Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes | East Area Rampage

Summary

---

Small Town Dicks: Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes

Episode: East Area Rampage
Date: July 17, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, the Small Town Dicks team—with hosts Yeardley Smith, detectives Dan and Dave, and forensic expert Paul Holes—dives deep into the transformation of the Visalia Ransacker into the infamous East Area Rapist, later unmasked as Joseph DeAngelo: the Golden State Killer. The discussion tracks DeAngelo’s criminal escalation, the challenges investigators faced in real time, distinctive behavioral signatures, and how law enforcement ultimately made critical connections decades later. The team carefully analyzes maps, M.O., investigative missteps, and the complex psychology behind the crimes.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Transition from Visalia Ransacker to East Area Rapist

• Crime Escalation and Escape
  • After the attempted murder of Detective William McGowan by the Visalia Ransacker, the crime series in Visalia abruptly ended. Six months later, the first sexual assault as the East Area Rapist occurred in Rancho Cordova, east of Sacramento (01:29, 05:52).
  • "You know, and part of kind of assessing the shooting, it's don't underestimate your opponent... Now that we know, it's Joseph d'Angelo, who at the time was a law enforcement officer." – Paul Holes (03:32)

D'Angelo's Law Enforcement Background and Geographic Profiling

• Anchor Points and Hubris

  • DeAngelo studied criminal justice at Sac State and became a police officer in Exeter, near Visalia (02:22, 04:17).
  • All his ransack attacks clustered around the College of the Sequoias—where he trained as a cadet—indicating a geographical anchor point. This made him both confident and difficult to predict (04:17–07:12).
  • "All these pushpins. Right in the center of this huge, dense cluster of all these burglaries is the community college that DeAngelo went to, the police academy at." – Paul Holes (04:17)

• Manipulation and Access

  • "While he is committing the Visalia Ransacker burglaries, DeAngelo does promote to become a sergeant, and he gets assigned. Get this. To the anti-burglary task force." (08:21)
  • This strategic assignment gave DeAngelo insider knowledge about task force activity and tactics, letting him stay ahead of police.

• Self-Improvement for Deception

  • During the six-month gap, DeAngelo "purposely loses weight in order to change his physical appearance" after realizing how closely the composite sketch resembled him (24:32, 25:45).

The Challenges of Real-Time Investigation

• Jurisdictional Siloing

  • As the offender moved locations, more agencies got involved without sharing information, causing crucial connections to be missed (02:36, 31:16).
  • "Local police departments, causing crucial connections to be missed." – Narrator (02:36)

• Multiple Serial Offenders

  • In 1976 Sacramento, several serial predators were operating at once, making it hard for law enforcement to recognize the emergence of a new, distinct offender (16:52).
  • "When these first, early on, east area rapist attacks are occurring, they're kind of almost attributing these attacks to ongoing series and not recognizing, oh, we have a new offender now working in the area." – Paul Holes (16:52)

Modus Operandi and Behavioral Evolution

• From Burglary to Rape

  • Early patterns: Ransacker often "struggled to be able to break into houses... seen by witnesses all the time." (10:15, 15:01)
  • As East Area Rapist, his attacks evolved from targeting women alone to attacking couples, with tactical innovations to gain full control of the scene (35:39).

• Signature Behaviors

  • The East Area Rapist would:
    • Bind his victims and often stack dishes on the man's back as an "alarm system" (39:00).
    • Collect souvenirs, notably drivers' licenses, and psychologically torment victims by addressing them by name (33:49).
    • Change tactics to enhance offender anonymity, such as always speaking through clenched teeth to disguise his voice (26:31).
  • "As the East Area Rapist, he never talked in his normal voice. He always talked through clenched teeth." – Paul Holes (25:45)

The Power of Description & the Psychology of Deception

• Physical Descriptions

  • Contradictory witness accounts: the composite and description provided by McGowan (Visalia) showed a heavyset, baby-faced man, while East Area Rapist victims described a leaner, athletic build due to DeAngelo's intentional weight loss (13:30–16:00, 18:42–22:10).

• Psychological Deception

  • DeAngelo would adopt bizarre, childish or unintelligent behavior, and speak in a high, feminine-sounding voice to mislead witnesses (16:30, 26:31).
  • "He has a command presence. You know, he's well trained, and yet he's acting like this in front of a witness." – Paul Holes (16:31)
  • "He is doing whatever he can in order to prevent people from recognizing him as the Visalia Ransacker." – Paul Holes (26:40)

Trauma and the Lasting Impact on Victims

• Man’s Perspective

  • When attacking couples, DeAngelo would emasculate the man, binding him and threatening violence if he moved. Many male victims struggled with feelings of failure decades later (38:27).
  • "I never really appreciated the trauma that these men went through until I started interviewing a few of them. And 40 years later, they're breaking down, they're crying, and in their mind, they failed." – Paul Holes (38:27)

• Legal Evolution

  • Initially, sexual assaults were past the statute of limitations in California. Prosecutors ultimately recast cases as robberies and kidnappings to allow for prosecution (40:14).
  • "It turns out one of the prosecutors… was looking at this series. He says, 'Oh, you guys are looking at these cases all wrong. Don't look at them as sexual assaults… It's a kidnap, really.'" – Paul Holes (41:28)

Investigative Failures & Lessons Learned

• Complexity and Overwhelm
  • The investigation amassed over 15,000 pages and 8,000 suspect names, yet DeAngelo's was not among them (27:24).
  • "You fail until you are right… D'Angelo's name is not on there. All those suspect names were failures." – Paul Holes (27:24)
  • Paul Holes candidly discusses his own doubts and errors in suspect linkage—a humility that underscores investigative reality (26:40).

