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Cabbagehead: How Could I Have Married a Serial Rapist?
One Golden State Killer, TWO East Area Rapists.
When she saw the middle composite of the East Area Rapist, she gasped. Her eyes fixated on every detail of his familiar face. Under her breath she whispered, “What have you done?”
Over forty years ago a mad man roamed the streets. He was known first as the East Area Rapist, then the Original Night Stalker, and later the Golden State Killer. He held much of Northern and Southern California in the palm of his hand, frozen with fear, in the 1970s and 1980s. He was thought to have committed over 120 burglaries, raped 50 women, and murdered 13 people. Then, he was still.
In 2016, the FBI launched a nationwide campaign to catch this predator. They shared three composite images on every news station and all over the internet. In 2018, Joseph DeAngelo was identified through DNA he left at crime scenes in Southern California. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and was required to admit to all of the rapes and other uncharged crimes as part of his plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
But the investigators were only half right. There was another blue-eyed monster who roamed the Sacramento area as the East Area Rapist. Yes, there were two. They captured one, but the other one slipped away.
How does an innocent child’s life evolve into a life with a serial rapist? Easier than one might imagine. Meet Cabbagehead.
“Cabbagehead falls under the description of a ‘page turner.’
Helen LaRoe tells a story the mythologist, Joseph Campbell, would recognize: the classical tale of The Hero’s Journey. If ever there was a heroine’s journey, this is it.
Cabbagehead is a compelling life story everyone needs to know. If you have followed the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker/Golden State Killer case, you won’t want to pass up reading this riveting memoir.”
- Richard Shelby, retired Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department detective & author of Hunting a Psychopath
When she saw the middle composite of the East Area Rapist, she gasped. Her eyes fixated on every detail of his familiar face. Under her breath she whispered, “What have you done?”
Over forty years ago a mad man roamed the streets. He was known first as the East Area Rapist, then the Original Night Stalker, and later the Golden State Killer. He held much of Northern and Southern California in the palm of his hand, frozen with fear, in the 1970s and 1980s. He was thought to have committed over 120 burglaries, raped 50 women, and murdered 13 people. Then, he was still.
In 2016, the FBI launched a nationwide campaign to catch this predator. They shared three composite images on every news station and all over the internet. In 2018, Joseph DeAngelo was identified through DNA he left at crime scenes in Southern California. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and was required to admit to all of the rapes and other uncharged crimes as part of his plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
But the investigators were only half right. There was another blue-eyed monster who roamed the Sacramento area as the East Area Rapist. Yes, there were two. They captured one, but the other one slipped away.
How does an innocent child’s life evolve into a life with a serial rapist? Easier than one might imagine. Meet Cabbagehead.
“Cabbagehead falls under the description of a ‘page turner.’
Helen LaRoe tells a story the mythologist, Joseph Campbell, would recognize: the classical tale of The Hero’s Journey. If ever there was a heroine’s journey, this is it.
Cabbagehead is a compelling life story everyone needs to know. If you have followed the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker/Golden State Killer case, you won’t want to pass up reading this riveting memoir.”
- Richard Shelby, retired Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department detective & author of Hunting a Psychopath
248 pages, Paperback
Published March 8, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 12, 2022
Very captivating.
This book really kept my attention. As someone who grew up and married in the 1970's and lived and still live in the area I remember the East Area Rapist. Everyone was very concerned about it. But to be this author and to later come to the realization that her partner could very well have been this rapist, has to be very overwhelming. Her story kept me reading and hoping that she never became a victim herself, or that she never came to the realization while still with him, that he was and there by possibly hurting her. To tell this story has to be one of the hardest decisions she has made. It sounds like she tried very hard to get the police departments around her to listen to her story, but they couldn't be bothered to listen to her. If they had it may have helped to solve at least some of EARs crimes.
This book really kept my attention. As someone who grew up and married in the 1970's and lived and still live in the area I remember the East Area Rapist. Everyone was very concerned about it. But to be this author and to later come to the realization that her partner could very well have been this rapist, has to be very overwhelming. Her story kept me reading and hoping that she never became a victim herself, or that she never came to the realization while still with him, that he was and there by possibly hurting her. To tell this story has to be one of the hardest decisions she has made. It sounds like she tried very hard to get the police departments around her to listen to her story, but they couldn't be bothered to listen to her. If they had it may have helped to solve at least some of EARs crimes.
March 13, 2022
Wow! Wow! Wow! This book was captivating! It is insane to watch Helens journey unfold. I seriously could not put the book down. The way she writes makes you feel that you are right there with her! Highly recommend this book for anyone who loves memoirs and/true crime.
