title: M16 rifle

text: In November 1963, McNamara approved the U.S. Army's order of 85,000 XM16E1s; and to appease General LeMay, the Air Force was granted an order for another 19,000 M16s. In March 1964, the M16 rifle went into production and the Army accepted delivery of the first batch of 2,129 rifles later that year, and an additional 57,240 rifles the following year.


title: M16 rifle

text: In 1964, the Army was informed that DuPont could not mass-produce the IMR 4475 stick powder to the specifications demanded by the M16. Therefore, Olin Mathieson Company provided a high-performance ball propellant. While the Olin WC 846 powder achieved the desired per second muzzle velocity, it produced much more fouling, that quickly jammed the M16's action (unless the rifle was cleaned well and often).


title: M16 rifle

text: In March 1965, the Army began to issue the XM16E1 to infantry units. However, the rifle was initially delivered without adequate cleaning kits or instructions because advertising from Colt asserted that the M16's materials made the weapon require little maintenance, and was capable of self-cleaning. Furthermore, cleaning was often conducted with improper equipment, such as insect repellent, water, and aircraft fuel, which induced further wear on the weapon. As a result, reports of stoppages in combat began to surface. The most severe problem was known as "failure to extract"—the spent cartridge case remained lodged in the chamber after the rifle was fired. Documented accounts of dead U.S. troops found next to disassembled rifles eventually led to a Congressional investigation.


title: M16 rifle

text: In February 1967, the improved XM16E1 was standardized as the M16A1. The new rifle had a chrome-plated chamber and bore to eliminate corrosion and stuck cartridges, and other minor modifications. New cleaning kits, powder solvents, and lubricants were also issued. Intensive training programs in weapons cleaning were instituted including a comic book-style operations manual. As a result, reliability problems greatly diminished and the M16A1 rifle achieved widespread acceptance by U.S. troops in Vietnam.


title: M16 rifle

text: In 1969, the M16A1 officially replaced the M14 rifle to become the U.S. military's standard service rifle. In 1970, the new WC 844 powder was introduced to reduce fouling.


title: M16 rifle

text: During the early part of its service, the M16 had a reputation for poor reliability and a malfunction rate of two per 1000 rounds fired. The M16's action works by passing high-pressure propellant gasses tapped from the barrel down a tube and into the carrier group within the upper receiver, and is commonly referred to as a "direct impingement gas system". The gas goes from the gas tube, through the bolt carrier key, and into the inside of the carrier where it expands in a donut-shaped gas cylinder. Because the bolt is prevented from moving forward by the barrel, the carrier is driven to the rear by the expanding gases and thus converts the energy of the gas to movement of the rifle's parts. The back part of the bolt forms a piston head and the cavity in the bolt carrier is the piston sleeve. It is more correct to call it an "internal piston" system.


title: M16 rifle

text: This design is much lighter and more compact than a gas-piston design. However, this design requires that combustion byproducts from the discharged cartridge be blown into the receiver as well. This accumulating carbon and vaporized metal build-up within the receiver and bolt-carrier negatively affects reliability and necessitates more intensive maintenance on the part of the individual soldier. The channeling of gasses into the bolt carrier during operation increases the amount of heat that is deposited in the receiver while firing the M16 and causes essential lubricant to be "burned off". This requires frequent and generous applications of appropriate lubricant. Lack of proper lubrication is the most common source of weapon stoppages or jams.


title: M16 rifle

text: The original M16 fared poorly in the jungles of Vietnam and was infamous for reliability problems in the harsh environment. Max Hastings was very critical of the M16's general field issue in Vietnam just as grievous design flaws were becoming apparent. He further states that the Shooting Times experienced repeated malfunctions with a test M16 and assumed these would be corrected before military use, but they were not. Many Marines and soldiers were so angry with the reliability problems they began writing home and on the 26th of March 1967 the Washington Daily News broke the story. Eventually the M16 became the target of a Congressional investigation. The investigation found that:


title: M16 rifle

text: When these issues were addressed and corrected by the M16A1, the reliability problems decreased greatly. According to a 1968 Department of Army report, the M16A1 rifle achieved widespread acceptance by U.S. troops in Vietnam. "Most men armed with the M16 in Vietnam rated this rifle's performance high, however, many men entertained some misgivings about the M16's reliability. When asked what weapon they preferred to carry in combat, 85 percent indicated that they wanted either the M16 or its [smaller] carbine-length version, the XM177E2." Also "the M14 was preferred by 15 percent, while less than one percent wished to carry either the Stoner rifle, the AK-47, the carbine or a pistol." In March 1970, the "President's Blue Ribbon Defense Panel" concluded that the issuance of the M16 saved the lives of 20,000 U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam War, who would have otherwise died had the M14 remained in service. However, the M16 rifle's reputation continues to suffer.


title: M16 rifle

text: Another underlying cause of the M16’s jamming problem was identified by ordnance staff that discovered that Stoner and ammunition manufacturers had initially tested the AR 15 using DuPont IMR8208M extruded (stick) powder. Later ammunition manufacturers adopted the more readily available Olin Mathieson WC846 ball powder. The ball powder produced a longer peak chamber pressure with undesired timing effects. Upon firing, the cartridge case expands and seals the chamber (obturation). When the peak pressure starts to drop the cartridge case contracts and then can be extracted. With ball powder, the cartridge case was not contracted enough during extraction due to the longer peak pressure period. The ejector would then fail to extract the cartridge case, tearing through the case rim, leaving an obturated case behind.


title: M16 rifle

text: After the introduction of the M4 Carbine, it was found that the shorter barrel length of 14.5 inches also has a negative effect on reliability, as the gas port is located closer to the chamber than the gas port of the standard length M16 rifle: 7.5 inches instead of 13 inches. This affects the M4's timing and increases the amount of stress and heat on the critical components, thereby reducing reliability. In a 2002 assessment the USMC found that the M4 malfunctioned three times more often than the M16A4 (the M4 failed 186 times for 69,000 rounds fired, while the M16A4 failed 61 times). Thereafter, the Army and Colt worked to make modifications to the M4s and M16A4s in order to address the problems found. In tests conducted in 2005 and 2006 the Army found that on average, the new M4s and M16s fired approximately 5,000 rounds between stoppages.


title: M16 rifle

text: In December 2006, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) released a report on U.S. small arms in combat. The CNA conducted surveys on 2,608 troops returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 12 months. Only troops who had fired their weapons at enemy targets were allowed to participate. 1,188 troops were armed with M16A2 or A4 rifles, making up 46 percent of the survey. 75 percent of M16 users (891 troops) reported they were satisfied with the weapon. 60 percent (713 troops) were satisfied with handling qualities such as handguards, size, and weight. Of the 40 percent dissatisfied, most were with its size. Only 19 percent of M16 users (226 troops) reported a stoppage, while 80 percent of those that experienced a stoppage said it had little impact on their ability to clear the stoppage and re-engage their target. Half of the M16 users experienced failures of their magazines to feed. 83 percent (986 troops) did not need their rifles repaired while in theater. 71 percent (843 troops) were confident in the M16's reliability, defined as level of soldier confidence their weapon will fire without malfunction, and 72 percent (855 troops) were confident in its durability, defined as level of soldier confidence their weapon will not break or need repair. Both factors were attributed to high levels of soldiers performing their own maintenance. 60 percent of M16 users offered recommendations for improvements. Requests included greater bullet lethality, new-built instead of rebuilt rifles, better quality magazines, decreased weight, and a collapsible stock. Some users recommended shorter and lighter weapons such as the M4 carbine. Some issues have been addressed with the issuing of the Improved STANAG magazine in March 2009, and the M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round in June 2010.


title: M16 rifle

text: In early 2010, two journalists from "The New York Times" spent three months with soldiers and Marines in Afghanistan. While there, they questioned around 100 infantry troops about the reliability of their M16 rifles, as well as the M4 carbine. The troops did not report reliability problems with their rifles. While only 100 troops were asked, they engaged in daily fighting in Marja, including least a dozen intense engagements in Helmand Province, where the ground is covered in fine powdered sand (called "moon dust" by troops) that can stick to firearms. Weapons were often dusty, wet, and covered in mud. Intense firefights lasted hours with several magazines being expended. Only one soldier reported a jam when his M16 was covered in mud after climbing out of a canal. The weapon was cleared and resumed firing with the next chambered round. Furthermore, the Marine Chief Warrant Officer responsible for weapons training and performance of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, reported that "We've had nil in the way of problems; we've had no issues", with his battalion's 350 M16s and 700 M4s.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 is a lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle, with a rotating bolt. The M16's receivers are made of 7075 aluminum alloy, its barrel, bolt, and bolt carrier of steel, and its handguards, pistol grip, and buttstock of plastics.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 internal piston action was derived from the original ArmaLite AR-10 and ArmaLite AR-15 actions. This internal piston action system designed by Eugene Stoner is commonly called a direct impingement system, but it does not use a conventional direct impingement system. In , the designer states: ″This invention is a true expanding gas system instead of the conventional impinging gas system.″


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16A1 was especially lightweight at with a loaded 30-round magazine. This was significantly less than the M14 that it replaced at with a loaded 20-round magazine. It is also lighter when compared to the AKM's with a loaded 30-round magazine.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16A2 weighs loaded with a 30-round magazine, because of the adoption of a thicker barrel profile. The thicker barrel is more resistant to damage when handled roughly and is also slower to overheat during sustained fire. Unlike a traditional "bull" barrel that is thick its entire length, the M16A2's barrel is only thick forward of the handguards. The barrel profile under the handguards remained the same as the M16A1 for compatibility with the M203 grenade launcher.


