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One of the most sadistic men in California history may well have never been put behind bars if not for the clues left (and retained) at three crime scenes in the San Ramon Valley in the 1970s.
That’s among my big takeaways from a phone interview Monday with Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho.
A line prosecutor whose career trajectory – whose entire life – changed when he was assigned to close a series of terrible cold cases committed by the same culprit up and down the state, Ho recounts the long road to convict Joseph DeAngelo in his new book “The People vs. the Golden State Killer” due out next week.
“Justice never forgets. It never sleeps … even after 40 years,” Ho told me.
The book tries to take a different approach than others that have covered the crimes ultimately tied to DeAngelo in 2018 – a serial predator known by several chilling nicknames over the decades, including “East Area Rapist”, “The Original Night Stalker”, “Visalia Ransacker” and of course, “Golden State Killer”.
Ho presents an insider’s analysis from the prosecutor’s point of view, representing “the generation of law enforcement who never gave up, and an emphasis on providing a voice for the victims”.
He sees his book as sort of the third in an unofficial trilogy on the DeAngelo case, alongside “Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases” by Paul Holes (with Robin Gaby Fisher) and “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer” by Michelle McNamara.
Creatively weaving together multiple perspectives and timelines, “The People vs. the Golden State Killer” also delves into Ho’s personal journey from Vietnamese refugee in America (who “learned to speak the language by watching Bugs Bunny cartoons and ESL classes for six years”) to becoming the elected district attorney in Sacramento three years ago – making him one of only 10 Asian American DAs out of roughly 2,400 nationwide.
Ho hopes that storytelling strategy will help his book stand out in the crowded true crime genre in today’s oversaturated media environment. “I’m quite proud, and excited by it,” he said.
It truly was a remarkable journey to convict DeAngelo, who committed unfathomable acts from 1973 to 1986 (a crime spree that began during his brief run as a cop) while living quietly under the radar as a mechanic, a husband, a father and a neighbor before his arrest at 72 years old at his Sacramento home on April 24, 2018.
Authorities conclude DeAngelo was responsible for 13 murders, more than 50 rapes and nearly 120 burglaries in 11 California counties. (He admitted to 53 separate crimes against 87 people as part of his plea deal and sentencing in 2020.)
Identification was the key step – and in many ways the hardest – in understanding the scope of this monster’s criminal dossier.
Ho’s book does a deep dive into the “investigative genetic genealogy” tool that authorities used to connect cases in different areas to DeAngelo’s DNA.
The Contra Costa County crimes provided a vital link; Ho called them the “lynchpin in the entire prosecution”.
DNA and other evidence from the cold case homicides still existed, but many of the jurisdictions where the unsolved rapes occurred, including Sacramento County, had tossed the materials some time after the statute of limitations for rape expired. (Those prior statutes are also why the San Ramon Valley rapes could only be charged as kidnappings.)
“The only place that kept their evidence was Contra Costa County,” said Ho, who worked in that DA’s office and in Santa Clara County earlier in his career before moving to Sacramento.
A San Ramon rape/kidnapping case from October 1978 also helped establish a pattern of behavior that existed with rapes and murders in other counties. “The M.O. was identical,” Ho recalled.
With the pressure on for crimes charged in Contra Costa, Orange, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties, DeAngelo struck a plea deal with Ho and his team rather than face trial. DeAngelo pleaded guilty to more than a dozen murders, more than a dozen kidnappings and other crimes, as well as admitted to a slew of uncharged crimes in those counties and others, including Alameda and Santa Clara counties.
The final local tally included guilty in the San Ramon rape case, guilty in a Danville rape case from June 1979 and acknowledging another rape in Danville from December 1978. Authorities thought two other unsolved San Ramon Valley cases could be tied to this same rapist.
Now nearly an octogenarian, DeAngelo is “living his own version of hell” in state prison, assigned to a special unit for sexual deviants and high-profile major offenders. “He is constantly looking over his shoulder,” Ho said, sounding like he hopes that brings some measure of solace to the survivors and the victims’ families.
“The People vs. the Golden State Killer” is scheduled for mass release by Third State Books next Tuesday (Nov. 11). Ho said he plans to pursue a book-signing event in Contra Costa County soon, perhaps at Rakestraw Books in downtown Danville.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the associate publisher and editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
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