Featured Image Credit: Sacramento County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Kit Roberts
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Police had to use an unorthodox method in their hunt for a notorious serial killer, and it was all down to his alleged micro-penis.
Of course, this isn't the first time micro-penises have been in the headlines.
Just last week, scientific reports revealed that it is highly likely that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler may have been packing a micro-penis underneath his breeches. But Hitler may not be the only murderous monster who was less than well-endowed.
It turns out that the possession of a micro-penis may have been the crucial factor in catching the infamous 'Golden State Killer'.
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The killer, named Joseph James DeAngelo, was finally caught following assistance from true crime writer Michelle McNamara. He was found guilty of more than a dozen murders, which were carried out through the 1970s and 1980s.
Despite its modest size, the killer's penis ended up being the lynchpin connecting all the threads of investigation together.
One man had already been arrested on suspicion of several brutal crimes in California, and police thought he might also have been connected to a person known at the time as the 'East Area Rapist'.
Victims who had been attacked by the East Area Rapist had reported that their attacker possessed a tiny penis.
Detectives didn't have any DNA evidence, so instead turned to what Sacramento DA Thien Ho called 'circumstantial evidence' in his new book about the hunt for DeAngelo.
As seen by Page Six, Ho wrote: "I needed to confirm the extreme smallness of his penis.”
Police officers and a photographer were given the unenviable task of going to DeAngelo, 72, who was in custody, and taking pictures of his genitals.
Ho described how the photographer who had been given the assignment 'kneeled down to do so, but he grew frustrated after several failed attempts'.
Eventually, Ho said how one of the officers 'threw up his hands in the air in exasperation and barked … 'There’s nothing there'.'
The officers would then go to report back to Ho, giving a vivid description that said: "It’s smaller than the circumference of a dime and its length is equal to the tip of your pinky.”
But Ho was pleased, recalling: “We had the circumstantial evidence we needed in order to corroborate the testimonies of DeAngelo’s victims."
Ultimately the investigation was a success, and in 2020 he would go on to plead guilty to a total of 26 crimes, which included the East Area attacks.
DeAngelo was charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder, as well as charges of rape and robbery.
In the end, DeAngelo was handed multiple consecutive life sentences and had no possibility of parole.