THEEX-COP whobecameoneof California’s most notorious predators
Joseph DeAngelo had a double life that would unravel after 40 years
During the 1970s and 1980s, police across 11 counties in the state of California were hunting several prolific criminals who had evaded capture. Collectively, it seemed, they were responsible for more than 100 burglaries, a staggering number of unsolved rape cases and more than
10 murders. These offenders had been given nicknames over the years as the quest for justice continued. Among other names, they were dubbed the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, the Creek Killer and the Diamond Knot Killer.
California was in the grip of a crime spree, but what the authorities didn’t realise was that all the offences were being committed by just one man – the Golden State Killer. What would eventually become more incredible to the police was that the culprit, Joseph DeAngelo, was one of their own.
After DeAngelo graduated as a teenager, he joined the US Navy and served for almost two years in the Vietnam War. He then graduated from California State University with a degree in criminal justice and successfully trained to join the police force. In 1973, DeAngelo married Sharon Huddle with whom he’d go on to have three daughters.
He joined the Exeter Police Department where he worked in the burglary unit. And there, DeAngelo started his double life.
In nearby Visalia and surrounding areas, there were a vast number of robberies. DeAngelo would tell Sharon that he was working, visiting family or even pheasant shooting when in fact he was breaking into people’s homes. About 120 robberies can be connected to him and he was dubbed the Visalia Ransacker. He’d steal personal trinkets and notoriously leave the scene strewn with female underwear torn from the drawers.
Then, his crimes escalated to raping women. Initially, his focus was on single women. He’d target them with a gun in their homes and subject them to lengthy attacks. Police called him the Night Stalker, which became the Original Night Stalker after serial killer Richard Ramirez claimed the original label.
DeAngelo’s first kill came in 1975. In the early hours of
11 September, Claude Snelling woke to the sound of an intruder at his home in Visalia. He found a masked man dragging his
18-year-old daughter Elizabeth from the house at gunpoint. It was DeAngelo. When Claude, 45, confronted him, Joseph shot him twice and fled without Elizabeth. Claude died on his way to hospital.
In 1976, DeAngelo moved to the police department in Auburn and struck relentlessly throughout California, earning another nickname – the East Area Rapist. Then he targetted couples – with a sickening routine. He’d break into homes and wake his victims with a torch. At gunpoint, he’d tie them up – so tightly their limbs were numb for months afterwards. DeAngelo would sometimes balance plates on the man’s back and warn him that if they rattled or dropped while he raped the blindfolded woman, he’d kill them both. The attacks could go on for hours. Typically, he’d steal items, like cash or firearms, then flee. He sometimes escaped via a creek – leading to the name the Creek Killer.
KILLINGS CONTINUED
Sometimes the attacks would lead to murder. On 2 February, 1978, Brian Maggiore, 21, and his wife Katie, 20, were walking their dog in Rancho Cordova. DeAngelo ran them down and shot both dead.
Eventually, in 1979, DeAngelo was arrested for shoplifting. He was sentenced to six months’ probation and was fired in October that year. During the fallout he threatened to kill the chief of police. This was typical of DeAngelo’s argumentative nature, so didn’t attract much attention. Afterwards, he worked as a truck mechanic for a supermarket distribution centre until retiring in
2017. But his real focus was his life as a serial attacker.
On 30 December, 1979, surgeon Dr Robert Offerman, 44, and psychologist Debra Manning, 35, were killed by DeAngelo in their home in Goleta. Then on 13 March,
1980, Lyman Smith, 43, and his wife, Charlene, were beaten to death with a fireplace log at their Ventura County home. Their wrists and ankles were bound with drapery cord. DeAngelo used an unusual knot on their wrists, leading to yet another name – the Diamond Knot Killer.
Five months later, on 19 August, DeAngelo murdered nurse Patrice Harrington, 28, and her medical student husband, Keith, 25, at their home in Dana Point by beating them with a blunt instrument. They had only been married three months.
On 5 February, 1981, Manuela Witthuhn, 28, was home alone in Irvine while her husband was recovering in hospital after an
illness. DeAngelo broke in, raped her and then beat her to death. Five months later, on 27 July, he murdered Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, as they were housesitting in Goleta.
