Cold Case Files - REOPENED: The Golden State Killer

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

It began with a string of burglaries in the 1970s. Then, a series of sexual assaults. And finally, a dozen murders or more. At least three different crime sprees in California over the course of two decades have now been attributed to one suspect. The Golden State Killer.Sponsors:Cozy: And here’s our gift to YOU this holiday season. Go to CozyEarth.com and enter code CCF to save up to FORTY percent.SKIMS: Believe the hype - Skims has over 100,000 five star reviews for a reason. SKIMS Holiday Gift Shop is now open at SKIMS.com. Plus, get free shipping on orders over seventy five dollars. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you! Select 'podcast' in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.Angi: Download the free Angi mobile app today or visit Angi.com  Progressive: Press play on comparing auto rates. Quote at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Welcome to season three of Cold Case Files, the podcast. And let me tell you, having seen the cases being shared this season, I am confident that this is going to be the best one yet. This episode discusses stories of intense sexual violence, which may be disturbing to some listeners. Please listen with caution. This episode is a little different. A majority of the cases we discuss are cold cases that have been solved.

But this case has been tormenting investigators, the public, and victims for the past 40 years. The perpetrator, referred to as the Golden State Killer, raped more than 50 women. He murdered more than 10 people, invaded countless homes, and changed so many people's lives. The difference is, the case of the Golden State Killer is a cold case file that we're all witnessing right now in real time. A suspect was identified by DNA and then arrested in April of 2018. That's only four months from this episode's release. I have a lot of confidence in DNA, but I am also a firm believer in a fair trial. And currently, Joseph D'Angelo is a suspect in custody who hasn't had a trial yet. So you'll hear me refer to him as the suspect or the alleged perpetrator.

After 40 years, there is so much information available. That's why we're going to do this one a little different. This week, we're going to discuss the crimes, the impact on the victims, and how it was discovered that there was one perpetrator responsible for so many acts of violence. Then next week, we're going to talk about the suspect in custody, who is a former police officer. And then, you'll get the most up-to-date information on what's going on with him in the court system. Welcome to season three of A&E's Cold Case Files. This is The Golden State Killer, Part 1. Having worked as a therapist for traumatized children and hosting podcasts about crimes like

murder and rape, I've learned how to avoid secondary trauma. It's a kind of trauma that people can get by helping victims. This case, though, really got to me. It made me feel restless and even a little betrayed. I mean, as children, we Americans are all taught to dial 911 in case of an emergency. It's our lifeline to the people we trust to protect us. We put these heroes on pedestals. We thank them for their service, which is well-deserved. Police officers are responsible for responding to every possible emergency a person can experience. It's their job to make us feel safe. I think my biggest struggle with this case is that I just can't understand.

Who does a person call when the good guy is the one that's hurting them? I'm going to refer to the assailant as the Golden State Killer for continuity, but he's had several different monikers. His attacks were clustered in various geographic areas of California, areas that didn't really communicate so well with each other. Initially, each of these violent crime sprees was thought to have been committed by a different perpetrator. This is Orange County District Attorney Tony Rakakis at a press conference in Sacramento.

It was held on the day of D'Angelo's arrest. Joseph James D'Angelo has been called a lot of things by law enforcement. He's been called the East Side Rapist. He's been called the Visalia Ransacker. The original Night Stalker and the Golden State Killer. Today, it's our pleasure to call him defendant. The Golden State Killer's first victims were clustered in the Sacramento area between June of 1976 and December of 1978. Anne Marie Schubert, a lifelong Sacramento resident, was only 12 when the Golden State Killer attacked his first victim. Ms. Schubert is now the district attorney for Sacramento County.

At a press conference, she told reporters that the Golden State Killer entirely changed the social fabric of her community. The town was trusting. They left their doors unlocked at night. That all changed when the Golden State Killer made his first attack. Here in Sacramento County, in June of 1976, I was 12. I grew up in the east area of Sacramento near the cluster of where these crimes began. My sisters ranged from 10 to 16 at the time. As I have said many times over the last 18 years, at least for me, for us here in Sacramento it was a time of innocence in 1976. No one locked their doors. Kids rode their bikes to school.

