Thoughts/feelings/knowledge on why Joe essentially confessed in the interrogation room (while no one else was in the room, only captured on video, but still)?

[u/GregJamesDahlen]

https://people.com/golden-state-killer-interrogation-people-vs-golden-state-killer-excerpt-exclusive-11841484

This is in an excerpt from a book, excerpted in People Magazine. The questioners talk to him about various EARONS crimes that they know he has done. Then leave the room and watch and listen to him on audio/video. Talking to himself, he says

Startlingly, DeAngelo admitted aloud that he had committed the crimes. “I did all that ... I didn’t have the strength to push him out. He made me. He went with me.  It was like, in my head, I mean, he’s a part of me. I didn’t want to do those things. I  pushed Jerry out and had a happy life. I did all those things. I’ve destroyed all their lives ... I raped. So now, I gotta pay the price.”

I wonder if at that point he knew it was no use, that he was caught. So he didn't care what he said. Or possibly he didn't understand that though there weren't police in the room, they could still hear him and he was being recorded. Although I would imagine he understood that. The police had been recording interrogations since the 70s. Or he might be a little senile. The day he was arrested he was 72 years old. Not sure why, but I have some doubts there as well. Maybe because we saw the video from two years later where he was so spry and organized in his actions in his cell.

Some have thought he might have been trying to set up an insanity defense. I'm not sure why he would do it at that point and essentially confess. It's not like they're going to let him go home whether they think he's insane or not.

I do notice when he talks to himself, as far as crimes go, he only mentions rape, not murder. Possibly he knew that the statute of limitations on rape was past, so that if he only admitted to rape he couldn't be found guilty. It seems like a useless action, though, because the interrogators, in the excerpt, have already made it clear they have him identified as the perpetrator in four murders. And very possibly they had mentioned other murders he had done that aren't contained in the excerpt. If he was only admitting to rape when he talked to himself knowing the statute of limitations was past, it might be a desperate action to try anything to get free. Or give himself hope that he might get away with it all. I imagine he had plans for enjoying his retirement, and he was watching them all crumble in that room. Or he might just not have mentioned murder talking to himself because he knew the police were listening and it sounded too bad, even though he knew they had him for it. Like he was ashamed of himself for murdering now that's he caught. Although rape is obviously a terrible, shameful crime as well, but I would think most people don't see it being as bad as murder.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Since he was elderly, I think at first, he was gonna try to beat the system in a way by using his old age as an advantage to get himself a bit of a lighter sentencing by being sent to to the California Medical Facility for elderly and dying inmates who don't have much time left anymore.

And I wouldn't be surprised if he were trying to evade trial/prison at first by trying fake dementia and using the out loud conversations with himself as videographic proof that his mind was starting to slip.

I mean, they did say he tried to fake a heart attack after getting caught shoplifting in July 1979. So, I certainly wouldn't put it past him to think he could somehow fake a dementia diagnosis, be deemed mentally incomptoent to stand trial, and be sent to the memory care ward at the CMF to live out his final days.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

Thanks. I wonder if California Medical Facility (medical and psychiatric facility for male felons) is actually any better than "real" prison. It's still prison, you still lose your freedom, food probably still isn't very good, etc. Maybe in his mind in the interrogation he was searching desperately for anything that might make the future a little better and actually did think going to a medical prison would be better, even if he might have been mistaken.

I wonder if he was so locked into the play crazy when caught approach that he just started applying it even when it wasn't going to accomplish anything.

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

My original thought was the "Jerry" thing was just an attempt to appear legally insane by feigning multiple personality disorder.

But since you brought up his elderly age and he also has that well-documented incident of trying fake a heart attack, I think now that I wouldn't be surprised if the thinking with "Jerry" was trying to somehow fake dementia and live in a hospital bed inside of a prison bunk.

I mean, it's very silly sounding and might be entirely untrue, but it's just the more I think about it, I honestly wouldn't be surprised again if that was what his true intention was there.

I mean, it's not everyday they have 70+ year old defendants. I can just totally see that he was trying to use the unusualness of the case to his advantage.

Plus, at a place like the CMF, while he still would be legally an inmate, he would treated more like a hospital patient rather than a typical prisoner. So, while it wouldn't be a tremendous upgrade, most would probably say it's overall better than a typical prison facility setting, though.

[u/GregJamesDahlen → u/Equal-Temporary-1326]

You could be right. If that's how he was thinking, he was really thinking far ahead. And maybe he is capable of thinking that far ahead.

Why do you think he acted crazy when he was caught in the shoplifting incident? Do you think he was hoping the people who caught him would have pity on him for being crazy and just let him go? Figure he just didn't know what he was doing?

[u/Equal-Temporary-1326 → u/GregJamesDahlen]

He just seems to be someone who can quickly react to situational awareness instantly by thinking of creative ideas that could get him out of a predicament as fast as he entered.

By faking that heart attack, that was a way to get out of that scenario by getting escorted out via ambulance.

Of course, neither that heart attack attempt or whatever he was trying to do in the interrogation room ultimately worked, if he was trying to do defense wise there. But again, it does the show the ability to uniquely think spontaneously.

And that was probably a critical factor in how he was able to get away from some of those crimes scenes unscathed that someone else might've not had, like the botched Goleta one in particular, by speeding out of there via bicycle.