Golden State Killer (East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker)

our neighborhood is sketchy-adjacent, but it's pretty benign. it's stuff like...

...the neighbors up the street (with two kids) found a transient climbing in their window at 2 AM. one of them saw him the next morning walking down the street and he apologized, "I thought the house was empty, was just looking for a place to take a shower." O_O

and once i almost went outside to catch someone stealing our neighbor's car but there were five dudes involved in the theft, probably a good thing i didn't (actually didn't know it was a car theft til the next morning.)

there was in fact a random unsolved shooting of someone in their car a few years ago on New Year's Eve, one block down the street. a total cold case, and no one ever talks about it.

also unrelated but the current cold case that I find most sinister is the decapitation murder of a young dude in Ashland Oregon a few years ago, walking back from work in the early evening down a well-trafficked park path, someone ambushed him and cut his head off. zero leads. the park is very close to I-5, so who the hell knows.

This is why I love living in a cul de sac of solely two storey, side by side, duplexes. We actually see cops on our street a lot bc it’s - like Omar - sketchy-adjacent. But I’ve never felt safer.

Is this the casefile everyone recommends (I've never listened to one of these before)? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awgZSR7ao6c

I had a house in Brooklyn and I think the main thing that kept people away (we had random dents appear in the doors, awnings and window ac units) was that we had a fairly large dog (boxer). And I had a sublet once and 4 apartments were broken into within 2 weeks (we think it was someone who lived in the building, only 8 units) and again I am sure my dog kept people away. But I still keep a heavy magnum flashlight by my bed

Ok, nevermind that totally was not the right podcast. I have the right one now.

Set yr DVR’s if you are so inclined

This is it guys. Tonight. #GoldenStateKiller #earons #EastAreaRapist #originalnightstalker https://t.co/C12EVIAXe4

— Jennifer Carole ❄️ (@jcarole) May 4, 2018

20/20 special was a decent overview. Love seeing Carol Daly & Paul Holes on camera.

The show talked to his former police chief in Auburn & some eyeopeners there: apparently D’Angelo had cased the chiefs house after he was fired., but couldnt find the bedroom & left.
AND. A short time after D’Angelo was fired the chief’s *daughter* told him one morning that a man had been looking in her bedroom window with a flashlight the night before. But at the time the chief never suspected DAngelo.

Creepy-shivers.

Not surprising news but worth sharing anyway

Joseph James DeAngelo, the suspected Golden State Killer, has been charged with four more counts of first-degree murder, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley said https://t.co/VbMd5yPXAi

— CNN (@CNN) May 11, 2018

Interesting piece at LGM from a pseudonymous contributor about the failures of various LE jurisdictions to consider whether EAR/ONS might have been a cop or former cop: http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/05/east-area-rapist-identified-suspect-1980

Interesting read!!! Thx Phil. it def raises a good point that i’d like to see addressed by the players when the dust settles. I do really want to see some analysis on where they went wrong investigatively, because it seems they latched onto some ideas p early that carved them into a deeper path than it should have.

However, I do have some misgivings abt publishing this under a pen name, it just seems kinda cowardly. Also imo “Chip” isn’t bringing a whole lot of analysis to bear other than WELL THEY SHOULD HAVE FIGURED IT OUT. idk. The smug monday morning qb, “expert from The Internet” aspect doesn’t sit great with me.

It’s a good read all the same, tho.

I think the thing with cases like these is this type of killer almost becomes a wraith and minor IRL red flags don’t rise to the level of “this guy is a serial killer type” until after the fact.

With a couple of the long-unsolved horrific murders in my area growing up, the killers wound up being pretty banal regular type creeps rather than major red flag types (though one major red flag did one of them in: bragging about killing 7 people in one go to his GF and threatening her to keep quiet, til she spilled the beans ten years later to her new BF, who wisely told her to tell the police asap.) Kinda like BTK, in hindsight he was a creepy guy. At the time, he was just a regular total stern asshole.

I mean there’s really no way to tell, if leads have grown cold. We can pretend they should have seen something and I’m sure mistakes were made but to catch one of these guys, when they’re extremely careful and one step ahead of the cops...forget it.

Yeah. That’s my feeling, ultimately.

It’s trite, but the truth is it’s really fucking hard to catch someone who goes to such extreme lengths not to be caught

Arrest warrant docs were released today

Full (redacted) files linked here

Okay here's the 1 stop shop for search & arrest warrants in #GoldenStateKiller #EastAreaRapist court proceedings of suspect #JosephDeAngelo https://t.co/UXpbL8Fctp & https://t.co/e9n2ARQQUo

— Criminology Podcast (@CriminologyPod) June 1, 2018

wow a ton of stuff is redacted in those...that I assume is already available elsewhere. anyway, interesting reading.

I dn't know if I said this upthread but I lived in sacramento when this was happening, but I was awfully young. I just looked at the map and most of the Carmichael attacks were literally 10 minutes from our home (we were right off Mission near El Camino high school). We moved out of Sacramento in 1980 and I do remember that my parents noted increased violence in the area as being on eo fthe reasons (a boy was shot to death in his driveway right around the corner from us, and no one ever knew what happened there. he was the son of the people who ran a super market on Mission and he worked there; was well liked and had no known enemies). I also remember there being some terror one day when a burgler ran and hid on our driveway out front. Makes me wonder now. Though oddly I later remember my mother talking about the Night Stalker I assumed she meant Richard Ramierez but she must have been talking about this. Guess I should call her.

I was listening to an interview with Jane Carson-Sandler, the 5th victim. She was attacked at 6:30am, the woman whose 3yo had just crawled into bed with her.

