Serial Killer Caught Today

SACRAMENTO — It was a rash of sadistic rapes and murders that spread terror throughout California, long before the term was commonly used. The scores of attacks in the 1970s and 1980s went unsolved for more than three decades. But on Wednesday, law enforcement officials said they had finally arrested the notorious Golden State Killer in a tidy suburb of Sacramento.

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who was taken into custody outside his home on Tuesday and charged with six counts of murder, had been living undisturbed a half-hour drive from where the 12-year rampage began. He was described as a former police officer, and his time in uniform partly overlapped with many of the crimes he is accused of committing.

The case was cracked in the past week, Sheriff Scott Jones of Sacramento County said on Wednesday, when investigators identified Mr. DeAngelo and were able to match his DNA with the murders of Lyman and Charlene Smith in Ventura County in 1980.

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK or the BTK Strangler.He gave himself the name 'BTK' (for 'bind, torture, kill'). Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in the Wichita, Kansas metro area. Golden State Killer: Ex-cop arrested in serial murder-rape cold case Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who police say fits the description of the elusive California killer, was arrested overnight.

“We found the needle in the haystack and it was right here in Sacramento,” said Anne Marie Schubert, the Sacramento district attorney, who helped organize a task force two years ago that included investigators from across the state as well as the F.B.I. A DNA database showed links to other murders in Southern California, the authorities said Wednesday.

A series of rapes in an old gold mining area east of Sacramento in 1976 were first linked by the authorities for their geographic proximity, the similar description of the rapist — a white male with blond hair who was just under six feet tall — and the peculiar and cruel rituals that he inflicted on his victims. His victims included women home alone and women at home with their children. The suspect went on to rape women with their husbands present and then murder them both. He is also thought to have burglarized more than 120 homes.

He became an infamous figure, sometimes known as the Golden State Killer and other times as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker. His planning was meticulous and he seemed to know precise details about his victims’ schedules. They described the gravelly, angry whisper that he used as he tormented them. He wore gloves and a mask and was a predator with quirks: As his victims lay terrified, he would pause for a snack of crackers after raping them. He placed a teacup and saucer on the bodies of some of his victims and threatened them with murder if he heard the ceramic rattle.

With communities panicking — at one point his assaults averaged two victims a month — the authorities hired a range of experts to help them break the case, among them a military special forces officer and a psychic.

Then, when the rapes and murders appeared to end in 1986, the case went cold.

National interest was reignited this year with the publication of an exhaustive investigation into the serial killer’s identity, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” written by Michelle McNamara, a crime writer who died in April 2016. The book, published in February, was completed after her death by a journalist and researcher recruited by her husband, the comedian Patton Oswalt.

Mr. Oswalt spoke about the reported capture on Wednesday in a video posted on Instagram. “I think you got him, Michelle,” he said.

Mr. DeAngelo, whom the authorities suspect of committing a total of 12 murders, was arrested by investigators using some of the same tactics employed by the suspect to stalk his victims — the police surveilled his movements, studied his routines and pounced when he left his house.

He was arrested on a warrant stemming from the murder of the married couple in Ventura County in Southern California, but the authorities said more charges were in the works. The Orange County district attorney’s office announced four additional charges late on Wednesday.

Residents of the neighborhoods stalked by the killer said he changed the way they lived their lives. A carefree California lifestyle of open doors and children riding their bicycles to school was forever changed with the knowledge that a rapist now lurked.

“One person can create a lot of fear,” said Tony Rackauckas, the district attorney of Orange County and one of the dozens of officials on hand in Sacramento to announce Mr. DeAngelo’s arrest. “It was like terrorism — not that it was done for the same reason — but it caused the same type of fear.”

The case had a profound impact not just on fear and public safety in California, but also on the way that rapes were investigated and how rape victims were treated, said Carol Daly, a detective in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office at the time.

Locks sold out at hardware stores and over 6,000 guns were sold, she said. Community safety forums would be packed with hundreds of people.

Rape victims were seen and cared for faster, and pubic hair, scratches and other evidence were examined and preserved, she said. Rape kits were standardized. “Every victim went through the process,” she said.

