San Francisco, CA (SF Gate) — A suspect believed to be the notorious East Area Rapist, or Golden State Killer, was reportedly taken into custody early Wednesday morning in the Sacramento area — more than 30 years since he allegedly committed 12 murders and 45 rapes from 1976 to 1986.
Former Auburn Police Officer Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and booked on two counts of murder into the Sacramento County Jail at 2:30 a.m., according to jail records. He is being held without bail.
The Sacramento District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office said they plan to make a “major announcement” at a noon press conference about the East Area Rapsit, who has also gone by the monikers Original Nightstalker and Golden State Killer.
A suspect believed to be the notorious East Area Rapist, or Golden State Killer, was reportedly taken into custody early Wednesday morning in the Sacramento area — more than 30 years since he allegedly committed 12 murders and 45 rapes from 1976 to 1986.
Former Auburn Police Officer Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and booked on two counts of murder into the Sacramento County Jail at 2:30 a.m., according to jail records. He is being held without bail.
The Sacramento District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office said they plan to make a “major announcement” at a noon press conference about the East Area Rapsit, who has also gone by the monikers Original Nightstalker and Golden State Killer.
Authorities have not officially confirmed that DeAngelo is the suspected East Area Rapist, whose victims spanned across northern and central California. Victims lived in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Sacramento, Yolo, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.
Billy Jensen, one of the researchers of the recently published book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”— written by late author Michelle McNamara, who worked with investigators on the East Area Rapist case — announced on Twitter that a big break in the case would be announced Wednesday.
He tweeted a 1962 photo of DeAngelo and said, “If this is him, that’s enough time to lose the baby fat in his face.”
DeAngelo is a former Auburn police officer who was reportedly fired from the department in 1979 after he shoplifted a can of dog repellent and a hammer from a Sacramento drug store, according to archives from the Auburn Journal. His attorney at the time, Maurene Wheland, told The Chronicle on Wednesday that she did not remember representing him and hadn’t heard of his arrest in the cold case.
In 1967, the Journal reported that DeAngelo had returned from serving in the U.S. Navy in North Vietnam, where he worked on the gun line.
In addition to violent murder and rapes, authorities suspect the East Area Rapist in more than 150 residential break-ins across the state.
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