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Golden State Killer's Daughter Portrays Father As ‘Selfless’ Provider And Great Father In Letter
Joseph DeAngelo's daughter submitted a five-page letter to the Sacramento Superior Court in support of her serial killer dad, but made no reference to his crimes or many victims.
The eldest daughter of notorious Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo painted her father as a loving provider and great person in a five-page letter submitted to a California court.
DeAngelo, 74, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday, officially bringing to a close the reign of fear he presided over in California during the 1970s and '80s, which included 13 murders and at least 50 rapes. While those in court listened to three days of victim impact statements detailing his horrendous crimes, one of his three daughters offered up a completely different perspective on the serial killer.
“I could never tell you all the things my father did for me, because he always put me and my daughter first, all our lives, so there are far too many," the daughter, who hasn't been named, wrote in the letter submitted to the Sacramento Superior Court Monday and released to the media the following day.
The woman lived with DeAngelo, along with her own daughter, at his Citrus Heights home up until his 2018 arrest.
She wrote that DeAngelo cooked, cleaned and did her and her daughter's laundry right up until his arrest. She said he loved his granddaughter as his own and filled a paternal role that the child's biological dad could not.
"Anything my daughter or I ever needed, he provided,” she wrote. “He was consistently selfless about caring for and providing for his family.”
She claimed the serial killer worked seven years past his official retirement age in order to provide for them.
She said that while her mother Sharon Huddle lived in a “much nicer home” and “made way more money,” she chose to live with DeAngelo because "my father was, and still is, the best parent.” She called him a good listener.
DeAngelo’s daughter said he taught her to "be kind to both people and animals,” noting that he took care of guinea pigs, a rabbit and a horse at different points in their lives.
The idyllic portrayal put forth by his daughter stands in stark contrast to the memories of his victims and former loves. DeAngelo’s ex-fiancée Bonnie Colwell claimed that before his crime spree, she observed him killing several animals. His former wife Huddle, who filed for divorce from him in 2018, submitted a victim impact statement saying the revelation he was a serial killer and rapist ruined her ability to trust people.
“The defendant’s criminal actions have had a devastating and pervasive effect on my life and my family,” she said in a statement obtained by Oxygen.com. "I will never be the same person. I now live every day with the knowledge of how he attacked and severely damaged hundreds of innocent people’s lives and murdered 13 innocent people who were loved and have now been missed for 40 years or more.”
Her statement was filed along with victim impact statements from dozens of DeAngelo’s victims and their relatives last week. Many of the statements were read aloud, directly to the killer in court last week.
The newly filed letter from his daughter makes no mention of DeAngelo's crimes or his many victims.
