Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.

In April 2018, DeAngelo was arrested and confessed to crimes committed from 1972 through 1986. This included:

• “The Cat Burglar that strikes Rancho Cordova and East Areas of Sacramento” in 1972-73;

• “The Cordova Meadows Burglar” 1973;

• From May 1973-August 1976, DeAngelo was an active duty police officer, and Sgt. in Exeter, twelve miles from Visalia, Tulare County, California:

• Staring in March, 1974, “The Visalia Ransacker” starting breaking into middle class homes in Visalia. They were evening burglaries in the neighborhoods of the high school and college, and little of value was taken. Most of the homes had teen girls, and their rooms appeared to be the focus of the burglar and the ransacking. 

•On September 11, 1975, the Ransacker kidnapped 16 year old Beth Snelling from her bed, and when her father, Claude Snelling, came to her rescue, the Ransacker killed him with two shots from a .38 Miroku revolver.

•Visalia PD detectives determined for certain that the Ransacker was the man at the Snelling house, and reinvestigated all of the burglaries looking for patterns and clues.

•In Exeter, DeAngelo was promoted to Sgt. and joined the county anti-burglary team.

• Visalia PD discovered that the Ransacker was stalking several teens girls, and peeping into their bedrooms. On December 10, 1975, they set up a radio silent stakeout, and the Ransacker shot his way out when confronted by Visalia PD Agent Bill McGowen at gunpoint:

• The fact that the shooter dropped a sock full of "loot" stolen earlier that night in a burglary confirmed that McGowen was shot by the Ransacker.

• At Exeter PD, DeAngelo continued to advance, and was put in charge of major crimes investigations. His resignation was announced on August 25, 1976, and he worked his first shift with Auburn PD on August 31, 1976. 

• He had already committed the first two Rancho Cordova EAR attacks in June and July.

• DeAngelo served as an officer at Auburn PD until July of 1979. During that time he committed at least 50 rapes, hundreds of residential burglaries, and killed Brian and Katie Maggiore. All of the stakeouts and extra patrols failed to stop him, which mystified law enforcement:

FBI True ( S2:Ep. 9 ), FBI Analyst Julia Cowley and Orange County cold case Investigator Larry Pool:

Larry:  “What I was thinking was that was he prior military, military history? It was a fairly common threat to be found in many serial offenders.” 

Julia:  “Right. But the other really interesting part of this case was his ability to evade law enforcement. At the height of his attacks in Sacramento, patrols were everywhere. And I wondered if he had some sort of inside information, if he understood law enforcement tactics when it came to surveillance and where they would be sitting. And I thought he potentially was a police officer at some point in time.”

• One of the answers was DeAngelo's access to CLETS which allowed him to read all of the law enforcement case information bulletins about his own crimes, and find out a victims's name and address from their license plates:

•While awaiting trial in Sacramento, DeAngelo committed his first S. California attack--likely to make it appear that the EAR had moved, while he was still living in Auburn.  On October 1, 1979 he lost control of a couple in Goleta, and they escaped. Later that month he was convicted, and dropped his appeal to get his job back.

•By the time of DeAngelo's 1979 arrest and firing, the East Area Rapist had attacked girls, women, and couples in Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, Del Dayo, Carmichael, Orangevale, Citrus Heights, Stockton, Foothill Farms, Modesto, Davis, Concord, San Ramon, San Jose, Danville, Fremont, and Walnut Creek. All while serving with Auburn PD.

• Apparently, wanting authorities to believe that the EAR had moved to Goleta, DeAngelo returned there, and lost control of another scene in December, 1979--ending in a double murder. 

• DeAngelo was still living in Auburn when he travelled to Ventura and killed the Smiths in March, 1980.

• In April, 1980 DeAngelo moved into the Citrus Heights home where he was arrested in 2018. He continued to live in Sacramento County, and offend in S. California, causing law enforcement's incorrect assumption that the EAR had moved.  

•Katie & Brian Maggiore in shot in Rancho Cordova on Thursday, February 2, 1978;

•Dr. Alexandria Manning & Dr. Robert Offerman shot in Goleta on Sunday, December 30, 1979;

•Charlene & Lyman Smith bludgeoned in Ventura on Thursday, March 13, 1980;

•Patrice & Keith Harrington bludgeoned in Dana Point on Tuesday, August 19, 1980;

•Manuela Withuhn bludgeoned in Irvine on Thursday, February 5, 1981 while her husband was in the hospital;

•Cheri Domingo & Greg Sanchez shot bludgeoned and shot in Goleta on Monday, July 27, 1981; and,

•Janelle Cruz bludgeoned in Irvine on Sunday, May 4, 1986 while her family was on vacation.