Mapping and Geographic Analysis

• Attack Clustering
  • Both Visalia and Sacramento attacks were mapped, revealing DeAngelo's patterns and further indicating his core local familiarity with Sacramento (44:12).
  • "When I'm looking at the pattern of his attacks and how broad the area of his attacks in Sacramento were, I'm going, this guy is intimately familiar with Sacramento." – Paul Holes (44:12)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On DeAngelo's Police Background:
  • "So DeAngelo studied criminal justice at Sac State. He ultimately was hired by the town of Exeter..." — Paul Holes (02:22)
• On Mapping Crime Scenes:
  • "The map with all the pushpins... All these pushpins. Right in the center... is the community college that DeAngelo went to, the police academy at." — Paul Holes (04:17)
• On the Irony of DeAngelo Investigating His Own Crimes:
  • "While he is committing the Visalia Ransacker burglaries, DeAngelo does promote to become a sergeant, and he gets assigned. Get this. To the anti-burglary task force." — Paul Holes (08:21)
• On DeAngelo's Self-Improvement to Avoid Capture:
  • "He purposely loses weight in order to change his physical appearance." — Paul Holes (24:32)
• Witness Description of the Ransacker:
  • "Large round shoulders, large hips, fat thighs, fat calves, fat short feet, large rump... The subject, he says, was a baby, but looks like a baby and had a round, soft looking baby face." — Paul Holes quoting McGowan's description (14:53)
• Paul Holes on Investigative Error:
  • "I had, prior to the case being solved, expressed my doubts about the Visalia Ransacker being the East Area Rapist... And it was something I was wrong about." (26:40)
• On Staggering File Volume:
  • "My Golden State Killer files, it's about 130 gigabytes worth of information and over 38,000 individual files." — Paul Holes (28:39)
• On Male Victims’ Trauma:
  • "40 years later, they're breaking down, they're crying, and in their mind, they failed." — Paul Holes (38:27)
• On Prosecution:
  • "He moves the woman against her will. Kidnap, even if it's just from one room to another, you can still classify that as a kidnapping." — Yardley Smith (41:28)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Origins of the East Area Rapist: 01:29–04:17
• DeAngelo’s Law Enforcement Career & Map Analysis: 04:17–07:58
• Criminal Confidence and Policing the Police: 08:21–09:40
• Composite Sketch and Physical Description Analysis: 11:37–16:00
• Transition to Sacramento Attacks: 16:52–19:13
• Struggles and Inconsistencies in Linking Ransacker and Rapist: 20:53–22:10, 24:32–26:40
• Investigative Complexity and Doubt: 27:24–28:39
• East Area Rapist’s M.O. against Women/Couples: 35:39–39:00
• Impact on Male Victims: 38:27
• Prosecutorial Innovation & Justice for Victims: 40:14–42:58
• Mapping Sacramento Attacks & Geographic Profiling: 44:12–45:23

---

Memorable Moments

• The astonishment at just how closely the early composite matched DeAngelo—described as "uncanny" by Dan (12:04).
• Discussion about law enforcement's inability (and systemic obstacles) to coordinate across jurisdictions, contributing to DeAngelo’s prolonged evasion.
• Paul’s humility in sharing investigative missteps and the immense challenge of sifting through vast suspect lists (27:24).
• The psychological gamesmanship: DeAngelo's manipulation not just of victims, but of the investigative process itself.
• Yeardley’s real-time horror as she pieces together just how embedded DeAngelo was in the local law enforcement community (08:46).

---

Conclusion

This episode offers a detailed, haunting look at the dualities and deceptions employed by Joseph DeAngelo, enriched by Paul Holes’ firsthand investigative experience. It highlights both the human and systemic challenges of tracking a predator who was, chillingly, “always one step ahead”—and the pain, persistence, and evolution it required for justice to finally catch up.

---

Next episode preview: Paul Holes will dive deeper into the calculated, tactical evolution of the East Area Rapist and the investigative mindset that ultimately brought the Golden State Killer to justice.

---

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states.

[Christy from Lululemon]

Hey, it's Christy from Lululemon and I'm here at the office checking out the shake it out shorts. These have been my go tos and I kind of think of them as a middle ground between a true run short and more playful, athletic, sporty short. They have all the performance you want for running. So a comfy liner, our lightweight swift fabric, even a pocket for your keys. But what I really like is the flowy fit and layered hem. It gives it a little bit of volume, a little bit of fun so they feel as good on a run as they do just at coffee afterwards. You can find the shake it out shorts in store now or [e-mail] previously

[Narrator]

on Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes. Paul took us to Visalia, California, where a rash of break ins revealed the ear flagrant behavior of an offender who was rapidly escalating. Now the case moves to the Sacramento area. The Visalia ransacker disappears and six months later, a new offender starts attacking women in their homes. He is prolific and violent and becomes known as the East Area Rapist.

[Paul Holes]

Six months later, now in the Rancho Cordova Cordova Meadows neighborhood, which is east of downtown Sacramento, we have our first sexual assault.

[Narrator]

In this episode, Paul walks us through the beginning of the East Area Rapist attacks and the details that made this series so difficult to understand in real time.

[Paul Holes]

The very first case is a woman who's home alone. She lived with her dad, but dad was visiting family on the east coast.

[Narrator]

For investigators, the questions start multiplying with the first question being is this the same offender from Visalia or is it someone new and how is he learning, adapting and staying ahead of law enforcement who's trying to catch him?

[Paul Holes]

DeAngelo studied criminal justice at Sac State. He ultimately was hired by the town of Exeter, which is a town that is right next to Visalia.

[Narrator]

This is where the case begins to expand. More victims, more jurisdictions, more opportunities for information to be siloed within local police departments, causing crucial connections to be missed

[Paul Holes]

and delayed to really underscore sort of the magnitude of this case and the overwhelming aspect of this case. You know, you put all the bona fide Golden State killer cases together, that's

[Narrator]

over 15,000 pages, episode two, east area rampage. So we left off last episode with the Visalia Ransacker shooting Detective William McGowan. Paul, you said that after this shooting,

[Yardley Smith]

the Ransackers series of crimes completely stopped.