Parents let their children play outside. The only thing we were told as a family was you just needed to be home before dark. We did not have things like cell phones or social media. And then for all of us here in this community that lived in this community during this time, it all changed. That change was initiated in Rancho Cordova, California, about 20 minutes from the Sacramento city limits. Because on June 18th, 1976, a 23-year-old woman became the first rape victim that was attributed to the Golden State Killer. I wish I could tell you her name, but I don't have it. And it's so unfortunate that we live in a society that causes women to feel shame after

being assaulted. Though 40 years later, this brave woman, still nameless, talked with the FBI about her attack. I didn't hear him come in. I didn't hear anything. And all of a sudden, there was someone sitting in my door, the bedroom door. And I looked up and I thought it was my dad at first, you know, because, you know, he drives weird hours. And he might have come in early because it was early in the morning. And nope, it wasn't my dad. So he came in, he had his ski mask on, and jumped on the bed and had a knife.

And I don't exactly remember what he said, but it's something to the effect of, you know, don't scream, don't, you know, whatever. He tied her hands behind her back, and he cut her face just above her eye. Then, before forcing himself on her, he threatened her, making her fear for her life if she called for help. After he was finished, he took some pieces of jewelry that were insignificant to the victim. But then he threatened her again. If you move, I'm going to kill you.

So she stayed in the bed where she had just been attacked. Alone and terrified. And I laid in the bed for, it seemed like forever. Forever. Because I'd never heard, I was waiting for the door to close. And I never heard the door close. So I was afraid to get up to, you know, to see. And finally I said, okay, this is do or die. She shared her story. She's a survivor. Her cuts and bruises healed. But sometimes our emotional

injuries, the ones inside of us that no one can see, never heal. Survivors develop coping skills to help them deal with the pain and to function in the world. It's like when someone nails something to a tree. The tree lives and it heals around the nail. But the tree's forever changed. There's been anniversaries that have gone by, you know, it's been like the 20th of June and it's like, oh, the 18th came and gone. That's good.

I'm done. And then there's sometimes it just, I wake up and I'm upset and I don't really realize what I'm upset about. And then all of a sudden, oh, it's the 18th. I'm not as open as I used to be. I you know I used to if I like I said if I'm in a crowd I'm on the I'm on the outskirts I'm not in the crowd even if it's a bunch of people I know I'm not in the in the crowd I'm more on the outskirts watching everybody you know it's like there's no one behind me type thing.

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Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select cold case files in the drop down menu that follows. There are so many victims out there that will never have the opportunity to face their attacker. Because prior to a new law enacted in January of 2017, the state of California didn't allow victims to press charges after 10 years had passed. Some of the Golden State killers victims just want privacy. and I respect that. There are other victims, though, that feel empowered by sharing their stories, and it helps them to heal emotionally. Rape is generally not about sex. It's about power and control. Sometimes using our own traumas to help others helps us to rebuild what the perpetrator tried to destroy inside of us. Detective Carol Daly, with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, took the lead in the search for the perpetrator that was then called the East Area Rapist.

This is Detective Daly. The East Area Rapist method of operation was quite unique in that when he entered the victim's house, he usually confronted them when they were in bed sleeping, waking them up, shining a flashlight in their eyes, and then tying them up. Detective Daly had a difficult job. She didn't know at the time just how much fear one man could generate,

especially in a huge state like California. He didn't get caught, and he didn't stop. He raped three more women between June and September. This is an interview with one of those anonymous victims. I woke up with a hand over my mouth, and I rolled out of bed. I just swung my arm. I said, what are you doing? He was going down the hall and he was just hitting me. And then I just pretended that he knocked me out. So he quit hitting me. And then I sock stuffed in my mouth, blindfolded, gagged, hands tied, legs tied. And then, you know, pulled me up like this because I was on my stomach and put me back in bed and said, if you move, I'm going to kill you. So, you know, lay there for two hours.

