The Golden State Killer

Joseph James DeAngelo was born November 8th 1945 in Bath, New York. DeAngelo’s crimes spanned from 1973 to 1986 and included 13 murders, 50 rapes and 120 burglaries. Known as the East Area Rapist (EAR), the Original Night Stalker (ONS) and eventually the Golden State Killer. His crimes were originally thought to be the works of three separate culprits.

Family & Work Life

Joseph James DeAngelo married Sharon Marie Hubble in 1973, they were together for over 40 years. During this time they had 3 daughters. Reportedly, they slept in separate bedrooms and separated in 1991 but continued to parent their daughters amicably. They technically remained married for many more years. Due to Californian law, as his wife, she couldn’t stand trial and speak against him only give her own observations. Curiously she only decided to divorce him a year after his arrest.

DeAngelo joined the United States Navy in September 1964 and served 22 months during the Vietnam War. Early 1970s, he became a police officer. From 1973 to 1976 he worked for a burglary unit in Exeter, California. 1976 to 1979 served in Auburn til he was caught shoplifting and was ultimately fired. DeAngelo’s employment is unknown for the 80s but from 1990 to 2017 he worked as a truck mechanic in Roseville.

Visalia Ransacker (1976-1976)

DeAngelo’s training ground before the EAR’s crimes. Over 20 months it is believed he committed 120 burglaries and 1 murder. The statute of limitations for the burglaries had expired but Angelo pled guilty to the 1975 murder of Claude Snelling. Ransackings started on March 19, 1974, and often consisted of breaking into houses, rifling through or vandalising possessions, scattering ladies underwear and only stealing low value items. Many thefts happened on the same day, November 30 1974, at least 12 separate incidents occurred.

Murder of Claude Snelling

September 5, 1975: Snelling had previously chased a prowler away from beneath his daughter’s bedroom window.

September 11, 1975: DeAngelo broke into the home of Snelling, a journalist professor. At 2 am, Snelling was woken by strange noises. He confronted a ski-masked intruder outside who was trying to kidnap his daughter. Snelling was shot twice and later died. After the shooting, the culprit fled the scene. Daughter, Beth, aged 16 underwent hypnosis to try and gather more information.

East Area Rapist (1976-1979)

DeAngelo moved to Sacramento in 1976. His initial MO was to stalk middle-class neighbourhoods in search of single women in one-story homes. Many victims had previously seen/heard a prowler and had experienced break-ins prior to the attacks. Police believed that the offender would scout the targeted neighbourhoods before selecting who to attack. He often telephoned future victims to learn their daily routines. Although starting out with single women, DeAngelo soon preferred attacking couples. He would make himself known with a flashlight and threaten with a handgun.

The female victims would be forced to tie up the male companions with shoelaces. He would separate the couple in different rooms. The man would have dishes placed on his back and DeAngelo threatened to murder the whole household if he heard them rattle. With the female in the living room, he would repeatedly rape her over several hours. DeAngelo often spent hours in the victims’ homes, eating their food, ransacking rooms and often crept off so quietly that the victims would lay for hours thinking he was still in the house.

The 50 known rapes spanned from Friday 18 June 1976, to Thursday 5 July 1979. The attacks occurred in multiple counties including Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Yolo and Contra Costa.

The Maggiores

A military policeman named Brian Maggiore and his wife Kate were walking their dog in the Rancho Cordova area on Feb 2, 1978. This area was near to where 5 of the EAR attacks had occurred. The couple were shot dead and investigators believed the culprit to be EAR due to the location and that shoelaces were found nearby.

June 15, 2016: FBI announced that they were confident in the fact that the EAR committed this crime.

June 29, 2020: DeAngelo entered a guilty plea for these murders.

Original Night Stalker (1979 – 1986)

Shortly after the last rape, DeAngelo moved to Southern California and began to murder his victims. These murders lasted until 1981, with one lone killing in 1986. Only one couple survived by alerting neighbours, the rest were either shot or bludgeoned. Due to DeAngelo not being linked to the crimes for many decades, he was known as the Night Stalker in the area before he was named the Original Night Stalker after serial Killer Richard Ramirez received the former nickname for his crimes.

