Darrian Mechling
[email protected]
CALIFORNIA (August 22, 2020) — Joseph DeAngelo – known as the Golden State Killer, 74 has been convicted of thirteen counts of first-degree murder along with thirteen rape related charges. It is believed that DeAngelo began his crime spree while working as a police officer in northern California in 1975.
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Between 1975 – 1986, DeAngelo’s crimes evolved from stalking, to serial rape and murder. Throughout this time, residents of Sacramento County were “terrified.” Residents they expressed their fears about the vicious attacker who perverted their neighborhoods.
By 1977, attacks were happening every few days, and the residents of California were terrified. At the time, DeAngelo was known by many names, i.e. East Area Rapist, Diamond Knot Killer, and Original Night Stalker as he committed crimes across California.
One night, in a school cafeteria, a Sacramento sheriff’s detective named Carol Daly taught residents how to defend themselves against an attacker. Before audience members left the school, a man would question how anyone could possibly get away with raping a woman while in the company of her husband. DeAngelo would be in the audience and later use this man’s question as a way to taunt police. Police say DeAngelo attacked this man and his wife and declared it one of the more horrific attacks that he committed.
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DeAngelo would go on to have a family of his own and use them to help conceal his true nature.
The former police officer, was arrested in April 2018 after police tracked him down by matching his DNA with a genealogy website.
Investigators designed a new method of DNA tracing, creating a family tree dating back to the 1800s in order to identify him as a suspect. Detectives tracked down DeAngelo, and found DNA from some trash he had thrown away. Ultimately, the same DNA recovered from several crime scenes was a match to DeAngelo.
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During the trial, Prosecutors stated, DeAngelo confessed to 87 victims in 53 separate crimes spanning 11 California counties. He also admitted to dozens of other sexual assaults, unfortunately in those cases, the statute of limitations has expired.
The infamous killer will now likely die in prison, serving 11 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, with 15 concurrent life sentences.
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