He came in, I don't know, I think five different times or something like that over the course of the night and raped me. And while you're laying there thinking you're going to die, you just are pretty sure that, you know, I mean, I remember just kind of being in shock. I'm just laying there on my stomach shivering because I had a fever. And you know how you get the chills and you shake. And so, you know, finally, after, I mean, our best guess is two hours. It went on a long time. At about 4.30 in the morning, I had heard a car drive away,

and I started counting to 60 because I didn't have any concept of time. So I counted to 60 30 times, and I figured then a half hour would have gone by with no noise in the house, and I got up and didn't know if he was there. All of these victims had been violated in their own homes, not having control of their own bodies. But they all learned how to cope with their emotional injuries. They adapted to the nail in the tree. I do not, I'm always aware of anybody coming up behind me,

and it's not a fear. I don't have a fear with that. I'm just aware. I'll look over my shoulder all the time. And, you know, it's just the way, I'm sure that came out of it, but that's my, I guess, my rationalization that I can do all these things because I'm super aware of what's going on. I have to do a lot of self-talk when my husband's away for the weekend. I have to tell myself that there's somebody next door that's a single woman that stays home every night by herself and she hasn't been adopted. I mean, I have to do this every time he goes away. And he doesn't go away very much, maybe at the most once a year.

But I don't just peacefully go to sleep every night. On October 5th, 1976, Jane Carson Sandler was sitting in her king-size bed with her three-year-old son sleeping next to her. It started as a typical Tuesday morning. Her husband left their Citrus Heights home to go to work around 6.30 a.m. When she heard someone in the hallway, she thought maybe her husband had forgotten something. She was mistaken. Her three-year-old son was still asleep in the bed next to her when a man wearing a ski mask, son's wrists and ankles with shoelaces.

He gagged them by stuffing socks in their mouths, and he blindfolded them with ripped pieces of bedsheets. Then he picked up the three-year-old boy and moved him off the bed. Jane still doesn't know to this day if the man took her child to another room or just placed him on the floor. Jane then became the fifth rape victim of the Golden State Killer. With each attack, it seemed like the Golden State Killer became more confident and ruthless. In his own grotesque way, he probably felt like he was improving his technique. This is Detective Daly again. And the next thing we knew that he was assaulting and confronting victims when there was more than one person in the home.

First, there were husbands. There were other family members. There were children. The Golden State Killer entered the home of Linda O'Dell on May 14, 1977, making her his 22nd victim. Of course, Linda had heard about the serial rapist terrorizing Sacramento County, but she was new to the area. Plus, her husband was home. It made her feel safe. Until it didn't. In addition to his gloves and flashlight, the man in the ski mask also had a gun. He tied the couple up and forced Linda's husband to lay down. Then he went to the kitchen. He brought back some glass dishes and put them on her husband's back. Next, he took Linda into the living room.

He told her that if she made a sound, he would kill her. Then he told her that if her husband made a sound, or if the dishes fell, he'd cut off his ear and bring it to her. Linda praised Detective Daly for helping her through her experience. She struggled a lot with the emotional trauma. She kept it inside. She didn't even tell her own parents for 10 years. She started seeing a therapist, and she realized that talking about her fears made her feel more in control than just trying to ignore them.

Now she talks publicly about what happened, and she says it's because she wants to reduce stigma and empower other victims. Most of the victims of the Golden State Killer lived in Sacramento County, but he eventually expanded his area of operation into Contra Costa County. Detective Larry Crompton is retired, but he still thinks about this particular case daily. It was not the rape. It was the controlling. It was the fear that he put in people. It was the terror that he put in their minds. And each one of them believed that they were going to die that night. There was no other way out. They were going to die. As time went on, it feels to me like the Golden State

killer delighted not only in physically violating his victims, but also harming them emotionally. He would toy with the media and his victims. In one case, he told the woman that if he was not mentioned in the news, he'd kill two people. Then he told her husband the exact opposite. If his name was on the news, he would kill two people. Then he told her husband the exact opposite. If his name was on the news, he would kill two people. On February 2nd, 1978, Brian and Katie Maggiore were walking their dog near their home in Rancho Cordova. They were shot to death, him in the stomach and her in the head. This murder was believed to have been committed by the Golden State Killer. And if it was him, he had just escalated from rape and torture to murder. This is Detective Crompton again.

