Massachusetts rape suspect wanted for decades-old crimes captured after police chase in Los Angeles

A suspected serial rapist from Massachusetts accused of raping two women at gunpoint nearly 35 years ago led California law enforcement officers in Los Angeles County on a car chase Thursday before being taken into custody.

Stephen Paul Gale, 71, was driving a Lincoln SUV while trying to get away from authorities before surrendering around 5:30 p.m, a Los Angeles Police Department source told Fox News Digital. 

Gale was identified and charged with four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery of two women at a convenience store in Framingham, Massachusetts, near Boston, in 1989.

Authorities publicly identified him in connection with the crimes in May.

Gale lived in several other states, used multiple aliases and previously had 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, showed a .357 Magnum handgun and forced two female employees to the back of the store.

He forced them to take off their clothes and placed them in separate rooms, authorities said. 

“He sexually assaulted both women while holding the gun to their heads,” Ryan’s office said. “When the suspect returned to the front of the store, the victims fled out the rear fire door to a nearby home.”

Evidence was collected at the scene and a DNA sample was later obtained. A DNA profile was developed in 2001, but failed to match with anyone in law enforcement databases.

Authorities later identified Gale as the suspected rapist through forensic genetic genealogy.

In addition to the two rapes at gunpoint, Gale was wanted for questioning in connection with a series of rapes that occurred in 1989 and 1990, the US Marshals Service said.