The Golden State Killer - Part 4: Joseph James DeAngelo | #463

**Hannah Maguire** (0:08)
All right, I'm not taking no for an answer, this ends today. I've had it.

**Suruthi Bala** (0:12)
Because I've also started to have...

**Elizabeth Dutton** (0:14)
Oh, welcome.

**Suruthi Bala** (0:15)
based on this.

**Elizabeth Dutton** (0:16)
Yeah.

**Hannah Maguire** (0:17)
Welcome to the jungle, the jungle of terror and fear.

**Suruthi Bala** (0:20)
Yes, because I'm elderly now, so I have to wee at least three or four times in the middle of the night.

**Hannah Maguire** (0:25)
You've always been wee.

**Suruthi Bala** (0:26)
I know, I know. I'm just such a hydrated person, which if you're watching the video today, it doesn't look like... It looks like I've been at the fucking beach. My hair is outrageous, but it's because it is like 35 degrees in London. And before we left, I was like, I'm going to wash my hair and then I'm going to blow dry it. And then I was like, oh no, I can't stand within a foot of this blow drying contraption. So then I had to just leave it and now my hair is like, sure bitch, whatever. And also I realized once I got here, I forgot to put deodorant on.
So it's going to get hot and sweaty doing this episode. The scares.

**Hannah Maguire** (1:07)
Well, most of the scares are done.

**Suruthi Bala** (1:09)
Okay.

**Hannah Maguire** (1:10)
Now it's just the sort of societal pressure of being alive. That's the main issue.

**Suruthi Bala** (1:15)
Oh good. Well, I'm sure that way made me sweat.

**Hannah Maguire** (1:21)
Being done, being finished, and ready for something new was a sentiment echoed by the victims of The Golden State Killer who lived to tell the tale, especially those whose cases were not selected for charge. Quick recap of where we are up to. Due to some dubious DNA dabblings, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested outside of the Sacramento home at the grand old age of 72, and forced by the sheriff's department to leave his roast in the oven.
Once in custody, DeAngelo answered none of the homicide squad's questions. He only asked why he was there.

**Suruthi Bala** (2:03)
He rambled to himself when left alone, about not meaning to do any of it, and that he just wanted to be with his mummy. The only call DeAngelo made was to his ex-wife. She was a lawyer, and he wanted her to represent him. Sharon, the former Mrs. DeAngelo, however, refused to come.
Joseph DeAngelo was charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder, straight off the bat. But, due to the statute of limitations on rape being a shocking three years back in the 70s, the 51 victims of the East Area Rapist were told that their day of retribution was never going to come.

**Hannah Maguire** (2:44)
Eventually, 13 of the rape cases, which is over 50 plus, by the way, depending on who you ask, were selected by the state prosecutors to add to the actual charge list. Because kidnapping for robbery has no statute of limitations, even in the black and white times. But that still left a lot of people feeling like justice had evaded them.
None more than Gay Hardwick. I'm Hannah.

**Suruthi Bala** (3:11)
I'm Saruti.

**Hannah Maguire** (3:13)
And this is RedHanded.

**Suruthi Bala** (3:16)
On the 18th of March, back in 1978, Gay and her then boyfriend Bob were shocked awake by Joseph DeAngelo's trademark torchlight. Bob knew immediately who he was dealing with. He was looking at the hysteria rapist, who had been averaging two rapes a month in the Sacramento area that year. In 1978, no one, however, knew his name, but we do. Joseph James DeAngelo held a gun to Bob's head and told him that if he made a single move, he would blow his head off.
Then Bob was tied up and forced to listen as DeAngelo raped Gay repeatedly in the next room. She was forced by DeAngelo to say that she wanted to die.

**Hannah Maguire** (4:06)
Bob and Gay, aside from the original police report, never told a single soul what had happened to them. They got married shortly after the attack. A lot of couples terrorized by DeAngelo split up, unable to reconcile what they had been through. But not Bob and Gay. They're still together to this very day.
They did think about divorce when it all got too hard. Gay had PTSD and then several miscarriages as a result. But Bob explains in the HBO documentary, which is also called I'll Be Gone in the Dark, that what happened to them wasn't going to go away whether they broke up or not. So they made it work, even when a marriage counselor told them that they should separate.