2 Prolific Serial Killers Caught by Outstanding Police Work

Identifying and apprehending a serial killer is one of the toughest jobs that a police officer ever has in their career. It’s difficult to string together and connect evidence from crimes that occur in different localities.

Information sharing between law enforcement agencies has increased over the years, and technology has advanced enough to give investigators another chance at solving cold murder cases. Outstanding police work brings serial killers into the light.

1. The Golden State Killer

The Golden State Killer was known by several names over the 10-year period of his crime spree. The man known as the Diamond Knot Killer, Original Night Stalker, and East Area Rapist broke into more than 120 California homes, raped 45 people, and killed 12. Police finally identified the killer as Joseph DeAngelo in April of 2018. His crime spree was one of the longest and most sadistic in the history of the United States.

The most chilling fact revealed was that DeAngelo was a police officer after serving in the Navy during the Vietnam War. From 1973 to 1976, he was a police officer with the Exeter Police Department in California. He joined the Auburn Police Department in 1976, which also happened to be the same year as the first attack.

On June 18, 1976, DeAngelo broke into a Rancho Cordova home and assaulted a woman. This assault was just the first in a long string of crimes that would continue for a decade. During his time as the East Area Rapist, police linked him with 38 attacks in the Stockton and Sacramento areas. He stalked his victims for days, sometimes breaking into their house to unlock windows or leave twine that he would later use to tie them up.

When his crime spree first started, he assaulted women who lived by themselves in single-family residences. Later, he would target couples. DeAngelo would tie the male up and tie the woman up and rape her. The assaults sometimes lasted for hours while he explored the homes and ate their food. He later began killing his victims in the late 1970s.

DNA Finally Filled in the Piece of the Puzzle

Early in the 2000s, police were finally able to get a DNA profile of the killer from evidence at the crime scene of the 1980 double homicide of Charlene and Lyman Smith. DeAngelo bludgeoned both Lyman and Charlene to death.

As the technology advanced, investigators in other jurisdictions began reviewing some of the old rape kits from other victims. One of those investigators was Paul Holes of Contra Costa County. He chased the Golden State Killer for 24 years, and he was the one who spearheaded the rush to use public genealogy records to identify the killer.

They compared records in the database with the unsub’s (unidentified subject’s) DNA, hoping to create a family tree of the Golden State Killer’s relatives who had submitted their DNA to the database for genealogy research.

In the search to find the killer’s identity, Holes saw many promising suspects ruled out by DNA. So, when he found himself staking out the residence of Joseph DeAngelo on his last day of work before his retirement in March 2018, he wasn’t very hopeful. After gathering the necessary police gear and evidence kit to complete his task that day, he planned to get a sample of DeAngelo’s DNA to rule him out and then move on in the case.

Though the killer’s DNA was entered into CODIS years earlier, there was never a hit. Paul Hole was banking on the genealogy search to end the 42-year-old hunt for the infamous killer. The detective worked with a genealogist to upload the murderer’s DNA into the GEDMatch system to find family members. While they were hoping to find close relatives such as a first cousin, all they found were extremely distant relatives. 

However, from that information, the genealogist pieced together a family tree with DeAngelo in it. One person on the short suspect list had the blue eyes that witnesses repeatedly described over the years. After testing the DNA from a discarded tissue, authorities had their match.

The day after the stakeout, Holes officially retired, turning in his badge and gun. He received the confirmation while shopping with his wife for a house in Colorado Springs. The sample investigators collected matched the Golden State Killer.

Without the dedication of countless detectives, officers, deputies, and DNA technology, DeAngelo would still be a free man. The cold case that haunted so many for decades would have remained unsolved, and a killer never brought to justice.

Photo by Nothing Ahead

2. Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy’s good looks and charm enabled him to get close to every one of his victims. He approached them as a police officer or another personality who would appear to be trustworthy or not appear threatening.

His first victim was Lynda Ann Healy. She was a 21-year-old woman from Seattle’s University District. Bundy abducted and strangled her. He then went on to commit multiple homicides in rapid succession. Some were only weeks apart. His crime rate accelerated at the end of 1974 and into 1975.

The One that Got Away

Eighteen-year-old Carol DaRonch was shopping at a mall in Murray, Utah when a police officer approached her and told her that someone had tried to break into her car. It was none other than Ted Bundy in disguise, and he asked her to accompany him back to the Murray Police Department to make a report. She willingly got into his Volkswagen Beetle, and they drove off.

Only, after a while, Bundy pulled over and tried to place her in handcuffs. He got one cuff on her and threatened her with a handgun. She was able to jump out of his vehicle and flag down an elderly couple who took her to the police department to report the incident. Little did she know that he was a serial killer and that she was the only one of his victims ever to escape. It was this description coupled with a good cop’s instincts that became Bundy’s undoing.

Bundy’s Initial Capture

After each murder, Bundy donned his invisibility cloak and vanished, leaving communities terrified and law enforcement baffled. He finally made it onto police radar thanks to a vigilant police sergeant with the Utah Highway Patrol, Bob Hayward. He, alone, would end the violent rampage that Bundy had embarked on.

