The Golden State Killer: How He Got Away for 44 Years

Serial killers are nothing new around the world, especially in the United States. But in 1976, a new predator emerged, one who slipped through unlocked windows and stalked women in the night. The crimes started innocently enough. A string of break-ins in Visalia. Houses ransacked, items stolen, jewelry missing. But detectives noticed something odd. Nothing of real value was stolen. During his reign of terror, he attacked over 50 women. He called his victims, he wrote to newspapers. He was taunting the world. Then the killing started. For over four decades, he stalked California's quiet suburbs. A ghost in the night. A phantom who sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered. Then vanished without a trace. He had lived a normal life. A husband, a father, a neighbor. But in secret, he was one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. He was called by many names. The Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the original Night Stalker. But the world would come to know him as the Golden State Killer. Who was the Golden State Killer? What was his background? What was his motivation? How did he get caught? What took law enforcement so long to solve the crimes? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran. And welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. Joseph James DeAngelo was born on November 8, 1945 in Bath, New York, to Kathleen K. Louise DeGroat and to Joseph James DeAngelo Sr., who had been a sergeant in the United States Army. He had two older sisters, Connie and Rebecca, and a younger brother, John. A relative had stated that when DeAngelo was a young child, he witnessed his sister Connie sexually assaulted by two airmen in a warehouse in West Germany when the family was stationed there. His sister Rebecca also stated that he was abused by their father as a child. DeAngelo attended Mills Junior High School in Rancho Cordova, California from 1959 to 1960. Then he transferred to Folsom High School in 1961, where he received a GED certificate in 1964, and he played on the school's junior varsity baseball team. The background investigation revealed that DeAngelo had committed several burglaries, mail theft, and tortured and killed animals during his teenage years. After completing high school, DeAngelo joined the United States Navy in September 1964 and served for 22 months during the Vietnam War as a damage controlman on the cruiser USS Canberra and the destroyer tender USS Piedmont. After his Navy service, DeAngelo attended Sierra College in Rockland, California in August 1968 and graduated with an associate degree in police science with honors. DeAngelo then became engaged to nursing student Bonnie Jean Colwell, a classmate at Sierra College, but after he became manipulative and abusive to her in May 1970, she demanded that she wanted to leave the relationship. After, he also asked her to help him cheat on a psychology test. She ended the relationship in 1971. After she broke up with him, he decided to force her to marry him by threatening her with a gun, which did not work. He then attended Sacramento State University in 1971, where he earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. He also enrolled in postgraduate courses and attended police training at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, completing a 32-week police internship at the police department in Roseville. He did eventually marry, in 1973, to Sharon Marie Huddle from Citrus Heights in November. They finally bought a house in 1980 in Citrus Heights and Huddle completed law school and became a divorce attorney in 1982. The couple had three daughters. DeAngelo relocated from Citrus Heights to Exeter, and from May 1973 to August 1976, he worked in the burglary unit, but DeAngelo was committing random and erratic crimes even while on the police force. On March 19, 1974, the first recorded burglary occurred when $50 in coins were stolen from a piggy bank. There were another 12 separate incidents beginning on November 30, 1974, and the common characteristics of the crimes were similar. They included breaking into houses, rifling through or vandalizing the owner's possessions, moving things around in a home, scattering women's underclothes, and stealing low-value items while often leaving large amounts of cash and expensive items behind. Later break-ins would include the theft of stamps, foreign or historic coins, rings, single earrings, cufflinks, or other medallions that also included six weapons and several types of ammunition, which were stolen from the houses, and items in the house such as furniture would be rearranged. But one crime was shocking. On September 11, 1975, DeAngelo broke into the home of College of the Sequoias journalism professor Claude Snelling, who on February 5, 1975, had previously chased a prowler seen under his 16-year-old daughter's bedroom window around 10 p.m. This may have been DeAngelo. On September 11, 1975, Snelling was awakened around 2 a.m. by strange noises and leaving his bedroom, Snelling ran through the open back door and confronted a ski-masked intruder in his carport trying to kidnap his daughter, who was threatened of being stabbed or shot. Snelling was shot twice and staggered back into the house to his wife and later died of his wounds. The attacker punched and kicked his daughter, leaving her on the ground and fled the scene. Police located a stolen bicycle nearby at 615 Redwood Street, which they believed was linked to the assailant. During the investigation, the daughter, Beth Snelling, underwent hypnosis to gather further details. Evidence showed that the burglar had tried to pry open doors and windows, leaving multiple points of escape open such as windows, the house garage and garden doors. He placed detection devices as warning items such as dishes or bottles against doors and on door handles in case anyone arrived. At no crime scene were fingerprints left. The Visalia police also committed more resources to apprehending the