Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - How Golden State Killer murdered 12 & raped 50, lives under the radar

Episode Date: April 27, 2018

A former cop has been arrested for murders long associated with the Golden State Killer, apparently bringing the decades-old cold case to an end. Nancy Grace and co-host Alan Duke share the latest in the case. Nancy also talks with Jane Carson-Sandler -- the 5th victim, Michelle Cruz -- sister of a murder victim, Billy Jenson --an investigative journalist who completed the raw chapters of victim Michelle McNamara’s “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” Paul Haynes -- a researcher on McNamara’s book, and Cold Case Research Institute director Sheryl McCollum. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Did you know a recent law can leave your personal data exposed online for anybody to find? If you've turned on the news lately, you know the internet has created a dangerous new world. It's time you take back the power by using a new website called Truthfinder. Have you been issued a speeding ticket? Received a lien from the IRS? Did you forget about an embarrassing social media profile? That info may already be online. Truthfinder can help you find it. Truthfinder searches millions of public records,

assembling the data together in one report. Members get unlimited searches, so you can also look up those close to you and make sure they're not hiding something. Visit truthfinder.com slash Nancy. Enter your own name. Get started. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, channel 132. We all knew as part of this team that we were looking for a needle in a haystack. But we also all knew that the needle was there. After all these years, the haunting question of who committed these terrible crimes have been put to rest. For the 51 ladies who were brutally raped in this crime scene, sleep better tonight. He isn't coming through the window.

He's now in jail, and he's history. Imagine hearing a shuffling in the middle of the night. It's dark in your room. And you keep listening and it goes away. You try to go back to sleep. You hear it again. Then you look up and a man is standing at the foot of your bed. And you are locking eyes with none other than the Golden State Killer.

We now know has murdered at least 12 and raped 51 over a 10-year reign of terror. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. The Golden State Killer who has eluded police for years, who has terrorized women by waking them up in the middle of the night, binding, gagging, raping, murdering, very often taking the male companion, be it husband or boyfriend, to a different room, tying them up, placing a stack of plates on the husband's back. And if he moves and the plates fall, he kills the wife, even attacking one woman brutally in bed with her taut son in bed with her. This man, now revealed to be a former cop,

arrested and named by police as the Golden State Killer. His reign of evil is over. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Alan, what do we know? Nancy, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, 72 years old now, was arrested at his California home after DNA linked him to the crimes attributed to the so-called Golden State Killer. He's now been charged, just initially, with eight counts of murder,

but prosecutors say he could face dozens more charges. An arrest warrant was issued. A complaint was filed charging that individual with two counts of murder with special circumstances for the murder of Brian and Katie Maggiore here in Sacramento in February 1978. In Ventura County we have filed capital murder charges against Mr. D'Angelo for the March 1980 murders of Lyman and Charlene Smith. Our complaint alleges two counts of first-degree murder with three special circumstances namely multiple murders, murder during the commission of a rape, and murder during the commission of a burglary.

August 19, 1980, the defendant, Joseph DeAngelo, is accused of brutally murdering 24-year-old Keith Harrington and 28-year-old Patrice Harrington in their Dana Point home. He's also accused of raping and sexually assaulting Patrice. On February 5th, 1981, the defendant is accused of raping, sexually assaulting and murdering 28 year old Manuela with him in Irvine. Years later, on May 4th, 1986, D'Angelo was accused of raping, sexually assaulting, and murdering 18-year-old Janelle Cruz in her home. The break in the case came as detectives, determined detectives, got a sample of DNA from something that D'Angelo had

discarded. The Sacramento sheriff won't say what that item was yet, and it was not enough to make a conclusive DNA match, but it did show enough similarities for investigators to go back and get more that did lead to what they call a conclusive match. Listen. Over the last few days, as information started to point towards this individual, we started some surveillance. We were able to get some discarded DNA, and we were able to DeAngelo, 72 years old, living in Citrus Heights. I can tell you that although it was DNA, ultimately, that led us down the right road, there were a lot of places that road could have led. You know, the DNA actually got us to a road, but the road had many destinations, possible destinations. I can first say that even backing up from the DNA, that we would have never got to a DNA sample or ability to compare it

