"Lock Up Tight": A KGO-TV Report from Concord as the East Area Rapist Reached the Bay Area, 1978

Name: "Lock Up Tight": A KGO-TV Report from Concord as the East Area Rapist Reached the Bay Area, 1978
Uploaded: 2018-04-27T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 min 40 s
Description: A 1978 San Francisco television report from Concord, where the East Area Rapist had just attacked a family: hundreds of calls to police, advice to lock windows and doors, and a warning not to panic.

A 1978 San Francisco television report from Concord, where the East Area Rapist had just attacked a family: hundreds of calls to police, advice to lock windows and doors, and a warning not to panic.

Subject: Joseph James DeAngelo
Recorded: about October 13, 1978
Runtime: 1:40

Content warning: Concerns a rape in a family home, with the woman's husband tied up and her young daughter locked in a bathroom. No graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with Joseph DeAngelo, who was unidentified when it was made. It is a short report from KGO-TV's "News Scene" newscast in San Francisco, filmed in Concord in 1978 after the man then called the East Area Rapist attacked a family there. A KGO-TV reporter describes the attack and the public reaction, and Concord police are heard taking calls and giving advice to residents. ABC7 News posted the report from its archive on April 27, 2018, three days after DeAngelo's arrest.

Historical Context

From 1976 the East Area Rapist attacked women and couples in their homes, first in the Sacramento area and later elsewhere in Northern California. In October 1978 the attacks moved to Contra Costa County in the East Bay, with two in Concord on October 7 and October 13 and one in San Ramon on October 28. In 2001 DNA linked the series to the Original Night Stalker murders in Southern California, and the offender later became known as the Golden State Killer. He was identified through genetic genealogy and arrested on April 24, 2018. Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer in Exeter and Auburn, California, pleaded guilty on June 29, 2020, to 13 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of kidnapping, admitted dozens of other crimes, and was sentenced on August 21, 2020, to consecutive life terms without parole.

Circumstances

The reporter says the attack took place at 5:30 that morning near the Ygnacio Valley Shopping Center in Concord: a 29-year-old woman was raped while her husband was tied up nearby and her 8-year-old daughter was locked in the bathroom. These details match the Concord attack of October 13, 1978, so the report was probably filmed that day. ABC7's 2018 web story dates the report November 11, 1978.

What the Recording Covers

The reporter opens on a warm evening in Concord, with residents' doors and windows open while police urged them to lock up. He reports that Concord police answered 200 calls in the first few hours after word of the attack got out. A member of the police department is heard on the telephone advising a caller to lock windows and doors. An officer then describes calls about prowlers and suspicious circumstances, including people reporting their neighbors, and asks the public to keep calling while cautioning against treating the attack as more than "another rape". The reporter closes with the police advice not to panic and a warning that the next attack could happen anywhere in the Bay Area.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It is contemporaneous coverage from the week the East Area Rapist first struck in the Bay Area, recording the alarm in Concord and how local police described the attack at the time, nearly 40 years before the offender was identified.

Archival Importance

The report comes from KGO-TV's own archive and was posted by the station's channel.

Important Caveats

DeAngelo is not heard or seen; the report predates his identification by almost 40 years, and the name "Golden State Killer" in the YouTube title was coined decades later. The survivors are not named in the report and must not be named on the page. The date is inferred from the content: ABC7's web story gives November 11, 1978, but the nearest earlier attack in the series, on November 4, 1978, was in San Jose, not Concord, and the details match October 13, 1978. Sources give the time of the October 13 attack as 4:30 a.m.; the reporter says 5:30. The reporter calls the man her husband; at least one later case account calls him her boyfriend. The reporter's name is taken from his sign-off and its spelling has not been verified. The police remark about "another rape" is the officer's view at the time.

Reporter: It's so warm in Concord tonight that people have their doors and windows open, but the police are saying lock up tight. Sacramento's infamous East Area rapist may still be in town. He raped a 29-year-old housewife near the Ygnacio Valley Shopping Center at 5:30 this morning. Her husband was tied up nearby and had to listen. Her 8-year-old daughter was locked in the bathroom. Concord police responded to 200 phone calls in the first few hours after word got out about it.

Concord Police: Concord Police Department, [unclear: "complete this" / not in captions]. Okay, yeah. No. No, we just suggest make sure that all your windows are locked and your doors.

Concord Police Officer: We're getting an awful lot of calls. People reporting prowler calls, suspicious circumstances. Some people even turning in their neighbors because they think he might be the rapist. I would hope that people really don't take this for any more than another rape. We have rapes in Concord like any other city. There are precautions that people can take as far as locking up their homes, but especially we want people to give us a call, any suspicious circumstances, prowler calls, anything that seems out of the ordinary to them, to give us a call. And of course we're responding to these calls.

Reporter: The police have one last bit of advice, and that is don't panic, because that alters your judgment. And by the way, that advice goes out to anyone in the Bay Area, not just the people of Concord, because with this guy, the next rape could be anywhere. In Concord, Ed Leslie, Channel 7 News Scene.