After disappearing in 1979 while awaiting his sentencing for three rape charges, Gary Allen Irving of Rockland, Ma., assumed a brand new identity, married and started a family outside of Portland, police said on Thursday.

"As far as I can see, he lived an ordinary life in a middle-class suburb," said neighbor Leroy Dixon, who knew Irving by his middle name Al.

The Patriot Ledger reported that Irving, who worked installing telephones at businesses, was residing in Gorham and using the name Gregg Irving when he was put behind bars on Wednesday night by the Main and Massachusetts State Police, Gorham police and the FBI.

The police said that Irving and his wife were watching TV and that a 3-year-old girl was inside the house when the police came to arrest him.

"He was surprised to find law enforcement on his front door," Main State Police Sgt. Robert Burke said.

Irving, 52, is scheduled to appear in court on Friday for charges of being a fugitive from justice and a felon in possession of firearms.

He was being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail. The prison had no information on whether or not he'd hired an attorney.

Irving was on the Massachusetts Top 10 Most Wanted list for over three decades. He had gone into hiding while awaiting his sentencing for three rapes of young women in Norfolk County, which carried the potential for life in prison.

All of the acts, which were committed in Cohasset, Weymouth and Holbrook, were done in the summer of 1978.

Now that Maine law enforcement is aware of Irving's true identity, they'll be looking into more unsolved rape cases in order to see if he may have been involved in them, said Steve McCausland, spokesperson for the Main Department of Public Safety.

Tags: offbeat