Kriti Mehrotra
‘I’ll Be Gone in the Dark‘ is an HBO original docuseries that focuses on Michelle McNarama and her obsession with catching the Golden State Killer, as she had come to call the East Area Rapist or the Original Night Stalker. The series does a brilliant job in focusing on not of the glorification of this serial rapist and killer but on giving his victims a voice. A voice that they use to tell the world of his horrific crimes and to help other survivors.
While we now know that the Golden State Killer is Joseph James DeAngelo, for decades his identity was unknown, and so he lived a normal life. Just like everyone else, he had a stable job, a family, and people who cared about his well-being. Born on November 8, 1945, in Bath, New York, to Joseph James DeAngelo Sr., a US Army Sergeant, and Kathleen Louise Bosanko, Joseph DeAngelo is the eldest of four kids.
He has two younger sisters and a younger brother. A relative has reported that when he was 9 or 10 he witnessed his 7-year-old sister getting brutally raped by two airmen in a warehouse in West Germany, where the family was stationed at the time. This experience may be what led him to do what he did later on in life.
Was The Golden State Killer Married?
Yes, he was. At the beginning of August in 1968, Joseph started attending Sierra College in Rocklin to study police science. Around two years later, in May 1970, he proposed to Bonnie Jean Colwell, a classmate with whom he had started a relationship earlier on. They were happy together, experiencing new things, and living life, but Joseph was possessive and ambitious. When he was failing a subject and asked Bonnie to cheat for him, she refused. And, when he kept pressing her to do so, she broke off their engagement.
Just a few days later, though, he knocked on her bedroom window to wake her up and ordered her to go to Reno with him to get married. He had a gun in his hand. But, fortunately, Bonnie managed to get away from him. It is believed that his heartbreak might have been the thing that broke him for good and led him to go on his rape rampage. His cries of “I hate you, Bonnie,” during one of his attacks are also supposedly fueled by this and his history.
In November 1973, though, he moved on and married Sharon Marie Huddle in Placer. They bought a home in Citrus Heights, where he was eventually arrested, and started to build a life together. Sharon became an attorney in 1982, and together the couple lived a good life. They had three daughters, two of whom were born in Sacramento and one in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, no information about their daughters is known to us, not even their names.
Joseph and Sharon had separated back in 1991, after almost twenty years of marriage, but she only filed for divorce in July 2018, after he was arrested for being the Golden State Killer. Their divorce, which was finalized that same year, is actually of significance because as she was no longer legally bound to him, she could be allowed to testify against him. After all, she was married to the Golden State Killer when he was the most active. (Featured Image Credit: Randall Benton / The Sacramento Bee via AP)
Read More: Where Is The Golden State Killer Now?