May 30, 2023
All I can say is, “Wow!” This book was unbelievable! Helen LaRoe takes the reader on quite a journey by describing the tragic and rough upbringing that she endured. Once Helen is old enough to escape her abusive foster family, she meets the man of her dreams, or so she thought. Helen eventually discovers a deep dark secret about her lover’s past. Still, she quickly overlooks it as she doesn’t believe he is that same person anymore. But, as time passes and a serial rapist is loose in the neighborhood, she begins to put pieces of the puzzle together.
The author connects some of the dots as they happen in her life. However, a good deal of the book looks back in hindsight, combined with the witness’s accounts, which makes compelling arguments that her ex-husband was almost certainly the original East Area Rapist.
The author describes herself as a “cabbagehead,” a term used to describe a foolish person. But I didn’t get that impression of her. Sometimes, we are blinded by love. That doesn’t make someone foolish. If anything, I think the author seemed quite the opposite. A foolish person would never have put the pieces of the puzzle together the way that she did. The way she describes the similarities between the East Area Rapist’s attacks and her ex-husband’s sexual fantasies, physical descriptions, and even his whereabouts tells me that she is a brilliant person that would have made one hell of a detective!
May 31, 2024
This is a memoir, and what a tumultuous life was lived up to age 18; and then subsequently for another 15 years. The way we are treated as children really affects our later choices. Parts 1-3 are the author’s true story. Part 4 is a true crime drama written with hindsight. It’s part memoir & part investigative journalist. The author pieces together known facts & comes to the conclusion that’s the sub-title to this book!
April 1, 2022
Could not put this down! Highly recommend!
August 16, 2023
The Golden State Killer AKA the East Area Rapist, case has always been intriguing to me. I had never heard of this case until I heard Patton Oswalt (husband of Michelle MacNamara, author of I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK) speak about Joseph D’Angelo’s arrest and the role his wife played in his eventual arrest. I read her book and I was riveted with the case.
After reading her book, one thing that stuck with me though was the somewhat evolving MO of the EAR as time went on, along with the unusual inconsistencies of appearance,etc of the perpetrator by the victims. The police were always of the mindset that this could be the work of multiple perpetrators at the time. I was always of the mindset that there is some validity to that, even after D’Angelo’s arrest.
Helen Laroe’s CABBAGEHEAD, tells her story of who she believes was the original EAR. This book is a memoir of Helen’s life, from her childhood, to private school, to hustling for money with her boyfriend and future husband, Yogi. Yogi has done some horrible things in the past and this, along with other eerily recognizable tendencies of Yogi with the EAR case, leads her to believe she was married to the original EAR.
I do have to say that even though I believe that another EAR was never captured, a lot of what Helen mentions throughout as evidence, would only be considered speculation and conjecture at best. For instance, the victims said the rapist was smelly and Yogi was smelly too. (This is probably one of the weaker connections she makes, but it was still a connection she presented nonetheless).There are times when Helen makes some thought provoking connections and it does sound eerily coincidental to her accounts of Yogi, but the problem I largely have with this book is that the accounts and the accusation is being full-heartedly written as TRUTH, but I have a hard time fully believing that, yes, Yogi is the original EAR given the story presented.
After reading her book, one thing that stuck with me though was the somewhat evolving MO of the EAR as time went on, along with the unusual inconsistencies of appearance,etc of the perpetrator by the victims. The police were always of the mindset that this could be the work of multiple perpetrators at the time. I was always of the mindset that there is some validity to that, even after D’Angelo’s arrest.
Helen Laroe’s CABBAGEHEAD, tells her story of who she believes was the original EAR. This book is a memoir of Helen’s life, from her childhood, to private school, to hustling for money with her boyfriend and future husband, Yogi. Yogi has done some horrible things in the past and this, along with other eerily recognizable tendencies of Yogi with the EAR case, leads her to believe she was married to the original EAR.
I do have to say that even though I believe that another EAR was never captured, a lot of what Helen mentions throughout as evidence, would only be considered speculation and conjecture at best. For instance, the victims said the rapist was smelly and Yogi was smelly too. (This is probably one of the weaker connections she makes, but it was still a connection she presented nonetheless).There are times when Helen makes some thought provoking connections and it does sound eerily coincidental to her accounts of Yogi, but the problem I largely have with this book is that the accounts and the accusation is being full-heartedly written as TRUTH, but I have a hard time fully believing that, yes, Yogi is the original EAR given the story presented.
August 24, 2022
I read Michelle McNamara's I'll be Gone in the Dark a few years before the killer was apprehended through DNA. McNamara was obsessed with the case but died shortly before the publication of the book. Helen LaRoe contacted the FBI, but they did not believe that her ex-husband could be responsible for some of the crimes attributed to Joseph DeAngelo. Liz Kendall(Kloepfer) contacted law enforcement regarding her partner Ted with the same result. Bundy was finally caught and eventually executed and Joseph De Angelo was fingered after the DNA match of a relative. He was linked to at least thirteen murders as the Golden State Killer. Within the same time period, a man called the East Area Rapist was also active in the Sacramento area. LaRoe believes that her ex was the other individual responsible for some of the rapes. This is much more a memoir than a true crime book. Helen met a man she calls "Yogi," and she lost her virginity to him at eighteen. They drifted from city to city, panhandling and begging for food. Yogi admitted to being discharged from the marines for multiple rapes in Japan. He used language identical to that used by the East Area rapist. A detective believed that two rapists were active at the same time. Unfortunately, the book is pure speculation on the author's part and Cabbagehead is not a very good read.
