A Massachusetts serial rapist accused of raping two women at gunpoint nearly 35 years ago was taken into custody after a car chase by California police officers in Los Angeles County on Thursday.
A Los Angeles police source told Fox News Digital that suspect Steven Paul Gale, 71, was driving a Lincoln SUV and was attempting to flee from authorities before turning himself in around 5:30 p.m.
Gayle was identified and charged with four counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of armed robbery for the 1989 rape of two women at a convenience store in Framingham, Massachusetts, near Boston.
Authorities publicly identified him in connection with the May crime.
Gayle had lived in other states, used several aliases and had previous ties to organized crime, but efforts to locate him were unsuccessful, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said at the time.
Investigators said Gale entered the Hit or Miss store on Dec. 27, 1989, displayed a .357 Magnum handgun and forced two female employees to the back of the store.
Authorities said the man forced the two to remove their clothes and placed them in separate rooms.
“The suspect sexually assaulted both women while holding a gun to their heads,” Ryan’s office said. “When the suspect returned to the front of the store, the victims fled through a rear fire door into a nearby home.”
Evidence was collected at the scene and a DNA sample was later taken. A DNA profile was created in 2001, but it did not match anyone in law enforcement databases.
Authorities later identified Gayle as the suspected rapist through forensic genetic genealogy.
In addition to the two gunpoint rapes, Gayle was scheduled to be questioned in connection with a series of rapes that occurred in 1989 and 1990, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
