Nearly every victim who took the stand against the Golden State Killer on Tuesday called him a monster -- one they were finally able to face after years of waiting. He is the one forever lonely in the dark," Carol Daly, one of the original detectives assigned to the case in Sacramento said in an announcement on behalf of prey Cathy Rogers. As part of a plea deal, he also admitted to crimes he hasn't been charged with.
One by one, victims and family members took the stand, describing in unpalatable detail, the horrors inflicted upon them from the former police officer.
One girl, who was seven years old and asleep if her mum was jumped and raped by DeAngelo, explained him threatening her mother not to make a sound faking it wake her.
"He threatened to cut off my ear and bring it to her," she explained. When she woke, "I could sense evil, then all hell broke loose."
Comparing him to the fictional cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter, she stated DeAngelo had been "proof monsters were real. I'd met the boogeyman."
Others advised of numbness in their hands which lasted for months since their wrists were bound so tightly in the attacks.
More than 40 years after the fact, most sufferers talked of lifelong scars. Many also revealed defiance and testified about not allowing their lives to be characterized with these events and finding their way to happiness despite the indelible harm made by DeAngelo.
Anger simmered through the statements. "May he rot in hell," Karen Veilleux said on behalf of her sister Phyllis. Another woman punctuated her statement by calling DeAngelo "subhuman" and aggressively showing him her middle finger.
DeAngelo made his plea to avert the death penalty. 1 man talking on behalf of his own mum said that effort was futile.
"Lots of people might want to perform the death penalty themselves, but can not you see? The sentence has been given. You have been robbed of your whole life, yet you're too stupid to detect," he said.
A long time coming
Though he avoided the death penalty, DeAngelo will likely function 11 consecutive terms of life without parole with 15 concurrent life terms and extra time for weapons charges.
Attorney in one of the six counties that brought charges against him voted unanimously to accept his guilty plea.
"Today's plea will never attract the loved ones or restore the sense of security which has been shattered, but now, after 40 decades of uncertainty, dozens of victims and a state heard the person responsible for this reign of terror finally acknowledge that he -- and only he -- is responsible," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the time of the plea bargain.
Victims and their families waited for a long time to get justice and justice the man who made a blueprint of sneaking in to attack first women alone or with their children and then spouses in their houses.
His offenses spanned the 1970s and 1980s. A completely free genealogy database finally gave authorities the break they had to arrest DeAngelo in 2018.
"In this event prosecution didn't move quickly, it was a long time coming. However, our victims stayed steadfast and brave throughout this entire procedure," Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton stated in a news release in June.