California serial murders, sexual assaults, and burglaries (1974–1986)

Between 1974 and 1986, a series of burglaries, rapes, and murders occurred across California under several names — the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, and the Original Night Stalker — later determined through DNA evidence to be the work of one man, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., a former police officer. Crime writer Michelle McNamara later coined the term "Golden State Killer" to describe the combined series of crimes.

DeAngelo's offenses began in the Visalia area of the San Joaquin Valley, where, over roughly 20 months starting in 1974, he committed around 120 burglaries characterized by ransacking homes, stealing low-value items, and displaying possessions in unusual ways. During this period he shot and killed Claude Snelling, a journalism professor, on September 11, 1975, after Snelling confronted him while he attempted to abduct Snelling's daughter. He also shot at Visalia Detective William McGowen during a stakeout in December 1975 without hitting him.

After relocating to the Sacramento area in 1976, DeAngelo's crimes escalated to rape, targeting individuals and later couples in Sacramento, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Yolo counties. He is known to have committed more than 50 rapes during this period, using methods including nighttime break-ins, binding victims with ligatures, and making threatening phone calls to victims and law enforcement. He is also believed responsible for the February 1978 shooting deaths of Brian and Katie Maggiore, a young married couple, in Rancho Cordova.

Beginning in late 1979, DeAngelo moved to Southern California and began committing murders in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties, killing at least ten people through 1986, including couples Robert Offerman and Debra Manning, Charlene and Lyman Smith, Keith and Patrice Harrington, and Cheri Domingo and Gregory Sanchez, as well as Manuela Witthuhn and Janelle Cruz. Most victims were bound, and several were also raped before being killed.

DNA testing in 2001 established that the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker cases were committed by the same person. Investigators pursued and cleared multiple other suspects over the following decades using DNA and other evidence. In 2016, the FBI and local agencies renewed the investigation and offered a $50,000 reward. Using forensic genetic genealogy techniques applied to DNA uploaded to the GEDmatch database, investigators — led by detective Paul Holes and FBI attorney Steve Kramer, with genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter — built family trees that ultimately identified DeAngelo as the sole remaining suspect.

DeAngelo was arrested on April 24, 2018, at his home in Citrus Heights and was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder; additional murder charges followed from Santa Barbara County. Because the statute of limitations had expired on the 1970s rapes, he was instead charged with related kidnapping and abduction counts. On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder and kidnapping, admitting to numerous additional uncharged crimes, including rapes, as part of a plea agreement that avoided the death penalty. He was sentenced on August 21, 2020, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.