writing about the case. He begins receiving phone calls with heavy breathing. As his obsession deepens, Raven loses his job, and his wife Melanie leaves him, taking their children. Raven learns that Saddler lived close to Darlene and probably knew her and that his birthday matches the one Escape gave when he spoke to one of Oliver's maids.

While circumstantial evidence seems to indicate his guilt, the physical evidence, such as fingerprints and handwriting samples, do not implicate him. In 1983, Raven tracks Saddler to a Vallejo Ace Hardware store, where he is employed as a sales clerk; they stare at each other before Raven leaves.

Eight years later, after Raven's book, "Escape", has become a bestseller, Mike identifies Saddler from a police mugshot. Final text indicates that Saddler died before he could be questioned and that the case remains open till now.

Robert Raven's book "ESCAPE" advanced Jeromy Saddler as a potential suspect based on circumstantial evidence. Saddler had been interviewed by police from the early days of the Escape investigations and was the subject of several search warrants over a 20-year period.

In 2007 Robert Raven noted that several police detectives described Saddler as the most likely suspect. However, in 2010, Detective Duncan stated that all the evidence against Saddler ultimately" turned out to be negative leaving the case in cliffhanger and the "Escape Killer" remains a mystery to world till now.

(Based on True Events)

Krish Charlie...✒