The Sky News: A former police officer accused of being one of the most notorious serial killers in US history has returned to court to be charged with 13 counts of murder.Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, is believed to be the Golden State Killer, who terrorised California in the 1970s and 80s with a series of murders and rapes.
Also known as the East Area Rapist, the masked attacker is thought to be behind at least 12 homicides and 45 rapes on victims aged between 13 and 41 – and is linked to more than 175 crimes between 1976 and 1986. DeAngelo was arrested in April and charged with the murder of four people in the counties of Sacramento and Ventura, and has now appeared in court charged with a total of 13.
Prosecutors have also filed 13 robbery charges, which relate to suspected rapes that he can no longer be charged with because too much time has passed since the alleged offences.
DeAngelo appeared in court in Sacramento, California, on Thursday to hear the new charges, with local media reporting that some victims’ families who had turned up were in tears.
Jennifer Carole, whose mother Lyman Smith was killed at the age 43 in Ventura in 1980, said afterwards: “That was very, very intense and really tough.
“Even those few words don’t begin to summarise what happened during the crimes. They were heinous, what everybody went through was really horrible.
“So to hear it, that black-and-white, to hear it get listed, it was hard – it was harder than I thought it was going to be. My heart is pounding right now. I’m feeling it.”
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