Mather Air Force Base was a major military installation beside Rancho Cordova, where its presence helped shape the community and later figured in speculation about the East Area Rapist’s background. The book links the base to the area’s growth and to investigators’ consideration of military training as one possible explanation for the offender’s conduct, while offering no evidence that he served at Mather or had any direct connection to it.

Setting and Local History

Mather Air Force Base opened in 1918. Rancho Cordova, on the south bank of the American River, had earlier histories as farmland, a gold-dredging area, and a vineyard. The Cold War brought a decisive change: in 1953, Aerojet opened its headquarters in Rancho Cordova, setting off a boom in housing for its employees. Roads were paved and divided among modest, single-story tract houses, and families in the community were commonly connected either to the military or to Aerojet.

A Military Presence

The base was part of a broader military presence around Sacramento. At the time described, five military installations lay within an hour’s drive of the city, and Mather alone had roughly eight thousand personnel. That scale made a military connection seem plausible to observers, but proximity and community association did not establish an individual connection to the base.

The Base in the Investigation

Investigators and people who encountered the East Area Rapist discussed the possibility that he had a military background. The speculation drew on reports of army-green clothing and occasional black, lace-up military-style boots, as well as witnesses’ impressions of his authoritative posture and unyielding manner. His use of a cup and saucer balanced on a bound victim as an alarm system was also interpreted by some as resembling a technique from jungle warfare. These details prompted theories; they did not confirm military service or identify Mather as a source of training.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department sought help from an army colonel trained in Special Forces techniques to understand the offender’s methods. The colonel emphasized patience, concealment, sensitivity to noise, and the ability to plan escape routes. The department also borrowed military night-vision equipment and movement detectors used in Vietnam while deploying other resources to search for the offender. The account thus places Mather within a landscape where military personnel and expertise were present, but distinguishes that regional context from proof of the East Area Rapist’s own history.

Narrative Significance

Mather’s significance is chiefly contextual: it helps explain why a military hypothesis circulated in Rancho Cordova and the surrounding Sacramento area. The same facts that made the theory imaginable—the base’s size, the community’s military ties, and the offender’s reported methods—remain circumstantial. The contrast is central to the account: investigators could draw on military equipment and expertise, yet the offender remained at large, blending into an ordinary residential landscape.