Original subtitles

[music]

[Male Narrator] To those who knew him,

he was a devoted family man,

a reliable friend,

and a proud police officer.

[Brittany] His eldest daughter said he was a great man,

helped raise his granddaughter.

[Richard] We did a lot together, man.

Fished, fixed poles, work on his boat.

We kicked it.

[Terry] He should have gone to the FBI.

He was that much of a professional investigator.

[Narrator] But he had another side,

a secret side.

[Mike] Fifty-plus rapes, murdered over a dozen people.

He's this country's worst serial predator.

[Narrator] Who dwelled among his victims for decades.

[Kris] He lived about a one-minute drive from me.

Was he the guy at McDonald's behind me?

[Narrator] What fueled Joseph DeAngelo's dark desires?

What he loved was the psychological terror.

[Narrator] Were there any signs?

[Richard] He told me it was a good thing he didn't get out

of his car. I said, "Why?"

He said "Cause I'd a tore his eyeballs out of the socket".

[Narrator] And how did a revolutionary new scientific

approach bring this crooked cop to justice

after 40 years?

[Ashley] They ran his DNA through a bunch of those

genealogy sites and found a 100% match.

No question. They had their Golden State Killer.

[Richard] To find this out about him, it was just...

Mind-blowing.

[dramatic music]

[Narrator] On April 24, 2018, police in Sacramento, California

shocked the world when they suddenly closed one of the most

horrific cold cases the nation has ever known.

Police say after 30-plus years, they have their man.

[Man] 72-year-old Joseph DeAngelo,

he's behind bars here in Sacramento.

Scheduled to make his first court appearance tomorrow.

Known both as the Golden State Killer and the

East Area Rapist, investigators say their suspect

committed at least 12 murders and more than 50 rapes

across California in the 1970s and 80s.

[Narrator] For 40 long years, Joseph DeAngelo secretly raped,

killed... [gunshot]

And taunted his way across California

without remorse or rebuke,

holding the entire Golden State in abject terror

as he roamed free.

Once word got out that this was going on,

people really took steps to protect themselves.

They started locking their doors, going to the hardware

store to get more secure locks. People were buying guns.

[Narrator] But then, over four decades after his first attack,

investigators utilize an extraordinary new

crime-solving technique to bring this evil among us to ground.

So the idea was, let's take DNA to the next level,

which is, let's do this type of testing that doesn't give us,

you know, like an inch of information,

but gives us a mile.

We looked at those cases that had biology,

where we had the potential to render DNA profiles

that belong to the killer and the rapist in

those particular cases.

You had databanks like ancestry.com and others

that were through genealogy, helping people discover

their lineage. And there was some belief that kind of

technology could be applied to identifying the killer.

[Narrator] Recently, genetic genealogy has helped

crack such high-profile, cold cases as identifying

a mysterious child found stuffed in a box in a Philadelphia woods

65 years ago.

The brutal 1983 murder of Joette Smith.

Killed by Eric Drummond after she declined his advances.

And the unconnected murders of two California women

by Reuben Smith nearly 30 years after he took their lives.

But before DeAngelo, DNA had rarely been used

to identify an unknown killer through an ancestry database.

[Amy] And it turns out that he was right here,

a short distance from the district attorney's office

living for decades at that point.

That was the moment... Excuse my language, holy shit!

[Tristin] That's a very common thing.

Is that what we see with serial killers,

who we would call decent individuals.

They're family men.

They have a wife and they have kids.

And someone like that cannot be doing something like this.

It creates a threat to our sense of security

if the guy next door is really the evil

that lives among us.

[Narrator] News of the predator's arrest

and his shocking dual life as a cop and family man

stuns his victims as well.

Wow. You had all girls and a granddaughter. No boys.

The best way I can explain it is I felt like every emotion

I was capable of feeling, I felt at the same time.

And it was very overwhelming.

He lived about a one-minute drive from me

for about three years.

Was he the guy at McDonald's behind me?

Was he at the restaurant? Was he at the same grocery line?

So initially it was just shock.

[Narrator] Although DeAngelo attacked Kris

when she was just a teen,

the memories are still fresh decades later.

[Kris] It was December 18, 1976, 15 years old.

And it was one week before Christmas.

My parents had gone to a Christmas party.

And my sister was at work,

so I had a little frozen pizza, popped it in the oven,

and went to go play the piano, waiting for the timer to go off.

And I heard a, a noise.

I stopped and I...

I listened and it was silent.

I was like, oh, must be okay. So I kept playing.

[soft piano music]

[Narrator] But the teenager is not alone.

[Kris] There was a flash.

And then all of a sudden there was a knife at my throat.

[Narrator] Kris Pedretti will become the mysterious

rapist's 10th victim.

Police know they have a serial rapist in their midst,

but they have no idea he actually began his campaign

of terror one year earlier and 200 miles south.

It's the fall of 1975.

And the small town of Visalia is in the grip

of an unusual crime spree.

For the past 18 months, a thief known as the Visalia Ransacker

has been terrorizing the area

with a string of peculiar burglaries.

He would usually take things that were more personal.

He was known for taking a lot of single earrings.

He would leave cash, but take things like stamp collections,

and just things that were kind of often

not replaceable to people.

[Brittany] Even to the police officers,

the Visalia Ransacker case is weird.

It doesn't make a lot of sense other than the fact that maybe

he's getting high off of the fact that he can do it.

He can get in and out without anybody knowing.

I think it was more like of a mind fuck

than actually a robbery.

[Mike] The town almost was getting hit on a daily basis.

And there were clusters.

He would literally go down a street and hit three houses

on the street over a three-day period.

It became obvious that they had a serial burglar.

[Narrator] It's not long before the thief's behavior

begins to change.

The Visalia Ransacker began stalking neighborhoods,

peeping through windows.

[Amy] Was thought to be voyeuristic.

And then clearly, he's focused on women

who may be living in the home.

[Narrator] Soon the Ransacker's dark desires drive him to go...

further.

He would find all of the undergarments of women,

and he would methodically lay them out on pillows

and on the bed. And bring his own lotion,

his own pornographic magazines.

And then there would be crumbled up pieces of tissue.

Then when he would leave, he would do a little bit of

damage to make it look like a ransacking rather than

a fantasy that he was carrying out.

[Terry] The whole department was becoming more and more concerned

about what the ultimate motive was because he's obviously

moving in a direction we're not real happy with.

[Narrator] Investigators believe their suspect may reside nearby.

Most criminals start attacking in the area they live in.

And that's well-known to law enforcement.

So they'll look for suspects very close to the epicenter

where the crimes start.

[Narrator] They have no idea how right they are.

Nearly 12 miles west of Visalia,

in the small town of Exeter, California,

29-year-old police officer, Joseph DeAngelo

is keenly aware of the Ransacker's crime spree.

[Brittany] DeAngelo was part of the burglary unit specifically

tasked with looking into burglaries around Exeter

and the surrounding area.

[Narrator] But that's just DeAngelo's day job.

He was also committing the Visalia Ransacker

series of burglaries.

Close to 100 residential burglaries.

The next town over, 20 minutes away.

[Narrator] Thanks in part to his training.

[Tristin] Joe had some really good insider knowledge.

He's been through the academy. He investigated burglaries,

which is probably why he was so good at breaking and entering

and knew which homes were ideal.

He had connections to the people on the police force

with regard to the investigations.

And so I think Joe knew how to plan accordingly.

[Narrator] But it's DeAngelo's childhood, not his job,

that first put him on this predatory path.

