David Joseph Carpenter
David Joseph Carpenter was also known as the Trailside Killer due to his preference for stalking and murdering women when they were on hiking trails around San Fransisco.
He was first convicted of attempted murder in 1960, and he spent seven years behind bars. On his release, he continued to attack women and was a suspect in the Zodiac case at one point but was cleared as the Zodiac killer.
He raped and murdered seven women from 1979 to 1980 and is thought to have killed more than this. He preyed on lone women walking or jogging along the trails. He would rape them and then shoot them dead.
He was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to the death penalty. It was confirmed that he had murdered another woman in1979 when the case was re-opened. DNA evidence matched Carpenter through Department of Justice files. She had been stabbed while jogging at Lands End, San Francisco.
He remains on death row to this day, waiting for his execution.