[Paul Holes]

You know, and part of kind of assessing the shooting, it's don't underestimate your opponent. You know, of course, at the time, McGowan doesn't know who the Visalia Ransacker is. Now that we know, it's Joseph d', Angelo, who at the time was a law enforcement officer. And we now know he's also extremely prolific with firearms. So this is where DeAngelo, he initiates the shooting, but he also has that proficiency to probably be more successful than the average person at getting that shot off.

[Yardley Smith]

Right. And for listeners out there who don't know the deep dive of the Golden State Killer. And you just said that DeAngelo was a police officer, so their hair's probably on fire. Let's talk about that.

[Paul Holes]

So DeAngelo studied criminal justice at Sac State. He ultimately was hired by the town of Exeter, which is a town that is right next to Visalia. He is sent to the police academy at the College of Sequoias, where all the Visalia Ransack, or Fetishburgs, were occurring. I mean, the map with all the pushpins. All these pushpins. Right in the center of this huge, dense cluster of all these burglaries is the community college that DeAngelo went to, the police academy at.

[Yardley Smith]

Shit.

[Dave]

So Paul's got a map up in his presentation, and it's got all these blue pushpins in it of the Visalia Ransacker incidents. And it really is striking how much of a. It's a circle around the campus, like

[Yardley Smith]

neighbors, literally next door neighbors. I got robbed. Oh, I got robbed, you know, or I got hit. I got hit by the ransack. Like, the hubris seems calculated in. Just because I hit this house doesn't mean I'm going to go far away for the next one. Oh, no.

[Paul Holes]

So as the Visalia Ransacker, he is showing a proficiency and a confidence in his ability to move in the neighborhoods where you probably have enhanced patrol because of all the burglaries that have occurred. And he's still carrying out attacks. And that is what we see further on in the series, where he's almost in a. I'm better than you, law enforcement.

[Yardley Smith]

Right. The other thing that I'm looking at as I look at this slide of yours, Paul, that has all these pushpins, and you've numbered the attack. So it says VR, which stands for Visalia Ransacker. And then it will have 37 or 15 or 22. And what's interesting is he didn't attack one side of the neighborhood and then move to the other side. He crisscrosses back and forth frequently. So I'm sure you think, oh, if I'm on the west side of the college and he hasn't been here for a few months, we're safe. Oh, no, he'll be back. It's terrifying.

[Dave]

A couple of those streets. It looks like he hit every house.

[Yardley Smith]

Yeah.

[Paul Holes]

This is where it's so informative. If you are working a series, start understanding you know what geographic profiling could possibly tell you about the offender.

[Dan]

Yeah. The map is so demonstrative. And in this case, you have downtown Visalia, you have the College of Sequoias in the middle of this pushpin map. It looks like you had just said there'd be a bunch of attacks kind of on the periphery of a boundary and whatever that boundary is, maybe where suspect works, suspect lives, suspect visits often, et cetera. They won't attack there, but they'll hit the boundaries outside of it where they feel safe.

[Paul Holes]

And this is where College of Sequoias is what we call an anchor point for d'. Angelo. Almost all of these attacks, there's a few you can see that are further south away from this place, surrounding the College of Sequoias. But all of these attacks are surrounding an anchor point. This clearing surrounded by attacks can be called like a smokestack, where when you see this type of clustering with a clearing in the middle, then there's a possible anchor point. Could be where your offender lives, could be where he works, could be a family member there. You can't really define why, but if it's an anchor point where he's associated with that, generally he's going to stay away from the immediate vicinity of that anchor point. And that's what we see here with this graphic.

[Yardley Smith]

That's like Diangelo's safe zone, this anchor point.

[Paul Holes]

Yes.

[Yardley Smith]

Right.

[Dan]

Lots of people know what you look like in that little anchor point. So you don't shit where you eat.

[Paul Holes]

Yes.

[Dan]

Yeah.

[Dave]

I find it very interesting that VR1, Visalia, Ransacker 1 is the furthest away from that anchor point.

[Paul Holes]

That is true. That is true.

[Yardley Smith]

Yes, it is.

[Dave]

And then all the other ones are right around it.

[Yardley Smith]

Fascinating.

[Paul Holes]

So during this time, DeAngelo graduates from the police academy. He is a full time Exeter law enforcement officer. He is a patrol officer in the Town of Exeter. While he is committing the Visalia Ransacker burglaries, DeAngelo does promote to become a sergeant, and he gets assigned. Get this. To the anti burglary task force.

[Yardley Smith]

Oh, the irony. It hurts so much. It hurts so bad.

[Dan]

Everyone knows the cops always investigate themselves.

[Paul Holes]

So he is on the task force that is likely investigating the Visalia Ransacker.

[Yardley Smith]

Talk about getting inside information.

[Commercial Announcer (Pepsi)]

Exactly.

[Dan]

He had an opportunity to really demonstrate his prowess as an investigator to solve that one.

[Paul Holes]

He could have.

[Dan]

Yeah. I just cleared 108 burglaries guys.

[Paul Holes]

No, but you think about this, is that when you get into a special assignment, you get onto this burglary task force, you get sent to burglary school or whatever type of specialty assignment that you're given, and there's often some sort of formal training that your agency will send you to. So here you have d', Angelo, who on taxpayer dime, goes to burglary school and learns how to become a better burglar.

[Dave]

And not only that, if he's on the task force, he knows the areas that the task force is going to be kind of concentrating on saying, hey, you know, we're going to do saturation patrols in this certain area. And he knows. He knows where everybody's looking for him. So he can go on the other side of town or on the other side of the campus, and he can head over there.

