Criminology - Bonus Episode - Suspect Arrested

Episode Date: April 25, 2018

A suspect has been arrested in the EAR/GSK case. We wanted to put out a bonus episode to talk about this unbelievable break in the case. We will cover this in more depth as additional details continue to come out.   You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, it's Wayfair here, where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock, scrolling Wayfair's app, when you spot it, a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Oh, you need a new grill too? All right, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. presents the most beloved musical of all time. My Fair Lady.

This is the story of Eliza Doolittle, the Cockney Flower Girl who, Professor Henry Higgins bets, he can turn into a lady. Don't miss, My Fair Lady, a wonderfully lavish and lovelry production. This year at the Shaw. For best seats at best prices, go to Shawfest.com.

All right, more if I hit the button. There's no music. There's no fanfare. This is kind of impromptu, but it was triggered by something that I think a lot of people saw today. I think a lot of people were fascinated by. And that's the arrest of a suspect in this case. So what we wanted to do was unplanned, unrehearsed, just kind of come on and talk about it a little bit. I mean, it blew up the Twittosphere. It blew up Facebook. Now, maybe it's just because we're into true crime, but

what I saw morph was it was about all that people were talking about today, at least in our world. Yeah, anything true crime related seemed to be focusing on this case today. It was big news. I mean, there's no way around it. It's just one of those big

breaks in a case that it was all over the place. And the funny thing is, what happened last night we're recording episode 10 and about three quarters of the way through, what did I tell you? Yeah, you kind of broke in as we were talking and said, you know, somebody texted me,

somebody's been arrested, but I think at the time, Mor, if you thought it was a joke, but I'll let you tell it, how it happened. Yeah, so we're recording episode 10 last night,

and we're almost done, and I get this text, and I'm looking at it, and it says, the guy's in custody, and I'm like, hmm, and the person I got it from is not somebody that I know well.

So I reached out to somebody else that I do know well and I got a cryptic response. When I asked him if he had the Easterer rapist in custody, normally when I say something like that, he'll laugh and say, now. This time he sent like a smiley face, so I knew something was up. And then, you know, later on, I did confirm and I talked to a couple other people. And then it was just sort of out of nowhere last night. I got some details about it. And at the time, I didn't realize it, but once I got the okay to post it on Twitter, that's what I did.

I posted it on Twitter, and I didn't realize it at the time, but I was the only one posting, and I was the only one that had put it out at that point, and it just, it went wild on Twitter. I think we had, you know, 2,000 reblogs or something like that and another 2,000 likes on it. It was crazy. It was an insane day with a lot of people interested in the case. And I think we picked up a thousand Twitter. followers just today and and probably 100 people in our Facebook group. So it really was something

that was on people's minds and it was surreal the response, you know, to the. Yeah, but so let's, let's think about it, right? We, and this kind of is what I think surreal is the right word, because you and I have put so much time into this podcast, right, the researching, the writing, interviewing all the people that we have, not to mention the normal stuff, the recording, the editing all of that. This case is old, cold, and all of a sudden, we're in the middle of this podcast and they arrest somebody. I mean, it doesn't get, to me, it doesn't get any more surreal than that. I mean, honestly, you know, like when we did the Zodiac in season one, I never thought in a million years that they would arrest somebody while we were doing the podcast.

Get to season two, never in a million years would I have thought. they they would arrest somebody. But I think we did have some, and I don't even know what the word is, more some feelings, some intuition, let's call it, that something maybe could happen, could break in this case. I mean, you think about the number of people that we talk to, there just seemed to be, what do you call it, almost like a renewed sense of. A vibe. Yeah, a vibe to this case.

Yeah, it was some kind of energy that you could just feel there was something happening in real time while we're on episode 10 of 12. It's a, I mean, it's a good thing, but it's a curveball for us. So, you know, we thought it was important to address it and tell you about the guy what we know so far. And, you know, we can fill that in as we go throughout the rest of the season and get the information out there we need. But sort of gives us a different way to finish up the season. Yeah, it definitely changes the story arc, let's say that for sure, because we were recording episode 10 and we were going to shift gears, right, for the last two episodes. The last two episodes are going to focus on the murder, right? Up until now, we've been talking about East Area rapist. 11 and 12 was slated to be to center around, you know, what you would call the Golden State

killer. It's the same person. Now all of a sudden this news breaks. Now it doesn't change our plan. We're still going to tell the story. We just need to figure out how to weave this in. And if that means, you know, an extra episode, that's what it means. Because, you know, at this time right now, we don't have all the details. We have what has been kind of put together. very quickly on the news and you know more if that's not really our style that's not the way we work yeah and it's we like to be fact based and detail based and you know leave some of the speculation out and i think early on when the news broke a lot of it was speculation but there's some stuff that's been proven to be accurate um which is interesting and and i i do know a little bit

about how it went down they did come on to some DNA uh evidence that led them to the family of this individual. And I think from there, they tracked the DNA to him directly. And they staked him out. And as soon as they got confirmation that the DNA was a 100% match, they moved on them. And they arrested them. As far as I know, it was without incident.

And they took them in. And they interrogated them for hours and hours. But at 6 a.m., after, you know, the interrogation is going on all this time. I get a call this morning. It's a somebody related to the case. I don't really want to say who. That is just going home to get some sleep, you know, for the first time probably in 24 hours.

