Terrifying look inside Golden State Killer's bedroom stocked with victims' trophies

The cold-case criminologist who first identified the Golden State Killer suspect Joseph DeAngelo just released a chilling detail about what he saw in the man's bedroom.

Paul Holes appeared on the "My Favorite Murder" podcast this week and shared what gave the "biggest impression" when he was looking around DeAngelo's bedroom, reports Daily Mail.

Joseph DeAngelo is believed to be responsible for at least 12 murders and more than 50 rapes in California between 1975 and 1986. Photo / AP

The criminologist claimed that the killer would turn on the television, only to turn the sound off and place a towel over the screen "so he would have this glow, so he could see her".

"(I) walk into DeAngelo's room, and he has a computer there, and he's got a towel over the monitor," Holes added, New York Daily News reports.

Holes revealed, beforehand, that the East Area Rapist was known to bind his female victims and place them in front of TVs.

Jewellery, cuff links and necklaces with heart-shaped pendants were trinkets the Golden State Killer liked to take from his victim's home. Photo / AP

"I'm looking at that going, 'Is that just a dust cover? Or is he reminiscing (and) he wants a glow, you know?'' Holes said. 'Is he pulling out any of those souvenirs and replicating the glowing environment from back in the 1970s?"

Jewellery, cuff links and necklaces with heart-shaped pendants were trinkets the Golden State Killer liked to take from his victim's home. They were found inside his.

DeAngelo, 72, an ex-cop who went on to work in a grocery warehouse for nearly three decades, was arrested last month.

He is believed to be responsible for at least 12 murders and more than 50 rapes in California between 1975 and 1986.

Investigators said he gained access to the homes by prying open a window or door while the victims slept. He would then shine a light in the face of his victims and tie up the female victim. If a male victim was present, the Golden State Killer would tie him up as well before ransacking the home and raping the female victim.

Also taken from the home scene were ski masks believed to be worn during most of the encounters. Photo / AP

Now divorced and recently retired, he was quietly living in a single-storey home in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights until Tuesday's arrest.

Police have now finished combing through the beige-colored house, removing boxes of evidence, guns, cars a motorcycle and a boat, among other items.

Holes claimed that DeAngelo was extremely uncooperative while being investigated after his arrest.

"I watched seven hours-worth of the interviews, and I just don't see him talking," Holes said.

"He's a psychological sadist," he said. "His big thing was the fear he was instilling in the victims."

DeAngelo was nabbed after police matched DNA from items he discarded with samples found at his many crime scenes. They used a sample from an internet genealogy site submitted by a distant relative to narrow their search to him, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Sacramento County Chief Deputy Attorney Steve Grippi told the paper they compared crime scene DNA to online "open-source" profiles until they found the relative.

After months of comparisons, cops finally narrowed the DNA down to DeAngelo on Thursday last week and began surveilling him and on Friday got a sample from an item he discarded.

They sent the sample to the county crime lab which found "overwhelming evidence" that after 44 years they had finally got their man.

Rhonda Wicht, 24, and her four-year-old son Donald, were killed in 1978. Photo / Simi Valley Police Department

DeAngelo was first hit with two murder charges for the 1978 deaths of Brian Maggiore and his wife Katie, who are believed to be the Golden State Killer's first murder victims.

He was later also charged with the murders of Lyman and Charlene Smith who were found dead in their home by their 12-year-old son in 1980.

Investigators said DeAngelo has three adult daughters. An old wedding announcement says he married Sharon Marie Huddle in 1973, according to the Sacramento Bee. They are now divorced.

An old newspaper article states that DeAngelo was a police officer in Auburn, and was eventually fired in 1979 for shoplifting from a Sacramento drug store. Auburn City Manager Jack Sausser said at the time that DeAngelo failed to answer any of the city's investigations and there "was justifiable grounds to remove him from the public sector".

Another old newspaper article said DeAngelo was in the navy and served aboard the USS Canberra, a Baltimore-class cruiser. He left the navy in 1967.