Kat Winters - Secret Origin of the Golden State Killer: Visalia Ransacker

Secret Origin of the Golden State Killer :

Visalia Ransacker

written by

KAT WINTERS and KEITH KOMOS

Also by these authors:

Case Files of the East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer

ColdCaseWriter Books

http://www.coldcasewriter.com

Copyright 2018 Kat Winters, Keith Komos

All rights reserved, including the right to transmit
or reproduce this book or portions thereof in any
form whatsoever.

Cover design by Kat Winters and Keith Komos

For more information:

Trial website: http://www.goldenstatekillertrial.com

Visalia Ransacker website: http://www.visaliaransacker.com

Golden State Killer website: http://www.goldenstatekiller.com

E-mail:

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/coldcasewriter

Dedication

The journey itself can affect us just as much as the destination. This book is dedicated to that journey. We remember now the lives that were so unjustly taken away, the difficult road walked by survivors, the pain felt by families, and the terror felt by communities affected by the Visalia Ransacker / East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer. We also remember the tenacious spirits that were able to find love, light, and hope in spite of it all.

To the Law Enforcement personnel who never gave up, to the public who continued to press for justice, to the families and survivors who overcame the odds, and to everyone affected by this case this book is dedicated to you.

Table of Contents

Supplemental Material

COPYRIGHT NOTICE REGARDING MAPS

The maps in this book were created using base data thats copyrighted by OpenStreetMap Contributors. The base information is licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License by the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

The authors have made various modifications to layers placed on top of the maps to illustrate information related to the Visalia Ransacker case. These modifications are held under the books copyright.

To learn more about the OpenStreetMap license, please visit:

https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/

A NOTE ABOUT THE ARREST

In April 2018, a man named Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested for the Visalia Ransacker / East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer crimes. While DeAngelo has already been charged with various murders in the Golden State Killer series, he has yet to be charged with anything related to the Visalia Ransacker series and he has yet to be tried in a court of law for any of the crimes.

In the interest of preserving DeAngelos right to a fair trial, which is his constitutional guarantee, this edition of the book does not delve deeply into the circumstances of his life. The events surrounding his identification and arrest are discussed, but Joseph DeAngelo is considered innocent of anything described in this book until proven otherwise in a court of law. If and when any significant changes occur regarding the status of this or any major development in the Visalia Ransacker case, well update the book with the relevant information.

To follow the court proceedings related to this case, visit the trial blog: http://www.goldenstatekillertrial.com

To follow major developments in the case, please visit our websites:

http://www.visaliaransacker.com

http://www.goldenstatekiller.com

Thank you for understanding and for giving the criminal justice system the room it needs to operate effectively.

The Visalia Ransacker.

They didnt have his DNA. They didnt think they had his fingerprints. And there wasnt a witness alive who could identify him in a lineup.

So who was he?

Was he the plump, jittery baby caught squealing under an officers flashlight? Or was he the lean, vicious killer with deliberate and angry movements and a vice-like grip who murdered a college professor in cold blood?

Did he really spend two years ransacking house after house in the same small area, committing well over 100 sexually motivated crimes before vanishing without a trace?

And did he really move on to become one of the most notorious serial killers of all time the East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer?

After forty-five years of investigation, it seems enough evidence has mounted to finally give us the answer.

Yes. On all counts.

But make no mistake to deal with the Visalia Ransacker case is to deal with uncertainty, even now. Some of the mysteries are finally in the process of being solved but there are still many more questions to answer.

Why would a man lay siege to a community, killing one of its most beloved residents? How could he commit so many crimes in a small area in such a short period of time? How can we use evidence and behavior to fill in the gaps?

Mysteries are solvable so everything available on the Visalia Ransacker is in this book, and much of the information we present is offered to the public for the first time. We lay out the raw facts of the case, taking our time to travel through the crime series in chronological order, pointing out important developments along the way.

But this book provides more than a litany of facts related to a cold case. To read this book is to actually witness the birth and evolution of a deranged killer. The pale, round face peeking over fences and into windows as he silently observed the pretty girls, their nervous boyfriends, and the warm family moments. The moment he took that first step, crossing the threshold and entering their world as an invader. The theft of keepsakes, collections, personal items, and sentiment. The undergarments belonging to the mothers and daughters removed from drawers and arranged deliberately on beds in an embarrassing display. Masturbation at some of the crime scenes sexual pleasure derived from the spoil of their sanctity. The crimes feeding the obsession rather than relieving it. Hues of anger added furniture pushed over, wine dumped onto the floor, medication poured down the sink, family photos destroyed, and a Sunday School pin smashed on the fireplace. Guns and ammunition stolen. Stalking. Harassing phone calls. Noisy prowlers. A masked man bounding down the stairs. An attempted kidnapping. A man shot to death. Two attempted entries while the occupants were home. An officer shot at. Size nine Converse shoe prints everywhere.

This was the Visalia Ransacker. A serial killer honing his craft on the innocent people of a small agricultural town in Central California. He hovered over the area like a thick fog for over two years and then he vanished, never to be heard from again.

Or so they thought. Six months later, a masked man invaded a bedroom in an area east of Sacramento called Rancho Cordova two hundred miles away from where the Visalia Ransacker had haunted the night. This man, dubbed the East Area Rapist, began a string of serial assaults that lasted for three years. And then, it seemed the East Area Rapist himself had vanished as well.

But he hadnt hed simply evolved. Three hundred miles away from the serial rape attacks, a string of murders began. Santa Barbara County. Ventura. Dana Point. Irvine. They were eerily similar in M.O. to the East Area Rapist but unconnected for years.

There wasnt always agreement if the Visalia Ransacker was the same man as the East Area Rapist / Golden State Killer, but there was agreement that an offender as tenacious as the Visalia Ransacker typically wouldnt stop at that particular phase of his apparent evolution. And he hadnt.

To be fair, the sloppy, reactionary murder committed by the Visalia Ransacker looked nothing like the methodical, tactical executions performed by the man later dubbed the Golden State Killer. Under all of these different monikers and in all of these different areas, he committed crimes for at least twelve years. More than two hundred burglaries. Fifty rapes. At least thirteen murders.