EAST SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ He sawed wooden two-by-fours to wedge shut the windows and sliding glass door. He tucked a loaded revolver between his mattress and box spring. He leaned a 12-gauge shotgun against the bedroom wall, loaded with #4 buckshot to "pack some oomph."
It was October 1977. News of a man dubbed the East Area Rapist saturated Victor Hayes' hardscrabble East Sacramento neighborhood. The masked man already had raped and terrorized a couple dozen people in the region over the past year.
Hayes, like many others, was taking no chances.
But in the early hours of Oct. 1, Hayes and his girlfriend forgot to prop that wooden slat into the track of the sliding glass door. He woke up to a flashlight blinding his face _ the calling card of the serial rapist and killer.
Hayes was tied up, a gun pressed to his temple, and his girlfriend was raped. For 41 years, he spoke little of the half-hour of terror that would define his life. But now that Joseph DeAngelo, the 72-year-old Citrus Heights man suspected of carrying out the infamous crime spree, has been arrested, Hayes is sharing the story exclusively with the Bay Area News Group. He is providing one of the few, if any, public accounts told from the perspective of a male victim survivor _ including never-before-shared secrets about that horrible night.
"Since this guy got caught, I beat the s--- outta myself bad cause I shoulda found this guy a long time ago. This guy has been all around me," Hayes said, taking a deep, long pause. "It's shaped the way I've been my whole life. It's made me distrustful of people in authority. I'm quick to be able to notice faults in people."
Investigators have told Hayes that he and his girlfriend were victims of the East Area Rapist's 24th assault. The serial rapist _ also known as the Golden State Killer _ would, before he was caught, kill 13 people and rape more than 50 women up and down the state during the 1970s and '80s. And while they won't prosecute Hayes' and his girlfriend's case because the statute of limitations has lapsed, they hope he can testify during DeAngelo's trial.
Finally tracked through DNA and arrested on April 24, DeAngelo has been charged with a fraction of the crimes he is believed to have committed _ including a dozen sexual assaults in Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties. He appeared in Sacramento County Superior Court last Thursday for a brief pretrial hearing and will return in September.
Hayes' girlfriend and other women suffered physical and mental trauma at the hands of the Golden State Killer. Their loved ones suffered as well. Men were present in about two-thirds of the attacks. Some were murdered, others bound, taunted and terrorized _ helpless while their loved ones were raped and assaulted.
"I've found that men today generally want to bury their memories of the attacks, while women want to see the guy get caught," said Paul Holes, a retired Contra Costa crime lab chief who helped capture DeAngelo.
"In many ways the men feel like they've failed to protect their loved ones."
Hayes admitted that it's complicated why he's suddenly talking after four decades of silence. He said the attack left him embarrassed, emasculated and angry. In a series of interviews, he expressed regret, anger, frustration and an agenda.
"People are making money off of it, and I'm not, and I don't like it. It leaves a foul taste in my mouth," he said. "So I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to make money off of this."
At the same time, Hayes, 62, a self-employed logger who splits his time between Plumas County and Auburn, said sharing his struggles is therapeutic.
Since that night, he has kept a close eye on neighbors, strangers and coworkers looking for short, stocky men who might match the image seared into his mind. He thought he would capture him. He has a hard time forgiving himself for not.
