Exeter Ransacker

[kelly]

May 10, 2018 22:33:17 GMT rkz said:

May 10, 2018 22:24:20 GMT bingo said:

...but he wasn't an arsonist. That's one bad thing he didn't do. Oh wait, yep, he did that over here

The trouble with this whole situation is that we don't know for sure which crimes from this time and place can be blamed on JJD. It's possible that he did burn someone's house down, but without a confession we still wouldn't know. The podcasters are connecting dots and speculating, attempting to make JJD's seemingly omniscient presence as a criminal self-evident. They're revealing a lot of previously unseen and unexamined info describing a crime series whose parameters are familiar to us because of what we now know about JJD, the EAR, the VR, and the ONS; we're going to have to wait and see if we can pin some of the (very familiar) crimes from this era and this area on JJD. In the meantime, I'm just amazed and taken aback at what 12-26-75 has managed to dig up. Why hasn't ANY of this info been part of any discussion until now? I've never even heard of it in discussions of the VR. There was someone in a nearby town who was committing VERY similar offenses as a notorious serial criminal operating in Visalia....and NO ONE in Visalia or Exeter noticed?! Not LE, not citizen sleuths, not armchair investigators? It's just astounding that no one from the area made a connection until now.

I fall somewhere in the middle on the competency angle of LE once he became the EAR. I recognize the factors often cited by LE operating during that time but clearly there were gross oversights, missed opportunities and jurisdictional issues. One of the things that was most shocking to me upon the identification of JJD as the GSK is that he was never in their files, as far as we know. Between the conflicting information from Willick, the new information coming to light about his dismissal and now Exeter it is beginning to seem more and more like a keystone cop situation.

[greyclay]

I have always been a vocal supporter of this podcast, since it started in April 2017.

Glad it is finally getting more listeners.

This was the highlight of the episode for me - another one of those "what if?" moments:

Also, December 17th (1969, reported in the Exeter Sun)

Mother's Screams Scare Away Prowler

An Exeter mother's screams frightened away an unidentified man, who was climbing through a window into her children's bedroom, at 2:25am Tuesday. Mrs Billy-Joe Stephenson of 1007 East List, Exexter told Sheriff's Deputies that she was awakened by her youngsters cries, went into their bedroom, and saw a heavy-set man entering the darkened room through the window. Mrs Stephenson's screams woke her husband, who grabbed a rifle from the bedroom closet and ran into the children's room just as the would-be prowler crawled back out through the window. Mr Stephenson fired the gun, hitting the window as the suspect fled on foot.

Episode 16 Post-Script: (12:28 - 13:10)

[thegoldenboy37]

This is amazing, ill listen to the podcast later, but incredible stuff.
Does anyone know when he started with Exeter PD? I have seen both 18/19 May and 22 August 1973 cited as the correct date.
If it was May then he was still doing his Cordova crimes whilst with Exeter PD.
But until we get a definitive timeline for the Cordova Meadows Burglar then its all guesswork.

[zorro]

An interesting detail from this podcast:

An Offerman/Manning Goleta condo neighbor was from Exeter - that family's ranch was right at the corner the ransacker parked his car the night of the ham radio robbery.

I'm pretty sure I know who they are talking about...

[arlington]

May 10, 2018 20:55:59 GMT sailorhaumea said:

Wow, things are really getting complicated. When were the Exeter Ransacker attacks?

So, we have multiple crime series, likely by one perpetrator:
Exeter Ransacker
Cordova Cat Burglar
East Sacramento Flasher
Cordova Meadows Burglar
Visalia Ransacker
East Area Rapist
Original Night Stalker

Jesus Christ, we've definitely hit 300+ total attacks, right? How many more are there? How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Add Creekside Killer, Golden State Killer, and Diamond Knot Killer.

This dude was like 12 different serial predetors all rolled up into 1 seriously deranged individual. The magnitude of his crimes is staggering.

[thegoldenboy37]

So according to the interactive map on the 12-26-75 website the Exeter Ransacking/Burglaries went back all the way to April 1968?
This just gets crazier and crazier and would mean he started once he returned from Vietnam (if indeed it was all JJD).
And that he was switching back and forth between Exeter and Visalia, whilst also hitting Rancho Cordova too.

[themeasurer]

I don't hang out on internet forums because I think internet forums are juries. They are not juries. They have a different purpose.

Internet forums are more like neighborhoods. Neighbors talk. It's human to do so, plus it's also a form of social control. People whose lives could be turned upside down by their own criminality learn that it's best to avoid detection if they don't want a whole *load of people talking about them. The one thing humans are really good at is talking about things gone wrong. Speculation is part of that.

This is not a jury, we don't have to follow the rules of court, nothing we say is going to be admitted into court or used against a legal defendant. The legal process is in another place. If you live in Ventura or Orange County, maybe you'll get to participate, but you won't get to gossip with your fellow jurors. That's the way it should be. Being able to talk with other interested people on an internet forum is a really healthy release, especially for people who've been victims of crime (even if not this crime).

[sailorhaumea]

May 11, 2018 8:56:47 GMT thegoldenboy37 said:

So according to the interactive map on the 12-26-75 website the Exeter Ransacking/Burglaries went back all the way to April 1968?
This just gets crazier and crazier and would mean he started once he returned from Vietnam (if indeed it was all JJD).
And that he was switching back and forth between Exeter and Visalia, whilst also hitting Rancho Cordova too.

Yes, April 2, 1968. And if all those attacks are him, he was going back to Exeter for attacks as late as 1976.

