[dramatic music]
- He was a sex offender, a rapist.
- They called him the Golden State Killer.
- The pressure to catch this man has been mounting.
Citizens began buying everything they could think of
to protect themselves.
Gun sales are way up.
[fires gun]
- He was extremely frightening.
He was entering homes in the middle of the night
when the victims were sleeping.
He'd ransack their homes
and would sexually assault the female victim.
- He favors quiet, upper-class suburbs.
Usually works in the predawn hours, wearing a ski
or stocking mask.
- All told, over 50 women were raped and 13 people murdered.
- But no one could ever catch him.
None of the sexual assault victims got a look at him.
- We have a composite. It's a guy wearing a ski mask.
- And that's it. So how do we identify him?
- By going after their DNA.
- We knew it was a long shot,
but the FBI was not going to let this go.
♪
- In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines--
♪
drug busts, mob stings,
terrorist takedowns.
- Get down! [shouting]
- We understand why people want to tell stories about us.
- Mark it. - Freeze!
- FBI. - FBI!
- Action! - But they don't know
the half of it.
What really goes down,
we save that for each other,
when we're talking agent-to-agent.
This is "FBI True."
[dark tone]
♪
Kristy Kottis is a 24-year veteran of the FBI.
She worked gangs, crimes against children,
as well as human and drug trafficking.
Kottis was the supervisor of the FBI's
threat response squad
overseeing the Bureau's response to terrorism threats
in New York City.
[light music]
- Julia, why don't you tell me what your role was in the FBI,
and how did you get on the case?
- At the time that I was assigned this case,
I was assigned to the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.
- Julia Cowley was with the FBI for over 22 years.
She was selected to join the Bureau's
Behavioral Analysis Unit.
Cowley was the lead FBI profiler on this case.
- When I joined the FBI, this was the kind of case
that I hoped to work on and to contribute to.
I was still fairly new in the unit,
and my boss called me in, and he said,
"Have you ever heard of the East Area--"
and I said, "East Area Rapist?"
I had heard about the case many years before.
I was a younger agent, and I was on maternity leave,
and I saw a documentary on the case.
And I became very interested in the case.
- It was the first case that was assigned
to me as a homicide detective.
- Larry Pool worked as an investigator
with the Orange County Sheriff's Department
for over 15 years.
In 1994, he was the first law enforcement officer
to spot OJ Simpson fleeing in the White Ford Bronco.
He's assigned the case of the East Area Rapist in 1998.
- Julia, what was it about this case that intrigued you?
- Just how frightening that this individual was.
[suspenseful music]
- A California community unhinged.
Every month from 1976 to 1979,
the so-called East Area Rapist would strike.
Who was he? And was he hiding in plain sight?
- He was entering homes in the middle of the night
when the victims were sleeping.
He threatened to kill them,
and then he would sexually assault the female victim.
♪
- Residents are so horror-stricken,
some women rent motel rooms.
- Just out of fear?
- I believe so.
Yes, I definitely believe so, yes.
- Which motel are they going to?
- The one gal that I know went to Howard Johnson's.
- Citizens began buying everything they could think of
to protect themselves.
Gun sales are way up.
- I live alone, and I would like to learn
how to protect myself.
[fires gun]
- And, you know, just to clarify,
he was called the East Area Rapist
for the series of sexual assaults.
- By the early '80s, the East Area Rapist
was now linked to several murders.
By the 2010s, he got a new moniker--
the Golden State Killer.
The relentless evil was startling.
Over 50 women raped,
13 murdered.
- The last homicide that was attributed to him
was in 1986, so he had stopped.
So how do we identify him?
How are we going to find him?
So I ended up reviewing 45 sexual assault cases
and 13 homicides.
Behaviors are really important.
How did they commit their crime?
What steps did they take or not take?
What did they say? What words did they choose?
All this stuff can tell you a lot.
I got involved many years
after Larry had been on the case.
