By Dan Verbeck
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-977854.mp3
KANSAS CITY, MO. – There is no more "alleged" about it. The man accused as the Waldo Rapist from the 1980's is found guilty late this afternoon.
53 year old Bernard Jackson is convicted by a Jackson County Circuit Court Jury.
The verdicts were read on 18 counts, one after another, guilty of rape, guilty of sodomy, guilty of robbery.
Jackson was tried after DNA evidence from attacks on women in 1983 and 84 pointed to a match with his genetic makeup. Fingerprints left at one woman's house also tied the defendant to the crimes. Defenders were unable to shake testimony from DNA science experts that there is a 180 billion to one likelihood Jackson raped the women.
Jackson still has to go to trial for other Kansas City rapes in the past two years.
A series of sexual attacks on women in the Waldo and Armour Hills neighborhoods of Kansas City had gone unsolved for decades until cold case searches arrived at Jackson as likely suspect.