So it was a wild, it was a wild ride, not just for us, but for the people involved in bringing this guy in. Well, it's, you know, I think a lot of people will have seen the name, but the person that was arrested is, Joseph James DeAngelo. He's 72 years old. He was arrested in Citrus Heights. And I think Morph, I know you haven't had time and I haven't really had time to dig into this guy. But I think you found out a little bit about him today.

Yeah. So one of the rumors that first came out when I started hearing his name, did a little bit of research and come to find out he was a police officer outside of Sacramento, which has been on theory for some people who thought that the East Air Rapists might have been a police officer. Well, this guy had been a police officer from, I want to say it was from 1973 to 1979, something like that. But he actually got kicked off the force for stealing, shoplifting some items. And one of the items that he shoplifted was dog repellent.

Dog repellent sounds just like something that the East Area Rapist might think would come in handy, whether it's to keep them from attacking him as he's doing his crimes, were perhaps to escape without bloodhounds being able to track them. Maybe he thought that was something that would help him get away. And just taking that item, shoplifting that item, cost him his job with the police force. And that was 1979, which coincides with the time that the rapes stop in northern California and then the murders start down in Southern California.

Which for us is kind of how we end this next episode, is getting ready to come out, right? Ending episode 10, getting ready to do episode 11. And it's the perfect segue. But another interesting thing that I did find out was that he had been engaged to a woman named Bonnie early on in 1970 or so. And there was a wedding announcement in the paper.

They were engaged. No wedding date was set. But they didn't wind up marrying each other. They both married different people a couple years later. But if you think back, we've talked about it this season that in at least one attack, possibly more, when the guy's crying in the corner and sobbing a couple times they thought he said, Bonnie doesn't like it when I do this. And he brought up the name Bonnie. And now seeing this, it makes a little bit more sense.

It's kind of eerie, right? I mean, the case is eerie as it is, you know, is we're going through some of these details. And the details are brutal. I don't think you and I have ever said the F word as many times as we have, and especially episode 10. Episode 10 is rough with the language. It's almost like he's getting more upset. I don't want to give too much away for episode 10, but we said it.

We try to be factual. We try to stick with the facts that are in the police report. And we want to convey to the audience exactly what this person said to the visual. victim and, you know, not change the wording up because that changes really, you know, not what happened, but the, what's the word I'm looking for more? To me, it just changes it if you, if you water down the wording. It's not authentic. Yeah, that's the word.

It's not authentic. And unfortunately, this is a case that's, it's not a nice case. There's a lot of nasty, bad stuff in this case. And you can't tell the story without diving. to that bad stunt. So DiAngelo has been charged with capital murder in four of the killing. Now, as it relates to the podcast, we've only talked about two murder, right? The murders of Brian and Katie Majori. That was in February of 1978. He's charged with those, but he's also charged with the murders of Lyman and Charlene Smith that occurred in March of 1980. But we haven't talked about

that yet. We'll get to those in episode 11. And that's down in Ventura County. And that's the segment of the season that we were just coming into when this news broke. And you're referring to what more, if the move from northern to Southern California? Yeah, when he picks up his crime spree down in Southern California and turns to primarily murder. Now, we have to talk about the sexual assaults, right? That's what the first 9, 10 episodes are made up of because that's what the East Area rapist is, you know, those are the crimes that he's committing at the time. This guy's not going to be charged with any of it. I don't believe, Morph, right?

The statute of limitations has run out on those. Yeah, and in California, the statute of limitations on rapes back then was very, very small. And nowadays, they can actually do a John Doe warrant where they can sort of hold it open for an indefinite amount of time. So if somebody is caught later on for a rape, they can be charged. at the time, but back then the rapes didn't stretch out far enough. And they can't do that retroactively, right? That you're saying they could do, if it happened today, they could hold it out for a much

longer period of time. Yeah, if somebody did a similar crime today, they could hold it open and get them later on based on today's laws, but not, they can't retro it to him. But he's going to have enough charges. You know, we mentioned four more murders so far. he's going to have, you know, at least eight more by the time they're done with them. Right. Because not all of the counties have jumped in yet, right?

They're going to. That's right. And that's another thing we haven't gotten to. We haven't talked about Santa Barbara County, Orange County. Those are other areas we're going to talk about in the final two episodes that he murdered in. So he's got a lot more murder charges that he's probably going to be facing. And still, we haven't even touched on the Vysalia ransacker ended things. So that's a whole other side project.

And from what I heard from the source, they said they are 99.9% sure that he was the vice exonerance hacker, which would mean there's a murder case there of Claude Snelling, who was murdered back in 1974, 75. He was murdered and during the attempted abduction of his daughter. And then the police officer that was on stakeout, also was shot at. So I think that could be possibly an attempted murder. But he's going to have so many murder charges that, you know,

an abduction charge or attempted murder charge by that point is probably going to be moved. I mean, he's 72 years old. He'll never step out of prison again. That's obvious. Yeah, if he's convicted on even a handful, right, he's never getting out. He's never getting out. He'll never be free again. So, you know, one way or another, he's going to be behind bars.