When somebody has their first sexual encounter

and it's violent in nature,

this can very much stunt emotional growth.

[Narrator] For nearly the past two years,

Police Officer Joseph DeAngelo has been secretly terrorizing

the community of Visalia, California as the Ransacker.

[Larry] We have a prowler who is a voyeur and he enjoys

breaking into homes, not for the material gain,

but for the power that he feels being in the home.

[Narrator] Police have no idea the culprit is one of their own.

Or that his predilections stem back to a series of traumas

he suffered decades earlier as a child.

Born into a military family in 1945,

a young Joe DeAngelo and his siblings spend

their youth moving from base to base with their airman father.

He had a pretty tough upbringing.

His father was pretty harsh and abusive.

[Tristin] Joseph's father would beat his mother so bad

that she would often wear more than one layer of clothing

to alleviate some of the damage.

So you've got a very domineering father who's very militant,

who's cold emotionally, who's physically abusive.

That does a lot of damage. Like the social learning model

of, oh, is this what men in the household should be like?

[Narrator] But it's a singular event in 1954 that

changes the lives of a young Joe and his sister forever.

[Tristin] They were playing in a warehouse

and two airmen had walked in

and they proceeded to sexually assault his sister

in front of him.

Joe was only nine years old.

He was helpless and forced to watch that.

When somebody has their first sexual encounter

and it's violent in nature, this can very much stunt

emotional growth when it comes to intimacy.

[Narrator] Within a few years, the DeAngelo family returns

to the US settling in Rancho Cordova, California.

Even in a new home, the nightmare Joe

experienced with his sister still haunts the teen.

Joseph was progressively getting worse over the years.

There was conduct-related issues as a youth,

cruelty to animals, animal torturing,

impulse issues with theft, anger issues, possessiveness,

control issues.

All behaviors that would lead to sexual assaults and murder.

[Narrator] Despite the childhood trauma,

Joe follows in his father's footsteps when he joins the Navy

in 1964 at age 19.

He soon ships off to Vietnam

where he serves as a ship's mechanic in the war

for nearly two years.

Yeah, he didn't talk much about the war other than

he learned how to shoot

and tie knots. And that was about it.

[Narrator] When Joe returns home,

he enrolls in Sierra College to pursue his lifelong dream.

Joseph spends a considerable amount of time

working on becoming a police officer.

It was his whole goal.

Move out.

[Narrator] It's during college, DeAngelo finds true love

when he meets nursing student Bonnie Jean Colwell in 1970.

[Brittany] She meets Joe and he presents himself as

this Vietnam War hero and almost immediately,

as soon as they become sexually active, he gives her a ring.

He doesn't ask her to marry him.

It's sort of, here you go. You're mine now.

But after some time, Bonnie realizes that she's not

really enjoying being in this relationship.

Joe had a bit of a scary side to him,

and she said that he was constantly pushing her

to do things that she was uncomfortable with.

Like he would take her for rides on his motorbike

and go way too fast.

And one time he actually kicked a dog in the head,

breaking its neck and killing it while it was chasing

him and Bonnie on the motorcycle.

[Narrator] Eventually, Bonnie breaks up with DeAngelo.

He does not take the rejection well.

[Brittany] A few nights later,

Bonnie hears tapping on her window, and there's Joe standing

with a gun at her face. And he says: "Get dressed.

We're going to Reno right now". And Bonnie hightails it to her

parents' bedroom.

Her dad tells her to hide in the bathroom and then he goes out

and talks to Joe for two hours, talking him off this ledge.

[Narrator] DeAngelo moves on from Bonnie when he meets

17-year-old, Sharon Huddle. The pair marry in 1973.

And move to Exeter, California where DeAngelo lands his first

job as a cop with the city's police department.

[Lori] Exeter was a little, small farming town.

One main street, very small police department,

probably four officers, maybe.

[Brittany] He's completely overprepared for the job.

And very quickly he becomes part of the burglary unit.

[Narrator] DeAngelo thrives in his new role.

[Terry] A fellow officer said "He's a very, very smart man

and should have gone to the FBI because he was that much

of a professional investigator".

[Narrator] But despite DeAngelo's drive,

his demeanor doesn't ingratiate him with his peers.

He wasn't very friendly with people.

He was sort of standoffish with his colleagues.

He just wasn't very chummy, one of the guys, so to speak.

[Narrator] None of DeAngelo's fellow cops realize

something sinister is brewing inside him.

And on September 11, 1975,

DeAngelo finally gives way to those demons.

In the early morning hours, he breaks into the home of

45-year-old Claude Snelling,

his wife and their 16-year-old daughter, Beth.

Claude Snelling was a very well-respected man

in the community. He was a journalism instructor

at the local community college, the College of the Sequoias.

[Narrator] The sleeping family is unaware an armed predator

is in their midst.

And heading straight for the teenager's bedroom.

He startled her awake and grabbed her.

And basically told her not to make any noise.

[Narrator] DeAngelo pulls Beth out the home's back door.

The commotion awakens her father

who races toward his daughter's masked attacker.

[Man] Hey, you! Stop that!

At that point, the attacker lets Beth go,

throws her to the ground.

And turns around and fires shots at Claude striking him.

[gun shot]

[Narrator] DeAngelo then trains his gun on the terrified teen,

but seemingly changes his mind.

And instead, savagely kicks Beth before running off.

Beth survives her attack, but her father, Claude...

Is not so fortunate.

The attempted abduction and killing represent yet

another new phase in DeAngelo's devolving behavior

from thief

to voyeur

to murderer.

I think that might have emboldened and created

a new thrill for him.

A taste of what killing is like.

[Narrator] Despite the unusual murder,

investigators still believe the home invasion fits the

Visalia Ransacker's M.O. And scramble to connect the crimes.

They took the projectile that was used to kill Claude Snelling

and they linked it to a weapon that was stolen a week earlier

that fit the pattern of the other burglaries.

This is when police really knew,

okay, this has finally escalated to something

that's out of control here. We've got to catch this guy

because now he's gone beyond just breaking into homes.

Now he's attempting to abduct people and

drag them out of their house.

[Lori] Most people were really shocked.

I mean, it was a big, front page story.

And the police department was very determined to

find out who did it.

That's why my dad and other officers were all brought in

to help with the case.

[Narrator] Visalia PD flood the area,

hoping to catch the Ransacker in the act.

You could see a distinct pattern in the community

as to where the Ransacker was committing his crimes.

We were just waiting for--

for somebody that appeared to be out of place.

We started to create a profile of somebody that understood

police tactics, maybe a military, ex-military man,

somebody who had spent time in Vietnam,

somebody who knew how to evade.

Because he was always able to escape.

[Narrator] But despite DeAngelo's military

and law enforcement training,

the Ransacker will soon find himself trapped.

[Narrator] On December 10th, Visalia police officers,

Bill McGowan and Duane Shipley are staking out a residence

they suspect the Ransacker has his sights on.

[Lori] My dad believed that he was gonna come back to

this house because they had found the planter moved

to see into this girl's window.

My dad was sitting in the corner of the garage, crouched down,

waiting, just to see if anyone showed up.

His partner, Shipley, had gone across the street

to a different area to watch over there.

[Narrator] It's then,

Officer McGowan spots a mysterious figure.

My dad told him to stop and to turn around.

The figure began in a very high-pitched voice, yelling...

[Man] Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me!

Don't shoot me! Don't shoot me!

