Sacramento DA releases e-book on impact of East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer
By Jordan Silva-Benham
The Sacramento District Attorney released
an e-book filled with people’s memories during the East Area Rapist’s crime spree in the region.
The identity of Joseph DeAngelo went unknown decades before being caught using DNA evidence in 2018. Prior to his arrest, he was known as the East Area Rapist and the Golden State Killer.
A few months ago, Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert asked members of the public to email their stories from the time to the DA’s Office. The stories were then compiled into “Sacramento, a Community Forever Changed: Stories From Those Who Through the Terror of the East Area Rapist.”
Schubert recants her own story in the beginning of the book. She was 12 years old in 1976, during the East Area Rapist’s spree.
“In my family, my older sister was 16 and afraid to babysit for fear the ‘boogeyman’ was coming,” Schubert wrote. “My mother slept with an icepick under her pillow. Years later, I learned my father bought a gun.”
The book is split into four sections: “When They Were Children,” “When They Were Teenagers,” “When They Were Young Adults,” “When They Were Parents” and “The Voices of Survivors” — which links to videos of victim impact statements.
Many of the memories include adding additional locks to their homes, purchasing guns and memorizing the police department’s phone number, because 911 did not exist at the time. Some explained that they had been attacked by him, or that he had called their home phones.
A woman from West Sacramento, who goes by D.C. said that she remembered being only 7 or 8 years old at the time. Her family bought additional locks for the door, and her father told her not to go to the store late at night.
“It did feel like our innocence had been taken away by this horrible individual,” she wrote.
Those who sent in their statements often explained not only the relief that they felt after DeAngelo was arrested, but also the pain they felt as the memories came back.
“Now that he is serving a life sentence, and I put my buried memories to paper, I can put it behind me,” one Sacramento victim stated. “He will take the torch and live with the consequences until his dying day. I hope all of his victims and their families can find peace too.”
DeAngelo’s crimes began with a series of burglaries and rapes in the Sacramento area, but escalated to murders as DeAngelo moved his focus to the Central Valley, the Bay Area and Southern California.
In 2001, authorities realized the same person had carried out all the crimes. Combined, he has acknowledged committing crimes against 87 individual victims, during attacks at 53 separate crime scenes.
A DNA match from a genealogical website eventually pointed investigators to DeAngelo, a Navy veteran who served as a police officer in Exeter and Auburn before being fired for shoplifting. He was found living in Citrus Heights near Sacramento, and was arrested in 2018 at the age of 72.
DeAngelo pleaded guilty in August and was sentenced to life in prison.
https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2020/...ses-e-book-on-impact-of-east-area-rapist/amp/