In your worst nightmare, ten times worse, there's no way you can describe how bad he is. There's no way you can describe how these victims feel. All I can tell you is if you know you're going to die and you know there's nothing you can do about it, that's the fear that's in them. Angie is the go-to place for everything home, and they've made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done. If you own a home, you know how much work it can take. Whether it's everyday maintenance and repairs or making dream projects a reality, it can be just hard to know where to start and it really does seem never-ending. But now, all you

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drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, national average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. The rapist. The murderer. He appeared to thrive on fear in a way I hope to never understand.

He started calling his victims and threatening them through the phone, forcing them to relive their previous assaults in their own heads. On December 9th, 1978, the Golden State Killer is believed to have raped his 43rd victim in the Sacramento area. Then, being consistent with his randomness, he did something that no one expected. He disappeared, at least from Sacramento. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. Bombas is my favorite sponsor. And that's not a claim I make lightly.

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I have a special place in my heart for Bombas. They were my first podcast sponsor. They took a chance on me and after 15 minutes of talking with them and telling them you know I was a therapist who saw many kids who had come out of poverty, they called me and told me they wanted to send me socks to give to my clients. Kids who had probably not had new socks in years. My brother has autism, which pretty much makes him a sock connoisseur. And though I would love to be able to pass him my hand-me-downs, he's eight years younger than me and about a foot taller than me. So it's kind of out of the question. I decided to send him the Christmas pack for Christmas. And the other day when it was like 90 degrees out, I saw my brother and he was still wearing his Christmas Bombas socks. I think the whole situation is amazing. I get quality socks

and at the same time my purchase is helping someone else in need get those same quality socks and they might not have gotten those any other way. I have about a billion pair of Bombas socks in my closet. So if you need any advice on which ones to pick, let me know. And right now, Cold Case Files listeners get 20% off their first order. So you go to bombas.com, B-O-M-B-A-S.com, and you'll get 20% off your first order. So this is important. You go to bombas.com slash cold case files. And then at the end, when you check out, it says, you know, do you have a promo code? Enter cold case files again in that spot. At the time, it was believed that the attacker known as the East Area Rapist was gone.

Then 400 miles away, much closer to Los Angeles, another equally terrifying perpetrator had emerged. They called him the original Night Stalker. The original Night Stalker's debut into the world of crime wasn't seamless. On October 1st, 1979, he entered a house by prying open a sliding glass door. It was around 2 a.m. The couple was startled by a stranger yelling at them to wake up and to lay on their stomachs. He told the woman to tie up the man. Then he took her into the living room and removed all of her clothes.

Investigator Larry Poole from Orange County took the lead on the original Night Stalker case. At that point, he begins pacing up and down the hallway and he states over and over again, I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'll kill him. So as the offender walks down the hall and into the bedroom where the man is still lying, she is able to get to her feet and with a ligature bindings on her ankles, hop to the front door and get out of the house. And like every good horror movie where the victim's running from the crime scene, she falls down.

Once the intruder realized that she had escaped, he ran after her. And he caught her. This is Larry Poole again. And he presses a knife to her throat and whispers, I told you not to move. I'll kill you. And he brings her to her feet and then drags her back into the house. The distraction gave the man a little time to make his own move. With his wrists and ankles still bound together, he hopped out of the house. The perpetrator dragged the woman back into the living room and then went after the man. Here's Larry Poole again.

And just as the offender is getting to the location where the man has concealed himself, the woman is now back on her feet, out in the front yard screaming. So the suspect realizes, I've got a guy in the backyard, I have the gal in the front yard, I've lost control of the scene. He knows that it's time to get out of there. The attacker pedals his getaway bicycle into the night, leaving the couple traumatized but alive. Two months later, and less than one mile from the couple that got away, the Golden State Killer tries again. He breaks into the home of Dr. Robert Hofferman in the middle of the night. He ties up Robert and his girlfriend, Alexandria. Then he rapes her. Before he leaves, he shoots and kills them both. Keith and Patrice Harrington were newlyweds.