[Paul Holes]

And he probably knows what kinds of communications the task force members are going to be utilizing.

[Dan]

He knows what probative evidence has been seized at other scenes where he goes, oh, that was a mistake. I can't do that again. Those types of things, you know, And

[Paul Holes]

I do want to point out, you know, as a Visalia Ransacker, even though he's very prolific, there was evidence that he really kind of sucked as a burglar. This is where he struggled to be able to break into houses. There's multiple cases during the Visalia Ransacker series where he's trying to pry on one window, and then you see him trying to pry on another window, and he's seen all the time, seen by witnesses. He's seen by witnesses all the time.

[Commercial Announcer (Pepsi)]

And we're live on Matchday as Doug reaches for a buffalo wing. He's got it. Oh, and he's gone for a can of Pepsi, too. What a finish. There's no doubt about it. It just tastes better. Match days deserve Pepsi.

[Commercial Announcer (Taco Bell)]

Introducing Taco Bell's new jalapeno citrus salsa with bright citrus, real red jalapenos, guajillo chiles Usually you add sauce to the food, but when the sauce is this good, the food is just there to get the sauce to your mouth. That rolled quesadilla. Not a rolled quesadilla anymore. Now it's a sauce shovel. Taco Bell's Jalapeno Citrus Salsa. Get it with any item on the Cantina Chicken menu while it's here. The participating U.S. taco Bell locations for a limited time only, while supplies last contact store for availability.

[Paul Holes]

So our composite was drawn based off of Officer McGowan's observations. And so we have what I consider to be almost a clown like composite. But when you see the photo of DeAngelo in 1973 at his wedding, he's kind of got that fattish face and the smallish ears. And you look at DeAngelo's face relative to that composite, it's like, well, that actually is a pretty good composite. It really is.

[Dan]

It really is uncanny. Like the lips, the shape of the face, all those things. That is uncanny how it resembles him.

[Yardley Smith]

It is interesting, though. Just sort of just try to describe it for the listeners. This composite gives d' Angelo a real baby face, quite round, a little overweight, but then he's got these age lines. So I think in your brain, you're like, it doesn't quite comport. I don't know what that is. But when you compare it to an actual photo of him, once you find out who he is, many decades later, you're like, it's actually not bad.

[Paul Holes]

This composite, in addition to Officer McGowan seeing the Visalia ransacker face to face, lit up with a flashlight, there was also another excellent witness. And this was an anthropology student who was sitting in his car outside his girlfriend's house, getting ready to go in and visit her. And he sees a man walking down the street towards him. The man crosses the street, gets on his hands and knees, crosses the front lawn on his hands and knees, crawls up to, I think it's the living room window of the girlfriend, of the girlfriend, and starts peeping into that window. So the college student, who's an anthropology student, gets up and now chases that man. And that man gets up to a fence line, turns around and almost has a very similar hysterical type of response to the student looking at him.

[Yardley Smith]

D' Angelo has this weird hysterical response to the student.

[Paul Holes]

Yes. But then the ransacker makes what we call a furtive gesture towards the waistline. And he may have even put his hand inside, like a jacket pocket. I can't quite remember the detail and that's when the student goes, oh, and the Ransacker walks off. So you have these two excellent witnesses, and they're verbal descriptions, you know, of the Ransacker is very interesting. And I'm not going to go through the students. I just want to kind of read McGowan's description of the Visalia ransacker, where McGowan said he's hearing what sounds like a woman's voice screaming, oh my God, don't hurt me. Said he ran in a funny manner, like the knees were together, almost like he's knock kneed. He's roughly 25 to 35 years old, which is, you know, spot on. 5 foot 10, 180 pounds or more, light blonde hair, military haircut with no sideburns, very light skin. And then this is where it starts getting what I think very interesting. Large round shoulders, large hips, fat thighs, fat calves, fat short feet, large rump, large legs. The subject, he says, was a baby, but looks like a baby and had a round, soft looking baby face. The subject did not look like he shaved. You know, so he almost like that baby face, even though he's saying it looks like he's 25 to 35 years old.

[Yardley Smith]

Oh, you mean like he didn't have hair to shave? Not like he had a five o' clock shadow.

[Paul Holes]

It's like this subject did not look like he could grow a beard.

[Narrator]

Indeed.

[Paul Holes]

And the short fat ears, thick neck and smooth forehead. So that is a little bit different than, you know, how the artist drew the composite and the nose like a ski slope. But I really focused in on the large round shoulders, fat thighs, fat calves. You know, this is like the ransom Ransacker is heavyset. Now the Ransacker was very agile. He could hop over fences and move around very quickly. And the anthropology students descriptors are very similar. So this is pretty consistent. And so this is DeAngelo and how D' Angelo looked as he was the Visalia Ransacker.

[Yardley Smith]

I just want to say before you move on, Paul, in the anthropology student's description, the last two things in this report say the suspect was behaving like he was 12 or 13 years old and not the type of person who could carry on an intelligent conversation, which is a fascinating assessment. And of course it turns out to be the complete opposite once we find out who the guy is. But really interesting, I thought.

[Paul Holes]

And this is where later on, when we get into the East Area Rapist phase of the Golden State Killer series, there's going to be a consistency in terms of how DeAngelo modified his behaviors, purposely modified his behaviors in order to throw the witnesses or the victims off as to who he actually was.

[Yardley Smith]

Right.

[Paul Holes]

Because he's a law enforcement officer, he has a command presence. You know, he's well trained, and yet he's acting like this in front of a witness.

[Dave]

Yeah, maybe doesn't have a command presence with that voice.

[Yardley Smith]

Maybe not. It's such a strange artifact of his being. It's just so incongruous.