criminal they called the ransacker and posted a $4,000 reward for his capture. Nighttime stakeouts were set up in the neighborhoods near the houses previously hit, but the crimes continued. On December 12, 1975, at around 8.30 p.m., a masked man entered the backyard of a house at 1505 West Kaweah Avenue, near where the previous crimes had occurred. Detective William McGowan was on stakeout inside the garage and attempted to detain the man, but the suspect shrieked, removed his mask and feigned surrender after McGowan fired a warning shot. However, after jumping the chain-link fence, the suspect pulled out a revolver with his left hand and fired once near McGowan's face, shattering his flashlight. Nearby officers rushed to aid McGowan and the shooter was able to escape. Items collected as evidence, which were dropped, included the flashlight, tennis shoe tracks and dropped loot, namely blue chip stamps and a sock full of coins. During this period of crimes, DeAngelo was an Auburn police officer, serving from August 1976 until he was arrested for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent from a hardware store. In October 1976, he was found guilty and was sentenced to six months of probation and fired from the police department, where he threatened to kill the chief of police and was accused of stalking the chief and staking out his house. After DeAngelo moved to the Sacramento area in 1976, his crimes ranged from burglary to sexual assault. On December 18, 1976, at 6 p.m., DeAngelo's tenth break-in was the home of 15-year-old Chris Pedretti, who was home alone while her parents were at a Christmas party. DeAngelo, wearing a ski mask, put a knife to her throat and said to her, do what I say or I'll kill you and be gone in the dark, which would become the title of Michelle McNamara's book on the case. For over two hours, he sexually assaulted her three times. According to Pedretti, he alternated leaving me outside naked in the winter cold and bringing me in different rooms where he sexually assaulted me. He finally left her in the front of a fireplace on a couch, leaving her blindfolded, bound, and gagged. She managed to free herself and called neighbors for help. The police interviewed her and a sexual assault test kit was performed. He had been seen many times stalking middle-class neighborhoods at night searching for women who were alone in one-story homes, but he always managed to escape when chased. The homes were usually near a school, creek, trail, park, or other accessible area that allowed for a quick escape. Once he was chased, he shot and seriously wounded his pursuer in the next burglary. Police believed that the criminal would conduct extensive reconnaissance in a targeted neighborhood, looking into windows and prowling in yards before selecting a home to attack. It was believed that he sometimes entered the homes of future victims to unlock windows, unload guns, and plant ligatures for later use. He frequently telephoned future victims, sometimes for months in advance, to learn their daily routines. Then D'Angelo changed his methods. His usual method was to break in through a window or sliding glass door and awaken the sleeping occupants with a flashlight, threatening them with a handgun. These were mostly single women, but now he would attack couples, with the female victim usually forced to tie up her male companion before she was bound. The victims were subsequently bound with ligatures, often with shoelaces that he found at the scene or brought with him. Then he blindfolded and gagged both with towels torn into strips. The couple would then be separated, and he would often stack dishes on the man's back, saying he would kill everyone in the house if he heard them rattle. He would then move to the woman in the living room and assault her. D'Angelo sometimes spent several hours in the home ransacking the place and eating food in the drinking beer, taking some time to assault the woman again. Of interest was the fact that D'Angelo committed most of his crimes while he was married with a family who suspected nothing. February 2nd, 1978, in Sacramento, he attacked a young couple, 21-year-old Brian Keith Maggiore, a military policeman at Mather Air Force Base, and his 28-year-old wife, Katie Lee Maggiore. They were walking their dog in the Rancho Cordova area, where five East Area Rapist attacks had already occurred. The Maggiores fled after a confrontation in the street but were chased down and shot to death. It was believed that they were murdered by the East Area Rapist because of location, and a shoelace was found nearby. Shortly after another sexual assault on July 5th, 1979, D'Angelo relocated to Southern California and began killing his victims in Santa Barbara County that October. On October 1st, 1979, an intruder broke in and tied up a Galleda couple. They heard him say, I'll kill him to himself. So, the people tried to escape when he left the room, and the woman screamed. Knowing that he had no time, the intruder fled on a bicycle. A neighbor was an FBI agent who responded to the noise and pursued the subject, who abandoned the bicycle and his knife and escaped on foot, running through local backyards. Then, on December 30th, 1979, a strange crime occurred when 44-year-old orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Offerman and 35-year-old clinical psychologist Dr. Deborah Alexandria Manning were found shot to death in Offerman's bedroom of his condominium on Avenida Pequena in Galleda. Manning had also been sexually assaulted. Neighbors had heard gunshots, and when police arrived, they found two of her rings hidden between the mattress and bed frame near her body. Offerman was untied, which indicated that he had probably gone after the attacker. Also unusual were the paw prints of a large dog found at the scene, leading to the speculation that the killer may have brought a dog with him, as neither victim owned a dog. The killer then ate leftover Christmas turkey from Offerman's refrigerator and had broken into the vacant adjacent