without the dogged determination of the detectives on this case. So it's not like it ultimately would have come to us anyways. That's just simply not the case. This was a true convergence of emerging technology and dogged determination by detectives. So once we got information that led us to a general, I mean, it's almost like the DA pointed us east so we could exclude north, west and south. But we still had to do a lot of investigative follow up and drill down from that direction of east until we got to this person. We did a lot of exclusions of other folks, got this person that looked like he might be our guy, and then we're able to get at least an initial discarded DNA sample that gave us more confidence that this was our person and we're able to continue and get a better,

more workable sample of DNA. I will just say at this point, it was discarded DNA sample. DeAngelo served in the U.S. Navy. He was a police officer in Exeter, California. That's in the San Joaquin Valley. Newspaper reports from the time say that DeAngelo was fired from the Auburn, California Police Department in 1979 after being arrested for stealing a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a drugstore. He was convicted of theft and fined $100, and it cost him his job as a police officer, ending his law enforcement career. Ten of the slayings in the Golden State Killer series occurred after he was fired, all of them in Southern California. California law enforcement now estimate 50 rapes in the counties Sacramento, Contra Costa,

Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara, Yolo, we think committed by the so-called original Night Stalker. That's 50 at the least. DNA conclusively linking him to eight murders, other murders linked by MO. Investigators suspect that the same man committed three other murders to En Rancho Cordova and Basalia. It goes on and on and on. In fact, he's got so many murders and rapes. He even has different monikers going by East Area Rapist, the Golden State Killer, the original Night Stalker. Joining us now, one of the Golden State Killers victims, the fifth victim who managed to live to tell the tale, author of Frozen in Fear, A True Story of Surviving the

Shadows of Death, Jane Carson Sandler, who tells her tale of fear and survival. Jane, thank you for being with us. Thank you, Nancy, for having me. I'm right now just struck with knowing how close you came to being murdered. Something about you was different from his murder victims. Tell me what happened. Well, I was 6.30 in the morning and my husband had just left for work. I heard the garage door close and the next thing I knew, there was someone running down the hall with a flashlight and I yelled to my husband, what did you forget? And it wasn't my husband. It was Ann with a ski mask holding a flashlight and a large butcher knife.

And just before this man ran down the hall, my son had gotten in bed with me, my three-year-old son. So we were snuggling when this monster arrived at my bedside. And you can imagine the fear that I was experiencing at this time, especially being that my son was next to me. He had on a ski mask and black leather gloves, high-top black sneakers. That's all I really knew because his face was covered with a ski mask with just slits for his eyes. Then he proceeded to, anytime I tried to say something,

he would say with clenched teeth, shut up, shut up, or I'll kill you. Shut up, shut up, shut up, or I'll kill you. So then he proceeded to say he just wanted money, which was, of course, a lie. And then he gagged both my son and myself. He blindfolded us, and he tied us, our ankles and our wrists, with shoelaces. And then the most frightening part about the whole ordeal was when he moved my son. And then I knew that I had no idea why he was moving him. Of course, where was he taking him? I had no idea. And then when he untied my ankles, then I knew what he was there for. I don't even remember the rape because all I was concerned with is where did he put my son? He also had this ritual of tearing sheets, tearing towels, and I had no idea what he was going to do

with those. You know, what was he going to hang us? What was he going to do, strangle us with these sheets, with his towels? I had absolutely no idea. And again, the fear that I was experiencing was just overwhelming. He eventually thanked the Lord, put my son back next to me, and I don't know why he had moved him in the first place. It was probably because he wanted more room on the bed, or I don't think it was because he was being a nice guy.

I just think he needed more room to operate. And then, as we're tied up, gagged, blindfolded, and he went in the kitchen and started rattling pots and pans. I'm not sure if he was cooking something, but he opened the refrigerator and, again, was making a lot of noise with these pots and pans. I'm not sure if he was cooking something, but he opened the refrigerator and again was making a lot of noise with these pots and pans. Then he'd come back in the bedroom and threaten us again and say, don't move. If I hear anything, I'll come back and kill you.

