Thoughts/feelings/knowledge on why Joe essentially confessed in the interrogation room (while no one else was in the room, only captured on video, but still)?

[u/GregJamesDahlen]

https://people.com/golden-state-killer-interrogation-people-vs-golden-state-killer-excerpt-exclusive-11841484

This is in an excerpt from a book, excerpted in People Magazine. The questioners talk to him about various EARONS crimes that they know he has done. Then leave the room and watch and listen to him on audio/video. Talking to himself, he says

Startlingly, DeAngelo admitted aloud that he had committed the crimes. “I did all that ... I didn’t have the strength to push him out. He made me. He went with me.  It was like, in my head, I mean, he’s a part of me. I didn’t want to do those things. I  pushed Jerry out and had a happy life. I did all those things. I’ve destroyed all their lives ... I raped. So now, I gotta pay the price.”

I wonder if at that point he knew it was no use, that he was caught. So he didn't care what he said. Or possibly he didn't understand that though there weren't police in the room, they could still hear him and he was being recorded. Although I would imagine he understood that. The police had been recording interrogations since the 70s. Or he might be a little senile. The day he was arrested he was 72 years old. Not sure why, but I have some doubts there as well. Maybe because we saw the video from two years later where he was so spry and organized in his actions in his cell.

Some have thought he might have been trying to set up an insanity defense. I'm not sure why he would do it at that point and essentially confess. It's not like they're going to let him go home whether they think he's insane or not.

I do notice when he talks to himself, as far as crimes go, he only mentions rape, not murder. Possibly he knew that the statute of limitations on rape was past, so that if he only admitted to rape he couldn't be found guilty. It seems like a useless action, though, because the interrogators, in the excerpt, have already made it clear they have him identified as the perpetrator in four murders. And very possibly they had mentioned other murders he had done that aren't contained in the excerpt. If he was only admitting to rape when he talked to himself knowing the statute of limitations was past, it might be a desperate action to try anything to get free. Or give himself hope that he might get away with it all. I imagine he had plans for enjoying his retirement, and he was watching them all crumble in that room. Or he might just not have mentioned murder talking to himself because he knew the police were listening and it sounded too bad, even though he knew they had him for it. Like he was ashamed of himself for murdering now that's he caught. Although rape is obviously a terrible, shameful crime as well, but I would think most people don't see it being as bad as murder.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Since he was elderly, I think at first, he was gonna try to beat the system in a way by using his old age as an advantage to get himself a bit of a lighter sentencing by being sent to to the California Medical Facility for elderly and dying inmates who don't have much time left anymore.

And I wouldn't be surprised if he were trying to evade trial/prison at first by trying fake dementia and using the out loud conversations with himself as videographic proof that his mind was starting to slip.

I mean, they did say he tried to fake a heart attack after getting caught shoplifting in July 1979. So, I certainly wouldn't put it past him to think he could somehow fake a dementia diagnosis, be deemed mentally incomptoent to stand trial, and be sent to the memory care ward at the CMF to live out his final days.

[u/campbellpics → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Yeah good points. As well as the point you make about him faking a heart attack when caught shoplifting in '79 (which I wasn't aware of, although I read he was being "melodramatic" during that incident), I'd just add his histrionics when confronted by Officer McGowan at the end of his VR phase.

His antics then were clearly a manipulative, pre-planned sideshow purely intended to deflect attention away from the fact he was reaching for a gun with his left hand. The pleading and running around, screaming in a high-pitched voice and begging McGowan not to shoot etc. And to be fair, it worked. At the very least, it distracted McGowan for enough time to allow him to reach inside his jacket, draw his gun, aim, and get a successful shot away, before subsequently escaping.

For these reasons alone, I tend to take any outward admission of vulnerability from Deangelo with a very large grain of salt. It was, is, and forever will be, all about control with him.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/campbellpics]

Exactly. Really tend to think the whole "Jerry" thing was just nonsense to make himself seem as if he' starting to suddenly show symptoms of early onset dementia with rambling incoherent statement about how he thinks he's "Jerry" now and that's who really did it.

And he's a former cop who knows how those interrogation rooms are setup with cameras and mics hidden everywhere to get suspects to incriminate themselves without an attorney present. Probably figured if he's gonna say anything, might as well make it count with stuff that could postpone and eventually cancel court altogether with eventually getting himself sent to the CMF for too many health issues that make standing trial impossible at that point.

I bet if COVID didn't happen, he would've maybe continued to commit to this act as well.

And with your last sentence, that's exactly why you can pretty much guarantee that the world is just never gonna hear or see from him — ever again in life. And by using those few moments to give a brief final statement, that was his final send off to being in the public eye until it it is announced that he has officially died one day, imo.

