Hello!
How's it going?
Welcome back to another episode of Diagnosing a Killer.
I'm Kenna.
I'm Koelle.
I'm excited too.
I'm ready to lay back and just listen.
This is really cool.
How would you even find that?
I listened to one podcast and they're from Canada.
That's a little close.
Anyway, thank you guys so much for your support.
Continue to subscribe to the Patreon, please send us emails.
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Killer Diagnosis.
That being said, we're going to move right into the case.
Okay, what are we doing?
I've been wanting to do this one for so long and I finally was like, Kenna, just sit down
and do the fucking research because I knew it was going to take a while.
This is one of a very infamous killer, a laundry list of them in California in this time period.
We are going to be talking about Joseph James DeAngelo, aka the Golden State Killer.
Oh, okay.
When you said DeAngelo, all I could think of was Beverly DeAngelo, which is an actress.
That's not bad.
I don't think there's any relation.
Maybe, maybe not.
I don't know.
But that's cool.
Golden State.
He is scary.
He is one of the ones that if I was an adult during this time period, I would have been
petrified.
Oh my gosh.
Now, haunting.
Joseph James DeAngelo was born on November 8, 1945 in Bath, New York to Kathleen Louise
DeGroote DeAngelo and Joseph James DeAngelo Sr.
His father was a member of the United States Army throughout World War II as a sergeant
and his mother was a career waitress.
Joseph was one of three children, his siblings being Sister Constance, who they called Connie,
another sister Rebecca and brother John.
I do love that name, Constance.
Yeah, that's cute, right?
And Connie's cute too.
Yeah.
I'm not sure if Rebecca and John were older or younger because I couldn't find it, but
Connie was definitely younger than Joseph.
So the children were noted as experiencing a very grim childhood with their grandfather,
father and mother alike being extremely abusive to all of them.
Classic.
Already, right?
Classic.
We always hear this.
It's never like rainbows and butterflies.
And I mean, sometimes it is, but most of the time it's not.
Most of the time it's not.
Joseph however, received the most severe beatings growing up for seemingly no reason other than
his dad's anger.
Joseph Sr. would often lock the children in a closet for several hours, only to beat
them mercilessly the minute he let them out.
That's so fucked.
Ugh.
How can you do that to your child?
Like isolation and then violence.
It's awful.
Their mother would often withhold food from them and force them to go hungry as well.
A fucking course.
We hear this unfortunately more often as well than not.
It's terrible.
Yeah, it is.
Due to his father's participation in the army, the family would often travel with
him to various places while he was stationed there, of course.
So one time when Joseph Jr. was about nine, the family went to Germany with their father
while he was working.
During the time of their stay, Joseph Jr. allegedly witnessed his seven-year-old little
sister Constance being brutally assaulted and raped by two airmen in a warehouse.
What?
Seven years old.
Seven?
The two were playing in the warehouse together when the two men entered and overtook Constance,
giving way for Joseph Jr. to witness the entire attack without being able to stop them.
He just did it.
They did it in front of him?
Yeah.
I mean, he's nine.
What is he gonna do?
Like in their mind, you know?
Still.
Like it's awful.
It's still a witness.
Yeah.
I know.
That's awful.
Many people believe that witnessing this was the turning point into Joseph Jr.'s life,
and he began to develop very dark feelings from this point forward.
Around the time that Joseph Jr. was a teenager, his mother Kathleen separated from Joseph
Sr. and began dating another man who was a traveling welder.
Kathleen and her new beau decided that they would move back to the States, and around
1959, the two of them, along with Joseph Jr., moved to Rancho Cordova, California.
But left the other kids?
Yes.
Why?
Okay.
Yeah.
So Joseph attended Mills Junior High School between 1959 and 1960, and in 1961, he attended
Folsom High School where he was on the JV basketball team.
He would go on to receive his GED in 1964, but it was also noted that during this time,
Joseph began to play into these awful feelings that he had been harboring.
And he started to, you guessed it, torture and kill animals, committing numerous burglaries
at this time as well.
Like, it just happens.
Yeah.
I feel like a lot of our podcasts could be skipped, like right at the beginning, knowing
what we know now and how many cases we've done.
Yeah.
It's like, well, he's going to torture and kill animals.
Well, he's going to set fires.
He's going to wet the bed.
We all know this.
Once he had his GED in hand, Joseph Jr. joined the US Navy in September of 1964, during the
Vietnam War.
It was unclear whether he was drafted or he went on his own accord, but either way, he
went on to serve 22 months as a damage control man on the cruiser USS Canberra and the destroyer
tender USS Piedmont.
Wow, that's a mouthful.
I know.
I was like, get through this, get through this, get through this.
During his time in the Navy, Joseph earned a National Defense Service Medal and Vietnam
Service Medal and a Vietnam Campaign Medal.
They're always getting their fucking medals.
They're always getting medals.
They gotta overachieve.
Of course.
After his 22 months ended, Joseph decided he would go back to school.
In August of 1968, he enrolled in Sierra College in Rockland, California, where he achieved
an associate's degree in political science, graduating with honors.
In 1970, Joseph became engaged to a nursing student by the name of Bonnie Jean Cowell,
but she broke it off in 1971 after he quickly became manipulative and abusive.
In a way.
Really?
Of course not.
It was never going to be that or it was going to be a month later, the two at a lobe.
Yeah, exactly.
At one point, he tried to manipulate her into helping him cheat on an abnormal psych test,
but she refused.
So do you think that he actually earned all those, I don't know, graves?
That makes me think that he won't.
After the breakup, Joseph threatened her and attempted to force her to marry him at gunpoint.
Oh, so it was both.
Sorry, it was both.
It was, I'm showing signs of abuse or I'm going to marry you, but in this case it's
both.
It's both.
Yeah, forcing somebody to marry you.
Thankfully, Bonnie was able to get away from Joseph and she did not speak to him ever
again.
Good.
Clearly.
After this, he then went on to attend Sacramento State University in 1971, where he earned a
bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1972.
Cute.
A neighbor was noted as saying about Joseph during this time that he was pleasant and
clean cut in his youth, and he also lost a part of a finger in the war.
Like pepper that in there.
Just pepper that in there.
He can't.
Yeah.
Not with a finger.
Jesus.
No salt bay for him.
That's so weird.
What are you eating?
That's so weird.
I don't know.
Like, I guess that gives him like extra credit.
Characters.
Yeah.
It was probably a drunken accident.
Joseph later took postgraduate courses and further police training at the College of
Sequoia and Vysalia, then completed a 32 week police internship at the police department
in Roseville.
In 1973, Joseph began dating a woman by the name of Sharon Marie Huddle, and the two quickly
became married.
Oh, there it is.
Called it.
Around the same time, he allegedly started working as either an intern or a volunteer
at the Roseville Police Department, though the department apparently, quote, found no
records of him ever having worked there when they were asked about it later.
What the fuck?
Well, he became like a criminal.
They're like, I don't fucking know who that guy is.
Yeah, I don't know.
Burn it, burn it.
Burn the boy.
Burn all of the documents.
The same year, Joseph was hired by the Exeter California Police Department, southeast of
Fresno, where he worked until 1976.
From May 1976 to August 1976, Joseph was a burglary unit police officer in Exeter, having
relocated from Citrus Heights.
But he was already burglarizing things when he was younger, right?
He was the burglar, and now he's like a burglar police unit.
That's like D agents that do fucking cocaine all day.
Well, it's like fucking BTK that he was like a security, like security system installer,
and then he like went to his house.
Yeah, he worked for ADT.
Yeah.
They even said about him, quote, the Angelo believes that without law and order, there
can be no government.
