 | Joseph DeAngelo's six-year career as a cop came swiftly to an end after being busted for shoplifting a can of dog repellant and a hammer from a store in a Sacramento suburb in 1979. Authorities are now wondering if the items were intended as tools for the sinister rash of crimes he's suspected of carrying out. DeAngelo, 72, is accused of being the Golden State Killer who terrorized suburban neighbourhoods in a spate of brutal rapes and slayings in the 1970s and '80s before leaving a cold trail that baffled investigators. |  |
| DeAngelo is charged with eight counts of murder after being linked to the crimes through his DNA. Authorities said he was responsible for a dozen slayings and some 50 rapes and that other charges could be filed. Most of the crimes occurred in the three years he was an Auburn police officer in the Sierra foothills outside Sacramento. Law enforcement refocused their attention on the case two years ago on the 40th anniversary of the first known attack. Detectives were able to get a sample of DNA from something DeAngelo discarded. The genetic material was not a match, but there were enough similarities that investigators got a second sample, which proved conclusive. |
 Sacramento deputies walk to the garage of the Citrus Heights, Calif., home of Joseph James DeAngelo | The number of attacks recorded by police dropped after he was fired from the police department. But they intensified in violence and moved to southern California.
Nine killings occurred between October 1979 and August 1981. After a rape and killing in Orange County five years later, the culprit appeared to have quit. |  Victims of the 'Golden State Killer' |
