Biography of the Golden State Killer
  (1945–)

  The Golden State Killer was the serial killer who threatened Californiais in the 1970s and 80s.  The killer was for decades until DNA evidence led to the arrest of Joseph de Angelo in 2018, who pleaded guilty in June 2020.

  Who is the Golden State Killer?

  The Golden State killer was responsible for a series of robberies, rapes and murders throughout California in the 1970s and '80s.  From 1976 to 1979, more than 40 rapes in Northern California were attributed to an attack known as the Eastern Rapist.  Between 1979 and 1986 in Southern California, a serial killer known as the Original Knight Stalker killed ten people.  DNA analysis in 2001 revealed that the rapes and murders were committed by the same perpetrator, naming crime writer Michael McNamara the "Golden State Killer".  In 2018, former police officer Joseph de Angelo was arrested and charged with 13 murders and other crimes related to the Golden State killer.  In June 2020, Di Angelo pleaded guilty and in August, he was sentenced to life without parole.

  Crimes

  The Golden State Killer was responsible for a series of robberies in the northern California city of Visalia in 1974-75, before he became a rapist and murderer.  Visalia Ransacker took small cups from the houses she broke into and also spent time through the women’s underwear drawers.  In 1975, Ransacker tried to kidnap a teenage girl;  Her father intervened and was killed.

  In June 1976, the first rape associated with the Golden State killer took place in Sacramento County.  The attack was followed by more attacks in the eastern part of Sacramento County.  At this point in his criminal career, the Golden State Killer became known as the East Rapist.  He attacked more than 40 women in Northern California between 1976 and 1979.

  During these crimes, the Golden State killer often spent hours in victims' homes, sometimes taking breaks to eat or cry from attacks.  He also stole personal items such as jewelry or photos.  Initially, he targeted women and girls - two of whom were just 13 - either alone or with children, but by 1977 he was attacking couples.  He would often enter a house where a female victim would tie up her male partner and place food on the bound man's back.  The rapist warns that if these items fall he will kill the couple and then attack his female victim.  Some of the victims were later defamed by the attacker's phone calls.

  Golden State Killer attacks often precede hang-up phone calls.  He seemed to realize his goals before he acted, monitoring the houses - usually single-storey houses - and the surroundings.  As the rapes continued, frightened residents in the Sacramento area went on high alert, bought new locks and armed themselves.  An official in the case later said, "Fear in the community is like never before. People are scared wherever they go."

  In 1977, the Golden State killer raped a victim in Stockton outside Sacramento.  He soon followed the victims in Modesto, San Jose and Contra Costa County.  In 1978 he shot and killed a Sacramento County couple.  The series of rapes in Northern California ceased after 1979.

  In late 1979, the Golden State Killer targeted people in Southern California.  He continued to rape female victims and then brutally murdered them and their male accomplices (if any).  Between 1979 and 1986, ten people - four sex couples and two private women - were killed by the Golden State killer in the districts of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange.

  Golden State follows the killer

  The attacks of the Golden State killer are linked by similarities such as the rapist usually wearing a sky mask and tying the victims' hands.  Police believed they were looking for a young white man wearing a size 9 shoe, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and with military or law enforcement training.  However, DNA analysis was not available to locate the suspects or to confirm that a man was responsible for all of these crimes.

  The Southern State Killer Southern California killings took place in different jurisdictions, so it took time to combine these killings.  A murder was initially attributed to Diamond Killer because intricate knots were found on the murdered couple.  The Creek Killer was blamed for the deaths of two couples in Colette, near Santa Barbara.  Some who followed the Golden State killer wondered if their perpetrator had been the subject of a series of murders, but these suspicions did not lead to an official investigation.

  The similarities between the killings in Southern California eventually led investigators to unite.  They called the suspect the original Knight Stalker (to distinguish him from another California serial killer, the Knight Stalker).  Although many of the departments that investigated the Golden State killer destroyed evidence after the Rape Limits Act - just three years in the 1970s - it was enough to confirm that DNA analysis in 2001 was racist and original in the East.  Knight Stolker is the same man.  In 2011, crime writer McNamara called the "Golden State Killer" the greatest murderer and rapist ever.

  In June 2016, 40 years after the first attack on the Golden State killer, the FBI and the Sacramento District Attorney's Office offered a $ 50,000 reward to help with the investigation.

  Suspect: Joseph de Angelo

  De Angelo served as a police officer in two different Northern California communities between 1973 and 1979.  He left the force in 1979 after being arrested for smuggling a hammer and a dog chase.

  Joseph James de Angelo was born on November 8, 1945 in Bath, New York.  He spent some of his childhood in the Sacramento area, visiting the U.S. in Vietnam.  Served in the Navy and studied criminal justice at Sacramento, California State University.  He was once engaged to a woman named Pony, who recalled being victimized by one of the victims of the Golden State killer.  He married another woman and had three daughters before the divorce ended the relationship.

  Diangelo worked for 27 years as a mechanic at a supermarket distribution center.  He retired in 2017.

  The arrest of Diangelo

  Investigators used the DNA evidence at their disposal to create the genetic profile of the Golden State killer.  In late 2017, they uploaded this profile to a legacy database.  It revealed a family connection with Diangelo.  Authorities began collecting "rejected DNA" from Dianzello, who has been proven to be compatible with DNA from the crimes of the Golden State killer.  On April 24, 2018, 72-year-old Diangello was arrested.

  Diangelo was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping for robbery purposes.  No rape was imposed on him as the law of limitations for those crimes had expired.

  In March 2020, Angelo offered to plead guilty to life imprisonment.  Prosecutors initially rejected the deal because they wanted to demand the death penalty, but in June 2020, news reports said that Angelo had reached an agreement to impose the death penalty in exchange for pleading guilty.

  On June 29, 2020, Diangello pleaded guilty to all 26 charges and was sentenced to life without parole.  In August, he was sentenced to life without parole.

  In the media

  McNamara wrote about the Golden State killer online and in Los Angeles magazine, which focused more on the then unsolved crimes.  In addition to his writing, McNamara was one of several civil fraudsters who tried to find the killer and rapist.  He has written a book about this case and his trial journey: I will go into the dark.  McNamara died by accident in 2016 before the end of her book, but her husband, actor Patton Oswald, oversaw its completion.  It has become a top seller since it was released in February 2018.