Crimes of the Times: Featuring “Man in the Window” (Ep. 1: Phantom in the Fog)

LA Times Studios | Host: Christopher Goffard | Reported by Paige St. John | First released: May 20, 2025

Episode Overview

This featured episode, “Phantom in the Fog,” marks the dramatic opening of the acclaimed investigative series Man in the Window, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paige St. John. The show traces the origins and escalation of the Golden State Killer (GSK), revealing his early trajectory from break-ins and voyeurism to sexual violence and murder. Through the voices of victims, families, and law enforcement, the episode cuts through popular myths with an intent focus on the human cost, illuminating how attitudes and law enforcement failures of the 1970s allowed the GSK’s reign of terror to endure for decades.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Early Warnings: The Bonnie Caldwell Story

• Bonnie’s Breakup and Threatening Encounter (00:50–02:55)

  • Bonnie Caldwell, as a teenager, ended her engagement to her older, volatile Vietnam vet fiancé (“Jo”).
  • Weeks after the breakup, Jo reappeared, tapping at her bedroom window and pointing a gun at her face—a memory Bonnie repressed for 49 years, until he was identified as the Golden State Killer.
  • Quote:

    “Tap on the window. And I just pulled...the cotton curtain...he was pointing a gun at my face.” —Bonnie Caldwell [02:43]

• Patterns of Obsession

  • The early focus on Bonnie’s story highlights the stalker’s ability to blend into normality, and how his violence began with personal, targeted confrontations.

2. Law Enforcement Blind Spots & Methodical Criminal Escalation

• Sergeant Richard Shelby’s Investigation (05:37–08:52)

  • The community of Rancho Cordova, an Air Force suburb with a false sense of security, experiences odd burglaries that are initially dismissed as petty theft.
  • Quote:

    "He took silver coins, he took cash. He took jewelry. Sometimes he'd take one set, one piece." — Sgt. Shelby [06:16]

  • The burglar (“Cordova Cat Burglar”) avoided valuable items, instead stealing tokens belonging to women and even photos.
  • He used careful tactics to ensure escape—blocking entries, creating escape routes, and disabling noise devices.

• Transition to “Hot Prowling” and Sexual Sociology (07:29–09:00)

  • By 1973, the intruder evolves from a daytime burglar to a nighttime prowler, entering homes while residents slept.
  • Increasingly, his crimes involve sexual intrusion—exposing himself, moving women’s underwear, and standing over victims as they slept.
  • Law enforcement, hampered by societal attitudes toward “nuisance crimes” like peeping, fails to prioritize or connect these early patterns.

3. The Visalia Ransacker: Violence Moves South

• Beth Snelling’s Story (14:29–23:39)
  • In Visalia, 200 miles south, the pattern repeats—break-ins, stolen personal items, and a “town pervert” the community underestimates.
  • Beth’s family is targeted. Her father, Claude Snelling, once scares the prowler off, but months later, tragedy strikes.
  • In a harrowing sequence, the prowler enters Beth’s home, tries to abduct her, and shoots her father when he intervenes.
  • Memorable moment:

    “I woke up to someone on top of me...with this growly, raspy voice saying, ‘You know, you’re coming with me. Don’t scream or I’ll stab you to death.’” —Beth Snelling [18:27]
    “And that’s when he fired at my dad twice...and he got back up.” [19:46]

  • The murder devastates the family, highlighting the killer’s growing boldness and the psychological scars left on survivors and their communities.

4. Law Enforcement Tactics and Missed Opportunities

• Setting Traps & Criminal Psychology (23:39–27:11)
  • Police use innovative measures—like raking dirt for footprints—to try to catch the prowler, finally catching a brief sighting but failing to apprehend him.
  • Psychiatrists profile the intruder as a compulsive sexual voyeur, driven more by risk and violation than theft or even sexual assault alone.
  • Quote:

    “He isn’t going to stop. He can’t stop.” —State hospital doctor, via Visalia detectives [26:59]

5. Serial Rape in 1970s California: An Epidemic Unchecked

• Detective Shelby on the “Early Bird Rapist” (30:28–36:16)
  • Shelby, now an inspector, returns to a detective bureau swamped by rape cases, many never solved.
  • With only a 6% clearance rate, the system heavily favors offenders—especially those who wear masks and gloves. Most serial rapes are only solved by accident.
  • Quote:

    “It's such a solitary crime. It's not one they brag to their buddies about, you know?” —Lt. Ray Root [31:14]

  • Shelby’s cross-desk “investigating by gossip” uncovers patterns: home invasions, staged entries, and methodically timed attacks.
  • These early cases mirror the later violence: “There’s no question we had a serial rapist.” —Shelby [36:12]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I just don’t want to marry you anymore.” —Bonnie Caldwell [01:51]
• “At first glance, it seems like a middle class suburb, but…there are no street lights, and the homes are a little too close together. It has the appearance of being middle class, but without the security.” —Narration [04:57]
• “Cat burglars are not so interested in what they steal as the risk they take. They’re drawn by the sexual thrill, the danger of being caught.” —Narration [07:29]
• “Your odds of catching a peeping tom? ...You’d be surprised how many are out there.” —Sgt. Shelby [08:52]
• “Someone had offered to take out all the...blood-stained carpet through the living room and the hallway and also in my bedroom. And then they painted it because there was just like that black…fingerprint dust everywhere.” —Beth Snelling [21:59]
• “Armed with a psychiatrist's profile, Visalia detectives turn next to the doctors at a state hospital for sexual offenders...They give police a warning: He isn’t going to stop. He can’t stop.” —Narration [26:50]

Timeline of Key Events

[00:50–02:55]

Bonnie Caldwell’s engagement ends; she is threatened at gunpoint by ex-fiancé (“the man in the window”).

[05:37–09:04]

Sgt. Shelby investigates unusual burglaries in Rancho Cordova; sexual motive emerges; police underestimate escalation.

[14:29–23:39]

Visalia Ransacker terrorizes Beth Snelling’s family; Claude Snelling murdered defending his daughter from attempted kidnapping.

[23:39–27:11]

Police and psychiatrists collaborate to profile and trap the Ransacker; psychological compulsions identified, but suspect eludes capture.

[30:28–36:16]

Detective Shelby investigates multiple serial rapist cases; slow system, low conviction rates; patterns of predation emerge.

Tone and Style

The episode is deeply empathetic but also direct, with investigative rigor and a cinematic, foreboding tone. Survivors, law enforcement, and the community speak with a resigned, sometimes haunted realism—voices of trauma, frustration, and hindsight. Paige St. John’s narration threads context and urgency, showing how missed opportunities and cultural blind spots emboldened the killer, while the victims and their families bore the lasting burden.

Conclusion

This chilling opening episode makes clear that the Golden State Killer’s spree did not happen in a vacuum: his crimes were enabled by societal denial, law enforcement limitations, and the normalization of violence against women in the 1970s. As it moves from personal stories to broad systemic analysis, “Man in the Window” sets the stage for a deeply reported series on the hidden traumas and ongoing legacies of California’s most infamous predator.