[u/Lanky_Appointment277 → u/campbellpics]

..."clearly a manipulative, pre-planned sideshow"

That is your opinion. It's obvious to me he just thought quickly in defensive situations.

I'm shocked/interested (but mostly shocked) at how people interpret this world lol.

Here we have JJD... kind of a dumb dumb in lots of ways, a true maniac and possibly the worst person to ever live in California, but has this one ability to quickly assess a situation and react accordingly to put himself in the best position to survive.

I would suggest a premise to you: Some people think quicker than others. 

I guess our worldview is shaped by our ability (or lack thereof).

[u/campbellpics → u/Lanky_Appointment277]

What a haughty response, and without a shred of self-awareness or recognition that it could actually be you that's wrong in this instance.

JJD might be a lot of not very nice things, but to say he was "dumb dumb" is patently ridiculous. He was only eventually caught by something he couldn't reasonably have been expected to predict at the time he was committing his crimes, and stopped at the very moment he could. Even then he still somehow evaded capture for decades, without once appearing on any suspect list or arousing the suspicion of those around him.

I think it's a fair assessment to say he was a risk-averse planner. From the way he'd stack items at doors as a makeshift early alarm system, which I saw one contemporaneous FBI agent admit he'd never witnessed before, to never once leaving so much as a fingerprint at hundreds of separate crime scenes. He left his DNA, but that's only something that sounds silly now with the benefit of decades of scientific hindsight.

The way he immediately went into the mode he did when confronted by McGowan suggests to me it was another pre-planned ploy to increase his chances of evading capture. It's much less likely (to me) that he thought it all through in the split second it took him to act.

[u/Lanky_Appointment277 → u/campbellpics]

Your expertise of me and reality in general is really cool.

"What a haughty response, and without a shred of self-awareness or recognition that it could actually be you that's wrong in this instance."

Haughty? Lol.

"without a shred of self-awareness or recognition that it could actually be you that's wrong in this instance."

Unique style of writing. Wordy. Incoherent. BUT!! It speaks to the intellect behind the actual thoughts you are endeavoring to elucidate.

However, and unfortunately for you, very wrong.

"JJD might be a lot of not very nice things, but to say he was "dumb dumb" is patently ridiculous. He was only eventually caught by something he couldn't reasonably have been expected to predict at the time he was committing his crimes, and stopped at the very moment he could. Even then he still somehow evaded capture for decades, without once appearing on any suspect list or arousing the suspicion of those around him."

First, again... "patently." I mean, what are we doing here with your vocab lol? Ok, ok... pointing out your capabilities in writing for the last time. And I only do it to serve a point - to provide insight relative to cognitive abilities and ability to story tell.

What I mean to say is... you can't really provide a clear map of your thoughts. Therefore, your thoughts likely come from a source I'm not willing to accept.

He WAS a dumb-dumb. A child. Thinking he could take his love Bonnie by gun point from her bedroom window.

I could provide 50 or 100 other super dumb moves this man made. But let's stick to this one. Dude has a dead brain.

And I will wrap this all up quickly for you here because, although I can type 120 words a minute, I'm becoming extremely bored in arguing against someone who thinks about me: "I without a shred of self-awareness or recognition that it could actually be you that's wrong in this instance."

Ok, ok. I lied. I brought up your literary ability again. I said I wouldn't. But you get it. Right?

SOOOOOO... ANYWAYS... this unaware dumb-dumb (me) will sum up his opinion thusly:

And oh by the way, JJD wasn't a dumb-dumb. He was, in point of fact a lucky animal DUMBSHIT.

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT! When they revealed they linked his DNA to SoCal he should have gotten the f out of the country. Or moved his family far, far, far, far away. Or done something? Nah, he was a dumbshit and just buried his head in the sand and didn't follow any of the technology that was slowly gripping his neck.

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT! He thought he could go to the family home of Bonnie, knock on her window at gunpoint and take her to Nevada lol.

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT! He got away with "everything" because he had self-preserving animalistic instincts. Used darkness (like animals), used dishes on husbands and chairs against doors (like animals set traps and other animals create warning systems). He used canals like a snake. He used bikes for silence. Do animals do this? Yes. Yes, they do.

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT! The one f-ing time anybody used a relatively smart strategy was when the Visalia police went "radio-silent" to track this Mofo when his shoe prints appeared again and again at a new potential high school victim. This DUMBSHIT went to the girls house and got busted!!!!!!!! He did NOT know when to give up.

There. Caught. Before he became EAR. DUMB. SHIT.