[Narrator] McGowan fires a warning shot

to alert his partner. [gun shot]

But the mysterious figure isn't going down without a fight.

He pulls out his own gun and raises his mask.

My dad had always carried his flashlight out to the

right of his head.

The man shot at the lights and hit the flashlight.

And that knocked my dad back. Shards went in his eye.

And the figure dropped the items that he had stolen that night

from other houses and took off.

[Narrator] The suspected burglar escapes,

but the wounded officer is able to provide investigators

with a major break.

A clear description of the man they suspect

is the Visalia Ransacker.

Officer McGowan was able to see that he had

a round, baby-like face.

[Narrator] Police soon release this composite sketch.

It doesn't take long for the Visalia PD's

phone lines to light up.

[Terry] Everyone started calling in family, friends,

relatives saying, look at this person.

He looks like the composite drawing.

I think over 100 people were turned in for having a likeness

close to the composite.

[Narrator] But the sketch's release

has an unintended consequence.

In the winter of 1975, the rash of fetish burglaries

plaguing the Visalia, California area suddenly stop.

[Terry] There were some number of thoughts.

One is he was scared to death over the incident

and decided, you know what? I'm gonna stop doing this.

Or maybe he got arrested for another crime.

Maybe he moved on.

[Narrator] Investigators have no idea the Ransacker is

actually Joseph DeAngelo, a police officer in neighboring

Exeter PD's burglary unit.

And that he's one step ahead of them.

He realized that, hey, I've killed someone here now.

I've tried to kill a police officer.

The heat is going to be on me.

He left Exeter Police Department and moved north up to Auburn,

which is just in the next county

and got a job with the Auburn Police Department.

[Narrator] For DeAngelo and his wife, Sharon,

the move 250 miles north in 1976 is a homecoming.

[Brittany] His sister lives in Rancho Cordova.

His brother-in-law lives in Orange Vale.

He grew up in the region and so he virtually understands

the entire area.

[Narrator] The move affords the corrupt cop a new hunting ground

to pursue his increasingly darkening M.O.

That year, a series of rapes rock the area.

They started with a sexual assault here, one there,

and slowly at first. And kind of focused around

particular neighborhoods in the county.

At the beginning, they were females

that were home by themselves. And so they knew that he was

probably watching people, you know, targeting single females.

They were always in homes that there was a way to get easily in

and easily out. And not just of the house, but of the area.

So they were along rivers or canals, things like that

where he could quickly disappear.

Initially, they didn't have any reason to really think

that these were connected.

But then as they gathered more information,

they realized there was a particular M.O.,

if you will, a way this person liked to do things.

How he got in, how he got out,

the sexual acts he would commit while he was in the homes.

[Narrator] And one attack in particular confirms for

investigators they're hunting a sadistic predator.

[Narrator] On the morning of October 5, 1976,

30-year-old nursing student, Jane Carson, is cuddling her

three-year-old son in bed as her husband leaves for work.

Then around 6:30 AM,

All of a sudden she heard a door open

and somebody running down the hallway.

[Narrator] Within moments, the young mother's blinded

by a bright light.

She saw the flashlight and the man in the ski mask

at the foot of the bed telling her, "Don't move, don't move.

"I'm just here to steal something.

I'm not going to hurt you".

[Narrator] The masked man binds and blindfolds the mother.

Then takes her toddler to the next room.

That was Jane's biggest fear.

She didn't know what had happened to her son.

And she thought, okay, I'm just going to be quiet

and do as he says because he's not going to hurt me.

[Narrator] Jane has no idea how wrong she is.

The intruder returns to the master bedroom

and repeatedly rapes the terrified mother for hours.

She said that the only thing that she could think about

the whole time was, is her son okay?

Eventually, he left her still blindfolded and tied up,

but he did bring her son back next to her.

So she said that she felt a great sense of relief

once she knew that her son was okay.

[Narrator] Then just as the mysterious attacker

prepares to leave, he makes a curious

off-hand remark that will later catch

Detective Carol Daly's attention.

He made the comment to her that, "Oh, I saw you at the O Club".

Well, the O Club is the Officer's Club at

Mather Air Force Base.

[Narrator] The odd admission is a telling clue.

Only somebody in the military would refer to it as an O Club

as opposed to the Cfficer's Club.

So Jane felt that it was somebody that she had

encountered on base as her and her husband would go

to the Officer's Club.

So early on, we really suspected the rapist had a background

of military or law enforcement.

[Narrator] Jane's description of her attack is almost verbatim to

those given by previous victims.

He had a unique way of doing things.

He would commit a sexual assault,

then wander around the home.

The victims often described the home being ransacked

or rifled through. They could hear that going on

and then he would return, commit another sexual act

and continue to wander around the home,

often eating food, um, consuming drinks.

I think a big part of what he loved

was the psychological terror. A lot of the rapes would

only last about a minute, but the ordeal would last for hours.

It was all about having power and him feeling this was

his domain where he could do whatever the fuck he wanted.

Most of the rape cases that we had worked prior to this,

it was somebody goes into the home,

the rape is committed, and then they're...they run,

they're long gone.

So he knew he had all of the time that he needed.

[Narrator] Sacramento detectives have no idea the attacker's M.O.

is strikingly similar to that of another predator,

250 miles south,

the Visalia Ransacker.

All they have to go on is a vague description

of the masked attacker.

Maybe 5'10". Probably--no more than six foot.

He was Caucasian.

They thought maybe that he had blond hair,

that he was young, and that he was very agile.

He was very strong, very much in control.

[Narrator] After the attack on Jane Carson,

the fifth in five months, the Sacramento County

Sheriff's Office comes to a chilling realization,

a serial rapist is terrorizing their community.

[Carol] It was his method of operation that we knew that

it was the same person.

The sheriff had his most experienced investigators

working on the case.

[Narrator] Newspaper reporters soon give the serial predator

the moniker, the East Area Rapist

for the side of the Sacramento region he's been targeting.

Once word got out that this was going on,

people really took steps to protect themselves.

They started locking their doors,

going to the hardware store to get more secure locks.

Last night, my husband got his gun out

and put it under the bed.

-[Reporter] Really? Mm-hmm.

[Reporter] There's a quite a bit of fear then?

Oh, very definitely.

Everybody is extremely concerned.

[Amy] I think people were just terrified.

They didn't know when he was gonna strike next.

Sometimes it would be days, weeks, months

in between incidents and, you know,

moving around to different neighborhoods.

And so everyone was just on high alert.

[Narrator] Including DeAngelo's own wife, 22-year-old, Sharon.

[Brittany] Sharon is scared.

She fits the physical description of the majority

of the victims.

[Ashley] Sharon was in school studying really hard

to become a lawyer, so she had a lot of late nights

where she didn't know what Joe was up to.

She really believed his excuses for being gone late at night,

especially with him being a police officer.

He was so good at putting on this different mask

that people wanted to see.

[Brittany] None of his family knew that of all the people

in this entire region, they were the safest of all.

[Narrator] But soon DeAngelo will get sloppy

and give police the break they need.

[Narrator] By the winter of 1976,

married police officer Joseph D'Angelo has secretly

attacked nine victims in the greater Sacramento area.

And the East Area Rapist has no intention of stopping.

That December, he takes his 10th victim,

15-year-old, Kris Pedretti, inside her own home

while her parents are out.

He told me to not scream

or that he would push the knife all the way in.

I did not have any thought of running.

I froze and I went into a robot-zombie mode.

Whatever he said, I did.

