The suspected East Area Rapist was a police officer in Auburn in the late 70s. His former Police Chief speaks about the suspect's personality and why he was fired.
No, but what does that have to do with anything? In fact, he was responsible for knowing the details of the employees he supervised, even more so because they are cops. Are you trying to tell me that the story of 'the cop they had to fire for shoplifting' was not burned into his memory? It must have been talked about for years. And, was that not odd? Why would a man with a decent salary steal those small items? Why was that not talked about?
Even though he is retired, he does not want an investigation opened up into whether, or not Deangelo was doing this stuff when he was a cop, whether he used knowledge he gained as a cop to commit the crimes. His behavior, as a police officer must have been documented, and it may have even been this guy who wrote it down. Especially when it came to his firing. Nobody ever said "why dog spray, Joe?" "why a hammer, Joe?". You risked your entire career to steal some cheap items. Both of which would come in hand to invade a home, and bludgeon somebody to death. Whether it was rural or not, it was a peaceful enough area that two cops at a time could handle everything, and they "backed each other up" so that means that there was likely only one thing ever happening at a time. Matter of fact, I worked with a guy 17 years ago who actually did murder his girlfriend. That was a long time ago, but eve though I, and everyone else was surprised to hear it, I could tell you a lot about him that would be of interest considering what happened. And, I worked with a dozen other guys at the same place. Joe Deangleo's neighbor said he threatened to kill his dog, and cussed his mom out. Hard to believe this guy only did this one extremely odd thing of shoplifting a hammer , and dog repellent during the whole time he was a cop.
In 1980 Auburn California had a population of 7,540. This is fewer that the county seat of the rural community where I grew up. If something happened in that town, everybody knew about it, and talked about it for a decade.
They suspected it was a cop and indeed they investigated and cleared multiple officers in Sacramento and the California Highway Patrol but that is a lot of officers and a lot of potential leads. He worked in Exeter and Auburn.
7:12 Bad answer. This police chief apparently hasn't gone back and looked at the timeline. After DeAngelo was terminated, he took a break of a few months, then never again committed a crime in the east area. His crimes moved west and south, and while he moved on to more serious crimes (more murders), they were less frequent in number. Not to mention the fact that back then, people did not connect EAR and ONS. So it should have been obvious to anyone who thought about it back then that as soon as DeAngelo was fired from his job, he stopped raping in the East Area.
And I've read that the chief suspected DeAngelo of peeping in his daughters room shortly after his termination as retaliation. Why wouldn't he have followed up on that? Especially given what was going on!!. I'm sorry but this guy just wasn't a good cop, or at least not a smart one.
Carolyn Merrick Agreed. Could have swept this under the rug, blamed it on "occupational stress," etc. All due respect to this Chief and his department.
What? First of all he was already criminally charged and found guilty of it, so they probably had no way of sweeping it under the rug. Second, why does it show integrity just because he did not do something immoral and sweep it under the rug? You don't get points for not doing the wrong thing. Since when does a person have 'integrity" when they do what is basically right? What are your standards for what passes as integrity?
vegnewb Point taken. I suppose I've just grown so inured to corruption and cronyism that unfortunately I perceive virtually anyone behaving decently with surprise and happiness. Case in point -- I recently commented that I would be pleased if my DNA led to the capture of a predator and was attacked relentlessly for not being "loyal to family." "Loyal" to a predator? Very disheartening.
I am on your side with that one. I would voluntarily give my dna, if the cops wanted it for catching a family member who was murdering people. Or, I would give it for proving them innocent. I doubt I would be very helpful if it were a lesser crime, like say, smoking weed, or writing graffiti, though. In those cases, I would criticize my relative myself, and distance myself from them. Naw, I just thought about it more, if there was a victim, such as, in the case of vandalism, I might be pretty helpful to the cops. Legally you have to anyway, otherwise you could be aiding and abetting.
I wonder how many suspect one of their coworkers is a evil serial killer. It must be quite hard to digest for anybody, it is so far removed from normal experience.