But we'll be learning more as details come out. And of course, we'll share them with everybody. But I think there's going to be more about his connections and links to different places. I think there's more victims out there. I think there's more rape victims. Maybe he'll share some of those once he gets to confessing and knows that he has nothing to lose. He might start bragging and talking about other rape victims, other murder victims. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a lot more out there.

He was that prolific. Yeah, yeah. It wouldn't surprise me either. But, you know, getting back to how they caught him, right? We don't know all the details, but we know it was DNA. And we know it was DNA, and correct me if I'm wrong, Morph, but it was DNA that they already had. This wasn't some newly discovered DNA, I don't believe. No, they've had his DNA, you know, when we had Paul Holes on, he talked a little bit about it.

And we haven't even played that portion of it because we were saving a lot of the DNA conversation with Paul Holes to the final two episodes. but he told us a lot about the DNA and what they have and what they could do with it. And I think, and again, I don't know 100%, but I believe they probably found a family with the correct DNA and then worked that bloodline until they came across him. Then they staked him out and got some DNA and then tested it and it was a 100% match from what I'm told. My assumption is he wasn't in the system or they, they, they, would have hit on him a long time ago. They had to have worked their way to him, like you said, in a roundabout way through family and something like that. Yeah, and he wasn't in CODIS, that's for sure. So when they got to him, it wasn't because they found a match for him in a database. They actually

staked him out, tested the DNA, and then turned around and arrested him as soon as they got the results back. And from what I've heard, this all went down over the last five, six, seven days, something like that. So it was fairly recent that they that they moved on this guy and it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. And if we're lucky, we'll get some more details by seasons in that we can share with people and, you know, maybe have a little information that we can get. Yeah, I mean, there is some stuff that's starting to fly. I mean, they've interviewed his neighbors and there's neighbors already that are coming out and saying, hey, this guy was strained. I saw one report more of where apparently somebody said that he raised three daughters. And they thought by himself because they never saw a wife, but that there are reports from neighbors that this guy was odd.

He would yell at people. He would yell at himself. So there's just going to be a lot more to come out over time. I mean, we're in the first day. Yeah. I think once he gets talking and maybe we get to the court end of things, where things are coming out at trial. It'll be interesting to see what's there.

One interesting thing that I did find was that he attacked in 1981 and murdered Sherry Domingo and Greg Sanchez. And then there was a five-year gap he didn't murder again until he killed an 18-year-old named Janelle Cruz in 1986. So in between that time, there's a lot of speculation of where is this guy? and it's a five-year period where there's nothing going on, is he in prison? We'll come to find out one of his daughters was born in 1981 and the other one was born in 1986. So whether that's a coincidence or the pregnancies or the births somehow set them off,

that's going to be interesting to see how that ties in because the two years they're born or the two years that he last killed and then kills again. Yeah, and obviously in episodes 11 and 12, we would. have been talking about that as in what could have happened who you know who was this what why was there a lull those those episodes are going to be a little different now yeah it'll be interesting to see how we how it plays out but it'll be you know a bit of a challenge to to to wrap up the season and give everybody the information and like you said if we if we need to do that by doing an extra episode then then that's what we'll do but we'll definitely get the information out there yeah we may even have to wait a little while for some stuff because i mean if you think about it more if we

really we've only have we only have three weeks left now there's going to be some stuff that comes out but obviously the trial all of that stuff is way down the road so we may even have to to come back later on and and do some additional episodes and these trials can take a long time it can take appeals years to till trial gets here there's delays and you know the guy's 72 years old who knows what kind of you know condition he's in physically but it could be a while before he's actually in court and being tried for some of these crimes. But as of now, what I've heard is that he's on suicide watch. And hopefully that's not something to happen because that would be too easy for this guy to go out that way.

And hopefully that doesn't happen. But it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. One thing I did see when he was booked, they measured him at 5 foot 11, which I found pretty interesting. Now, you've heard us talk about how. height ranges that kind of go all over the map. But 5 foot 11 is kind of the sweet spot, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it was definitely under six feet. That was pretty consistent. I think it, to me, it was on the tall end because a lot of times it was 59, 510, 5.10. Occasionally there was a 58, 511. But most of the time it's 5'9 to 510. So it's a little bit taller than I actually expected it to be. Oh, really? I thought as we were talking about, I thought there was a lot of 510, 511, 6 foot.

Yeah, I think. There was some 5-9s. I do remember that. Yeah, 5-10, I think, was the average. And I think that's the average that most of the investigators have always described them as being, you know, an inch or two either way. So the 5-11 is still within that range. Sure, he's not 6-7, right? That would kind of, that would be pretty strange if he was 6-7.

Now, he weighs 205 pounds, but at this point in time, this many years later, that doesn't mean anything. Yeah, he's not athletic. He's not running over, you know, running away and jumping over fences and stuff at 72 years old. So he's probably putting on some weight. All right, man. I don't know. It has been a heck of a day. It really has. And it's going to continue. As more and more information comes out, you know, I think people are going to be even more captivated by this story now that a suspect has actually been arrested. I mean, the story and the crimes committed by this person from an. unsolved standpoint. Not even an unsolved standpoint. There's some of the most horrific crimes that you can ever research, that you can ever talk about. But now that they actually have somebody that they

think did it, wow, it really adds another element to it, I think. Yeah, it's, it's definitely a whole new leg of the case that's, it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out and what theories and what ideas proved to be right. All right. Well, again, no music, no fanfare. Just, Morph and I just wanted to get on and kind of give everybody an update. Let you know, obviously we do know about it, just like most of you probably do. But if you don't, and you're listening to this and hearing it for the first time, you know, jump online, check it out. It's everywhere. It's big news.

