California police crack serial killer cold case

Police on Wednesday apprehended a former police officer suspected of terrorizing Sacramento-area neighborhoods as a serial killer and rapist in the late 1970s and early ’80s. The so-called Golden State Killer is suspected in 12 murders and about 50 rapes. DNA evidence linked Joseph DeAngelo to the attacks on sleeping women and sometimes their partners. DeAngelo lost his job as a police officer in 1979 after being caught shoplifting a can of dog repellent and a hammer. Police now wonder if he used those items to commit one of many crimes. The attacks tapered off after DeAngelo was fired, and police said they haven’t found any evidence that similar attacks occurred after 1986.