It’s been four decades since Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, terrorized the suburbs of Sacramento and stalked urban suburbs in Southern California, breaking into homes to rape and torture women and girls, and couples and young women in their beds. to kill. His crimes left a trail of destruction that haunted survivors and their families.
Now, the man who long remained a ‘faceless monster’ will be sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a courtroom in Sacramento.
The conviction, on the fortieth anniversary of two of the murders, follows three days of testimony from dozens of women and men who have survived DeAngelo’s crimes, as well as family members of them who did not commit it. Those who waited decades to confront DeAngelo were finally given the opportunity to do so; they spoke of the destructive fear with them since the attacks, the fear they felt before his arrest that he might return someday, and their efforts to get their lives back. They told DeAngelo that he had been defeated.
‘In your opinion, you will not be anyone. You’re not worth my family’s time anymore, ‘said Ken Smith, the brother of Katie Maggiore, a newlywed who was murdered in 1978 along with her husband, Brian. “You can not hurt anyone again.”
DeAngelo, wearing an orange jumpsuit and sitting in a wheelchair between his lawyers, brought most of the hearings straight to the front. Although he had previously worn a clear face shield, he, like everyone else present, wore a mask in the socially distinct courtroom.
The Golden State Killer, repeatedly called the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker, terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s. He remained one of America’s most notorious unidentified serial killers until lawmakers linked DeAngelo to the DNA case in 2018. The 74-year-old former police officer was officially convicted in June of 13 murders, as well as 13 of kidnapping- related charges, and between 1976 and 1979 he admitted to dozens of rapes in northern and central California that he could not be charged because of the statute of limitations.
Legislation had spent more than 40 years trying to resolve the issue, which swept 11 counties and profoundly affected the entire state, particularly in Sacramento, where gun and alarm sales plummeted during the peak of the attacks.
The offenders, and their long-unidentified offender, drew particular interest from the true crime community and brought dedicated discussion boards. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, a bestselling book about the true crime Michelle McNamara’s search for the Golden State Killer, drew widespread attention to the case when it was released shortly before DeAngelo’s arrest, and it led to an HBO series. Some of the victims credited McNamara by name for their work on the case.
The week brought emotional moments because, one by one, women and men gave powerful testimony, looking directly at the responsible man. The sheer number of survivors and family members showed the extent of DeAngelo’s reign. “He harassed me and kept telling me he was going to kill me and I believed him,” said Kris Pedretti, who was 15 when DeAngelo broke into her home and raped her. “On three different occasions that night, I thought I was going to die.”
At some point, even the judge wiped tears from his eyes as survivors and described their families, sometimes for nearly an hour, the lasting consequences of the attacks: divorce, post-traumatic stress disorder, and unshakable fear.
‘I have never felt safe for many years. I always looked over my shoulder and expected someone to jump on me, “said Patricia Murphy in a statement read by her daughter. ‘He hit me in the face and broke my nose. I had a hearing aid fall from behind and hit my head on the sidewalk … I did what I had to do to stay alive. “
Jennifer Carole described her father and stepmother, Lyman and Charlene Smith, who were assassinated by DeAngelo in 1980, as generous and lively. Carole was briefly a suspect in her murders and had to do a lie detector test. “I was an 18-year-old young woman, barely an adult, and a suspect in the murder of my own father,” she said. ‘Your honor, I ask you to imagine what that does to a child. I have lived with that shame for decades. It’s your shame, Joe. ”
She described DeAngelo as the “example of white privilege”.
“Joe was not kicked or stomped or even thrown to the ground when he was arrested. He was treated with dignity he did not deserve. “ she said of his eventual arrest by police in 2018. “Joe was a cop. He used that precious skill, designed to protect us from people like him, to commit heinous crimes. ”
Courtney Strauss, the daughter of Debbie Strauss, a victim of the East Area Rapist who died of cancer in 2016, described how her mother always believed that someone saw her and stood up several times a night around the locks on ‘ checking the doors.
Debbie Strauss’s sister, Sandy James, showed a picture of Strauss to the court and demanded that DeAngelo look at it. He did not.
Yet the opportunity to speak after all these years was great, Pedretti said.
“I feel powerful – just being able to say the sound and speak my truth,” she said. ‘I’m sure DeAngelo heard, if [or not] he wants us to know. But it does not matter, because it was for us, not him. “
Pedretti will attend the sentencing hearing Friday afternoon along with some of the other survivors. Some have grown particularly close over the last two years, developing friendships, gathering before and after hearings and at milestone moments such as the first anniversary of his arrest, and even sitting in the courtroom with each other during their statements about victims.
Pedretti has heard rumors that DeAngelo might be speaking. She is interested in what he would say. But, most of all, she looks forward to closing this chapter and moving on to the following: continuing to support other survivors of sexual assault.
“We are in exactly the same place as we were 40 years ago,” she said. ‘I’m actually sad and passionate about how many women and men have broken their lives without anyone talking to them. Therefore, I will continue to support others like me. We need a voice. ”