title: M16 rifle

text: Early model M16 barrels had a rifling twist of four grooves, right-hand twist, one turn in 14 inches (1:355.6 mm or 64 calibers) bore—as it was the same rifling as used by the .222 Remington sporting cartridge. After finding out that under unfavorable conditions, military bullets could yaw in flight at long ranges, the rifling was soon altered. Later M16 models and the M16A1 had an improved rifling with six grooves, right-hand twist, one turn in 12 inches (1:304.8 mm or 54.8 calibers) for increased accuracy and was optimized to adequately stabilize the M193 ball and M196 tracer bullets. M16A2 and current models are optimized for firing the heavier NATO SS109 ball and long L110 tracer bullets and have six grooves, right-hand twist, one turn in 7 in (1:177.8 mm or 32 calibers).


title: M16 rifle

text: Using M193 ball and M196 tracer bullets with a one turn in 7 in (1:177.8 mm or 32 calibers) twist degrades accuracy and should only be used in emergency situations. NATO SS109 ball and L110 tracer bullets should only be used in emergency situations at ranges under with a one turn in 12 inches (1:304.8 mm or 54.8 calibers) twist, as this twist is insufficient to stabilize these projectiles.


title: M16 rifle

text: Weapons designed to adequately stabilize both the M193 or SS109 projectiles (like civilian market clones) usually have a six-groove, right-hand twist, one turn in 9 inches (1:228.6 mm or 41.1 calibers) or one turn in 8 inches (1:203.2 mm or 36.5 calibers) bore, although other and 1:7 inches twist rates are available as well.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 uses a "straight-line" recoil design, where the recoil spring is located in the stock directly behind the action, and serves the dual function of operating spring and recoil buffer. The stock being in line with the bore also reduces muzzle rise, especially during automatic fire. Because recoil does not significantly shift the point of aim, faster follow-up shots are possible and user fatigue is reduced. In addition, current model M16 flash-suppressors also act as compensators to reduce recoil further.


title: M16 rifle

text: Notes: Free recoil is calculated by using the rifle weight, bullet weight, muzzle velocity, and charge weight. It is that which would be measured if the rifle were fired suspended from strings, free to recoil. A rifle's perceived recoil is also dependent on many other factors which are not readily quantified.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16's most distinctive ergonomic feature is the carrying handle and rear sight assembly on top of the receiver. This is a by-product of the original AR-10 design, where the carrying handle contained a rear sight that could be set for specific range settings and also served to protect the charging handle.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 carry handle also provided mounting groove interfaces and a hole at the bottom of the handle groove for mounting a Colt 3×20 telescopic sight featuring a Bullet Drop Compensation elevation adjustment knob for ranges from . This concurs with the pre-M16A2 maximum effective range of . The Colt 3×20 telescopic sight was factory adjusted to be parallax-free at . In Delft, the Netherlands Artillerie-Inrichtingen produced a roughly similar 3×25 telescopic sight for the carrying handle mounting interfaces.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 elevated iron sight line has a sight radius. As the M16 series rear sight, front sight and sighting in targets designs were modified over time and non-iron sight (optical) aiming devices and new service ammunition were introduced zeroing procedures changed.


title: M16 rifle

text: The standard pre-M16A2 "Daylight Sight System" uses an AR-15-style L-type flip, two aperture rear sight featuring two combat settings: short-range and long-range , marked 'L'.


title: M16 rifle

text: The pre-M16A2 "Daylight Sight System" short-range and long-range zeros are with M193 ammunition. The rear sight features a windage drum that can be adjusted during zeroing with about 1 MOA increments. The front sight is a tapered round post of approximately diameter adjustable during zeroing in about 1 MOA increments. A cartridge or tool is required to (re)zero the sight line.


title: M16 rifle

text: An alternative pre-M16A2 "Low Light Level Sight System", includes a front sight post with a weak light source provided by tritium radioluminescence in an embedded small glass vial and a two aperture rear sight consisting of a diameter aperture marked 'L' intended for normal use out to and a diameter large aperture for night firing. Regulation stipulates the radioluminescant front sight post must be replaced if more than 144 months (12 years) elapsed after manufacture. The "Low Light Level Sight System" elevation and windage adjustment increments are somewhat coarser compared to the "Daylight Sight System".


title: M16 rifle

text: With the advent of the M16A2, a less simple fully adjustable rear sight was added, allowing the rear sight to be dialed in with an elevation wheel for specific range settings between in 100 m increments and to allow windage adjustments with a windage knob without the need of a cartridge or tool. The unmarked approximately diameter aperture rear sight is for normal firing situations, zeroing and with the elevation knob for target distances up to 800 meters. The downsides of relatively small rear sight apertures are less light transmission through the aperture and a reduced field of view. A new larger approximately diameter aperture, marked '0-2' and featuring a windage setting index mark, offers a larger field of view during battle conditions and is used as a ghost ring for quick target engagement and during limited visibility. When flipped down, the engraved windage mark on top of the '0-2' aperture ring shows the dialed in windage setting on a windage scale at the rear of the rear sight assembly. When the normal use rear aperture sight is zeroed at 300 m with SS109/M855 ammunition, first used in the M16A2, the '0-2' rear sight will be zeroed for 200 m.


title: M16 rifle

text: The front sight post was widened to approximately diameter and became square and became adjustable during zeroing in about 1.2 MOA increments.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16A4 omitted the carrying handle and rear sight assembly on top of the receiver. Instead, it features a MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny railed flat-top upper receiver for mounting various optical sighting devices or a new detachable carrying handle and M16A2-style rear sight assembly.


title: M16 rifle

text: The current U.S. Army and Air Force issue M4(A1) Carbine comes with the M68 Close Combat Optic and Back-up Iron Sight. The U.S. Marine Corps uses the 4×32 ACOG Rifle Combat Optic and the U.S. Navy uses the EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 rifle is considered to be very accurate for a service rifle. Its light recoil, high-velocity and flat trajectory allow shooters to take head shots out to 300 meters. Newer M16s use the newer M855 cartridge increasing their effective range to 600 meters. They are more accurate than their predecessors and are capable of shooting 1–3-inch groups at 100 yards. "In Fallujah, Iraq Marines with ACOG-equipped M16A4s created a stir by taking so many head shots that until the wounds were closely examined, some observers thought the insurgents had been executed." The newest M855A1 EPR cartridge is even more accurate and during testing "...has shown that, on average, 95 percent of the rounds will hit within an 8 × 8-inch (20.3 × 20.3 cm) target at 600 meters."


title: M16 rifle

text: The 5.56×45 mm cartridge had several advantages over the 7.62×51 mm NATO round used in the M14 rifle. It enabled each soldier to carry more ammunition and was easier to control during automatic or burst fire. The 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge can also produce massive wounding effects when the bullet impacts at high speed and yaws ("tumbles") in tissue leading to fragmentation and rapid transfer of energy.


title: M16 rifle

text: The original ammunition for the M16 was the 55-grain M193 cartridge. When fired from a barrel at ranges of up to , the thin-jacketed lead-cored round traveled fast enough (above ) that the force of striking a human body would cause the round to yaw (or tumble) and fragment into about a dozen pieces of various sizes thus created wounds that were out of proportion to its caliber. These wounds were so devastating that many considered the M16 to be an inhumane weapon. As the 5.56 mm round's velocity decreases, so does the number of fragments that it produces. The 5.56 mm round does not normally fragment at distances beyond 200 meters or at velocities below 2500 ft/s, and its lethality becomes largely dependent on shot placement.


title: M16 rifle

text: With the development of the M16A2, the new 62-grain M855 cartridge was adopted in 1983. The heavier bullet had more energy and was made with a steel core to penetrate Soviet body armor. However, this caused less fragmentation on impact and reduced effects against targets without armor, both of which lessened kinetic energy transfer and wounding ability. Some soldiers and Marines coped with this through training, with requirements to shoot vital areas three times to guarantee killing the target.


title: M16 rifle

text: However, there have been repeated and consistent reports of the M855's inability to wound effectively (i.e., fragment) when fired from the short barreled M4 carbine (even at close ranges). The M4's 14.5-in. barrel length reduces muzzle velocity to about 2900 ft/s. This reduced wounding ability is one reason that, despite the Army's transition to short-barrel M4s, the Marine Corps has decided to continue using the M16A4 with its 20-inch barrel as the 5.56×45 mm M855 is largely dependent upon high velocity in order to wound effectively.


title: M16 rifle

text: In 2003, the U.S. Army contended that the lack of lethality of the 5.56×45 mm was more a matter of perception than fact. With good shot placement to the head and chest, the target was usually defeated without issue. The majority of failures were the result of hitting the target in non-vital areas such as extremities. However, a minority of failures occurred in spite of multiple hits to the chest. In 2006, a study found that 20% of soldiers using the M4 Carbine wanted more lethality or stopping power. In June 2010, the U.S. Army announced it began shipping its new 5.56 mm, lead-free, M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round to active combat zones. This upgrade is designed to maximize performance of the 5.56×45 mm round, to extend range, improve accuracy, increase penetration and to consistently fragment in soft-tissue when fired from not only standard length M16s, but also the short-barreled M4 carbines. The U.S. Army has been impressed with the new M855A1 EPR round. A 7.62 NATO M80A1 EPR variant was also developed.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16's magazine was meant to be a lightweight, disposable item. As such, it is made of pressed/stamped aluminum and was not designed to be durable. The M16 originally used a 20-round magazine which was later replaced by a bent 30-round design. As a result, the magazine follower tends to rock or tilt, causing malfunctions. Many non-U.S. and commercial magazines have been developed to effectively mitigate these shortcomings (e.g., H&K's all-stainless-steel magazine, Magpul's polymer P-MAG, etc.).


