Serial killer and rapist, California, 1974–1986
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was born on November 8, 1945, in Bath, New York, United States. He would later become known under four separate criminal aliases — the Golden State Killer, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Visalia Ransacker — each reflecting a different phase or geography of his crimes. Before his true identity was uncovered, he had lived for decades as an ordinary citizen and had served as a police officer, a detail that made his eventual unmasking all the more shocking to the public and to law enforcement.
For more than three decades, DeAngelo's identity remained unknown. It was not until April 24, 2018, that he was arrested, finally closing one of the most protracted cold-case investigations in American criminal history.
DeAngelo's criminal activity spanned from 1974 to 1986 and was concentrated in California, United States. His crimes fell into three broad and escalating categories: burglary, sexual assault, and murder.
Fødsel
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. fødes den 8. november 1945. Fødested er ikke bekræftet i de tilgængelige kilder.
Forbrydelserne begynder — Visalia Ransacker
DeAngelo begynder en serie af indbrud i Visalia-området i Californien, der siden knyttes til ham under aliasset Visalia Ransacker. Den kriminelle periode strækker sig over 13 år.
East Area Rapist-overfaldene
DeAngelo begår en lang række seksuelle overfald i Sacramento-området og kendes i denne periode som East Area Rapist. Overfaldene spreder sig til flere californiske amter.
Mord som Original Night Stalker
Forbrydelserne eskalerer til drab i Sydcalifornien, og DeAngelo opererer under det alias der siden benævnes Original Night Stalker. Gerningsstederne inkluderer bl.a. Santa Barbara og Orange County.
Forbrydelserne ophører
DeAngelos dokumenterede kriminelle aktivitet som Golden State Killer ophører. Sagen forbliver uopklaret i årtier og regnes som en af de mest gådefulde seriemordsager i amerikansk retshistorie.
His earliest documented crimes were attributed to the "Visalia Ransacker" phase, beginning in 1974 and involving a series of home burglaries in the Visalia area. He then moved into a prolonged campaign of home-invasion rapes across northern California, during which he was dubbed the "East Area Rapist." More than 51 sexual assaults have been attributed to him from this period. His crimes later escalated further — he began killing his victims, leading to the aliases "Original Night Stalker" and ultimately "Golden State Killer," the name that came to define his legacy in the public consciousness.
His modus operandi was methodical and predatory. He targeted homes at night, binding victims before committing sexual assault and, in the later phase of his crimes, murder. The crimes were spread across multiple cities in both northern and southern California, making coordinated law enforcement response extremely difficult at the time. A confirmed total of 13 people were murdered and 51 or more were raped over the course of his active years.
DeAngelo's victims included both men and women, attacked in their own homes. The sexual assault victims — more than 51 in total — were predominantly women, targeted during the East Area Rapist phase of his crimes. The murder victims, 13 in total, were killed during the later Original Night Stalker phase, with couples frequently targeted in their residences across California. The full geographic scope of the crimes, extending from northern to southern California, meant that for many years different law enforcement agencies did not connect the offenses to a single perpetrator.
Noting a significant legal consequence for the victims:
Anholdelse
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. anholdes den 25. april 2018 efter at efterforskere identificerer ham via familiens DNA indsendt til en offentlig genealogi-database.
Skylderkendelse
DeAngelo erklærer sig skyldig i Sacramento County Superior Court i 13 mord og 13 kidnappinger til røveri. I forbindelse med plea-aftalen tilstår han yderligere 161 uanklagede forbrydelser mod 61 yderligere ofre.
Dom afsiges
DeAngelo idømmes livstid i californisk statsfængsel uden mulighed for prøveløsladelse. Dommen markerer afslutningen på en af de længst løbende uopklarede seriemordsager i USA.
The breakthrough that finally identified DeAngelo came through forensic genealogy. Investigators used DNA evidence recovered from crime scenes and matched it against a consumer genealogy database, tracing familial DNA connections until they narrowed the suspect pool to DeAngelo. He was arrested on April 24, 2018, more than three decades after his last known crime.
On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 murders and the associated kidnapping-related counts. In August 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case is now widely cited as a landmark in the use of genetic genealogy in criminal investigations, a technique that has since been applied to dozens of other cold cases across the United States.
The Golden State Killer case attracted extensive media attention both before and after DeAngelo's arrest, generating books, documentaries, podcasts, and major investigative journalism.
The most prominent single work inspired by the case is I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, published in 2018 by Harper. McNamara, who died before DeAngelo's arrest, had devoted years of obsessive research to identifying the killer. Her book became a bestseller and was later adapted into a six-part HBO documentary series of the same name, released in 2020.
The Los Angeles Times produced a major investigative podcast series titled *Man in the Window* in 2019, examining the case and its community impact in depth. ABC7 News broadcast a television special, Chasing the Golden State Killer, in 2018, reviewing the decades-long manhunt. ABC10 Originals produced an investigative YouTube series, Framed by the Golden State Killer?, in 2019, exploring a possible wrongful conviction angle connected to the case. ABC News aired a 20/20 special titled The Monster Among Us in 2018.
In the book category, Paul Holes and collaborators published Evil Has a Name: The Untold Story of the Golden State Killer Investigation in 2020 through Random House, and Billy Jensen authored Evil at Heart: The True Story of the Golden State Killer Investigation, published by Atria Books in 2022.
No major feature film dramatization of the DeAngelo case had been produced as of the available sources. The case has instead been primarily covered through non-fiction formats — documentaries, journalism, podcasts, and books.