Of course DeAngelo's fellow cops are going to say they didn't see any signs. Maybe that's true, maybe not, but there's a motivation to say they didn't see any signs today because the next question is, "Why didn't you do anything about your suspicions?" What these cops are doing now is normal; I would deny any suspicions I had of DeAngelo too if I were them. Anything you say can and will be used against you, so just saying "No, I saw no signs that DeAngelo was the GSK" is the smartest thing to say. I don't blame them at all.
This man was a Sargeant when DeAngelo worked there, I believe, and be ame chief later. When DeAngelo was fired, he reportedly threatened to kill the then-current Chief of Police. The chief also suspected him of stalking his home for a time. And look at what he shoplifted...a claw hammer and dog repellant! (I assume that means a product like Halt! which is basically mace for dogs) That's a fairly ominous shopping trip to try to slip under the radar. I don't blame them at all for failing to connect the dots; who would ever believe such a bland, thoroughly mediocre coworker was a rapist and murderer? But the end of his career there *was* extremely alarming. You'd think those details would stand out in the mind of anyone who knew them at the time. But maybe the Chief didn't share that information?
Absolutely,he at least should continue investigating him after the that drop from police and pattern would be visible. In my eyes this chief failed lott of future victims!Coz the pattern would emerged!
A police officer officer gets caught shoplifting dog repellent and a hammer. And that's not a big red flag that doesn't perk your interest about why he was shoplifting these things. Doesn't sound like the average Joe to me wouldn't you ask this dude hey why are you shoplifting this stuff
Exactly and they do if you were a regular citizen. People need to understand police think they are so above the law and saints when in reality they are the worst criminals who get away with anything. That’s why when reporting stuff they toss out important information that is relevant to cases and or victims. The stats have been screwed for decades because of this mentality.
Leo's Universe yes people make the mistake of thinking just cuz your president or just cuz you're a movie star or you seeing that you are a good person and an honest person. That's quite the opposite some people think that if you have a lot of money you're a good person none of that makes you a good person. Do you have to be aware of everything.
DeAngelo HAD to be really tired when on the job as a cop. He spent ALOT of time hunting his victims. Didn't anybody ever think it was weird that DeAngelo was always hard to get in touch with when he wasn't on duty as a cop?
How often does your boss call you when you are off the clock? My dad is a cop and the only time he is ever contacted off the clock is if they want him to cover for someone who needs to call out sick.
Actually they call or text me from time to time. For example, they will call me to see if I'm available for working at an unscheduled time. Or for other reasons. It happens. My point was that DeAngelo spent ALOT of time stalking and attacking his victims. So much time he MAY have called in sick to his job. Also, DeAngelo was very likely fatigued while on duty as a Cop. He had to be working in a sleep deprived state.
From 1976 to 1986, there were telephones available at all times. Of course not texting, but there would be more reliance on phone calls. I'm sure DeAngelo got phone calls from work--the Aurora Police Department--with work related issues.. DeAngelo's boss at the Aurora PD said there were no warning signs. I kinda doubt that, but there's no proof.
Wild Flowers ikr...it's as if the thought to themselves, "huh, he looks like this police scetch, but this guys a cop. Cops do not break the law.". Well those n Cali at least.
SJ 69 of course I have the benefits of hindsight. However I think that there are one or two more that looks more like the perv. I am old and do not know how to do links.
Teri Lefevers There have been other California cops who were rapists and murderers. Ex officers Craig Peyer and George Gwaltney committed their crimes in the 80s too. There are probably more out there. Also, Tomeikia Johnson was a California cop who shot her husband to death.
A lot of things are clearer now because we know who he is so I don't want to judge too harshly. Having said that, I still have some questions. I know the department was in Auburn but they must have been following the case, talking to LEO in Sacramento, even just reading about it in the paper, talking to their spouses or neighbors. It seems like in that small a department; the Chief said, sometimes only two officers working at a time, someone would have noticed that JJD was never or almost never on duty when the EAR attacks occurred? (I'm making an assumption here). Did they ever call his house on short notice and find out he wasn't home when he probably should've been? When JJD is caught shoplifting as someone said earlier, he has to be tied to a chair. That's not just forgetting to pay for a pack of gum, that doesn't sound like a one time lapse in judgement. Maybe let's take a look at what else is he doing on his days off? Even if it's just an internal report designed to protect the department. I I don't think any of them suspected he was the EAR. But it sounds like they just wanted to put the whole thing behind them and probably didn't ask as many questions as they should have.
