‘Golden State Killer’ suspect, a former police officer, arrested after DNA match, officials say

Washington Post ^ | April 25, 2018 | Mark Berman, Avi Selk and Justin Jouvenal

[Morgana]

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 be solved.

The trail ultimately led authorities to DeAngelo, a former police officer living in Citrus Heights, Calif., a city outside Sacramento. Authorities said DeAngelo — who was an officer during the years when police believe the attacks began — was found through DNA evidence obtained in recent days. Though investigators declined to elaborate on what the DNA evidence was or how it was obtained, they said it clearly linked him to the crimes that had transfixed them for so long.

[BunnySlippers]

Incredible story.

I had to order the book at the library. I’m 332 in the queue.

[Thank You Rush]

I wrote that I didn’t see any reporting of surveillance...Other articles say there was - NY Post article said he’d been put under surveillance a few days before the arrest...That clears that up. I’d still like to know what tipped them off to watch him...I guess it will all come out soon.

[ZagFan]

Are you referring to the Michelle McNamara book? I read the book—I’m a fan of real/life crime non-fiction, such as Ann Rule’s book about Ted Bundy, the Jeffrey McDonald book Fatal Vision and the BTK one by the Wichita newspaper reporters. I’ve been fascinated w the GSK case for about a year and have watched all of the tv shows this past month.

My review of the book: It was very well written—she’s a very good writer with interesting stories and insights. A lot of the book focuses on herself and her story, which is fine—it kept my interest. But my one complaint (and 2 other people I know that read the book agreed) was that it didn’t give the reader a lot of the details of the crimes. She only wrote about some of them and not in the order they happened, which made it kinda hard to follow.

If you’re really interested in the details there’s a website I came across that provides information on every crime in order with all the grisly details—a lot of it comes from the police reports. I highly recommend it—you really get a feel for this guy and what he was like. The title is The Attacks and you have to click on each date for each crime. It took me a couple days to read them all, but well-worth the time.

http://www.coldcase-earons.com/attacks.php