[Paul Holes]

So after McGowan was shot, you know, there is no more Visalia ransacker cases down in that area. Six months later. And now in the Rancho Cordova Cordova Meadows neighborhood, which is east of downtown Sacramento, we have our first sexual assault. And this has been attributed to, now, the east area rapist, which it's considered part of the series, but at the time, Sacramento had multiple serial rapists attacking sort of in the same east area of Sacramento. So when these first, early on, east area rapist attacks are occurring, they're kind of almost attributing these attacks to ongoing series and not recognizing, oh, we have a new offender now working in the area. And when you're in larger metropolitan areas, it's not unusual to have, you know, multiple series going on at the same time. So you had the early bird rapist. I think it was the woolly rapist. And this is also during the timeframe in which Richard Trenton Chase, the vampire killer, was committing his crimes in Sacramento. So when this east area rapist starts showing up in Rancho Cordova, the authorities aren't recognizing, oh, this is somebody different. And here six months have passed, and this is a case. The very first case is a woman who's home alone. She lived with her dad, but dad was a visiting family on the east coast. She's in her bed. She kind of wakes up and sees a man standing in her doorway. And what she sees is the man has a ski mask on, can't see his face. He has a T shirt on. He's holding a knife in his right hand, but he's nude from the waist down.

[Yardley Smith]

And how old is our victim?

[Paul Holes]

She's 20, I believe. this time, yes. So she sees this man, and then he runs and jumps on top of her, holds the knife against her, tells her, do what I say or I'll kill you. In essence, ends up turning her over, binding her hands, and then sexually assaults her. At one point, the rapist leaves the room, and she hears him talking to somebody else and says something to the effect of, I thought I told you to shut Up.

[Yardley Smith]

Oh, wow.

[Paul Holes]

So there's a suggestion that there was somebody else in the other room. However, one of the interesting aspects was this victim's description of the east area rapist. And this is six months after Visalia Ransacker leaves Visalia. And she described this east area rapist as. He can't be over five'10. He has a small build, not skinny, puny type, but a small, well proportioned body. Broad shouldered, but not ripply with muscles. Dark hairy arms and legs. And based off of what she saw, she didn't think he had blonde hair. He was too dark with the hair on his body. And so this is early on when the east area rapists started to be recognized as an active predator in Sacramento. There was a thought there's some overlap in terms of the types of crimes to the Visalia Ransacker. But how does this description from this victim mesh with officers McGowan's description of the Ransacker? And you could say, well, that's just a one off. That victim must have been wrong. Well, so the third case, which happens basically two months later, right around the corner from the very first Easter rapist attack, this is where he ends up trying to break into a young girl's bedroom window. She hears him, she looks out and sees a masked man trying to pry her window screen off. And so this young girl goes and gets mom and they go to the kitchen where the phone is at and dial the operator.

[Yardley Smith]

Cause there's no 911 yet.

[Paul Holes]

No 911.

[Yardley Smith]

Which is crazy because we're at 1976 now.

[Dave]

Yes, I call Smith and Wesson first, usually.

[Yardley Smith]

I mean, I was born in 64, I'm 12. I just can't imagine. There's no 911 yet.

[Paul Holes]

No, but this is what these victims are dealing with. And so as, I mean, we're of. Well, maybe not Dan and Dave, but Yardley, you and I are of the generation in which they were one.

[Yardley Smith]

They were one years old in 76.

[Paul Holes]

The operator doesn't just. Always just pick up after the first ring, right? This woman is waiting for the operator to pick up. It's ringing, ringing, ringing. They hear a crash come from the girl's bedroom. And next thing they know, they have a masked man standing in front of them. He's got a shirt on, he's got a ski mask covering his face. And in one hand he's holding a gun, in the other hand he's holding a padded baton. And he says, in essence, and this is not necessarily verbatim, you Know, stop or I. Right. And he ends up going hands on with the adult female, and she resists, she fights him, and ultimately she's able to pull away, and her and her daughter are able to run out of the house.

[Yardley Smith]

And is deangelo naked from the waist down in this attack as well?

[Paul Holes]

In this case, he's also naked from the waist down. So in this particular case, you know, the woman provides the description as he's a white male, late 20s, 5 10. So we have consistency on height, slender to medium build, having a light complexion of the type that probably has blonde hair. So there's some inconsistency between the two victims. But then looking at these two early victims of the East Area rapists and their descriptions of somebody that is more my build type, more of that kind of. Maybe more of an athletic type of build, that was not what the Visalia Ransacker look looked like at all. And so when authorities are comparing and contrasting the east area rapists and Visalia Ransacker, all the way back in basically the later 1970s, they were arguing amongst themselves, are these two related or not? And I even kind of assessed this, and I'm going, you know, even though there's overlap in behaviors and some MO Aspects in terms of how these two offenders are getting inside houses, this very disparate physical. Physical description gave me really doubt as to the Visalia Ransacker as East Area Rapist. And of course, that turns out I was wrong about that. And I know during the course of my investigation, anytime I got tips coming in that were more Visalia Ransacker, I would feed those down to the people, whether it be Visalia PD or some members of the task force that we were a part of who were pursuing the Visalia Ransacker to try to solve the Golden State Killer case. I focused in on east era rapist and original night stalker, which I'll talk about later, the homicides in Southern California, because I knew those were the same guy.

[Yardley Smith]

How did you know that?

[Paul Holes]

Because we had DNA from my cases in Contra Costa county to DNA from the homicides down south.

[Yardley Smith]

Okay. And what we haven't actually stated overtly here is that DeAngelo being part of the burglary task force at Exeter PD, obviously, he's getting all this insider information, and then there's this composite and a very detailed description of his body type. He basically takes six months and loses weight and gets into shape, right?

[Paul Holes]

Yes.

