The Golden State Killer’s barrage of rapes and murders began in a gold mining area east of Sacramento in 1976. By 1986, it seemed to have stopped.

Why?

With the arrest Tuesday of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who has been charged so far with eight counts of murder, more than 30 years had passed since the last episode in the series. That long period of quiescence seems to fly in the face of the popular belief that serial rapists and killers are incapable of stopping.

But forensic psychiatrists, criminal profilers and homicide detectives who pursue cold cases say that assumption is more myth than reality.

Image Joseph James DeAngelo, upon his arrest this week. Credit... Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“These are not acts that a person is compelled to do,” said J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. “They are intentional and predatory. There is choice, capacity and opportunity that is exercised.”