title: M16 rifle

text: Production of the 30-round magazine started late 1967 but did not fully replace the 20-round magazine until the mid-1970s. Standard USGI aluminum 30-round M16 magazines weigh empty and are long. The newer plastic magazines are about a half-inch longer. The newer steel magazines are about 0.5-inch longer and four ounces heavier. The M16's magazine has become the unofficial NATO STANAG magazine and is currently used by many Western nations, in numerous weapon systems.


title: M16 rifle

text: In 2009, the U.S. Military began fielding an "improved magazine" identified by a tan-colored follower. "The new follower incorporates an extended rear leg and modified bullet protrusion for improved round stacking and orientation. The self-leveling/anti-tilt follower minimizes jamming while a wider spring coil profile creates even force distribution. The performance gains have not added weight or cost to the magazines."


title: M16 rifle

text: In July 2016, the U.S. Army introduced another improvement, the new Enhanced Performance Magazine, which it says will result in a 300% increase in reliability in the M4 Carbine. Developed by the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center and the Army Research Laboratory in 2013, it is tan colored with blue follower to distinguish it from earlier, incompatible magazines.


title: M16 rifle

text: Most M16 rifles have a barrel threaded in 1⁄2-28" threads to incorporate the use of a muzzle device such as a flash suppressor or sound suppressor. The initial flash suppressor design had three tines or prongs and was designed to preserve the shooter's night vision by disrupting the flash. Unfortunately it was prone to breakage and getting entangled in vegetation. The design was later changed to close the end to avoid this and became known as the "A1" or "bird cage" flash suppressor on the M16A1. Eventually on the M16A2 version of the rifle, the bottom port was closed to reduce muzzle climb and prevent dust from rising when the rifle was fired in the prone position. For these reasons, the U.S. military declared the A2 flash suppressor as a compensator or a muzzle brake; but it is more commonly known as the "GI" or "A2" flash suppressor.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16's Vortex Flash Hider weighs 3 ounces, is 2.25 inches long, and does not require a lock washer to attach to barrel. It was developed in 1984, and is one of the earliest privately designed muzzle devices. The U.S. military uses the Vortex Flash Hider on M4 carbines and M16 rifles. A version of the Vortex has been adopted by the Canadian Military for the Colt Canada C8 CQB rifle. Other flash suppressors developed for the M16 include the Phantom Flash Suppressor by Yankee Hill Machine (YHM) and the KX-3 by Noveske Rifleworks.


title: M16 rifle

text: The threaded barrel allows sound suppressors with the same thread pattern to be installed directly to the barrel; however this can result in complications such as being unable to remove the suppressor from the barrel due to repeated firing on full auto or three-round burst. A number of suppressor manufacturers have designed "direct-connect" sound suppressors which can be installed over an existing M16's flash suppressor as opposed to using the barrel's threads.


title: M16 rifle

text: All current M16 type rifles can mount under-barrel 40 mm grenade-launchers, such as the M203 and M320. Both use the same 40×46mm LV grenades as the older, stand-alone M79 grenade launcher. The M16 can also mount under-barrel 12 gauge shotguns such as KAC Masterkey or the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M234 Riot Control Launcher is an M16-series rifle attachment firing an M755 blank round. The M234 mounts on the muzzle, bayonet lug, and front sight post of the M16. It fires either the M734 64 mm Kinetic Riot Control or the M742 64 mm CSI Riot Control Ring Airfoil Projectiles. The latter produces a 4 to 5-foot tear gas cloud on impact. The main advantage to using Ring Airfoil Projectiles is that their design does not allow them be thrown back by rioters with any real effect. The M234 is no longer used by U.S. forces. It has been replaced by the M203 40 mm grenade launcher and nonlethal ammunition.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 is 44.25 inches (1124 mm) long with an M7 bayonet attached. The M7 bayonet is based on earlier designs such as the M4, M5, & M6 bayonets, all of which are direct descendants of the M3 Fighting Knife and have spear-point blade with a half sharpened secondary edge. The newer M9 bayonet has a clip-point blade with saw teeth along the spine, and can be used as a multi-purpose knife and wire-cutter when combined with its scabbard. The current USMC OKC-3S bayonet bears a resemblance to the Marines' iconic Ka-Bar fighting knife with serrations near the handle.


title: M16 rifle

text: For use as an ad-hoc automatic rifle, the M16 and M16A1 could be equipped with the XM3 bipod, later standardized as the "Bipod, M3" (1966) and "Rifle Bipod M3" (1983). Weighing only 0.6 lb, the simple and non-adjustable bipod clamps to the barrel of the rifle to allow for supported fire.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M3 bipod continues to be referenced in at least one official manual as late as 1985, where it is stated that one of the most stable firing positions is "the prone biped [sic] supported for automatic fire."


title: M16 rifle

text: In March 1970, the U.S. recommended that all NATO forces adopt the 5.56×45 mm cartridge. This shift represented a change in the philosophy of the military's long-held position about caliber size. By the mid 1970s, other armies were looking at M16-style weapons. A NATO standardization effort soon started and tests of various rounds were carried out starting in 1977. The U.S. offered the 5.56×45 mm M193 round, but there were concerns about its penetration in the face of the wider introduction of body armor. In the end the Belgian 5.56×45 mm SS109 round was chosen (STANAG 4172) in October 1980. The SS109 round was based on the U.S. cartridge but included a new stronger, heavier, 62 grain bullet design, with better long range performance and improved penetration (specifically, to consistently penetrate the side of a steel helmet at 600 meters). Due to its design and lower muzzle velocity (about 3110 ft/s) the Belgian SS109 round is considered more humane because it is less likely to fragment than the U.S. M193 round. The NATO 5.56×45 mm standard ammunition produced for U.S. forces is designated M855.


title: M16 rifle

text: In October 1980, shortly after NATO accepted the 5.56×45 mm NATO rifle cartridge. Draft Standardization Agreement 4179 (STANAG 4179) was proposed to allow NATO members to easily share rifle ammunition and magazines down to the individual soldier level. The magazine chosen to become the "STANAG magazine" was originally designed for the U.S. M16 rifle. Many NATO member nations, but not all, subsequently developed or purchased rifles with the ability to accept this type of magazine. However, the standard was never ratified and remains a 'Draft STANAG'.


title: M16 rifle

text: All current M16 type rifles are designed to fire STANAG 22 mm rifle grenades from their integral flash hiders without the use of an adapter. These 22 mm grenade types range from anti-tank rounds to simple finned tubes with a fragmentation hand grenade attached to the end. They come in the "standard" type which are propelled by a blank cartridge inserted into the chamber of the rifle. They also come in the "bullet trap" and "shoot through" types, as their names imply, they use live ammunition. The U.S. military does not generally use rifle grenades; however, they are used by other nations.


title: M16 rifle

text: The NATO Accessory Rail STANAG 4694, or Picatinny rail STANAG 2324, or a "Tactical Rail" is a bracket used on M16 type rifles to provide a standardized mounting platform. The rail comprises a series of ridges with a T-shaped cross-section interspersed with flat "spacing slots". Scopes are mounted either by sliding them on from one end or the other; by means of a "rail-grabber" which is clamped to the rail with bolts, thumbscrews or levers; or onto the slots between the raised sections. The rail was originally for scopes. However, once established, the use of the system was expanded to other accessories, such as tactical lights, laser aiming modules, night vision devices, reflex sights, foregrips, bipods, and bayonets.


title: M16 rifle

text: This was the first M16 variant adopted operationally, originally by the U.S. Air Force. It was equipped with triangular handguards, buttstocks without a compartment for the storage of a cleaning kit, a three-pronged "duckbill" flash suppressor designed to preserve the shooter's night vision by disrupting the flash, full auto, and no forward assist. The M16 has a safe/semi/auto selective fire trigger group. Bolt carriers were originally chrome plated and slick-sided, lacking forward assist notches. Later, the chrome plated carriers were dropped in favor of Army issued notched and parkerized carriers though the interior portion of the bolt carrier is still chrome-lined.


title: M16 rifle

text: The barrel rifling had a 1:12 (305 mm) twist rate to adequately stabilize M193 ball and M196 tracer ammunition.


title: M16 rifle

text: The Air Force continued to operate these weapons until around 2001, at which time the Air Force converted all of its M16s to the M16A2 configuration.


title: M16 rifle

text: The U.S. Army XM16E1 was essentially the same weapon as the M16 with the addition of a forward assist and corresponding notches in the bolt carrier. The M16A1 was the finalized production model in 1967 and was produced until 1982.


title: M16 rifle

text: To address issues raised by the XM16E1's testing cycle, a closed, birdcage symmetric flash suppressor with open side slots to the top, bottom, left and right replaced the XM16E1's three-pronged flash suppressor which caught on twigs and leaves from 1967 onwards. Various other changes were made after numerous problems in the field. Cleaning kits were developed and issued while barrels with chrome-plated chambers and later fully lined bores were introduced. A small storage compartment inside the stock was introduced. The buttstock storage compartment is often used for storing a basic cleaning kit.