And, you know, at this point, it's been almost 24 hours since we found out about it. And I'm operating on two hours worth of sleep. so I'm ready to go to bed. So, Morp, as we're going out, we'll play some of the press conference for those that didn't get a chance to listen to it and get to hear some of the players in this story talk about. I think there was victims' family and obviously a lot of law enforcement, but it's interesting to hear him talk. Yeah, definitely. If you want to hear more about how the arrests went down and where things stand, it's worth a listen. All right. So we, this is just a filler. This is not a replacement episode. Episode 10 will still come out Saturday night at 10 o'clock. So until then, we'll talk to you later.

Let me first by saying this. The answer has always been in Sacramento. For over 40 years, countless victims have waited for justice. Over these years, hundreds of individuals have. sought justice for these victims and their families. Many have dedicated their virtual entire professions to seeking this answer. For many of us, it was more than a professional commitment. It became personal for many of us. For me, here in Sacramento County, in June of In 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. For anyone that lived here in this community,

here in Sacramento, the memories are very vivid. You can ask anyone that grew up here. Everyone has a story. But it must be remembered that it was not just Sacramento, that this case deeply affected this entire state. And then in June of 2016, at the 40th anniversary for the beginning of this series, the East Area Rapists, a press conference was held here in Sacramento, hosted by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and the FBI, attended by many agencies across California that have dedicated their careers and professions to coming to some kind of answer. The message was clear in 2016. The magnitude of this case demanded that it be solved.

There were upwards of 50 rapes, 12 murders, crimes that spanned 10 years across at least 10 different counties, northern, central, and southern California. And it was that day in June of 2016 that we, in public safety, reiterated our commitment to the victims and to justice. In this case, the East Area Rapists, the Golden State Killer.

And it was that day that we embarked upon what I call our journey for justice. A journey by people across borders, across all professions, police officers, FBI agents, crime lab employees, victim advocates, prosecutors, community leaders, elected officials, all with one mission, to find the answer, to give victims a voice, and ultimately to identify this person and bring him to justice. We brought teams together not long after that press conference. We dedicated more resources, more people, and we created what I have called team justice, an incredible collaboration of individuals with one mission. There are things about that journey and that commitment that each of us knew.

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 all knew that it would take passion. We all knew that it would take persistence. Last Wednesday, at 8.15 in the evening, I received an email from the daughter of Sherry Domingo, who was murdered in Southern California. Her name is Debbie. She was 15 at the time. Last Wednesday, she emailed, in essence, I want to paraphrase. Hi, Ann Marie.

I thought the edit. for the recent documentary was brilliant. She quoted from the show, quote, this case will be solved because of sheer persistence. She went on to say, I have those words posted in a few places in my home and my workplace so I can see them at various times throughout the day. Thank you for that persistence. I have faith. 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. In the last six days, and I emphasize the last six days, that passion, that persistence, and the knowledge finally came to an answer in this building behind us here, our crime lab,

crime lab employees, DNA analysts who worked tirelessly in the last few days to provide that answer. Yesterday, 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.

It is fitting that today is National DNA Day. We found the needle in the haystack and it was right here in Sacramento. And with that, I would like to introduce our sheriff, Scott Jones.

Good afternoon. Before I talk a little bit about this case, I'd like to make just a couple preliminary comments. When I became sheriff, in Sacramento in 2010, there were very few outstanding cases that drew the passion and the interest and the dog of determination to solve as the East Area Rapist. The sheriff that I took over from, Sheriff John McGinnis, who's here with us today, told me about the importance of it. And I don't know that I fully appreciated it at that time, but I can tell you that without exception weekly and

sometimes more. I get telephone calls or emails to this day from former employees, former detectives, community members from all over this country that believe that they know or at least have some information on who the East Area Rapist was. I committed then to do everything that I could to solve it and had a lot of conversations early on with District Attorney Schubert about how we could do it. And those discussions really touched the passion of both of us to solve this case. Both of us committed the best and the brightest, our hand-picked folks, to oversee the resolution of this case, and gave virtually unlimited resources and freedom to pursue whatever leads and technology currently existed. So I can tell you that 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 confirm what we thought we already knew, that we had our man. And yesterday afternoon, in a perfectly executed arrest, my detectives arrested James Joseph DiAngelo, 72 years old living in Citrus Heights. I can tell you that although it was DNA,

ultimately, that the last, us down the right road, there were a lot of places that road could have led. I don't want to underscore, I can't underscore enough, the absolute human factor, the dogged determination of not only the detectives working on this case, but the passion of the district attorney, myself, the community, and the victims. All too often we forget about talking about the victims. And today we at least brought the first step towards closure for those victims of these horrendous crimes.