DeAngelo’s final recorded kill was on 4 May, 1986. Janelle Cruz, 18, was alone at the family home in Irvine while her parents were on holiday. It’s believed she was beaten to death with a pipe wrench that was found to be missing from the house.
Why DeAngelo stopped killing is unclear. At the time, investigators believed that the killer was in prison – or dead.
LINKS BETWEEN CRIMES
By 2001, though, investigators were starting to make connections between some of the crimes. DNA testing showed the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person. This discovery triggered the establishment of California’s DNA database that collects information across the state.
Finally, investigators started to link the crimes. The gun used to kill Claude had been stolen as part of the Visalia Ransacker’s spree. The FBI held a news conference in 2016 and offered a $50,000 reward for information about the Golden State Killer. It was a moniker created by the late crime writer Michelle McNamara, who was investigating unsolved crimes in California.
In 2018, DNA from several of the crime scenes was entered into a genealogy database created by GEDmatch.com, which is aimed at people tracing their ancestry. It’s a strategy used by police to build a family tree that links to their suspect and this led them to Joseph DeAngelo, now separated from his wife. Detectives followed him and, from his bin, collected rubbish that proved they had the right man.
On 25 April, police went to DeAngelo’s home. He seemed surprised when he was apprehended, telling officers he had a roast in the oven. Neighbours were stunned. Although DeAngelo was referred to as “cantankerous”, none of them suspected he was one of California’s most brutal serial killers.
Once in custody, DeAngelo claimed he had been driven by an uncontrollable force and cryptically referred to an inner personality called Jerry who had “forced” him to commit the crimes. But he was also heard saying to himself when alone in the interrogation room, “I did all those things. I destroyed all those lives. So now I’ve got to pay the price.”
With 87 victims and 53 crime scenes spanning 11 counties, the case was enormous. And due to the US statute of limitations, DeAngelo couldn’t be charged with either the rapes or the burglaries. But he was charged with
13 murders and
13 counts of kidnapping and was told the court would be seeking the death penalty.
Meanwhile, prosecutors from the six California counties involved estimated that the case could cost taxpayers $20million and last a possible 10 years. They agreed to a deal.
In June this year, DeAngelo, now
75, pleaded guilty to 13 murders, 13 kidnappings and 161 other crimes, many of them rapes, that were too far in the past for prosecution.
SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
In August, DeAngelo, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and looking frail and old in a wheelchair, arrived at a court held in a Sacramento university ballroom to allow for social distancing – due to coronavirus restrictions – while permitting people to attend.
The prosecution claimed this was a deliberate ploy by DeAngelo to make himself look vulnerable and played footage showing him working out in his prison cell. She said this demonstrated his ability to deceive and said the sheer volume of the crimes was “staggering”. She added it was possible there were still more victims. “I don’t believe we will ever know the magnitude of what Mr DeAngelo did,” she said.
Over three days, DeAngelo sat emotionless through statements from many survivors and families of the victims who branded him a “sick monster” and “the devil”.
Kris Pedretti was 15 when he raped her in 1976. “At three different times that night I thought I was going to die,” she said. “The next morning, 19 December, I woke up knowing I would never be a child again and, although I was truly grateful to be alive, I also felt that I had died.”
Jane Carson-Sandler, who was also raped in 1976, told DeAngelo, “You are finally going to prison and will remain there until you die.”
On 21 August, 2020, one of the most prolific serial killers was sentenced to 11 life terms, without the chance of parole, plus 15 concurrent life terms and extra years for other charges.
The judge said, “When a person commits monstrous acts they need to be locked away where they could never harm another innocent person.” The sentence was the “absolute maximum” the court was able to impose. “Clearly the defendant deserves no mercy,” said the judge who praised the courage, grace and strength of the victims and their families, noting they were qualities lacking in DeAngelo.
After 40 years, DeAngelo was behind bars. There are many unanswered questions, but it’s his victims and survivors who deserve their place in history, not him.
DeAngelo earned many nicknames during his years of theft, rape and murder