She was a nurse, and he was in med school. They had a nice house. They had a nice life. That changed, though, on August 19, 1980. A man wearing a ski mask quietly slipped over the fence into the couple's yard. Then he climbed through their window. Two days later, Keith's father finds the couple, beaten to death, still in their bed.

Unsure of what to do next, he calls his oldest son, Bruce, for help. This is Bruce Harrington. You could tell, as you can when you get phone calls that are the wrong kind of phone calls. It was definitely something wrong. And the upshot of his message was, I think Keith and Patty are dead. I've just come into the house.

Please come down and help me. When Bruce arrives, the police have already started their investigation. It was fruitless, though. The Harrington couple didn't have any enemies. They didn't live in a dangerous place. The calculated randomness once again worked in the favor of the attacker. Bruce Harrington has advocated for lowering restrictions around DNA testing since that time. In an interview with the LA Times, he said, I believe that DNA technology is the last practical hope

of resolving the who and why of their deaths. The Golden State Killer doesn't have any known assaults between his attack on the Harringtons in August of 1980 and Manuela Witten on February 6th in 1981. This entire case makes my skin crawl. But for some reason, Manuela's story really gets to me. Manuela was a first-generation American. Her parents had immigrated here from Germany, and she was their only child.

She's described as being straightforward, pretty, and outspoken. Her husband, Drew, was described as quiet and withdrawn. But the relationship worked, because they complemented each other. Manuela was 28, and she and Drew had just moved into a beautiful new home, and they were planning their future together. On February 2nd, she took her husband to the hospital because of some kind of intestinal issues. He was admitted, and Manuela went home alone. Four days later, while still in the hospital,

David tried to call Manuela at the bank where she worked. He was told that she hadn't shown up that day, so he then called her at home on their landline. He was concerned that she didn't answer, but he was even more confused at why the answering machine wasn't picking up. It was the guy that recorded the messages on one of those miniature cassette tapes. David made one more call, to Ruth, Manuela's mother, asking if she would go over and check on her.

Ruth lived close, and so she headed straight over. She knocked on the door, but there was no answer. She let herself in, and was horrified by what she found. Her daughter had been murdered, beaten to death. She had ligature marks on her ankles and wrists from being tied up. Ruth was hysterical. Investigator Ron Beach from the Irvine Police Department arrived at the scene. I'm at the location of number 35. Investigating an apparent homicide. The deceased is clothed, apparently, in some sort of a bathrobe. In examining the crime scene, Manuela had been killed by blunt force trauma to the head, multiple blows.

While processing the crime scene, they discovered a screwdriver that had been used to pry the window open and enter the home. The TV had been dragged out into the yard and then abandoned. Maybe it was too heavy, or maybe he was just trying to mislead law enforcement. The most peculiar thing about the scene, though, was what they didn't find. The answering machine hadn't picked up because the small cassette tape with the message was missing. At this point, it's never been recovered. But I have to imagine that it somehow implicated the killer. Because why else would he have taken it? There was a murder that matched the Golden State Killer's M.O. on July 27th of 1981 in Santa Barbara County. But that attack couldn't be scientifically linked to the Golden State Killer because they didn't preserve the DNA evidence. There are no other

attacks attributed to the Golden State Killer between July of 81 and his final assault in May of 86. But it's hard for me to believe that a person who is so addicted to inciting fear in others could just stop. On May 4th, 1986, 18-year-old Janelle Cruz was raped and beaten to death, alone, in her own home. The rest of her family was vacationing in Mexico for a week. The thing about Janelle's case is the police actually had a logical suspect almost immediately. It was a teenage boy. He was the last person to see Janelle alive. But when they questioned him about it, he denied it.

