Oakland man may be the latest in long line of CA serial killers. Here’s a look back

Wesley Brownlee, the Oakland man now accused of killing seven people in Stockton and the East Bay, could be added — if convicted — to the Golden State’s long line of serial murderers if convicted.

Here’s a look back at notorious serial killers who have been caught in Northern California:

Golden State Killer or East Area Rapist

The man known as the Golden State Killer started terrorizing California in the 1970s. He began as a burglar in the Central Valley city of Visalia. From there, he moved across the state, becoming a serial rapist in the eastern part of Sacramento County and a serial killer responsible for the deaths of 13 people.

In 2018, DNA technology helped police identify the man responsible for the crimes. Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer, was arrested at his home in Citrus Heights. He was charged with the murders and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Dorothea Puente

Dorothea Puente was a serial killer convicted of killing three people and suspected of six other murders in the 1980s. She murdered senior and mentally disabled people who were living in her boarding house on 21st and F Streets in Sacramento, and then collected their social security checks. . After killing them, Puente buried her victims in a shallow graves on her property.

She was arrested in 1988 after police found seven bodies buried in her backyard. She was convicted after a jury trial and sentenced to life without parole.

Leonard Lake and Charles Ng

Leonard Lake and Charles Ng were responsible for killing at least a dozen people at their remote property in Calaveras County, though they are suspected of murdering many more.

Lake and Ng had spent years abducting their victims from as far as San Francisco and taking them to their cabin in the Sierra Nevada foothills where they tortured them, recording their crimes on a video camera. Lake and Ng abducted and killed two families, including children, as well as 10 other people.

The pair were caught in 1985 when police detained Ng for shoplifting. That lead them to the cabin where they found evidence of multiple murders.

Lake committed suicide in police custody and Ng fled to Canada where he was captured later that year. He was extradited to the U.S. in 1991 and convicted of eleven murders. He was given the death penalty.

I-5 Strangler

Roger Kibbe, known as the I-5 Strangler, was a serial killer in the 1970s and 1980s who was responsible for the deaths of at least seven women around the Sacramento region.

Kibbe was a former furniture maker who was initially convicted of strangling a 17-year-old girl to death. Law enforcement later found evidence to charge him with the murders of six other women, to which he pleaded guilty. He received the name the I-5 Strangler because he predominantly chose his victims along the interstate corridor in Northern California.

He was serving two life terms when he was killed by his cellmate last year.

Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer terrorized the Bay Area in the late 1960s, killing five victims. He was never identified or arrested. He earned his pseudonym after sending letters that contained ciphers to a San Francisco newspaper.

He was known to target couples and either shoot or stab his victims. Two of his victims, Bryan Hartnell and Michael Renault Mageau, survived the attacks and were able to share their experiences with police.

The Zodiac Killer stopped sending letters to the press in 1974. The case remains unsolved.

This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 8:29 AM.