And without a democratic government, there can be no freedom.
Law enforcement is his career.
He says, and his job is serving the community.
Keep that in mind.
Believe it or not, he's not that nice of a guy, I'm assuming.
He doesn't necessarily serve the community well.
During the time he was working for Auburn, he decided to use his knowledge of criminal
justice and police procedures for evil.
Like I said, sure.
He had been placed on the burglary division of this department and began investigating
home invasions.
His own.
He's investigating his own.
No.
Dexter.
Everything relates back to Dexter.
He does not.
Using the knowledge from these crime scenes, D'Angelo decided that he would begin his own
series of home invasions as these sparked his interest.
Seriously.
The first ever recorded burglary committed by D'Angelo occurred on March 19, 1974, when
a sum of $50 in coins was stolen from a piggy bank.
A piggy bank?
I swear to God.
What did he just...
Wait.
He didn't steal the whole piggy bank.
He just...
He stole out of the piggy bank and left the piggy bank.
Yeah.
Like how much noise do you think that made?
Like he had a shake in.
Shake in.
Or he had to break it.
Yeah.
Over the bed.
Or you had to break it.
Yeah.
Which, no.
Most of his activities at this time included breaking into houses, rifling through or vandalizing
the possessions in the home, going through women's undergarments, and stealing low value
items while often ignoring higher value items that were in plain sight.
So he would steal like little things but leave like expensive things lying out.
Yeah, he's probably like testing the water and seeing what he can get away with, huh?
He would also frequently arrange or display items in the home.
Multiple same day ransackings were also occurring, including 12 separate incidents on November
30th, 1974.
In one fucking day.
Well, like how much time do you?
I don't even think I know 12 people like where 12 people live.
What the fuck?
God, he's ballsy.
I'm telling you what.
But it's like, but I'm assuming that these people aren't home.
Is it just like walking down the street and seeing who has a car in the driveway?
Maybe.
That's so weird.
Just fucking ransacking.
Like who fucking cares?
And they'll be like, what the fuck are you doing here?
And be like, I'm investigating burglaries.
Yeah, exactly.
Clearly you've been burgled.
You've been burgled and I am here to help.
Common MOs of the burglaries included climbing fences, attempting to pry open multiple points
of entry, leaving multiple points of escape open like windows, moving removed window screens
onto beds or in bedrooms and placing quote warning items such as dishes or bottles against
the doors and on handles in case like a homeowner were to awaken or come home.
Okay.
So if someone put something in front of the door or if someone tried to open it, he would
hear it.
Right.
He still sounds bumbly as fuck.
Yeah.
Like Dennis Pannirator.
Dennis Pannirator.
The burglaries became so frequent and well known that he quickly gained the nickname
the Vysalia Ransacker due to the crimes being committed only in Vysalia, only 10 miles away
from where he worked.
It's the Ransacker.
Oh, he has like a shitload of nicknames.
No, he doesn't.
The Ransacker sounds so lame.
The Ransacker.
Like he's not a robber.
He's not a burglar.
He's not a stealer.
He's not a burglar.
He's a Ransacker.
Yeah.
He comes in and he just fluffs her clothing for you.
He just fucks your shit up.
And then he just leaves like small slight inconveniences wherever he goes.
We'll get this.
He would often stay inside homes for hours at a time while rifling through clothing and
stealing items of significance like one earring or a cufflink.
Oh my God.
He is.
He's the lamest burglar.
The Vysalia Vandal.
He's the Vysalia inconveniencer.
He has all your missing socks.
At this time, he was also committing a series of burglaries near Sacramento in Rancho Cordova,
including twice breaking into his childhood home.
Okay.
He broke into his own childhood home twice.
Okay.
He's not just a little disturbing though because you know that that's somebody that's
dealing with childhood trauma for sure.
These break-ins earned him the nickname the Cordova Cat Burglar.
Ooh.
The Cat Burglar now.
It's a Cat Burglar.
Yeah.
Not the laundry fluffer.
In the fall of 1975, D'Angelo added sexual assault and murder to his rap sheet.
Oh shit.
That got real serious real quick.
On September 11th, D'Angelo broke into the home of Claude Snelling, 45, at 532 Whitney
Lane.
Claude awoke around 2 a.m. by strange noises.
Upon leaving his bedroom, Claude ran through the open back door and confronted a ski masked
man in his carport attempting to kidnap his 16-year-old daughter.
I did not see that coming.
The intruder had subdued the 16-year-old with the threat of a gun and Claude ran to his
daughter's defense.
D'Angelo responded by shooting the father twice, stumbling back into the house where
his wife was.
The father did.
Oh no.
After shooting the father, D'Angelo kicked the girl three times in the face and then fled
the scene, leaving behind a bicycle that he had stolen previously.
What?
Wait.
He had gotten there on bike and he ran on foot.
But he was trying to put her in the car?
I guess he was trying to steal the family car?
No, there was no car.
He was just in the carport.
Trying to take her on bike.
Like what?
Get in my bike.
What the fuck?
I don't know.
I actually don't.
That's crazy.
Okay, so the dad?
Unfortunately, the father would not survive this attack.
So sad.
He saved his daughter's life though.
You did.
That's crazy.
The murder, Beth Snelling, the 16 year old victim, agreed to undergo hypnosis in order
to try to gain further details about the assailant, but unfortunately nothing came
of it.
That's interesting though.
You don't hear a lot about that.
Yeah.
A month later, in Rancho Cordova, a mother and her two daughters were tied up inside
their home and assaulted.
After hearing this news, $4,000 was offered as a reward by the police for the Vysalia
Ranzacker's capture.
You best believe I did the conversion rate.
It would be $19,000 today.
So they know that it's, I guess, just through description.
They know it's the same perpetrator.
Yeah, and like, MO is very similar.
Yeah.
Other than the fact that now he's kidnapping people or whatever or tying them up, I guess.
They don't know at this point that he's the same person that attacked the girl and killed
the father, but at the same time they happened to put up their reward for the Vysalia Ranzacker.
They don't know it's him doing it.
I see.
So, Pat Bergler and the Ranzacker may or may not be the same person.
Yeah, I don't think they don't.
Okay.
And then now there's potentially a third person who's like trying to kidnap young ladies.
Nighttime stakeouts were set up near houses that had previously been prowled, but the
Ranzacking continued.
The Pantyprowler.
On December 12, 1975, around 8.30 p.m., a masked man entered the backyard of a home at 1505
W Kawe Avenue, where the Ranzacker had been reported to frequent.
Oh.
So, he went to this house, oh, just the area, not this house.
Yeah, the mass.
Okay, because I was thinking the same house over and over.
Well, he broke into his own childhood at home twice.
Detective William McGowan happened to be on a stakeout inside the garage of this home
and attempted to detain the man.
McGowan fired a warning shot, causing D'Angelo to shriek, remove his mask, and Faine surrender.
Oh my gosh.
He went, ah!
He removed his mask.
And he went, ah!
Don't shoot!
He's immediately elderly.
It's just me and the Pantyprowler.
Don't shoot!
I just tried to talk to you about your car's extended warranty.
I don't do Proud Love.
I don't mean you any harm, I'm just here to ransack.
However, D'Angelo quickly began to run away instead of surrender and hopped the fence into
1501, pulling out a revolver in the process.
He took a shot at McGowan, the bullet nearly missing his face and shattering his flashlight.
Oh my gosh, that's terrifying.
Nearby officers of course rushed to McGowan's aid, giving way for D'Angelo to escape.
They just pull out that glat-glat.
Just pump a few into the air.
Like what's his face?
Like son of Sam?