Hayward was on patrol one night during August of 1975. He was finishing up his shift paperwork outside his residence when he observed a Volkswagen pass his patrol car. Minutes later, a call for assistance came over the radio, and the sergeant decided to respond. However, he made a wrong turn out of his subdivision and stumbled upon the Volkswagen that he’d seen a few minutes earlier.

Only, this time, it was parked in front of a neighbor’s home with whom he was familiar. It was suspicious because Hayward knew the neighbors were out of town and only their 19- and 17-year-old daughters were home.

The driver saw Hayward and hastily drove away, but Hayward chased after the Volkswagen until it finally pulled over. He noticed the driver was a man, later identified as Ted Bundy, dressed in a black turtleneck, and that he had shaggy hair. Hayward asked where Bundy had been that evening, and Bundy responded that he’d spent the evening at a drive-in movie theater. Hayward’s suspicion rose when he asked the driver what was playing. He answered, “The Towering Inferno.”

Sergeant Hayward knew this was incorrect because he’d been out that way all evening, and the theater had never shown that movie. So, Hayward asked if he could search the vehicle.

While searching, the sergeant noticed that the entire passenger seat was missing, and then he found a variety of burglary tools that the ordinary person wouldn’t normally carry in their car. Hayward also found pantyhose with holes cut in them. Bundy’s story didn’t check out, and Hayward arrested him on suspicion of evasion, not realizing that he had just caught one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers. Hayward suspected that Bundy was up to no good and that he was guilty of much more than evasion … he just didn’t know what at the time.

Bob Hayward relayed the story to his brother, Pete Hayward, the supervisor of the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office’s detectives. Two detectives there immediately recalled the mention of the name Bundy and a tan Volkswagen. Detectives Jerry Thompson and Ben Forbes were notified by Seattle Investigators the year before of Bundy’s suspicious behavior. One of his former girlfriends had come in to talk to them about him.

The investigators from both departments talked after the arrest, and the Seattle officers told the Utah guys that Bundy was the suspect in the disappearances of ten women in Washington State. The Seattle investigators were elated when they received news of Bundy’s arrest. Women in Utah had disappeared as well, and they also had that report and description from DaRonch.

Ted Bundy Gains Freedom Again

Law enforcement officials charged Bundy with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping at his trial in 1976 and was sentenced to a minimum of one to fifteen years in a Utah prison.

Colorado detectives linked Ted Bundy to the murder of a 23-year-old nurse named Caryn Campbell during February 1975. Colorado authorities transferred Bundy to Aspen to stand trial, and he was allowed to assist in the preparation of his defense.

As a result, officials allowed Bundy to walk around the courtroom and law library without shackles. On June 7, 1977, Bundy seized the opportunity to escape. While locked in the law library, he jumped out the window and fled to the mountains with no plan. He had no money and no one to help him, so he broke into a cabin and stayed there for a few days.

Again he was thwarted by a diligent deputy, after he walked back to Aspen and stole a car. The deputy pulled Bundy over after he saw the vehicle weaving down the road. Bundy was back in custody after just six days of freedom.

That wasn’t the end, however. After authorities moved the killer to the Garfield County Jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Bundy found an unsecured grate in his cell, as well as a light fixture that was supposed to have been welded before someone was housed in the jail cell.

He began losing weight, and he carved an opening in the ceiling of his jail cell that was just big enough for him to fit through. He arranged books and pillows in his bed to make it look like he was in it, and then he escaped through the ductwork in the jail. Bundy planned this escape better. He crawled into one of the jailer’s apartments, where he found civilian clothes to wear, and then he was gone.

He got on an airplane to Chicago, and then took a train to Michigan, where he drove south and got on a bus to Tallahassee, Florida. There, Bundy went on another killing spree, murdering his last three victims.

Bundy was captured for the final time by yet another savvy officer who noticed his car idling suspiciously in Pensacola, Florida. The officer ran the license plate on the vehicle and found that the Volkswagen was stolen. After a short skirmish, the officer arrested Bundy, who refused to identify himself. Afterward, Bundy presented officers with a driver’s license that he had stolen, saying that he was a Florida State University student.

Eventually, he was found guilty for the first-degree murders of Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy, and three charges of attempted murder for the assaults on Cheryl Thomas, Kathy Kleiner, and Karen Chandler. He was sentenced to the electric chair and was finally executed on January 24, 1989. Officials pronounced Ted Bundy dead at 7:16 a.m.

In the End

There are many other serial killers out there who were caught by the use of excellent police work, and there are some cases still unsolved. These are two of the most prolific serial killers the U.S. has ever known.

Without dedicated law enforcement officers, necessary gear essentials, and technology advancements, many more cases would remain unsolved. It’s the dedication and drive to right wrongs that make police officers, old and new, all across the country, join together to bring as many killers to justice as they can.