[aek]

Holes said that when Deangelo was arrested for shoplifting in '79, his house was searched by the Auburn PD and tons of stolen items were found there, much of which JJD had never bothered to take out of the box. The thrill was in the theft and the deception.

[EaglesNumberOne]

May 11, 2018 19:22:07 GMT aek said:

Holes said that when Deangelo was arrested for shoplifting in '79, his house was searched by the Auburn PD and tons of stolen items were found there, much of which JJD had never bothered to take out of the box. The thrill was in the theft and the deception.

This does potentially explain what my father explained to me.  He said that they thought DeAngelo was stealing items from places and then returning them to different stores to get money.   If they did find items that had not been taken out of the box, it could just be that he enjoyed stealing, or that he was hoping to cash those items in.

[tongue]

May 10, 2018 20:55:59 GMT sailorhaumea said:

Wow, things are really getting complicated. When were the Exeter Ransacker attacks?

So, we have multiple crime series, likely by one perpetrator:
Exeter Ransacker
Cordova Cat Burglar
East Sacramento Flasher
Cordova Meadows Burglar
Visalia Ransacker
East Area Rapist
Original Night Stalker

Jesus Christ, we've definitely hit 300+ total attacks, right? How many more are there? How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Yes and no one in his life suspected or thought his behavior was a little suspect or bizarre? He hid his criminal dude that well?!

[tongue]

May 10, 2018 22:40:02 GMT dogs said:

May 10, 2018 22:33:17 GMT rkz said:

I've never even heard of it in discussions of the VR. There was someone in a nearby town who was committing VERY similar offenses as a notorious serial criminal operating in Visalia....and NO ONE in Visalia or Exeter noticed?! Not LE, not citizen sleuths, not armchair investigators? It's just astounding that no one from the area made a connection until now.

Exactly. A tiny town with a couple thousand people and nine cops. And no one could figure out who was doing all the ransacking.

How could they? Deangelo appeared to be a very normal guy on the job and around family..nothing in his behavior woukd lend anyone to believe he was the ransacker..then again we don't know that much about his day to day behavior yet..

[portofleith]

May 11, 2018 7:03:03 GMT kelly said:

May 10, 2018 22:33:17 GMT rkz said:

The trouble with this whole situation is that we don't know for sure which crimes from this time and place can be blamed on JJD. It's possible that he did burn someone's house down, but without a confession we still wouldn't know. The podcasters are connecting dots and speculating, attempting to make JJD's seemingly omniscient presence as a criminal self-evident. They're revealing a lot of previously unseen and unexamined info describing a crime series whose parameters are familiar to us because of what we now know about JJD, the EAR, the VR, and the ONS; we're going to have to wait and see if we can pin some of the (very familiar) crimes from this era and this area on JJD. In the meantime, I'm just amazed and taken aback at what 12-26-75 has managed to dig up. Why hasn't ANY of this info been part of any discussion until now? I've never even heard of it in discussions of the VR. There was someone in a nearby town who was committing VERY similar offenses as a notorious serial criminal operating in Visalia....and NO ONE in Visalia or Exeter noticed?! Not LE, not citizen sleuths, not armchair investigators? It's just astounding that no one from the area made a connection until now.

I fall somewhere in the middle on the competency angle of LE once he became the EAR. I recognize the factors often cited by LE operating during that time but clearly there were gross oversights, missed opportunities and jurisdictional issues. One of the things that was most shocking to me upon the identification of JJD as the GSK is that he was never in their files, as far as we know. Between the conflicting information from Willick, the new information coming to light about his dismissal and now Exeter it is beginning to seem more and more like a keystone cop situation.

I have a different theory to offer.  I think the new Exeter chief of police who began posting himself in positions opposite of the fires, was very intelligent indeed. His action drove Deangelo from committing crimes in Exeter just as McGowen's stake out drove him from Visalia.

This was at the height of the grape strikes by the UFW and La Raza..  The UFW was blamed for every packing shed fire in the valley.  Deangelo would have been well aware of the strikes and conflict and he devised a smart strategy for drawing LE and the fire departments away from where he wanted to peep and prowl. The new police chief outwitted him albeit without knowing his nemesis was one of his own officers.

[portofleith]

Note the Tulare County farm vandalism and violence in this article and the date, Oct 4, 1975.  Cesar Chavez and the UFW would have been blamed for every agricultural arson or acts of violence throughout the Southern San Joaquin. . . Joe knew this and molded the arson to mask his crimes.  There were arson fires the night before and the night of Snelling's murder.

[rkz]

May 12, 2018 16:57:41 GMT portofleith said:

May 11, 2018 7:03:03 GMT kelly said:

I fall somewhere in the middle on the competency angle of LE once he became the EAR. I recognize the factors often cited by LE operating during that time but clearly there were gross oversights, missed opportunities and jurisdictional issues. One of the things that was most shocking to me upon the identification of JJD as the GSK is that he was never in their files, as far as we know. Between the conflicting information from Willick, the new information coming to light about his dismissal and now Exeter it is beginning to seem more and more like a keystone cop situation.

I have a different theory to offer.  I think the new Exeter chief of police who began posting himself in positions opposite of the fires, was very intelligent indeed. His action drove Deangelo from committing crimes in Exeter just as McGowen's stake out drove him from Visalia.

This was at the height of the grape strikes by the UFW and La Raza..  The UFW was blamed for every packing shed fire in the valley.  Deangelo would have been well aware of the strikes and conflict and he devised a smart strategy for drawing LE and the fire departments away from where he wanted to peep and prowl. The new police chief outwitted him albeit without knowing his nemesis was one of his own officers.

Wow, amazing find. Adds a whole new wrinkle to the "distraction" theory.