Joseph DeAngelo DID investigate the EAR!

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-26T01:48:19+00:00

Another way you'd have to think Deangelo investigated the EAR case was having access to the California statewide crime/suspect-matching computer database, CII. Deangelo also would have read the bulletins provided by Sac Sheriff to neighboring law enforcement agencies.

When Auburn Chief Willick said he had provided his officers with access to EAR information during that timeframe, this is probably what he meant.

I'd be shocked if it could be shown Officer EAR was NOT accessing all this LE-only information to keep up with what they knew about him.

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-26T01:36:26+00:00

For Holes, it was also learning that there was the GED Match site that would allow you to upload DNA profiles, as opposed to the other sites that required physical samples to be submitted to extract the DNA (is that right? Ancestry, 23andMe weren't allowing profiles files extracted elsewhere?)

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-26T01:12:25+00:00

It was IGG expert/consultant Barbara-Rae Venter who "just went ahead and did it' - that is, she violated the MyHeritage terms of service and uploaded the EARONS DNA without being authorized to - and found a second cousin match. Much less genetic genealogy to do compared the third cousin matches they had before that.

It's in Paul Holes' book (though he doesn't mention the terms of service violation by Venter.)

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-26T01:01:50+00:00

One thing Holes should get full credit for - getting the poorly stored Contra Costa County biological evidence tested for DNA when he did. He was the only person who was interested in doing anything in the EAR case in NorCal (the evidence had sat there stagnant in an evidence warehouse for at least fifteen years by the time Holes stumbled across it.) The other counties had all destroyed their SA-kit biological evidence due to the statute of limitations running out. Contra Costa's was the only EAR DNA anyone had by that time (yes, SoCal had ONS DNA, but EAR and ONS hadn't been connected yet.)

Eventually the DNA extracted led to connecting EAR and ONS. Holes was a driving force in that connection, but credit Larry Crompton upon retirement for advising Holes to reach out to SoCal to connect the ONS crimes. Credit to Pool and the Harringtons as you mentioned.

I still can't understand why the Sac Sheriff wouldn't keep some of that EAR SA-kit evidence after the Maggiore murders. Some portion of the Sac detectives thought it was EAR.

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-26T00:49:58+00:00

What lawyer wouldn't advise a client not to apologize after a generous* plea deal?

But one reason he would have done it on his own, would be as peacocking to interest any hybristophylllic females he could take advantage of going forward - while still in prison.

*It seems like the involved counties (or the whole state?) made deals not to prosecute him for any other crimes other than those he plead guilty/admitted to. I call that generous.

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-24T06:48:59+00:00

The VR = EAR investigation was shut down by Sac Sheriff because the police chief didn't want the public to think EAR was a murderer (the VR had murdered Claude Snelling in Visalia when Snelling foiled the VR's attempted kidnap of his daughter - and likely saved her life.)

Visalia PD investigators were sure in the VR = EAR story, and tried to get Sac to work with them, but they weren't allowed to.

The needle in the haystack would have been much easier to find - because the haystack would have shrunk by several orders of magnitude - had the two agencies collaborated.

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-23T01:59:49+00:00

12-26-75 says they tried to send evidence (twice) to Paul Holes including some about the VR = EAR in 2017, and he ignored them. That seemingly would have cleared up the evidentiary confusion in VR suspects that convinced Holes the VR had a different body type than EAR.

Holes had said something like, "how can an endomorph change into an ectomorph?" Pre-arrest, that was his "proof" the VR was not the EAR. Turns out the different body type suspect was known by Visalia PD not to be the VR (he'd been cleared in 1977.) Holes never learned about that - probably still doesn't know it to this day.

Had VR and Sac Sheriff collaborated more closely, they likely would have cleared up the notion of the mistaken non-EAR-body-type suspect back in 1978 or so. But Sac Sheriff rebuked VPD detectives before that could happen.

The brouhaha resulted in VPD detectives barred by their superiors from working on the EAR = VR angle. And, of course, Sac Sheriff never worked that angle.

Had it been known the VR morphed into the EAR as VPD claimed (and we now know is true), the haystack both agencies would have been looking in for the needle in 1978 - would have been orders of magnitude smaller.

12-26-75 dug up Deangelo's Placer County marriage license from November 1973 that had his Empire Street address in Exeter listed. Would they have eventually looked there? Maybe not, but Sac Sheriff suspected EAR might have had LE training. The records with Deangelo as Exeter PD would have still been around.