Oh yeah, just running away.
They were able to collect evidence such as shoe prints, dropped stolen items, and a
sock full of coins.
It was the 50 cents he stole from that other guy that one time.
God, he's so dumb.
When D'Angelo transferred to the Auburn Police Department in 1976, his crimes moved with
him.
Shocker.
Shock.
Around this time, the East Area Rapist was terrorizing the Sacramento area.
I'm sorry if I can who?
During the time, D'Angelo was so active as the East Area Rapist that all of his crimes
are not even listed online because there are too many to name, although it is known that
he is implicated in at least 50 sexual assaults.
The same guy?
All of which he committed while working as a police officer.
What?
So he is not, he is the Vysalia ransacker.
He's the ransacker.
The Cordova Cat burglar and now he is the East Area Rapist.
The Panny Protector and then the Panny Prowler.
The Panny Prowler and he wasn't dubbed the Panny Prowler, that was you that named him
that.
I just gave him an extra one.
It's not like he needs another one, but you know, don't worry.
So now this is the East Area Rapist.
Area Rapist.
So he was committing the, so he committed these crimes after he moved?
Yes.
So he moved away from Vysalia and Cordova and those crimes just suddenly stopped and
now the East Area Rapist is at large in another city in Sacramento.
But clearly escalating now because it's not just inconveniencing by ransacking.
It's not just tying up a mother and her child.
It's sexual assault.
It's sexual assault now.
His initial MO was to stalk middle-class neighborhoods at night in search of women who were alone
in one-story homes, usually near a school, creek trail, or other open space that would
provide for an easy escape.
Oh, okay.
So he thought that out.
He was seen on multiple occasions by numerous people, but was somehow always able to escape.
On one occasion, he was caught in the act and began to be chased by somebody as he was
running away.
He stopped and turned around, shooting and wounding the young pursuer, but not killing
him.
Oh my gosh.
Like he's running and then he just turns around and shoots at you and then runs out.
Like that's scary.
Yeah, a burqa wits.
During the time of these attacks, many people had seen or heard a prowler on their property
before experiencing the actual break-in.
So he was just like bumbling a fucking round enough to make a noise.
Do you think that he liked that?
Like he liked being caught?
Yeah, I think he might have, yeah.
That he was like, oh.
He was like, oh.
Okay, oh.
Like he liked to kind of scare someone.
Yeah.
That was interesting.
Because that's definitely, that wasn't Angel Rosendaz that somebody else did that, right?
Were they, they were, they like.
I think it was BKK.
Maybe it was BKK.
He liked to scare the shit out of them and then whatever.
Yeah.
First.
No, BKK would be like, I'm on the run.
All I need is money.
And then he'd be like, psych.
It might have been BKK.
DeAngelo would frequently break in when he knew that the house was vacant and go inside
and pretty much like set up for the next time he would break in.
So he would, he would break into someone's home, like figure out the layout of the house,
like plant things in certain areas and then he would leave and then he would come back
with those things ready for him when he, when the people were home.
What?
So he would like set up the house in order to like aid in his assault later.
He would remove bullets from any gun that he found.
He would hide ligatures and various other torture items as well in order for them to
be available to him when he returned.
That's fucking disgusting.
One of the fucking creepiest things about this guy is that he was literally known to
remove the bullets from someone's gun, put it back if it was next to their bedside table,
wake them up with a flashlight and when they reached for their gun, he would show them
that he had the bullets in his hand and that their gun was empty.
Isn't that so fucking creepy?
That's fucking terrifying.
Can you imagine that?
Oh my God.
Okay.
Like literally like that's why he scares me so much.
That's so creepy.
Yeah.
I think it was Richard Ramirez that had removed bullets from the shotgun or something.
I remember someone did.
DeAngelo would also call future victims sometimes for months in advance in order to learn their
routines.
Like call their house to see if they were home or not.
Although he originally targeted single women alone in their homes or with children, DeAngelo
quickly found himself turning to targeting couples in their homes.
It's just escalated, escalated, escalated.
His original method was to break into the homes and awake the sleeping occupants with
the flashlight, threatening them with a handgun.
Victims were then bound with ligatures that he found or brought with him, then blindfolded
and gagged with towels that he had ripped up into strips.
The female victim was usually forced to tie up her male companion first before DeAngelo
would tie her up.
The bindings were usually so tight that the victim's hands would be numb for hours after
being untied.
I was just gonna say though, when you just like kind of not tie up your significant
other if you were like forced to do it, but I guess he's standing there watching it.
He might have checked it too.
He would then separate the couple.
This is where you're gonna be like, what?
Often stacking dishes on the male's back and threatening to kill everyone in the room
if you heard them rattle, i.e. try to move or get free.
That's hilarious because I feel like I reference that all the time on these cast.
And I never know who it is.
And I'm like, you know like that one guy with the plates?
Yeah.
That one guy with the plates?
Yes.
Content warning.
He would then move the female to the living room and proceed to rape her with her partner
seemingly being able to hear the whole time.
That's awful.
That is fucking disgusting.
During these newfound attacks, DeAngelo would sometimes spend hours in the home making food
for himself or ransacking various rooms.
He would ransack that fridge.
He would usually sexually assault the women multiple times during these visits as well
and drink any alcohol in the home.
So you get fucked up and wasted and that's so fucking disgusting.
That's so gross.
In fact, he would actually hang around so long that sometimes the victims would think he
was gone until he like re-emerged from the darkness.
Who was fucking taking a nap somewhere?
He was just like quiet.
He would always escape the homes on foot but it is believed that he used a stolen bike
to get him back to where his vehicle was or at least far enough away from the scene.
The East Area Rapists attacked various victims from June in 1976 until May 1977.
So one year.
Yeah, pretty much.
During this time he took a three month hiatus but returned again in San Joaquin County in
September before returning to Sacramento.
So he like-
Why do you think that is sometimes?
Because we see that sometimes where it's like three or four months off.
Um, routine is a big one.
Remember we say like sometimes when they're on a routine they don't have to do it.
He's married to this woman at this point so maybe they're trying for kids which means
they're having sex more often and maybe he doesn't feel like he needs it.
You know what I mean?
There's can be a lot of different factors.
Or like job changes and like all that stuff.
Well he said the same job this time.
Well yeah, but I'm just saying another example.
On March 18th, 1977 the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office received three calls from
a man claiming to be the East Area Rapist.
None of these phone calls were recorded however.
Conveniently.
The first two calls received at 4.15 and 4.30 pm were the same type of call ending with
laughter and hanging up.
Terrifying.
The final call came in at 5 o'clock pm and the caller stated quote, I'm the East Side
Rapist and I have my next victim already stalked and you guys can't catch me.
Are you the East Side Rapist or are you the East Area Rapist?
You can get it right.
There's two different ones.
So you can't be both.
Sorry.
We already gave that name to another person.
Can't have it.
Like humbling.
Panty Brawler.
On December 2nd, 1977 the Sacramento Police Department received a similar call stating
quote, you're never gonna catch me.
East Area Rapist you dumb fuckers.
I'm gonna fuck again tonight.
Be careful.
That's so fucking gross.
That is disgusting.
I'm gonna fuck again tonight.
Because you're a nasty dick.
You only hit a micropanist.
I think Jay will suffer.
I think Jay will suffer too.
I'm pretty sure he has a micropanist.
I'm pretty sure.
Actually, not that I think about it.
I didn't put it in here but I'm pretty sure he had a micropanist because I remember hearing
a story about one time he raped this girl and she was a virgin and he didn't bust her
fucking hymen because his dick is so small.
Jay will suffer the exact same thing.