So we laid there. I laid there probably about 30 minutes trying to hear if I could hear if he was still in the home and I was finally able to get my blindfold down a little bit and I realized it was light coming through the window so I was able to look over at my son and he was asleep and I woke him up and I said we've got to get out of here we've got to get out of here so we've got to get out of here. So hobbling down the hall to the front door, we couldn't get out because there was a chair blocked up under the doorknob. And then we went around to the kitchen

and the screen door was opened, the sliding door, so hobbled around to the front gate, screamed for a neighbor, and then went into the neighbor's home and she called the police. From there, Carol Daly, my angel, showed up and took me to the emergency room. There were three male policemen that showed up initially to speak with me, but I had no

desire to speak to those men. But when Carol arrived, she was so caring and so loving, and I just felt so safe with her. So she took me to the emergency room and stayed with me for about well over an hour before she had to leave. There were no cell phones back at that time, so it's not like she could, you know, check in with her partners. So I was alone during the rape exam, which was done by a male. And at one minute I was laughing and joyful that I was alive and my son was alive. And the next moment I was sobbing that, oh, my God, what had just happened to us. So that was a very unpleasant experience, the rape exam, the shot of penicillin, be sure I didn't have a venereal disease, and then the morning after pill so I didn't get pregnant.

And then I had to go home to a home that I felt so violated and I hated. So that's my story, and that's the news to print. But that was over 40 years ago and almost 42 now. And I have to say that I'm not sorry it happened to me, Nancy. I'm not sorry at all. I really think that the Lord had chosen me to be victim number five because I knew eventually I would turn my mess into a message and by helping other women and reaching out to others that I would glorify him. So I am really grateful and I've met so many amazing folks through this journey. It's just been amazing. So my goal now is just to reach out, help other victims, and let them know that they're going to be okay.

The most important thing they need to do is go and get help. Go to a rape crisis center. Talk to someone that's been through something similar because they'll remain a victim if they keep their assault a secret. Because as we say in AA, we're only as sick as our secrets. And the moment we start to heal, the moment that we're heard and the moment that we're validated. It is time for all victims to grieve and to take measure one last time to bring closure to the anguish that we've all suffered

for the last 40-some odd years. It is time for the victims to begin to heal. So long overdue. For law enforcement, bravo. Bravo, bravo. Did you know about a recent law that could leave your personal data exposed online for anybody to find? If you've turned on

the news lately, you know the internet has created a dangerous new world. Data breaches expose private information. There's a new cyber security threat every other day and criminals can sell the identity of you and your family on the dark web. It's time you take the power back by using a new website called Truthfinder. Truthfinder allows you to find out exactly what information exists about you online. Have you gotten a speeding ticket? Received a lien from the IRS? Forgotten about an embarrassing social media profile? Truthfinder searches through millions of public records, puts all that data together in one easy toto-read report. Members get unlimited searches, so you can also look up those close to you and make sure they're not hiding something from their past.

You also get free dark web monitoring to make Truthfinder the ultimate tool in identity protection. If your personal info appears for sale on the dark web, you'll be the first to know. Visit truthfinder.com slash Nancy. Enter your own name. Get started. In this case, you know, justice was delayed. It wasn't swift, but I can assure you it will be sure. Joseph James DeAngelo has been called a lot of things by law enforcement. He's been called the Eastside Rapist. He's been called the Biselia Ransacker, the original Night Stalker, and the Golden State Killer.

Today, it's our pleasure to call him defendant. We have brought justice to the victims and to their families in this case through this arrest and ultimately through the prosecution. Justice was delayed in this case from 1975 to 1986, but we are here now and the prosecution of this defendant will occur. For those of you just joining us, the incredible arrest after decades of terrorizing women and families, the arrest of one of the most prolific serial killers our country has ever known, the Golden State Killer, who turns out to be none other but a former cop. Listen.