title: M16 rifle

text: With these and other changes, the malfunction rate slowly declined and new soldiers were generally unfamiliar with early problems. A rib was built into the side of the receiver on the XM16E1 to help prevent accidentally pressing the magazine release button while closing the ejection port cover. This rib was later extended on production M16A1s to help in preventing the magazine release from inadvertently being pressed. The hole in the bolt that accepts the cam pin was crimped inward on one side, in such a way that the cam pin may not be inserted with the bolt installed backwards, which would cause failures to eject until corrected. The M16A1 saw limited use in training capacities until the early 2000s, but is no longer in active service with the U.S., although is still standard issue in many world armies.


title: M16 rifle

text: The development of the M16A2 rifle was originally requested by the United States Marine Corps in 1979 as a result of combat experience in Vietnam with the M16A1. It was officially adopted by the Department of Defense as the "Rifle, 5.56 mm, M16A2" in 1983. The Marines were the first branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to adopt it, in the early/mid-1980s, with the United States Army following suit in 1986.


title: M16 rifle

text: Modifications to the M16A2 were extensive. In addition to the then new STANAG 4172 5.56×45mm NATO chambering and its accompanying rifling, the barrel was made with a greater thickness in front of the front sight post, to resist bending in the field and to allow a longer period of sustained fire without overheating. The rest of the barrel was maintained at the original thickness to enable the M203 grenade launcher to be attached.


title: M16 rifle

text: The barrel rifling was revised to a faster 1:7 (178 mm) twist rate to adequately stabilize the new 5.56×45 mm NATO SS109/M855 ball and L110/M856 tracer ammunition. The heavier longer SS109/M855 bullet reduced muzzle velocity from , to about .


title: M16 rifle

text: A new adjustable rear sight was added, allowing the rear sight to be dialed in for specific range settings between 300 and 800 meters to take full advantage of the ballistic characteristics of the SS109/M855 rounds and to allow windage adjustments without the need of a tool or cartridge. The flash suppressor was again modified, this time to be closed on the bottom, so the new birdcage-type muzzle device would not kick up dirt or snow when being fired from the prone position, and additionally act as an asymmetric recoil compensator to reduce muzzle climb.


title: M16 rifle

text: A spent case deflector was incorporated into the upper receiver immediately behind the ejection port to prevent (hot) cartridge cases from striking left-handed users. The action was also modified, replacing the fully automatic setting with a three-round burst setting. When using a fully automatic weapon, inexperienced troops often hold down the trigger and "spray" when under fire. The U.S. Army concluded that three-shot groups provide an optimum combination of ammunition conservation, accuracy, and firepower. The USMC has retired the M16A2 in favor of the newer M16A4; a few M16A2s remain in service with the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard.


title: M16 rifle

text: The handguard was modified from the original triangular shape to a round one, which better fit smaller hands and could be fitted to older models of the M16. The new handguards were also symmetrical so armories need not separate left- and right-hand spares. The handguard retention ring was tapered to make it easier to install and uninstall the handguards.


title: M16 rifle

text: The new buttstock became ten times stronger than the original due to advances in polymer technology since the early 1960s. Original M16 stocks were made from cellulose-impregnated phenolic resin; the newer M16A2 stocks were engineered from DuPont Zytel glass-filled thermoset polymers and became a replacement part for the preceding M16A1. The new buttstock was lengthened by and included a fully textured polymer buttplate for better grip on the shoulder, and retained a panel for accessing a small compartment inside the stock, often used for storing a basic cleaning kit.


title: M16 rifle

text: A notch for the middle finger was added to the pistol grip as well as more texture to enhance the grip. The new pistol grips were engineered from Zytel glass-filled thermoset polymers. The M16A2 pistol grip became a replacement part for the preceding M16A1.


title: M16 rifle

text: The standard Model 645 M16A2 has a safe/semi/three-round burst selective fire trigger group. It became standard issue for the U.S. Marine Corps and Army.


title: M16 rifle

text: There is also a safe/semi/three-round burst/automatic selective fire trigger group Model 708 version of M16A2 rifle named "M16A2 Enhanced", used by some militaries around the world.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16A3 is a modified version of the M16A2 adopted in small numbers by the U.S. Navy SEAL, Seabee, and Security units. It features the M16A1 selective fire trigger group providing "safe", "semi-automatic" and "fully automatic" modes. Otherwise it is externally similar to the M16A2.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16A4 is the fourth generation of the M16 series. The iron sight/carrying handle assembly on the M16A2/M16A3 upper receiver, was replaced by a MIL-STD-1913 "Picatinny railed" flat-top upper receiver for mounting aiming optics or a removable iron sight/carrying handle assembly. The M16A4 rear aperture sights integrated in the Picatinny rail mounted carry handle assembly are adjustable from 300 m (328 yd) up to 600 m (656 yd), where the further similar M16A2 iron sights line can reach up to 800 m (875 yd). The FN M16A4, using safe/semi/three-round burst selective fire, became standard issue for the U.S. Marine Corps.


title: M16 rifle

text: Military issue rifles were also equipped with a full length quad Knight's Armament Company M5 RAS Picatinny railed hand guard (that holds zero on the top rail), allowing vertical grips, lasers, tactical lights, and other accessories to be attached, coining the designation M16A4 MWS (or Modular Weapon System) in U.S. Army field manuals.


title: M16 rifle

text: A study of significant changes to Marine M16A4 rifles released in February 2015 outlined several new features that could be added from inexpensive and available components. Those features included: a muzzle compensator in place of the flash suppressor to manage recoil and allow for faster follow-on shots, though at the cost of noise and flash signature and potential overpressure in close quarters; a heavier and/or free-floating barrel to increase accuracy from 4.5 MOA (Minute(s) Of Angle) to potentially 2 MOA; changing the reticle on the Rifle Combat Optic from chevron-shaped to a semi-circlar reticle with a dot at the center used in the M27 IAR's Squad Day Optic so as not to obscure the target at long distance; using a trigger group with a more consistent pull force, even a reconsideration of the burst capability; and the addition of ambidextrous charging handles and bolt catch releases for easier use with left-handed shooters.


title: M16 rifle

text: In 2014, Marine units were provided with a limited number of adjustable stocks in place of the traditional fixed stock for their M16A4s to issue to smaller Marines who would have trouble comfortably reaching the trigger when wearing body armor. The adjustable stocks were added as a standard authorized accessory, meaning units can use operations and maintenance funds to purchase more if needed.


title: M16 rifle

text: The Marine Corps had long maintained the full-length M16 as their standard infantry rifle, but in October 2015 the switch to the M4 carbine was approved as the standard-issue weapon, giving Marine infantry a smaller and more compact weapon. Enough M4s were already in the inventory to re-equip all necessary units by September 2016, and M16A4s were moved to support and non-infantry Marines.


title: M16 rifle

text: In Vietnam, some soldiers were issued a carbine version of the M16 named XM177. The XM177 had a shorter barrel and a telescoping stock, which made it substantially more compact. It also possessed a combination flash hider/sound moderator to reduce problems with muzzle flash and loud report. The Air Force's GAU-5/A (XM177) and the Army's XM177E1 variants differed over the latter's inclusion of a forward assist, although some GAU-5s do have the forward assist. The final Air Force GAU-5/A and Army XM177E2 had an barrel with a longer flash/sound suppressor. The lengthening of the barrel was to support the attachment of Colt's own XM148 40 mm grenade launcher. These versions were also known as the Colt Commando model commonly referenced and marketed as the CAR-15. The variants were issued in limited numbers to special forces, helicopter crews, Air Force pilots, Air Force Security Police Military Working Dog (MWD) handlers, officers, radio operators, artillerymen, and troops other than front line riflemen. Some USAF GAU-5A/As were later equipped with even longer 1/12 rifled barrels as the two shorter versions were worn out. The barrel allowed the use of MILES gear and for bayonets to be used with the sub-machine guns (as the Air Force described them). By 1989, the Air Force started to replace the earlier barrels with 1/7 rifled models for use with the M855-round. The weapons were given the redesignation of GUU-5/P.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M4 carbine was developed from various outgrowths of these designs, including a number of -barreled A1 style carbines. The XM4 (Colt Model 720) started its trials in 1984, with a barrel of . The weapon became the M4 in 1991. Officially adopted as a replacement for the M3 "Grease Gun" (and the Beretta M9 and M16A2 for select troops) in 1994, it was used with great success in the Balkans and in more recent conflicts, including the Afghanistan and Iraq theaters. The M4 carbine has a three-round burst firing mode, while the M4A1 carbine has a fully automatic firing mode. Both have a Picatinny rail on the upper receiver, allowing the carry handle/rear sight assembly to be replaced with other sighting devices.


title: M16 rifle

text: Colt also returned to the original "Commando" idea, with its Model 733, essentially a modernized XM177E2 with many of the features introduced on the M16A2.


title: M16 rifle

text: The Diemaco C7 and C8 are updated variants of the M16 developed and used by the Canadian Forces and are now manufactured by Colt Canada. The C7 is a further development of the experimental M16A1E1. Like earlier M16s, it can be fired in either semi-automatic or automatic mode, instead of the burst function selected for the M16A2. The C7 also features the structural strengthening, improved handguards, and longer stock developed for the M16A2. Diemaco changed the trapdoor in the buttstock to make it easier to access and a spacer of is available to adjust stock length to user preference. The most easily noticeable external difference between American M16A2s and Diemaco C7s is the retention of the A1 style rear sights. Not easily apparent is Diemaco's use of hammer-forged barrels. The Canadians originally desired to use a heavy barrel profile instead.