Bruce Harrington, whose brother Keith Harrington and sister-in-law Patrice Harrington were among the murder victims, joined law enforcement officers at the news conference. It was “time for the victims to begin to heal,” he said.

“Sleep better tonight, he isn’t coming in through the window,” he said. “He’s now in jail, and he’s history.”

One victim, Jane Carson-Sandler, who was raped in 1976, said on Wednesday that she was overwhelmed with emotion.

Ms. Carson-Sandler, 72, said she had always believed that her rapist was alive and that he would be caught. The hatred and anger she felt eventually faded, she said, but she continued to pray for two things each night: that he would be identified, and that she wouldn’t dream about the rape.

She never did dream about it, she said, and on Wednesday morning she turned on her phone to learn that a suspect had been arrested.

“I just feel so blessed that God has finally answered all of our prayers, that this monster would eventually be put behind bars,” she said.

Mr. DeAngelo, who has adult children, was twice employed as a police officer in two small California cities: In Exeter, in the Central Valley, from 1973 to 1976, and in Auburn, north of Sacramento, from 1976 to 1979, according to Mr. Jones.

He was convicted in 1979 for shoplifting a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a store in Sacramento County. The incident led to his dismissal from the Auburn police force. The arrest came amid the rash of rapes in the area.

Golden State Murderer Caught

One of the neighborhoods where the suspect repeatedly struck was Rancho Cordova, a Sacramento suburb of ranch houses, redwood and birch trees, trim lawns and rose bushes. Pss video software download.

In one attack in 1978, Brian and Katie Maggiore, a couple living in the area, were walking their dog in their neighborhood around 9 p.m. After a “violent encounter” with the suspect, they tried to flee, ending up in a private yard, where they were fatally shot, the sheriff’s department said in February, appealing to the public for leads.

Diane Peterson, a retired teacher who lives in Rancho Cordova, said Wednesday that theories about who was behind the rapes and home intrusions had remained a topic of conversation in the neighborhood in the four decades since the attacks began.

“It never totally died down,” Ms. Peterson said. “People would have their own suspicions as to who it might be.”

Serial Killer Caught California

Jean McNeill, a retired employee for the state board of equalization who lives near where one of the murders took place, said she was “elated” Wednesday morning when she heard that the suspect might have been captured.

She remembered the terror that the killer instilled in the neighborhood.

“I can remember thinking, ‘It’s getting dark and no one is home with me — I’ve got to be really careful,’” she said. “That’s what made it so frightening. We didn’t know when he was going to strike next.”

After the Maggiore murders, the attacker was not believed to have struck in the Sacramento area again. But in 2001, investigators using DNA evidence linked the crime to others committed in the Bay Area, and to murders in Southern California, the sheriff’s department said.

In June 2016, the F.B.I. announced at a news conference that it would offer a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the “prolific serial rapist and murderer.”

“We came together to bring solace to the victims,” Sean Ragan, special agent in charge of the Sacramento office for the F.B.I., said Wednesday. “But we know the pain and anguish has never subsided.”

Good morning.

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The day after law enforcement officials announced that they had finally arrested the Golden State Killer, the focus turned to the question of “how?”

As my colleague Thomas Fuller put it, “it was technology that got him.” (You can read his article here.)

By the late afternoon on Thursday, officials at the Sacramento district attorney’s office were delving further into exactly how they traced the man they accuse of committing more than 50 rapes and 12 murders. The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by the police this week.

Investigators, it turned out, had used DNA from crime scenes that had been stored over the decades and plugged the genetic profile of the suspected assailant into an online genealogy database. Eventually, they traced the DNA to the suspect’s front door.

Those who had investigated the case for years were ecstatic.

And then there were all the victims to consider.

My colleagues Jennifer Medina and Jose A. Del Real spoke to several victims and members of their families.

As one relative noted: “This not a club anyone really wants to be a member of.”

You can read their article here.

