{"id":64091,"date":"2018-04-26T04:25:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T04:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=64091"},"modified":"2018-04-26T04:25:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T04:25:49","slug":"ex-cop-arrested-in-golden-state-killer-case-we-found-the-needle-in-the-haystack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/ex-cop-arrested-in-golden-state-killer-case-we-found-the-needle-in-the-haystack.html","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Cop Arrested in Golden State Killer Case: ‘We Found the Needle in the Haystack’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Cop Arrested in Golden State Killer Case: ‘We Found the Needle in the Haystack’<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was a rash of sadistic rapes and murders that spread terror throughout California, long before the term was commonly used. The scores of attacks in the 1970s and 1980s went unsolved for more than three decades. But on Wednesday, law enforcement officials said they had finally arrested the notorious Golden State Killer in a tidy suburb of Sacramento.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who was taken into custody outside his home on Tuesday and charged with six counts of murder, had been living undisturbed a half-hour drive from where the 12-year rampage began. He was described as a former police officer, and his time in uniform partly overlapped with many of the crimes he is accused of committing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The case was cracked in the past week, Sheriff Scott Jones of Sacramento County said on Wednesday, when investigators identified Mr. DeAngelo and were able to match his DNA with the murders of Lyman and Charlene Smith in Ventura County in 1980.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe found the needle in the haystack and it was right here in Sacramento,\u201d said Anne Marie Schubert, the Sacramento district attorney, who helped organize a task force two years ago that included investigators from across the state as well as the F.B.I. A DNA database showed links to other murders in Southern California, the authorities said Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

A series of rapes in an old gold mining area east of Sacramento in 1976 were first linked by the authorities for their geographic proximity, the similar description of the rapist \u2014 a white male with blond hair who was just under six feet tall \u2014 and the peculiar and cruel rituals that he inflicted on his victims. His victims included women home alone and women at home with their children. The suspect went on to rape women with their husbands present and then murder them both. He is also thought to have burglarized more than 120 homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

He became an infamous figure, sometimes known as the Golden State Killer and other times as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker. His planning was meticulous and he seemed to know precise details about his victims\u2019 schedules. They described the gravelly, angry whisper that he used as he tormented them. He wore gloves and a mask and was a predator with quirks: As his victims lay terrified, he would pause for a snack of crackers after raping them. He placed a teacup and saucer on the bodies of some of his victims and threatened them with murder if he heard the ceramic rattle.<\/span><\/p>\n

With communities panicking \u2014 at one point his assaults averaged two victims a month \u2014 the authorities hired a range of experts to help them break the case, among them a military special forces officer and a psychic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then, when the rapes and murders appeared to end in 1986, the case went cold.<\/span><\/p>\n

National interest was reignited this year with the publication of an exhaustive investigation into the serial killer\u2019s identity, \u201cI\u2019ll Be Gone in the Dark,\u201d written by Michelle McNamara, a crime writer who died in April 2016. The book, published in February, was completed after her death by a journalist and researcher recruited by her husband, the comedian Patton Oswalt.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Read about Mr. Oswalt\u2019s quest to finish Ms. McNamara\u2019s book after her death.]<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Oswalt spoke about the reported capture on Wednesday in a video posted on Instagram. \u201cI think you got him, Michelle,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. DeAngelo, whom the authorities suspect of a total of 12 murders, was arrested by investigators using some of the same tactics employed by the suspect to stalk his victims \u2014 the police surveilled his movements, studied his routines and pounced when he left his house.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was arrested on a warrant stemming from the murder of the married couple in Ventura County in Southern California, but the authorities said more charges were in the works. The Orange County district attorney\u2019s office announced four additional charges late on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Residents of the neighborhoods stalked by the killer said he changed the way they lived their lives. A carefree California lifestyle of open doors and children riding their bicycles to school was forever changed with the knowledge that a rapist now lurked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne person can create a lot of fear,\u201d said Tony Rackauckas, the district attorney of Orange County and one of the dozens of officials on hand in Sacramento to announce Mr. DeAngelo\u2019s arrest. \u201cIt was like terrorism \u2014 not that it was done for the same reason \u2014 but it caused the same type of fear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The case had a profound impact not just on fear and public safety in California, but also on the way that rapes were investigated and how rape victims were treated, said Carol Daly, a detective in the Sacramento County Sheriff\u2019s Office at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Locks sold out at hardware stores and over 6,000 guns were sold, she said. Community safety forums would be packed with hundreds of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rape victims were seen and cared for faster, and pubic hair, scratches and other evidence were examined and preserved, she said. Rape kits were standardized. \u201cEvery victim went through the process,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bruce Harrington, whose brother Keith Harrington and sister-in-law Patrice Harrington were among the murder victims, joined law enforcement officers at the news conference. It was \u201ctime for the victims to begin to heal,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSleep better tonight, he isn\u2019t coming in through the window,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s now in jail, and he\u2019s history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One victim, Jane Carson-Sandler, who was raped in 1976, said on Wednesday that she was overwhelmed with emotion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ms. Carson-Sandler, 72, said she had always believed that her rapist was alive and that he would be caught. The hatred and anger she felt eventually faded, she said, but she continued to pray for two things each night: that he would be identified, and that she wouldn\u2019t dream about the rape.<\/span><\/p>\n

She never did dream about it, she said, and on Wednesday morning she turned on her phone to learn that a suspect had been arrested.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel so blessed that God has finally answered all of our prayers, that this monster would eventually be put behind bars,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. DeAngelo, who has adult children, was twice employed as a police officer in two small California cities: In Exeter, in the Central Valley, from 1973 to 1976, and in Auburn, north of Sacramento, from 1976 to 1979, according to Mr. Jones.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was convicted in 1979 for shoplifting a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a store in Sacramento County. The incident led to his dismissal from the Auburn police force. The arrest came amid the rash of rapes in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the neighborhoods where the suspect repeatedly struck was Rancho Cordova, a Sacramento suburb of ranch houses, redwood and birch trees, trim lawns and rose bushes.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one attack in 1978, Brian and Katie Maggiore, a couple living in the area, were walking their dog in their neighborhood around 9 p.m. After a \u201cviolent encounter\u201d with the suspect, they tried to flee, ending up in a private yard, where they were fatally shot, the sheriff\u2019s department said in February, appealing to the public for leads.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diane Peterson, a retired teacher who lives in Rancho Cordova, said Wednesday that theories about who was behind the rapes and home intrusions had remained a topic of conversation in the neighborhood in the four decades since the attacks began.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt never totally died down,\u201d Ms. Peterson said. \u201cPeople would have their own suspicions as to who it might be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jean McNeill, a retired employee for the state board of equalization who lives near where one of the murders took place, said she was \u201celated\u201d Wednesday morning when she heard that the suspect might have been captured.<\/span><\/p>\n

She remembered the terror that the killer instilled in the neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember thinking, \u2018It\u2019s getting dark and no one is home with me \u2014 I\u2019ve got to be really careful,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what made it so frightening. We didn\u2019t know when he was going to strike next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After the Maggiore murders, the attacker was not believed to have struck in the Sacramento area again. But in 2001, investigators using DNA evidence linked the crime to others committed in the Bay Area, and to murders in Southern California, the sheriff\u2019s department said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2016, the F.B.I. announced at a news conference that it would offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the \u201cprolific serial rapist and murderer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe came together to bring solace to the victims,\u201d Sean Ragan, special agent in charge of the Sacramento office for the F.B.I., said Wednesday. \u201cBut we know the pain and anguish has never subsided.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/25\/us\/golden-state-killer-serial.html<\/span><\/p>\n

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