He took me off the bench and into the hallway and asked,

where did my parents keep the money?

I...I said, "I don't know".

And then he wanted to know when they'd be home.

Ah, I just...I don't know.

I mean, I didn't know any of these answers.

[Narrator] But it's not money the intruder is after.

[Kris] He took me out to the backyard patio.

And that is when he blindfolded me.

And then he tied me.

He cut off my shirt.

I believe he cut my pants.

And told me to stay there...

naked, you know, in December.

He told me, just sit there and he'd be checking on me

every 10 seconds. And that if he saw me flinch,

he would kill me.

[Narrator] The assailant then goes back in the house,

leaving the terrified and naked teen alone.

[Kris] I could hear him rummaging through the house

and cursing and going through drawers.

[Narrator] After a short while, her attacker returns.

He took me all the way back to my parents' room

where he raped me on their bed.

He raped me three different times.

Each time, going outside, coming back in,

going outside, then coming back in.

[Narrator] Even after the attacks,

Kris's rapist continues playing mind games with her.

I would try to move and he was right there.

So the whole time he's just sitting right next to you.

And you can't hear him breathe. You can't hear him move.

"And if you do that again, I'm gonna kill you".

And I waited a while

and I just moved again.

He said the same thing.

"Dammit, I'm going to really kill you if you move again".

[Narrator] The masked intruder's tormenting

lasts an hour and a half.

Finally, Kris reaches her breaking point.

[Kris] I thought, I gotta get up.

You know, Jesus, here I come.

If he's here, he's probably going to kill me.

My ankles are tied.

My hands are tied behind my back.

But I managed to get up and it was quiet.

Looked down the hallway. He wasn't there.

And it was at this point I knew if he came out that there would

be no way I would be living because I had the blindfold off.

But I couldn't do it anymore. I just didn't care.

[Narrator] Much to her relief,

Kris soon discovers her attacker has fled.

[Kris] When the police came, some of them went out

and canvased homes to ask neighbors what they had seen.

And then, uh. And then, of course,

one stayed to interview me.

I didn't have the vocabulary to give them the answers

that they wanted. What happened?

How big was he?

What did it feel like?

Like, I don't know, because I have never felt this before.

I felt like I was victimized a complete second time.

I think after that day began

really a journey of isolation.

I knew I was not a child anymore, but I was not an adult.

I really didn't have a sense of identity.

And there was no counseling. There was no help.

So for the next four decades, it was a struggle.

It really was a struggle for me.

[Narrator] Attacking a young girl

stuns even the hardened detectives.

And while they only have a general physical description

of the attacker who has now raped 10 women

in the greater Sacramento area,

they do have a plethora of clues he's left behind

at the crime scenes.

We knew he wore a size nine shoe because of shoe prints

that were left outside windows where he was prowling.

[Narrator] But the attacker also leaves behind something

much more incriminating.

[Carol] In one of the cases, there was blood that was

not the victim's. And so we figured that the rapist

had hurt himself.

[Narrator] While DNA technology has not yet become the norm

in the mid 1970s.

The blood can still offer investigators vital information

about the attacker.

When the lab tests the blood, it makes a major discovery.

The attacker is a non-secretor, meaning his bodily fluids,

such as saliva and semen do not reveal his blood type.

Only 20% of all Caucasians are non-secretors allowing

detectives to now eliminate 80% of their suspect pool.

[Carol] Once you have a suspect that comes to your attention,

then we'd have him chew on a piece of gauze.

And we could tell whether they were a secretor

or a non-secretor. And that was how we eliminated them.

[Narrator] With each of the East Area rapist's carefully

planned attacks, detectives grow increasingly

certain they must turn their investigation inward.

Because of everything the rapist was doing to

conceal his identity, I personally felt it

was somebody that could be in law enforcement.

So we started checking all of our officers.

And if they fit the parameters of the suspect age and height,

and foot size, they were willing to chew

on a gauze to get eliminated.

[Narrator] But despite investigators' renewed optimism,

the process fails to uncover any solid suspects.

None right now. We have no new information.

We're doing everything humanly possible to catch this man.

[Narrator] Over the winter of 1977,

Auburn Police Officer Joseph DeAngelo's secret reign

of terror continues unchecked as he attacks three more women.

The East Area Rapist has once again struck in precisely this

same neighborhood.

Police say that the East Side Rapist once again

entered through an unlocked glass door.

[Narrator] Bringing the predator's total

to a staggering 13 victims.

It felt like it was on the news or in the paper all the time.

People were very upset. The community was upset.

I have to admit, I'm scared to death.

I'm sleeping with my husband's hunting knife under the pillow.

I don't know where he's gonna hit next.

It wasn't a matter of if he was gonna strike again,

it was a matter of when.

[Narrator] With public pressure mounting by the day,

Sacramento law enforcement convene an East Area Rapist

task force to find their man.

They realized that we can't just randomly have different

detectives responding to these cases.

And so they put the task force together.

So I was pulled out of homicide to do nothing but to respond

to these rapes.

That task force had like 34 people in it.

[Narrator] Then in February that year,

the task force gets a break when 18-year-old, Rodney Miller

hears a noise outside his house.

[Brittany] And when he looks outside,

he sees a stranger in the bushes kind of in between

his neighbor's home and his own.

And without really thinking about it,

Rodney goes to inspect. And the prowler just runs.

But Rodney, being the fearless 18-year-old that he was

just books it towards this prowler and manages

to grab his foot as he's going over the fence,

and knocks him down.

[Narrator] But the intruder isn't going down

without a fight.

He pulls a gun.

[gunshot]

And shoots the teen in the stomach.

[Mike] This prowler gets away. Rodney Miller is badly injured,

but he is able to give a good description of this person.

[Narrator] Finally, police have a strong

composite sketch of the man terrorizing Sacramento.

They think it's likely that this is the East Area Rapist.

[Narrator] The new rush of publicity will provoke

DeAngelo to make his most unexpected move yet.

The purpose of the canvass this time is to...

Try to develop any new witnesses we may have out in the area.

[Narrator] In February 1977, police blanket the

greater Sacramento area with the sketch of the man they believe

is the East Area Rapist.

[Carol] There was never a lack of people calling in

with information, thinking that they knew

who the East Area Rapist was.

The tips were coming from everywhere.

From a next door neighbor. From a girlfriend, from a wife,

from somebody in a bar who saw somebody and thought

they fit the description.

[Narrator] The one person the sketches do not seem to resemble

is 32-year-old Auburn Police Officer Joseph D'Angelo.

The actual man responsible for the 14 attacks in the

Sacramento area over the past year and a half.

During that time period, there's not a lot of good photos

of DeAngelo. And composite sketches aren't always perfect.

But there's always one thing that's consistent,

his lips are really thin. The nose is the same.

Very creepy eyes.

[Narrator] Detectives chase down all their leads,

but find no viable suspects.

However, when they re-examine the attacks themselves,

they find a clear pattern in the rapist's M.O.

There was a lot of heavy-duty reconnaissance

on his victims weeks in advance, months in some cases.

Future victims would wind up seeing people in their yard.

They'd chase people out. Their dogs would bark at night.

[Narrator] Secretly, DeAngelo has been relying

on his police training and years of expertise working

the burglary unit to pull off his nefarious deeds.

[Brittany] Joseph made phone calls specifically to figure out

when the husband's left the house,

when a teen girl would be alone, when her parents were gone.

