Police Arrest Suspect In Decades-Old Golden State Killer Case

Police in Sacramento, California, may have finally apprehended someone with more confirmed murders than the Zodiac Killer, along with dozens of sexual assaults and hundreds of home robberies. Decades after the case went cold, a man suspected of being "the Golden State Killer" (also known as the East Area Rapist) was arrested Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The suspect is 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo, a Sacramento-area man who was hit with two murder charges, according to The Daily Beast. He was identified as the suspect by Billy Jensen, a researcher who worked on the recently released book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.”

The book, chiefly written by Michelle McNamara before her 2016 passing, chronicled the decades-long search for the killer. Jensen was part of the team that helped finish the book after its original author’s death, alongside Paul Haynes and actor and comedian Patton Oswalt. McNamara had been married to Oswalt when she died in 2016.

Oswalt spent Wednesday morning celebrating the possible vindication of his wife’s hard work on social media.

DeAngelo was apparently a former police officer who was fired after being accused of shoplifting, according to an old newspaper clipping, Jensen tweeted. The FBI has long believed that the Golden State Killer was a white man who is now between 60 and 75 years old and around 5-foot-10 in height.

According to the Daily Beast, DeAngelo closely fits that description as a 5-foot-11, 72-year-old white man.

The Golden State Killer operated between 1976 and 1986 in both Northern and Southern California. Authorities believe he was responsible for 12 murders, around 45 cases of rape and 120 burglaries before he went off the radar.

His modus operandi, according to his FBI profile, usually involved breaking into homes through windows or doors overnight before shining a flashlight in residents’ faces. He would tie up both men and women who were present in the homes before sexually assaulting the women. He then took valuables from each crime scene.

Those who survived encounters with the Golden State Killer would often be harassed by him. He would use phone calls to intimidate victims, which police eventually recorded using phone taps. The chilling recordings can be heard here.