Motive to Take Janet

“The killer seemed to fixate on pretty brunettes between the ages of 18 and 33”

- Ventura Star 11/26/2002

•Janet Kovacich was DeAngelo’s preferred victim type—a petite brunette housewife living in a new house at the end of a suburban cul-de-sac, with a private yard, backing onto an open space and irrigation canal. 

• When DeAngelo targeted couples, he chose men who had a successful career and family that he particularly envied—and wanted to feel powerful over. 

•There is at least one other known, confirmed case of DeAngelo attacking a family member of a fellow police officer. In March, 1974, DeAngelo approached at 13-yr-old girl who was hanging out with friends at a park in Visalia. The girl’s step-father was the first black Visalia PD officer. DeAngelo told the girl that he was arresting her for being truant from school, handcuffed her, and put her in the back of a police car—presumably his Exeter PD car which he was able to take to Visalia to transport prisoners to the jail, or make court appearances. 

• DeAngelo told the girl he was taking her to her father, but instead of going to the police station, he immediately entered the freeway heading east out of Visalia. When she asked, DeAngelo stated that her father was at target practice by the river, which the girl immediately knew was a lie because he was a community outreach officer, and didn’t carry a gun. 

• They did go to a secluded area by the river, and DeAngelo raped the girl. During the attack, DeAngelo made several comments about her parents’ inter-racial marriage, and used the “N word.” He made statements about her father being undeserving of being an officer, and threatened to kill her family if she disclosed the attack. The girl believed him because DeAngelo described specific items in her brother’s bedroom, and the family had not detected the burglary. He also told her that nobody would believe her over him, especially since she had been skipping school. She blamed herself for the attack.

• DeAngelo took the buttons that had been pulled off her jeans, and put them in his pocket, removed the handcuffs, and left her to walk home seven miles, holding her pants closed with her hand. 

• DeAngelo’s wife, Sharon Huddle, and her younger sister (Patricia) attended San Juan High School with Janet. Much of DeAngelo’s EAR activity was centered directly around that area... and the school’s students. 

•The Huddles knew Jean Gregorie as the school’s “Dean Of Girls” and Vice Principal, and she was notoriously horrible. The newspaper noted her nickname from the students–“Jean, Jean, The Suspension Machine.” 

•Jean was responsible for disciplining the girls, and she had total control over coveted spots in school groups like the “Spartenettes” which she handed out to her own daughter—causing other students to resent Janet. Shortly before she disappeared, Janet told her neighbor that she disliked attending San Juan with Jean there, and wished she could have gone to a different high school.

1970 San Juan High Yearbook - Janet attended with DeAngelo's wife and sister-in-law

•If DeAngelo was trying to punish Jean Gregoire for something that she did to Sharon Huddle or her sister at San Juan High—either denying them access to an activity they wanted (like Spartenettes), or imposing a suspension or disciplinary action against them—killing Janet, and then three other women near Jean's house would seem to accomplish that goal.