He is an ex-officer, a police officer in two different agencies. One in the Exeter Police Department, which is down in Visalia from approximately 1973 to 1976. That was roughly during the time as the Visalia ransacker cases were occurring. I can then say that he applied for and got a job with the Auburn Police Department. He was employed there from roughly 1976 to 1979 until he was fired. Well, very possibly he was committing the crimes during the time he was employed as a peace officer and obviously we'll be looking into whether it was actually on the job or whether it was, you know, something that by on the job I assume you mean during the time he was employed. Yeah, I don't know that yet. But obviously, that's a question that we're

going to want to answer as well. Jane Carson Sandler, one of the Golden State killers, victims, the fifth victim who managed to live to tell the tale author of Frozen in Fear, a true story of surviving the shadows of death. Jane, your book is author of Frozen in Fear, A True Story of Surviving the Shadows of Death. Jane, your book is incredible, Frozen in Fear, A True Story of Surviving the Shadows of Death. Jane Sandler, does your son, who was then three at the time and with you in bed when the Golden State Killer intruded, does he have any recollection of this? I didn't actually talk to him until he was in college, Nancy. When I did tell him, he remembered that we had a robber in the house. But other than

that, and he remembers he was moved. And where he was moved, I don't know whether it was back in his bedroom, whether it was on the floor next to the bed. I don't know. And I just wonder if there's any underlining PTSD going on there. I have no idea. He's doing so well. We don't really talk about it very much, but he's doing really well. Thank you. What does he do today? He's in the military.

He's a lieutenant colonel. Wow. Aren't you proud? I'm very proud. Very, very proud. Yes. Very proud. Very, very proud. Yes. Very proud. With me, in addition to Jane Carson Sandler, are Paul Haynes, who researched the book, I'll Be Gone

in the Dark, and Billy Jensen, an investigative journalist who went through all of Michelle McNamara's raw chapters to put together her book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, to Paul Haines. Now, I know there are many murders linked by DNA, murders linked by MO, method of operation, as well as nearly 200 crimes. Listen. The answer was and always was going to be in the DNA. We knew we could and should solve it using the most innovative DNA technology available at this time. We had no idea that this killer was connected to so many other crimes. But thankfully, with the advent of DNA in the late 1980s,

our understanding of this case, its depth, its complexity, its geographic reach, and the sheer scope of violent crimes changed forever. We recognized at that time we were dealing with a serial killer. In terms of the type of DNA, the only thing we're prepared to say at this time is that it was linked through DNA using current and innovative techniques to do that. As for the other crimes that we know in California, as your list that you've been handed, there's many of them that match by DNA. It is the same DNA as those that have been charged in the Ventura case, as Mr. Totten mentioned. But those that they just haven't been charged yet.

We're just haven't gone to that point. This has happened at a very lightning speed is what I would say. To Paul Haynes, could you clarify for me how they are linked? Sure. All the crimes in Northern California were linked at the time by MO. It was a very distinct MO. It was clear that all those crimes were the work of the same offender. It was investigated in the series and there was public knowledge of the series to the point of hysteria. In Southern California, the links were not as clear. And aside from the Santa Barbara crimes, which were clearly recognized as a series,

each crime was investigated by a different agency. And some agencies disagreed on whether or not there were connections at the time. And after 10 years passed from the last crime, which was the murder of Janelle Cruz in 1986, the DNA links began to emerge once the Orange County Crime Lab and the Ventura County Crime Lab began to reexamine their biological evidence. By 2001, links had been established among six of the crimes in Southern California, and those crimes were linked by DNA to the East Area Rapist series in Northern California, as biological evidence had been preserved from three of the rapes in Contra Costa County. But those three rapes were strongly linked by M.O. to the rest of the series. They're all indisputably the work of the same offender. Wow. I'm almost speechless at the number of crimes, rapes and murders this guy has committed, committed basically under our noses. Guys, when Paul Haynes, who researched the book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, and that's a very significant title. And I'm going to let him explain why. This guy's MO, in case you're saying, well, that could have been anybody's