title: M16 rifle

text: The C7 has been developed to the C7A1, with a Weaver rail on the upper receiver for a C79 3.4×28 optical sight, and to the C7A2, with different furniture and internal improvements. The Diemaco produced Weaver rail on the original C7A1 variants does not meet the M1913 "Picatinny" standard, leading to some problems with mounting commercial sights. This is easily remedied with minor modification to the upper receiver or the sight itself. Since Diemaco's acquisition by Colt to form Colt Canada, all Canadian produced flattop upper receivers are machined to the M1913 standard.


title: M16 rifle

text: The C8 is the carbine version of the C7. The C7 and C8 are also used by "Hærens Jegerkommando", "Marinejegerkommandoen" and FSK (Norway), Denmark's Armed Forces (all branches), and the Netherlands Armed Forces as its main infantry weapon. Following trials, variants became the weapon of choice of the British SAS.


title: M16 rifle

text: The Mk 4 Mod 0 was a variant of the M16A1 produced for the U.S. Navy SEALs during the Vietnam War and adopted in April 1970. It differed from the basic M16A1 primarily in being optimized for maritime operations and coming equipped with a sound suppressor. Most of the operating parts of the rifle were coated in Kal-Guard, a hole of was drilled through the stock and buffer tube for drainage, and an O-ring was added to the end of the buffer assembly. The weapon could reportedly be carried to the depth of 200 feet (60 m) in water without damage. The initial Mk 2 Mod 0 Blast Suppressor was based on the U.S. Army's Human Engineering Lab's (HEL) M4 noise suppressor. The HEL M4 vented gas directly from the action, requiring a modified bolt carrier. A gas deflector was added to the charging handle to prevent gas from contacting the user. Thus, the HEL M4 suppressor was permanently mounted though it allowed normal semi-automatic and automatic operation. If the HEL M4 suppressor were removed, the weapon would have to be manually loaded after each single shot. On the other hand, the Mk 2 Mod 0 blast suppressor was considered an integral part of the Mk 4 Mod 0 rifle, but it would function normally if the suppressor were removed. The Mk 2 Mod 0 blast suppressor also drained water much more quickly and did not require any modification to the bolt carrier or to the charging handle. In the late 1970s, the Mk 2 Mod 0 blast suppressor was replaced by the Mk 2 blast suppressor made by Knight's Armament Company (KAC). The KAC suppressor can be fully submerged and water will drain out in less than eight seconds. It will operate without degradation even if the rifle is fired at the maximum rate of fire. The U.S. Army replaced the HEL M4 with the much simpler Studies in Operational Negation of Insurgency and Counter-Subversion (SIONICS) MAW-A1 noise and flash suppressor.


title: M16 rifle

text: Developed to increase the effective range of soldiers in the designated marksman role, the U.S. Navy developed the Mark 12 Special Purpose Rifle (SPR). Configurations in service vary, but the core of the Mark 12 SPR is an 18" heavy barrel with muzzle brake and free float tube. This tube relieves pressure on the barrel caused by standard handguards and greatly increases the potential accuracy of the system. Also common are higher magnification optics ranging from the 6× power Trijicon ACOG to the Leupold Mark 4 Tactical rifle scopes. Firing Mark 262 Mod 0 ammunition with a 77gr Open tip Match bullet, the system has an official effective range of 600+ meters. However published reports of confirmed kills beyond 800 m from Iraq and Afghanistan were not uncommon.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M231 Firing Port Weapon (FPW) is an adapted version of the M16 assault rifle for firing from ports on the M2 Bradley. The infantry's normal M16s are too long for use in a "buttoned up" fighting vehicle, so the FPW was developed to provide a suitable weapon for this role.


title: M16 rifle

text: With the expanding Vietnam War, Colt developed two rifles of the M16 pattern for evaluation as possible light sniper or designated marksman rifles. The Colt Model 655 M16A1 Special High Profile was essentially a standard A1 rifle with a heavier barrel and a scope bracket that attached to the rifle's carry handle. The Colt Model 656 M16A1 Special Low Profile had a special upper receiver with no carrying handle. Instead, it had a low-profile iron sight adjustable for windage and a Weaver base for mounting a scope, a precursor to the Colt and Picatinny rails. It also had a hooded front iron sight in addition to the heavy barrel. Both rifles came standard with either a Leatherwood/Realist scope 3–9× Adjustable Ranging Telescope. Some of them were fitted with a Sionics noise and flash suppressor. Neither of these rifles were ever standardized.


title: M16 rifle

text: These weapons can be seen in many ways to be predecessors of the U.S. Army's SDM-R and the USMC's SAM-R weapons.


