Free Republic

When asked about his origin story, John Damon always told his family he was an orphan from Chicago. Which was true, in a way. In 1958, the 16-year-old Omaha boy indeed became an orphan — when he shot his parents to death. And nine years later, after he sawed through prison bars and escaped the Nebraska State Penitentiary, the fugitive did flee to Chicago to launch his new life. But back in those days, Damon was known by a different name: William Leslie Arnold.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Matt Westover two years ago submitted a DNA profile to a public registry, the same one that many people use in their family genealogical research. But the Omaha law enforcement officer wasn’t looking for some long-lost relative — at least not his own. The DNA profile he submitted in 2020 came from the brother of William Leslie Arnold, the fugitive who killed his parents in Omaha in 1958, buried them in the backyard, nine years later escaped from the Nebraska Penitentiary and vanished without a trace.

New laws in Maryland and Montana are the first in the nation to restrict law enforcement’s use of genetic genealogy, the DNA matching technique that in 2018 identified the Golden State Killer, in an effort to ensure the genetic privacy of the accused and their relatives. Beginning on Oct. 1, investigators working on Maryland cases will need a judge’s signoff before using the method, in which a “profile” of thousands of DNA markers from a crime scene is uploaded to genealogy websites to find relatives of the culprit. The new law, sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, also dictates that the technique...

With the successful arrest, prosecution and sentencing of Joseph DeAngelo, Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert wanted to provide a voice to all those affected by the East Area Rapist. Several months ago, she invited those who lived in the Sacramento region during the 1970’s to email their stories to the DA’s Office. The response was overwhelming. Hundreds of individuals responded, recounting their experience and memories during that terrifying time. These stories have been put into an online book to share with the entire Sacramento community. This book is dedicated to all of the direct survivors and victims of the...

The defense team of Joseph DeAngelo has verified that the accused serial killer has offered to plead guilty to the charges against him if he could get a lifetime sentence. DeAngelo, the suspected murderer and rapist known as the Golden State Killer and the East Area Rapist, is accused of killing at least 13 people, raping upward of 50 women and burglarizing dozens of homes in the 1970s and '80s. He is slated to appear in Sacramento County court March 12. The former police officer was arrested in Citrus Heights in 2018, thanks to DNA technology, after decades of eluding...

If you’re white, live in the United States, and a distant relative has uploaded their DNA to a public ancestry database, there’s a good chance an internet sleuth can identify you from a DNA sample you left somewhere. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that by combining an anonymous DNA sample with some basic information such as someone’s rough age, researchers could narrow that person’s identity to fewer than 20 people by starting with a DNA database of 1.3 million individuals. Such a search could potentially allow the identification of about 60% of white Americans from a DNA...

A professor tried to stop a man from abducting his daughter and may have become the Golden State Killer's first murder victim. The retired California police officer suspected of being the notorious Golden State Killer was charged Monday with a 13th murder — that of a father who was fatally shot nearly 44-years-ago while trying to protect his teenage daughter from a masked gunman who had broken into their home. Claude Snelling, who was gunned down at his home in Visalia, California, is believed to be the first victim of suspected serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo, Tulare County District Attorney...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A judge on Tuesday weighed how much information to release about the arrest of a former police officer accused of being the Golden State Killer. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Sweet began considering the issue after a hearing where attorneys for suspect Joseph DeAngelo argued that sharing the details could lead to an unfair trial. Sweet indicated he's likely to release some information and is working with prosecutors and defense attorneys to determine how much to redact, which would continue to shield some details from public view. The Associated Press and other news outlets are pushing...

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., recently arrested at his Citrus Heights California home, is the suspected Original Night Stalker, East Area Rapist, Visalia Ransacker, and Golden State Killer. His mugshot is all over the internet. I thought it would be interesting to retouch his mug to make him look a decade or more younger. Perhaps someone may recognize him from the 'younger' image that doesn't look like a broken old man who just crapped his shorts, but more like the diabolical predator he really is. Images can be viewed here. and here.

Full Title: A Double Murder From 1987 Was Just Solved Thanks To The Genealogy Website Used For The Golden State Killer Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg Snohomish County Sheriff _______________________________________________________________________________ Forensic genealogy has cracked a second major case, less than a month after the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, alleged to be the Golden State Killer. At 11 a.m. PDT in Washington state, the Snohomish County Sheriff announced the arrest of a 55-year-old man from the Seattle area for the 1987 double murder of a young Canadian couple, Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg. He is William Earl Talbott...

Sacramento investigators tracked down East Area Rapist suspect Joseph James DeAngelo using genealogical websites that contained genetic information from a relative, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday. The effort was part of a painstaking process that began by using DNA from one of the crime scenes from years ago and comparing it to genetic profiles available online through various websites that cater to individuals wanting to know more about their family backgrounds by accepting DNA samples, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi. more at link...

The sister of accused East Area Rapist Joseph DeAngelo told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday that her brother never displayed "any kind of madness" as a young man or adult and that her family is haunted by the thoughts of her brother's alleged victims. Rebecca Thompson, DeAngelo's older sister, said in a phone interview that she was "pretty much in shock." "As stunned as I am - because I've never seen him display any kind of madness or anything like that - I just can't believe it," Thompson said. "I've never seen anything to allow myself to think he could...

More than 40 years after the so-called “Golden State Killer” began terrorizing California, raping dozens of women and killing at least 12, authorities announced Wednesday that they had arrested 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo, charging him with capital murder. DeAngelo’s arrest offered a shocking, abrupt development in what had long been one of the most notorious unsolved string of crimes in U.S. history. The gruesome attacks unfolded across California for more than a decade during the 1970s and 1980s, shattering families and frightening communities. Then the crimes stopped, remaining a mystery for a generation, with little sign the case would ever...

A former California cop was arrested and outed Wednesday as the infamous Golden State Killer — the fiend who murdered at least 12 people and raped dozens of women in the 1970s and ’80s and whose crimes were chronicled in the recent best-selling true-crime book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” authorities said. Officials said they nailed ex-Auburn and former Exeter police Officer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., now 72, by putting him under surveillance a few days ago and getting “discarded DNA” from him — which they then linked to the horrific crime spree. “James DeAngelo has been called a...

The suspect believed to be the notorious Golden State Killer -- who was wanted in a dozen murders and nearly 50 rapes from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s -- was reportedly arrested in California on Wednesday. Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested at his Citrus Heights home, located 16 miles northeast of Sacramento, on two counts of murder, a law enforcement source told FOX40. He is reportedly on suicide watch and being held at the Sacramento County jail. Shelly Orio, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, told The New York Times that a “major development had...

Authorities announced a $50,000 reward Wednesday as they renewed their search for an elusive serial killer they say committed at least 12 homicides, 45 rapes and dozens of burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s. The case has grown cold for the killer known by at least four nicknames over the decades. He was dubbed the East Area Rapist after his start in Northern California. The Original Night Stalker after a series of Southern California slayings. The Diamond Knot Killer for using the elaborate knot to bind two of his victims. And most recently the Golden State Killer.

Fifty rapes. Ten murders. Two identities. One man. From 1976 to 1986, one of the most violent serial criminals in American history terrorized communities throughout California. He was little known, never caught, and might still be out there. Now a determined investigator, a retired detective, and a group of online obsessives are on the hunt to track him down [ 1 ] MISSING LINKS ON A SLEEPLESS NIGHT LAST JULY—one of dozens I’ve powered through during the months I’ve spent tracking him down—I Googled a description of a pair of cuff links he stole in the midst of a home...