Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho is pulling back the curtain on one of the most notorious crime sprees in American history. The People vs The Golden State Killer, Ho’s forthcoming book, offers what is billed as the first official, inside account of how law enforcement identified, captured, and prosecuted Joseph DeAngelo — better known as the Golden State Killer — after decades of mystery.
Set for release on Tuesday, November 11, the book is available for preorder now and promises a detailed, prosecutorial perspective on a case that forever changed the conversation around cold case investigations.
Who The Golden State Killer Was — And How He Was Finally Caught
DeAngelo’s crimes terrorized California throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Across multiple jurisdictions, he was linked to a string of home invasions, sexual assaults, and murders that stumped investigators for years. Despite patterns and composites, the suspect remained unidentified as the cases went cold.
Decades later, a new approach cracked the case wide open. ABC News reported that investigators used genetic genealogy — a then-nascent investigative tool that leverages publicly available DNA databases — to connect DeAngelo’s DNA to material recovered from several crime scenes. The breakthrough enabled authorities to pin the long-unsolved series of crimes to a single suspect.
DeAngelo, a former police officer, was arrested in 2018. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and admitted to numerous other crimes. During court proceedings in August of that year, survivors of his assaults, their loved ones, and the families of murder victims delivered powerful statements, recounting their trauma as DeAngelo listened. On August 21, 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Inside The People vs The Golden State Killer
Ho’s book chronicles his experience as the lead prosecutor overseeing the multi-agency effort to connect and prosecute the sprawling set of cases that came to define the Golden State Killer investigation. According to the official synopsis, “Ho’s book is the first official account of how the Golden State Killer was apprehended and put behind bars for life. Ho led an elite team of law enforcement from six California prosecutor’s offices, using a newly developed tool known as ‘investigative genetic genealogy’ to connect DeAngelo to multiple cold cases stretching back nearly a half century.”
While prior books and documentaries have centered largely on the terror DeAngelo inflicted, The People vs The Golden State Killer positions itself as a behind-the-scenes narrative from the prosecution’s vantage point. The synopsis notes the book shares “hundreds of facts and details never revealed to the public about the Golden State Killer’s crimes” and “presents the real-life story of the people who worked tirelessly to bring DeAngelo to justice.”
Crucially, the book also incorporates the voices of survivors. As the synopsis details, “It also offers the unprecedented authorized perspective of three survivors of DeAngelo’s crimes who courageously turned their pain into empowerment and activism.” That blend of legal strategy, investigative innovation, and survivor testimony aims to provide a fuller account of how the case unfolded and what it took to see it through.
In addition to its inside perspective, the release carries a philanthropic component. A portion of proceeds will be donated by both Ho and publisher Third State Books to Phyllis’s Garden, a nonprofit advocating for victims’ rights established in honor of a Golden State Killer survivor.
Why This Account Matters — And When It Arrives
The Golden State Killer investigation is often cited as a watershed moment for investigative genetic genealogy. The method, which compares crime scene DNA to profiles in public databases to identify relatives, also sparked important debates around privacy and law enforcement access. By anchoring those developments in a first-hand prosecutorial account, Ho’s book arrives positioned as a primary-source chronicle of a consequential chapter in modern criminal justice.
Beyond the forensic breakthrough, The People vs The Golden State Killer appears poised to highlight the coordination required to unify cases across jurisdictions, the legal considerations that came with applying a novel investigative tool, and the courtroom strategy that culminated in DeAngelo’s plea and life sentence. For readers interested in true crime, criminal procedure, or the evolution of cold case work, this is designed to be a comprehensive, official record.
The People vs The Golden State Killer will be released on Tuesday, November 11, with preorders currently available. Whether you followed every development in real time or are discovering the case anew, Ho’s account aims to answer the lingering hows and whys: how investigators connected the dots after half a century, why the case finally broke open, and what it took to deliver accountability in a case that haunted California for generations.
