Little Hope of Catching Caller Seen : Crime: Police say methods used by man who has called more than 50 women with ransom demands have made it difficult to track him.

Unless the man who has been harassing San Gabriel Valley women with threatening telephone calls changes his method of operation or reveals his crimes to an acquaintance, police say there is little chance of catching him.

Since April, more than 50 women from Pasadena to West Covina have been called by the man, who says he is holding each woman’s husband hostage at gunpoint and demands ransom money for his release. The caller, who has an East Coast accent, also insists that victims call him “sir,” and frequently asks the women sexually explicit questions.

No husband has actually been held hostage, and police said no one has paid the caller any ransom money. In most cases, the women called their husbands to make sure they were safe before contacting police.

Officers from 10 San Gabriel Valley law enforcement agencies are investigating the calls, which increased in frequency during the past month. But because the man picks his victims seemingly at random and has not called the same woman twice, investigators say he is virtually unstoppable.

“He could probably get away with this forever,” Monrovia Police Sgt. Ron Buck said.

In investigating obscene or harassing telephone calls, Buck said, the standard approach is for police to set an electronic “trap” on the victim’s telephone line. Once installed by the telephone company, the trap traces all incoming calls.

Although one recent victim received a trap, the caller has not called again, Buck said.

In some states, telephone companies offer customers a caller-identification service. This allows people to see the telephone numbers of calls coming into their homes or businesses and has led to dramatic drops in reports of obscene and harassing phone calls, Pac Bell spokeswoman Kathleen Flynn said. Similar service will be available in California in mid-1991, she said.

Pasadena Police Det. Dennis Edwards said such a system would make investigating this case easier. “It would help immensely, and I’m sure it’d cut down on the number of annoying phone calls that would occur” in general, he said.

Without benefit of an incriminating telephone number, investigators have looked for a pattern to the calls in hopes of uncovering a suspect.

Sgt. Tom More of the Temple City substation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said an informal exchange of data has occurred between the 10 law enforcement agencies investigating the calls.

By pooling data, authorities found that the caller picks couples listed jointly in the phone book, and he calls their home on weekday mornings after the husband would have presumably left for work. But that has not led authorities any closer to a suspect, More said.

Investigators said they are looking for suspects among people with previous criminal histories of making obscene or harassing calls. Although this approach has supplied an ample number of names, the law does not permit authorities to request phone bills or impose other measures without evidence that would make someone a clear suspect in the case, Pasadena Police Sgt. Monte Yancey said.

“So we proved that (a hypothetical suspect) was in Culver City at the same time someone in Culver City was called. Then we’re supposed to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he did it? It’s not going to happen,” Yancey said.

Yancey and other law enforcement officials said the best chance of catching the caller is a tip from the public.

“There’s no amount of (police) manpower in the world that can help you in a case like this,” Yancey said. But as the crimes are publicized, he said that someone to whom the caller has revealed his actions may notify authorities.

Sheriff’s Lt. Phil Bullington, who is working with More on the case, agreed that publicity may help ferret out the culprit.

“As they get a lot of publicity, they can’t help telling somebody, ‘Hey, that’s me,’ ” Bullington said of many criminals. “That is something that gets a lot of people caught.”

Police, telephone company officials and mental health professionals agree that women who get such calls should simply hang up and call the police.

Dr. Eli Coleman, a psychologist in the human sexuality department of the University of Minnesota Medical School, said callers who ask sexually explicit questions are usually paraphilics--people who get sexual arousal from behaviors, such as phone calls, that most people would not find sexually gratifying.

By hanging up, a victim discourages the caller’s behavior, he said.

“What they’re looking for is the response,” Coleman said. “When there is no response, that is the best way to extinguish the behavior.”

Since April, more than 50 women in the San Gabriel Valley have been the victims of a harassing telephone caller. Communities in which the incidents have been reported are Altadena, Arcadia, Azusa, Glendora, La Crescenta, Monrovia, Pasadena, Temple City, West Covina and Walnut. According to police, the caller targets couples jointly listed in the telephone book. He usually calls on weekday mornings and tells the woman that he is holding her husband at gunpoint for ransom.