I’ve read her story a few times but it suddenly struck me the cold calculatedness of attacking in the early morning. No cover of darkness but with ppl starting to go to work etc you’re less suspicious being a body moving around in a suburban neighborhood.

idk it just really stuck out to me.

Also: saw some criticism on twitter of McNamara’s book from Michelle Cruz, sister of Janelle Cruz, the last known victim. Michelle is displeased by how McNamara portrayed her sister in the book & said that McNamara did not talk to her. She hasn’t spoken at length so idk full details. But another victim, Jennifer Carole also seems to have raised the inaccuracies with the co-authors after a recent event. Families of victims def have a very unique & somewhat fragile ecosystem of their own so I’m not surprised by the criticism but still, interesting to see.

First page: she did not tell her friend she was lonely...this is a lie the friend came up w bcuz he was questioned being last person w Janelle. She was alone and scared. Not lonely! https://t.co/jOqfvrOjxD

— Michelle Cruz (@JanelleSister) June 1, 2018

I spoke to MM...maybe 2 times briefly. She never mentioned a book. https://t.co/JHmiLF82j8

— Michelle Cruz (@JanelleSister) May 31, 2018

I did. I asked in the session (delicately) and then deeper talks in the “green room” after. I promise I’ll write it up. https://t.co/aT3R4LCjIX

— Jennifer Carole 🔬⚖️ (@jcarole) May 31, 2018

With so many victims & families still living, writing about the case has to be a very difficult highwire act. I wonder if the rush to go to print after McNamara’s death may have been a contributing factor. Speculation on my part there, though.
Perhaps there was a deliberate choice not to speak to some of the families, or logistical reasons for not doing so. It’s not always cut & dried.

I’ve read her story a few times but it suddenly struck me the cold calculatedness of attacking in the early morning. No cover of darkness but with ppl starting to go to work etc you’re less suspicious being a body moving around in a suburban neighborhood.

When I leave my house to go to work in the morning, about 1-2 hours before my wife and kids get up, is definitely when I feel the most anxiety about someone breaking in and attacking them or something. Sometimes I'll double back when I'm halfway to my bus stop to make sure I've set the alarm. I dunno, it's not like you hear about very many early morning home invasions but it's a very vulnerable time nevertheless.

pleading guilty this morning. his voice is creepy as fuck. and the HBO series just started last night.

How was the HBO series? I really liked the book, but I'm curious as to the angle they take with the series. Was going to start it last night, but chose to go with something a little lighter after that pretty dark Perry Mason ep.

it just started. it's good, but it's a bit unfocused. I expect it will tighten up as it goes on.

i had no idea perry mason was on until I saw the trailer last night and it looks fucking amazing though I'm not sure how much it has to do with the perry mason character we know?

I like it so far, but it's early going. Honestly I only know of the character via reruns of the Raymond Burr series from when I was younger, and this is quite a bit different so far. Mason himself is def more of a rumpled private investigator working for a lawyer, not a lawyer himself (though I guess this might be closer to the written origins? idk). It's gripping so far and I love seeing Tatiana Maslany as a weird cult preacher, though it's def very gruesome in bits.

on DeAngelo, one thing I hadn't seen until today was a report from his nephew that DeA
ngelo's sister was raped by two servicemen at the age of 7 while she and DeAngelo were playing in a warehouse. Apparently she told her son this last year before she died of cancer. He said he wonders if this was an instigating event. He hadn't seen Deangelo in many years.

also, that DeAngelo's parents beat the fuck out of their kids, which seems to be the case in almost every serial killer story.

End of story

Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo sentenced to life in prison

I watched some of the victim’s statements yesterday, I cant imagine what that must have been like for them. What all of this has been like.

We just started the HBO documentary (I never read the book) and while it is less successful when it comes to the intersection of her life and her quest for the truth, the way it depicts the destructive impact on the victims is by nature uncomfortable but still very ... not sympathetic, that's the wrong word. I don't know the right word right now, but it mostly captures the terror without being exploitative.

Final episode really hits that home re the victims & victims families & what he did to their lives - the show really handled that in a sensitive & impactful way

Spry old feller

https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-county-da-releases-videos-of-joseph-deangelo-in-cell/33670432

just tangentially, the doc/show gave me a lot more sympathy for patton... not that michelle dying wasnt an unexpected tragedy but from afar it never sat well w me that he re-tweeted iirc a newsstory about her death

the old Unsolved Mysteries segment is legit terrifying

Yeah, with the negligee model? it was totally gross and in such bad taste.

The small problem I have with the doc (and we have one more episode to go) is the way it kind of elides over her drug use/abuse by making it almost a romanticized part of her obsessive pursuit. Like she needed the pills to keep on her path and get past the nightmares and insomnia to bring truth, justice and closure to the victims. I was shocked to learn there was fentanyl (or iirc multiple opiates) in her system, though, and while Oswalt seems aware of at least some of the other stuff she was taking (I think he at least initially claimed the Xanax was his, but they also reportedly found cocaine and ecstasy and other recreational stuff after she died) it's unclear if he was aware she was into significantly more serious pharmaceuticals than Xanax or whatever, or in significantly high quantities. The doc is really smart by paralleling her death with that of Prince, but of course Prince was taken advantage of (or at least lead astray) by bad medical advice. There's an indication in the doc that McNamara (whose family lives right by me, btw!) wasn't getting *any* of her meds legitimately, which is scary; there's a text they post in passing that iirc has her asking Patton or a family member if they could grab more pills from another family members' cabinet.

Wouldn't really matter except that the doc is as much about her as the case, yet like Prince or Tom Petty the accidental OD seemingly comes out of nowhere; the epic Peter B. Tom Petty doc that nonetheless cut out his years of heroin addiction taught me not to trust authorized docs to necessarily give me the whole truth.

Anyway, truly tragic and sad.