‘Golden State Killer’ hunt ends
NEW YORK: From 1976 to 1986, one man struck fear in the hearts of Californians from Sacramento to San Francisco to Los Angeles, killing 12 people, raping at least 45 people and burglarising more than 120 homes in meticulously planned crimes.
He was known by many names: the Golden State Killer, the East Area Rapist, the Diamond Knot Killer and the Original Night Stalker. But until last week, decades of detective work had not uncovered the name of Joseph James DeAngelo.
A statewide hunt for the suspect finally ended on Tuesday, when officials said that they had arrested Mr DeAngelo,
72, and that he was responsible for the series of murders and rapes. In the end, the decades long hunt for the infamous figure ended not far from where the case started. Here’s what we know so far about the suspect.
The Golden State Killer usually struck at night after carefully planning his attack, down to the smallest details. He studied his victims’ schedules, broke into their homes and unlocked windows or removed screens in preparation for his return. He turned off porch lights and hid shoelaces and ropes to use later to bind his victims.
In one attack, he hid in a couple’s closet, waited for them to fall asleep and then announced himself, shining a flashlight on them, according to a retired Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy. When the husband reached for a gun next to him in bed, the attacker flashed the light on the bullets he was holding. He had already emptied the gun.
His patience, reconnaissance and ability to escape manhunts, as well as the intricate knots he used to bind victims, led detectives to believe he had served in the military or in law enforcement. Mr DeAngelo did both.
He served in the navy during the Vietnam War, working as a damage control man aboard a warship, the USS Canberra, according to a June 1967 article in The Auburn Journal in Auburn, California, where his parents lived.
From 1973-76, Mr DeAngelo was an officer with the Exeter Police Department in Exeter, California, a small city about 70 kilometres southeast of Fresno.
In 1976, the same year as the first attack, Mr DeAngelo joined the Auburn Police Department, about 30km northeast of Sacramento.
Nicholas Willick was a patrol sergeant with the Auburn police when Mr DeAngelo joined the force. Sgt Willick recalled that at the time, the department’s 17 or so officers handled mostly property crimes.
But it was also a time of heightened alarm in northern California, as a series of brutal murders had rocked the region.
In an interview on his front porch in Auburn on Thursday, Sgt Willick said he never suspected that Mr DeAngelo might have been responsible for those killings.
What Sgt Willick recalls about Mr DeAngelo was a small quirk — he’d lost part of a finger, something that he’d told the department happened in Vietnam.
Other than that, there was little remarkable about Mr DeAngelo, Sgt Willick said. He seemed like many of the other officers, and even gave some of his colleagues an informal tour of his new home — like the proud newlywed that he was.
“He was just an average person, an average Joe.”
Until, of course, a local police department called in 1979 to say DeAngelo had been caught stealing dog repellent and a hammer from a drugstore. By then, Sgt Willick had become the Auburn police chief. “I fired him,” Sgt Willick said.
After that, Mr DeAngelo’s law enforcement career ended and Sgt Willick never saw him again — until his name and face surfaced in the news as the man suspected of being the Golden State Killer.
On his porch, in a white wicker chair, Sgt Willick said he was both embarrassed that Mr DeAngelo had gone free for so long, and sure that he could have done nothing to stop him.
“Anytime, my goodness, you know, the person was a police officer, it’s an embarrassment to law enforcement — not just an embarrassment to me,” he said.
But, he added, “anything that would say that this person was a vicious murderer, a serial rapist? No, nothing whatsoever, no indications, and that’s probably why the joint task force has worked 40-some-odd years to solve this case.”
When officials announced the arrest of Mr DeAngelo on Tuesday, they said they had long believed the case would end near where it started. He lived with his daughter and granddaughter, according to KTVU-TV in Oakland, in a home in Citrus Heights, a city northeast of Sacramento.
The first 15 attacks occurred in the Sacramento area, including four in Citrus Heights. Not until 1978, after at least 30 attacks, were crimes committed outside that area.
The FBI and local officials were seen removing items from Mr DeAngelo’s home on Wednesday.
It was DNA that led detectives to Mr DeAngelo last week. Officials have not said how they first became aware of him. But last week, they surreptitiously collected his DNA from two items he had discarded, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.
The results came back as a match to the Golden State Killer cases, and he was finally arrested.