The Golden State Killer was a man who used to rape women and then started killing them. He scared people in California in the 1970s and 1980s. Joseph DeAngelo was arrested in 2018 after DNA evidence showed he was the killer. He pleaded guilty in June 2020.
Who Is the Killer in the Golden State?
The Golden State Killer is the person who broke into homes, raped women, and killed people all over California in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1976 to 1979, a person called the East Area Rapist was blamed for more than 40 rapes in northern California. Between 1979 and 1986, a serial killer in southern California known as the Original Night Stalker killed ten people. In 2001, DNA testing proved that the same person had killed and raped these women. Crime writer Michelle McNamara called this person the “Golden State Killer.” A former police officer whose name is Joseph DeAngelo was arrested and charged with 13 murders and other crimes related to the Golden State Killer in 2018. DeAngelo pleaded guilty in June 2020, and in August he was given a sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole.
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Crimes:
Before he started raping and killing people, the Golden State Killer broke into homes in the city of Visalia in northern California between 1974 and 1975. The Visalia Ransacker stole small items from the homes he broke into and spent time looking through women’s underwear drawers. In 1975, the Ransacker tried to kidnap a teenage girl. When the girl’s father tried to stop him, the Ransacker killed him.
First Reported Rape:
In June 1976, the Golden State Killer was linked to the first reported rape, which happened in Sacramento County. After this attack, more attacks took place in the east of Sacramento County. The Golden State Killer became known as the East Area Rapist at this point in his criminal career. Between 1976 and 1979, he would attack more than 40 women in northern California.
During Crimes:
The Golden State Killer spent hours at a time in the homes of his victims, sometimes stopping to eat or cry in between attacks. He also stole things that were important to people, like jewellery or photos. At first, he went after women and girls who were alone or with children. Two of his victims were only 13 years old. By 1977, he was going after couples. Golden State Killer would often break into a house, have a woman victim tie up her male partner, and then put dishes on the back of the man who was tied. The rapist would tell the couple that he would kill them if these things fell, and then he would attack the woman. Some of the victims were later called by the person who hurt them to make fun of them.
Hang up Phone Before an Attack:
Often, the Golden State Killer would hang up the phone before an attack. He seemed to watch houses and neighbourhoods, usually single-story homes, to get a sense of his targets before acting. As the rapes kept happening, scared people in the Sacramento area put themselves on high alert, bought new locks, and got weapons. Later, an officer working on the case said, “I had never seen anything like the fear in the community. Everywhere people went, they were afraid.”
Murder in Stockton:
The Golden State Killer raped a woman in Stockton near to Sacramento in 1977. He quickly started looking for people in Modesto, San Jose, and Contra Costa County. In 1978, Golden shot and killed a couple who were walking their dog in Sacramento County. After 1979, there were no more rapes in a row in northern California.
Murder in 1979:
By the end of 1979, the Golden State Killer was going after people in southern California. He kept raping women and then killing them and their male partners in a brutal way (if present). Between 1979 and 1986, the Golden State Killer killed ten people in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange County. He or she killed four heterosexual couples and two single women.
Looking for the killer in the Golden State:
The Golden State Killer’s crimes had things in common, like the fact that the rapist usually wore a ski mask and tied his victims’ hands. Police thought they were looking for a young white man with military or law enforcement training who wore size 9 shoes, stood about 5 feet 9 inches tall, and had a shoe size of 9. But DNA analysis wasn’t available to track down suspects or even prove that all these crimes were done by the same man.
Lead To an Official Line Of Inquiry:
The Golden State Killer killed people in different parts of southern California, so it took time to figure out how they were all connected. The Diamond Knot Killer was at first blamed for one murder because the bodies of the two people who were killed had intricate knots on them. Two couples were thought to have been killed by the Creek Killer in the town of Goleta, which is near Santa Barbara. Some people who were looking for the Golden State Killer wondered if he or she had moved on to serial murder, but this didn’t lead to an official line of inquiry.
Original Night Stalker:
In the end, investigators put the killings in southern California together because they had a lot in common. Their suspect was called the Original Night Stalker (to distinguish him from the Night Stalker, another California serial killer). Even though many of the departments that had been looking into the Golden State Killer had thrown out evidence after the three-year limit for rape in the 1970s, DNA testing was able to prove in 2001 that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person. Around 2011, a crime writer named the murderer and rapist who was still at large the “Golden State Killer.”
Sacramento County District Attorney Office:
In June 2016, 40 years after the Golden State Killer’s first known attack, the FBI and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office offered a $50,000 reward for information that would help them find the person responsible.
Suspect:
Between 1973 and 1979, Joseph DeAngelo worked as a police officer in two different towns in northern California. In 1979, he was caught stealing a hammer and dog repellent from a store, so he quit the force.
Early Life of DeAngelo:
On November 8, 1945, Joseph James DeAngelo was born in Bath, New York. He lived in the Sacramento area for part of his childhood, served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, and went to school for criminal justice at California State University Sacramento. One of the people the Golden State Killer killed remembered him crying about a woman named Bonnie. He got married to another woman, and they had three daughters together before they split up.
Work as a Mechanic at a Grocery Store:
DeAngelo worked as a mechanic at a grocery store distribution centre for 27 years. In 2017, he left his job.
DeAngelo is Caught:
With the DNA evidence they had, investigators were able to make a genetic profile of the Golden State Killer. At the end of 2017, they added this profile to a database of family trees. This showed that DeAngelo has family ties. The police then took DeAngelo’s “discarded DNA,” which they say was a match for DNA from the Golden State Killer’s crimes. On April 24, 2018, DeAngelo, who was 72 years old, was taken into custody.
Accused:
DeAngelo was accused of 13 murders and 13 counts of kidnapping people to steal from them. He couldn’t be charged with any rapes because the time limit for those crimes had passed.
Get A Life Sentence In Exchange For Pleading Guilty:
In March 2020, DeAngelo tried to get a life sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. At first, prosecutors turned down the deal because they wanted to go after the death penalty. However, in June 2020, news reports said that DeAngelo would not get capital punishment in return for conceding.
Condemned to life in jail:
DeAngelo conceded to each of the 26 charges and was condemned to life in jail without the chance for further appeal On June 29, 2020. He was given a life sentence without the chance of parole in August.
Los Angeles Magazine:
McNamara wrote about the Golden State Killer online and in Los Angeles magazine, which brought more attention to the crimes that had not been solved at the time. McNamara was one of many ordinary people who tried to find the killer and rapist in addition to writing. She wrote a book called I’ll Be Gone in the Dark about the case and how she looked into it. McNamara died of an accidental overdose in 2016, but her husband, actor Patton Oswalt, made sure that her book was finished. After it came out in February 2018, it quickly became a best-seller.
McNamara’s search for the killer was the subject of a 2020 documentary also called I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.