not linked by DNA. No, it's this guy. He originally targeted women either alone or with children. Like you heard, Jane Carson Sandler, her husband had just left for work early in the morning, so early it was dark outside. You know he was watching, right? But later, he came to prefer attacking couples. His usual MO was to break in and wake up the couple, threatening them with a handgun, sometimes a knife. They were bound with ligatures that he brought with him to the scene, blindfold and or gag the victims with towels or sheets that he took from the home and would cut into strips the way you heard Jane describe it. The female victim was often made to tie up the man with boot laces. That's consistent with what Jane Sammer has just told you before tying herself up. In many cases, the tying was so tight, the victims had no feeling in their hands for hours after they were untied.

He would then separate them and often stack dishes on the back of the man who would then be faced down, stating that if he, the killer, heard the dishes rattle, he'd kill everybody in the home. And this is what is so bizarre. I'm going to go to you, Cheryl McCollum, on this. He would spend hours at times in the home, ransacking closets, going through drawers, as Jane just described, going in the kitchen and eating. She said he was banging pots and pans so loudly she could hear him back in the bedroom, clearly not afraid he was going to be caught. Not afraid at all. Nancy, he had stalked

him. He had prepared. Not only would he bring things with him, but after he selected the home, he would leave tools around the house. He would leave windows unlocked. He was the most organized rapist I think I've ever studied. We also believe that he may have traveled by bicycle to and from his car, so his car would not be spotted. I mean, the level of planning involved. To Michelle Cruz, the sister of the 12th murder victim, I did not mention this to Jane, but to Jane and Michelle, I'm sorry, overwhelmingly sorry for what you have lived through. Michelle, tell us your story.

Well, Janelle was killed May 5th, 1986. I got a phone call the next day from a friend, and I had been up in Mammoth Mountain skiing. I moved up there for a couple of months for the snow season. And my friend called me and she says, I think you need to sit down. And I said, why? And she says, well, your sister was murdered. And I said, I said, my sister got married. She said, no, your sister was murdered. And it was really hard to process at that time. I just, I couldn't believe it. I was stuck in a snowstorm. I couldn't get home. My mom was in Cancun, Mexico with my little brother. And so I just sort of sat there alone for the next couple of days in the snowstorm

thinking about what she had told me. And it's crazy because for the next 20 years, I lived in a sort of a kind of a bubble. I don't even remember what happened. I think I just, I don't know, I was in some kind of denial or something. I'd have these nightmares thinking that she was going to come back. Oh, my stars, Michelle Cruz, you're giving me flashbacks. After my fiance was murdered shortly before our wedding, for years, I would have dreams that he was secretly alive somewhere, and that he just wanted to back out of the wedding and didn't want me to find out, and that everybody was in on it, and I didn't know. Then there would be dreams where he would have somehow medically be brought back to life. And then there were dreams where he would be

struck by lightning and be brought back to life. There were just so many wild, fantastical dreams. I mean, I'm a JD, not an MD, but I armchair figured out that it was a way of, I guess, of my subconscious trying to accept or make sense of or grapple with his senseless murder. And also, you said for 20 years you were in a bubble. Can I tell you?

Let's see. It was well over 20 years after Keith was murdered that I would allow myself to actually be in a relationship committed and marry. I would not marry. I mean, as a result of that, I almost died in childbirth, giving birth late in life, and my daughter almost died. And that is how one of the ways that murder in 1979 affected me. I mean, decades.

So there's huge chunks of time I can't remember, events I can't remember. And so please know, there's nothing wrong with you. It's just, it's a hard thing to deal with. But I think victims need to hear your words. So let me stop talking and you go ahead.

