Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
DeAngelo as a police officer, 1973
DeAngelo in 2018

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945 in Bath , New York ) is an American serial killer and ex-police officer. Between 1973 and 1986 he committed at least thirteen unrecognized murders , 45 rapes and more than 120 break-ins in the US state of California , for which he became known by various names. In 2020 he confessed to the crimes and was sentenced to life imprisonment on August 21, 2020.

The murders and rapes kept the California public in turmoil due to the sadistic brutality and cold-bloodedness with which DeAngelo proceeded (he often prepared his break-ins in minute detail and spied on the victims beforehand). The case is considered to be the California criminal case which has claimed the most and greatest resources of investigative and policing work. Later DNA analyzes led to the result that it was the same perpetrator who had been in the attention of the investigators as Visalia Ransacker , East Area Rapist , Original Night Stalker and Diamond Knot Killer . The name Golden State Killer , by which the perpetrator was known until his identification, goes back to the author Michelle McNamara , who called him that in her book.

Crime series

Phantom images of the suspect in the 1970s
Card with crimes that were awarded to the serial offender (Source: FBI )

The first rape associated with the Golden State Killer occurred on June 18, 1976. In the following months, about two dozen other rapes occurred in the east of Sacramento area , and the perpetrator was first known to the wider public as the East Area Rapist . He always followed a similar pattern. He chose mostly single-storey houses, broke through windows, threatened his victims and tied and gagged them.

The perpetrator's first murders occurred on February 2, 1978 of 20-year-old Katie and 21-year-old Brian Maggiore, both of whom were shot by a masked stranger after an argument. Previously, the perpetrator had apparently been watching Katie Maggiore for months. This was followed by a series of 20 rapes in Contra Costa County and finally another murder of surgeon Robert Offerman and his girlfriend Alexandria Manning.

After that, the victims mostly no longer survived the rapes by the man now known as the Golden State Killer , who committed his deeds in the counties of Santa Barbara , Ventura and Orange . Women were raped in the presence of their shackled partners, and then both were killed. The last known murder of the Golden State Killer occurred on May 3, 1986. The victim was 18-year-old Janelle Cruz, who was raped in her parents' house and then killed. In some cases, the perpetrator terrorized his (potential) victims with anonymous threatening phone calls.

Identification and prosecution of a suspect

Forensic DNA analysis was just beginning in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, a DNA profile of the perpetrator was later created, and in 2001 it became clear that the East Area Rapist and the original Night Stalker were the same man, around 40 using the name of the second pseudonym Rapes. The investigators searched all available databases of prison inmates, criminals or people known to the police, but found no suitable profile.

The crucial advance in the investigation came when investigators searched the GEDmatch public genealogy database . With these public DNA databases, interested parties can obtain information on their ancestry and family relationships by storing raw DNA analysis data on GEDmatch. At that point in time, GEDmatch had 900,000 DNA profiles, and some were found that in some respects strikingly resembled that of the perpetrator, thus possibly coming from relatives. It was later revealed that these profiles were from third and fourth degree cousins ​​of the prime suspect. The main suspect only had great-great-great-grandparents in common with them who had lived in the first half of the 19th century. The five police investigators involved in the case had to sift through an entire family tree with thousands of relatives to the present day. This hypothesis was followed up and led to the murder suspect, 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., whose DNA profile largely matched that of the perpetrator. DeAngelo had been a police officer himself and had been dismissed from the police force in 1979 for shoplifting. He was arrested on April 24, 2018, lived near Sacramento until then and was in a wheelchair at the time of his arrest.

As of May 11, 2018, DeAngelo had been charged in all 12 murders attributed to the Golden State Killer. On August 13, 2018, he was charged with another homicide that occurred in 1975 based on evidence of DNA. At that time, a father was shot dead trying to prevent the alleged kidnapping of his 16-year-old daughter by a masked stranger. If convicted, the accused could face life imprisonment or the death penalty for each murder case . Law enforcement agencies in Contra Costa , Tulare , Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange Counties agreed on a joint trial in Sacramento. Although DeAngelo had a certain fortune (several cars and an apartment in Citrus Heights ), this was not enough to cover the legal fees for the extensive proceedings, so he was assigned a public defender. Prosecutors estimated that the process could take up to ten years and up to 20 million US dollars cost would cause.

Confession and condemnation

On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo confessed to the crimes attributed to him, including 13 murders. The confession came under an agreement with the public prosecutor, who in return did not apply for the death penalty. On August 21, 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to life imprisonment. The verdict included 11 consecutive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole because of the proven murders and 15 further life imprisonment for violating various gun laws. The responsible district attorney ( District Attorney ) said it was possible that there were other unidentified crime victims of DeAngelo and that one would probably never know the real dimension of his actions. The convict is a " sociopath in action" and "a person without respect for human rights, without respect for the law, without compassion, without empathy and without remorse".

See also

Web links

Commons : Golden State Killer  - Collection of Pictures and Videos

literature

  • Christoph Drösser : wanted in the family tree. Investigators in the USA use genetics and ancestry research to clear up acts of violence that date back decades. In: The time. August 9, 2018, p. 29 f.
  • Michelle McNamara: I Walked Into Darkness: A True Story of Finding a Murderer. Atrium, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-85535-060-5 .
  • Cheyna Roth: Cold Cases: A True Crime Collection: Unidentified Serial Killers, Unsolved Kidnappings, and Mysterious Murders. Ulysses Press, Berkeley 2020, ISBN 978-1-64604-034-6 , pp. 204-229 (= The Golden State Killer ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Golden State Killer: The end of a 40-year hunt? BBC News, April 29, 2018, accessed July 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Justin Jouvenal: To find alleged Golden State Killer, investigators first found his great-great-great-grandparents. The Washington Post, April 30, 2018, accessed May 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Erin Hallissy, Charlie Goodyear: DNA Links' 70s' East Area Rapist 'to Serial Killings / Evidence suggests suspect moved to Southern California. In: San Francisco Chronicle , April 4, 2001.
  4. ↑ Video on YouTube
  5. ↑ Erin Hallissy, Charlie Goodyear: "DNA Links' 70s' East Area Rapist 'to Serial Killings / Evidence suggests suspect moved to Southern California" San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2001. Archived October 20, 2017.
  6. ↑ Matthias Gafni, Lisa M. Krieger: Here's the 'open-source' genealogy DNA website that helped crack the Golden State Killer case. The Mercury News, April 26, 2018, accessed April 30, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Suspected "Golden State Killer" in court for the first time - chained to a wheelchair. In: Spiegel online , April 28, 2018.
  8. ↑ Golden State Killer suspect charged with four more murders. BBC News, May 11, 2018, accessed September 16, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Golden State Killer suspect charged with 13th murder. BBC News, August 13, 2018, accessed September 16, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Amelia McDonell-Parry: Golden State Killer Trial: Joseph DeAngelo Case Could Last 10 Years. Rollingstone.com, December 7, 2018, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  11. Jump up ↑ Joseph DeAngelo Pleads Guilty to Murder in Golden State Killer Cases. Nytimes.com, June 29, 2020, accessed June 29, 2020 .
  12. ↑ The "Golden State Killer" has to go to prison for life. In: NZZ. August 21, 2020, accessed on August 21, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Golden State Killer sentenced to life in prison. BBC News, August 21, 2020, accessed August 22, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME DeAngelo, Joseph James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American serial killer and ex-cop
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Bath (New York)