Sometimes he called neighbors around the homes of his future

victims to know when they would be gone, too,

so that he had the perfect moment when he could break in,

assault someone, be there for two,

three hours and then leave.

[Mike] Looking back now, knowing who Joseph DeAngelo was,

knowing that he had wife at home,

knowing that he had a full-time job as a police officer,

it's hard to reconcile when he slept.

The time he spent attacking and prowling and planning was almost

a full-time job in itself.

[Narrator] But DeAngelo's wife, Sharon, seems blissfully unaware

of her husband's nocturnal activities.

[Mike] We don't really know a lot about what's going on

in their home life.

It was reported that they slept in separate bedrooms,

so that may have made it easier for him to sneak out

and get out--get away with what he did and then come home

before she woke up.

I'm sure Joe told Sharon, don't worry, I'm a police officer,

so I know what you need to do.

And she probably just trusted him.

[Narrator] DeAngelo is walking a tightrope of duplicity.

For an individual who has this dark side of themselves

that they don't want other people to know,

they need to become a chameleon to blend in with what is

expected of them so that they can live this double life.

[Narrator] Convinced he can't be caught after attacking nearly

20 victims in just a year, DeAngelo secretly calls police

and ups the ante.

[Tristin] Calling was also him living a fantasy of,

I want to feel the fear that you have from that.

And it was sort of like a build up and a play out

of that until he actually committed it.

[Narrator] DeAngelo makes good on his promise.

That very night he rapes again,

taking his 29th victim.

As the attacks continue,

fear in the Sacramento community reaches a fever pitch.

It's obvious now, as you can see,

that the women out here are worried.

Also, their husbands and boyfriends.

And the word here, of course, is caution

and beware.

One of the things the East Area Rapist had said to me

was "I saw you at school, and you sure looked good".

And so when I had to go back to school,

I was looking at teachers, you know, who--

who did this to me?

A few months later, and I did see this on the news.

He had just raped a couple. And I was terrified.

I was begging my sister, like, we have to go to a hotel.

He's gonna come here tonight. We're gonna die.

[Amy] There was a lot of pressure on law enforcement

to stop these attacks. I mean, you can imagine

one or two or three crimes, but it going on for dozens of

these incidents had the public just in an absolute uproar.

[Narrator] Just before Christmas in 1977, DeAngelo pivots again,

directing his taunts in an even more unimaginable way.

Eight months after attacking his 21st victim,

the East Area Rapist reaches out to her again

in a chilling phone call and declares...

"Merry Christmas. It's me again".

Like just to do the work to heal from an assault

and then to have your attacker call you back a year later.

That's...

Unfathomable.

He seems to just delight in making his victims continue

to feel terrible and keeping the rest of the entire area

in just perpetual fear.

[Narrator] Police step up their patrols around the

terrified woman's neighborhood and provide her

with a tape recorder, hoping she can capture

the rapist's voice if he calls back.

Just a few weeks later,

he does.

But this time, armed with a recording device

provided by police, she captures the first ever known recording

of the East Area Rapist's voice.

[Narrator] Later that evening, the man calls back.

And this time reveals his true identity.

Imagine what it was like for somebody to have gone through

what they went through.

The guy breaks in, horribly commits these

sexual assaults, and then he calls and says,

I'm gonna kill you. That is so sadistic.

And it's all about power and control and terror.

And that's what he inflicted.

[Narrator] The city of Sacramento

and those charged with keeping it safe

are at wit's end.

With 30 attacks now to his credit,

it appears the East Area Rapist can strike at will.

[Carol] There was never a lack of people calling in

with information, thinking that they knew

who the East Area Rapist was.

There were many times we thought we had the right person

and then they were eliminated.

[Mike] He knew that the heat was on.

He knew that people were looking everywhere for him there.

Patrols were stepped up.

Neighborhood watches were on high alert.

People had gotten dogs, guns, more security.

So I think he just knew that at some point

his luck was going to run out.

[Narrator] Suddenly that February,

the rapes in Sacramento come to an abrupt stop.

[Amy] When those sketches came out, if, in fact,

one of them did look like him, I'm sure it did spook him.

I don't think it's a coincidence that those are published

and then he moves on.

[Narrator] Police have no idea that DeAngelo and his wife,

Sharon have moved 50 miles south to Stockton, California.

And it won't be long until the serial predator

unleashes his terror

on yet another community.

[Bob] I think we both realized this was not gonna be good.

I had no idea what was going on in the other room with her,

but I knew it wasn't good.

[Narrator] On March 18, 1978, 24-year-old real estate agent,

Gay Wilburn and her partner, 29-year-old attorney,

Bob Hardwick have just settled into bed after a Friday night

out when the unthinkable occurs.

[Gay] It was after midnight when we were awakened by a voice

saying, "wake up, wake up", and a bright light

in our face.

[Bob] I knew then. And I think Gay knew then.

We knew who it was.

[Gay] He had a gun.

If you make any noise, you know, I'll blow your head off.

And right away you realize that if you don't do what

you're told, you're gonna die.

I was forced to tie my husband up at gunpoint.

You really can't do much when your weapon is an alarm clock.

And his weapon is a .357 Magnum.

I think we both realized that you do what you can to survive.

[Narrator] Their nightmare's just begun.

[Gay] We were both bound and blindfolded.

And I was at one end of the house and my husband was tied up

back in the bedroom.

[Bob] I had no idea what was going on in the other

room with her, but I knew it wasn't good.

[Gay] Eventually,

after a couple of hours of going through the house

and terrifying us and, you know, attacking me

and ransacking and, you know, getting food

from the refrigerator and sitting on the porch

and having a beer, he finally was gone.

[Narrator] 45 years later,

the attack still haunts the couple.

The worst part of this for me is my wife was attacked

and I couldn't do anything about it.

To this day, I kind of wonder if I could have done something.

But then when I really think about it,

what can I do when the guy's got a gun on you?

You can't do anything.

[Tristin] It's very personal to tie up a husband.

And it's very cruel to make them watch and listen

to him assault their wife. That's another level of cruel.

It's almost like re-enacting the event that occurred when

he was nine years old and his sister was being

sexually assaulted by two airmen.

And he was completely helpless.

In that moment, it's punishing the husbands

because it puts them in the same situation of

not being able to rescue their loved one.

[Narrator] Over the next year.

Joseph DeAngelo will attack another 11 individuals across

northern and central California, bringing his total to 44.

[Mike] Stockton, Modesto, Davis, you get some of the

same activity going on, these prowlers in yards.

These homes being broken into.

The same pattern starts happening in these other towns

that was happening to the people in Sacramento County.

[Narrator] Then police get a break

when a couple in Davis, California is attacked.

They report their assailant seemingly suffers a breakdown.

He started sobbing to himself and he starts saying,

"I hate you, Bonnie". He's just talking to himself.

And she recounted that for police.

[Narrator] Well, Bonnie means nothing to the investigators.

It has tremendous significance for Joe DeAngelo.

Bonnie Colwell was DeAngelo's college sweetheart

and first true love.

But when Bonnie broke up with DeAngelo,

he flew into a jealous rage and tried forcing her to elope

with him at gunpoint.

He left her alone, but obviously she did not leave his thoughts.

[Tristin] I think, Bonnie, choosing not to stay with him

in this relationship was definitely a very

powerful moment in his life.

He got to act out a bit of that revenge that he had from sort of

a narcissistic injury that he sustained from that rejection

on these women that he targeted.