Okay, well there you go.
So it's true.
It's true.
Jay will suffer it.
It's fucking true.
We have the same birthday.
Gross.
Not really.
Happy birthday, Jay will.
Happy birthday.
This call was recorded and later released to the public.
However, his claims were legit each time and after both sets of phone calls, new victims
were attacked, just like he had said.
On December 9th, 1977, a previous victim of D'Angelo's received a phone call that she
claimed was her attacker.
The caller was noted as saying, quote, Merry Christmas.
It's me again.
The next day on December 10th, Sacramento authorities received two identical phone calls,
both stating, quote, I'm going to hit tonight, what avenue?
Like you're fucking cool.
I'm gonna hit tonight.
I'm gonna hit.
Both phone calls were recorded and the caller was identified as the same person who placed
the call on December 2nd.
So of course police took this threat very seriously considering his previous calls and claims
because he followed through.
So they increased surveillance on what avenue that night.
It's called what avenue?
What.
Oh, what?
Yeah.
I thought you were saying what avenue?
Like guess which avenue?
No.
Oh, okay.
That makes sense.
Like a light bulb.
Like a bulb.
Okay.
Around 2.30 a.m., a masked man eluded officers after being seen bicycling on the what avenue
bridge.
Being spotted again at 4.30 a.m., D'Angelo ditched the stolen bike and fled on foot.
Also in December of 77, someone claiming to be the East Area Rapist sent a poem, quote,
Excitement's Crave to the Sacramento Bee, the Sacramento Mayor's Office and TV station
KVIE.
The poem is as follows.
Oh God, I love these.
Quote, all those mortals surviving birth upon facing maturity take inventory of their worth
to prevailing society.
Choosing values becomes a task.
One self must seek satisfaction.
The selected route will unmask character when plans take action.
Accepting some work to perform at fixed pay but promised for more is a recognized social
norm is as decorum seeking lore.
Achieving while others lifting should be cause for deserving fame.
Leisure tempts excitement seeking what's right and expected seems tame.
Quote, Jesse James has been seen by all and quote, Son of Sam has an author.
Oh.
Others now feel temptation's call.
Sacramento should make an offer.
To make a movie of my life that will pay for my planned exile.
Just now I'd like to add the wife of a mafia lord to my file.
Your East Area Rapist and deserving pest.
See you in the press or on TV.
End quote.
That is intense.
Isn't that wild?
That is wild.
I mean, I kind of hate that he kind of used, well duh, they usually use platforms to be
seen but it was like, oh by the way I'm really good at poetry.
Kind of like, it was good.
Yeah, it was kind of good.
But so Mafia's wife?
He said I'd like to add the wife of a mafia lord to my file so maybe he's gonna rape
him.
I mean, he's gonna try to find a mafia's wife.
Maybe he did.
I don't want to say he never digs in somebody's victims.
Yeah, that's so weird.
I'm like, but like, why would you pick on the mafia?
Like you're asking for it.
On January 2nd, 1978, DeAngelo's first ever rape victim from the past received a phone
call from a man asking for someone named Ray.
Later that night, the same person called once again and the victim was able to identify
him as her attacker.
He stated during this call, quote, gonna kill you, gonna kill you, gonna kill you, bitch,
bitch, bitch, bitch, fucking whore.
And then he hung up.
What?
Jesus.
It's like, but he's a fucking poet.
Yeah.
So he called, okay, so he called his first victim.
How did he get in a number?
I don't know.
I mean, this is the 70s.
Yeah.
Fucking yellow pages or something.
White pages.
Yeah.
On January 6th, 1978, a man claiming to be the East Area Rapist called the Contact
Counseling Service and said, I have a problem.
I need...
What?
It's supposed to say I need help, but it says I need herp.
I need herp.
If I had herpes, I'd stop doing this.
Quote.
I need herp.
Please get me some herp.
I need herp.
Okay.
He said, quote, I have a problem.
I need help because I don't want to do this anymore.
After a short conversation, the caller spoke again and said, quote, I believe you are tracing
this call and then hung up.
Yeah.
Creepy.
DeAngelo attacked five times during the summer of 1978 in Stanislaus and Yolo counties before
disappearing again for three months and then moved primarily to Contra Costa County in
October and stayed until July of 1979.
At this point in the investigation, the Vysalia Ransacker and the East Area Rapist were thought
to be two different people.
Also at this time, a newly noticed serial killer by the name of the Night Stalker appeared
in the media.
Unbeknownst to the world, this was the Vysalia Ransacker and the East Area Rapist and he
had committed his first murder over a year prior.
Wait, so it wasn't Richard Rivera's?
But they called him the Night Stalker?
Oh my gosh.
There's already Son of Sam and Night Stalker, but not Night Stalker Night Stalker, his
Night Stalker.
On February 2nd, 1978, Brian and Katie Magery were walking their dog in the Rancho Cordova
area, closely where the East Area Rapist was stalking, and they had an unfortunate
run-in with him.
After a supposed confrontation, DeAngelo shot Brian, seriously injuring or killing him,
it wasn't clear if it was immediate death.
He did ultimately die.
And in response to this, Katie ran away and yelled for help.
DeAngelo was able to catch up with her and delivered a fatal gunshot to her head, according
to prosecutors.
Wow.
Just like in the street?
That poor dog probably was like, what do I do?
He left the dog?
Didn't say that he did or didn't, but I feel like the dog ran off immediately with a loud
noise like that.
Brian Magery was a military policeman for the US Air Force and was living on base at
the time of the attack.
That's so sad.
On December 9th, 1978, during the investigation of one of his attacks, investigators discovered
three sheets of notebook paper, whereas suspicious vehicle had been parked.
They believed the pages were dropped accidentally, like out of a notebook or out of a bag of
some sort.
The first sheet looked to be a homework essay on General George Armstrong Custer, while
the second sheet contains a journal-style entry describing a teacher who made students
write lines which the author did not like.
On the second paper, read the following.
Mad is the world, the world that reminds me of sixth grade.
I hated that year.
I wish I had known what was going to be going on during my sixth grade year, the last and
worst year of elementary school.
Mad is the world that remains in my head about my dreadful year as a sixth grader.
My madness was one that was caused by disappointments that hurt me very much.
Disappointments from my teachers, such as field trips that were planned, then cancelled.
My sixth grade teacher gave me a lot of disappointments which made me very mad and made me built
a state of hatred in my heart.
No one ever let me down that hard before and I never hated anyone as much as I did him.
Disappointment wasn't the only reason that made me mad in my sixth grade class.
Another was getting in trouble at school, especially talking.
That's what really bugged me was writing sentences, those awful sentences that my teacher made.
Me write.
Hours and hours I'd sit and write 50, 100, 150 sentence.
Day and night I write those dreadful paragraphs which embarrassed me more and more and made
me ashamed of myself which in turn, deep down inside, made me realize that writing sentence
wasn't fair.
It wasn't fair to make me suffer like that.
It just wasn't fair to make me sit and write until my bones act.
Until my hand felt every horrid pain that it ever had as I wrote.
I got madder and madder until I cried.
I cried because I was ashamed.
I cried because I was disgusted.
I cried because I was mad.
And I cried for myself.
Kid who kept on having to write those dain sentences.
My angriest from sixth grade will scar my memory for life and I will be ashamed for my sixth
grade year forever."
This was all on the back of one page?
Yeah.
That is definitely two pages worth of content.
Yeah, definitely.
And all of those seemingly sounding typos, I read it how it was written.
Yeah.
I don't read.
Weemon.
On the last sheet, a hand drawn map of what looks like a neighborhood with the word punishment
written across the backside.