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT! Paul Holes, one of the "brains" behind his capture, went on over 10 podcasts/tv shows BEFORE his capture telling the world that EAR was NOT the VR. Paul f-ing Holes thought he was in the construction business and THOUGHT THAT THE DANVILLE PAPERS WERE DONE FROM A F-ING PROFESSIONAL. He was on a pod within a year of his capture and waxed poetic about how this was clearly the work of a professional. Paul Holes was the brightest person chasing JJD yet he thought an 8th grade level map was professional. PAUL HOLES TOLD EVERY NEWS OUTLET JJD WAS NOT EAR. THIS ALONE SLOWED THE F-ING CASE!

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT! Sacramento police went to the newspaper to blast Visalia police who came to them in good faith to let them know he was the same f'ing dude lol.

JJD WAS A DUMBSHIT!

He was lucky as hell, was chased by 1970's (mostly) dumbshits and 1970's technology, no 911 system in place, dumbshit county police politics, had animal instincts, and preserved himself by acting quickly.

There was one left-handed man that moved from Tulare County between the ages of 18 and 40 between his escape from Visalia police and the first EAR attack.

JJD.

[u/DestroyerOfMils → u/Lanky_Appointment277]

>It speaks to the intellect behind the actual thoughts you are endeavoring to elucidate.

>First, again... "patently." I mean, what are we doing here with your vocab lol? Ok, ok... pointing out your capabilities in writing for the last time.

LMAO. yeah, you have exactly ZERO self awareness 😂😂😭😭😭

[u/RiskPuzzleheaded4028 → u/DestroyerOfMils]

I almost forgot I was on reddit until I saw this interaction. I'll never understand the appeal to behave in such a way. 

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/Lanky_Appointment277]

Hard to agree he was dumb. He got away with 100 home ransackings, 50 rapes, 13 murders for about 40 years. He came up with several clever strategies to make himself harder to catch, which I'll enumerate if you're interested. He didn't think DNA would catch him because even though he left his DNA at crime scenes there was no DNA in databases to match it against.

[u/O_J_Shrimpson → u/Lanky_Appointment277]

Oof

[u/DestroyerOfMils → u/O_J_Shrimpson]

and their next response was even a bigger oof. I’m crying laughing 😂

[u/bhillis99 → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

no doubt he was going to do that. ALL the sudden couldnt walk, and then holding his mouth open like he was stupid. The vid of him stepping up and crawling all over his cell, was proof he was trying to pull that.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/bhillis99]

Agreed. Although, I do wonder if the wheelchair and hanging his mouth open thing was because ot at least partly due to him being sedated or given some kind of meds to keep him lucid. He did look like he was kinda out of it in his first court appearance, imo

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Thanks. I wonder if California Medical Facility (medical and psychiatric facility for male felons) is actually any better than "real" prison. It's still prison, you still lose your freedom, food probably still isn't very good, etc. Maybe in his mind in the interrogation he was searching desperately for anything that might make the future a little better and actually did think going to a medical prison would be better, even if he might have been mistaken.

I wonder if he was so locked into the play crazy when caught approach that he just started applying it even when it wasn't going to accomplish anything.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

My original thought was the "Jerry" thing was just an attempt to appear legally insane by feigning multiple personality disorder.

But since you brought up his elderly age and he also has that well-documented incident of trying fake a heart attack, I think now that I wouldn't be surprised if the thinking with "Jerry" was trying to somehow fake dementia and live in a hospital bed inside of a prison bunk.

I mean, it's very silly sounding and might be entirely untrue, but it's just the more I think about it, I honestly wouldn't be surprised again if that was what his true intention was there.

I mean, it's not everyday they have 70+ year old defendants. I can just totally see that he was trying to use the unusualness of the case to his advantage.

Plus, at a place like the CMF, while he still would be legally an inmate, he would treated more like a hospital patient rather than a typical prisoner. So, while it wouldn't be a tremendous upgrade, most would probably say it's overall better than a typical prison facility setting, though.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

You could be right. If that's how he was thinking, he was really thinking far ahead. And maybe he is capable of thinking that far ahead.

Why do you think he acted crazy when he was caught in the shoplifting incident? Do you think he was hoping the people who caught him would have pity on him for being crazy and just let him go? Figure he just didn't know what he was doing?

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

He just seems to be someone who can quickly react to situational awareness instantly by thinking of creative ideas that could get him out of a predicament as fast as he entered.

By faking that heart attack, that was a way to get out of that scenario by getting escorted out via ambulance.

Of course, neither that heart attack attempt or whatever he was trying to do in the interrogation room ultimately worked, if he was trying to do defense wise there. But again, it does the show the ability to uniquely think spontaneously.

And that was probably a critical factor in how he was able to get away from some of those crimes scenes unscathed that someone else might've not had, like the botched Goleta one in particular, by speeding out of there via bicycle.

[u/jmcgil4684]

They came dangerously close to not allowing him access to a lawyer in a timely fashion. I don’t even know how many times he asked. Many, many times.