[Narrator] Over the course of the next year,

DeAngelo will seek his perverse vengeance on another 13 victims,

bringing his toll to a staggering 50.

And while his reign of terror for those crimes goes unchecked,

in July 1979, DeAngelo does run afoul of the law.

DeAngelo was arrested for shoplifting in a hardware store.

The items that he took at the time were pretty bizarre.

Dog repellent and a hammer.

[Ashley] There was really no need for him

to steal those items,

which probably would have cost less than $20.

And when he gets caught, he is just spitting mad,

pure rage, screaming, fighting against the people.

By the time the police pull up, they have him tied to a chair

and he is cursing out the store clerks.

[Amy] The sheriff's department came

and his demeanor completely changed when they got there.

I think he thought he could talk his way out of it,

you know, as a fellow police officer.

But they ended up filing a report and

he was charged with the crime.

[Narrator] No one has any idea why DeAngelo would try to steal

such peculiar items.

But when news of the incident reaches his superiors at the

Auburn Police Department, the fallout is swift.

[Mike] They can't have an officer there

doing this kind of stuff, so they terminated him.

He's officially fired in the fall of 1979.

And it's around that same time that all of these

East Area Rapist in the different parts of California

up north come to a halt.

And it has now been 44 days since the last reported attack

by the East Area Rapist.

Possibly the longest period of time he has ever been

without a victim.

[Narrator] Officials have no idea the East Area Rapist

has moved or that he's about to change his M.O. once more,

this time ensuring he never leaves a witness.

[gun shot]

[Narrator] Months after Joseph DeAngelo is fired

from the Auburn Police Department for shoplifting,

he and his wife, Sharon move 400 miles south

to the Santa Barbara area.

[Mike] She was an attorney.

And since she was the breadwinner at this point

and supporting them, she went down there for the job

and he joined her down there.

[Narrator] It's not long before a series of disturbing incidents

begin occurring in the oceanside suburb of Goleta.

[Mike] There are homes broken into, prowlers, just the typical

M.O. that, that was happening up in the East Area Rapist case

is now happening in this town of Goleta.

In one instance, someone had a prowler in the garden.

They let their dog out after him and dog got him cornered

and wound up being stabbed.

There was definitely something happening there that was

out of the ordinary.

[Narrator] No one knows the prowler is former police officer

Joe DeAngelo,

and that he's steadily gaining confidence

in his new hunting grounds.

In October 1979, the Goleta activity really ramps up.

There's a couple on Queen Ann Lane

who wake up in the middle of the night.

[Narrator] They're stunned to discover a masked,

armed intruder they think is there to rob them.

But in this particular case, he begins pacing in the hallway

saying, "I'll kill him,

I'll kill him. I'll kill him" over and over again.

While the victims think he's not here to rob us,

he's here to kill us.

The female, she's able to get the front door open

and she's hopping away from the house, screaming as she hops.

This awakens a next door neighbor who happens to be

an FBI agent.

[Narrator] The neighbor calls 911

and officers quickly respond.

But the attacker is gone.

For DeAngelo, it's a close call.

One that he resolves will not happen again.

He knew from that moment on he would never let

another couple survive.

[Narrator] For their part, the Santa Barbara area cops

make no connection to the series of earlier rapes

committed 400 miles away in Northern California.

[Mike] They didn't know a lot about

the East Area Rapist crimes.

This was just a completely isolated series to them.

Without technology, without social media,

without departments communicating

maybe like they do today,

there was no way to for them to really connect the dots.

At that time, nobody knew about DNA.

[Narrator] Over the next 16 months,

four more night-time home invasions occur

in the Santa Barbara area.

It's then officials conclude they have a predator

on the loose in Southern Cal.

[Mike] Once they make the connection there's

someone doing this stuff there, they start calling this person

The Night Stalker.

The name the Night Stalker was later attributed to

Richard Ramirez.

But that was the moniker that the press first gave DeAngelo

in Southern California.

[Narrator] Then by the summer of 1981,

the Night Stalker's six victim murder spree

suddenly comes to a stop,

leaving police struggling for an explanation.

[Larry] Earlier beliefs were that a killer like this

probably would not be able to stop himself.

And so as a result, he was either in prison or deceased.

But those beliefs evolved over the years,

as we learned more about serial offenders

and what they were capable of doing.

[Tristin] When we have sort of a sleep period for serial killers,

there's always speculation about what that period is about.

Generally, it's because there's some kind of life change

or a move, or a marriage,

or a baby, or something that occurs

that distracts them in their personal life.

[Narrator] That September DeAngelo has just such a

life change when he and his wife, Sharon

welcome their first child, a girl.

I think that he had to play a new role of dad,

and that took up a lot of his time.

[Narrator] The new family man contains his impulse to rape

and kill for five years.

Then in the spring of 1986,

he seemingly can no longer contain the rage within.

That May, the Night Stalker screams back into the headlines

when he rapes and bludgeons 18-year-old, Janelle Cruz.

[Ashley] Her mother and stepfather were away

on a vacation to Mexico, so she was home alone.

And as we know, DeAngelo was always very familiar

with people's schedules and when the right time to strike was.

[Mike] It was a very, very severe beating,

so brutal that she choked on her own teeth.

Her teeth were knocked out and she swallowed them.

So just a very severe, bloody crime scene.

[Narrator] But as quickly as the Night Stalker reemerges,

he returns underground leaving police to only speculate why.

[Amy] A number things happened in 1986.

1986 was the first time it became publicly known

that law enforcement was going to use DNA evidence to

not only investigate crimes, but hopefully prosecute crimes.

There's some thought that maybe, you know,

he's a former police officer. He's aware of different types

of forensics and investigations. Maybe he knew that and thought,

I better stop because I'm gonna get caught.

[Narrator] Investigators don't know that 1986 is also the year

Joe and Sharon welcomed their second daughter.

But despite the couple's expanding family,

their marriage is on the rocks.

There was definitely problems with him and Sharon

in their marriage.

Some of the neighborhood kids would report that they would

hear Joe going into the backyard in the middle of the night

and just yelling and cussing and going on these rants.

[Narrator] That same year, the couple separates

and DeAngelo moves back to Sacramento alone

where he takes a job as a mechanic

at a grocery store distribution center.

Three years later in 1989, the couple seemingly reconcile

with the birth of their third daughter.

He has three children,

all little girls who he dotes on,

albeit he's a little strict at home with them.

He's weird.

He doesn't let the kids play inside the house.

His daughters play around out of the bath naked

and he gets really angry

and demands they put their clothes on.

[Narrator] But Joe's odd behavior doesn't end there.

[Brittany] The family love horror movies.

And when they're watching a slasher movie,

Joe's eyes got wide and he started talking through

his teeth, the same way that he talked to his victims

as the East Area Rapist.

These strange dualities here

of his real life as a killer,

sometimes bleeding into him trying to keep it together

as a person.

[Anne] Nobody knew the wiser.

And so you've got these killers living amongst us

that have done these horrific things,

and then they just go back to living their lives.

[Narrator] But Joseph and Sharon can't maintain

their 18-year marriage.

In 1991, the couple separate again.

DeAngelo doesn't take it well.

[Richard] He got very angry every time he talked about her.

He didn't like the idea that she left him.

He felt that he paid for everything.

She took him to the cleaners as he would say.

So yeah, he was very angry behind that. Very, very angry.

[Narrator] That's not the only time DeAngelo's coworker

sees a different side of his friend.

[Richard] We went fishing one time.

We were on our way to the lake.

