Further Reading for JonBenet Ramsey and The East Area Rapist
Finding Jacob Wetterling: The 27-Year Investigation from Kidnapping to Confession
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Episode: 1
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Georgia discusses the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and drops a reference to the JonBenet episode of Last Podcast on the Left.
JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was an American child beauty queen who was killed in her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. A lengthy handwritten ransom note was found in the house, and JonBenét’s father John found her body in the basement of their house about eight hours after she had been reported missing. She sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled; a garrote was found tied around her neck. The autopsy report stated that the official cause of death was “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma.” Her death was ruled a homicide. The case generated nationwide public and media interest, in part because her mother Patsy Ramsey (herself a former beauty queen) had entered JonBenét in a series of child beauty pageants. The crime is still unsolved and remains an open investigation with the Boulder Police Department.
Karen discusses the East Area Rapist, aka The Original Nightstalker. The case was still unsolved at the time of this recording.
The Golden State Killer is a serial killer, rapist, and burglar who committed at least 13 murders, more than 50 rapes, and over 100 burglaries in California from 1974 to 1986. He is believed to be responsible for three crime sprees throughout California, each of which spawned a different nickname in the press before it became evident that they were committed by the same person.
In the Sacramento area he was known as the East Area Rapist, and was linked by modus operandi (MO) to additional attacks in Contra Costa County, Stockton, and Modesto. He was later known for his southern California crimes as the Original Night Stalker. He is suspected to have begun as a burglar (the Visalia Ransacker) before moving to the Sacramento area, based on a similar MO and circumstantial evidence.[
During the investigation, several suspects have been cleared through DNA evidence, alibi, or other investigative methods.[2][9] In 2001, DNA testing indicated that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person and he was known as the EAR/ONS.[4] The FBI and local law-enforcement agencies held a news conference on June 15, 2016, to announce a renewed nationwide effort, offering a US$50,000 reward for his capture. The case was a factor in the establishment of California’s DNA database, which collects DNA from all accused and convicted felons in California and has been called second only to Virginia’s in effectiveness in solving cold cases. To heighten awareness that the uncaught killer operated throughout California, crime writer Michelle McNamara coined the name “Golden State Killer” in early 2013.[
On April 24, 2018, authorities charged 72-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo with eight counts of first-degree murder, based upon DNA evidence. This was also the first announcement connecting the Visalia Ransacker crimes to the Golden State Killer. Due to California’s statute of limitations on pre-2017 rape cases, DeAngelo cannot be charged with late-1970s rapes, but he was charged in August 2018 with 13 related kidnapping/abduction attempts.