Boston "Strip Mall Rapist" Leads LAPD on 90 Minute Chase Before He Was Nabbed

A suspected serial rapist linked through DNA to the 1989 attacks on two women in Framingham, Massachusetts, was nabbed Thursday night after a chase through the streets and freeways of Los Angeles, officials confirmed Friday.

Stephen Paul Gale, 71, was identified and charged with four counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping and a count of armed robbery of two women in a Framingham, Mass. store in 1989. He has been on the run for decades, using a slew of aliases including “Stephen Pisarcik,” “John Rossi,” and “Paul Costa.”and was the subject of a U.S. Marshals manhunt that led agents to Las Vegas.

"Gale was recently identified through genetic genealogy as the subject responsible for a series of rapes in Boston from 1989 to 1990. At the time, the unknown subject was called the Boston Strip Mall Rapist," the U.S. Marshals service said Friday. "Gale was on the run for a number of years before he was publicly identified as the subject and was last seen in 2008."

Gale got his nickname the "Boston Strip Mall Rapist" after he reportedly forced two women into the back of a Framingham, Massachusetts department store, had them empty money from a safe, made them undress and put them in separate rooms.where he raped them on Dec. 27, 1989.  He fled, and the case went cold for decades.

It's unclear what prompted the slow speed chase that led to Gales' arrest but the pursuit started near the Port of Los Angeles. The suspect traveled north towards Westchester using a few freeways, mainly the I-405.

He circled side streets around the LAX area, often using surface streets to drive around Westchester and Inglewood. As many as seven LAPD patrol cars could be seen following behind the suspect as they continued to lead the slow-speed chase.