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Suspected Golden State Killer Arrested After Over 40 Years of Searching


Rachel333

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1 hour ago, nausicaa said:

I always got the feeling she wasn't the main target in that attack, but she looked old enough that he could fit her into his desired victim profile since she was there anyway. 

There was a discussion once on the EAR/ONS boards that Wardlow looked older than her age and was post-puberty at thirteen. Which obviously  doesn't diminish how terrible what he did was or make her not a child mentally. But does make things a bit more consistent with his MO. Mr. Cruel on the other hand definitely had an interest solely in pre-pubescent girls who looked very much like young children still. 

I wondered if he didn’t realize quite how young she was as well. It’s all so heartbreaking.

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4 hours ago, nausicaa said:

Is it even stranger to anyone that serial killers and rapists can just stop? Like, I can comprehend that some people are born with certain wiring messed up, often exacerbated by an abusive childhood, where they get off on others' pain and feel no empathy. But to have the compulsion to do this for so many years, and take so many risks, and then to just...stop. And become some suburban dad who makes tables and works on his car. That's even crazier to me. 

Read "Green River, Running Red" by Ann Rule.  It's intense and may need a trigger warning.

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Have any of you guys found an article that shows what he looked like at the time of the rapes/killings? My googling has failed me. I’m curious if he looks like any of the sketches. 

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7 hours ago, nausicaa said:

Is it even stranger to anyone that serial killers and rapists can just stop? Like, I can comprehend that some people are born with certain wiring messed up, often exacerbated by an abusive childhood, where they get off on others' pain and feel no empathy. But to have the compulsion to do this for so many years, and take so many risks, and then to just...stop. And become some suburban dad who makes tables and works on his car. That's even crazier to me. 

I learned on Criminal Minds (which is basically like being in the FBI myself LOL) that serial killers tend to escalate and won't stop until something makes them stop, usually either they are caught or die (or at least become too ill or injured to continue killing). So yes, I agree, this definitely seems very unusual. I'm reading everything I can find about this case right now.

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2 hours ago, JillyO said:

I learned on Criminal Minds (which is basically like being in the FBI myself LOL) that serial killers tend to escalate and won't stop until something makes them stop, usually either they are caught or die (or at least become too ill or injured to continue killing). So yes, I agree, this definitely seems very unusual. I'm reading everything I can find about this case right now.

Apparently it's more myth than reality according to this nyt article.

Spoiler

With the arrest Tuesday of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who has been charged so far with eight counts of murder, more than 30 years had passed since the last episode in the series. That long period of quiescence seems to fly in the face of the popular belief that serial rapists and killers are incapable of stopping.

But forensic psychiatrists, criminal profilers and homicide detectives who pursue cold cases say that assumption is more myth than reality.

“These are not acts that a person is compelled to do,” said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. “They are intentional and predatory. There is choice, capacity and opportunity that is exercised.”

Any number of factors can contribute to a dormant stretch. An extensive 2008 study on serial murder for the F.B.I.’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime found that killers may quiet down when they find other outlets for their emotions. The study mentioned Dennis Rader, known as the BTK Killer, who murdered 10 people from 1974 to 1991, but had no other victims before being apprehended in 2005. “During interviews conducted by law enforcement, Rader admitted to engaging in autoerotic activities as a substitute for his killings,” the report said.

Other killers might have changed behavior after moving away from the original epicenter of activity. Ted Bundy mutilated and murdered perhaps more than 30 young women in the 1970s. Yet there were stretches along his peripatetic travels when he was not associated with murders in those areas.

In some cases, jobs and families might have stabilized and exacerbating sources of stress might have faded, some experts said.

So far, the authorities have not offered any public explanation as to why the Golden State Killer spree, for which Mr. DeAngelo was arrested this week, began and continued, much less stopped. But some experts point to the most banal explanation: In 1986, when he was 40, Mr. DeAngelo may have aged out.

“The testosterone levels are down,” Dr. Stone said. “His capacity to perform is weakened,” he added, noting that he was merely speculating. The prey drive is lessened.

Mark Safarik, a retired F.B.I. criminal profiler and consultant to crime shows like “Bones” and “The Blacklist,” recently worked on a study with academic researchers about older sexual homicide offenders. “They are really rare over age 50,” he said. “We just don’t see them. Pedophiles over 50, yes. But not rape-murderers.”

Here's the FBI study referenced in the article (useless factoid: it was commissioned and introduced by director Mueller of special counsel fame). It's a pretty extensive study on serial murder, not specific to the point, but very interesting.

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11 hours ago, mstee said:

Have any of you guys found an article that shows what he looked like at the time of the rapes/killings? My googling has failed me. I’m curious if he looks like any of the sketches. 

There are a lot of sketches out there, but whoever did this one deserves a raise, stat. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrime/comments/8f97tu/super_similar_side_by_side_of_young_joseph/

 

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I never heard of this guy until he was caught, seems like some pretty scary stuff. Already I hate how people are blaming his killing spree on him being ditched by a woman he was engaged to. Women are not responsible for men's violent actions, ever.

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Thanks @nausicaa ! That does look amazingly close. 

I was just saying the same thing to my husband @unsafetydancer after seeing a headline saying he did it cause his fiancé broke up with him. So now it’s the poor lady’s fault? I don’t think so. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I heard on the news this morning that he has been charged with either 4 or 5 additional attacks/murders.

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