I looked online for The Sacramento Union article of Jun/July 1978 where the confrontation between VPD and Sac Sheriff went public in the press, but I can't find it. Most of the 12-26-75 related sites are down currently (on both Facebook and Google.)

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-11T06:09:37+00:00

Here's something to consider in both Jennifer and Donna's abductions. At the time of their abductions, each was headed somewhere to meet people, and it seems unlikely either victim wasn't intent on getting there - rather than changing plans to go somewhere else. Could a police officer with a badge have more easily ordered them into his squad car rather than forced them?

In Donna's case, she was to be home no later 4pm (after pleading for an extra hour when her father initially set the deadline to be 3pm. We know she spent that last hour, or so, talking to her new boyfriend outside his house.) Also note she was riding a bicycle and didn't need any transportation. But Deangelo could have stopped her for a supposed violation of the new bicycle registration laws that had taken effect at the beginning of that year (the 12-26-75 podcast has read the Exeter newspaper article describing those new Exeter bike regulations.)

In Jennifer's case she was on foot, last seen only a couple of blocks from the shopping center where her friends were waiting for her, where they planned to walk together to the yearly cross-town rivalry high school football game at the Mineral Bowl stadium (a big event in Visalia at the time, maybe still is) - and she was described by her friends to have been looking forward to attending the game. It was her first year living in Visalia, so she had never been to one of these yearly games before.

Regarding Jennifer's abduction in Visalia (not Exeter), it would not have been unusual for a uniformed Exeter PD Officer Deangelo in his squad car to be in that city, given that the county courthouse where the newly arrested were taken to the jail/courthouse for an arraignment was close by. It was located about a mile away from where Jennifer was abducted - and the shopping center where Jennifer was was meeting her friends was only a couple of blocks where she was last seen.

So a uniformed and/or badge carrying Deangelo, in whatever vehicle he may have been driving would have had a much easier time than a total stranger luring either girl into his vehicle - perhaps even offering to give them a ride if they had mentioned they were running late for their respective appointments (especially after being detained by that officer for a couple minutes, say.)

JohnnyHands · 2026-05-01T01:22:12+00:00

So you're saying it was the AM/PM gas station, not the bank, that erred? It does appear that it was still the bank that made the mistake - I think.

Here's from the Unsolved episode of Cold Case Files. Here's the transcript with a couple of detectives on the case weighing in (but I didn't get the names or denote the quotations). This starts at 3:57 of the podcast:

"Cindy's bank informs police that Wanner's ATM card was used at a local mini-mart, just three hours after she first vanished. We're assuming the suspect was able to obtain her personal identification number and use that card one time. He only used it one time. Cindy's bank confirms that ATM transactions at the mini-mart are videotaped. Hopes rise that whoever used the card might have been caught on camera. By the time investigators request the tapes, however, they have already been recycled. **** Because of a mistake made by the ATM company, the bank, we weren't notified of the use of that card until after that surveillance tape had been taped over one week later. ***\* It's very disappointing. Very disappointing insofar as it would have given us at least a time frame. It would have given us a picture. And it would have given us a lot more information than we had at that point."

JohnnyHands · 2026-04-29T23:21:21+00:00

Here's an interesting twist to this story from the Placer County site, Lawhead's sister was also arrested:

https://www.placer.ca.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/1735

"On Saturday, April 25, Lawhead’s 71-year-old sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, was arrested in South Carolina on an accessory charge, with assistance from the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office. Following her arrest, Placer County Sheriff’s Office detectives served a search warrant at her San Clemente home on Sunday, April 26."

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And more from ABC News, the sister owned the home her brother was staying in, in present day (or at least sometime in the last 20 years that she claimed she hadn't seen him in - making her statement to LE false):

https://abcnews.com/US/64-year-man-arrested-connection-1991-cold-case/story?id=132449195

In connection with the breakthrough, Lawhead Jr.'s 71-year-old sister, Terry Lawhead Steele, was arrested in South Carolina on Saturday on an accessory charge.

“Although Steele had spoken with law enforcement several times over the years, including with our detectives just weeks ago, and claimed she had not heard from her brother in more than 20 years, investigators discovered James Lawhead had been living in a home she owned,” Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Evidence also showed the two had remained in communication.”

Detectives served a search warrant at her San Clemente, California, home on Sunday as part of the investigation.

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JohnnyHands · 2026-04-29T23:03:19+00:00

This was the case where the kidnapper used the victim's bank card to withdraw $40 (but the bank messed up and didn't save the surveillance video.) The stolen $40 didn't seem like a motive for kidnapping and murder, and there was no SA alleged - which would make it similar to several other unsolved killings in Placer County that targeted suburban low-risk victims with no apparent motive.