So I want to thank not only the district attorney in the crime lab and the DNA that helped us get here, but my own detectives. And the detectives from all of these folks represented by the leaders standing behind me when we put together this working group two years ago and brought in the FBI who was more than happy to be part of this team and effort, we had no way of knowing that we'd be standing here talking about the resolution of all of these crimes. So I have to thank them and again underscore the importance of the human factor and the dogged determination and passion of the individuals and human beings that led us down the right road to this individual today. I want to now

introduce the district attorney of Ventura County, Ventura County, Mr. Greg Totten. Good morning. I'm very pleased to announce that the small morning in Ventura County, we have filed capital murder charges against Mr. DeAngelo 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. While this filing is just the beginning of the prosecution of Mr. DiAngelo, it is the culmination of a decades-long, unrelenting investigation that's singularly focused on bringing this rapist and killer to justice. The arrest and charging of DeAngelo, frankly, would not have been possible.

without the visionary and innovative leadership of my friend Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert. And I want to thank her for doing such a wonderful job in this effort. She had the foresight to put together a statewide task force of, as the sheriff mentioned, some of the best and brightest law enforcement professionals in the country. I also want to thank Sheriff Scott Jones for the tremendous resources they devoted to this investigation and for the brilliantly executed apprehension of DiAngelo. I also want to thank my own Sheriff's Department for their great work in the crime lab and in the investigation, as well as the Ventura Police Department, which was the original investigation, investigating agency of the Lyman and Charlene's murder. This 1980 murder has long been a source of fear and angst in the neighborhood in which it

occurred in the community and indeed throughout all of Ventura County. This is a case that much like the rapes that occurred here in the Sacramento area literally struck terror in the hearts of Ventura County residents. It also, as we know, was a source of great frustration for law enforcement over a prolonged period of time. In fact, this murder was among the first cases I was ever assigned to work on as a young law clerk in the district attorney's office in 1981. At that 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. And at that time, at a time when law enforcement is unfortunately, under so much criticism, I want the public to know that the work on this case reflects the very best, the very highest standards in the noble and dedicated and courageous police profession. The men and women of this task force devoted incalculable hours, tens of thousands of hours to this case. Throughout that effort, they never gave up, they never lost their resolve, they never relented, and today's announcement of charges being filed against this man, this killer, this rapist, is a direct result of their effort. And so now a new phase begins. And as we commence the charging and prosecution of DeAngelo, this too will be a team effort involving

many jurisdictions working collaboratively and collectively together. Beyond the significant court proceedings that lie ahead and the immense investigation that is still ongoing as we speak, we are committed, we are determined, and we will, willing hold this man fully accountable for his crimes. Thank you, and it's now my pleasure to introduce the Honorable Tony Rokakis, District Attorney of Orange County. Joseph James DeAngelo has been called a lot of things by law enforcement. He's been called the East Side Rapist. He's been called the Bicelya Ransacker, the original nightstocker, and the Golden State Killer. Today, it's our pleasure to call him defendant.

His 12-year reign of terror lasted from 1974 through May 4th of 1986. He started with ransacking, sexual assaults, rape, moved down the state from Sacramento County, and ending in Orange County. From 1980 to 1986, when he was committing his murders in Orange County, I was a member of the Orange County District Attorney's homicide panel and aware of these unsolved cases and just hoping and wishing that someday we would be able to find out who this killer was. The quest to solve this case was, of course, very personal to Mr. Bruce Harrington. His brother and sister-in-law were murdered in the most god-off away. And he worked with the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

and other offices to write and support an initiative that later became Proposition 69. And Prop 69 was a proposition that was turned into law, and it was a proposition that required everybody arrested for a felony in this state and some misdemeanors to give a DNA sample. And it very, very substantially increased the DNA database of, of California. In Orange County, still keeping this case in mind,

by the way, that case was a strong incentive to work on developing this database, the California state database, which now has about two million profiles in the database. And in the meantime, the Orange County District Attorney's Office started our own local DNA database,

and we, We've put about 170,000 DNA profiles of individuals who committed crime in Orange County in our database. All the time, we had this case in mind, eventually hoping to solve this case. So we've been working vigorously together with this task force that you've been hearing about. We've been working with them since the original meeting that District Attorney Anne-Marie Schubert put together here in Sacramento. And Anne-Marie, I want to thank you for doing that. That was a great thing to re-spark this investigation to put this task force together. It was something, I'm sure, all of the different agencies throughout the county who were involved,

had the case in mind, always wanted to solve the case, worked on it whenever they could. But with this task force, it was a concerted effort. We put resources on it. We put full-time people on it. And I want to thank the people from my office, the people who worked tirelessly on this case to work to attempt to solve the case. And I just think it's wonderful that it was eventually solved in Sacramento. And I want to take the time to a little bit of time just a moment to recognize or remember the victims from Orange County. August 19, 1980, the defendant Joseph DiAngelo is accused of brutally murderly murderly murdering.

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 5, 1981, the defendant is accused of raping, sexually assaulting, and murdering 28-year-old Manuelah Wiham in Irvine. Three months later, years later, on May 4, 1986, DeAngelo is accused of raping, sexually assaulting, and murdering 18-year-old Janelle Cruz in her home. We've always believed, at least for many years, that this case would begin and end with DNA. 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. We're going to be working together to make determinations about what the team's going to be that tries him, where he's going to be tried, and so forth. All of those things are going to be answered in a short time. One other note, in 2016, myself, my office, worked very hard with Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten and with Sacramento County District Attorney Anna Marie Schubert to keep and to reform the death penalty. and that was a successful effort. It was a hard effort, but it was a successful effort.