Here's Investigator Montgomery from the Irvine Police Department. He was assigned to Janelle's case. Eventually, he admitted that he had, in fact, gone to her house the night before and that he had been there as late as 10.45 at night and he was in her bedroom. I imagine, though, a teenage boy might be disinclined to admit that he stayed late at a teenage girl's house while her parents were out of town. Spoiler alert, he wasn't the killer.

As time passed, our understanding of DNA evidence increased exponentially. Luckily, the investigators from the crimes committed in Sacramento County and Orange County had the foresight to preserve that evidence. Mary Hong is a criminalist, a scientist that uses their skills to help solve crimes. And in 1996, she made a discovery that would be vital to the investigation. Here's Mary Hong. We felt it was a reasonable time to use DNA technology to look at these old cases, potentially develop a profile that could get sent up to the state database and hopefully identify the perpetrator.

I had all the DNA profiles entered into a spreadsheet, and then I noticed that the Cruz profile was the same as the Harrington and the Whitman profile. She confirmed scientifically what investigator Larry Poole had believed all along. There was a serial rapist on the loose. Investigator Brian Haney worked with Poole to examine past reports of assault, focusing on those that matched the Golden State Killer's M.O. It was determined that the Golden State Killer was responsible for the death of six men and six women. They also made another breakthrough.

This is Investigator Poole again. So we knew then that our serial killer had been in Ventura. We had more of a timeline as to when he had been operating. And we had that he had traveled south into Orange County. They knew the killer was mobile, so they shared his M.O. with other jurisdictions. They were hoping for a similar case to compare the DNA evidence. In 1997, Paul Holes, a criminalist in the Sacramento area, gathered evidence from the victims of the East Area Rapist. Armed with DNA technology, he was able to confirm what the investigators had long suspected. The attacks were the work of a single man. At that point, I drew the conclusion, okay, the investigators who had

linked the cases using the MO of the cases were correct. And the physical evidence, the DNA, was supporting what the investigators' conclusions had been 20 some odd years ago. They were right. It was one man who had hurt all those people. But now they could prove it. Remember Detective Crompton? He had a theory. But he needed Paul Hull's help to prove it. This is Detective Crompton? He had a theory, but he needed Paul Hull's help to prove it.

This is Detective Crompton. I said, okay, Paul, I know Southern California has had a rape and a homicide down there, and I know it's the same person. Nobody will believe me. And I said, and as far as I know, they don't seem to want to cooperate, but if you know a criminalist down there, I'm sure they have evidence. And if you can get a hold of them, I know it's the same person. Paul Holes called Mary Hong to see if they could compare the DNA profiles

of two of California's most violent offenders. She agreed. And then they had this conversation. He read off the profile to me, and I looked at what profile I had on the case and it was a yes all the way across. We have a match. We have a DNA match with Orange County on this case. And it took me a couple of seconds to digest it and then it was, wow, you know, this is big. It wasn't just big. It was mind-blowing to discover that the two serial killers that they had been chasing was just one person. It was also mind-blowing that one man could inflict so much pain and damage to the victims and the entire community.

DNA is an amazing tool. But the thing about DNA is, while it can confirm that two samples came from the same individual, it's not so useful if you don't have a suspect for comparison. Next week, we'll talk about how a grieving brother and a passionate investigator worked together to overcome that obstacle. Plus, we'll examine D'Angelo's behaviors and his whereabouts during the crimes. Most importantly though, we'll hear from the victims and their opinions on what should happen to him if the suspect is found guilty.

So, I'll see you next week. Stay safe. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. produced by Scott Brody, McKamey Lynn, and Steve Delamater. Our executive producer is Ted Butler. Our original music is made by Blake Maples. We're distributed by Podcast One. The Cold Case Files TV series

was produced by Curtis Productions and hosted by Bill Curtis. Check out more Cold Case Files at AETV.com and by downloading the A&E app.

Hi, everyone. This is Jillian with Court Junkie. Court Junkie is a true crime podcast that covers court cases and criminal trials using audio clips and interviews with people close to the cases. Court Junkie is available on Apple Podcasts and podcastone.com. Hold on to your jingle bells. Pluto TV has all your holiday favorites for free.

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