We now know that the killer, DeAngelo, worked as a police officer in Exeter, California from 1973 to 1976, which makes the intricacy of his crimes even more gut-wrenching.

The FBI thinks DeAngelo began in the eastern district of Sacramento County with a series of burglaries. However, it wasn't long until his invasions turned into rapes. On June 18, 1976,

he raped his first victim, a 23-year-old woman in Rancho Cordova.

In 1976, DeAngelo transferred to the Auburn police department, where he was later fired for allegedly stealing a hammer and a can of dog repellent from a Sacramento

County store. His former employees remember calling him Junk Food Joe, as he always seemed to be munching on some sort of sweet treat.

Right around the time of his transfer, his crime spree started to escalate. On July 17, 1976, he raped a teen girl in Carmichael. On August 29, he

burglarized and attempted sexual assault at a home in Rancho Cordova. In September, he raped another woman in Citrus Heights.

On October 5, 1976, his fifth victim, who recently identified herself as Jane Carson-Sandler, said she was asleep with her 3-year-old son when a masked man with a

butcher knife woke her up by shining a flashlight into her eyes. He tied her and her son up, blindfolded and gagged them, then sexually assaulted her.

On October 9, 1976, he raped a woman in Rancho Cordova. A little over a week later, on the 18th, he struck twice: He raped a woman in Carmichael and

another in Rancho Cordova. A carjacking in Carmichael the same day has also been linked to DeAngelo.

He finished the year off with two more rapes: Nov 10 in Citrus Heights and December 18 in Carmichael.

Shortly after the new year began, he was at it again. On January 19, 1977, he raped a woman in Sacramento. On the 24th, another was raped in Citrus Heights.

On February 7, a woman was raped in Citrus Heights. On March 8, another in Sacramento. 

On March 18, 1977, he raped a teen girl in Rancho Cordova who was heading home from her part-time job at Kentucky Fried Chicken. He entered her home through her

parents room (they were out of town at the time), wearing a green ski mask and carrying a hatchet. Before attacking her, he called the police, allegedly saying,

"I have my next victim already stalked and you guys can't catch me."

In April, a change in MO erupted. His new target? Couples. On April 2, a couple was attacked in Sacramento, and the woman was raped. He became known for tying

up couples, raping the woman, and piling dishes on the man's back, threatening to kill him if they fell off.

Mid 1977 was rough for California residents. April 15, May 3, and May 5 all saw attacks from the East Area rapist. Each attack was of a similar MO: A

couple attacked, the woman raped.

On May 14, 1977, Linda O'Dell and her husband were sleeping in her Citrus Heights home. She awoke to a stranger in their bedroom telling her not to

move. Both she and her husband were tied up and the intruder, presumably DeAngelo, held a knife to her throat and raped her. When he was done, he drank beer

in their house for hours, then stole her wedding ring and ID.

By the time June rolled around, two more couples had been attacked and the women were raped (May 17, May 28). It was clear all the attacks were from the

same serial rapist.

He dropped off for a few months, but reappeared in the fall. September 6, October 1, October 21, and October 29 all have the same thing in common: He attacked

a couple. He raped the woman. These attacks happened in North Stockton, Rancho Cordova, Antelope, and Sacramento, respectively.

Margaret Wardlow, a 13-year-old girl who was fascinated by the East Area Rapist case would learn about the attacks first hand on November 10, 1977. She awoke that

night, in her home on Watt Avenue in Sacramento, to a flashlight in her face. Her mother was tied up with dishes on her back. That night, Wardlow would become

the East Area Rapist's youngest known victim.

In the last month of 1977, a local publication in Sacramento, as well as the mayor, started receiving letters from someone calling themselves the East Area Rapist. Allegedly, one

of the letters included a poem entitled "Excitement's Crave." In the poem, he wrote, "Sacramento should make an offer. To make a movie of my life that will pay for

my planned exile." It doesn't exactly rhyme, but it is quite ominous.

DeAngelo celebrated the new year by calling his previous victims to taunt and threaten them again. On January 28, 1978, the rapes started back up. This time with a pair

of sisters in Sacramento.

Just when authorities thought things couldn't get any worse, February 2, 1978 happened. Katie and Brian Maggiore, a married couple from Rancho Cordova, were walking their dog when they were

unexpectedly shot to death. Brian was 21 and Katie was just 20 years old. At the time, their deaths seemed random and caused by a different attacker. However, in 2016,

investigators linked their deaths to the Golden State Killer, making Katie and Brian his first murders.

In the spring of 1978, he continued raping women. On March 18, he attacked a couple in Stockton and raped the woman. On April 6, he raped a woman in

Rancho Cordova. On April 14, a teen in South Sacramento.

In the summer of 1978, he raped at least five different women in Modesto and Davis — June 5, 7, 23, and 24, and July 6.

Late in 1978, the attacks expanded to the Bay Area — first, in Concord, then traveling to San Jose, Danville, Fremont, and Walnut Creek. There were six more rapes before the

year ended: October 7, 13, and 28, November 4, December 2, and 9.

The serial rapist stayed quiet in the beginning of 1979, but it wasn't long until he reappeared and started attacking again. On April 5, in Fremont, he attacked another couple. Then, in

June, the rapes started again. He raped a teen in Walnut Creek on June 2; attacked a couple and raped the woman on June 11 in Danville; and raped another

teen in Walnut Creek on June 25. On July 5, he tried attacking a couple in Danville, but they thwarted the attack, thankfully. That was the last attack in the

Bay Area.