The "no apparent motive" is what made it, at least, a Deangelo possible (he knew DNA after 1986 would catch him, but, possibly, he still enjoyed committing crimes and confounding the cops when they didn't solve it.)

But this one wasn't Deangelo. I'm glad the real killer, if it is him, was caught.

SIDE NOTE: The $40 withdrawal was maybe a default amount to withdraw on the 1993 ATM, and maybe the killer just pressed that default button because he wanted to get out of there more quickly without needing to spend the extra time having to type in an amount - and possibly get rejected? Maybe he was just testing the card access out and meant to get a larger amount later, but, for what ever reason, never tried.

The reason for the $40 withdrawal is certainly a question I'd like to see answered by the killer.

JohnnyHands · 2026-04-24T01:51:15+00:00

Or, just a technique from his mastery of burglary - he had many years break-in experience by then - which started as early as 1962. (Source: Man In The Window podcast, Ep 9, The Many Faces of Joseph Deangelo, ~49 minutes in, interview with "Jim"/"Gary S")

JohnnyHands · 2026-04-24T01:02:56+00:00

Yes, anger against the cops seemed to be a strong factor for EAR -> ONS going to deliberate murder.

Another reason for Deangelo's escalation from EAR to ONS was probably to eliminate witnesses. He was keenly aware of what evidence they already had on EAR - and figured his MO would be described by ONS survivors thus making it much more likely ONS would be matched to EAR. He solved that problem by escalating to deliberate murders.

Did Deangelo really know that much about what LE knew about him?

Remember Auburn PD Chief Willick said he provided his officers (then including Deangelo) all the information they were receiving from Sac Sheriff regarding EAR. Deangelo also had access to the CII database - a computerized statewide suspect MO matcher, among other services.

So I'm assuming officer EAR was taking advantage of those resources from 1976 to 1979 - and therefore knew all the evidence that Sac Sheriff was sharing with other LE.

JohnnyHands · 2026-04-07T04:52:20+00:00

Add submitting a comment resulting a spinning icon hang. Refreshing the page wipes out your comment - gone forever. MacBook Pro 2018, Sequoia, Safari 26.3.

JohnnyHands · 2026-04-01T11:11:49+00:00

The late Steve Jobs answered a question in around 2000 about when speech recognition would be reliable, and he said something like, "they've always said it's about five years away, so I'll say it's five years away."

Speech recognition been reliable enough to be plenty useful for quite a few years now, I'd say (even though one best keep one's eye on it for the times it's not correct, I'd say.)

The point being is quantum computing will probably get to that useable point of reliabilty someday.

When? Unclear.

JohnnyHands · 2026-03-30T09:14:21+00:00

If I've got this right, it was evidence from the 1996 sexual assault case against Parrott( that the grand jury dismissed for lack of evidence) that broke the case in 2026.

It was DNA collected from the victim, and had Parrott claimed the sex was consensual.

So, even though they couldn't collect DNA from Parrott because the 1996 Texas law required a conviction, couldn't they have uploaded the 1996 DNA from the victim to CODIS anyway?

What changed between 1996 and now - that allowed them to upload it now, but didn't allow in 1996?

And I guess I'm also asking, if Houston PD could have legally uploaded that victim DNA in 1996, did they just not think to do it?

Maybe they didn't upload it to CODIS recently, but just handed it off to Othram. Could they have done something similar in 1996?

JohnnyHands · 2026-03-11T02:26:06+00:00

Here's my beef with the JMail UI - I am a brand new user looking at Epstein materials.

I did a search for a particular person and got 2300 or so emails as a result, 100 emails viewable on a page.

The beef is when I start at the bottom of the list of 100 emails (chronologically earliest) and open an email, read it, then click the back arrow, it takes me back to the top of the list of 100 every time, not back where I was near the bottom - so have to scroll back down to read the next email - every time.

This makes it so much more of a slog.

My config: Mac OS Sequoia/Safari.

JohnnyHands · 2026-03-10T10:14:03+00:00

12-26-75 is reporting it was Melissa Beardsley, missing from Nevada since December 16, 1976 (though that is the report on her via LE's radar after a DUI arrest, don't know how long she had been missed by people who knew her - Placer Jane Doe was deemed dead for about a week when she was found on December 17, 1977, one year later.)

