C (11:54)

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A (12:47)

That's National Debt Relief.com In 1977, communities in Sacramento county were holding meetings packed with frightened residents. Someone was terrorizing their communities, and it was not regular petty theft or crimes. They were dealing with a predator who had assaulted multiple people and left a trail of terror. And the lack of progress in this case made community members frustrations and even more intense. It felt like a boiling point. Residents could do everything right. Lock the doors, secure the windows, watch the street. And still, this masked man seemed to find a way in. And while the public saw a series of attacks, investigators were chasing leads that led to dead ends. The serial offender was moving across neighborhoods, leaving limited physical clues, evading police patrols and stakeouts and and generating an overwhelming volume of leads that buried detectives in noise. In this era, DNA wasn't used as a forensic tool the way it's available today, which meant investigators leaned heavily on traditional methods interviews, patrols, surveillance footprints, ligature patterns, entry methods, and the slow, grinding process of mapping a predator's behavior. While the predator kept moving at the street level, this work often fell to detectives like Carol Daly, one Of the sacramento county investigators who became closely associated with the case. Daly took statements directly from victims, Often in the immediate aftermath of an attack. And over time, she interviewed nearly every SA victim Connected to this case in sacramento. She canvassed neighborhoods, Went door to door, Returned to the same streets after each new assault, and re interviewed residents. By mid-1977, pressure continued to melt on law enforcement. Sacramento authorities created a multi agency task force Dedicated specifically to the attacker, Bringing together investigators from the Sacramento sheriff's department and Sacramento police and coordinating informally with nearby jurisdictions as attacks crossed borders. This was no longer a neighborhood problem problem. It was a regional threat Demanding constant shared attention and effort. Outside those investigations, Daly and her colleagues faced relentless community outrage. Public meetings were standing room only, Filled with residents demanding answers police did not yet have. Detectives had to decide what information could be shared without compromising the investigation, Knowing that every detail released Might also be consumed by the person they were trying to catch. And while the police response was a concentrated effort, it was also limited by the reality that officers could not be placed on every street corner or stationed behind every backyard, and the offenders seemed to know exactly how to exploit those limits. Sketches were updated as new descriptions came in, Sometimes contradicting the last version. And detectives ran stakeouts in backyards and green belts, Watching for movement that rarely came when they were looking for it. Investigators also began to suspect that the offender Was using the landscape itself to his advantage. Canals, drainage systems, bike trails, and green belts Crisscross these neighborhoods, Offering dark, quiet corridors that connected streets without using roads. These routes helped explain how someone could appear deep inside neighborhood and then vanish, Even as patrol cars circled nearby streets. Meanwhile, tip lines filled up with calls, Generating an overwhelming volume of information. Suspicious cars, Unfamiliar faces, and vague sightings. There were plenty of leads, but there were very few identifiers that could actually be linked from one crime to the next. And the suspect understood how to move inside that noise without ever standing still long enough to be caught. What emerged during this period Was the normalization of fear. It became the backdrop of daily life. And that normalization was a tragedy in itself, because it meant a community lived under a threat for so long that it began to feel like the default. But the attacker did not rely solely on fear generated through attacks. He also appeared to cultivate fear through contact. Another haunting element tied to this case Was the phone calls. In various accounts, victims reported receiving disturbing calls, Sometimes before an attack, Sometimes after. Calls that function less like communication and more like reminders of control. Years later, one of the most infamous phrases associated with d' Angelo was quote, remember when we played? Which would be reported after investigators punch publicly connected aspects of this case. But even in the late 1970s, the idea that the suspect might continue to harass victims by phone already became part of the dread surrounding the case. Also, his voice was extremely creepy. It wasn't anything like a traditional scary movie voice. It was one that makes your skin crawl. Let's listen. Oh, yeah. By the end of 1977, Joseph James DeAngelo's escalation into attacks on couples was no longer an isolated incident. It had become his new MO and they weren't just happening in one neighborhood. They. They were happening in various small suburban towns across Sacramento and Stockton. The timeline of suspected crimes showed multiple attacks of couples throughout 1977, including another attack in North Stockton on June 6, one in Rancho Cordova on October 1, and another on October 21. Another brutal attack happened on October 29, 1977, when DeAngelo targeted a newlywed couple. After tying the knot, Deborah Strauss and her husband were still settling into their new shared life together. But in the middle of the night, their whole lives changed. The couple was jolted awake by a bright flashlight and a man shouting orders at the foot of their bed. There was no warning and no time to orient themselves. Like many other victims who reported their attacks, the suspect forced Debra to help restrain her husband before binding them both. He stacked dishes on her husband's back and made the threat explicit. Any sound, any movement, and the consequences would be fatal. With that fear in place, he moved Debra to another room and assaulted her repeatedly while her husband lay immobilized, listening and unable to intervene. Throughout the attack, he behaved with the same unnerving casualness reported by other victims. He wandered through the house, raided their food, and at one point, ran through rooms yelling for his mommy, a detail that deepened the sense of chaos and unpredictability. Before leaving, he stole Debra's wedding ring, along with a birthstone ring given to her by her parents, taking symbols of marriage and family as part of his violation. Physically, the damage lingered. The bindings were so tight that Debra's hands remained numb for months. Psychologically, the impact stretched far longer. Family members later described years of fear, depression, and hypervigilance. Debra would wake up repeatedly through the night to check locks, never fully able to feel safe in her own home again. This attack was not only similar in tactics, it was similar in the lasting effects it had on both victims. When the dates of these attacks were lined up, what emerged was not just frequency, but momentum. It was clear that he was not slowing down. And the longer he evaded the police, the more confident he became. And this cockiness was about to be put on full display.