1979 Killings:

Mon, Oct 1: Attempted murder of couple from Goleta, Santa Barbra. Couple were alarmed by hearing DeAngelo talking to himself. The couple fled to an FBI neighbour who chased the perpetrator. The attack was linked to the later murders by shoeprints.

Sun, Dec 30: Rober Offerman (44) and Alexandra Manning (35) were found shot dead in Offerman’s Condo in Goleta, Santa Barbra.

1980 Killings

Thurs, Mar 13: Charlene Smith (33) and Lyman Smith (43) were found bludgeoned to death in their home in Ventura County. Charlene had been raped and tied with a ‘diamond knot’ which had been used in an EAR attack.

Tues, Aug 19: Keith Eli Harrington (24) and Patrice Briscoe Harrington (27) were found bludgeoned in their gated community home in Orange County. Patrice was also raped.

1981 Killings

Fri, Feb 6: Manuela Witthuhn (28) was raped and bludgeoned to death. Although married, her husband wasn’t home at the time of the attack.

Mon, July 27: Cheri Domingo (35) and Gregory Sanchez (27) were found dead in their Goleta home. Some blocks south of the Offerman/Manning murders. Sanchez was shot and hadn’t been tied which led detectives to believe that he had tried to fight the assailant. Domingo had been raped and bludgeoned.

1986 Killing

Sun, May 4: Janelle Lisa Cruz (18) was raped and bludgeoned to death in her home in Irvine, Orange County whilst her family were on vacation.

Investigators in their respective jurisdictions didn’t believe all the murders were linked. Many followed their own dead-end leads and one person, later cleared, was charged for two of the murders. Eventually, the cases were almost entirely linked by DNA testing.

Investigation

The Original Night Stalker was officially connected to the EAR attacks in 2001. Several rapes in the Contra Costa county were linked by DNA to the Smith, Harrington, Witthunh and Cruz murders. A decade later, DNA evidence also linked the Domingo/Sanchez murders.

June 15, 2016: FBI released further information including composite sketches, crime details and offered a $50,000 reward. 

A DNA sample from a previous EAR rape was uploaded to a genealogy website GEDmatch. Distant relatives of DeAngelo’s were identified. These were directly related to his 4x great grandfather, dating back to the 1800s. Investigators built about 25 family trees, the tree including DeAngelo contained approximately 1000 people. They used clues like sex, age, place of residence and DNA to rule out suspects until they were left with just one.

Arrest & Trial

Apr 24, 2018: Sacramento County Sheriff Deputies arrested DeAngelo. Charging him with 8 counts of first-degree murder.

May 10, 2018: DeAngelo charged with a further 4 counts of first-degree murder.

Two samples of DeAngelo’s DNA had been secretly collected from a car door handle and a tissue from his garbage. Both were a match to the crimes, but the ethics of gaining this evidence has since been scrutinised. (Apr 18)

DeAngelo made a confession after his arrest that an inner personality ‘Jerry’ had made him commit the crimes. He was heard saying to himself ‘I didn’t have the strength to push him out. He went with me. It was like in my head. I mean, he’s part of me. I didn’t want to do those things. I pushed Jerry out and had a happy life. I did all those things. I destroyed all their lives. So now I’ve got to pay the price.

Due to the statute of limitations, he could not be charged for any of the rapes or burglaries. He was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping.

Aug 23, 2012: DeAngelo was arraigned in Sacramento.

Apr 10, 2019: Prosecutors announced they would be seeking the death penalty and the judge ruled that there would be no cameras in the courtroom during the trial.

Mar 4, 2020: DeAngelo offered to plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off of the table. This was initially denied.

Jun 29, 2020: To avoid the death penalty, DeAngelo pleads guilty to 13 counts of first degrees murder and special circumstances (including murders committed during burglaries and rapes) and 13 counts of kidnapping.

Aug 21, 2020: DeAngelo received 12 consecutive life sentences without parole.

DeAngelo gave a brief statement at the end of his trial: ‘ I’ve listened to all your statements. Each one of them, and I’m truly sorry to everyone I have hurt. Thank you, my honour.’

Jospeh James Deangelo is currenlty serving his 12 consecutive life sentences at North Kern State Priosn in California.