- Detective Larry Pool in Santa Ana
is obsessed with finding a brutal serial murderer
and rapist who frequently telephoned his victims
before his attacks.
- Not only is the killer terrorizing his victims,
he also taunts the Sacramento Police.
- Our offender is one of the most brazen,
if not most brazen, serial killers
of perhaps American history.
There was a lot of public pressure
to identify the Golden State Killer.
We have a composite for that person.
It's a guy wearing a ski mask.
But it's of no investigative value.
- But the rapist and killer does leave
something behind that could unravel
the mystery of his identity.
Semen was found with several of his murder victims.
- In August 19, 1980, the murder
of Keith and Patrice Harrington,
and then February of 1981,
Manuela Witthuhn in Irvine.
And then May of 1986, Janelle Cruz, also in Irvine.
And thankfully, through our crime lab,
they were able to extract the perpetrator's DNA
from his semen.
- Why didn't this lead to the identification of the killer?
- There are a lot of databases that investigators
back in the original homicides didn't have access to.
The FBI National DNA databank
didn't come online until about 1998.
- So even though we have DNA for the East Area Rapist,
we don't have that in a database.
- Yes, that's correct.
- That must have been frustrating.
So now you're back to square one.
So what are you doing?
Take me through that.
- So it started with me looking back
through the investigations,
ensure that I had every document, note,
anything that had ever been written
pertaining to each investigation.
What I was thinking was that when the killing stopped,
something interrupted him.
- So one of the studies that I did is people who
are incarcerated during that period of time,
and I figure that's probably where he was--in prison.
So I place a heavy emphasis on looking at people
who were free up until July 27th in 1981
and then in custody at least up until,
let's say, May 4th of 1986,
in that window of time.
There was a time when I went to death row,
looking at offenders on death row.
Because I figured, well, we've got a pretty captive audience
here that we know that they're committing,
you know, the worst, worst crimes.
- Pool's hunch about incarcerated perps
doesn't lead anywhere.
- The case went cold, so what am I doing wrong?
That's where Julia comes in.
- So we're going to bring in a profiler
to have access to more information that potentially
could identify him.
- That's correct.
- Julia, how long did you work on the case
before you contacted Larry?
- I had been working on the case about six months
before Larry and I actually had any contact.
I went out to California from Quantico.
♪
All the different jurisdictions were there
all the detectives.
And he looked over at me and said,
"I'll be very interested to see what the FBI has to say.
That is, if they're willing to share their opinion."
And I just said, "I'll tell you what I think.
I'm not afraid to tell you what I think."
And he just went, "OK."
- [laughs] - And I wasn't sure
how to take that, but I took it
as maybe he was skeptical.
But I took it to heart because
I didn't want to disappoint him.
I had gone through all the material,
and I had a pretty good understanding of the offender.
- What did you come up with?
- In my initial assessment,
I thought he was a very insecure individual,
that this was the ultimate overcompensation
for his lack of confidence
and his feelings of ineffectiveness.
He was very ritualistic in what he did.
And he did it the same way almost every single time.
He would put fragile items on the doorknobs
so that if people came home, he would hear them,
and he'd be able to escape.
♪
- He usually works in the pre-dawn hours,
wearing a ski or stocking mask, and often spends
several hours in the home,
tying up husbands or male companions.
- Once he had the victims bound,
he would go ransack the house,
and he was very loud about it.
He would open and close drawers and slam cabinets.
And he would be gulping food in their kitchen.
And once he spent a lot of time doing this,
he'd separate the female victim from the male,
I think to mitigate any risk that the male victim
was going to try to intervene.
- Cowley believes the attacker's motivation
was not just about his female victims.
- In my opinion, the victim selection was really
about the male victim.
This is a man who wanted to dominate other men,
and this was a way that he could exert his control
and take over-- take over their home,
have sexual access to their female companions
right in the same home with them.
And I was very interested in evidence that really
factored in to this idea
that he was a very insecure individual.
The majority of the female victims,
in describing the offender,
said he had an abnormally small penis.
