A NEIGHBORHOOD RATTLED BY RAPE – 23 Jun 1994 P-D

FROM STREET TO STREET, block to block and porch to porch, one man is on the minds of the women in the Shaw neighborhood: the rapist in their midst.

In the last 13 months, nine rapes or sexual assaults have been committed in a 12-square-block area of the Shaw neighborhood. The women who live here feel, to varying degrees, vulnerable, wary, frightened and furious.

A middle-aged white woman who loves to garden says she has seen the young black man with angry eyes, pictured in the police sketch of the suspect. A black teen-ager thinks she knows one of his victims.

Police have increased patrols in the area, and 20 police officers are working day and night on the case. But rape is a perplexing crime. Too often the confusion, terror and shame rape engenders in its victims weave a dark, protective cloak around the rapist. And until he is caught, the women are on guard and on edge.

Karen and Deborah (not their real names) moved to the Shaw neighborhood a year ago to escape the violent crime of their neighborhoods. Karen lived near the Murphy Blair public housing complex. Deborah lived on Pleasant Avenue. Both wanted their children to grow up out of the cross hairs of crack dealers and gang members. Now they are wondering if they haven’t traded the frying pan for the fire.

“I was up until 4 a.m. last night,” said Karen, 27, who lives in a flat on Shenandoah Avenue with her young sons. “They say you are supposed to keep the TV and the lights on and close your windows. But it’s too damned hot to close the windows. So I’m awake.”

“I have daughters,” said Deborah. “My 13-year-old is scared to death. We were in the kitchen the other night, and she didn’t want me to open the back door.”

The Shaw neighborhood is a racially and economically diverse area with a strong sense of community. Blocks of well-tended houses owned by middle-class families stand next to blocks of run-down flats rented by welfare mothers and drug dealers.

The rapes occurred in the area bounded by Shenandoah Avenue on the north, Magnolia Avenue on the south, Grand Boulevard on the east and Tower Grove Avenue on the west.

Seven of the nine assaults appear to fit a pattern that police admitted they failed to see until last month. The rapist entered women’s homes through unlocked windows or doors during the early morning hours. All of the victims lived alone, except one who had a young child. Six of the victims were white, one Asian.

The rapist was unarmed. He surprised and overpowered his victims and did not inflict any other physical injuries. Some of the victims even told police the rapist was “somewhat polite,” and may have worn a condom.

The suspect is described as a black man, about 20 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 130 to 160 pounds, with slender, athletic build and medium complexion. He is cleanshaven, has a long chin and high cheek bones. Police say he is physically fit and usually clean and well-kept.

Cordelia, 17, catches the bus to summer school when the streets are empty. She watches the alleys every step of the three-block walk from home to the bus stop.

“I watch my back,” she said. “If he is watching for me, I have to be watching for him.”

Anna Crosslin feels she must take aggressive steps to keep the community involved in finding the rapist. She is the president of the Shaw Neighborhood Improvement Association.

Crosslin spent Wednesday morning printing fliers bearing a composite sketch of the rapist and an offer of a $1,000 reward for information leading to his conviction. On the back of the flier is the number of the rape information hot line. Nearly 800 fliers will be taken door-to-door this week, she said.

Crosslin said she is not frightened because she does not fit the victim profile.

“I’m not terrified, but there is a new level of awareness of my surroundings,” Crosslin said. “Undoubtedly, some people will think about leaving the neighborhood because of the rapes. I look at it this way: Risk is everywhere. Angie Housman didn’t live in the city.”

Angie, 9, was abducted near her home in St. Ann last year and later found murdered.

Mahina Nightsage, 35, has lived in the Shaw neighborhood for 13 years. She is installing burglar bars on her windows, but she is not about to move.

“Initially I was angry and afraid,” Nightsage said. “Now I feel indignant. I am not about to be chased out of my neighborhood or made to feel unsafe living in my neighborhood. I am furious that . . . this man is mocking our community, mocking the police and mocking those who live here.”

If anything, Nightsage said, she is more committed to staying in the Shaw neighborhood than she was before the rapes.

“I should still be able to water my lawn, walk my dog at night, stand at a bus stop and do all the things we do in a community,” Nightsage said. “I refuse to change that because this man is out there.”

FIGHTING FEAR WITH FACTS – 17 Jun 1994 P-D

St. Louis police rightly apologized to residents of the Shaw neighborhood for taking so long to link a number of rapes in the area. The police now think that a single rapist may be responsible for as many as seven rapes in the past 13 months; an eighth rape is considered unrelated. In each of the incidents, the rapist attacked the woman late at night and in her home. In every case but one, the woman lived alone.

Clearly, the police do not want to cause a panic. But they should not have waited until they thought a serial rapist was on the loose to warn women of the danger. Eight rapes in 13 months in a relatively small neighborhood are a lot; in and of itself that warrants telling women to be extra careful.

This is the second time in recent memory that police have been reluctant to warn women of a rapist or rapists on the loose. Late last year, police kept quiet an investigation into seven rapes out of fear that publicity would frustrate the man’s apprehension. Alderman Mary Ross of the 5th Ward expressed outrage: “Had the department issued one press release or had one press conference . . . we probably would not have seven victims.”

Ms. Ross was right then, and the logic still holds. Certainly, a warning may prevent a rape. Providing information may also help in bringing the criminal to justice. First, neighborhood residents may become more observant, thus noticing unfamiliar or unusual people, cars or events. Second, enlisting women’s cooperation builds their trust and confidence in the police so that they’re willing to cooperate fully in an investigation.

Everyone is eager for this rapist to be caught and taken out of circulation. In the meantime, women in and outside of Shaw should obey the first law of safety: Keep those doors and windows locked.