• Between March, 1983 and April, 1985, DeAngelo was involved in a civil suit in Sacramento. He had instigated a parking lot dispute at a Rancho Cordova hardware store. 

• The victim claimed that DeAngelo came at him over nothing, and that he had hit him in the face with his head in an act of self-defense. DeAngelo sued him over his injuries, and refused to accept an arbitrator's award.

•As the case moved towards arbitration, it became clear that DeAngelo's claim hinged entirely on the testimony of a Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy, Tom Roloff. He had been working off-duty as a security guard at the hardware store, and was called out to the parking lot to respond to the fight. 

•Roloff's testimony was that the victim was actually the aggressor, and could not claim self-defense. He admitted that he hadn't seen the start of the fight, but he still supported DeAngelo's version of events in court. Today, Roloff does not remember if DeAngelo told him that he was, or had been, a police officer. 

•The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department charged DeAngelo for Roloff's time to provide his testimony to the Arbitrator:

•DeAngelo had anticipated the witness fee, and had already deposited most of the funds in trust with the court to guarantee that Deputy Roloff would appear.

•DeAngelo lost on his attempt to force the victim to appear, and he never did. He and his attorney received nothing on his claim.

•DeAngelo did, in fact, pay for Deputy Roloff's time to testify for him, the Arbitrator believed his version of events, and made an award to DeAngelo, but he rejected the amount as too low.

•2024 phone interview information from Tom Roloff:

He was working off duty at Brown’s Hardware when the French guy assaulted DeAngelo. Some sort of disturbance caught his attention. When he stepped outside he saw the French guy butt head DeAngelo.

First thing he did was identify himself which stopped the fight. Beyond court he had no further contact with either of them.  Because he had been on a special assignment  searching for the EAR he found it ironic he was a witness for DeAngelo. 

•Despite ongoing statements by Sacramento authorities that DeAngelo "left the area" after killing the Maggiores on February 2, 1978, they know for a fact that he did not. They criminally prosecuted him in October, 1979 and appeared as a witness for him in 1983-85. They have actual knowledge that their statements are false.

•Deputy Roloff's statement was correct, he was an EAR investigator, assigned to identify and capture the same person he assisted in court: 

On August 21, 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to life with no parole for all of the admitted crimes originally charged in 2018:

• 13 counts of 1st degree murder, 6 of those committed with a firearm; and

• 13 counts of kidnapping girls and women with the use of a firearm.

Additionally, DeAngelo admitted his guilt in crimes alleged in his arrest warrant, but uncharged because the statue of limitations had expired:

•The plea deal saved the taxpayers an enormous amount of money compared to a death penalty trial. Additionally, the survivors and family members were able to make impact statements, and directly confront DeAngelo. 

•However, the plea deal included a very unusual promise to DeAngelo that "no additional charges would be brought based on admissions to uncharged acts." That means that DeAngelo had admitted, or was expected to admit additional (uncharged) crimes for which the statute of limitations had not expired. Currently in CA only forcible rape, murder, and violent/ransom kidnappings have no statue of limitations--otherwise the longest SOL for a felony is six years. The SOL for rape was changed from 10 years to unlimited on January 1, 2017. That means one of two things:

--DeAngelo was still committing felonies after 2012; and/or,

--DeAngelo admitted to additional homicides/serious kidnappings, he will never be charged, and there will be no justice for the survivors/families. 

•The strangest thing about this part of the plea deal is that it appears that the prosecutors agreed to keep some of DeAngelo's most serious crimes secret, instead of asking for admission in open court, and allowing victim impact statements. Why?

•The press did not do its job here. They have ignored DeAngelo's 7 hour video interview--nobody has gone to court to force its release to the public, and journalists seem to believe that magically every single crime DeAngelo ever committed was included in the warrants before he was even arrested. Anne Marie Schubert handed them a neat package with a bow, and they never questioned it. 

Why would the DAs want to hide the other crimes DeAngelo admitted? There are several possibilities:

--He committed the crimes under color of law, meaning using his badge, uniform, car, or law enforcement databases like searching license plates to get addresses;

--Other men were tried and/or convicted of these crimes; and/or,

--Law enforcement denied connections, missed patterns, or would otherwise be embarrassed by the admissions.