- Even in the erect state?
- Yes. And they were very descriptive about its size.
I didn't put all the weight-- oh, he's got to be insecure,
he's got a small penis.
It was all of the behavior he exhibited
in front of his victims when he tried to portray
this big, tough, scary individual in control.
And from then on out, he's taken the ultimate control,
which is to murder them.
- Larry, when you first heard Julia's findings
on the profile of the potential subject,
what were your thoughts?
- My thoughts were everything that
she described was consistent with my feelings at the time.
I felt that it was pretty spot on.
As you take all those elements into consideration,
it gives you a better chance of being able
to solve the investigation.
- There was also evidence he was
very good at entering homes.
- Through either prying a regular door, a sliding door,
removing screens from windows, prying windows,
opening windows--
he essentially entered a home just about every way but,
you know, coming down the chimney.
- There is also evidence of the Golden State Killer's
tactical expertise.
- When he was confronted with a life or death situation
or with a situation where he would have to get
into a physical fight with an able-bodied, competent male,
he immediately went to deadly force,
and that was with a gun.
And he was very good at using a gun, very accurate,
able to hit his target in a high-stress situation.
And I ended up telling the working group
that I thought he had some sort of formal firearms training.
- What I was thinking was that, was he prior military?
- Why did you think that?
- Military history was a fairly common thread to be found
in many serial offenders.
- Right.
- But the other really interesting part of this case
was his ability to evade law enforcement.
I mean, 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.
- Larry, what are you thinking? - It really wasn't a stretch,
especially back in the '70s and '80s,
to say that a serial offender could be in law enforcement.
There are other well-known cases
where police officers were convicted of serial crimes.
I felt that we should be putting more information out,
getting things out on social media, to the media,
informing the public as much as we can
without actually hindering the investigation.
- That might help to identify him.
- Our Top Story At 6:30, the FBI is making a renewed effort
to find a serial murderer and rapist
who struck all around the Bay Area in the '70s and '80s.
Agents say he's been on the loose ever since,
and they believe he can still be found.
- Did the FBI offer a substantial financial reward
for any information?
- They offered $50,000 reward.
- The unknown suspect committed more than 45 rapes
and a dozen homicides between 1976 and 1986.
- They did this public information campaign,
put out a lot of information about the case,
about the offender to try to get him identified.
- His primary entrance into a residence
was by prying open doors or windows.
- The campaign and the reward failed
to produce any strong leads.
- It was almost becoming a last chance that we were
going to be able to catch him.
- But fortunately there was hope due to advancements
in DNA technology.
- By 2018, the DNA analysis available to law enforcement
has evolved significantly, with up to 13 million
criminal profiles in the FBI's DNA databank.
- And with that, we stood more of an opportunity
to identify the subject.
- So the DNA from semen found decades earlier was submitted
to the crime lab to see if it could
lead to some potential subjects,
possibly a police officer.
- So I had more candidates than I thought I would.
We had about 1,000. - Wow.
- But we had some very talented analysts in Sacramento
at the DA's office that began to work on that list.
Essentially that initial list of 1,000
was reverse engineered back to about a list of 25.
And that 25 was a workable list.
- And this one suspect really stood out.
- What was it?
- I think the number one thing is that
he was living in Sacramento, in Citrus Heights.
- Yeah, he was a police officer
at Exeter Police Department from '73 to '76.
In '76, he's resigned.
And then he moved from Exeter to the Sacramento area
right around the time when our East Area Rapist occurs.
- And that suspect is?
- Joseph DeAngelo.
- Divorced and a father of three adult daughters,
DeAngelo becomes the prime suspect in the case.
- So in 2018, the deputies at the Sacramento County
Sheriff's Office, they put him under surveillance
and they obtained a DNA sample surreptitiously.
- There was DNA that was lifted from the door handle
of DeAngelo's car, and additional DNA
material was obtained after that from a discarded tissue.
- Wow. Amazing.
- I was getting pretty excited, but at the same time
I learned to not get very excited over the years.
Because the more excited you get,
the more let down you are.
- So Paul Holes, who was one of the investigators on the case
had this idea to submit one of the samples of DNA
from a crime scene to one of these online ancestry
companies that track heritage.
- And then that was ingested into the ancestral databanks
where that information is pooled.
- The genealogical website GEDmatch.com contains
the genetic profiles of thousands of users
looking to research their family trees.
It's a Hail Mary from investigators,
but if Joseph DeAngelo or any of his relatives
have entered their DNA into the site,
it could confirm the investigators' suspicions.
- That DNA sample was a match.
- I think the initial list was around 1,000,
but that was culled down,
and people were brought on board
with the expertise in having that ability
to reverse engineer a family tree
until we were whittled down to a list of 25.
And certainly, on that list, Mr. DeAngelo bopped.
- That ultimately led to the identification
of the Golden State Killer.
That's what solved it.
- And we begin with breaking news out of California,
where authorities tonight say they have arrested
a serial killer tied to dozens of murders
and sexual assaults,
72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo.
- We all knew as part of this team
that we were looking for a needle in a haystack.
We found the needle in the haystack.
- And what did that feel like?
What are you both thinking?
- I was exhilarated.
- I got the call as soon as he was arrested,
and I couldn't have been happier to hear it.
- DeAngelo is a former police officer,
and DNA led investigators to him,
police arresting him at his home in Citrus Heights
near Sacramento, accused of at least
12 murders, 45 rapes, and dozens of burglaries
across the state.
- A tent was set up as FBI agents collected evidence.
Neighbors looked on, wondering if they had been living
in close proximity to the notorious rapist
and killer who spread fear across the state.
- Joseph James DeAngelo has been called
the Golden State Killer.
Today, it's our pleasure to call him defendant.
- His first appearance in court,
his eyes were vacant.
- 72-year-old Joseph DeAngelo, handcuffed to a wheelchair,
looked like he could barely hold his head up as he made
his first court appearance.
- He looked as though he was a decrepit, old man,
his posture, his gaze.
He seemed very feeble.
- That's Joe DeAngelo when all his control
has been taken away. - Yeah.
- He completely imploded.
- Do you understand, Mr. DeAngelo, that you'll
be entering guilty pleas to 13 counts of murder
in the first degree, omitting special circumstances?
- I don't think he could have sat there and gone through
a trial, and he didn't.
- How do you plead?
- Guilty.
- I heard just the incredible toll and impact that
it's had on all the victims.
- In the early morning of July 17, 1976,
my life was changed forever.
I was 15 years old.
- He raped me, stole my innocence, my security,
threatened my life, threatened the lives of my family.
I was 13 years old.
- DeAngelo, I want you to look at me.
I want you to look at me, DeAngelo.
- You hid in plain sight, and you are now visible
for everyone to despise, loathe, and abhor.
The devil can keep you company in your prison cell
as he gnaws away at whatever soul you have left.
- Everyone is changed forever by an experience like this.
The far-reaching impact that this man
had on all of their families is really
an untold number of people that this man has affected.
- Today, I am in the room with the pathetic excuse
of a man who will now finally be held
accountable for his actions.
- From now on, while he is withering away in prison,
I will be spending my days fishing on the river,
enjoying my family and grandchild,
eating out and relaxing in the comfort of my home, free.
I will be free of the fear he put me through for so long.
- I think what's really alarming is that if you saw
Joseph DeAngelo walking down the street,
you would never guess that this normal-looking
old man was capable of carrying out such evil acts.
[heavy breathing]
[somber music]
- It was an element of closure, although I think that word is
inadequate to describe the feeling of satisfaction
that you derive from having an offender like this identified.
I know that many other law enforcement officers
who were involved in the investigation over time
felt the same way.
- I think I was equally as happy for the detectives that
have spent their entire careers working on it, as I was,
for the victims and the victims' families.
[dramatic music]
♪