[Yardley Smith]

When he becomes the East Area rapist,

[Commercial Announcer (Choice Hotels)]

Choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember Same drive, different day don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too Comfort Inn, it's calling your name Save on the stay oh, and free waffles are yours to claim well, I hope you like my little song book. [e-mail] hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.

[Ryan Reynolds (Mint Mobile)]

Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan $15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending, zero tears. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. See terms

[Paul Holes]

this 6 months of

[M (Runner)]

between

[Paul Holes]

the Visalia Ransacker to the beginning of the East Area Rapist phase. We have no attacks. And I believe d' Angelo because he knew there was a composite that, spot on, looked like him. He also knew he had just shot an officer in the neighboring town. So he gets the hell out of Dodge. And he purposely loses weight in order to change his physical appearance. Now he's thinking he still wants to continue to offend, but he also doesn't want to get caught as a Visalia Ranch and needs to change his physical appearance. And as the East Area Rapist, he never talked in his normal voice. He always talked through clenched teeth.

[Yardley Smith]

Oh, because again, there's a very distinct description of him having a higher voice,

[Paul Holes]

very feminine, a woman's like voice.

[Yardley Smith]

Right.

[Paul Holes]

So he's now doing whatever he can in order to prevent people from recognizing him as the Visalia Ransacker. So there's a group after this case was solved, I had, prior to the case being solved, expressed my doubts about the Visalia Ransacker being the East Area Rapist. And it was something I was wrong about. Even though I've always said, hey, I never eliminated that. It's just I wasn't putting weight in my investigative efforts to pursue Visalia, but there were. The online sleuthing community really criticized me for having expressed that. And it was just like, I'm dealing with the information I've got in front of me. I'm dealing with the facts.

[Dan]

Hey, we're hiring all the time. If you want a shot at the title, join the team.

[Paul Holes]

As I go through, I'll talk about some of my investigative failures. But one of the things that I've said in any of these whodunit homicides, you fail until you are right. And often you think about this. We have a master name index in the Golden State Killer series that has over 8,000 names in it.

[Yardley Smith]

Good God.

[Paul Holes]

D' Angelo's name is not on there. All those suspect names were failures.

[Yardley Smith]

Wow.

[Paul Holes]

Some of the files that I had were digitized copies of what the original task force members had done. But during the course of my investigation into all these suspects, I compiled huge amounts of information. And some suspects would be, you know, a few mouse clicks, you know, and I was able to eliminate right away. And then there's a few suspects. And I'll talk about a few a little bit later where I spent, like, on one guy, I spent two years. I thought for sure he was the guy. And, you know, my Golden State Killer files, it's about 130 gigabytes worth of information and over 38,000 individual files.

[Dan]

That's crazy.

[Yardley Smith]

That's insane.

[Paul Holes]

And to really underscore sort of the magnitude of this case and the overwhelming aspect of this case, you put all the bona fide Golden State Killer cases together. That's over 15,000 pages. So imagine reading a novel that's 15,000 pages long, let alone trying to maintain information in your head about the details across 15,000 pages. I would have to read these case files over and over and over again. And then a suspect would pop up. And I'm going, there's something about this guy that, you know, is in one of these cases.

[Yardley Smith]

Where did I see that?

[Paul Holes]

Where did I see that? Is that in case 50? Is that in case 35? Was that in case 14?

[Yardley Smith]

Right.

[Dan]

We benefit from you being a little bit Rain Man.

[Yardley Smith]

Yes, we do.

[Paul Holes]

I wouldn't say I have a photographic memory, but it's like near photographic. I can go, oh, I can remember seeing a detail and that page looks like this. And then I can kind of get myself into the general area of that case file where that information is contained. So starting with East Stereo Rapist, and this is more, you know, Visalia Ransacker, of course, I talked about, well, is that related or not in terms of my mindset, said. But starting with that very first attack in Sacramento In June of 1976, this is where the heart of my investigation really focused in on. And so what I did is I broke down the east area rapist attacks up in Northern California into three distinct phases. And I'll talk about each distinct phase. And then the fourth phase of my investigative efforts were when the east area rapists disappeared from Northern California and then Southern California, starting in Santa Barbara in late 1979, started to experience homicides. And as I mentioned at the time, Southern California had no idea that their killer was a serial rapist from Northern California. And when it was even pursued back in 1979, Southern California, Santa Barbara in particular, was like, nope, that's not our guy. And there's all sorts of conspiracy theories on why they didn't even really pursue it. Ronald Reagan was governor at the time, looking at doing a presidential run. And of course he's strong connection to Santa Barbara. And they probably didn't want any really bad notoriety occurring. I can't say that, but that's stuff that when I talked to one of the original investigators from the Contra Costa task force, he was going, yeah, they were so uncooperative.

[Yardley Smith]

We think this, it was something fishy beyond back in that time, the fact that, that very often agencies simply didn't share information. Right, right, yep.

[Paul Holes]

So what I'm going to do now is start really doing a deeper dive into the east area rapist attacks. And we have 50 attacks formally attributed to the east area rapists starting out in Sacramento. So due to the prolific nature of the east area rapist, 50 attacks, there is no way I can go through each attack within any type reasonable timeframe. So what I do when I talk to law enforcement and what I'm going to do here is I've chosen select attacks to illustrate aspects about the east area rapist. And I've broken these down just to summarize his MO, if you will, into two different types of cases. He's got cases in which there's only a female present or female and children present inside the house. And then he has cases where, where he is attacking a couple. You have a man and a woman. So the M.O. with the female is more what you would say is a prototypical serial rapist who's breaking into houses. If the female's in her bed, he immediately goes hands on. He's typically armed with a knife. Oftentimes he's armed himself with a knife out of the victim's own kitchen. Will bind her hands behind her back, possibly bind both hands and ankles at the. As he goes through and ransacks the house, he is stealing from the victims. There is some financial aspect to his thefts, but he also at times was taken. Single earrings.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Right.

