Crimes: The Book About the Serial Killer Who Revolutionized Cold Cases

The Golden State Killer was a serial killer who was almost forgotten. He is credited with 13 murders, about 50 rapes and numerous robberies that plagued California in the 1970s and 1980s. So I guess he will never unmask.

Yet a new DNA research method led to the identification of 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer in 2018. He was sentenced to several life sentences. He was the first “cold case” (old unsolved cases) to find an answer with this new technique. Since then, they have been solved almost every week in the United States.

A revolution in surveying

In scientific policing, many criminals have been identified using fingerprints. But to assign fingerprints taken from a crime scene to someone, they must match those already recorded in police files or match the fingerprints of a suspect. Since the 1980s, DNA has made identification possible. But the same, the record of the accused must already be registered by the police, or he himself is a suspect and a sample is taken from him.

Joseph James DeAngelo was never suspected. And every time he felt that something could connect him to his crimes, he started his misdeeds somewhere else. Since he was a police officer, he even investigated his own thefts before being fired for a shoplifting story. He apparently stopped his crimes because he felt DNA’s arrival might threaten him. But he didn’t expect anyone to knock on his door.

It comes as police, for the first time, compare the killer’s DNA with what people have volunteered at genetic testing sites. It is not necessarily the person who has this DNA, but someone in his family. Then, search the entourage for who could be the culprit.

One crime per state

There is a solution to this case A lot of noise at that time. Today, a book comes out detailing the entire terrifying journey of this extraordinary killer. 10/18, in collaboration with “Sangam” Magazine has launched a new collection titled “True Crime”. Each book is a major American criminal case, turning state by state. The killer, nicknamed California, is only one of two shooters. Written by reporter William Thorpe, “The Case of the Golden State Killer” devours like a great fictional thriller. But here everything is real.

This man’s journey is amazing. Before killing the animals, raping single women, raping a few along with her husband who had laid out several plates saying that if one fell, he would kill both. Finally, he began to brutally kill. Despite knowing little about the case, we learn a lot from this reading, especially the strange sentence that DeAngelo utters in the interrogation room, suggesting that he lived with a dual personality.

A truly unfit mother?

The collection does not focus on cases where we know all the secrets. The second book published is interested in Alice Crimmins. In New York, in 1965, this mother’s two grandchildren were found strangled in two different vacant lots. Without absolute proof of her guilt, she is the one who will be condemned, because she was judged only because she had too many lovers and she didn’t cry enough. But even today we do not know the truth. Likewise, this book by Anaïs Renevier is devouring. We’re excited about the next one, dedicated to “The Unknown of Cleveland,” which tells the story of a pensioner with no history found dead in his bathroom. Except his identity was false.

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