Commonwealth Club Of California Podcast

Thien Ho, the current district attorney of Sacramento County, delivers the first official account of the investigation, capture and prosecution of Joseph DeAngelo, one of America’s most notorious serial predators. Known by many chilling names over the years, including the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist, the Original Nightstalker, and finally the Golden State Killer, DeAngelo terrorized California communities for more than a decade—and then disappeared without a trace for more than 30 years. It's a tale Ho recounts in his new book The People vs. the Golden State Killer, from Third State Books. As the lead prosecutor on the case, Ho recounts the exhilarating and harrowing experience of bringing a cold-case killer to justice and putting him behind bars for life. Rather than focusing solely on the criminal and the crimes, Ho’s narrative centers the dedicated law-enforcement teams who never gave up their pursuit, and the courageous survivors of the GSK's crimes who fought to heal and regain control of th