Where Is the Golden State Killer Now? Joseph DeAngelo’s Life in Prison

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Joseph James DeAngelo, the serial rapist and murderer known as the “Golden State Killer,” has not had a completely “typical” experience behind bars. 

DeAngelo, now 80, was arrested in April 2018 for myriad crimes he committed across California in the 1970s and ‘80s. In June 2020, he agreed to plead guilty to 13 murders and kidnappings in order to avoid the death penalty, according to People. 

In total, DeAngelo burglarized more than 120 homes, raped at least 40 individuals and murdered at least 13 people around Los Angeles for a decade, per People. He wasn’t arrested until DNA advancements helped steer investigators to him.

Despite his list of accused crimes being much larger than the 13 murders he pleaded guilty to, he could not be charged with the rapes or burglaries because the statute of limitations had expired. During the time of the crimes, he was known as the “East Area Rapist” and the “Night Stalker.” 

After his arrest, the former cop was taken to the Sacramento County Main Jail and, unlike most people incarcerated there, was left in a cell by himself due to the notoriety of his case, a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department investigator told ABC News at the time. He was also placed on suicide watch.

After he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, DeAngelo was transferred to the Protective Housing Unit (PHU) at the California State Prison, Corcoran (COR), a maximum-security facility run by the state and about an hour’s drive northwest of Bakersfield. Corcoran is a farming town of about 24,000 people, half of which are incarcerated at COR and another prison.

Though the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation lists DeAngelo’s location as “not disclosable,” a representative of the department told ABC7 that DeAngelo was transferred to Corcoran on January 26, 2021. Usually, the names of people in that facility are kept private, according to reporting by KALW.

Thien Ho, the lead prosecutor in DeAngelo’s case, told CNN that the PHU “is where you put the child molesters, the rapists, the snitches, people who drop out of gangs because other prisoners want to hurt them. He’s not in the general population.”

In 2013, a KALW reporter got a rare glimpse inside the prison. The public information officer at the time explained the prison has two facilities, including the PHU. Each housing unit within the facility is “self-contained with its own laundry, chapel, canteen and medical services.” The PHU also has a recreational yard where people who are housed there go outside several times a day to exercise. 

The PHU is the same place that at different times held Charles Manson and Danny Masterson, the That '70s Show actor convicted of rape. It also holds inmates whose conduct endangers those around them.

COR has programming for inmates, though it’s not known what, if any, DeAngelo might be involved in or if those in the PHU have access. Programming includes prison work such as laundry and repairs, vocational training and academic training such as GED and literacy programs.

Visitation is allowed at the prison through an application process for those who want to visit inmates. Visitors first have to fill out a questionnaire that can only be obtained by having the incarcerated person someone wants to visit send the form, also signed by them, to the potential visitor. Visitors will also go through a background check before they might be approved.