AirTalk dives into the history of the ‘Golden State Killer’ after suspect Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested yesterday. We also look to the future of the VA after Trump’s nominee Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination; Facebook’s data scandal has Google flying under the radar, but for how long?; and more.
Cold case gone hot: The Golden State Killer book's lead researcher and the OC DA speak about the case
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and Sacramento District Attorney’s offices announced Wednesday the arrest of a suspect in the decades-old serial murder case commonly referred to as the “Golden State Killer.”
Authorities arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, at his home in Sacramento during the early hours of Wednesday morning. DeAngelo was linked through DNA evidence to two Ventura County victims — Charlene Smith and Lyman Smith — as well as two Sacramento County victims, Katie and Brian Maggiore. Since the arrest, he has also been charged with four additional special circumstances murders through the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The four murders occurred between 1980 and 1986 at various locations throughout the region, according to OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Patrice and Keith Harrington were the first victims, a young married couple murdered in their Dana Point home in 1980. The third victim was Irvine resident Manuela Witthuhn, who was brutally raped and murdered in 1981. The final victim was Janelle Cruz, a 19-year-old who was raped and killed while her family was on vacation in 1986.
Rackauckas spoke about that period of time, as well as the years after — when the killer remained unknown:
These poor people, the way they were treated and what happened to them, the way they were terrorized, a lot of folks felt like he could show up at the door, he could show up at the house at any time. There was a lot of fear.
Considering the geographical scope of the crimes, determining where exactly to hold DeAngelo’s trial is proving complicated, but Rackauckas remains hopeful:
[The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is] going to listen to what the other DAs have to say and what they think is important, and hopefully we can make this decision without arguing or power plays. We can just get together and decide — and I think we can do that.
How a book renewed interest in the case
Interest in the Golden State Killer (also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker) saw a recent resurgence with the success of the late Michelle McNamara’s book ,“I'll Be Gone in the Dark.”
The book outlines major details of the case, which began in the early 1970s, and maps out connections between locations, victims and types of crimes. Though McNamara tragically passed before the publication of the book, her husband Patton Oswalt teamed up with investigators and researchers to finish it, including lead researcher Paul Haynes.
Haynes was blindsided by the news this week, but couldn’t help reflecting on the unique position the book holds in the capture of a suspect:
I don’t think the push to solve this case would have had the same level of thrust had Michelle not become involved. Michelle really put a spotlight on this case, which had somehow eluded it until the better part of the aughts. It blew my mind and was astonishing to Michelle that a case of this scope could fly under the radar as it had.
After dedicating years to investigating the case, it’s no surprise that Haynes is a wealth of knowledge regarding dates and particulars. The Golden State Killer is thought to be responsible for 12 murders and 49 rapes across the state of California, and Haynes can recite their patterns as if by heart:
He would break into the home in the middle of the night. He would startle the sleeping couple, or in some cases an individual, typically by shining a flashlight into the face of the victim. He would order the female to bind the male, and [the killer] would then bind the female and re-tie the male.
He would typically, at least in Northern California, separate the two. He would bring the female into the living room, he would stack dishes on the back of the male and would instruct the victim: ‘If I hear these dishes move, I’ll kill everything in the house.’ And then he would return to the female victim, sexually assault her, and sometimes spend upwards of two hours on the property, ransacking and terrorizing the victims before quietly slipping away.
The horrifying nature of these crimes was one of the many reasons why it had a particularly haunting effect on the law enforcement teams and independent investigators who worked the case. The big blank spot where a killer’s face should be didn’t help morale much either.
But McNamara took years of dead ends and unanswered questions, and flipped them on their heads. First task on her list — give the killer a name.
Her mission was to bring this case to a broader public awareness, and this is partly why she re-christened the offender the 'Golden State Killer.’ His previous sobriquet — ‘The East Area Rapist-Original Night Stalker’ — was cumbersome, it didn’t really stick in the mind and this is the sort of case where you think, why does the Zodiac have the level of notoriety that it does, while this case sort of languished in obscurity?
If they’ve really caught the #GoldenStateKiller I hope I get to visit him. Not to gloat or gawk — to ask him the questions that @TrueCrimeDiary wanted answered in her “Letter To An Old Man” at the end of #IllBeGoneInTheDark. pic.twitter.com/32EHSzBct5
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) April 25, 2018
Now that a suspect has been named, Haynes has some more digging to do. As more details emerge regarding Joseph James DeAngelo, more connections seem to be made to the Golden State Killer and his patterns and locations. Particular significance has been given to DeAngelo’s 1979 arrest, which not only ended his career as a police officer but also opened a window into potentially darker motivations. Haynes commented on the two items stolen — dog repellent and a hammer:
Both, I’m sure, were tools that he intended to implement in his prowling and burglary activities. We know that dogs were a problem for him. There was a dog bludgeoned in Rancho Cordova I think in 1975. In Goleta, in early September 1979, there was a dog that had been stabbed ostensibly by a prowler. And if you are a prowler, dogs are just an occupational hazard. When he [DeAngelo] was arrested for that, he refused a hearing, he declined to answer any of the investigating committee’s questions and he just accepted his firing. In retrospect, that should have raised a red flag.
And the connections between DeAngelo and the killer don’t stop there.
I should also add that between 1973 and 1975 he was working as a police officer for the City of Exeter, which is in Tulare County, one city away from Visalia, and it has long been suspected that the East Area Rapist was also an offender known as the Visalia Ransacker, who is a serial burglar who operated in Visalia from 1974 to 1975.
