A new book provides an inside look at the hunt for and prosecution of Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., the Steuben County-born serial killer and rapist who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s.
Published Nov. 11, “The People vs. The Golden State Killer,” was written by Thien Ho, the lead prosecutor in the DeAngelo case. Ho is now the elected district attorney of Sacramento County.
DeAngelo, a former police officer, pleaded guilty in 2020 to 13 murders and 13 kidnappings and admitted to dozens of sexual assaults and other crimes committed between 1974 and 1986. He is serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Prior to his arrest, DeAngelo was known to criminal investigators as the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker and finally, the Golden State Killer. GSK was coined by true-crime writer Michelle McNamara in her bestseller about the then-unsolved serial murders, “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.”
In “The People vs. The Golden State Killer,” Ho details the sadistic attacks and the trajectory of DeAngelo’s crimes, from breaking and entering, to home invasions where he often immobilized male partners before sexually assaulting female victims, to a series of grisly homicides in small southern California communities in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
DeAngelo’s last known victim was teenager Janelle Cruz, who he raped and murdered in 1986 in Irvine, California.
DeAngelo was apprehended in 2018 through forensic genetic genealogy. This method involves matching crime scene DNA with profiles in a public online database to identify distant relatives and build a family tree, ultimately leading to DeAngelo’s identification and subsequent DNA confirmation from items he discarded in the trash.
What was the Golden State Killer’s connection to Southern Tier?
DeAngelo’s parents, Joseph J. DeAngelo Sr. and the former Kathleen DeGroat, had roots in Southern Tier. DeAngelo Sr. was born in Watkins Glen in 1920, while DeGroat was born in Elmira in 1923.
An Elmira newspaper reported Kathleen and Joseph Sr. were married on Nov. 20, 1941 in the Elmwood Avenue Baptist Church in Elmira Heights.
At least two of the couple’s four children were born at Bath Memorial Hospital: Rebecca Louise, on Oct. 4, 1942, and Joseph Jr., on Nov. 8, 1945.
According to a story published by the Canisteo Times, Army Airman DeAngelo Sr. was wounded in the air over Australia in 1944. The newspaper article noted the family lived at 52 E. Morris St. in Bath.
That two-story apartment house no longer exists. It was removed around 1986 in a controlled burn after the property was acquired by the Bath Fire Department. The plot is adjacent to the present day Bath Fire Department building.
GSK’s mother, sister survive the Wayland train wreck
The DeAngelo family is also connected to one of Steuben County’s largest tragedies.
On Aug. 30, 1943 a Lackawanna Limited passenger train collided with a freight train near Wayland. The freight was switching cars at a furniture factory when it moved onto the passenger train’s track. The Lackawanna Limited sideswiped the freight train’s engine, scalding dozens of passengers in the fifth coach.
The disaster killed 29 people and injured more than 100. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, among the passengers to survive the wreck were Kathleen DeAngelo and her infant daughter, Rebecca.
DeAngelo moved out of Steuben County as a child
It is unclear when the family left Steuben County, but is believed to have been when Joseph was still a fairly young child. DeAngelo graduated from Folsom High School in Sacramento County in 1964 and served in U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Sacramento State in 1971.
Kathleen DeGroat DeAngelo Bosanko died in 2010 in Exeter, California at 87. Joseph J. DeAngelo Sr. died in South Korea in 2000.
Joseph DeAngelo Jr.’s ties to the area became known when researchers uncovered a 1973 newspaper article about DeAngelo’s appointment to the Exeter (Calif.) Police Department. The then 27-year-old DeAngelo noted that he was a native of Bath, New York.
Joseph DeAngelo Jr. turned 80 years old on Nov. 8 at the California State Prison in Corcoran. His sister, Rebecca, died Nov. 16, 2025 at age 83.
New GSK book takes readers behind the scenes in DA offices
Ho told the Ventura County Star his book fills a different niche than the others in a few ways. First, it’s written from a prosecutor’s point of view, so it goes behind the scenes in district attorneys’ offices all over the state, as prosecutors debated where to bring DeAngelo to trial, whether to seek the death penalty and whether to accept his plea bargain.
The book also tells the stories of investigators who spent decades following leads until they led to DeAngelo, and it follows many of the victims as they seek closure and finally confront DeAngelo in court.
Email Neal Simon at nsimon@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today
This article originally appeared on The Evening Tribune: New book recounts hunt, prosecution of Steuben-born serial killer
Reporting by Neal Simon and Tony Biasotti, Hornell Evening Tribune / The Evening Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
