The golden State killer, the East area rapist, the original night stalker,
his real name, Joseph
d'angelo. He's one of the most prolific serial killers and rapists in the country.
Do you feel any remorse for what you did to me? This is her. Look at her face.
He is a predator of people that
what he enjoyed doing. We're taking a closer look at the case.
The only time that you were able to see a glimpse of the true monster, Joseph
d'angelo was in his cell. In those moments.
I sat down with Sacramento County district attorney,
Tim Ho who shared with me new details about the investigation
and the moments that changed him
a
haunting voice.
It sticks with you.
Joseph James
d'angelo's chilling threats were just one layer of torture.
He began terrorizing Sacramento County in 1976.
Laying in wait while his victims slept.
He was able to escape very quickly from his crime
scenes and he would just disappear in the night,
right?
Almost as if he vanished like a ghost like a
boogie man ambushing girls as young as 13 years old,
blinding them with light, binding their hands,
then raping them Sacramento was a quiet sleepy town.
People would leave their
doors, unlocked their windows open. But when he started committing his crimes,
everybody started locking their doors.
People couldn't buy enough locks, guns and gripped the community. The fear
in the cover of darkness,
he preyed on people in Carmichael Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova,
often targeting couples while raping the women.
He would psychologically torture their husbands,
tying them up and placing dishes on their back, threatening them not to move.
He was very savvy when he committed his crimes. Initially,
his victims, his sexual assault victims all live.
By the time he was committing his murders in Southern California,
he was killing everyone not leaving behind any victims.
D'angelo left a trail of fear all throughout California. He committed
13 known murders,
over 50 rapes and 100 and 20 burglaries up and
down the state of California in 11 different counties.
Sacramento County District Attorney T and Ho helped put d'angelo in prison.
Investigators with the Sacramento County sheriff
office and the District Attorney's office connected him to the crimes using DNA.
The arrest came on April 24th, 2018, d'angelo,
a retired mechanic was home in Citrus
Heights when investigators arrived at his door.
He was living in the shadows for decades in Sacramento County district attorney.
Ho remembers the night when detectives first interviewed
d'angelo when he was first interviewed and put in an interview room.
If you go back and you look at the booking photo, there's red at the top of his head.
He actually
ran his head into the wall. Um And so we were worried that he was going to hurt himself.
That's when the Sacramento County Sheriff's office placed
d'angelo inside a cell with cameras.
Ho was tasked with watching the videos and notice something unusual.
There's a, a video
of him where he's walking into a cell with a cane in one hand and he,
and he's hobbling and he's moving very slowly as he walks into his cell.
And then the moment the door closes,
he puts the cane down
and he starts just walking just fine.
So you felt like you were witnessing firsthand
another mask that he was just wearing.
Absolutely.
He was always trying to manipulate us the public, his family.
Everybody when the prosecution began laying out their case,
collecting evidence from 11 different counties.
Hoe tracked every piece of evidence. I was tasked with coordinating
um the discovery from all the different counties, making sure that we had Adam
that they were documented that they were cataloged that they
were organized and then sending them over to the defense,
former Sacramento County district attorney,
Anne Marie Schubert alleged special circumstances making
d'angelo eligible for the death penalty,
but the prosecution ended up making a deal. Life in prison.
I disagreed with that decision originally because why did you disagree?
Because if anybody deserved the death penalty? It was him
13 murders, 50 rapes. 100 and 20 burglaries if anybody deserved it. It was him.
But one of d'angelo's victims ultimately changed his mind.
Phyllis was the very first known,
um sexual assault victim
in Sacramento.
I would see Phyllis come to court every single time and Phyllis would
sit right there in the front row and I always come up.
I said Phyllis, how are you doing today?
We would chat, we would talk.
I would tell her what was gonna happen that day in
June of 2020 the Sacramento State Ballroom became the courtroom.
A building big enough for all of his victims to watch the man
who had haunted their lives for decades plead guilty to 13 murders,
13 counts of kidnapping Phyllis wasn't there.
She was in the hospital fighting cancer but on sentencing day,
she made it to the hearing. It's a moment that ho keeps close. I live across
and who did I see
fellas
and Phyllis had this beautiful smile on her face for the first time in 40 years.
Phyllis was able to get a sense of closure and justice.
About three months after that, she died from cancer.
If we would have proceeded on this case, seeking the death penalty,
Phyllis
and all those other victims
would not
have obtained justice when he was sentenced. What was that feeling like for you?
Relief.
There's never joy.
There's only relief, relief that he was brought to justice.
People ask me from time to time. Why do you think he stopped?
And my response to that is what makes you think he did stop
d'angelo is now serving 26 life sentences without the
possibility of parole at an undisclosed prison in California.
He is
in a secure facility in a secure unit. I get updates on him regularly.
Has anything happened?
Not yet
because
his health,
his health so far is fine. Can you share what his typical day looks like?
You know, in terms of his typical day, uh, you know, anything else in prison?
He wakes up, he does have a job in prison. What does he do?
Well, I think I'm gonna
not talk about what he does, but he does have a job in prison.
He um, is in a cell, he obviously is in a protecting unit because of his status.
Three years after the sentencing, Tien
Ho says that he still thinks about the case
about the victims
and knows Joseph
d'angelo is where he belongs.
I mean, the human being is capable of such great beauty,
but the human animal is capable of such great depravity
and you get to see that and see a glimpse of it. Does it have an effect? You absolutely.
Um, you know, from time to time I think about the case.
But what I do now in order to deal with all that
is, I think about the people and not the crime
and it gives me hope when I think about bringing justice for those people.
So that's what I hang on to.