Between September 1970 and June 1972, residents of Queens, New York, were terrified by the activities of a nocturnal prowler who invaded homes at random, striking on the weekends, slashing women in their beds. The first fatality occurred September 20, 1970, when Areti Koularmanis was killed in her home. Eighteen months elapsed, with four non-lethal attacks, before the stalker killed again on March 19, 1972. His victim was Camille Perniola, age 17, stabbed to death while she slept in her parents' home, in Queens. The unknown attacker was picking up his pace. On April 13, 1972, he killed 21-year-old Clara Toriello in her bed. On June 13, he reached through an open bedroom window to slash the face of a sleeping teenager, who survived her wounds. Two days later, in the predawn hours of June 15, another resident of Queens woke to find an armed man climbing through her bedroom window, saved by the screams that put him to flight. On June 17, in Jamaica, Queens, 16-year-old Deborah Januszko was less fortunate; she slept through the intruder's entry and was stabbed to death. While there were no reports of any victims being raped, police regarded the attacks as sex crimes. Several times, the prowler made a point of slicing his victim's brassiere, once pausing to slash a bra hanging outside, on a clothesline. At 1 a.m. on June 21, police arrested Joseph Baldi, 31, and charged him with the murder of Deborah Januszko. The hulking suspect -- 6 foot 4, 200 pounds -- had a ten-year record of commitment to mental institutions, including several terms at the Creedmore State Hospital in Queens. Five knives, a pistol, and a stack of porno magazines were found when homicide detectives searched his rented room, no more than fifty feet from the Januszko home. Nine months earlier, on September 5, 1971, Baldi had fired shots at policemen who surprised him during the burglary of a woman's home in Queens. Committed for psychiatric observation on October 19, he had been transferred to Creedmore on November 30 and then released, "by mistake," on January 21, 1972. The doctor who signed his release papers "didn't know" that Baldi was charged with attempted murder of a police officer. Examination of the suspect's hospital records revealed that Baldi was free on the nights when each of the ten attacks took place in Queens. On June 23, 1972, police spokesmen announced that all four homicides in the series were considered solved with Baldi's arrest.