"I don't want to see it. I don't want to know his name. No. He's a jerk. I wouldn't give him the notoriety."
That's what Bruce Harrington had to say about seeing Joseph James DeAngelo’s face for the first time. Harrington's brother, Keith, and sister-in-law, Patty, were murdered almost 40 years ago in Orange County by the Golden State Killer.
"It was an awful situation,” Harrington said. “It was painful. Our father at the time, it really destroyed his life. He bore that cross on his shoulder until the day that he died."
Harrington says those wounds never really heal for victims and their families.
Investigators say some of these crimes were committed while DeAngelo was serving as a police officer in Auburn and Exeter, which is north of Bakersfield.
The District Attorney's Office released a list of more than 50 crimes, ranging from 1976 to 1986. They are all tied to the East Area Rapist, also known as the Golden State Killer.
"We all start wondering, do you get an alarm in your house? You do whatever you think you need to do, and there's no resolution and it just sits there in the back of your mind,” Harrington said.
After so many years, the statute of limitations has run out on some of these crimes. But Sacramento District Attorney, Anne Marie Schubert said that will not stop investigators all across the state from looking for justice.
"Clearly he's charged here with two counts of murder here, and our process will start,” she said. “But he's also facing charges in Ventura and as I understand it, many jurisdictions are involved."
But as for a possible sentence for the 72-year-old if he's convicted, Schubert said, "I can't answer that question. All I can say is that he's charged with crimes here in Sacramento as well as Ventura, like the DA said are capital crimes so he is eligible for the death penalty but that decision cannot be made for any period of time."
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