So now, as we proceed forward with this case, that remains a relevant effort. I just want to say that finally, after all these years, the haunting question of who committed these terrible crimes has been put to rest. Now, Mr. Bruce Harrington is here, and you've heard his name. I want to introduce you to Mr. Bruce Harrington. Mr. Harrington, if you would step forward, please. 51 rapes and 12 murders. Today I'd like to speak to the multi-generation hundreds and hundreds of multigenerational victims of this staggering crime spree. 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 brought Bravo. Bravo, bravo. Their tenacity, their patience, their unrelenting focus. A shout out for Tony Rekakis, for Steve Cooley, for Lisa Kahn, Marie Schubert, Jan Skelie, Larry Poole. The names go on, and we've known many, many of them over the years. Today is also a reaffirmation of the power and the public safety.

that's associated with forensic DNA technology. I began my quest in the mid-90s when DNA finally came of force into the world of forensic science. My brother and his wife were killed in 80. So it was 15 years until we finally heard that there was a DNA sample taken from our crime scene. And as years rolled on, there were other DNA samples

that became common to one unknown perpetrator. It's been a struggle to bring DNA and California to the forefront of that forensic crime scene investigation tool. Surprisingly, when I looked at the situation in the late 90s, California was a laggard, Virginia, Florida, some of the other more progressive states on the East Coast were light years of hell

of California. I spent time in Sacramento in the early 2000s, appearing before Assembly and Senate Public Safety Committee's, pleading that they embrace the power of DNA. And frankly, I ran into a buzzsaw of opposition. So in 2003, it became apparent that nothing was going to happen through Sacramento. Senator Burton and the Senate Public Safety Committee, my nemesis, I shamed you then and I shame you now. You were wrong. DNA, what is it all about?

It's a three-legged stool. The DNA with a powerful database allows the sample to be checked against old cases, against those have been wrongly accused, against those that have been wrongly convicted and are sitting in prison. Over the years, innocence projects have flourished at law schools in particular, using DNA to try and exonerate those wrongly committed. I hope these continue.

They are a robust and active part of the harnessing of DNA technology. DNA also solves current crime. This isn't a current crime, that's an old crime, but it's finally solved by DNA. DNA also looks out and cuts down on future crime by using that database to exonerate those that have been wrongly suspicion and otherwise allow current crimes and to be solved efficiently. I end with a plea to the voters because we are back circulating another petition this year right now. Go out to your Walmart, go out to your markets, and you'll find people gathering signatures.

There is a keep California safe proposition, just like there was the DNA Prop 69 position back in 2000. But here we now, now in spring and summer of 18, filing another petition to build up, to improve, to build upon and create an even more robust DNA database in California. We need signatures. We need 500,000 signatures by mid-June. It'll be on the November ballot. Vote for it. And you're going to ask yourself, why is it that we're having to circulate a signature

petition again and I would tell you the Burton accolades that are still controlling the public safety committees in the Assembly and the Senate again have disappointed their job and made a mockery of the name of their committee the Public Safety Committee. So vote for that proposition and again to the entire reservoir of victims out there. My sadness is with you.

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. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Dinabectin District Attorney for Contra Costa County. For decades, a suspect eluded capture for so many heartbreaking cases that affected victims across California. These victims could never truly feel.

safe, even years after the attacks. Justice did not come swiftly as we may have liked or wanted, but now today we will do everything that we can to bring justice to the victims that suffered from unspeakable harm from these horrific crimes. The outstanding work to bring resolution to this case was in part led by Paul Holes, who has investigated this case for over 20, years. Paul recently retired as the Chief Forensic Services Officer for the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, and prior to that, he spent 24 years with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Crime Lab. Paul spent decades tracking down leads, interviewing victims, and researching new technological advances. While he recently retired from the DA's office, he never gave him.

up on bringing justice for all of these victims. And his work in using new technologies helped to solve this case. The collaboration between our office and the various law enforcement agencies across the state has now underscored how committed all of us are to finding a resolution out of a decade's log of old coal cases and to bring justice to victims. who suffered both physical and mental pain. Their lives were forever changed. With today's welcome news, hopefully, the victims can begin to continue on the long road towards recovery

as they remain resilient in the face of what happened to them. I'd like now to introduce Sean Reagan from the FBI in Sacramento. Good afternoon, everybody. Again, I'm Sean Reagan. I'm the special agent in charge of the Sacramento FBI field office. Thank you for being here. I would just like to thank all of this team that's behind me. And we say a team truly is a team. You can see that multiple agencies, multiple jurisdictions across the state of California, and that doesn't include all of the leads that were followed up on in other states and in other jurisdictions. countless hours, as was mentioned, have gone in to this investigation.

And this team came together and worked consistently to bring justice in this matter and to identify a subject responsible and to solve these heinous crimes. And I'd be remiss when we're talking about a team if I didn't also include the public. We've reached out to the public over the years through media. And since 2016, we've literally received thousands of media or of public tips. And before that, obviously, through the course of the decades, we've received tips from the public. So the public and the citizens are part of this team. And I'd also like to thank all of you, the media.