No, it's true. It's very, very hard. And the dreams were constant. I mean, I had the dreams where she was in the military and she just didn't want to see the family for a while. And she'd come back in a year and she'd hide out with other people. She wouldn't want to come home. These were my dreams. I had a dream that maybe a couple of weeks later that a man, a pool guy was walking in the side of our yard where our bedroom was. That's where our window was. And he would

walk, he walked to the back of the house to clean the pool. While in reality, we didn't have a pool. But, you know, that the guy in my dream, his face was so clear. So I thought, is it, you know, Janelle trying to tell me who this guy is? And then there for a long time, people suspected it could have been a pool cleaner or someone at the pool. But yeah, for a long, long time, I lived like that. And I'd barricade myself in my bedroom and always have my lights on and things under my door knob so nobody could break in. And dressers up against my window so nobody could break in through the window because I'd have something blocking it on the inside. Nowadays, I have surveillance cameras and window alarms and all kinds of things around my house just to live comfortably. I'm never alone. I always have somebody here. With me, Jane Carson Sandler and Michelle Cruz. Jane, a victim of the Golden State

killer who managed to live. Michelle Cruz, the sister of the 12th murder victim. And I hate to say it like that, Michelle, because it sounds like a number. It's Janelle Lisa Cruz. And Janelle was just 18 years old. She was found bludgeoned dead in her home. Her family, as Michelle just told you, was on a vacation. The mom, the brother, the whole family in Mexico. A pipe wrench had been reported missing by Cruz's stepfather, and it is thought that is the murder weapon. Janelle was viciously raped before her murder.

We know that DNA links him to Janelle Lisa Cruz's death, and the bludgeoning death with potentially a pipe wrench is so brutal. So brutal. Michelle, tell me about Janelle in life. Janelle was very vivacious. She just had a magnetic personality. A lot of people would see her walking down the street and do double takes, triple takes. She was just kind of one of those people that stood out. And she was very sweet, really sweet. But, you know, she was one year older than me. And so if anyone tried anything on me, she wasn't so sweet. So she was also, you know, she had that sassy side.

But at the time that she was murdered, she was looking for apartments and getting ready to start college. She wanted to be a legal secretary was the last thing that she told me. So she was trying to get her life together. And I know that they found a newspaper on the kitchen table when they had found her and there were some apartments circled. She was just getting her life together. Wanting to move out of the house and start her own thing. And so young and so

beautiful with so much ahead of her in life. The death of someone so young is bad enough, but to think they died in such a horrific way is another. For those of you just joining us, finally, police managed to snag through sophisticated DNA the so-called Golden State Killer, one of the most prolific serial killers our country has ever known. His name, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a former cop.

This defendant's been able to live free in a nice suburb in Sacramento. Our team is going to work hard to make sure that he never gets out. Billy Jensen, thank you for being with us. Investigative journalist who exhaustively went through so much, so much information to put together Michelle McNamara's book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark. Michelle, you know, had written so much of this book. You know, we call it an obsession in the subhead of the book. She definitely was, I mean, we call it an obsession in the subhead of the book. She definitely was,

I mean, she was all about that. She wanted this case solved. And, you know, I think with the book coming out and her husband, who is the comedian Patton Oswalt, going on a book tour, we really are bringing this story to light and bringing this killer to light. To Paul Haynes, researcher on the book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, what is the significance of the title, I'll Be Gone in the Dark? He used that phrase or variations on that phrase with at least three victims. And, you know, those are words that are designed to inflict terror. I think as much as this offender was a killer and a rapist, he was also a terrorist. And I think that was his primary objective was to control and terrorize his victims. And to hear the phrase, you'll be silent forever and I'll be gone in the dark as a threat, that's bone chilling. That reminds you that you're up against a faceless killer who will slay you and get away with it. And I think that everything that he did

with his victims was designed to play into a specific fantasy that he had, a specific script that he was trying to follow. And oftentimes victims would report that it sounded as though he were reading from a script. You mean the phenomena of paraphilia, sexual perversion or deviation, where it's all about situations, fantasies, behaviors, and that attraction has been labeled as a fetish. The fact that you're telling me it sounded like he was reading from a script, or he would always say the same words over and over. It almost sounds like the movie Groundhog Day, where you keep reliving the same day to try to perfect it. He kept reliving the

same crime over and over, Paul. And, you know, he would ask the victim a question. And as soon as the victim began answering, he would say, shut up. You know, he would ask the victim a question. And as soon as the victim began answering, he would he would say, shut up. You know, there was he had no interest in actually engaging with the victim. It was purely about enacting something. And, you know, the stalking, the surveillance, this is all part of obviously a pattern of behavior that was titillating for this offender. And, you know, when you consider the exhaustive number of hours that he invested in this activity, you know, it must have consumed a sizable portion of his life. To Billy Jensen, investigative journalist who helped put together I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. Billy, let's weigh in on what his M.O. tells us. What more can you tell us about his modus operandi?

