Secret Los Angeles life of man dubbed the 'Boston Strip Mall Rapist'

Police say the secret life of an alleged serial rapist known as the “Boston Strip Mall Rapist,” who spent more than three decades on the run, started to unravel when he was spotted on a yacht in Los Angeles earlier this year.  

Stephen Paul Gale, 71, who realized he was being watched, attempted to flee, leading officers with the Los Angeles Police Department on a 90-minute pursuit that ultimately ended with his arrest.  

Authorities from Los Angeles and Boston were seen in Wilmington serving a search warrant on a large yacht named Dior in the marina, which was reportedly owned by Gale.  

The 71-year-old had been identified and charged in connection with the kidnapping, armed robbery and rape of two women in a Framingham, Mass. store in 1989.  

Authorities with the United States Marshals Service publicly named Gale as the suspect in May of this year.   

“He sexually assaulted both women while holding the gun to their heads,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told the WFXT Boston 25 News at the time.  

Evidence left behind at the scene led to the creation of a DNA profile in 2001, though there were no positive matches to the profile in law enforcement databases. It wasn’t until later, when investigators used forensic genetic genealogy, that Gale was identified as the suspected rapist. 

The 71-year-old is also wanted for questioning in a series of similar violent sexual assaults in the greater Boston area between 1989 and 1990, the U.S. Marshals Service said.   

He is believed to have lived in several different states, including in Las Vegas, Nevada, using different aliases that included Stephen Pisarcik, John Rossi and Paul Costa.   

“Are you kidding me,” Don Smollett, a resident of Wilmington Harbor, said when he learned about Gale’s history. “Well, I’ve talked to him. I don’t know a lot about him, but I’ve talked to him many, many times. He’s been here. He remodeled that boat. He brought it here.”  

Gale reportedly told some people that he was connected to the famous fashion company his yacht was named after.  

“According to the guy that was working on the boat, he said he was involved in Dior, perfume or [something],” Smollett told KTLA.  

Authorities say that the 71-year-old has been known to embezzle money from people and has a criminal record in Southern California going back to 1984. There are also reports that he may have previously had connections with organized crime.

The longtime fugitive, who is being held on $2 million bail, appeared in a Los Angeles court today on a decades-old check-forging case in L.A. County.  

It is unknown when authorities plan to extradite Gale to the Boston area.