title: M16 rifle

text: The M16 is the most commonly manufactured 5.56×45 mm rifle in the world. Currently, the M16 is in use by 15 NATO countries and more than 80 countries worldwide. Together, numerous companies in the United States, Canada, and China have produced more than 8,000,000 rifles of all variants. Approximately 90% are still in operation. The M16 replaced both the M14 rifle and M2 carbine as standard infantry rifle of the U.S. armed forces. Although, the M14 continues to see limited service, mostly in sniper, designated marksman, and ceremonial roles.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. (born November 8, 1945) is an American serial killer, serial rapist, burglar, and former police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. He is responsible for at least three separate crime sprees throughout the state, each of which spawned a different nickname in the press, before it became evident that they were committed by the same person. In the San Joaquin Valley, he was known as the Visalia Ransacker before moving to the Sacramento area, where he became known as the East Area Rapist and was linked by "modus operandi" to additional attacks in Contra Costa County, Stockton, and Modesto. DeAngelo committed serial murders in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Orange counties, where he was known as the Night Stalker and later the Original Night Stalker (owing to serial killer Richard Ramirez also being called the "Night Stalker"). He is believed to have taunted and threatened both victims and police in obscene phone calls and possibly written communications.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: During the decades-long investigation, several suspects were cleared through DNA evidence, alibi, or other investigative methods. In 2001, after DNA testing indicated that the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker were the same person, the combined acronym EARONS came into use. The case was a factor in the establishment of California's DNA database, which collects DNA from all accused and convicted felons in California and has been called second only to Virginia's in effectiveness in solving cold cases. To heighten awareness of the case, crime writer Michelle McNamara coined the name Golden State Killer in early 2013.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On June 15, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local law-enforcement agencies held a news conference to announce a renewed nationwide effort, offering a $50,000 reward for the Golden State Killer's capture. On April 24, 2018, the State of California charged 72-year-old DeAngelo with eight counts of first-degree murder, based upon DNA evidence; investigators had identified members of DeAngelo's family through forensic genetic genealogy. This was also the first announcement connecting the Visalia Ransacker crimes to DeAngelo. Owing to California's statute of limitations on pre-2017 rape cases, DeAngelo could not be charged with 1970s rapes; but he was charged in August 2018 with thirteen related kidnapping and abduction attempts. On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo pled guilty to multiple counts of murder and kidnapping. As part of a plea bargain that spared him the death penalty, DeAngelo also admitted to numerous crimes with which he had not been formally charged, including rapes. On August 21, 2020, DeAngelo was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was born on November 8, 1945, in Bath, New York, to Kathleen Louise DeGroat and Joseph James DeAngelo, a sergeant in the United States Army. He has two sisters and a younger brother. A relative reported that when DeAngelo was a young child, he witnessed the rape of his seven year-old sister by two airmen in a warehouse in West Germany, where the family was stationed at the time. Following DeAngelo's conviction, one of his sisters claimed that he was abused by their father while he was growing up.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Between 1959 and 1960, DeAngelo attended Mills Junior High School in Rancho Cordova, California. Beginning in 1961, he attended Folsom High School, from which he received a GED certificate in 1964. He played on the school's junior varsity baseball team. Prosecutors reported that DeAngelo committed burglaries and tortured and killed animals during his teenage years.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo joined the United States Navy in September 1964 and served for 22 months during the Vietnam War as a damage controlman on the cruiser and the destroyer tender . Beginning in August 1968, DeAngelo attended Sierra College in Rocklin, California; he graduated with an associate degree in police science, with honors. He attended Sacramento State University in 1971, where he earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. DeAngelo later took post-graduate courses and further police training at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, then completed a 32-week police internship at the police department in Roseville.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: From May 1973 to August 1976, DeAngelo was a burglary unit police officer in Exeter, having relocated from Citrus Heights. He then served in Auburn from August 1976 to July 1979, when he was arrested for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent; he was sentenced to six months of probation and fired that October.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: During the process of being fired, DeAngelo threatened to kill the chief of police and allegedly stalked the chief's house.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: In May 1970, DeAngelo became engaged to nursing student Bonnie Jean Colwell, a classmate at Sierra College, but she broke it off in 1971 after DeAngelo became manipulative and abusive, culminating in his demand that she help him cheat on an abnormal psychology test. After the break up he attempted to force her to marry him by threatening her with a gun.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: In November 1973, he married Sharon Marie Huddle of Citrus Heights. The wedding was held at Auburn First Congregational Church. In 1980, they purchased a house in Citrus Heights, where he was eventually arrested decades later. Huddle became a divorce attorney in 1982, and they had three daughters: two were born in Sacramento and one was born in Los Angeles.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: The couple separated in 1991. In July 2018, several months after DeAngelo's arrest, Huddle filed for a divorce, which was finalized the following year.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo's employment history during the 1980s is unknown. From 1990 until his retirement in 2017, he worked as a truck mechanic at a Save Mart Supermarkets distribution center in Roseville. He was arrested in 1996 for failing to pay for gas, but the charge was dismissed.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo's brother-in-law claimed that DeAngelo would casually bring up the East Area Rapist in conversation around the time of the original crimes. Neighbors reported that he frequently engaged in loud, profane outbursts. One neighbor reported that his family received a phone message from DeAngelo threatening to "deliver a load of death" because of their barking dog. He was living with a daughter and granddaughter at the time of his arrest.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DNA evidence linked DeAngelo to eight murders in Goleta, Ventura, Dana Point, and Irvine; two other murders in Goleta, lacking DNA evidence, were linked by "modus operandi". DeAngelo pleaded guilty to three other murders: two in Rancho Cordova and one in Visalia. He also committed more than 50 known rapes in the California counties of Sacramento, Contra Costa, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Yolo; and he was linked to hundreds of incidents of thefts, burglaries, vandalism, peeping, stalking, and prowling.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: It was long suspected that the training ground of the criminal who became the East Area Rapist was Visalia, (although earlier Visalia crimes dating back as early as May 1973 and other sprees like that of the "Cordova Cat Burglar" and the "Exeter Ransacker" as well as Visalia burglaries that took place after the McGowen shooting, are now suspected to be linked as well). Over a period of 20 months, DeAngelo is believed to have been responsible for one murder and around 120 burglaries.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: In late April 2018, the Visalia chief of police stated that while there was no DNA linking DeAngelo to the Central Valley cases, his department had other evidence that played a role in the investigation; and he was "confident that the Visalia Ransacker has been captured". Though the statutes of limitations for the burglaries have each expired, DeAngelo was formally charged on August 13, 2018, with the first degree murder of Claude Snelling in 1975. In 2020, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to the Snelling murder.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: The first recorded ransacking occurred on March 19, 1974, when a sum of $50 in coins was stolen from a piggy bank. Most of the Ransacker's activities involved breaking into houses, rifling through or vandalizing the owner's possessions, scattering women's underclothes, and stealing a range of low-value items while often ignoring banknotes and higher-valued items in plain sight. The Ransacker would also often arrange or display items in the house. Items emptied included piggy banks and coin jars; and stolen items often included Blue Chip Stamps, foreign or historic coins, and personal items (such as single earrings, cuff-links, rings, or medallions) but also included six weapons and various types of ammunition. Multiple same-day ransackings were common as well, including 12 separate incidents on November 30, 1974.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On September 11, 1975, DeAngelo broke into the home of Claude Snelling, 45, at 532 Whitney Lane (now South Whitney Street). Snelling, a journalism professor at the College of the Sequoias, had previously chased a prowler discovered under his daughter's window around 10:00  on February 5, 1975. On September 11, he was awakened around 2:00  by strange noises. Upon leaving his bedroom, Snelling ran through the open back door and confronted a ski-masked intruder in his carport attempting to kidnap his daughter, who had been subdued with threats of being stabbed or shot. Snelling was then shot twice, staggered back into the house to his wife, and later died. After the shooting, the assailant fled the scene, leaving behind a stolen bicycle at 615 Redwood Street. After the murder, Beth Snelling, 16, underwent hypnosis in order to gather further details. The Visalia police also committed more resources to apprehending the Ransacker, and a $4,000 reward (equivalent to $19,366 in 2021) was posted. Nighttime stakeouts were set up near houses that he had previously prowled, but the ransackings continued.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Around 8:30  on December 12, 1975, a masked man entered the back yard of a house at 1505 W. Kaweah Avenue, near where the Ransacker had been reported to frequent. When Detective William McGowen (on stakeout inside the garage) attempted to detain the man, the suspect shrieked, removed his mask, and feigned surrender after McGowen fired a warning shot. However, after jumping the fence to the house at 1501, he also pulled out a revolver with his left hand and fired once near McGowen's face, shattering his flashlight. Nearby officers rushed to aid McGowen, and the shooter was able to escape. Items collected as evidence included the flashlight, tennis shoe tracks, and dropped loot, namely Blue Chip Stamps and a sock full of coins.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo moved to the Sacramento area in 1976, where his crimes escalated from burglary to rape. The crimes initially centered on the then-unincorporated areas of Carmichael, Citrus Heights, and Rancho Cordova, east of Sacramento. His initial "modus operandi" was to stalk middle-class neighborhoods at night in search of women who were alone in one-story homes, usually near a school, creek, trail, or other open space that would provide a quick escape. He was seen a number of times but always successfully fled; on one occasion, he shot and seriously wounded a young pursuer.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Most victims had seen (or heard) a prowler on their property before the attacks, and many had experienced break-ins. Police believed that the offender would conduct extensive reconnaissance in a targeted neighborhood—looking into windows and prowling in yards—before selecting a home to attack. It was believed that he sometimes entered the homes of future victims to unlock windows, unload guns, and plant ligatures for later use. He frequently telephoned future victims, sometimes for months in advance, to learn their daily routines.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Although DeAngelo originally targeted women alone in their homes or with children, he eventually preferred attacking couples. This change in "modus operandi" is believed to be a direct result of media reports claiming he only attacked women alone in the home. His usual method was to break in through a window or sliding glass door and awaken the sleeping occupants with a flashlight, threatening them with a handgun. Victims were subsequently bound with ligatures (often shoelaces) that he found or brought with him, then blindfolded and gagged with towels that he had ripped into strips. The female victim was usually forced to tie up her male companion before she was bound. The bindings were often so tight that the victims' hands were numb for hours after being untied. He then separated the couple, often stacking dishes on the male's back and threatening to kill everyone in the house if he heard them rattle. He would move the woman to the living room and rape her, often repeatedly. A decade later, police reported that DeAngelo repeatedly said, “I hate you Bonnie,” during a 1978 rape, the 37th attack.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo sometimes spent hours in the home ransacking closets and drawers, eating food in the kitchen, drinking beer, raping the woman again, or making additional threats. Victims sometimes thought he had left the house before he "jump[ed] from the darkness". He typically stole items—often personal objects and items of little value, but occasionally cash and firearms. He then crept away, leaving victims uncertain if he had left. He was believed to escape on foot through a series of yards and then use a bicycle to go home or to a car, making extensive use of parks, schoolyards, creek beds, and other open spaces that kept him off the street.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: The East Area Rapist operated in Sacramento County from the first attacks in June 1976 until May 1977. After a three-month gap, he struck in nearby San Joaquin County in September before returning to Sacramento for all but one of the next ten attacks. The rapist attacked five times during the summer of 1978 in Stanislaus and Yolo counties before disappearing again for three months. Attacks then moved primarily to Contra Costa County in October and lasted until July 1979.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: A young Sacramento couple—Brian Maggiore, a military policeman at Mather Air Force Base, and his wife Katie Maggiore—were walking their dog in the Rancho Cordova area on the night of February 2, 1978, near where five East Area Rapist attacks had occurred. The Maggiores fled after a confrontation in the street but were chased down and shot to death. Some investigators suspected that they had been murdered by the East Area Rapist because of their proximity to the other attacks' locations, and a shoelace was found nearby. The FBI announced on June 15, 2016, that it was confident that the East Area Rapist had murdered the Maggiores. On June 29, 2020, DeAngelo entered a plea of guilty to these murders.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Shortly after the rape committed on July 5, 1979, DeAngelo moved to southern California and began killing his victims, first striking in Santa Barbara County in October. The attacks lasted until 1981 (with a lone 1986 attack). Only the couple in the first attack survived, alerting neighbors and forcing the intruder to flee; the other victims were murdered by gunshot or bludgeoning. Since DeAngelo was not linked to these crimes for decades, he was known as the Night Stalker in the area, before being renamed the Original Night Stalker after serial killer Richard Ramirez received the former nickname.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On October 1, an intruder broke in and tied up a Goleta couple. Alarmed at hearing him say, "I'll kill 'em" to himself, the man and woman tried to escape when he left the room; and the woman screamed. Realizing that the alarm had been raised, the intruder fled on a bicycle. A neighbor (an FBI agent) responded to the noise and pursued the perpetrator, who abandoned the bicycle and a knife and fled on foot through local backyards. The attack was later linked to the Offerman–Manning murders by shoe prints and twine used to bind the victims.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On December 30, 44 year-old Robert Offerman and 35 year-old Debra Alexandra Manning were found shot to death at Offerman's condominium on Avenida Pequena in Goleta. Offerman's bindings were untied, indicating that he had lunged at the attacker. Neighbors had heard gunshots. Paw prints of a large dog were found at the scene, leading to speculation that the killer may have brought one with him. The killer had also broken into the vacant adjoining residence and stolen a bicycle, later found abandoned on a street north of the scene, from a third residence in the complex.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On March 13, 33 year-old Charlene Smith and 43 year-old Lyman Smith were found murdered in their Ventura home; Charlene Smith had been raped. A log from a woodpile on the side of the house was used to bludgeon the victims to death. Their wrists and ankles had been bound with drapery cord. An unusual Chinese knot, a diamond knot, was used on Charlene's wrists; the same knot was noted in the East Area Rapist attacks, at least one confirmed case of which was publicly known. The murderer was, therefore, briefly given the name Diamond Knot Killer.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On August 19, 24 year-old Keith Eli Harrington and 27 year-old Patrice Briscoe Harrington were found bludgeoned to death in their home on Cockleshell Drive in Dana Point's Niguel Shores gated community. Patrice Harrington had also been raped. Although there was evidence that the Harringtons' wrists and ankles were bound, no murder weapon or ligatures were found at the scene. The Harringtons had been married for three months at the time of their deaths. Patrice was a nurse in Irvine, and Keith was a medical student at UC Irvine. Keith's brother Bruce later spent nearly $2 million supporting California Proposition 69, authorizing DNA collection from all California felons and certain other criminals.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On February 6, 28 year-old Manuela Witthuhn was raped and murdered in her Irvine home. Although Witthuhn's body had signs of being tied before she was bludgeoned, no murder weapon or ligatures were found. Though the victim was married, her husband was away, hospitalized; and she was alone at the time of the attack. Witthuhn's television was found in the backyard, possibly the killer's attempt to make the crime appear to be a botched robbery.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On July 27, 35 year-old Cheri Domingo and 27 year-old Gregory Sanchez became the Original Night Stalker's tenth and eleventh murder victims. Both were attacked in Domingo's residence on Toltec Way in Goleta (several blocks south of Robert Offerman's condominium), where she was living temporarily; it was owned by a relative and up for sale. The offender entered the house through a small bathroom window. Sanchez had not been tied and was shot and wounded in the cheek before he was bludgeoned to death with a garden tool.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Some believe that Sanchez may have realized he was dealing with the man responsible for the Offerman–Manning murders and tried to tackle the killer rather than be tied up. Again, no neighbors responded to the gunshot. Sanchez's head was covered with clothes pulled from the closet. Domingo was raped and bludgeoned; bruises on her wrists and ankles indicated that she had been tied, although the restraints were missing. A piece of shipping twine was found near the bed, and fibers from an unknown source were scattered over her body. Authorities believed that the attacker may have worked as a painter or in a similar job at the Calle Real Shopping Centre.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On May 4, 18 year-old Janelle Lisa Cruz was found after she was raped and bludgeoned to death in her Irvine home. Her family was on vacation in Mexico at the time of the attack. A pipe wrench, reported missing by Cruz's stepfather, was thought to be the murder weapon.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Initially, investigators in respective jurisdictions did not think the southern California murders were connected. A Sacramento detective strongly believed that the East Area Rapist was responsible for the Goleta attacks, but the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office attributed them to a local career criminal who was later murdered. Unaware of the Goleta murders, local police in surrounding jurisdictions followed false leads related to men who were close to the female victims. One person, later cleared, was charged with two of the murders. Many years later, the cases were linked almost entirely by DNA testing.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: In December 1977, someone claiming to be the East Area Rapist sent a poem, "Excitement's Crave", to "The Sacramento Bee", the Sacramento mayor's office, and television station KVIE. On December 11, a masked man eluded pursuit by law-enforcement personnel after alerting authorities by telephone that he would strike on Watt Avenue that night.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: During the investigation in Danville of the 42nd attack, investigators discovered three sheets of notebook paper near where a suspicious vehicle had reportedly been parked. They believe the pages were dropped accidentally, perhaps by falling out of a bag. The first sheet appears to be a homework essay on General George Armstrong Custer.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: The second sheet contains a journal-style entry describing a teacher who made students write lines, which the author found humiliating:


