San Diego Unsolved Murders 1962

To give you a bit of background on what we know about Joseph J DeAngelo, Joseph grew up with 4 siblings in an abusive household. His father nearly lost his job in the US Air Force whilst living in Germany after a violent incident against his wife Kathleen and was told he'd be out if it happened again. The mother in turn took her frustration out on the kids, she was known to constantly hit his younger sister Constance. When Joseph was 9 or 10 whilst playing with his younger sister Constance in an abandoned warehouse, two men approached and raped his sister whilst he looked on. They told their mother who told them never to speak of it again.

I think this is where you have the making of a murderer, it's a hotly contested subject, nurture vs nature, environment, mental illness, some interesting work in brain injury too in children before the age of 12, I don't think we will ever truly understand what makes someone want to commit these kinds of crimes, all we can do is try our best to prevent them now and in the future.

These next two cases I believe could be one of Joseph J DeAngelo first homicides, it's difficult to know when Jospeh J DeAngelo decided to kill but there had been many reports of dogs being shot in the neighbourhood of Rancho Cordova where he lived during his teenage years, it is not known as yet where Joseph J DeAngelo was being schooled during 1962/3 if at all until he enrols for Navy Training in 1964 at San Diego

Unsolved Jan 2nd 1962 at the Pacific Palasades, Los Angeles. Mrs Davis Gail Bowman was a Socialite Beauty married to Doctor Frank Potter Bowman they had 3 children and lived in a beautiful home. It appeared that Mrs Bowman had been killed in her home around 10am that morning, there was no sign of forced entry or ransacking. Mrs Bowman had been bludgeoned, found face down in a bath tub of water. There was blood through 3 rooms of the house. Newspaper clipping below

Unsolved Jan 15th 1962 Fullerton, San Juan. Charlotte Schmidt 46 years old was found bludgeoned in the dining room of the San Juan home she shared with her husband. There was no apparent signs of forced entry but the rear sliding door in the livingroom was slightly open. The house was up for sale at the time, there was no sign of burglary or the murder weapon. Charlotte was bludgeoned to the head and face approx 12 times. This case for me has all the markings of the Golden State Killer as an early case.

The next case we are going to look at is an interesting one, remember the call Zodiac/Golden State Killer made to the cops in 1962 saying he was "going to get me a bus driver" after shooting Taxi Driver Ray Davis at Oceanside, it is possible he did just that.