Joseph DeAngelo moved through California neighborhoods like a shadow.
He stalked his victims for days, learning their routines before slipping into their homes in a mask to torture, rape and kill. At first, he preyed on women who lived alone but later expanded his attacks to include couples. He pocketed wedding rings, photos and other grim tokens from crime scenes.
What started as burglaries and break-ins escalated into brutal attacks and murders that left entire neighborhoods too terrified to sleep. Each wave of terror in a different part of California came with a new nickname: The Visalia Ransacker. The Original Night Stalker. The East Area Rapist. And finally, the Golden State Killer.
DeAngelo killed at least 13 people and raped dozens more in the 1970s and 1980s. In April 2018, nearly four decades after his last known crimes, police armed with DNA evidence surrounded his house in the quiet Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights and arrested him.
Dressed in a T-shirt, cargo shorts and tube socks, a shocked DeAngelo offered no resistance when detectives moved in after he stepped into his yard. In a jarring contrast to the cruelty he once inflicted, the predator who’d terrorized residents in 11 counties did not fight back. But he protested in a high-pitched voice, ‘I have a roast in the oven!’”
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