Golden State Killer

American serial killer, rapist, burglar and former police officer

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Fame63.7
Momentum11.9
United States rank#243
Journalists rank#167
Wikipedia128.9K

Born 1945 · age 81United States

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Wikipedia
28 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in United States
#243
Journalists
Age
81
Born 1945
Awards
3
recognised works

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

Joseph James DeAngelo committed at least thirteen murders, over fifty rapes, and more than a hundred burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986 — then stopped. He was a police officer during part of the rampage. The attention comes from the decades he lived undetected and the forensic genetic genealogy that finally identified him in 2018.

Biography

About

DeAngelo began in the mid-1970s with burglaries in Visalia before escalating to serial rape in Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto, and Contra Costa County. From 1979 to 1986 he murdered at least ten people in Southern California, taunting victims and police through obscene phone calls. In 2001, DNA linked cases previously thought to involve separate offenders, creating the combined term EARONS. Crime writer Michelle McNamara coined "Golden State Killer" in the 2010s to raise awareness. In April 2018, investigators used forensic genetic genealogy to identify family members and charged the then-72-ye…

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