[Paul Holes]

And then he will sexually assault the victims. When I talk to law enforcement, I talk about how his sexual assaults occurred because he does have a signature. But due to respect of the living victims, many of them are still alive today. I don't to want to detail how his sexual assaults occurred. So with the females, they are sexually assaulted, and then they would just be left, you know, wherever the sexual assault occurred. Sometimes it's on the bed. Sometimes, you know, he's moved them onto the floor into a different room. While he's going through the houses, he often will track down the victim's purse. And this is where he's now looking at their id. And in multiple cases, he stole their driver's license, and those have never been reported.

[Yardley Smith]

Is that a trophy kind of thing?

[Paul Holes]

He took those as souvenirs for sure, and they probably still exist today. But we've never found any of his souvenirs, nor has he divulged where those souvenirs are. However, he would come back, and now that he's seen the victim's id, he would start calling them by their first name. And this would really freak the women out.

[Yardley Smith]

Paul, you're saying he would go through the house, find the purse, get the ID and then come back to the room where the woman is bound and start calling her by her first name?

[Paul Holes]

Name, yes. We don't know if he knew any of the victims ahead of time, though I. I would say he most certainly selected some of these victims out in the wild and followed them back. Or he's prowling in the neighborhood and sees a woman alone inside a house and goes in, possibly doesn't know their names. But then once he finds her purse, then of course there's a psychology that he's exploiting, and it's a psychology of fear.

[Mint Mobile Terms Announcer]

Teens share everything. That may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Even if your teen's been vaccinated in the past, they could still be missing meningitis vaccinations. Ask your teen's doctor or visit meningitis.com today. Sponsored by GSK.

[Shopify Announcer]

Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business Idea into sign up for your $1 per month [e-mail] specialoffer.

[Paul Holes]

So the other type of attack that the east area rapists started doing, and this is on the formalist at attack number 16. So 15 attacks were occurring where it's just women or teenage girls are being attacked, starting with attack number 16. This is when he is attacking when there's a man present. And he, from the very beginning, his MO Was consistent throughout all the rest of his cases on how he approached the victims. Now you have the major physical threat to the east area rapist. So instead of immediately going hands on, what he would do is he would be in the doorway or at the foot of the bed and wake the couple up. As soon as the couple is woken up, they are blinded by a flashlight. And he would, through clenched teeth, basically let them know, I've got a good gun. And would put the gun in the beam of the flashlight so the couple can see that he really has a gun. And he goes, I have a.357. I will splatter your brains all over the wall. Do what I say or I'll kill you. And then he would tell the man to lay face down on the bed. And then he would throw binding material to the wife or the girlfriend and make her bind her male partner up. And he always demanded that the man be bound with hands behind the back and ankles. And so once the woman has done that, then he makes the woman lie face down on the bed and he goes up and binds her and usually both wrists and ankles. And then he goes back and double checks the bindings on the male and often will reinforce the bindings on the male with most of the time, like shoelaces out of the victim's own shoes or boots.

[Yardley Smith]

I guess it seems fairly obvious, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. What's the psychology of having the woman bind her male partner?

[Paul Holes]

Well, I would say this is more for self preservation. He is wanting to make sure that the man is incapacitated before he gets closer. So he is thinking ahead, and he wants to attack with a man present. This wasn't just an accidental, oh, shit, there's a man present. No, he is purposefully choosing couples. Once he starts attacking with a man present. Two thirds of the attack in the remaining part of the east area rapist series, as well as southern California homicides are with a man present. So he has now evolved and is getting gratification. He never sexually assaults the men, but he is getting gratification by, in essence, emasculating these men, basically immobilizing them and taking their wives out into the family room and raping them while the man is almost within earshot.

[Yardley Smith]

Right.

[Paul Holes]

So once the man is completely immobilized, then the East Area Rapist would go through the house and come back oftentimes with dishes, sometimes other types of trinkets, and stack those on the man's back as an alarm system and would tell the man, if I hear these, I will cut a part of her off and bring it to you, or I will kill her or I'll kill you, or I'll kill everything in the house. If there were kids present, Jesus. And he knew when they're, you know, he would go through the house, and that's one of the things he's checking. And throughout the series, there's instances in which the kids have woken up or have seen him or he's interacted with them. And I'll give some illustrations down the road. But now imagine these men. You're uncomfortable as hell. The bindings that East Air Rapist is putting on is cutting off circulation. So it's very, very painful. And they can't move. And now they're recognizing that their wife or girlfriend is in serious jeopardy. And I never really appreciated the trauma that these men went through until I started interviewing a few of them. And 40 years later, they're breaking down, they're crying, and in their mind, they failed. Right. So, you know, of course, you've got the women who are going through the trauma of the sexual assault and also being bound up, you know, very traumatic. But people don't recognize that when you are bound like that and a gun is literally put to the back of your head, and he would pull the hammer back. I mean, this is a serious, serious crime in and of itself. Your entire idea of personal safety and security in your own home is gone. Yep.

[Yardley Smith]

What is the name of that crime?

[Paul Holes]

Well, this is one of the interesting aspects about this series in terms of when we get to prosecuting DeAngelo is, as I mentioned earlier, I thought I was working these east area rapist cases as a hobby. They're past statute of limitations. Well, when they're viewed only as rapes or sexual assaults. Back in the 1970s, the statute of limitation in California was six years. So as sexual assaults, they were well past statute of limitations. But after DeAngelo's arrested and now the crimes are being evaluated by the prosecutors, it turns out one of the prosecutors out of my office, and this is Paul Grays, a very experienced both sexual Assault and homicide prosecutor, he was looking at this series. He says, oh, you guys are looking at these cases all wrong. Don't look at them as sexual assaults. He goes, east area rapist. D' Angelo is coming in. He's got a gun. I'm here for food and money. I'll kill you if you don't do what I say. Robbery under force or fear to remove or threaten to remove a personal effect or a financial item. And then he moves the woman against her will.