June 12, 2023
Occasionally, a book comes along which makes me really sit up and think. Cabbagehead, a memoir by Helen LaRoe, is that book.
The first part of this gripping thriller of a memoir, follows Helen’s dysfunctional childhood, through family mental health issues, death, abuse and abandonment. That teenage Helen fell for an engaging, humorous, liar of a man, is hardly surprising given her background.
I’ve often wondered how someone could live with a rapist or serial killer without knowing. How can they be so blind? Helen lived with the man she now believes to be the East Area Rapist for many years, but only pieced together the puzzle of his hidden life after police released details of these horrific crimes in 2016.
Pulling together clues from the police files with what Helen knew of her partner, the second part of this memoir reads like a particularly clever whodunnit. The clues are all there for us to find and to draw our own conclusions about the real identity of the EAR.
My conclusions are that Helen is anything but a cabbagehead (a stupid airheaded person). She was a naïve young woman, hoodwinked by a clever, manipulative man. This memoir is the gripping story of Helen’s realisation that she had lived with a rapist, and my conclusion that she is far cleverer than the police were.
The first part of this gripping thriller of a memoir, follows Helen’s dysfunctional childhood, through family mental health issues, death, abuse and abandonment. That teenage Helen fell for an engaging, humorous, liar of a man, is hardly surprising given her background.
I’ve often wondered how someone could live with a rapist or serial killer without knowing. How can they be so blind? Helen lived with the man she now believes to be the East Area Rapist for many years, but only pieced together the puzzle of his hidden life after police released details of these horrific crimes in 2016.
Pulling together clues from the police files with what Helen knew of her partner, the second part of this memoir reads like a particularly clever whodunnit. The clues are all there for us to find and to draw our own conclusions about the real identity of the EAR.
My conclusions are that Helen is anything but a cabbagehead (a stupid airheaded person). She was a naïve young woman, hoodwinked by a clever, manipulative man. This memoir is the gripping story of Helen’s realisation that she had lived with a rapist, and my conclusion that she is far cleverer than the police were.
April 6, 2023
This was a compelling read even though it wasn't very well written. The author had a terrible childhood with a mentally ill mother and brother, both parents died young and she was left in the care of her aunt who shipped her off to boarding school. The school was another nightmare. When she finally left she met a man she called Yogi. They traveled from city to city begging, panhandling and holding menial jobs. She comes to believe he is a serial rapist. Even though the relationship wasn't ideal he seemed to treat her okay. She was young and naïve when they met, he was ex-military so I can understand why she would stay with him. Eventually the relationship falls apart but it took 15 years. Unfortunately with no real evidence her part of the story is just that, a story.
April 14, 2023
Wow....this book was quite something !! Another perfect example of how, abuse and deprivation leaves long lasting effects of low self esteem. Helen, you really were not a "Cabbagehead" you were just very unfortunate that tragedy left you in a very vulnerable position as a child.
This candid memoir really helps one to understand how Helen could accept the first man that showed her affection and attention and how she was able to convince yourself that he would never rape again. The evidence that the author has presented here certainly is very convincing that her ex-husband was a serial rapist, unfortunately it was never proved. It is impressive that she found the strength to change her circumstances and ultimately thrive. A most interesting read.
This candid memoir really helps one to understand how Helen could accept the first man that showed her affection and attention and how she was able to convince yourself that he would never rape again. The evidence that the author has presented here certainly is very convincing that her ex-husband was a serial rapist, unfortunately it was never proved. It is impressive that she found the strength to change her circumstances and ultimately thrive. A most interesting read.
June 12, 2023
Helen had a very fractured childhood, so when Yogi came into her life, he was an escape from the bad times. But she didn't know about his secret life.... Can you be married to a serial rapist for many years and not realize what he's doing? Well Helen builds a very convincing case of a naive wife, and a plausible husband. Lots of detective work on Helen's part make for an interesting and intriguing read. Was Yogi the Eastern Area Rapist? Read this and make your own decision.
September 22, 2022
Wow!!! This was a great book! I could not set it down.
November 30, 2022
Great book, a must read.
January 25, 2023
I couldn’t put it down! Great book that really gets you thinking. I highly recommend.
August 18, 2023
I could not put this down I was on a cruise in my room reading till I finished. Awesome true story
May 28, 2026
Wow! You must read this!!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews