Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. In the San Joaquin Valley , DeAngelo was known as the Visalia Ransacker from to , before moving to the Sacramento area , where he became known as the East Area Rapist from to and was linked by modus operandi to additional attacks in Stockton , Modesto and Contra Costa County. He is believed to have taunted and threatened both victims and police via obscene phone calls and possibly written communications. During the decades-long investigation, several suspects were cleared through DNA evidence , alibis or other investigative methods.
Owing to California's statute of limitations on pre rape cases, [ 18 ] DeAngelo could not be charged with the rapes he had committed in the s; [ 19 ] but he was charged in August with thirteen related kidnapping and abduction attempts.
January 19, β February 15, , a sergeant in the United States Army. He played on the school's junior varsity baseball team. In May , DeAngelo became engaged to nursing student Bonnie Jean Colwell, a classmate at Sierra College, but she ended the relationship in after he became manipulative and abusive, [ 40 ] culminating in his demand that she help him cheat on an abnormal psychology test.
In , they purchased a house in Citrus Heights, where he was eventually arrested decades later. The couple separated in Neither his wife nor his children ever suspected he was committing serious crimes. His eldest daughter claimed he was a "perfect father", [ 48 ] while his wife believed his excuses for being away from home. DeAngelo's employment history during the s is unknown. DeAngelo's brother-in-law claimed that DeAngelo would casually bring up the East Area Rapist in conversation around the time of the original crimes.
Neighbors also reported that he would frequently engage in loud, profane outbursts. He also committed more than 50 known rapes in the California counties of Sacramento , Contra Costa , Stanislaus , San Joaquin , Alameda , Santa Clara , and Yolo ; and he was linked to hundreds of incidents of thefts, burglaries , vandalism , peeping , stalking , and prowling. It was long suspected that the training ground of the criminal who became the East Area Rapist was Visalia. In late-April , the Visalia chief of police stated that while there was no DNA linking DeAngelo to the Central Valley cases, his department had other evidence that played a role in the investigation; and he was "confident that the Visalia Ransacker has been captured".