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On the last sheet was a hand-drawn map of what appears to be a suburban neighborhood, with the word "punishment" scrawled across the reverse side. Investigators were unable to identify the area depicted in the map, although the artist clearly had knowledge of architectural layout and landscape design. According to Detective Larry Pool, the map is a fantasy location representing the rapist's desired striking ground.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On March 18, 1977, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office received three calls from a man claiming to be the East Area Rapist; none were recorded. The first two calls, received at 4:15 and 4:30 , were identical and ended with the caller laughing and hanging up. The final call came in at 5:00 , with the caller saying: "I'm the East Side Rapist and I have my next victim already stalked and you guys can't catch me."


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: A man claiming to be the rapist called the Sacramento Police Department, saying: "You're never gonna catch me, East Area Rapist, you dumb fuckers; I'm gonna fuck again tonight. Be careful!" The call was recorded and later released. As with the previous call, the next victim was attacked that night.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: During the 1977 Christmas season, a previous victim received a phone call that she attributed to her attacker. The caller said, "Merry Christmas, it's me again!"


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Shortly before 10:00  on December 10, 1977, Sacramento authorities received two identical calls, saying, "I am going to hit tonight. Watt Avenue." Both were recorded, and the caller was identified as the same person who placed the call on December 2. Law-enforcement patrols were increased that night; and at 2:30 , a masked man eluded officers after being seen bicycling on the Watt Avenue bridge. When spotted again at 4:30 , he discarded the bicycle and fled on foot. The bicycle had been stolen.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: The first known rape victim received a wrong-number call asking for "Ray" on January 2, 1978. The call was recorded, and police suspect that it may be the same caller who made a threatening call to her later that evening. That call was also recorded and identified by the victim as the voice of her assailant. The caller said, "Gonna kill you ... gonna kill you ... gonna kill you ... bitch ... bitch ... bitch ... bitch ... fuckin' whore."


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: A man claiming to be the East Area Rapist called the Contact Counseling Service and said, "I have a problem. I need help because I don't want to do this anymore." After a short conversation the caller said, "I believe you are tracing this call" and hung up.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: In 1982, a previous victim received a call at her place of work—a Denny's restaurant—during which the rapist threatened to rape her again. According to Contra Costa County investigator Paul Holes, the rapist must have chanced to patronize the restaurant and recognized his victim there.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: In 1991, a previous victim received a phone call from the perpetrator and spoke with him for one minute. She could hear a woman and children in the background, leading to speculation that he had a family.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On April 6, 2001, one day after an article in "The Sacramento Bee" linked the Original Night Stalker and the East Area Rapist, a victim of the rapist received a call from him; he asked, "Remember when we played?"


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Before officially connecting the Original Night Stalker to the East Area Rapist in 2001, some law-enforcement officials (particularly from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department) sought to link the Goleta cases as well. The links were primarily due to similarities in "modus operandi". One of the already-linked Original Night Stalker double murders occurred in Ventura, southeast of Goleta; and the remaining murders were committed in Orange County, an additional southeast. In 2001, several rapes in Contra Costa County believed to have been committed by the East Area Rapist were linked by DNA to the Smith, Harrington, Witthuhn, and Cruz murders. A decade later, DNA evidence indicated that the Domingo–Sanchez murders were also committed by the East Area Rapist (also identified as the Golden State Killer).


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On June 15, 2016, the FBI released further information related to the crimes, including new composite sketches and crime details; a $50,000 reward was also announced. The initiative included a national database to support law enforcement's investigating of the crimes and to handle tips and information. Eventually, "through the use of genetic genealogy searching on GEDmatch, investigators identified distant relatives of DeAngelo—including family members directly related to his great-great-great-great grandfather dating back to the 1800s. Based on this information, investigators built about 25 different family trees. The tree that eventually linked to [DeAngelo] alone contained approximately 1,000 people. Over the course of a few months, investigators used other clues like age, sex, and place of residence to rule out suspects populating these trees, eliminating suspects one by one until only DeAngelo remained."


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: Identification of DeAngelo began in December 2017 when officials, led by detective Paul Holes and FBI lawyer Steve Kramer, uploaded the killer's DNA profile from a Ventura County rape kit to the personal genomics website GEDmatch. The website identified ten to twenty people who had the same great-great-great grandparents as the Golden State Killer; a team of five investigators working with genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter used this list to construct a large family tree. From this tree, they established two suspects; one was ruled out by a relative's DNA test, leaving DeAngelo the main suspect.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On April 18 2018, a DNA sample was surreptitiously collected from the door handle of DeAngelo's car; another sample was later collected from a tissue found in DeAngelo's curbside garbage can. Both were matched to samples associated with Golden State Killer crimes. Since DeAngelo's arrest, some commentators have raised concerns about the ethics of the secondary use of personally identifiable information.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: After DeAngelo was arrested, he was also suspected of committing the 1974 Visalia rape and murder of Jennifer Armour, the 1975 Exeter rape and murder of Donna Jo Richmond, and a 1978 murder of a woman and her son in Simi Valley, but was cleared as a suspect in all three murders by DNA testing. Victoria Police ruled out a link between DeAngelo, who docked in Australia during his Navy service, and the Melbourne serial child rapist and murderer known as "Mr Cruel".


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: On April 24, 2018, Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies arrested DeAngelo. He was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. On May 10, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's office charged DeAngelo with four additional counts of first-degree murder.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo made a confession of sorts after his arrest that cryptically referred to an inner personality named "Jerry", who had forced him to commit the wave of crimes that ended abruptly in 1986. According to Sacramento County prosecutor Thien Ho, DeAngelo said the following to himself while alone in a police interrogation room after his arrest in April 2018: "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 destroyed all their lives. So now I've got to pay the price."


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo could not be charged with rapes or burglaries, as the statute of limitations had expired for those offenses, but he was charged with 13 counts of murder and 13 counts of kidnapping. DeAngelo was arraigned in Sacramento on August 23, 2018. In November 2018, prosecutors from six involved counties collectively estimated that the case could cost taxpayers $20 million and last ten years. At an April 10, 2019, court proceeding, prosecutors announced that they would seek the death penalty, and the judge ruled that cameras could be allowed inside the courtroom during the trial. On March 4, 2020, DeAngelo offered to plead guilty if the death penalty were taken off the table, which was not accepted at the time. On June 29, as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, DeAngelo pleaded guilty to thirteen counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances (including murder committed during burglaries and rapes), as well as thirteen counts of kidnapping. On August 21, 2020, DeAngelo received multiple consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. DeAngelo offered a brief apology after listening to days of pre-sentencing victim impact statements: "I've listened to all your statements, each one of them, and I'm truly sorry to everyone I've hurt."