The most frightening serial killer I've certainly ever, ever encountered, because, you know, you think about the serial killers in history. Son of Sam, he was, the people were outside, you know, you think about the serial killers in history, son of Sam, he was the people were outside, you know, they were on lover's lanes, or the Zodiac killer who's still but that, you know, you can't think of anything more secure than being in your own home. And, you know, I think that's the the idea that that this guy probably was didn't have power in his life. And this is how he was exerting power. He had this second life that he felt this need to exert this power over people, and that was what this was about. I think Paul really hit the nail on the head there that this guy was a terrorist.

The sex was definitely part of the motivation, but it wasn't the main motivation. The sex was being used for power. I read a very old news article from about 1977 on microfiche, and it said that noise outside may have curved this guy. At that time, he was referred to as the East Rapist, now the Golden State Killer. It was a group of noisy teenagers hanging out on a corner that may have saved a Foothill Farms woman from becoming the 28th victim of the East Area Rapist, now the Golden State Killer, who had assaulted at that time 27 other women, broke into a woman's home around 11.30 on a Friday night, tied her up, the victim in her 30s,

roamed through the home about two hours. But then because of the noise outside, he suddenly heard a burst of sound by a bunch of teen boys. He left. Now, we know that the husband was not at home at the time, as did the Golden State Killer. There was a child in the home. Just like Jane Carson Sandler told us, her three-year-old son was in bed with her, but the child slept through the incident. This is chillingly familiar.

The resident chosen for the attack was the second attack in the same area. Most of the East Area rapes occurred in an unincorporated area of the county. It went on and on here. The elements of the MO were almost exactly the same. He comes in. The victim is asleep in bed. She wakes up. She, this woman, woke up with a flashlight shining in her face, just like Jane Carson Sandler did. She could not give a description because he had his face covered. He moved her from the bedroom to another room the same way he moved Jane's son. I mean, the similarities are so striking. We also know that he assaulted a 13-year-old girl after he tied up her mother, according to this sheriff. Paul Haynes, many people don't realize a 13-year-old little girl had been one of his victims.

Yeah, I think there were two 13-year- girls that that had been attacked by this offender. I think the last one of the last victims in Contra Costa was 13 or 14 years old. You know, the age range was quite broad from early teens to late 30s. And just to address some of the things that you've you've mentioned, you know ESA rapist did not always go through with the sexual assault. And in the case of the victim you were describing, it's likely that he was deterred by the teenagers outside. In other instances, it's not quite clear

why he didn't proceed with that element. You know, but again, as Jane was saying, Jane didn't actually, Jane didn't specifically remember the sexual assault. And this is something that crops up again and again in the reports, in the interviews with victims. The sexual assault element itself was rather unremarkable. You know, it was the least memorable element in many instances of the attack. And, you know, these instances where the ear, as we call them for short,

did not proceed with the sexual assault, you know, we still look at those as ear attacks, you know, because all of the other elements were present. Let's talk about the phone calls and the hang up calls that surround a lot of these cases. What can you tell me about that, Billy Jensen? Well, one of the things that he would do is what, and there is some controversy as to whether they are connected or not, but he would call, and I don't know if he called anybody that's on this panel, but he would call people who he had attacked. Well, how could that not be connected?

Well, it could have been somebody that knew the person had been attacked and decided to just mess with them. There's so many of them, right? There's so many of the hang-up calls and the calls. I mean, you've got one victim gets a call that says, I'm going to kill you.

I'm going to kill you. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. And it's that same evening. I don't know who else would have done that. Actually, I'm sorry, the victim didn't receive that call the same evening she was attacked. She received that call a year and a half after the attack. But other victims had received similar calls, but not with the same verbiage. Let's see here.