So when the front was like remedial, not remedial, but just basic information about nothingness?
It was like a essay style thing of like a military general or something.
Yeah, Custer.
And then it was that angry thing about, no, there's three pages total.
The second page was that angry note about his sixth grade teacher.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
That's still like so weird.
Yeah.
Definitely weird.
But he's like a grown adult.
Yeah.
So like why would he have like essay pages for like?
I don't know.
I think that he's like, or is he like, was he maybe trying to attempt to like put himself
back in like a high school setting?
And that was like his essay paper.
And then he wrote this because he's really into writing.
He said to pull him to the police.
It's so weird.
Although investigators were unable to identify the area that was drawn, experts believe that
it was a fantasy-like striking ground drawn by the perpetrator.
After these attacks, D'Angelo continued to commit crimes as the East Area rapist, attacking
more than 20 women and couples until 1979.
His last known attack that solely consisted of breaking and entering and rape was on July
5th, 1979.
And after this attack, D'Angelo moved to Southern California, where his crimes escalated once
again to murder.
This fucking guy.
It's really interesting though that like when he moves, it escalates, right?
It's not like, I guess HH was kind of that way too though, right?
Like he was just doing petty crime or whatever and then, well not petty crime, he was doing
federal fraud.
But you know, but when he moved to Chicago, that's when he started murdering people.
So that's interesting, like location change like that.
Maybe they think they can get away with it more if they move.
He actually left his first trip with out satisfaction as his victims had escaped.
But ultimately, D'Angelo would continue to kill until 1986, where he earned the nickname
the Night Stalker and invaded responsibility for these attacks until many decades later
when he was renamed the original Night Stalker.
After Richard Ramirez took the previous title.
Interesting.
So he got dubbed OG Night Stalker.
So like totally a trumping Richard Ramirez because, well, I forget what the years were
for Ramirez.
Well, Ramirez was born in the 70s.
This is like the late 70s.
Well, 80s I guess not.
So yeah, well, he was born in the 50s, so I guess, yeah, just older in general.
On July 2nd, 1979, D'Angelo had his first and only run in with the law until his capture.
And when?
In 79.
Okay.
He was caught shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent, which was thought later to be able
to assist with his other crimes.
Oh my God, dog repellent?
He did know son of Sam.
D'Angelo was suspended by the Auburn Police Department pending the investigation, and
about two months later on August 27th, he was relieved from his duties as an officer
of the law and his career in law enforcement came to an abrupt end.
Interesting.
I wonder how they felt about that because it's kind of like your cover.
Yeah, exactly.
Where you work, where you guys.
Yeah, exactly.
Where you go to church and all that other stuff is part of your cover.
On October 1st, 1979, D'Angelo broke into a couple's home in Southern California and
tied them both up, reenacting his usual MO.
While he was rifling around their things, the couple overheard D'Angelo talking to
himself, saying things like, quote, I'll kill them.
Are you fucking proving that?
Who are you talking to?
Obviously terrified, the couple began to try to free themselves from the restraints as D'Angelo
was in the other room.
While doing so, the woman began screaming very loud, causing alarm in the home.
Oh my gosh.
D'Angelo did not want to risk the other neighbor's hearing and getting concerned, so he took
off on a bicycle that he probably stole.
That he probably stole.
In fact, a neighbor did hear the screaming and he just so happened to be an FBI agent.
Oh shit.
He pursued D'Angelo who had abandoned the bicycle and a knife and fled on foot because
you're faster than a bike.
I don't understand.
He must have just been really bad on a bike.
Well, he did flee through connecting neighbors' backyards so he probably couldn't get the
bike like through the fence and stuff.
D'Angelo was able to escape and disappeared into the night.
He must be in good shape if he can keep running out or running these people.
Well, clearly he doesn't know how to ride a bicycle.
He can just stop with the bicycle.
He just runs with the bike in his hand.
You might as well just get a taxi to drive him everywhere.
On October 26th, D'Angelo faced charges in court for his petty shoplifting with the
jury unknowingly deciding the fate of a murderer.
That's so creepy.
Isn't that creepy?
Yeah, that's creepy.
Unfortunately, these other crimes had not yet been connected to D'Angelo and he was
found guilty for his shoplifting, fined $100 and sentenced to six months probation.
Write a poem about that.
Probation though.
He never went to jail.
I know.
Write a poem about it.
On December 30th, 44-year-old Dr. Robert Offerman and 35-year-old Deborah Alexandra Manning
were found shot to death in Robert's condo in Goleta.
When police arrived at the scene, it was noted that Robert's bindings were untied, indicating
that he got free at one point and tried to lunge at the attacker.
When questioned, neighbors also said that they did hear multiple gunshots at the suggested
time of death.
Also found at the scene, paw prints of a seemingly big dog suggesting that the killer may have
brought one with him.
What?
To scare them, maybe?
But why would he buy a dog repellent and then buy a dog?
It's a weirdo, I don't know.
Fucking weirdo.
These two children's bikes tie up people in their homes.
Lastly, D'Angelo had also broken into the vacant adjoining home and stolen a bicycle.
Oh god.
Later found abandoned on the street north of the scene of the crime.
Because he doesn't know how to ride one.
These would be the first murders committed by the original night stalker.
On March 13th, D'Angelo broke into the home of 33-year-old Charlene Smith and 43-year-old
Lyman Smith, a married couple living in Ventura.
Upon entering the home, he proceeded to subdue the couple and he raped Charlene.
The two had their wrists and ankles tied with drapery cords and the knot was noted as being
an unusual knot known as the diamond knot on Charlene's wrist.
Is it like a Boy Scout thing or a Navy thing?
Wait, did he serve in the Navy or the Army?
He was in the Navy.
It's a Navy knot!
A Navy knot!
Oh shit.
The two victims had been bludgeoned to death with a log taken from a wood pile on the side
of the home.
What is this?
The fancy knot that was used to tie up Charlene was so unusual that the murderer was therefore
briefly given the nickname the Diamond Knot Killer.
Oh my god.
He's just racking them up.
All these aliases.
He's just racking them up unlike some other idiots that like write into newspapers and
like create their own aliases.
I like the following.
How about you?
I like the following.
How about you?
You pick it.
This Diamond Knot also gave way for the police to connect the original Night Stalker with
the East Area Rapist as the same knot was used at two different crime scenes.
On August 19th, 24 year old Keith Eli Harrington and 27 year old Patrice Brisco Harrington
were found bludgeoned to death in their home in a gated community.
Patrice Harrington had also been notably raped and although no murder weapon or ligatures
were found at the scene, there was evidence that both of the wrists and ankles of each
person had been bound for a period of time.
So he had bound them up at some point and then took the stuff with him after they were
deceased it seems like.
Patrice was a nurse in Irvine and Keith was a medical student at UC Irvine at the time
of their deaths.
They had been married for only three months.
They were like newlywed newlywed.
That's so sad.
Following this horrific crime, Keith's brother Bruce later spent nearly $2 million supporting
California Proposition 69 authorizing DNA collection from all California felons and
certain other criminals.
Hell yeah, that's Richard Ramirez that happened right when he was caught.
After these murders occurred, a $25,000 reward was offered for the capture of the original
Night Stalker.
$102,621 today.
On February 6th, 1981, 28 year old Manuello Whithun was in her home alone when an intruder
entered unannounced.
Manuello was home alone because her husband was in the hospital for an extended period
of time and she just happened to be staying at home that night.
Could you imagine being in the hospital when something like that happens to your partner?
Once D'Angelo entered her home, there was evidence that he tied her up with his usual
MO.
