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'He Was Pointing A Gun At My Face:" Golden State Killer Suspect's Ex Reveals How He Handled A Breakup

Bonnie Colwell broke up with Joseph DeAngelo because his behavior was alarming her.

By Gina Tron
Golden State Killer Suspect Arrested

The ex-fiancé of the man accused of being the elusive Golden State Killer revealed in an exclusive Los Angeles Times report how he handled their breakup: in a strikingly similar manner to how he allegedly attacked dozens of his victims — he popped up at her window, armed with a gun.

Bonnie Colwell has been called the catalyst for the alleged serial killer’s rage by at least one tabloid following the arrest of her ex-boyfriend Joseph DeAngelo. He was arrested last April after genetic analysis pointed to him as the suspect behind multiple murders and rapes. DeAngelo was subsequently charged with 13 murders and 18 of the more than 50 rapes he’s accused of committing. Prosecutors believe he’s not only the Golden State Killer but also the suspect known by the monikers East Area Rapist and Visalia Ransacker: one sole perpetrator behind a multitude of crimes that terrified California in the 1970s and '80s.

During one of the many alleged rapes he’s accused of committing, a survivor said he talked about Colwell. Or, more specifically, he cried over her.

"I hate you, Bonnie!" the Golden State Killer reportedly cried out during one of his alleged sexual assaults, according to the Los Angeles Times, who on Tuesday released the first parts of its podcast on the case entitled “Man In The Window.” After raping one victim in 1978, he sobbed and cried into her pillow, addressing Bonnie: “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”

In many of DeAngelo’s suspected break-ins, he reportedly came in through the bedroom window, sometimes even rapped at their windows, armed with a gun. Eerily enough, that’s allegedly exactly how he confronted Colwell after she dumped him.

Five years her senior, DeAngelo approached Colwell at Sierra College after he just served four years in the Navy. The two dated, a romance which she said consisted of many red flags: DeAngelo was often controlling, enjoyed dragging her along on illegal hunting trips, and was "insatiable" when it came to sex.

They eventually got engaged, although she told the Los Angeles Times she couldn't remember a proposal. But after he continued to alarm her with his behavior, she broke off the engagement.

A few nights after she gave him back the ring, which she told the Los Angeles Times he fake-threw into the bushes at her house, she said she woke up to a tapping on her bedroom window. “And I just pulled the, just a thin cotton curtain on the window, and I pulled it back,” she revealed on episode 1 of the podcast. “And he was pointing a gun at my face.”

She said he told her to get dressed and said they were going to Reno. She fled to get her father — “Joe is outside and he has a gun and he wants me to go to Reno with him and marry him right now!” she told him.

Bonnie's father went and spoke to DeAngelo, and that was that, apparently.

Still, Colwell recalled to the Los Angeles Times that she was so spooked by the attack, she dropped out of school for a month and even changed majors to avoid DeAngelo. She only saw him once again after that incident, while walking  a mall with her husband. She hid. It’s not clear if DeAngelo saw her.