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Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer who committed 13 murders and more than 50 rapes across California, was sentenced in Sacramento on Aug. 21, 2020, to life in prison without parole. His crimes spanned 1974 to 1986, and his identity remained unknown until investigators used genetic genealogy to find him in 2018.

DeAngelo, known as the Golden State Killer, committed crimes under names that investigators eventually connected: the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker. He served as a police officer in Exeter and later Auburn during the years when his burglaries and sexual assaults began.

The first recorded Visalia Ransacker burglary occurred on March 19, 1974. About 120 burglaries over 20 months were attributed to him. He often took low-value items and scattered clothing. As an Exeter officer, DeAngelo participated in the search for the burglar.

On Sept. 11, 1975, he shot and killed Claude Snelling, a journalism professor, at Snelling's Visalia home. Snelling had intervened as DeAngelo tried to kidnap his 16-year-old daughter, Beth. DeAngelo kicked her in the face and fled.

On Dec. 12, 1975, Visalia Detective William "Bill" McGowen was on a stakeout when a masked man fired a revolver near his face, shattering his flashlight. The man escaped.

After moving to the Sacramento area in 1976, DeAngelo began raping women in communities including Carmichael, Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova. He prowled neighborhoods and sometimes telephoned victims before attacking. Initially, he targeted women alone or with children. By 1977, he was also attacking couples, binding the man and placing dishes on his back. He threatened to kill both victims if the dishes fell while he raped the woman.

In February 1978, DeAngelo killed Brian Maggiore and Katie Maggiore while they were walking their dog in Rancho Cordova. His attacks also extended to Stockton, Modesto, Davis, Contra Costa County and San Jose.

The killings moved to Southern California in 1979. Debra Manning and Robert Offerman were killed in Goleta that December. Lyman and Charlene Smith were killed in Ventura in March 1980, and Keith and Patrice Harrington were killed in Dana Point that August. Manuela Witthuhn was killed in Irvine in February 1981. Cheri Domingo and Gregory Sanchez were killed in Goleta that July. His last known crime was the rape and murder of 18-year-old Janelle Cruz at her Irvine home in May 1986.

Investigators initially treated the Northern and Southern California attacks as separate cases. DNA testing in 2001 established that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person. The FBI and local agencies renewed the investigation in 2016 with a $50,000 reward.

Investigators uploaded crime-scene DNA to GEDmatch, a public genealogy database, and found distant relatives. Months of family-tree research, narrowed by age and location, led them to DeAngelo. DNA collected from his car door handle and a tissue in his trash matched the crime-scene evidence. Officers arrested him at his Citrus Heights home on April 24, 2018. He was 72.

Six counties charged DeAngelo. He faced 13 counts of murder with special circumstances and 13 counts of kidnapping for robbery. The statute of limitations barred prosecution of the 1970s rapes, so prosecutors pursued related kidnapping charges.

On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and admitted uncharged crimes, including rapes, under an agreement that spared him the death penalty. Survivors and victims' relatives addressed him over three days before sentencing.

Judge Michael Bowman imposed 11 consecutive terms of life without parole, plus another life sentence and eight years. DeAngelo, then 74, apologized to those he had hurt. He is held at California State Prison, Corcoran.

You can hear a call he made to one of his victims here:
https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f227/phone-call-made-golden-state-killer-one-his-victims-174579/