D'Angelo raped and murdered the woman, leaving no murder weapon or ligatures behind once again.
That's weird that he just all of a sudden decided to start taking those but do you think
it's because he knew that they had found the knot?
I think maybe so.
Maybe he was like, I've done this too many times now, like I need to start making sure
I'm being more aware.
Switching it up a little bit?
Yeah.
Interesting.
Manuello's TV was also found in the backyard.
Seemingly, the attackers attempt to make the scene look like a robbery gone wrong.
Just the TV?
Yeah.
Nobody gave a shit about anything else in there?
Like diamond earrings are still on there.
Yeah.
He just took one.
In July 27th 1981, 35 year old Sherry Domingo and 27 year old Gregory Sanchez became the
original Night Stalker's 10th and 11th victims.
The two were hanging out at Sherry's home on Taltic Way in Goleta, only four blocks
down from the murders of Robert Offerman and Deborah Alexandra Manning.
This guy is so ballsy, like you just not give a shit.
Upon entering the home through a small bathroom window, D'Angelo did not tie Gregory up but
instead shot him in the cheek, wounding him badly before beating him to death with a garden
tool.
Jesus Christ.
He's ruthless.
It is thought by authorities that Gregory may have realized that the man he was dealing
with was responsible for the previous two murders down the block and he tried to tackle
D'Angelo, causing him to be injured without being tied up first.
Despite the gunshot to the face, no neighbors alerted authorities about any noise during
this time.
Wow.
I think I would be on high alert knowing there was just a murder down the street.
After D'Angelo fatally wounded Gregory, he covered his face up with a pile of clothes
pulled from the closet and moved on to his next target, Sherry.
What was she doing this whole time?
Oh, he tied her up.
Sherry was tied up seemingly upon D'Angelo entering the home and was unfortunately raped
and bludgeoned to death.
Bruises were left on her wrists and ankles, but the restraints were not left at the crime
scene once again.
A piece of shipping twine was found near her bed and fibers from an unknown source were
scattered over her body.
Fibers of an unknown source?
Maybe like something off his clothing or maybe like a piece of something he used to write
like tie her hands up or something?
Sure, yeah.
After investigating the scene and based on evidence found, authorities believe that the
perpetrator may have worked as a painter or in a similar job at the Cal Real Shopping
Center.
Why?
I'm not sure.
The evidence was found.
After some evidence, it must have been those fibers.
Nothing panned out.
Oh, I see.
September of the same year, 1981, D'Angelo's first daughter was born.
What?
He's still with Sharon.
The fuck, Sharon?
Well, she doesn't know.
In 1982, a previous victim of D'Angelo's received a call at her place of work, a Denny's
restaurant.
During this call, the rapist threatened to rape her again.
Experts believed that D'Angelo happened to be a patron at their restaurant and recognized
her giving way for him to find out where she worked.
Could you imagine like this fucker knows who you are?
Yeah.
And you don't recognize him?
Yeah.
Because probably psychologically, you've tried to block it out.
Exactly.
Or he had like a mask on or something.
And then could you imagine the amount of damage he did by calling her?
Yeah.
And just hearing his voice like totally petrified her.
That's fucking disgusting.
This guy's evil.
Yeah, he is.
Like, no, he's one of the worst, in my opinion.
On May 4th, 1986, 18-year-old Janelle Lisa Cruz was found after she was raped and bludgeoned
to death in her home in Irvine.
At the time of the attack, her family was on vacation in Mexico, and when they arrived
home, they found the horrible scene.
That is, oh my god.
I know.
This fucking guy.
The missing pipe wrench reported missing by Janelle's stepfather was thought to be the
murder weapon.
During the time of these multiple murders, police could not seem to agree on who they
thought was the perpetrator, or even if the murders were committed by the same person.
In 1991, a previous victim received a phone call from the perpetrator and spoke with him
for one minute.
She could hear a woman and children in the background, leading to speculation that Joseph
James D'Angelo had a family.
Her Sharon, I just mentioned her.
The two were still married at this point.
They had married in 1973, and Sharon actually became a divorce attorney in 82.
D'Angelo managed to keep his private life a secret from his entire family, having their
second daughter in November of 1986 and his third in May of 1989, until him and Sharon
separated in 1991.
But it wasn't because of his actions, and it wouldn't be until many years later that
the divorce was actually filed by Sharon.
It wasn't clear why the two separated, but the phone calls to previous victims also ended
around the same time that they split up.
But she didn't leave him because she found anything out, seemingly.
I find that interesting that she's a divorce attorney.
And I guess maybe it's just because she sees so many relationships that are decimated,
that maybe it made her appreciate what she has at home, maybe, or something, and try
to put up with more bullshit.
During this time as well, I told you that D'Angelo was no longer working in law enforcement,
and instead he had gotten a job working as a truck mechanic for Savemarket Supermarket
Distribution Center in Roseville.
Maybe that's where the evidence for the...
It's kind of a similar gig to your painting.
There's actually a huge gap in his reported life between 1990 and 2017, although he was
arrested once in 1996 for failing to pay for gas.
The charge was dismissed.
He wasn't doing anything?
He wasn't raping or murdering or rummaging or...
Not that we know of.
What the fuck?
Prowling?
Pantyprowling?
D'Angelo's brother-in-law later claimed that D'Angelo would casually bring up the East
Area Rapist in conversation around the time of the original crimes.
Remember that?
This was crazy.
What a crazy time.
Does anyone want to talk about that East Area Rapist that's at large?
Remember that guy?
No, he was talking about it during the time it was happening.
He's like, come to think of it, he was mentioning the East Area Rapist a lot when the East
Area Rapist was that large.
Come to think of it.
Neighbors also reported that he would frequently engage in loud, profane outbursts that they
could hear.
One neighbor reported that his family received a phone message from D'Angelo threatening
to, quote, deliver a load of death because of their barking dog.
Sounds like son of a...
Deliver a load of death.
I'm gonna deliver a load of death.
Between 1996 and 2001, before officially connecting the original Night Stalker to the East Area
Rapist, some law enforcement officials sought to link the Goleta cases as well.
The links were primarily due to similar MOs and police were beginning to put the pieces
of the puzzle together.
On April 6th, 2001, the day after an article in the Sacramento Bee linked the original
Night Stalker and East Area Rapist, a victim of the rapist received a call from D'Angelo.
He asked, quote, remember when we played?
Go fucking roast, right?
Like that's vile.
Oh my god, that is disgusting.
Although the links of these crimes were made in the early 2000s, D'Angelo was able to
lay low for many more years without being known to commit them.
Though his crimes were now considered cold cases, law enforcement was still actively
looking for any clues that would link them to the identity of the killer.
As a result of D'Angelo's unsolved crimes, California lawmakers began pushing for a centralized
DNA database and the law passed in November of 2004.
Using the new information and technology to their advantage, police kept working the
case and by January 2007, all of the original Night Stalker murders and 55 sexual assaults
from the East Area Rapist had been definitively linked to the same attacker.
In addition, one month later in February, a retired detective linked the Visalia Rand
Sacker cases to these crimes.
Now with the original Night Stalker, the East Area Rapist and the Visalia Rand Sacker crimes
all linked together, some saw the need to create a new name for this one perpetrator.
And in 2011, true crime writer Michelle McNamara coined the most infamous name for this attacker,
the Golden State Killer.
Between 2013 and 2017, partially thanks to the release of this new nickname of the perpetrator,
investigations by multiple law enforcement agencies ramped up yet again.
On June 15, 2016, 40 years after the first known assault by the Golden State Killer,
the FBI added an additional $50,000 reward for any information leading them to the killer
and adding new composite sketches and crime details as well.
