Victims call Golden State Killer ‘sick monster,’ ‘subhuman’ during first day of hearings

FILE - In this June 29, 2020, file photo, Joseph James DeAngelo, center, charged with being the Golden State Killer, is helped up by his attorney, Diane Howard, as Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman enters the courtroom in Sacramento, Calif. Survivors plan to confront DeAngelo this week during an extraordinary four days of court hearings before the 74-year-old is sentenced to life in prison. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) FILE - In this June 29, 2020, file photo, Joseph James DeAngelo, center, charged with being the Golden State Killer, is helped up by his attorney, Diane Howard, as Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman enters the courtroom in Sacramento, Calif. Survivors plan to confront DeAngelo this week during an extraordinary four days of court hearings before the 74-year-old is sentenced to life in prison. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

By DON THOMPSON / Associated Press August 19, 2020 4 min read

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – Victim after victim lined up on Tuesday to describe Joseph DeAngelo as a “sick monster,” “horrible man” and “subhuman” who stole their innocence and changed their lives during a more than decade-long reign of rape and murder that earned him the nickname Golden State Killer.

The daughter of one rape victim gave him an obscene hand gesture and cursed him during the first of four days of hearings in Sacramento County Superior Court before he is formally sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

Some read statements on behalf of their loved ones who could not testify in person, while others proudly gave their names now that DeAngelo, 74, is heading to prison.

“He and his knife had complete control over me for the next two hours,” the daughter of rape survivor Patricia Murphy read from her mother’s statement. “He truly is an evil monster with no soul.”

Murphy in her own statement raised her middle finger and said DeAngelo “can go straight to hell.”