Decades after the crimes began, a revolutionary investigative technique gives detectives their first real path toward identifying the unknown offender.
Before he became the Golden State Killer, an unknown offender began a series of increasingly serious crimes in California.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
8 min
About The Global Casebook - The Golden State Killer
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For more than four decades, an unidentified predator terrorized communities across California. He entered homes at night. He stalked his victims. He committed sexual assaults, robberies and…
murders. Investigators knew him by different names as the years passed: the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker. Eventually, the crimes would become connected to one unknown offender. But his identity remained a mystery. Then, in 2018, investigators used a relatively new forensic technique — investigative genetic genealogy — to identify a suspect who had remained hidden in plain sight for decades. His name was Joseph James DeAngelo. In this episode of The Global Casebook, we follow the investigation from its earliest crimes through the decades-long search, the breakthrough in genetic genealogy, DeAngelo's arrest, his guilty plea and the final chapter of one of America's most notorious cold cases.
Disclaimer: This podcast discusses real criminal cases using publicly available information, including court records, official documents and reporting from established news organizations. The purpose of this episode is documentary and informational. Allegations are presented as allegations and are attributed to the relevant authorities or sources. A person accused of a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty according to applicable law. In this episode, we discuss sexual violence, murder and other serious crimes. Graphic details have been omitted where they are not necessary to understand the case. We do not intend to glorify the offender or cause unnecessary distress to victims, survivors or their families.