Eventually, quote, through the use of genetic genealogy searching on GED match, investigators
identified distant relatives of D'Angelo, including family members related directly
to his great-great-great-great-grandfather dating back to the 1800s.
Based on this information, investigators were able to build about 25 different family trees,
and the one that led to D'Angelo specifically contained about 1,000 people.
They literally had his entire life, like his entire ancestry laid out, and they just had
to narrow it down to who it was.
Over the course of the next few months, investigators used other clues like age, sex, and place
of residence to rule out suspects populating these trees, eliminating them one by one until
only D'Angelo remained.
This is in 2004?
This is in 2017.
2017?
Yes.
Like yesterday?
Yes.
For fuck's sake.
The idea of using this investigative genetic genealogy came from cold case investigator
Paul Holes, who even used a still-sealed sexual assault kit from 1980 to begin his search.
On April 18, 2018, a DNA sample was collected from the door handle of D'Angelo's car.
The sample was a match to samples associated with Golden State Killer crimes.
During this time, investigators also looked at multiple other suspects for the crimes they
had been researching all the while.
Brett Glassby from Galletto was considered to be a suspect by the Santa Barbara County
investigators, however they found out that he himself was murdered in Mexico in 1982,
before the murder of Janelle Cruz, eliminating him as a suspect.
Paul Kornfed Schneider, a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood.
There it is.
Was living in Orange County when the Harrington's, Manuela Woodham and Janelle Cruz were killed.
However, a DNA test cleared him in the 90s.
Lastly, Joe Alsip was a friend and business partner of the victim Lyman Smith and allegedly
confessed something to his pastor during a family counseling session.
Alsip was arraigned for the Smith murders in 1982, but the charges were later dropped
and his innocence was confirmed by DNA testing in 97.
That's good.
I hope he was a good person.
Yeah.
After the death of Angelo goes, the evidence was compelling.
He grew up in Rancho Cordova.
He lived and worked near Vysalia as a police officer during the Vysalia ransackers spree.
He transferred to Auburn at the same time the East Area Rapist spree began.
And following his termination from the police department, he briefly lived in Southern California
at the start of the original Night Stalker killings.
On March 18th, 2018, the Sacramento Sheriff's Department began railing the, railing him.
The Sacramento Sheriff's Department began tailing D'Angelo, now 72 years old.
Oh my gosh.
They noticed that he had a particularly active lifestyle.
Yard work, fishing, motorcycle riding, etc.
He's upgraded from bicycles.
On April 23rd, 2018, the Sacramento PD used an empty garbage truck to collect D'Angelo's
trash with the goal of extracting his DNA from a discarded piece of trash.
And later that day, rapid DNA testing definitively linked D'Angelo to several East Area Rapist
and original Night Stalker crimes.
The next day on April 24th, 2018, Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies arrested D'Angelo
and subsequently charged him with eight counts of first degree murder with special circumstances.
Because of his age?
Well, I didn't know what that meant either, so I had to look it up.
But pretty much means that they have the right to try him with harsher punishment due to
the nature of the crimes.
So I thought it might have been an age thing, but apparently it's like, you know, some things
can be ruled out.
Like there has to be like a maximum sentence.
I think that they kind of like vetoed that in this case.
Yeah, they were just like, fuck this guy.
D'Angelo was living with one of his daughters, his eldest daughter, and her daughter, his
grandchild at the time of his arrest.
What the fuck?
Several months after his arrest, Sharon Marie Huddle filed for divorce from Joseph James
D'Angelo.
After he was in his 70s, after he was caught, then she filed for divorce?
She didn't know until he was caught that he was...
Well they weren't together, I guess, but still.
On May 10th, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office charged D'Angelo with
four additional counts of first degree murder.
Although D'Angelo was seen being very active in the entire month he was being tailed, as
soon as he entered the police station, he began this persona of a feeble old man, seemingly
with dementia, an act he would keep up throughout his entire trial.
So he's like in a wheelchair?
He's all decrepit now.
He's got the IV and the oxygen tank and the...
They did that with Durst too.
Durst was like, oh he's just this old man.
When he was being interviewed for that HBO special, The Jinx, he seemed fine and he seemed
healthy and he seemed radiant even at certain points until he started burping, which was
really awkward.
But then after that, because he was free then, that as soon as he went to trial, he was this
old man who could remember anything.
That's really funny that you just brought him up because of what I'm gonna say next.
What?
At one point, while alone in an interrogation room, D'Angelo was overheard talking to himself.
Oh my God.
Similarly to Robert Durst.
Oh my God.
He said, quote, I did all that.
I didn't have the strength to push him out.
He made me.
He went with me.
It was like in my head.
I mean, he's a part of me.
I didn't want to do those things.
I pushed Jerry out and had a happy life.
I did all of those things.
I've destroyed all their lives, so now I gotta pay the price.
Who's Jerry?
This was the first of many times that D'Angelo claimed to have been overcome by a force or
a personality named Jerry that was the real perpetrator of the crimes.
Not me.
I just look like him.
He's trying to play like he has dissociative identity disorder apparently.
Yeah.
Well, maybe Jerry's the one that can ride the bike.
Maybe.
Well.
I mean, a force that just supposedly stopped having control in 1986 when he stopped killing.
Yeah.
That doesn't make any sense.
When he probably didn't get any real psychiatric help.
Yeah.
Not that you need psychiatric help when you have a DID, I'm just saying.
Yeah.
That in his mind, because he's claiming it.
You know what I mean?
Seven survivors of D'Angelo's crimes assisted in his sentencing by picking him out of a
lineup in which all seven chose a photo of him without a doubt in their minds.
Hell yeah.
All in all, D'Angelo was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping.
Unfortunately, he could not be charged for his sexual assaults or burglaries due to the
statute of limitations being passed.
It's fucking bullshit.
I'm sorry.
That's such bullshit.
If you have evidence, it shouldn't matter.
It shouldn't matter.
It's the same shit like OJ was like statute of limitations.
So for listeners that don't know what that is, a statute of limitations is the maximum
amount of time that can pass before a person can no longer be charged with that crime.
For sexual assault in 2018, I think it was 10 years unless it was committed on a child
and then there's no limitation.
So he was arraigned in 2018, so unfortunately he wasn't able to.
I think domestic violence was seven.
Well there's a lot that don't have a statute of murder, of course.
You can always get charged with that.
Clearly 40 years later.
I missed my mark a long time ago.
Also was arraigned in Sacramento on August 23rd, 2018.
In November, prosecutors from six involved counties collectively estimated that the
case could cost taxpayers $20 million in last 10 years.
About eight months later in a court proceeding on April 10th, 2019, prosecutors announced
that they would seek the death penalty and the judge ruled that cameras would be allowed
inside the courtroom during the trial.
Just another year went by and on March 4th, 2020, D'Angelo offered to plead guilty as
long as the death penalty were taken off the table.
What does he fucking care?
I fucking hate that shit.
Murderers that are terrified to die.
That makes no sense in my mind.
Fucking assholes.
This plea was not accepted at the time, but in June 2020, news reports stated that an
agreement had been reached for D'Angelo to be spared a death sentence in exchange for
pleading guilty.
I bet he used his fucking kids too.
I bet he was like, I have children and grandchildren that I need to be alive for.
Seriously.
On June 29th, 2020, Joseph James D'Angelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first degree
murder and special circumstances, as well as 13 counts of kidnapping and other various
charges totaling 88 altogether.
Oh shit.
He also admitted to being the original night stalker, the East Area rapist, the Vesalia
ransacker, and the Cordova cat burglar, and the pantyprowler.