This gentleman cut us off, okay? Joe actually made a U-turn.

Cut that guy off, in the middle intersection, now.

Jumped out of his car,

ran up to that guy's window and started beatin' on it,

"Get out!" Cursing at him. "Get out, get out, get out!"

The guy eventually spun off.

Joe got back in the truck and told me, "Richard,

it's a good thing he didn't get out of his car".

I said, "Why?"

He said, "Because I'd tore his eyeballs out a his socket".

Those things I would never think about doing

and someone normal wouldn't, I don't think.

[Narrator] And DeAngelo doesn't hide his rage at work either.

[Richard] He had his moments in the shop.

He'd be angry at people, curse people out,

threw things. A lot of people knew [laughs]

not to tick him off 'cause he would go off on you.

[Narrator] It's a side that DeAngelo,

though no longer raping and killing,

is still eager to secretly share with his previous victims.

In 1991, a prior victim gets a phone call.

And it's Joe saying, "It's me. Do you remember me?

Do you remember when we used to play?"

[Narrator] The woman instantly recognizes the voice.

It's the man who attacked her 15 years ago.

The East Area Rapist.

[Tristin] When he hears the emotional reaction he gets,

I think that alone is a thrill of I still have

power and control even if I'm older

and even if it's been this long. I still have that power over you

and you still react the same.

He got his thrills in that way. He reminisced in harrowing ways.

[Narrator] But this time, DeAngelo slips up.

[Brittany] As she listened, she could hear children

in the background. She heard a woman talking.

And she told the police that.

And now that left them to wonder,

is this guy just a family man now?

He definitely isn't in prison because he's making phone calls

to his victims.

So the question is, where is he?

[Narrator] While investigators don't know where he is,

they think they have a way to find him.

By the mid 1990s, detectives across California

believe the two predators terrorizing their state,

the East Area Rapist and the Night Stalker

may, in fact, be the same man.

So in 1995, with DNA technology having made enormous strides,

they turned back to the biological evidence left behind

at the various crime scenes.

We looked at those cases that had biology

where we had the potential to render DNA profiles

that belong to the killer and the rapist

in those particular cases,

[Narrator] When the Southern California sheriffs

run the DNA from three attacks attributed to

their Night Stalker,

it confirms their long-held suspicion.

Those initial murders, Janelle Cruz, Manuela Witthuhn,

Keith and Patrice Harrington

were all linked to the same forensic unknown profile.

[Narrator] In Northern California,

investigators conduct similar DNA testing on evidence gathered

in their unsolved East Area Rapist cases.

[Anne] I remember going to my boss saying,

"We need to solve the East Area Rapist case.

We gotta find these rape kits". Just because we understood

that this new thing called DNA had this tremendous power.

[Narrator] Northern California investigators then enter the

rapist's DNA collected from nine different crime scenes

into a national DNA database known as CODIS.

The results blow them away.

It's the same guy as this killer down south.

The East Area Rapist is the person killing people

in Southern California.

[Narrator] The East Area Rapist and the original Night Stalker

are one and the same.

In 2013, true crime aficionado and wife of comedian

Patton Oswald, Michelle McNamara

publishes this article for a Los Angeles magazine entitled,

"In the Footsteps of a Killer".

In it, McNamara, who had been studying the connections between

the various serial rapists taunting California

for nearly a decade combines their titles into a new moniker,

one that will go down in the annals of crime,

the Golden State Killer.

And the name sticks, and it blows up the case again.

People are interested this time.

And now it seems like maybe we might actually get some answers.

[Narrator] While investigators now know

they're dealing with one man,

they still have no idea who that man is.

[Anne] He wasn't in any database.

He wasn't on any list. He'd never had his DNA taken.

He was never a convicted felon.

We have a guy that's killed 13 people, raped upwards of 50,

you know, wreaked havoc on communities.

And his DNA was not in CODIS.

I used to sarcastically say, we know he is a white guy.

That's about what they knew.

6'2", average build, blue eyes or green eyes.

Pretty much every white guy in Sacramento was on the list

that fit this age range.

[Narrator] News connecting the state's two murderers

sends shockwaves through the community

and lands Michelle McNamara a deal with HarperCollins

to pen a book on the case.

The great tragedy of this case to me

is that it's not better now.

[Narrator] Neither investigators nor McNamara have any idea

that the man they're after is now retired from both his work

and his life of crime living with his daughter

and granddaughter outside Sacramento.

Joe was crazy about

his daughters and granddaughter.

Those four meant the world to him.

His granddaughter, anything she wanted,

Papa was there. All she had to do is ask him.

And he'd break his neck to get it for her.

He used to always say, "Hey, Richard, I'm really lucky, huh?"

And I'd say, "Nah, you're blessed, man".

[Narrator] But when DeAngelo sees the news connecting the

Southern and Northern California attacks,

he knows he's on borrowed time.

[Brittany] The day after the Sacramento Bee

posts a news article about how the original Night Stalker

and the East Area Rapist are the same guy,

he makes a phone call, April 6, 2001 to one of

his prior victims, and he says, "Remember when we used to play?"

It's like a little sort of taunt of,

I'm still here. Like, yeah, I'm in the news and I'm still here.

So I'm glad you didn't forget about me

because I didn't forget about you.

[Narrator] DeAngelo will taunt, but he won't attack.

Frustrating investigators who are still no closer

to identifying the Golden State Killer.

But no one is ready to give up.

DNA, I always knew that it was going to be

what solved this case.

[Narrator] In 2016, the case takes another tragic turn

when Michelle McNamara, the author who coined the name

the Golden State Killer,

accidentally overdoses while writing her book.

[Ashley] This case really sticks out to me just because

his web of destruction, you know, not only did he have

over 50 rape victims, over a dozen murder victims,

the fact that Michelle McNamara basically died while researching

this case. It's so sad.

[Narrator] Michelle's not the only one haunted

by the serial predator.

In 2016, the FBI had said

they're going to put him up on billboards

because this was his 40th anniversary,

which really angered me because it kind brought it back.

No one wants to drive down the freeway 40 years later

and see a sketch, you know, of this person that raped you.

[Narrator] While law enforcement is hopeful the unsettling images

may jar someone's recollection,

they're not just waiting around for a tip.

In 2017, investigators come up with a new approach

to finally bring the killer to justice.

Genetic genealogy.

[Larry] You had databanks like ancestry.com and others

that were through genealogy, helping discover their lineage.

And there was some believe that kind of technology

could be applied to identifying the killer.

The concept of forensic investigative genetic genealogy

is you take the bad guy's DNA, then you upload it

into a public genealogy site.

You're getting a list of potential relatives

and you're building the family tree,

so you can figure out who is related to your bad guy.

[Narrator] While DNA evidence had been used to convict such

infamous murderers in the past.

It had never been used this way.

Connecting a killer through an ancestry database.

There's no magic to it.

You have to do the hard work to figure out

who are this person's parents, who are their grandparents,

who are their siblings, right?

And we use a lot of different sources to do that.

Look at a lot of obituaries and birth records,

death records, things like that.

[Anne] We're looking for common things.

Does he fit the description? Did he live in the area?

Is he the right race? Is it right age?

[Narrator] Investigators come up with an initial list

of 1,000 potential suspects, meeting the broad DNA criteria.

Using such parameters as the suspect's age, sex and location,

they then winnow that list down to just 20.

They then run this truncated list through another

finer set of DNA filters,

which determines their suspect would have two distinct traits,

premature baldness and blue eyes.

