Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, serial rapist, and former police officer known as the Golden State Killer, the Original Night Stalker, the East Area Rapist, and the Visalia Ransacker, who committed thirteen murders and numerous rapes and burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. DeAngelo's crimes began in Northern California, where he committed a minimum of 120 burglaries and one murder in the San Joaquin Valley, before moving to Sacramento County, where he committed at least 51 rapes and two more murders from 1976 to 1979. In Southern California, DeAngelo murdered at least ten people from 1979 until 1986 before going dormant.
After committing a series of highly publicized burglaries in and around Visalia, DeAngelo escalated to raping victims in East Sacramento and was additionally linked to attacks in Stockton, Modesto, and Contra Costa County. He committed serial murders in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties from 1979 to 1986. DeAngelo is believed to have taunted and threatened both victims and police via obscene phone calls and possibly written communications.
During the decades-long investigation, several suspects were cleared through DNA evidence, alibis or other investigative methods. In 2001, DNA testing indicated that the offenders labeled as the "East Area Rapist" and the "Original Night Stalker" were the same person, resulting in the combined acronym EARONS. The case was a factor in the establishment of California's DNA database, which collects DNA from all accused and convicted felons in California and has been called second only to Virginia's in effectiveness in solving cold cases. In an attempt to increase awareness, crime writer Michelle McNamara coined the name "Golden State Killer" in the 2010s.
In 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law enforcement agencies held a news conference to announce a renewed nationwide effort, offering a $50,000 reward for the Golden State Killer's capture. On April 24, 2018, California authorities charged 72-year-old DeAngelo with eight counts of first-degree murder on the basis of DNA evidence; investigators had identified members of DeAngelo's family through forensic genetic genealogy. This was also the first announcement connecting the Visalia Ransacker crimes to DeAngelo.
Owing to California's statute of limitations on pre-2017 rape cases, DeAngelo could not be charged with the rapes he had committed in the 1970s; but he was charged in August 2018 with thirteen related kidnapping and abduction attempts. On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder and kidnapping. As part of a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty, DeAngelo also admitted to numerous crimes with which he had not been formally charged, including rapes. On August 21, 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was born on November 8, 1945, in Bath, New York, to Kathleen "Kay" Louise DeGroat and Joseph James DeAngelo Sr, a sergeant in the United States Army. He was regularly beaten by both parents throughout his childhood.
When he was a child, DeAngelo's family lived in West Germany where his father was stationed. There, DeAngelo says he was forced to witness the rape of one of his sisters by two airmen in a U.S. Air Force base warehouse.
Between 1959 and 1960, DeAngelo attended Mills Junior High School in Rancho Cordova, California. Beginning in 1961, he attended Folsom High School, from which he later received a GED certificate in 1964. He played on the school's junior varsity baseball team. According to prosecutors, DeAngelo committed burglaries, mail theft, and tortured and killed animals during his teenage years.
Military service and early training
DeAngelo joined the United States Navy in September 1964 and served for 22 months during the Vietnam War as a damage controlman aboard the cruiser USS Canberra and the destroyer tender USS Piedmont. Beginning in August 1968, he attended Sierra College in Rocklin, California; he graduated with an associate degree in police science with honors. He enrolled at Sacramento State University in 1971, earning a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. DeAngelo later took postgraduate courses and additional police training at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, and completed a 32-week police internship with the Roseville Police Department.
From May 1973 to August 1976, DeAngelo served as a burglary-unit police officer in Exeter, having relocated from Citrus Heights. He assisted in the search for himself as the Visalia Ransacker. He then worked in Auburn from August 1976 to July 1979. Nick Willick, who would later become Chief of Police, stated he was an unremarkable officer. DeAngelo also had a habit of standing too close to other officers and citizens, which made people uneasy and was potentially dangerous for himself as someone could have grabbed his gun. When Willick pointed this out to him and when other officers gave him basic policing advice, DeAngelo did not handle the criticism well and sulked. In July 1979, he was arrested for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent. During the arrest he defecated himself, feigned a heart attack and fought store security. When deputies arrived, he rolled around on the chair he was tied to feigning madness, before admitting it was an act. He received a six-month probation sentence and was fired that October.
During the termination process, DeAngelo allegedly stalked the chief's home. Willick's daughter told Willick that a man had shone a flashlight into her room; however, he dismissed it. DeAngelo countered his termination by saying that Willick had harassed him, and bringing a work-related stress claim against the city. DeAngelo was required to see a therapist for his claim; he told the therapist that due to his distress he had gone to Willick's house intending to kill him, but was unable to locate Willick's window. Willick did not take this seriously, assuming it was a ploy by DeAngelo to boost his case for disability pay. Once DeAngelo was identified as a potential suspect on March 14, 2018, investigator Paul Holes contacted Willick, who told him this story; Holes realized then that DeAngelo was definitely the perpetrator they were looking for.
In May 1970, DeAngelo became engaged to nursing student Bonnie Jean Colwell, a classmate at Sierra College. She ended the relationship in 1971 after he became manipulative and abusive, culminating in his demand she help him cheat on a test for a psychology class he was failing. After the breakup, he attempted to force her to marry him by threatening her with a gun.
In November 1973, he married Sharon Marie Huddle of Citrus Heights in a ceremony held in Auburn. In 1980, they purchased a house in Citrus Heights, where he would eventually be arrested decades afterward. The couple also bought a second home in Long Beach and lived there for much of the 1980s. Huddle is an attorney. They had three daughters and later separated.
In July 2018, several months after DeAngelo's arrest, Huddle filed for a divorce, which was finalized the following year. Neither she nor their children suspected he had committed serious crimes. His eldest daughter described him as a "perfect father", while his wife accepted his explanations for being away from home. He was living with a daughter and granddaughter at the time of his arrest.
DeAngelo's employment during the 1980s is unclear; it is suspected that he worked as a computer engineer and as a cashier. From 1990 until his retirement in 2017, he worked as a truck mechanic at a Save Mart Supermarkets distribution center in Roseville. He was arrested in 1996 for failing to pay for gasoline, but the charge was dismissed.
DeAngelo's brother‑in‑law stated that DeAngelo would casually bring up the East Area Rapist in conversation around the time of the original crimes. Neighbors also reported that he frequently engaged in loud, profane outbursts. One neighbor said that his family received a phone message from DeAngelo threatening to "deliver a load of death" because of their barking dog.