I'm reading the transcript of January 2. Later that evening, the same victim received another call, much more sinister in nature. The call was also recorded and identified by the victim as being the voice of the assailant. Earlier in the evening, going to kill you. Early in the evening, she had received the wrong number call, but the attack was a year and a half prior to that. And you think that may have been someone pranking her? I mean, there's a possibility. I think most likely that was the offender.

Oh, OK. Because I thought you said that they were not connected. No, no. I said that there's controversy that some people said that they might not be connected. You know, I think, Nancy, we want to be cautious in our verbiage because these are things that have not been conclusively linked. So let's assume for a moment that it was a crank to assume or to take as fact that that was that was the offender, you know, that could potentially send you in the direction of a red herring. So we believe that it most likely was the offender, but we want to also allow for the possibility that it was not. You know, if you look at the

again, the police reports, you see hang up calls and wrong number calls and all sorts of phone calls associated with not, not, not merely the victims themselves, but neighbors of the victims, which I think also indicates that rather than choosing a particular victim, this is an offender who targeted neighborhoods. And that's really important, Nancy, is that, you know, when we talk about the MO, the neighborhoods that he chose, particularly when we're talking about Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, you know, you can do geographic profiling of his attacks. When you've attacked so many people in an area, you can see that he obviously either worked or lived in a specific area and or at least had a lot of business being there maybe you know had a girlfriend there or something and would go outside

late at night and work this area because when you plot it out of the map it's pretty clear that he probably had something to do with that area and was in what a lot of people figure is maybe a buffer zone in the middle of where all these attacks were. To Jane Sandler joining me, Jane, when you hear the discussion of the MOs and possible clues, what do you make of the clues that have been left behind, particularly all the crank calls, the threatening calls, the slurs on women that were in many of the calls to the crime victims. Many of them state that they had a series, a spate of hang-up calls and obscene calls and just unusual calls, wrong number calls around the time of the attack. What do you make of that, Jane? He's just trying to cause more fear and

more terror. I had hang-up calls before and after, and he never said anything, but he would just stay on the line. And I just knew, I just knew it was him. I did have my phone wiretapped, but unfortunately, they were never able to connect the source. But that's just causing, you know, more fear. I did have that in my notes that occurred with you. Take a listen to one of his calls that we have obtained. Listen. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you.

I'm going to kill you. I don't know. Now, hang-up phone calls to his victims, seemingly a big part of the Golden State Killer's MO. Right. Police believe he got the victim's numbers from burglarizing or casing their homes ahead of time. He would call both before and after the attack, maybe to figure out his target's whereabouts or, as Jane is saying, to further terrorize the victim. What do you make of that, Jane? That, again, was just, that was his MO. That was what he

was all about, fear and terror. And that's why I named my book Frozen in Fear, because that was the emotion that was overwhelming. That was the one that was really stuck out to me. But you know, his MO of the clenched teeth, speaking through the clenched teeth and the shut up. I mean, if he said shut up once, he said it, you know, 10 times and his tearing of the sheets. And I mean, definitely, you know, it was the same person every time, every time, every time. And then to, you know, follow that up when you think that, you know, you're beginning to heal and then you get a phone call and it's a hang-up again. Even today, the last time there was a show on TV about this case,

a few days later I got five hang-up phone calls, one three times one day and two the next. Now after 40-some years, that really frightened me. So we put an alarm system on our home just because of those five phone calls, those five hang-up phone calls. Now, do I think it was the East Area Rapist? No, but it was a prank. But that prank was enough to really frighten me.

And even, you know, if the phone rang right now and someone were to, not even to breathe, but just to, you know, is it a solicitor or is it the East Area Rapist or is it, you know, just someone that's just trying to play with my head. But it never goes away, Nancy. For the 51 ladies who were brutally raped in this crime scene, sleep better tonight. He isn't coming through the window. He's now in jail and he's history. We are committed, we are determined, and we will, God willing, hold this man fully accountable for his crimes. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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