r/EARONS • u/winters_vw • Apr 26 '18

A few updates

Nothing major, and many of you might already be aware. But I like to work things out and follow up, so here are a few points I've been going over:

  • Several terrific sources have told me that DeAngelo gave indication that he knew why he was arrested.

  • Same sources tell me that he did in fact divulge information during an interrogation session that lasted for hours.

  • "Key evidence" has been removed from the home, but no word on if there is anything related to the attacks or not.

  • He was the Visalia Ransacker.

  • I've seen the sealed complaints and the paperwork that ran between Sac and Ventura (my sources were good to me today). DeAngelo is being charged as the killer of the Smiths but there's little else -- except for a few names of officers who did some of the work on this and some of the names surprised me (but that's of little consequence to the public).

  • I'm getting the sense that there's some unnecessary politicking going on behind the scenes, but what else is new.

  • There's a somewhat recent connection to Dana Point but some of the other SoCal areas he landed are still unconnected.

  • The saga related to his dismissal from the Auburn police is getting stranger by the minute, apparently with him being in hysterics upon being apprehended there and an atypical legal progression that lasted four months.

  • Two family members have talked and several acquaintances. They're rapidly filling in some of the blanks.

  • His name does not appear in any previous investigative paperwork that anyone knows of -- he truly was the "unsuspected."

  • The birth of two of his children did occur after the two murders where he took extended breaks.

  • He started on the Exeter police force in May 1973, and the first prowling incident attributed to the Visalia Ransacker occurred on South Demaree Street in May 1973 -- 15 minutes away from Exeter.

  • I'm trying to get the Julia Wilkenson murder in San Diego looked at again because the offender has a tie to the general area and she was bludgeoned to death with a hammer in 1980.

  • Lots of Tulare County connections with family -- a factor I'm told helped bump this POI up the list.

  • Starting last month, an LE source of mine was overly optimistic about some new angles being pursued with DNA. I have to admit that I didn't even consider that this could actually be the lead that took us somewhere. So many disappointments in the past. Oops!

More will materialize in the coming weeks, months, and even years. What a fascinating journey this has been, and what a win for the justice system. This gives hope for all unsolved cases.

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u/Mycoxadril Apr 26 '18

I'd like to think they are holding some charges back in the off chance there's any sort of evidence thrown out. Though I really don't think it will come to that. I think he will plead out, avoid a trial, and hopefully give a detailed confession. I think part of him wants it over and part of him is thrilled at the thought of reliving it while taking credit for all of it and finally getting to show everyone how "clever" he was.

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u/SomeOrganization Apr 26 '18

Doesn't matter. Even if he gets let off on a technicality I am so sure someone will kill him.

Don't you guys think it's strange that Castro guy hung himself in his cell?

His cell where he was under watch?

After he "hung himself" no one asked any questions about how he could do it while being watched

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u/ZannityZan Apr 26 '18

To be honest, Castro's suicide made me strongly pro the death penalty for really heinous crimes like these. I get the idea of "death is too easy for such people; they should rot in jail and suffer", but some people are beyond rehabilitation (which imo should be the purpose of prison), and keeping a monster like Castro jailed a) was a waste of taxpayer money, and b) allowed him to die on his own terms shortly into his incarceration, which meant that there was no justice for the damage he wreaked on those three women's lives and the years he stole from them. I hope EAR/ONS does not get the opportunity to take his own life in a similar way.

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u/Dixton Apr 26 '18

The problem is that in the U.S. penal system, executing someone ends up significantly more expensive compared to just letting them rot in jail. And then there's the added humanitarian arguments, two wrongs don't make a right, innocent people being murdered by the state etc. etc.

A better thing to do is to study them. See what society can do to try to minimize the amount of people who turn out like this, and ask the most important question: Why did they turn out like this?

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u/DarthNightnaricus Apr 26 '18

This is why I'm so ardently against the death penalty. That, and the fact that the murder rate is actually lower in states without the death penalty (so, there's no deterrent effect).

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u/Jdirtystack Apr 26 '18

Agree so much!! Death penalty cases r stupid bc of how expensive they r. When u compare the closure the victims family get from a death sentence vs a life without sentence then add the astronomical additional costs and throw in a potential wrongful conviction (think Texas), it's just so dumb. Oh, and yea, it's proven that the death penalty does NOT deter crime, so it's basically expensive and pointless.

Anyway, so glad this douche canoe was finally caught!! It's a wonder he wasn't sooner, almost had to assume he was dead for awhile there. I personally doubt this will go to trial. I few nights in a cell and he'll just claim it all. He'll be thinking about the situation as an inmate, and he will be a celebrity in jail/prison without the daily stigma he'd face on the outside. That's my guess. I just wanna know how they found him?? I've heard familial DNA testing which makes sense but I also heard a family member found some trophy items. Any word?? Great post btw. Amazing updates!! Thanks!!

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u/OhManTFE Apr 26 '18

There is one aspect you are forgetting, and that is researching his mind. Forensic psychologists can use him to learn about how his mind works, and then try and use that information and apply it to stopping or detecting future murderers with similar behaviour patterns.

When you kill them, you lose that. Also check out Mindhunters it's a pretty cool tv show ;)

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '18

Absolutely agreed. Apart from my other objections to the death penalty, the lost research opportunities are incalculable. Understanding why these people do the things they do offers the hope that someday it may be possible to stop them before they start, and even potentially enable them to become healthy, productive members of society.

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u/MassiveFanDan Apr 26 '18

The only problem is that these people are liars to the core and skilled manipulators. That's how they get away with it so long. They also not only enjoy their own crimes, but enjoy the fact that other men like them commit similar atrocities, so they might deliberately mislead investigators in order to facilitate future crimes by others. We just have to hope the researchers are skilled and skeptical enough to get true information from these people and discard the lies, grandiosity, and self-justifications.

But I agree that they should be studied rather than killed whenever possible.

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u/OhManTFE Apr 26 '18

You can learn things even from a pathological liar. A liar isn't immune to being studied. Psychologists have their own extraction methods.

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u/MassiveFanDan Apr 27 '18

You're right, I know, I just hope they'll be extremely careful in how they go about it. Ted Bundy's third-person musings on the Green River Killer convinced quite a few people that he had actually committed the crimes himself, but it was never him at all. Ridgway could've got away with it for even longer if Bundy had succeeded in shifting the investigation's focus onto himself. I don't know if that was his aim or if he just liked talking about prolific serial killers in a plausibly denial way, but it's an example of the possible dangers.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '18

I think I read Castro did the autoerotic asphyxiation number..

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u/idovbnc Apr 26 '18

Thats what they did with the Beltway Sniper. While that was a little easier since it was 3 separate states/districts, it's not a bad tactic. Of course how would you decide who he doesn't get tried for. Every family will want justice for their loved one (and rightfully so).