Golden State Killer Suspect Joseph DeAngelo Watched His Little Sister Get Raped, Report Says

Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo, who is accused of a crime spree including dozens of rapes, watched his own younger sister get raped by two men when they were children, according to a report.

Jesse Ryland, a son of DeAngelo’s sister Constance, told BuzzFeed News Friday that DeAngelo witnessed the rape when he was 9 or 10 and his sister was 7. The rape happened in an abandoned warehouse on an Air Force base in Germany, Ryland said.

"That's pretty crazy for a kid to see his sister be violated," he said.

Constance died from cancer last year, and Ryland said she told him about the rape before her death.  Ryland hinted that witnessing the rape could have led, in part, to the rapes and murders that his uncle is accused of committing. 

"Maybe that was the start of Joe going wacko," he said. 

Kenneth Ryland Sr., Jesse's father, told BuzzFeed News that his wife never mentioned the rape. He said he heard about it from his children.

Joseph DeAngelo.

Ryland said the parents of his mom and DeAngelo were physically abusive.

"She would hit my mom all the time," he told BuzzFeed News, referencing DeAngelo's mom. "I'm pretty positive they were all abused like that."

James Huddle, whose sister Sharon married DeAngelo, told Oxygen.com DeAngelo was a "good father" who raised three daughters and never showed signs of sinister behavior.

DeAngelo has been charged for 12 murders as part of the Golden State Killer crime spree, which also included about 50 rapes. Prosecutors are working to see which, if any, rapes DeAngelo will be charged with. One hurdle is that there was a three-year statute of limitations in effect during the late 1970s, when many of the rapes occurred, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. 

[Photo: Reuters]