In the 1970s, when the Golden State Killer claimed his first known victim, it was relatively easy for a serial murderer to escape undetected and strike again.
Rosa Menjivar, a criminalist with the Los Angeles Police Department, extracts DNA from a sample at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center on April 26, 2018. (Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
DNA analysis was the stuff of science fiction. Fingerprint and hair analysis were rudimentary. There were no national databases to plumb for matches. It was a grim heyday for serial killers, who terrorized Californians from South Los Angeles alleys to gilded Orange County suburbs.
Last week, the suspect in the Golden State Killer case joined the dark club of serial killers from that era who have been arrested with the help of sophisticated DNA technology.
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., 72, was living quietly in a suburb of Sacramento when he was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with eight counts of murder. Authorities say he may be responsible for 12 killings and at least 46 rapes from 1976 to 1986 in Northern and Southern California.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
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