The Golden State Killer's Victims Speak

Victims of Joseph DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, took the stand this week to describe the impacts that DeAngelo’s horrific crimes had on their lives.

The 74-year-old former police officer sat in the courtroom wearing a white face mask as a procession of victims gave their statements, each one wishing him a miserable future.

“You should be sent to the toughest prison in California. What a despicable piece of humanity you are,” said Dolly Kreis, whose daughter, Debbie Strauss, was raped by DeAngelo. Strauss’s sister agreed, urging the judge to send him to “the worst possible environment, where he can live in fear as his victims did.”

Last year, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to raping more than 50 women and murdering 13 people throughout the 70s and 80s, in a geographic region that encompassed everywhere from Sacramento and the Bay Area down to Southern California.

According to CNN, anger was a constant throughout the statements:

“May he rot in hell,” Karen Veilleux said on behalf of her sister Phyllis. Another woman punctuated her statement by calling DeAngelo “subhuman” and aggressively showing him her middle finger.

DeAngelo made his plea to avoid the death penalty. One man speaking on behalf of his mother said that effort was futile.

“A lot of people might wish to carry out the death penalty themselves, but can’t you see? The sentence has already been given. You have been robbed of your entire life, yet you are too stupid to notice,” he said.

Though DeAngelo was spared the death penalty in exchange for pleading guilty, he is nevertheless expected to serve 11 consecutive life sentences without parole, with 15 concurrent life sentences, plus some extra for weapons charges.