Joseph James DeAngelo: The Notorious ‘Golden State Killer’ Who Evaded Capture For Over 30 Years
SANTIAGO MEJIA/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesJoseph James DeAngelo, Jr. speaks at his sentencing hearing in Sacramento, California, on Aug. 21, 2020.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a shadowy California serial killer and rapist terrorized the state. Dubbed the Golden State Killer, the murderer eluded capture for decades — until DNA brought investigators to the doorstep of a former police officer named Joseph James DeAngelo.
Though Californians went decades without knowing the Golden State Killer’s name, they were all too aware of his grisly crimes. Between 1976 and 1986, the killer raped and murdered victims with such frequency that local police departments thought they were dealing with more than one attacker.
In San Joaquin Valley, he was known as the Visalia Ransacker. In Sacramento, police dubbed him the East Area Rapist. And in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties, DeAngelo was called the Original Night Stalker. But these terrifying robbers, rapists, and killers were all one man.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s OfficeJoseph James DeAngelo joined the Exeter Police Department in 1973.
Often, the Golden State Killer would target heterosexual couples. After breaking into their homes, he’d subdue and bind the man, then repeatedly rape the woman. Sometimes, he killed them. Other times, he left them alive.
But though the Golden State Killer’s crimes seemed to end around 1986 with the murder and rape of 18-year-old Janelle Cruz, his victims never forgot him. And neither did the investigators who’d tried to hunt him down.
In 2016, investigators took an unprecedented step. After announcing a renewed effort to track down the Golden State Killer, they uploaded DNA from a rape kit to a genealogy site, then poured through the matches.
Their investigation led them to a 72-year-old former cop named Joseph James DeAngelo, who investigators charged with murder in 2018. “I did all those things,” DeAngelo said aloud to himself in an interview room, according to ABC 11. “I destroyed all those lives.”
He’s since been sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms in prison.