You have kept this investigation and these crimes forefront in people's minds and forefront in the public. So you are part of the team. And I'd like to step back and recognize the victims. My partners have done that. We all came together, obviously, to bring justice in this case and to solve the crimes. But we came together to bring solace to the victims and to bring some resolution and relief.

And we know that the pain and anguish has never subsided through the years and through the decades. But hopefully the significant action that we have taken yesterday and over the last few days will bring some sense of relief and some sense of comfort to the many, many, many victims and victims' families. Let me also thank and recognize the line investigators and the assistant district attorneys that are working this case across multiple jurisdictions. As far as the FBI is concerned, our Los Angeles field office, our Sacramento field office, our headquarters units, behavioral analysis unit at Quantico have all been involved in assisting to work this investigation. And the countless hours that went in by obviously all the agencies recognized here, but the personnel, agents, investigators, DAs that have worked tirelessly and passionately to find residents.

in this case, I thank them for what they have done to finally bring closure to this investigation. And I say that, but the investigation continues, and obviously the prosecution will just begin and continue. So we will continue, we will continue acting as a team and continue working on this extremely significant matter in investigation and prosecution. Thank you. I'd like to introduce Nancy O'Malley. She is the district attorney for Alameda County. Thank you. And good morning or afternoon. Thank you for being here. It's so critically important to make sure that the community knows by working with or through the media about this incredible outcome of this horrific case. I want to start by adding my thank yous to the other speakers and particularly to the leadership of district attorney, Amory Schubert, who did bring us all back together two years ago, all of the jurisdictions that had a case that we believed were committed by the same person. Not all of the cases had DNA, but many did. but all of the cases that we believe this individual committed are tied by either his modus operandi or by DNA.

And I, like all of us that have spoken, are so thankful and appreciative of the work of the teams and the commitment after so many years. The last few weeks, I've been speaking quite a bit on the issue around testing sexual assault kits. There's a documentary that has just been released by produced by Mariska Hare Kaye from Law and Order. And that documentary talks about the significance of not testing kits and the impact that has on the victim survivors, the impact it has on society and the impact it has on people who have been either arrested or wrongly or wrongly convicted of sexual assault crimes by using D.E. to exonerate. Part of what we've been talking about is why it's so significant for us to get those kits out of the police evidence lockers and into crime labs. In 1978, in April, a woman and her partner were asleep. They woke up to this defendant standing over them with a gun.

He raped, robbed, and followed the same MO that he had done so many times before. That case occurred in Fremont, California, part of Alameda County. But that was not the beginning for me of this individual, this defendant. In 1977, when I was in college, I became a volunteer at a rape crisis center in Contra Costa County. and it was one of the first rape crisis centers that was created in California. And over the course of the year in 1977 to 1978, the East Area Rapus struck nine times in Contra Costa County. And I was involved as a volunteer advocate supporting those survivors through the process at that time.

One of the things that led me to become a lawyer was to change the parents, paradigm of the injustice that sexual assault and domestic violence experience back in those days. We didn't have forensic science like DNA. We didn't have trained investigators, committed prosecutors. When I joined the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, it was one of my goals to change that paradigm. And I've worked tirelessly since that time through legislation, through building programs, and all of the things that we see now. So I am particularly thankful and particularly proud to be part of this working group

to have been there in the beginning when I sat with survivors who had been assaulted by this guy to now when we can witness him being held accountable for the crimes that he committed. There's other legislation. We've been passing legislation for some time around DNA, DNA collection, testing of sexual assault kits. And in 2015, then assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, now Senator Skinner, carried legislation that I sponsored to have those rape kits taken out of the police evidence room and brought into a crime lab to be tested. That was followed up by a lot of advocacy at the national level. And so now there's over $179 million from the federal government

for law enforcement to be able to have those kids tested. And this case is one example of so many, but a very stark example of why it's important to have those kits taken to do the crime lab and tested. Senator Connie Leva right now is carrying a bill that I'm proud to sponsor that will require those kits to be taken out of the evidence rooms and brought into a crime lab. What we see is more than 40 percent, and in some, cases higher than that of a DNA profile that's taken from a forensic sexual assault kit.

And those DNA profiles are being matched against the database that we just heard about. And those crimes are being solved, not just sexual assault crimes, but murder crimes like this. SB 1449 is on its way through the legislative process. And we hope. And we ask the community to step. up and hear their have their voices heard that this is critical legislation to get us to a place where we can bring justice to those victims that have suffered this crime in such an oh and such

a horrific way 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 from 1975 to 1986. But we are here now and the prosecution of this defendant will occur. Thank you for being here. And I believe that, oh, let me turn over to you. Thank you. Hello everyone, I'm Sergeant Sean Hampton,

the spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff Jones. And District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert will be answering questions. I understand there's a lot of questions. Please be patient. There's no way we will get to them all, but we will do our best. Kim, why did you target him more details on how you collected that DNA? And what does it link it to?

It's only those four times we put these out in charge or there are others of those 177s around there? 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 having gone to that point. This has happened at a very lightning speed, is what I would say.

I'm simply going to say he was identified through DNA technology. Can you corroborate that there was a trigger, the FBI, or one of your offices last week? No, that's not correct. It's not correct. No. Sheriff, can you talk about the arrest, a wet, and describe how that went down and said it was a perfect situation? It was. I can tell you, and obviously I'm going to have to be a bit circumspect because this is still a very active investigation.

