| David Carpenter | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name: | David Joseph Carpenter |
| Also known as: | The Trailside Killer |
| Born: | May 6, 1930 San Francisco, California |
| Conviction: | Attempted Murder Attempted Rape Kidnapping Murder Rape |
| Sentence: | Death |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 9+ |
| Span of killings: | 1960 – December 28, 1980 |
| Country: | USA |
| State(s): | California |
| Date apprehended: | May 14, 1981 |
David Joseph Carpenter (born May 6, 1930), aka the Trailside Killer,[1] is an American serial killer known for stalking and murdering women on hiking trails near San Francisco, California.[2]
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Born and raised in San Francisco, Carpenter was physically abused as a child by his alcoholic father and domineering mother. As a child, he suffered a severe stutter and a bed-wetting problem, and tortured animals. At 17, he was incarcerated for molesting two of his cousins.[3]
He married in 1955, a union that produced three children.
Carpenter committed his first documented murder in 1960, for which he spent seven years in prison. In 1970, he was arrested for kidnapping, and spent a further seven years behind bars. After his release, he was a suspect in the notorious Zodiac murders, although he was eventually cleared.
From 1979-1980, he raped and murdered five women and was suspected of killing at least two others. He was eventually arrested and found guilty of the murders, for which he was sentenced to die in the gas chamber. He remains on San Quentin's death row.[4]
In December 2009, San Fracisco police reexamined evidence from the October 21, 1979 murder of Mary Frances Bennett. Bennett, 23 years old at the time of her murder, had been jogging at Lands End, San Francisco when she was attacked and stabbed to death. A DNA sample obtained from the evidence was matched to Carpenter through state Department of Justice files. In February 2010, San Francisco police confirmed the match with a recently obtained sample from Carpenter.[5]
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