The new criteria narrows their list to six strong suspects.

When detectives pull the California driver's records

for those half dozen candidates, only one has blue eyes.

72-year-old retired police officer and family man,

Joseph James DeAngelo.

[Tristin] That's a very common thing is that we see with

serial killers who we would call decent individuals,

they're a family man.

They have a wife and they have kids.

And someone like that cannot be doing something like this.

It creates a threat to our sense of security if the guy next door

is really the evil that lives among us.

[Narrator] As detectives dig deeper into DeAngelo's past,

they grow even more convinced he's their man.

[Anne] We found a police report.

He stole a hammer, dog repellent.

And for me, that was it.

That was the moment I knew that this was it.

Excuse my language. Holy shit, right?

That was the moment.

[Narrator] After hunting their suspect for over 40 years,

detectives find DeAngelo living a quiet life near Sacramento.

[Amy] He was right here, a short distance from

the district attorney's office.

Living for decades at that point.

So once they found him, they were able to verify

that it was him through obtaining a surreptitious

sample of his DNA. By legal means.

[Richard] Now, get this. Me and Joe are just fished.

And I said, "Joe, somebody is up the street watching you".

And he said, "What do you mean? There ain't nobody watching me".

Two days later that same black truck that I pointed out

was a little closer to his house looking at him.

And he didn't even think nothing of it.

[Narrator] On April 24, 2018, police arrest DeAngelo

at his home. He surrenders without a fight.

His 40-year reign of terror, seemingly over.

72-year-old Joseph DeAngelo.

He's behind bars here in Sacramento,

scheduled to make his first court appearance tomorrow.

Authorities believe he is the notorious Golden State Killer,

also known as the East Area Rapist.

[Narrator] The news doesn't surprise his neighbor.

[Man] He was angry all the time, yelling at his wife and kids,

yelling at no one, yelling that if we

didn't shut our dog up,

this person would deliver a load of death.

[Narrator] But it does stun his victims.

[Gay] It was shocking. At the same time,

there was tremendous relief mixed with the memories of

what had happened, which are not good

in any way to have to think about.

[Narrator] DeAngelo's friends and family are equally shocked.

I went to work and everyone at the job's saying,

"Richard, Richard, Richard, go in the breakroom

and watch the TV".

And sure enough, there he was being arrested.

To find this out about him, it was just mind-blowing.

The Joe I knew, he wouldn't do those things.

No, that's not the guy I know.

[Brittany] His eldest daughter is sure that even though there's

DNA evidence, her dad is a great man.

Sharon, his wife, only releases one statement

in which she pretty much tells the press to leave

her and her family alone.

[Mike] There were victims in a different kind of way from

his other victims, obviously. But, you know,

they didn't want this. They had no idea about this.

You find out that your father, your grandfather

is this monster.

I don't even know how you comprehend that,

how you deal with that information.

[Narrator] Three days later, a seemingly weak and feeble

DeAngelo enters the courtroom for his arraignment.

[Man] Is Joseph James DeAngelo, your true correct legal name?

-I'm sorry. -Yeah.

[Man] Yes.

[Mike] He tried to present himself as this frail old man

that was a grandfather.

And meanwhile, they had been surveilling him

leading up to his arrest.

And they're seeing him cruising on motorcycles

at 100 miles an hour and being active and out fishing

and stuff like that.

[Anne] I'm like, okay. This is a fake.

He's a malingerer. He's trying to gain sympathy.

Oh, I'm the old guy.

I couldn't have done these things, right?

Count one alleges.

[Narrator] Prosecutors charge DeAngelo with 13 counts

of first degree murder,

but they can't charge him with most of the rapes

and burglaries.

[Amy] The cases in Sacramento occurred in the 70s,

and the statute of limitations, depending on the crime,

was either three or six years.

All the statute of limitations had run on all of those cases.

[Narrator] But that's not the only crime wave

prosecutors hope to resolve.

Over the years, law enforcement officials

had wondered if the Visalia Ransacker

and the East Area Rapist were the same suspect.

Now, prosecutors believe they have their answer.

[Amy] It really wasn't until DeAngelo was arrested

and they were able to look at where he'd been geographically

that led them to strongly believe

this was the same person.

[Narrator] DeAngelo's defense attorneys propose a deal.

If prosecutors take the death penalty off the table,

he will admit to everything.

[Anne] I think he wanted it over with.

The evidence was overwhelming. The DNA was overwhelming.

There are families that want this resolved.

And so the decision was made he agreed to plead to life

without the possibility of parole.

As one of the victim's family members said,

she wanted him to die a convict. Instead of an accused.

And that's how he'll die as a convicted serial killer.

[Narrator] On June 29, 2020,

Joseph DeAngelo finally admits to his decades

of unspeakable crimes.

Do you understand, Mr. DeAngelo, that you'll be entering guilty

pleas to 13 counts of murder in the first degree, as well

as admitting to uncharged acts? Do you understand that, sir?

Yes.

That hearing blew me away. All those incidents

that he admitted to. So we heard the gory details, everybody.

Beth witnessed DeAngelo shoot her father twice.

After raping her, the defendant fired his handgun

into the back of Deborah's head.

[Woman] The defendant raped Charlene Smith against her will

by means of force, violence, duress, menace and fear

of unlawful bodily injury to herself and her husband.

[Bob] I'm saying to myself, my God, how can one guy do this?

You wouldn't think there, you know, God would create

a guy that'd do this.

-[Man] How do you plead? -Guilty.

[Narrator] After waiting decades for justice,

many victims finally have the opportunity to confront the man

who changed their lives forever.

You blindfolded me and then gagged me with a cloth.

You remember that?

But you also did the same to my precious three-year-old son.

How dare you.

[Gay] I think giving my impact statement was cathartic for me.

I was able to say publicly things that I had thought of

through the years.

He ate from my refrigerator, and he drank two beers

while I lay bound and blindfolded,

unclothed and freezing on the hardwood floor

in front of an open door.

[Kris] I guess I wanted DeAngelo to know that he might have

won a battle, but I'm winning the war.

Like, I'm gonna keep living and I'm gonna do good things.

And you're gonna rot in hell.

Because there's no prayer that's gonna save you.

And the only person that's gonna keep you company

is the devil himself.

[Anne] I've often said this, there's a human toll of crime

that changes people forever, and this was perhaps no starker

example of how much that human toll took on victims,

their families, their friends, and the entire community.

[Narrator] Following the statements,

DeAngelo receives 13 life sentences.

[Mike] There's a moment at the very end of the

proceedings where he stands up and takes off his mask.

And for a second he shows himself

that he's not this weak, frail old man.

And let people see who he really was.

I think he tried to reclaim that power at the very end.

I've listened to all your statements.

Each one of them.

And I'm truly sorry

to everyone I've hurt.

I can't believe that there's any real level of remorse there.

Maybe he's sorry he got caught.

But I don't think he's sorry he did it.

Thank you, Your Honor.

[Narrator] Many of DeAngelo's victims are determined

this evil who lived among us

never holds power over them again.

Once he was captured, I needed to focus on me and to heal.

And so I left all of my career behind,

spent a good two years in therapy getting help,

finding my voice, finding who I am.

I started a Facebook group. It's called

"Sexual Assault Survivors!" "It's Time To Tell Your Story!"

There's about 750 people in the group.

I think that, that is very important for survivors

to meet other survivors.

The actual event may be very different,

but the healing journey is all very much the same.

[music]

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

[bell rings]