Joseph James DeAngelo
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| “ | You're never gonna catch me. East Area Rapist, you dumb fuckers. I'm gonna fuck again tonight. Be careful! | „ |
| ~ DeAngelo in a phone message to Sacramento Police on December 2, 1977. |
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is a serial killer, serial rapist and serial burglar best known as the Golden State Killer. He committed 50 rapes in Northern California during the mid-1970s and murdered twelve people in Southern California from 1979 through 1986. His other monikers include the Original Night Stalker, Visalia Ransacker, East Area Rapist, the East Bay Rapist, and the Diamond Knot Killer. The "Golden State Killer" moniker was coined by true crime writer Michelle McNamara.
The crimes initially centered on the then-unincorporated areas of Carmichael, Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova, all east of Sacramento, where at least fifty women were raped between June 18, 1976, and July 5, 1979. Earlier incidents in Visalia are now thought to be connected. In 2001, several of the Northern California rapes were linked by DNA to murders in Southern California. All of the DNA-linked assaults occurred in Contra Costa County, but the distinctive modus operandi (MO) of the rapist makes it very likely the same man was also responsible for the attacks in the Sacramento area. His last known crime, the only one after 1981, took place in 1986.
Early life edit
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was born on November 8, 1945, in Bath, New York, to Joseph James DeAngelo Sr., a sergeant in the United States Army, and Kathleen Louise DeGroat. He has two younger sisters and a younger brother. A relative reported that when DeAngelo was a young child, he witnessed his seven-year-old sister's rape by two airmen in a warehouse in West Germany, where the family was stationed at the time. Following his conviction, one of DeAngelo's sisters claimed that he was abused by their father while he was growing up.
Between 1959 and 1960, DeAngelo attended Mills Junior High School in Rancho Cordova, California. Beginning in 1961, he attended Folsom High School, from which he received a GED certificate in 1964. He played on the school's junior varsity baseball team. Prosecutors reported that DeAngelo committed burglaries and tortured and killed animals during his teenaged years.
DeAngelo joined the United States Navy in September 1964 and served for 22 months during the Vietnam War as a damage controlman on the cruiser USS Canberra and the destroyer tender USS Piedmont. Beginning in August 1968, DeAngelo attended Sierra College in Rocklin, California; he graduated with an associate degree in police science, with honors. He attended Sacramento State University in 1971, where he earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. DeAngelo later took post-graduate courses and further police training at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, then completed a 32-week police internship at the Roseville Police Department.
From May 1973 to August 1976, he was a burglary unit police officer in Exeter (a town of about 5,000 people, near Visalia), having relocated from Citrus Heights. He then served in Auburn from August 1976 to July 1979, when he was arrested for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent; he was sentenced to six months probation and fired that October. During the process of being fired from the City, DeAngelo threatened to kill the Chief of Police and allegedly stalked the Chief's house.
In May 1970, DeAngelo became engaged to Bonnie Jean Colwell, a classmate at Sierra College, but she broke off the relationship after DeAngelo threatened her with a gun in order to force her to marry him. In November 1973, he married Sharon Marie Huddle in Placer (now known as Loomis). In 1980, they purchased the house in Citrus Heights, where he was eventually arrested. Huddle became an attorney in 1982, and they had three daughters — two were born in Sacramento, and one was born in Los Angeles before the couple separated in 1991. In July 2018, Huddle filed for a divorce. They were divorced in 2019.
DeAngelo's employment history in the 1980s is unknown. From 1990 until his retirement in 2017, he worked as a truck mechanic at a Save Mart Supermarkets distribution center in Roseville. He was arrested in 1996 over an incident at a gas station, but the charge was dismissed.
His brother-in-law said that DeAngelo casually brought up the East Area Rapist in conversation around the time of the original crimes. Neighbors reported that DeAngelo frequently engaged in loud, profane outbursts. One neighbor reported that his family received a phone message from DeAngelo threatening to "deliver a load of death" because of their barking dog. He was living with a daughter and granddaughter at the time of his arrest.
Crimes edit
Before he became a rapist and murderer, the Golden State Killer was responsible for a series of burglaries in the northern California city of Visalia in 1974-75. The Visalia Ransacker took small trophies from the homes he broke into and also spent time going through women's underwear drawers. In 1975, the Ransacker attempted to kidnap a teenage girl; her father intervened and was killed.
In June 1976, the first reported rape that has been linked to the Golden State Killer took place in Sacramento County. This attack was followed by more assaults in the eastern part of Sacramento County. At this point in his criminal career, the Golden State Killer came to be known as the East Area Rapist. He would assault more than 40 women in northern California between 1976 and 1979.
During these crimes the Golden State Killer often spent hours in victims' homes, sometimes taking breaks from the assaults to eat or cry. He also stole personal items, such as jewelry or photographs. Initially, he targeted women and girls — two of his victims were just 13 — who were alone or with children, but by 1977 he was attacking couples. He would often break into a house, have a female victim tie up her male partner and place dishes on the bound man's back. The rapist would warn that he'd kill the couple if these items fell, then would go on to assault his female victim. Some victims were later taunted by phone calls from their assailant.
Attacks by the Golden State Killer were often preceded by hang-up phone calls. He seemed to surveil houses — usually single-story homes — and neighborhoods to get a feel for his targets before acting. As the rapes continued, terrorized residents in the Sacramento area went on high alert, buying new locks and arming themselves. An officer on the case later said, "The fear in the community was like something I had never seen before. People were afraid wherever they went."
In 1977, the Golden State Killer raped a victim in Stockton, outside of Sacramento. He soon went after victims in Modesto, San Jose and Contra Costa County. In 1978 he shot and killed a Sacramento County couple who'd been walking their dog. After 1979 the serial rapes in northern California ceased.
By late 1979, the Golden State Killer was targeting people in southern California. He continued to rape female victims, then brutally murdered them and their male partners (if present). Ten people — four heterosexual couples and two individual women — were killed by the Golden State Killer in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange Counties between 1979 and 1986.
Identification edit
Several suspects were cleared through DNA, alibi, or other investigative means and methods. On June 15th, 2016; the FBI and local law enforcement agencies held a news conference to announce a nationwide effort and a US$50,000 reward for his capture. On April 25th, 2018; authorities announced the arrest of suspect 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. on six counts of first-degree murder.
Because of state laws, DeAngelo could not be charged for the 1970's rapes, but he was charged for the murders and kidnappings. On June 29, 2020, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder and kidnapping. On August 21, 2020, he was sentenced to twelve consecutive life sentences without parole plus eight years.