A former police officer who terrorized the Sacramento, California region for a series of rapes and murders and was a fugitive for decades, pleaded guilty Monday to 13 homicides.
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Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. practically He never spoke in court since his arrest in 2018 until Monday he spoke quietly and hoarse the word “guilty.” for killing a teacher in 1975, the first murder in his decades of robbery and other crimes that earned him the nickname ‘Golden State Killer’. The same was repeated with the remaining dozen murders.
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At the beginning of the hearing, DeAngelo acknowledged that he would plead guilty to 13 murders and would acknowledge dozens of rapes that are too old to be processed in exchange for consecutive life sentences and without the possibility of parole.
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The frail 74-year-old man sat in a wheelchair and spoke behind a plastic shield, a measure against the coronavirus. DeAngelo was arrested in 2018, after authorities used DNA to track him through a popular genealogy website.
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The hearing was held in a makeshift court in a Sacramento State University event hall, and some 170 black metal chairs were installed 1.8 meters (6 feet) away for observers and victims. Big screens flanked the makeshift stage so people outside the room could follow the audience live.
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“I’m nervous because I just don’t like our lives being tied to him again.”Jennifer Carole, daughter of Lyman Smith, a lawyer who was murdered in 1980 at age 43 in Ventura County, said before the hearing. His wife, Charlene Smith, 33, was also raped and killed.
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Decades of terror
For four decades, this serial killer was able to remain unidentified. They had their DNA, but not a face or a name. However, it was said that he appeared to have worked for a law enforcement agency due to the way in which he submitted victims and his familiarity with weapons.
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Since he committed his first crime, he began to terrorize entire communities in the northern part of the state: it started in Sacramento, continued in Oakland, and then went south to Santa Barbara and Orange counties. “His reign of terror it expanded from the Sacramento area in northern California to the south in Orange County (OC), “Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said at the time of his arrest.
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In 2016 the authorities offered a reward of $ 50,000 for those who could offer any information that would lead to their capture. Also known as the ‘Eastern Area Violator’ and the ‘Original Night Stalker’ or ‘Original Night Stalker’, he attacked victims ranging from 13 to 41 years old, including single women in their homes, women with their children and / or with their partners.
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He used a ski mask to hide his identity, entered the houses of his victims by forcing doors or windows, then used a flashlight to blind them with light, tied them up and sexually abused them. Before leaving she took small valuables such as jewelry, cash, and identification.
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“He doesn’t care about human life, he enjoys terror, he enjoys inflicting pain on people,” said Sgt. Paul Belli of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Office about five years ago.
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The FBI even created a Web page Dedicated to the case, where the public could see the attacker’s spoken portraits and learn more about the victims’ witnesses and relatives.
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The first crime occurred on June 18, 1976 in the Rancho Córdova, Sacramento area, where he raped a woman and stole several of her belongings. The victim, Jane, was sleeping in her bed with her 3-year-old son after her husband went out to work. Suddenly she woke up and a masked man was in her room with a kitchen knife and lighting her face with a flashlight.
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The man tied them both with shoelaces, blindfolded them, and gagged them with sheets. After moving the boy out of bed, he untied the woman’s ankles. “And there I knew why he was there,” said Jane, who did not share her last name.
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On February 2, 1978, Sergeant Brian Maggiore and his wife Katie were out for an afternoon walk with their dog when they were chased by the ‘Golden State Killer’, who came close enough to shoot them at close range.
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From 1976 to 1978, he continued to commit similar crimes in the Sacramento area. A year later he was still active, but in the eastern Bay area, in northern California. He committed murders in Goleta on October 10, 1979, December 3 of the same year and July 27, 1981. In Ventura, it was on March 16, 1980, in Laguna Niguel on August 19 of the same year, and in Irvine. on February 6, 1981 and May 15, 1986.
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In FBI-recorded crimes, the killer often raped the woman and later killed the couple. In short, the criminal raped and murdered his victims in Sacramento, Contra Costa, Concord, David, Fremont, Modesto, San José, Stockton, Walnut Creek, Irvine, Orange, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
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