On the evening of October 1, 1979, an intruder — allegedly DeAngelo — broke into a Goleta home and tied up the couple with a roll of twine. Luckily,

when he left the room, the woman screamed, triggering an alarm and causing him to flee the scene. While their neighbor, an FBI agent, attempted to chase him, he was

unable to catch the intruder. Later, however, his shoe print was linked to the previous attacks. He was back.

We don't know yet what exactly happened between October and December of 1979, but when the East Area Rapist reappeared, he was out for blood. The evening of December

30, 1979, Dr. Robert Offerman, 44, and Dr. Debra Alexandra Manning, 35, were shot to death at Offerman's condo in Goleta. The killer used a screwdriver to force his way

in and twine to tie up the victims. Offerman’s good friends William and Joan Oakley found them the next morning.

As of May 10, 2018, Joseph DeAngelo has been charged with

their murders.

On March 13, 1980, someone broke into the Ventura County home of Charlene, 33, and Lyman Smith, 43. Lyman was days away from being appointed a judge. Instead,

they were bludgeoned to death with a fireplace log in their home. Charlene was raped before she was killed.

Police originally thought a business associate of Lyman's was the murderer.

However, he was eventually cleared and the case went cold. Sixteen years later, they linked the Smith murders to the Golden State Killer. Thirty eight years later, DeAngelo was charged

with their murders.

A few months later, he struck again. Patrice, 28, and Keith Harrington, 24, were murdered in their home in Dana Point. The MO was overwhelmingly similar to the previous attacks:

The killer broke in late at night, raped Patrice, and killed them both by bludgeoning them with a blunt instrument. Three months later, the case went cold. DeAngelo has now

been charged with their murders, as of April, 2018.

Manuela Witthuhn was bound by her hands and feet, raped, and bludgeoned to death inside her bedroom in her suburban Irvine home on February 6, 1981. She was

21. Her husband was a suspect, at first, until police realized he was in the hospital at the time of her murder. The case was then linked to the Golden

State Killer. DeAngelo has now been charged.

On July 27, Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, were house-sitting in Goleta for Cheri's aunt when they were murdered. Their deaths were the last for several years. DeAngelo

was charged on May 10, 2018 for their deaths.

After five years of silence, the serial killer returned on May 4, 1986 for one last (known) attack. Janelle Cruz, 18, of Irvine, was home alone while her family was

vacationing in Mexico when she was raped and beaten to death. This was the last major crime attributed to the same intruder and DeAngelo has been charged.

Sadly, all of these cases — 12 murders and 50-some rapes — went cold until 1996. It was then that science started accelerating the way agents solve cases. Forensic scientist

Mary Hong apparently compared semen samples from three of the crime scenes to link them all to the same killer. Unfortunately, there were no matches to anyone.

The crimes were basically put on the back burner for years in the media. It wasn't until later in the 2010s, when TV writer Michelle McNamara started researching and blogging

about them on truecrimediary.com that attention started building once again. Then in 2016, the FBI offered a $50,000 reward for any information that could help then solve the

case.

Though McNamara did not live long enough to finish her book, her husband, Patton Oswalt, along with lead case researcher Paul Haynes and investigative journalist Billy Jensen, completed it. "I'll Be

Gone In The Dark" was eventually published in February of 2018 and quickly reached the New York Times best-seller list. HBO is even adapting it into a docu-series.

Two months after the book release, on April 24, 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested and officially charged with murder in eight of the 12 killings from the '70s

and '80s.

As it turns out, the Golden State Killer was in Sacramento this whole time. After a 40 year search, police were able to match DeAngelo's discarded DNA (after trailing him

for six days) with genetic evidence from the crimes, according to Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten. He was arrested without incident outside of his suburban home.

On April 27, Joseph James DeAngelo, the suspected Golden State Killer, was arraigned in a Sacramento courtroom on murder charges. He entered the courtroom looking frail in a wheelchair, which

investigators say is all an act for sympathy.

Paul Holes, a recently-retired investigator said during Crime Con, "He’s intelligent and sophisticated. He realizes he’s not going to get

out but he’s going to try and self-preserve. The wheelchair is part of that strategy."  Surprisingly enough, he's actually pretty fit for being 72 years old. "Don’t believe this guy that

you see being wheeled into court. That’s not who he is," Holes said. "He has numerous registered guns in his house and he’s been going to the range to keep

up his proficiency."

Funny enough, after appearing in a wheelchair for multiple court hearings, he walked into the courtroom just fine on May 14, 2018. Four days prior, he was 

target="_blank">charged with the other four murders — bringing the total to 12. Each of the counts carries the potential for life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Now that a suspect in the killings has been identified, Oswalt, McNamara's former husband and co-author to "I'll Be Gone In The Dark," says he feels a bizarre

mix of emotions. While he's elated that a suspect has been charged, he's also extremely sad that McNamara wasn't alive to witness it.

The book, a chilling narrative of the

Golden State Killer's crimes and exposed account of McNamara's obsession, ends with a letter to the killer: "This is how it ends for you." Many think she predicted

the April capture.

Whether or not McNamara's endless search, ability to renew public interest, naming of the serial killer, or book itself helped investigators find DeAngelo or not, a killer may no longer

be able to hide "in the dark," and that seems like a win all around.

DeAngelo is being held without bail as he awaits trial.