More from The New York Times:

• What do we know about Joseph James DeAngelo? Let us explain. [The New York Times]

• Mr. DeAngelo lived in Citrus Heights — a suburban neighborhood east of Sacramento that one resident called “quiet, sweet,” and “boring.” [The New York Times]

• The Golden State Killer’s barrage of rapes and murders began in 1976 and seemed to have ended by 1986. Why, sometimes, do serial killers just stop? [The New York Times]

Additional coverage:

• Investigators were digging in Mr. DeAngelo’s backyard on Thursday, but by the early evening had not uncovered anything. [The Los Angeles Times]

• One longtime cold case investigator had tracked Mr. DeAngelo to his door. But then he drove home. [The Mercury News]

• “There was nothing really while he was working at the Auburn Police Department that would say he was a mass murderer,” his former boss said. [CBS Sacramento]

• Did military and law enforcement training help the suspect evade capture? [The Sacramento Bee]

• How about a middle-class life? [The Los Angeles Times]

• This audio slide show takes you through the headlines from 1979 to 2018. [The Sacramento Bee]

• Here are a few podcasts, videos and stories that take deep dives into what was, until recently, a cold case. [Vox]

• Mr. DeAngelo’s first court appearance is scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m. in Sacramento. [SFGate]

California Online

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

• Hundreds of migrants who arrived in Tijuana this week after a month traveling are planning to walk to the border crossing on Sunday. Many believe that now, only President Trump stands in their way. [The New York Times]

• San Joaquin County supervisors have stripped their sheriff of his responsibilities in death investigations after allegations surfaced that he used his political office to shield officers who killed civilians. [KQED]

• California regulators have fined Pacific Gas and Electric Co. $97.5 million for “improper back-channel communications” after the deadly 2010 San Bruno pipeline blast. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

• Conservative groups at the University of California, Berkeley can sue the school over the restrictions officials placed on high-profile speakers, a judge has ruled. [SFGate]

• A $9 billion water bond has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in November. [Capital Public Radio]

• The N.F.L. Draft began on Thursday. Sam Darnold, of Southern California, was picked third by the Jets; Josh Rosen, of U.C.L.A., went 10th to the Arizona Cardinals. [The New York Times]

• Here’s an analysis of all 32 picks in the first round. [The New York Times]

And Finally ..

For baseball fans in Los Angeles, there are few things better than soaking in a perfect California sunset at Dodger Stadium.

The problem is getting there.

Traffic on Sunset Boulevard at 5:30 p.m. on a game night is the stuff of legend. Buses fill a dedicated lane, drivers flee to side streets, and still, making first pitch can feel nearly impossible.

California Serial Killer Caught Today

Under this kind of duress, it’s likely that at least a few Angelenos have fantasied at the wheel about one day being able to soar over the congestion and float to the front of Chavez Ravine.

Perhaps, by 2022, they will be able to do just that.

Serial Killer Just Caught

On Thursday, Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies announced plans for what is effectively a gondola lift that would send passengers from downtown’s Union Station to Dodger Stadium in about five minutes.

The proposal, which was submitted to Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation this week, was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.

Officials said the system would whisk more than 5,000 riders per hour in each direction, eliminating hundreds of thousands of annual car trips.

Its price tag? $125 million, funded in part by Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies and in part by other private financing.

In a telephone interview, the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric M. Garcetti, said there would be no cost to taxpayers. He said he expected that rides would cost a “few bucks” — a “single digit” dollar amount.

“I’ve dreamed about this for years,” said Mr. Garcetti, who has lived just blocks from Dodger Stadium. “Traffic is so terrible at Dodgers games. It’s the only bad thing you experience — short of a loss, of course.”

Officials say public review could begin by the end of this year. In a prepared statement, the Los Angeles Dodgers expressed support for the project, calling it “important and innovative.”

And already on Thursday, Mr. Garcetti was imagining Vin Scully’s voice welcoming fans to the aerial tram.

“People don’t think of L.A. as a romantic city,” he said. “But I think it’s as romantic as Paris or any other city in the world. And this would just kind of cement it.”

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.