I'm pretty sure colleagues did notice he was absent a lot and one day they had even checked in on him at home and he wasn't there. I think the case could have been solved but unfortunately it wasn't. However the issue would have been how to prove it at the time. They would have needed to get the trophies he had kept over the years or else there wouldn't be any good evidence tying him to the crimes. Although DNA evidence would later prove it was him. Better late than never though.
The shoplifting incident and his crime spree seemingly ended in the Sacramento area were around the same time. He moved on down the road to continue doing what he was doing.
This man did not answer truthfully. According to Paul Holes, this man said he heard that DeAngelo threatened to off him and that he was certain that Deangelo was outside his daughter’s bedroom with a flashlight. But never put it together….?
It is sad for everyone - not just men in blue. This hurt an entire community as well as each victim he attacked. When a cop is a bad cop and they do exist, it hurts ALL of us.
At 1:50 when he starts talking about being embarrassed the guy was a cop... The next thing he says is "I just wish there was something we could have seen or done".. I don't know why that follow up bothers me but I doubt police willingly bring other police to justice (usually) to avoid embarrassment. There are so many instances of cops covering for other cops. Avoiding embarrassment seems to be the least of worries. Often times the D.A. covers for police and even many judges give police a perjury pass.
Public citizens must be given authority to police the police... First and foremost their DNA needs storage in a public DNA bank. Politicians too. Serve it up if you wish to publicly serve- Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
This guy is just sick about this greaseball being under his purview during his active years. One of MANY LE officers who were either totally unsuspecting or just shit the bed during his known active years.
If a cop interviewed this chief, the first thing they notice is how is jumpy he is. The exaggeration of expression at everyone, “I don’t know,” is strange too. “Good cops” very rarely arrest bad cops now, imagine back then.
I’m an idiot savant! Haha. Actually, I’ve been a student of true crime since the mid-nineties. At one time, I thought I would be contacted by the FBI...I have pro experience with urban planning so I expounded a lot on the ‘neighborhood map’ (believed to have been drawn by GSK) on a major true crime website. Then a family emergency came up and I stopped visiting the site. I figured maybe some would think , “Hey who was this guy that suddenly disappeared and how can he read so much from a sketch!” Lol. For instance, on the plan, many of what looked like commercial bldgs looked like they had AC units drawn on the roofs, and many roofs had the ridge details drawn, leading me to speculate he could have been an AC installer or roofer- which would give him opportunity to get into neighborhoods and scope out victims/ escape routes from above. I can’t WAIT to find out what he was doing from1979 to 1989!
So.. couple of things first 1)Let's not bash the guy. Things are always obvious in hindsight and not so obvious when they happen, it could happen to the best of us. Also, he might not be up to speed to all the details surrounding the case at the time. 2) It's actually very brave of him to expose himself and a very likely ignorant backlash full of hatred. He could have kept quiet and not shed one more light into this. I'm grateful for getting this one more piece of the puzzle to ponder about. So, this is just to share my shock at the number of close calls this piece of shit had (sorry, I refuse to refer to this coward loser in any other way that might even remotely glorify him). How could you not put 2 and 2 together being chief of police? I mean, there is this huge case going around The M.O. The personality The items he was caught shoplifting It just baffles me
Denise Coelho yes the cops are dumb, but I gotta give the guy some credit. He’s pretty good at what he did, never got caught because being a cop, he knew what the cops would look for. Also, it’s suspected he had a radar, so he was always one move ahead of everyone. Deny it all you want, he’s pretty smart and just got screwed by a 5th cousin or something like that (some family member very distant). But, despite all that he’s caught and definitely where he belongs, but the investigators/cops/FBI and other officials have no excuses as looking back there are many clues that could have maybe helped catch him earlier.
