Ballistics Tests Tie Slaying in S.F. to ‘Valley Intruder’

At least three different forms of evidence link the “Valley Intruder” to killings in San Francisco and the Los Angeles area, it was learned Friday.

These links are said to be ballistics tests, messages scrawled on walls and a “distinctive” piece of evidence the killer leaves behind in the homes of his victims. Not all three types of evidence are found in each of the cases.

Meanwhile, at a news conference late Friday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman R. Block said “We have now definitely tied 14 murders (including the one in San Francisco) to this individual and possibly as many as 33 individual cases that have occurred.”

Before the announcement investigators had linked the killer to only seven deaths (five others were under investigation) and a total of 27 attacks, including 15 rapes, beatings or kidnapings. The sheriff said details of the additional murders and other crimes would be released late Friday.

San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein told a news conference earlier in the day that the ballistics tests established the tie between a weekend homicide there and at least two of the 13 slayings in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys attributed to the killer.

A police official familiar with the investigation said the homicides in which the killer has used a weapon other than a gun are related by other “subtle but definite” evidence left behind in the homes of the victims. This evidence has been found in a majority of the cases and is “so distinctive” that it will enable police to rule out “copy cats,” the official said.

Message on Wall

Other sources said another clue--a specific message scrawled on a wall--was found in both the home in which the San Francisco couple were attacked and in the home of at least one victim in the Los Angeles area.

In addition, members of the 50-member interagency team set up to investigate the case are known to be looking into other common factors--including the fact that many of the victims--”a disproportionate number,” as one investigator put it--are of Asian descent.

The team has sent dental charts believed to be those of the killer to more than 3,000 dentists in the Los Angeles area. The charts were obtained from a dentist whose business card was found in a stolen automobile. Investigators believe that the car, recovered in March, had been used by the intruder during the abduction of a child. The dentist told police that the patient--who had used a phony name and address and had paid in cash--matched the description of the intruder. Investigators say little further evidence was recovered from the car.

The team is also continuing to check out reports that a maroon or brown 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix--possibly with a damaged right front fender--was spotted near the scene of a killing in Sun Valley. The team is discounting reports that a similar car was seen near the home of the San Francisco victims.

The Valley Intruder has been described by survivors as a curly haired man in his late 20s or early 30s with gapped and rotten teeth.

On Thursday, Block confirmed that the intruder had been linked to the weekend shooting in San Francisco that left accountant Peter Pan, 66, dead, and Pan’s wife, Barbara, 64, in critical condition with a bullet wound in the head.

On Friday, Feinstein also announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the killer. The San Francisco reward is in addition to the $10,000 posted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and to two anonymous donations--$10,000 from one donor and $10 from another--to the supervisors’ reward. The city of Arcadia, where two slayings linked to the Valley Intruder occurred, has posted a $5,000 reward.

Responding to a reporter’s question, Feinstein said a ballistics test was the key link between the San Francisco and Los Angeles-area attacks. A police official in Los Angeles said the tests showed that the gun used on the Pans was also used in two murders here--one in Sun Valley, the other in Diamond Bar.

Both Feinstein and the official declined to elaborate on the caliber of the gun or other specific findings, but the San Francisco mayor did appeal to the public for any leads in the case.

“Somewhere in the Bay Area, someone is renting a room, an apartment or a home to this vicious serial killer,” Feinstein said, indicating a belief that the killer may still be in Northern California. Investigators in Los Angeles say he may have returned to the Southland.

A police official said the “subtle but definite” evidence that links the Los Angeles-area murders is something that’s “common, but not kinky. . . .”

Sources close to the case have declined to describe the words scrawled on the walls other than to deny they were “Jack the Ripper,” as reported by some news media. The FBI has prepared a psychological profile of the Valley Intruder based on information provided by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, Los Angeles police officers and other Los Angeles-area peace officers involved in the case.

On Friday, John Holford, public information officer for the FBI in San Francisco, said San Francisco police are providing additional information that will be sent to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., to flesh out the profile.

The contents of the profile have not been made public.

At his Friday news conference Block also criticized some police agencies and news organizations for releasing what he called “very crucial, sensitive” information regarding the search for the killer.

“This places our community in jeopardy . . . and it impedes our ability to go forward with our investigation,” he said.

Times staff writers Mark A. Stein and Dan Morain contributed to this story.