[Yardley Smith]

Kidnap, even if it's just from one room to another, you can still classify that as a kidnapping.

[Paul Holes]

Yes.

[Yardley Smith]

Right, yes.

[Paul Holes]

Technically, even within the same space, if you forcibly move somebody against their will, technically it's a kidnap, really. And it is considered a very serious crime, and especially when it's tacked on to another major felony. So with kidnap robbery, now, those cases could be charged against DeAngelo because the statutes hadn't passed under that. And this, I believe this is in the day before there's any firearms in hand. But it was truly that kidnap robbery. He didn't do that in all the cases in terms of what we would characterize as a robbery. So about half of the sexual assaults in Northern California, Sacramento DA's office, was able to charge him. And then ultimately he pled guilty to committing these cases. So he was charged with select east area rapist cases. He ultimately pled guilty to those. But a person, friend of the show, if you will, that you guys met Ann Marie Shubert, who was the elected DA at the time, she said he has to admit to the other cases because she wanted those victims to at least get a sense of justice.

[Yardley Smith]

Right.

[Dan]

I do love that. That's a prosecutor that truly has victims and families at the top of the list about who this affects. I love that she did that.

[Paul Holes]

So now after the man is completely bound, he. He would, at this phase, as the east area Rapist, separate the woman out into a different room and sexually assault her out there.

[Yardley Smith]

I'm curious that DeAngelo wouldn't sexually assault the woman in front of the man, just, again, like, twist the knife even deeper?

[Paul Holes]

And that's an interesting aspect to his psychology. At least at this stage of his attacks, he evolves to where I believe he does do that, possibly in a couple of attacks in Southern California. And the question is, is that something he's doing because he wants further dominance over the male, or is this more of. Based off of prior experience, he is doing that because he doesn't want to leave the room and the man alone because now he's out of sight. He's kind of lost control over that man.

[Yardley Smith]

Sure.

[Paul Holes]

Even though the man is bound. And I'll give some examples as why I think he does evolve where now he, he's sexually assaulting these women in the bed next to the husband. That this was more of a tactic in order to further enhance self preservation.

[Yardley Smith]

Yeah.

[Paul Holes]

So we start out June of 1976 as the East Area Rapist. And again, I end up using Google Earth and I map where all these East Area Rapist attacks occurred and within Sacramento. It's very obvious that he is crisscrossing the entire east area of Sacramento and committing attacks. But what was stunning, when I'm looking at the pattern of his attacks and how broad the area of his attacks in Sacramento were, I'm going, this guy is intimately familiar with Sacramento. And so he is a SAC based guy. And I'll compare and contrast that to when he comes down to my jurisdiction in the East Bay where he's literally following one of the major highways and then attacking off of that linear path. He's not the same broad familiarity in the East Bay as in Sacramento. And that's one of the things I was correct about in terms of this guy is SAC based and probably today is still in the Sacramento area. And of course, when we identify d', Angelo, he was, he was living in the east area of Sacramento in Citrus Heights.

[Narrator]

Coming up on Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes. The East Area Rapist continues to rapidly evolve as the attacks become more calculated, more tactical and more difficult for investigators to predict.

[Paul Holes]

There's a psychology that he's exploiting and it's a psychology of fear.

[Dave]

These are like tactical approaches. He's using patrol tactics and how he comes to these houses.

[Paul Holes]

You've chosen a suspect and then now you build a case against that suspect. Well, this is the wrong way to do it. The investigation needs to be led by the evidence, not by the suspect.

[Narrator]

That's coming up on Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul Holes.

[Yardley Smith]

Small Town Dicks presents.

[Narrator]

Chasing the Golden State Killer with Paul holes is an audio 99 production. It's written by Paul Holes and features Detective Dan, Detective Dave and me, Yardley Smith. The series is produced by Jessica Halstead and and Monica Scott. Executive produced by Ben Cornwell and me. Edited by Katie McMurran and Soren Bajan with additional editing by Christina Bracamontes. Sound supervision by Logan Heftel. Design and social media by Andrew Polk. The theme music is composed by Logan Heftel. If you'd like to support the making of this podcast, please please go to smalltowndicks.com superfam and hit that little join button. Also, you can stream all [e-mail] GoldenStakeKiller from all of us at Audio 99, thank you. Thank you for listening.

[M (Runner)]

Ouch.

[Narrator]

This knee is killing me.

[Paul Holes]

But I can't stop training the marathon in two weeks.

[M (Runner)]

Let's get on ZocDoc and find a doctor to take a look at that for you. Okay, Here's a review. Dr. Craddock really takes his time.

[Paul Holes]

No, I don't have time.

[M (Runner)]

What about Dr. Charles? His patients say he can help find a quick fix and he's in network.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

Great.

[Paul Holes]

Now we're talking.

[Yardley Smith]

Ah.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

Book it.

[M (Runner)]

Booked. One mile down, 19 to go.

[Paul Holes]

Bring it on. You've got options.

[Commercial Announcer (Taco Bell)]

Download the Zocdoc app today.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

Traditional home security only alerts you after a break in. And that's too late. Simplisafe is changing that.

[Commercial Announcer (Choice Hotels)]

Stop.

[Paul Holes]

This is Simplisafe. Police are on the way.

[Simplisafe Announcer]

We don't just alert. We stop crime before it starts. Simplisafe plans starting around a dollar a day. Save 50% on your new system with professional monitoring at SimpliSafe.com Spotify or with promo code Spotify Outdoor Deterrence requires a

[Paul Holes]

Simplisafe Active Guard Outdoor Protection plan starting at $49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com licenses for alarm license information. Tennessee 2012.