From August 18th to August 20th, 2020, D'Angelo was confronted in court by rape survivors,
their relatives, and their relatives of those whom he had killed.
If you see photos from this hearing, he's in a wheelchair, he's all decrepit and he
has a mask on and he's all falling apart.
He looks really fucking creepy.
Like the Crip Keeper?
Yeah.
The Carson Sandler, who was raped in 1976 while home with her son, told the court, quote,
I was frozen in fear beyond description.
My attention was not on the rape, but fully on where did you put my son when you removed
him from the bed?
Where did you put him and what were you going to do with him?
Jane also stated that now, decades later, scars from her attack still remain, and seeing
a ski mask or hearing someone yell, quote, shut up will forever cause her anxiety.
She ended by saying, quote, my comfort at those times is remembering that you are finally
going to prison and will remain there until you die.
D'Angelo offered a brief apology after hearing the victim's statements, which I don't think
they should be allowed to do, whatever, and responded with, quote, I've listened to all
of your statements, each one of them, and I'm truly sorry to everyone I've hurt.
Joseph James D'Angelo, Jr. was sentenced to the maximum penalty the court could impose,
11 consecutive life sentences for murder, plus one additional life sentence for the kidnapping
charges, and an additional eight years for the weapons charges.
Never going to make it.
Yeah, you're going to be like 5,000 weeks.
In November of 2020, D'Angelo was transferred to the North Kern State Prison, and as of
February 2021, he is incarcerated in protective custody at California State Prison, Corcoran.
So he's still alive.
The last thing I can find is from early last year, but he's still kicking.
That's crazy to me that he's under protective custody, but if you think about how long he
operated, for how long he operated and how many people he affected, there's got to be
at least one or two people in there that know somebody that was affected by him.
Well, yeah, and also maybe they're thinking if they can keep him at all times, maybe he'll
confess to more things and they can close more cases.
That's true.
For his family and the people around him, nobody really knew the monster inside of him.
His eldest daughter came out years later and stated that he was the perfect father and
she loved him for who he was at home.
His wife, Sharon, stated that she simply believed his reasons for being out of the house so
often and she never thought anything was amiss about his lifestyle.
That's so scary.
Thinking that the person that you've shared a home with was like one.
They're like a total chameleon.
Stories of his, however, thought differently about the husband and father.
One of his close neighbors, Corey Harvey, confirmed that D'Angelo was living with his
daughter and granddaughter, but was shocked at the arrest stating that she simply knew
D'Angelo as, quote, Joe, the old man who said retirement was a great opportunity to
go fishing.
She also said that Joe was an avid bike rider and that he was a normal man, quote, except
for that quirkiness of getting mad.
So he still had a temper in his 70s.
It's a quirk.
Getting mad mad is a quirk.
Other neighbors saw this angry side of him more often than not.
Natalia Bades-Correnti, a neighbor that lived a few doors down, stated, quote, we used to
just call him freak.
Which kind of fucked up, but he is still.
She continued, quote, he used to have these temper tantrums, not at anybody, just his
self frustration.
Like he would just yell at himself, I guess.
Well, I mean, he has a habit of talking to himself.
So that kind of makes sense.
A third neighbor.
This is how long we've been talking about this goddamn case.
Eddie Vernon said that he once saw D'Angelo prowling on his property, stating about him,
quote, I had the creeps about this guy for a long time.
I think everybody likes to say that, though.
Oh, I hope so.
I knew the whole time.
Yeah.
It's like, bitch, why didn't you do anything, though?
Michelle McNamara wrote online and for the Los Angeles magazine about the Golden State
Killer, if you don't remember, she was the one that dubbed the nickname, and she suggested
that he would ultimately be caught due to the DNA advancements that we have.
Her writings also brought attention to more unsolved crimes, and she made her investigative
journey very public by announcing the writing of a book entitled, quote, I'll be gone in
the dark.
I actually own that book.
If you want to read it.
Unfortunately, McNamara suffered a fatal overdose in 2016 before she was able to identify
the Golden State Killer.
After she passed, her husband, Patton Oswald, I'm not sure if anyone else knows, I know
you know, Patton Oswald oversaw the completion of her book and it became a bestseller after
it was published in February 2018.
That's like really sweet.
That is really sweet.
It took her story and clearly loved her a lot.
You can see that in like every interview.
When it comes to Joseph James D'Angelo Jr., there are many different thoughts about the
state of his mental health.
Some people think that he's a sociopath, a psychopath, that he has antisocial personality
disorder or even borderline personality disorder.
But the truth is he was never officially diagnosed with anything.
Probably because of a lack of caring on his, you know, parents part.
There are other things that counteract the idea that D'Angelo was a psychopath or sociopath,
his remorse.
Now, he didn't seem very remorseful in the court, but look at this.
Being in mid-1977, the survivors of his heinous crimes came forward with information about
their attacker.
They would say that he was overheard crying and muttering things to himself after he would
attack them, saying things like, quote, mommy, I don't want to do this.
There's also a reported call that he made in 1978 again to the counseling service where
he asked for help.
Another clue to his true sense of self is the fact that he had a family, which is not
surprising in itself since others have had families.
However, they were completely adamant that he was not only a good husband and father,
but a great one.
In fact, again, his eldest daughter advocated for him writing a five-page letter to the
court after his arrest, suggesting that he was absolutely not responsible for these crimes
and he was an amazing person.
So my point is that psychopaths and sociopaths can fake a lot of emotions, but it's hard
to fake these ones that we've seen in these examples.
That is really interesting about the...
I mean, first of all, the Norman Bates shit, like, mommy, I don't want to do this, like,
kind of shit.
But it does show, I guess, some type of a level of the fact that he was connected to
that, even if it was his childhood, like he broke into his childhood home, clearly he's
able to remain in a space where he's connecting with that inner child or something that he's
mourning or something, you know what I mean?
So he's connected to something.
He clearly cares about something enough to do that, right?
And then to be a good father, I mean, how...
What a fucking identity crisis his daughter must be going through to try to connect this.
Does she still think he's innocent or does she now finally accept that he's the one?
And what made him just buckle down and not do anything?
Because clearly he was living, I guess, separated from his wife, which meant that he probably
had his daughter some of the time.
But is it that because his daughter had gotten older, he didn't want them to get suspicious?
Well, I don't know.
So then he kind of stopped?
He had also gotten away with it for so long and he did so many crimes.
Maybe he was like, shit, I might as well quit while I'm ahead and just fucking live out
my retirement and not potentially get caught and put in jail.
He just wasn't expecting DNAs to come in the way.
That's true.
Yeah, and for it to be so easily accessible to people.
Yeah, exactly.
That's crazy.
That's it.
What a good case.
It took me a long time to research that, but it was a really good...
It needed to be done.
It definitely did.
And I mean, I've heard this story for the first time, like a full podcast episode about
it, the first time in 2018.
I think they did it because he had gotten caught.
And so, yeah, it was a really good episode.
I definitely remember hearing about it.
I just didn't realize it had been so long that he had not committed any crimes.
Yeah, that's wild, right?
Yeah, thank you guys for hanging out with us.
We're gonna get this out pretty quick and we're gonna really buckle down.
We've been talking about just going for it.
I got the itch all over again.
We have a bunch of...
I have a bunch of unexpected free time, so I'm gonna be using that to get out some content.
We're still looking for sponsors, of course.
Donate to the Patreon if you'd like.
Share us.
Please tell everybody that you know about us.
We're not gonna ever not want more listeners.
But yeah, that's all I had.
All right.
Okay, well, that sounds good.
Love you.
Bye.