He was just a normal guy joe . Crime abuse Is prevalent in the police force, Worldwide. In France , every police chiefs have to move to different districts every 3 years. Isn’t it clear that the closer to the mob and crime , the more likely you will be influenced.
So when he was so when he was Visalia ransacker he was Peggy and they were many witnesses who saw him. So my question is when did he grow his hair long and begin to look like a surfer dude? Was it after he was caught shoplifting and left Auburn? Why didn’t anyone who worked with him, knew him as a friend or a family recognize a NY of the composite sketch is whether it was back then oh are the MANY articles that were written about him afterwards?
Why are they publishing this stuff now? It's contempt of court to do so now ,now that proceedings are active. Believe me, it's going to prejudice the jury.
It’s annoying that they guy interviewing seriously thinks something should have stood out or that he had a unique personality. That’s the hole point of being a sociopath/psychopath. He acted the part so they think he was an average person. Why would he walk around his co-workers who happen to be police officers and make himself stand out in anyway 🤦🏻♀️
I’m sure there was an indicator. Carol Daley said she had huge suspicions it could be a cop. And this was big news in this area at the time. And a lot of the times he committed his crimes were the same time slots that he was supposedly working. I mean come on! Also some of the Visalia cops from his burglaries and the one murder went to Sacramento after hearing about the EAR and said they should work together it’s likely the same guy and there suspect killed someone. A lot of the men in the department in Sacramento didn’t listen to them and brushed it off as nothing. I don’t believe a word this guy says honestly
hate the way the guy conducted the interview, it was almost as if he wanted to drop a hint that the police dept. at that time was responsible for not catching him in time.
DeAngelo was wasn't brilliant. His education in law enforcement and his experience as a cop helped him get away with the crimes for so long. If he was a genuinely brilliant person, he would have been able to find a way to work through his mental issues so he wouldn't have committed crimes. Overall, he didn't have an excess of brain activity, but was missing something in his thinking. He was missing the ability to value other people and consider their feelings. This is something that even low IQ people can do. I wish people wouldn't delude themselves by calling him smart.
I agree that DeAngelo wasn't particularly smart, yet regarding "If he was a genuinely brilliant person, he would have been able to find a way to work through his mental issues" bit... Hmm so many genuinely brilliant people have debilitating mental issues...
Lol it was starting to get bizarre and sound like they were just trying way too hard to get juicy content. Reporter: "anything you noticed that was weird about him?", PC: "Nope". Reporter: "anything.... you know... weird that he ever did?" PC: "Uh... hmm... nope." Reporter: "did he ever say or do anything that seemed in any way odd at all?" PC: "Yeah, like I said, no, he never did." Reporter: "did he ever..... I don't know..... bring a bag of groceries or anything into the station with him or anything weird like that?", like WTF? Dude already told you 50 times there was nothing that seemed weird 🤣 How many times are you going to keep finding different ways to rephrase the same question??
Damn I was hoping this guy had some juicy tidbits. I guess EAR knew how to blend in. But the whole shoplifting thing with no attempt to explain or defend is a red flag.
It’s so weird only now everyone is like we knew he was in le. Umm no you guys didn’t. If they did , this Avenue would of been looked at a long time ago. So fast forward. At no point did anyone in auburn go hmm he stole a hammer a dog repellent. Hmm there’s a rapist out there possibly hurting dogs. But see if I got caught stealing it the cops would be like what do you need that for? Why are stealing those items. They did this kind of questioning with me when an unknown person busted my car window. They go searching inside my whole car and find pepper spray and went to town over it. Serious.
There actually was speculation back then by investigators that he might be either ex-military or police. And when they assembled a statewide investigative team, they chose to rule out from the team anyone whose saliva doesn't show their blood type. They knew the rapist/killer was in the 11% of the human population whose saliva doesn't show their blood type, and they didn't want the rapist/killer on the investigative team. (This was back in the 70s, before DNA testing was what it is today.) I agree with you that someone should have put two and two together when he was fired for stealing a hammer and dog repellant. That happened in his hometown of Citrus Heights, the same town where he raped several women. It was reported in the Auburn newspaper at the time, but unfortunately, apparently not in any other newspapers.