B (21:07)

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A (21:38)

There's a point in most serial killers timelines where they've gotten away with so many crimes, they start becoming cocky and it feels like they almost want to get caught. We covered the first time this happened in episode one, when nine months after his first attack, an unknown man called the police and claimed to be the east area rapist. He taunted the police, saying, quote, I have my next victim already stalked and you guys can't catch me. Later that Same day on March 18, 1977, the 15th attack took place. One of the next times was in December of 1977. The mayor of Sacramento and one of the largest publications in the area, the Sacramento Bee, both received letters from a person claiming to be the east area rapist. Attached to this letter was a poem titled Excitement's grave, which included the phrase, Sacramento should make an offer to make a movie of my life that will pay for my planned exile. The poem was creepy in and of itself, but the more disturbing part is that the suspect was becoming more confident, which meant the chances of him escalating were highly likely. Investigators never definitively proved authorship, and the material had to be treated cautiously before the community reading about it in the paper. That distinction mattered less than the impact. A letter like that felt like confirmation that the offender was not hiding. He was enjoying the chase and the attention. For residents already sleeping lightly and checking locks, the message was even more unsettling. It felt like validation that their fear was being noticed and enjoyed. Residents in Sacramento county grappled with the reality that this offender could continue to attack anyone at any time. The attacks weren't isolated to a single area or a single profile for a couple, and despite couples taking so many safety precautions, he was still able to get into their houses and attack them. The sense of fear and helplessness despite taking these measures that they thought would protect them turned into even more Frustration with the authorities. An entire county was being terrorized, but the police were making no progress in finding the suspect. There was also frustration within the police departments across jurisdictions in the Sacramento and Stockton areas. At the time, police were using all of the tactics at their disposal to find this guy. There were patrols, stakeouts, and efforts to map and predict and anticipate, but the offender kept slipping through the cracks. But what they didn't know was, was that their suspect used to be one of their own. He knew all of the protocols and tactics police were using to try and track him, and this was his biggest advantage. Every time he escaped. The legend, the fear and the pressure all grew. And that pressure became overwhelming as communities began to feel that survival required a level of vigilance that was exhausting. By the end of 1977, the dread did not return. Resolve. It transformed. There were moments when attacks seemed to slow, shift or go quiet. But for a community living under chronic threat, silence was not relief. It was suspense. It felt like everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the next attack. Sacramento county had been forced to accept something unbearable. If he stopped for a week or a stretch or long enough that people dared to hope, it did not mean he was gone. It only meant that the community was left with questions. No arrest and silence. And in 1978, he didn't just taunt the police and the mayor, he started consistently calling his victims. In episode three, we will discuss how the Visalia ransacker turned into the east area rapist and finally, the Golden State Killer. And how advancements in technology finally led to some form of closure for the victims. What did you think of tonight's case? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. See you next time. If you haven't already, make sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to our YouTube channelightwatchpod. Your support means everything.