condominium and stolen a bicycle to make his escape, which was found later. On March 13th, 1980, 33-year-old interior designer Charlene Smith and 43-year-old attorney Lyman Smith were found murdered in their home in Ventura, and Charlene had been assaulted. A log from a wood pile on the side of the house was used to beat them to death. Their bodies were discovered three days later by Lyman Smith's 12-year-old son when he came to mow the lawn, as he heard the bedroom alarm clock still ringing. Both victims' wrists and ankles were bound with cord using a diamond knot. This knot on Charlene's wrist was the same type of knot used in the East Area Rapist attacks. This was when the killer was also given the nickname Diamond Knot Killer. Since DeAngelo was not linked to those crimes for decades, he was known as the Night Stalker in the area, before being named the original Night Stalker after serial killer Richard Ramirez had been assigned that former nickname following his capture. During the 1980s, DeAngelo worked as a computer engineer and a cashier, but then he became a truck mechanic in 1990 until he retired in 2017. But DeAngelo's erratic behavior was well known, and his former brother-in-law claimed that DeAngelo would casually bring up the East Area Rapist in conversation around the time of the original crimes. On August 19th, 1980, newlyweds 24-year-old Keith Eli Harrington and 27-year-old Patrice Briscoe Harrington were the next victims. Patrice was a pediatric nurse in Irvine, and Keith was a fourth-year medical student at UC Irvine, ready to graduate early in December 1980. They were found beaten to death in their home on Cockleshell Drive in Dana Point's Negrel Shores, and Harrington had been sexually assaulted. Her face and skull were crushed beyond recognition. Harrington's wrists and ankles were not bound, and no murder weapon or ligatures were found at the scene. In a twist of irony, due to the murders, Keith's brother Bruce would later spend nearly two million dollars of his own money supporting California Proposition 69, authorizing DNA collection from all California felons and certain other criminals. He had no idea it would crack the case later. On February 6, 1981, in Irvine, 28-year-old Manuela Witton was assaulted and beaten to death in her home. Witton's body showed signs of being tied up, but no murder weapon or ligatures were found at the scene. Her husband David was in the hospital due to an illness during the crime. However, David was suspected as his wife's killer thereafter, despite being in the hospital, in part because the killer continued to stalk them and called the house several times after the murder and also because police and neighbors suspected him as Manuela's killer. But things looked even worse for David not long after the murders, when he married a co-worker. David was haunted by the crime and the fact that the killer would call his home many times, taunting him, describing the crime. As a result, David became an alcoholic, and his second marriage ended after almost a decade. He lived under suspicion for years until he was exonerated by DNA testing. He died in 2008. On July 27, 1981, 35-year-old Sherry Domingo and 27-year-old Gregory Sanchez became the 10th and 11th murder victims after they were attacked in Domingo's place on Toltec Way in Goleta, just a few blocks south of Robert Offerman's condominium. The criminal had entered the house through a small bathroom window, where Domingo was apparently staying since it was owned by a relative and up for sale. Sanchez may have realized that he was dealing with the Offerman manning murderer, and may have tried to tackle the killer rather than be tied up, but no neighbors heard the gunshot that killed him. When he was found, Sanchez's head was covered with clothes pulled from the closet. Domingo was sexually assaulted and beaten to death with marks indicating that she had been tied, but no ligatures were left behind. The only evidence was a piece of shipping twine left near the bed, and unknown fibers were scattered over the body. The police assumed that the attacker worked as a painter or in a similar job at the Cali Real shopping center nearby. D'Angelo seemed to turn into an even darker character around this time. Neighbors also said that D'Angelo would often engage in loud, profane outbursts. One neighbor reported to police that his family received a phone message from D'Angelo threatening to deliver a load of death because their dog was barking. It would seem that after this crime, D'Angelo went dormant. That was until May 18, 1986, when Janelle Lisa Cruz was found on her bed, sexually assaulted and beaten beyond recognition, with her teeth found in both her hair and lungs, by a realtor as he came to the house as it was for sale. The realtor had come by bringing a prospective buyer since Cruz's family was on vacation in Mexico, and he did not know that she was there. It was determined that the murder weapon was probably a pipe wrench, which Cruz's stepfather said was missing. D'Angelo's marriage to Huddle did not last, and they separated in 1991. Neither his wife nor his children were aware of his activities. His eldest daughter claimed that he was a perfect father, while his wife believed his multiple excuses for being away from home at night. D'Angelo stayed off the radar until he was arrested only once in 1996 for failing to pay for gas, but that charge was dismissed. The police did not piece together the profile and method of the criminal at that time, knowing that he had been climbing fences and moving through established routes such as parks, walkways, ditches, and trails. There just wasn't enough evidence. The crime spree continued for years, but law enforcement had a few good breaks. Luckily, all the sexual assault kits and other evidence from all the crimes had been preserved, and various DNA results proved the same man had committed all the crimes. The FBI also announced on June 15, 2016, that it was confident that based upon DNA, the East Area Rapist had murdered the Maggioris