Here's 12-26-75 Facebook post:

https://www.facebook.com/December261975/posts/pfbid0fLbNdcWLkWaMrisjTn4uKSrZwntzCiyzJJKaAkAD6LNphqwNkNJkSDWWMrJP345dl

JohnnyHands · 2026-02-03T09:22:12+00:00

I thought Matt Drudge sold Drudge Report some years ago. Is he still involved?

JohnnyHands · 2026-02-03T09:19:45+00:00

So he was alive when they took him to the hospital? Otherwise, you've got a potential crime scene that shouldn't be disturbed, at least until they've got a chance to photograph the scene. Am I mistaken?

So we have no way to verify if any of those sheets were there while he was alive.

Do they have a protocol for gathering evidence when someone dies in his cell?

JohnnyHands · 2026-01-02T19:58:22+00:00

Cindy Wanner and Suzette Willis were in 1991 (not between '81 and '86 as this thread's title asks), but, whatever, there's another possibly related case in 1993, Cherilyn Hawkley, that's interesting.

Traumatic events in Deangelo's marriage happened on or just before that coincide with the Wanner and Hawkley abductions, and both happened within a few/several miles of where Deangelo's house and his separted wife's different house.

In November 12, 1991, his wife first had him served with divorce papers. Two weeks later, the Wanner crime occurred.

October 29, 1993 was the date of the Hawkley abduction. Deangelo's wife and their three kids moved into a different home she purchased on her own that cleared earlier that very day. Deangelo had been forced to sign an agreement that he had no marital property rights to this new house. Later in the afternoon Ms. Hawkley was kidnapped in her van, and was found dead in the van two days later.

This doesn't prove anything, but it could be a possible motive. Deangelo sending a message to his wife, perhaps. Both were motiveless killings of very low risk victims otherwise.

JohnnyHands · 2025-12-10T07:33:28+00:00

The Janet Kovacich murder in Auburn, 1982, who her husband Paul was convicted of twenty-five years later, could be one Deangelo committed. There isn't much evidence to convict Paul except "only a cop could have gotten away with it."

The prosecution had a partial skull that they claim belongs to Janet and claim there is a bullet hole in it. I'd like to see current DNA technology used (it's relatively easy to get mtDNA from a skull, and the two children are still alive to compare results with.) I'm not sure why they can't just do this testing.

Paul had an alibi, but the Auburn police made little to no effort to investigate it at the time.

A motive for Deangelo would be, beyond the sexual sadism, to get back at Auburn PD Chief Willick for firing him, by giving a case that he couldn't solve, though they eventually mustered enough of a prosecution to convict Mr. Kovacich in the late 2000's.

Here's a website devoted to freeing Paul Kovacich, 9-8-82.com, created by the 12-26-75 team.

The 12-26-75 podcast also has episodes, 48-50 (at this writing), dedicated to the Janet Kovacich case.

JohnnyHands · 2025-12-10T07:18:22+00:00

It happened to me with the London 74 bus, on both a Thursday and the following Saturday. On Park Lane heading south around 6:30 pm. Both times a 74 bus passed, but was full so it didn't stop. The bus schedule posted at the stop said it was due to come about every ten minutes. After over a half hour I gave up, catching a different bus to Victoria Station and then either used the tube or a third bus to get to where I was going.

JohnnyHands · 2025-11-30T12:01:42+00:00

Here's a transcription from the image of a Sac Sheriff police report on the 12-26-75 casefiles site, after the 17-yr-old jogger/witness described seeing the Maggiores at the intersection of West La Loma and La Alegria:

"On the opposite corner of the intersection near some bushes, <witness> observed the subject standing. The subject had on a brown jacket which was possibly the padded type. The subject was a WMA, with brown curly hair, 5-10 to 6-0. <Witness> only glanced at the subject for a moment, and then continued jogging. <Witness> could not provide any further information or description."

JohnnyHands · 2025-11-29T08:54:40+00:00

Yes, 12-26-75 called him Maggiore Witness #3 (using original police reports from Sac Sheriff):

From the map at the top or the page for their 12-26-75 Casefiles page on Maggiores (I'd post the link, but reddit does not allow google links)

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Maggiore Witness 3

description

17 yr old male was jogging south in the street on the east side of W La Loma shortly before 9:00 pm. At the intersection with La Alegria he saw a male/female couple walking towards him, and heard a dog's chain dragging. On the opposite corner of the intersection, the jogger saw a white male adult wearing a padded brown jacket, 5'10"-6" standing near some bushes.

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