The final chapter of a once-thought unsolvable cold case took a giant step in that direction in a Massachusetts court room last week.The suspect who eluded law enforcement for more than three decades in connection with the alleged rape of two women at gunpoint at a Hit and Miss store in Framingham was arraigned Monday in Middlesex Superior Court, a date with destiny made possible by his dramatic capture last August in California.Stephen Paul Gale, 71, faces four counts of aggravated rape, two counts of kidnapping and one count of armed robbery for the alleged sexual assault of two those victims in 1989.
Gale, who was ordered held without bail, will be back in Middlesex Superior Court on March 18 at 10 a.m.On the morning of Dec.
27, 1989, Gale allegedly entered the Hit or Miss Store on Route 9. Reportedly brandishing a .357 Magnum handgun, he forced two female employees, ages 18 and 29, to the back of the store.
Gale allegedly made one victim empty the money from a locked safe, the store’s register and her pocketbook into a bag. He made the second victim lock the doors and put a sign on the front door indicating the store would open late.Gale then allegedly forced the victims to take off their clothes before placing them in separate rooms.
He’s accused of sexually assaulting both women while holding the gun to their heads.This case likely would have remained cold except for the breakthroughs made in genetic testing, which provided evidence that enabled investigators to obtai.