and was responsible for others. The FBI also released further information related to the crimes, including new composite sketches from old witnesses and details of specific crimes. Then, a $50,000 reward was offered, and included a national database to support law enforcement's investigation of the crimes and to manage called-in tips and information. Eventually, through the use of genetic genealogy searching on GEDmatch, investigators identified distant relatives of the perpetrator, which turned out to be D'Angelo, including family members directly related to his great-great-great- grandfather dating back to the 1800s. Based on this information, investigators built about 25 different family trees. The family tree that eventually linked to D'Angelo alone contained around 1,000 people, and investigators used other clues like age, sex, and place of residence to rule out suspects populating these trees, eliminating those suspects one by one until only D'Angelo remained. On April 18, 2018, a DNA sample was surreptitiously collected from the door handle of D'Angelo's car, and another sample was taken from a tissue found in D'Angelo's garbage can. Both were matched to samples associated with most of the Golden State Killer crimes. DNA evidence connected D'Angelo to eight murders in Goleta, Ventura, Dana Point, and Irvine, but two other murders in Goleta which lacked DNA evidence were linked to him by modus operandi and his known locations at those times. Sacramento District Attorney Ann Marie Schubert authorized the arrest and Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies arrested D'Angelo in the side yard of his Sacramento home on the evening of April 24, 2018. He was living with a daughter and granddaughter at the time of his arrest and was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances including the sexual assaults. On May 10, 2018, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office charged D'Angelo with four additional counts of first-degree murder, but D'Angelo could not be charged with the sexual assaults or the burglaries as the statute of limitations had expired for those offenses, but he was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping. According to the report, D'Angelo made a confession of sorts after his arrest that cryptically referred to an inner personality named Jerry who had forced him to commit the crimes. While in custody, he said to himself in an interview room, which was recorded, I did all those things. I destroyed all those lives. 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 those things. I destroyed all their lives. So now I've got to pay the price. Detectives ignored D'Angelo's initial request to speak to an attorney, later citing a legal theory that his potential Miranda violation would be justified with the understanding that prosecutors could not use the interview against the defendant in court. Prosecutors used his statement in court during the guilty plea. D'Angelo was arraigned in In November 2018, prosecutors from six involved counties collectively estimated that the case would cost taxpayers $20 million and last 10 years. At an April 10, 2019 court proceeding, prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty and the judge ruled that cameras could be allowed inside the courtroom during the trial. Huddle finally filed for divorce from D'Angelo a few months after his arrest in 2018, which was finalized in 2019. D'Angelo pleaded guilty to three other murders, two in Rancho Cordova and one in Desalia. He also committed more than 50 known sexual assaults in the California counties of Sacramento, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Yolo, and he was suspected in hundreds of incidents of thefts, burglaries, vandalism, peeping, stalking, and prowling. Months after his arrest, he was also suspected of committing several other crimes, such as the 1974 Vesalia sexual assault and murder of Jennifer Armour, the 1975 Exeter assault and murder of Donna Jo Richmond, and a 1978 murder of a woman and her son in Simi Valley, but DNA cleared him of those crimes. On March 4, 2020, D'Angelo offered to plead guilty if the death penalty was waived, which was not accepted at the time, but on June 29, as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, D'Angelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances, including murder committed during burglaries and sexual assaults, as well as 13 counts of From August 18, 2020 to August 20, 2020, D'Angelo was confronted in court by sexual assault survivors, their relatives, and the relatives of those he had killed. D'Angelo offered a brief apology to the court and the victim's families after listening to days of pre-sentencing victim impact statements. He said, I've listened to all your statements, each one of them, and I'm truly sorry to everyone I've hurt. On August 21, 2020, D'Angelo received multiple consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. D'Angelo made history when he became the first public arrest obtained through genetic genealogy. A newly used law enforcement method that takes the DNA of an unknown suspect, traces a family tree through their family members who voluntarily submit their DNA to public genealogy of databases. No warrants is needed as that information is considered public domain. Since D'Angelo's arrest, over 150 suspects have been identified through genetic genealogy. Michelle McNamara's years-long obsession with the various cases, which she believed were all connected, reignited the investigation that eventually snared D'Angelo, but she wouldn't live to see the outcome as she died in 2016. Her book was published posthumously in 2018. In November 2020, D'Angelo was transferred to North Kern State Prison. As of April 2025, D'Angelo is incarcerated in protective custody at California State Prison, Corcoran. One can only wonder how many more crimes may be solved through ongoing breakthroughs in science. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. 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