I mean, as we speak, there are warrants being served and interviews being conducted. But what I can tell you is this has all happened in a very rapid last few days, a very compact period of time. During that time, we were able to surveil him. We got a feel for some of his activities or lack thereof. Got kind of some information regarding his routines. We got some information relative to what he might do if confronted or apprehended. Based on the information we were able to glean from that surveillance. So we developed a plan to wait for him to come out of his residence rather than trying to approach him in the residence or when he's out and about in a vehicle.

And so when he came out of his residence, we had a team in place that was able to take him into custody. He was very surprised by that. It looked as though he might have been searching his mind to execute a particular plan he may have had in mine. Obviously speculation on my part, but he was not going to be. given the opportunity. It happened almost instantaneously, and he was taken into custody without incident at all. Sir Joe. Sir Joe. So many crimes looking back, what was it about his Zamo that allowed him to avoid not force to go as long as he did? Well, I can't speak to that specifically, but I can say generally, you know, until we got a working group together and we're

able to associate our, you know, our East Area rapist was someone else's golden state killer, until we were able to collaborate and really start looking at the MOs, the manner in which he carried out his crimes and see the linkages between the crimes and the DNA that tied many of them together. That was a real breaking point for us and allowed us to not only get more manpower and more brainpower on this case, but allowed us to get more clues and follow up on more leads. In the back. Did he use a hammer?

He said that he was fired for shoplifting that. Can you have after that anyway? Well, I can confirm that that's the information we have at the moment. Now, obviously, part of our ongoing investigation is to kind of work backwards, to try and fill in a lot of the gaps that we have about his life from then, well, actually, from before then to now, we're aware of the same information that you just described. So we're obviously going to be looking into see whether a hammer or a dog repellent

played into any of the attacks. But it's, again, just to reiterate, it's all very, very swift, and those details will be investigated. and met it out in the coming days and weeks. Sure, I can tell you that he is an ex-officer, a police officer, in two different agencies. One, in the Exeter Police Department, which is down in Vysalia from approximately 1973 to 1976. That was roughly during the time as the Vysalia ransacker cases were occurring. I can then say that he applied for and got a job with the Auburn Police Department. It was employed there from roughly 1976 to

1979 until he was fired for what you just heard. 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 something that by on the job, I assume you mean during the time

he was employed doing, yeah. I don't know that yet but obviously that's a question that we're going to want to answer as well. I'm glad you asked that question because that's a question we've gotten from literally all over the world in the last 24 hours and the answer is no. Other than the fact that it, like, as was indicated, the media, kept this in the public eye and kept public interest. It kept interest and tips coming in. Other than that, there was no

information extracted from that book that directly led to the apprehension. Sheriff, did he live in that location by himself? Any other people that residence? Does he have a family somewhere? He does have a family. I'm not prepared to talk about what his family is, but he does have adult children. At that residence? That's really all I'm prepared to say at the time. We don't re-ended up after Auburn? We don't. We don't have a full picture yet. We're still filling in that timeline. But you can share it. You said the book didn't play a director or the same. Second.

You provided just a little bit more. But what like you to take a DNA sample? Sure. And again, I have to be a bit circumspect here. But what I said in my earlier comments that, 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 he could exclude northwest 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. Was it his family somebody in his family who tested? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear the question. So I'm absolutely certain there will be a trial. There remain questions and I don't want to speak for the prosecution, but obviously there will have to be some organization as to who and where and when, but I can guarantee you. I mean, in this case, you know, justice was delayed.

It wasn't swift, but I can assure you it will be sure. Let me just say something in terms of the prosecution. There are many jurisdictions involved. I think I mentioned there's 10 counties. And so, sorry, Bob. So those decisions are going to be made in the immediate future. This right now, as I said before, this has occurred in the last six days. And so we have to take time and do it right and get together and meet in the best method,

as District Attorney Rekakis said. So that will take some time. Yes, sir. Had his name ever come up before last week in any of these investigations in your knowledge? The answer is no. You talk about the last six. I think the sheriff mentioned that a sample was collected from him, abandoned samples. So that's what ultimately changed the tide.

And I will say this, because everybody's got questions about the DNA. The answer of your questions is going to come out in a timely fashion. But this case is still active. And so, you know, as much as you want to know, and I understand, it. We can't answer the specifics on the exact type of technology, but that will come out. All right, one more question over here. We have, I will say we have interviewed some family members without actually identifying who they are or what relationship they are. We have interviewed them, and they are as cooperative, and certainly it's quite a shock to them, as you might expect.

Can I ask the DA a question? Well, we're trying to backtrack that, so we're still working on the actual timeline from then to now. All right, one more. Do you want to get a quick question, Ms. Schubert? Yes, sir. They're tied up a loose end in this long story. There had been one point some discussion that the person in these cases was linked to something happened in Australia. I heard that yesterday, but that's not... Do you have any information in that universe or that's just still an open and loose end? We have no information the person is linked to Australia.

So I think this just about wraps it up for us today. I understand. Listen, I understand there's a lot of questions. We have a lot of work to do on the back end. There's a lot of folks behind me to have. have to get back to work. So I appreciate your time. I appreciate your patience. We will try to field interviews as information comes available. And I thank you again for coming today.