Golden State Killer pleads guilty to avoid execution

THE former California police officer nicknamed the Golden State Killer has pleaded guilty to 13 charges of murder while admitting dozens of rapes.

Joseph DeAngelo had been facing a lethal injection if found guilty but admitted his crimes in exchange for his life.

The frail 74-year-old, one of American history’s most prolific killer-rapists, will now die behind bars. So numerous were his victims, officials had to set up a court yesterday in the ballroom of California State University in Sacramento to accommodate them all and their families.

It was the hall where DeAngelo received his degree in criminal justice in 1972.

DeAngelo, in a wheelchair, was sentenced to 11 consecutive counts of life without parole plus 15 concurrent counts of life for other offences, which will be approved at a later date. Thien Ho, the assistant chief deputy district attorney for Sacramento County, said: “The scope of Joseph DeAngelo’s’ crime spree is simply staggering, encompassing 13 known murders and almost 50 rapes.”

DeAngelo was caught after police created a fake profile on a genealogy website, using the killer’s DNA recovered from a crime scene.