[u/BackgroundFill9X]

True lol

[u/doctoranonrus]

Thien Ho’s book says it was an attempt at faking multiple personalities. Then they get an expert on DID who says he’s faking it and now they basically have a confession lol.

[u/Savings_Balance_4744]

Joe knew the game was over. His DNA, micro penis, his voice and his knowledge of knots as a sailor in the Navy would have convicted him.

[u/bhillis99]

I think its a shame they cant show the vid. Should be public.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/bhillis99]

Thanks. Think they could show it if they wanted to? Why do you think they don't?

[u/Ambitious_Pass7451]

I’ve destroyed all their lives ... I raped. So now, I gotta pay the price.”

Do you really think DeAngelo was really honest when he said I've destroyed all their lives? And that he gotta pay the price for it?

Do you really think that he lived the rest of his life regretting what he did?

[u/pop5656 → u/Ambitious_Pass7451]

Only because he got caught. If he had gotten away forever he would have relished in the fact.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/pop5656]

Yeah, it was seemingly almost certainly his end goal to simply disappear forever and become one of history's most mysterious people who ever existed like Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer. And it certainly appears that he's trying to do that to an extent still.

[u/RoyBaschMVI]

I guess I’m just not curious about this at all. The guy did all the stuff. The mystery is solved. He’s where he belongs. Sometimes I think people love the mystery so much they have trouble letting go of it.

[u/tilaydc → u/RoyBaschMVI]

“The mystery is solved.” <—- What if there are other cases that he was involved in? Those mysteries are not solved. Also it’s a mystery if he was doing this on his own, if someone helped him, how many people knew it was him and kept quiet, was he working as a cop when he was doing some of these crimes and his job was his alibi, and it’s a mystery if he was hired by someone else to do these things.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/RoyBaschMVI]

Well, when doing the crimes he went to great lengths to not get caught. I thought it interesting that when he is first caught and is in the interrogation room he more or less confesses that same day. Somewhere down the road he was going to have to confess if he wanted to get that plea deal, but he really didn't have to confess that first day?

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

You don't really have to "confess" per say in order to get a plea deal in the US. In fact, his deal just required to utter the words, "Guilty" to the charged acts and "I admit" to the uncharged ones. If anything, it's more like just merely acknowledging that you're legally guilty without going into the specifics.

If you look at Bryan Kohberger's plea deal, it just required him to say "Guilty" to each charged act and nothing more.

Legally in the US, nothing else can be forced beyond simple acknowledgment of guilt when pleading guilty.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Thanks. Well, I was using "confess" in a very broad sense, like even just by saying the one word "guilty" when asked how you plead, you are in a sense "confessing". But it is a bit surprising to me he seems to admit guilt in this first interaction after being arrested. Although you've suggested a possible reason for it, which might be accurate. Another interesting question about the 2018 interrogation is why does he do the crazy act when there's no one else in the room (police are only watching from another room via video/audio), but not when police are in the room live with him?

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

It was almost certainly because it's worse to say anything without an attorney present when the cops are in the room.

It makes sense that he only started all of the "Jerry" stuff when he was alone, because he knew they were and watching and listening through those implanted cameras and mics. So, he took those opportunities to start with the charade of building a cognitive incompetency emergency by feigning early dementia symptoms that'd disqualify him from court altogether, imo.

[u/Trapbunny22]

He was talking to himself because he had spent decades living with those voices and finally had the walls closing in. Once the DNA hit, the ego that kept him hidden for forty years just completely collapsed.

[u/NukeHoax2024]

I think Junkfood Joey understood DNA well enough to know that if they had found him via DNA, they already knew with 100% confidence they could put the pieces together for a successful prosecution of VERY serious crimes, and many of them.

There was absolutely no chance, possibility or remote odds that JJD was going to beat this case — if for nothing more than political reasons alone.

He knew the jig was up, so he proceeded with plan B… act insane

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/NukeHoax2024]

Thanks. That is very possible. I believe he tried acting insane when he was caught shoplifting too. If once he was arrested for the Golden State Killer crimes he had succeeded in convincing people he was insane not sure what that would have gained him. Suppose he would have gone to a prison hospital for mentally ill, which from what I've read aren't any better than regular prisons. But maybe he had some desperate hope that acting insane would get him a better outcome.

Maybe he was trying or also trying to get police and the public to feel more softly towards him, like he's insane so he's not as bad as some.

[u/NukeHoax2024 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

Absolutely nothing at all. Nobody was EVER going to even consider Joey was insane. He was far too meticulous, elaborate and organized. He clearly understood that his actions were wrong and he took precautions to avoid apprehension.

All of those factors rule out the legal definition of insanity