The Visalia Ransacker was a window peeper and prowler, whose series of burglaries ultimately escalated to the murder of a college professor who intervened as the Ransacker attempted to kidnap his teenage daughter. Haynes predicts that DeAngelo will ultimately be charged in that crime, but only time (and DNA) will tell.
As with most tragedies, the closing of one door has sparked the opening of another. Though the public now has a suspect’s name, a slew of new questions are arriving with each hour. Certainty can breed more uncertainty, but there is at least one thing to be sure of, and Michelle McNamara stated it herself in a 2013 interview on AirTalk:
“There’s a good likelihood that he is still alive and he’s out there, and they really do feel that getting this information out there is what’s going to lead to an arrest.”
Turns out that both in life and death, she was right on his tail.
GUESTS:
Tony Rackauckas, Orange County District Attorney
Paul Haynes, lead researcher and contributing writer for “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” (HarperCollins, 2018) by the late Michelle McNamara; he tweets
As LA City Hall turns 90, we look back at its history
Whether you’ve gone to LA’s City Hall for a ceremony or to troubleshoot city tax issues or gathered at the lawn below for a speech or during the Women’s March, you’re undoubtedly familiar with this fixture of Los Angeles.
In 1928, when the L.A. City Hall was just built, it was the tallest building in L.A. Its beacon was remotely switched on by President Calvin Coolidge, signifying its completion.
In his new book “Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon,” which has a foreword by Mayor Eric Garcetti, Stephen Gee traces the history of the building. He tells Larry Mantle about its significance, from its early blueprints to the political fights around its restoration to what it symbolizes in the Downtown of today’s Los Angeles.
Stephen Gee will be discussing his book and doing a signing at at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 at Hennessey + Ingalls in Downtown L.A. and at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 4 at Vroman’s in Pasadena.
KPCC’s John Rabe once got to the very top of L.A.'s City Hall – not the observation deck, but the beacon itself.
Guest:
Stephen Gee, author of “Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon” (Angel City Press, 2018); he’s also a writer and television producer
As Ronny Jackson withdraws from Veterans Affairs nomination, a look at the future of the government’s second largest department
President Trump’s White House physician, Adm. Ronny Jackson, withdrew his bid Thursday to become the secretary of Veterans Affairs amid allegations that cast doubt on his leadership abilities.
The move raised concerns over the future of the department which has faced a host of management problems in the past years. As the search for a new VA leader continues, many lawmakers are anxious over much-needed reform. We examine what does that mean to local veterans’ programs and how does that affect healthcare benefits.
Guest:
Leo Shane III, deputy editor at the Military Times covering Veterans Affairs and the White House; he tweets
Facebook’s data scandal has Google flying under the radar, but for how long?
When news of the Cambridge Analytica data breach broke in late March, Mark Zuckerberg might as well have been the Big Bad Wolf of online privacy concerns, but one month after the fact and Google’s teeth have begun to appear just as sharp.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal outlines how Google is a personal data powerhouse with numbers to prove it: Google Analytics reaches over 30 million websites, Google account holders clock in at over one billion and the number of active Android phones are quoted at 2 billion.
But is the company handling this ocean of data as responsibly CEO Sundar Pichai says?
Guests:
Mark Bergen, reporter at Bloomberg who covers Google; he tweets
Dai Wakabayashi, reporter for the New York Times based in San Francisco; he tweets
John Lasseter’s leave from Disney comes to a close – what’s next and what will it portend for #MeToo?
The half-year “sabbatical” of John Lasseter, the animator who steered Disney’s animation ventures to success, is now coming to a close – but can and should he return to Disney?
Lasseter’s leave took place amidst the height of the #MeToo conversation and was attributed to “missteps.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, he was known to kiss and hug female colleagues inappropriately, as well as make comments about their appearance. His public persona was that of a cheerful man in a hawaiian-patterned shirt who created multiple hits for Disney and Pixar. Among them: “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “Frozen,” “Moana” and many more.
There are rumors that Disney’s CEO Bob Iger will be breaking ties with Lasseter. But if Lasseter is welcomed back, what would that signal to women in animation? And if he loses his place at Disney, will Lasseter make a comeback in some other capacity, perhaps by starting his own company with the backing of foreign investors who want to cash in on his proven ability to crank out hits?
Meanwhile, there’s been talk of Louis C.K. performing at smaller clubs and Matt Lauer venturing into a public space, portending potential plans to make a comeback. But will and should the public give a second chance to the men felled by #MeToo?
Guests:
Kim Masters, editor-at-Large of The Hollywood Reporter and host of KCRW’s The Business; she tweets
Tom Sito, professor of animation at the USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and author of “Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation” (MIT Press, 2015); he was one of the writers on Disney’s 1994 film ‘The Lion King’ and his animation credits include ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Shrek’ and more
Bill Cosby convicted on 3 counts of aggravated indecent assault
Bill Cosby was convicted Thursday of drugging and molesting a woman in the first big celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Cosby, 80, could end up spending his final years in prison after a jury concluded he sexually violated Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion in 2004.
AirTalk covered the breaking news live over the course of our two-hour show. Listen to what two lawyers specializing in sex crimes and a reporter outside the courthouse had to say about the verdict.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Ambrosio Rodriguez, former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney; he led the sex crimes team in the Riverside County D.A.’s office
Dmitry Gorin, a former sex crimes prosecutor in the Los Angeles DA’s office and a criminal defense attorney
Bobby Allyn, reporter for NPR member station WHYY in Philadelphia who has been following the trial; he is outside of the courthouse in Norristown, Pa.; he tweets