Joe DeAngelo was able to elude police for so long because he moved to different locations in California. Communications between law enforcement agencies were not as sophisticated as today. Mass communications with law enforcement agencies was not by wide spread internet but by CLETS (California Law Enforcement Teletype Service). You could "shotgun" notices out to all agencies but there were hundreds sent daily. I am pretty certain DeAngelo did not believe the DNA technology would advance as it did, if he considered it all, compared to pre DNA testing means. It is sad this whole series of horrific killings and rapes happened at all. Peace Officers in any capacity, should be held to a higher standard. I can see no other proper sentence for this man other than the death penalty. Not only did he betray the public's trust, he raped and murdered those he swore to protect. The Auburn Police Chief fired him as soon as he pleaded guilty. He was suspended as soon as the Sacramento Police notified him. Nobody can predict what someone is going to do with 100% certainty. The California authorities did a great job here and never gave up. He will die in prison before all of his trials are adjudicated.
Code3Forever Hope not. They can only get him on the murders. The Snelling murder now known as the first. So that makes 13 plus the attempted murder of Det McGowen
It's inexcusable that DeAngelo wasn't caught earlier. Investigators have been saying even since the time of the crimes that the perp could have experience as a cop. Why was DeAngelo never even on the investigators' radar? Sacramento was much smaller in the 1970s, and Auburn, Visalia, and Exetor were especially tiny. It would not have taken that many man hours of work to make a list of every cop employed in the area in the 1970s, then start ruling each one out one by one.
Pretty sure he didn't want to be on record as buying these items, but yeah he was a super arrogant criminal. AND low ranking cops were paid like shit back then
There is proof that they had information on this guy from the very beginning police departments or notorious for covering up for their own criminals. Black people have seen this sheet in this country for more than 40 50 60 years
The DNA is a 100% perfect match. Not to mention all the circumstantial evidence, like he was dumped by a woman named Bonnie and the East Area Rapist would complain about Bonnie.
Daniel Anderson "His DNA profile was found at multiple crime scenes, his semen was inside these women, he is definitely the man responsible for these crimes." True as far as that goes. However, that doesn't constitute "legal proof". This is still a nation of the rule of law, and as such, he is still deemed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty -- in a court of law, where he is allowed a trial as well as a public defender. Not in the Kangeroo court of RU-vid where some want him flayed to the bone or worse.
daisy doyle HE IS GUILTY. Many people go to court guilty everyday, but he, like you, has the right to LEGAL REPRESENTATION. And HE like YOU may FOOLISHLY plead not guilty. Believe it or not some people do PLEAD GUILTY but they still need a lawyer to protect them. Some people are indeed suspects (not necessarily guilty) in the true sense & prosecutors have to prove guilt. But some like this guy LEFT HIS SPERM @ rape & murder scenes. The only other DNA was that of the victims. 😱 So who else could've committed the crimes? Do you understand now?
"You wouldn't typically expect a police officer to be involved in this type of activities." No? I would. Police officers are not selected for their sterling character.
The interviewer is not good.... He never asked the BIG QUESTIONS like if he talked to Joseph Deangelo about the ransacker and rape that happened during his time there....
But today, it would be difficult (or impossible) to fire a kop who commits a crime, thanks to the "peace officer's bill of rights" This legislation is in California code 3300 onward. It would seem that this law now is an inducement that attracts criminal types into this line of work.
The way in which being "former" LE helped DeAngelo commit the crimes is in the fact that he knew how to stay ahead of the cops. he either had "best buds" or some type of ability to learn what LE was thinking and simply evaded their movements.
He's working very hard at distancing himself. He either had his suspicions but didn't say anything because of the thin blue line or he's incompetent. Two scenarios he has good reason to avoid.