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: DeAngelo committed most of the offenses while he was married and raising a family. Neither his wife nor his children ever suspected he was committing serious crimes. His eldest daughter thought he was the perfect father, while his wife believed his reasons for being away from home.


title: Joseph James DeAngelo

text: As of February 2021, DeAngelo is incarcerated in protective custody at California State Prison, Corcoran.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: Daniel Joseph Levy (born 9 August 1983) is a Canadian actor, writer and producer. Born in Toronto to parents Eugene Levy and Deborah Divine, he began his career as a television host on MTV Canada. He received international prominence and critical acclaim for starring as David Rose in the CBC sitcom "Schitt's Creek" (2015–2020), which he co-created with his father and co-starred in with him and his sister, Sarah Levy.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: For producing, writing, directing, and acting in the final season of "Schitt's Creek", Levy became the first person to win a Primetime Emmy Award in all four major disciplines in a single year. His work on the show also earned him four Canadian Screen Awards out of 18 nominations, among other accolades.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: Levy was born in Toronto, Ontario. He attended high school at North Toronto Collegiate Institute and later pursued film production at York University and Ryerson University.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: His father is Jewish and his mother is Protestant. Levy had a bar mitzvah. The family celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: Levy began his career as one of the original seven co-hosts on the now defunct MTV Canada flagship series "MTV Live". He gained prominence as co-host (with Jessi Cruickshank) of MTV Canada's "The After Show" and its various incarnations, such as "The Hills: The After Show" and "The City: Live After Show". The shows were occasionally broadcast in the United States as well.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: Following "The After Show"'s cancellation and Cruickshank's departure, Levy wrote, produced and starred in his own Christmas Special for MTV, "Daniel Levy's Holi-Do's & Don'ts"; and co-hosted the MTV Movie Awards Red Carpet, the "X-Factor" pre-show, and national coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics for CTV. (He also ran a leg of the Olympic torch relay.) He left MTV Canada in 2011 after five years with the network.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: As an actor, he has appeared in a four-episode story arc of the Canadian TV series "", which premiered as a TV movie called "Degrassi Goes Hollywood". In his "Degrassi" arc, he played a film producer who hires Paige Michalchuk as the lead in a new film directed by actor Jason Mewes. He also appeared in the 2012 thriller "Cyberstalker," and in the 2013 comedy-drama film "Admission", starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In 2013, Levy formed Not a Real Company Productions (with his father Eugene Levy and principals Andrew Barnsley and Fred Levy). Their first project was a television pilot with CBC, which resulted in "Schitt's Creek". Levy also starred in the series alongside his father, sister Sarah Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy, and Chris Elliott. It is Not a Real Company Productions' first television series. Levy has spoken publicly about his character's portrayal of pansexuality, saying, "I think in certain parts of America, David's sexual ambiguity was a big question mark. (But) it was issues like that that I find quite exciting."


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: For his work on "Schitt's Creek", Levy has been nominated for numerous awards, including several Canadian Screen Awards for writing and acting, winning the awards for Best Comedy Series, Best Writing in a Comedy Program or Series in 2016, and Best Comedy Series in 2019. In 2019, the series was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. In March 2019, Levy announced that the series was renewed for a sixth and final season, and said the decision to end the series after season six on their own creative terms was a "rare privilege".


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In July 2017, it was announced that Levy would host "The Great Canadian Baking Show" with Julia Chan, which had its premiere 1 November on CBC. Controversy arose when John Doyle of "The Globe and Mail" criticized the show's first episode in a review on 30 October 2017. Included in the review was a critique of Levy's "feyness" while performing as host and a joke hinting at nepotism at CBC. While acknowledging the importance of criticism in media, Levy called the use of the word "feyness" "offensive, irresponsible, and homophobic". The "Globe"s public editor, Sylvia Stead, published a statement on 9 November explaining that "Mr. Doyle was not aware that Mr. Levy was gay and he used the term to mean preciousness". She also acknowledged that, despite the dictionary not defining "fey" as a slur, "we need to understand not just the context of words, but how they evolve and are viewed by communities that may be justly sensitive to a range of meanings." Levy and Chan returned as hosts for the series' second season, which premiered in September 2018. In March 2019, Levy announced via Twitter that he and Chan would not be returning as hosts for the series' third season, citing scheduling conflicts.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that sparked the start of the modern LGBTQ rights movement, "Queerty" named him one of the Pride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people".


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In January 2020, he and his father Eugene Levy were guest hosts of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", filling in for Ellen while she took a day off. They did many of the ordinary host activities including interviewing fellow "Schitt's Creek" cast members Catherine O'Hara and Annie Murphy.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In July 2020, "Schitt's Creek" was nominated for 15 Primetime Emmy Awards for its final season, with Levy winning Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series. It became the first comedy series to sweep the four main acting categories in a single year, the first comedy or drama series to win all seven major awards in a single year, and the most-awarded comedy in a single year, beating "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"'s record. Levy also became the first person to win an award in all four major disciplines in a single year.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In August 2020, Levy enrolled in and began to promote the 12-week self-paced Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), "Indigenous Canada", hosted by Dr. Tracy Bear (Montreal Lake First Nation) and Dr. Paul Gareau (Métis and French Canadian) of the University of Alberta. Levy also hosted twelve livestream interviews with the course instructors and weekly guest speakers to discuss topics related to each of the 12 course modules. Levy said in a tweet on 15 November 2020 that the weekly discussions were "nothing short of transformational". Levy also encouraged followers of and participants in the course to donate to the University of Alberta's Faculty of Native Studies, the only faculty of its kind in North America, promising to match donations up to $25,000.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In September 2020, Levy starred alongside Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever, Sarah Paulson, and Issa Rae in the HBO television film "Coastal Elites". The project was shot remotely and focused on the lives of five individuals navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: On 6 February 2021, Levy hosted "Saturday Night Live" with Grammy-nominated musician Phoebe Bridgers as the musical guest.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: In September 2019, Levy signed a three-year deal with ABC Signature. In September 2021, it was announced that Levy had signed an overall deal with Netflix to write and produce scripted content across film and TV.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: Levy divides his time between Toronto and Los Angeles, though he has said that London is his "favourite city," after having lived there in 2005.


title: Dan Levy (Canadian actor)

text: He previously avoided labelling his sexual orientation publicly, though in a 2015 interview with "Flare" he was called "a member of the LGBT community." In a 2020 interview with Andy Cohen, Levy said that he is "obviously gay" and has been out since he was 18.


title: System of a Down

text: System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, vocals); Shavo Odadjian (bass, backing vocals); and John Dolmayan (drums), who replaced original drummer Andy Khachaturian.


title: System of a Down

text: The band achieved commercial success with the release of five studio albums, three of which debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200. System of a Down has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, and their song "B.Y.O.B." won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2006. The band went on hiatus in 2006 and reunited in 2010. Other than two new songs in 2020 ("Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz"), System of a Down has not released a full-length record since the "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize" albums in 2005. The band has sold over 12 million records worldwide, while two of their singles, "Aerials" and "Hypnotize," reached number one on "Billboard"s Alternative Songs chart.


title: System of a Down

text: All members of System of a Down are of Armenian descent, being born to Armenian immigrants or being immigrants themselves.


title: System of a Down

text: Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian attended Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School as children, although due to their eight-year age difference they did not meet until 1992 while working on separate projects at the same recording studio. They formed a band named Soil with Tankian on vocals and keyboards, Malakian on vocals and guitar, Dave Hakopyan (who later played in The Apex Theory/Mt. Helium) on bass and Domingo "Dingo" Laranio on drums. The band hired Shavo Odadjian (another Rose and Alex Pilibos alumnus) as manager, although he eventually joined Soil on second guitar. In 1994, after only one live show at the Roxy and one jam session recording, Hakopyan and Laranio left the band.


title: System of a Down

text: After Soil split up, Tankian, Odadjian, and Malakian formed a new band, System of a Down. The group took its name from a poem that Malakian had written titled "Victims of a Down." The word "victims" was changed to "system" because Odadjian believed that it would appeal to a much wider audience and also because the group wanted their records to be alphabetically shelved closer to their musical heroes, Slayer. Odadjian switched from guitar to bass and passed on his managerial duties to Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group and its founder David "Beno" Benveniste. The band recruited drummer Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, an old school friend of Malakian and Odadjian who had played with Malakian in a band called Snowblind during their teens.


title: System of a Down

text: In early 1995, System of a Down performed under the name Soil at the Cafe Club Fais Do-Do, a nightclub in Los Angeles. Shortly after the event, System of a Down made what is known as "Untitled 1995 Demo Tape", which was not commercially released, but eventually appeared on file-sharing networks around the time of the band's success with "Toxicity" about six years later. "Demo Tape 2" was released in 1996. At the beginning of 1997, System of a Down recorded their final publicly released demo tape, "Demo Tape 3". In mid-1997, drummer Khachaturian left the band because of a hand injury (he subsequently co-founded The Apex Theory, which included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan). Khachaturian was replaced by John Dolmayan.


title: System of a Down

text: The band's first official and professionally recorded song was on a collection called "Hye Enk" ("We're Armenian" in English), an Armenian genocide recognition compilation in 1997. After playing at notable Hollywood clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go and Viper Room, the band caught attention of producer Rick Rubin, who asked them to keep in touch. Showing great interest, the group recorded "Demo Tape 4" near the end of 1997, specifically to be sent to record companies. Rubin signed the group to his American/Columbia Records, with the band celebrating the signing with a performance at The Roxy Theatre with Human Waste Project on September 12, 1997. Afterwards, System began laying down tracks that would eventually be released on their debut album with engineer Sylvia Massy. "I loved them," Rubin recalled. "They were my favourite band, but I didn't think anyone was going to like them apart from a small, likeminded group of people like me who were crazy. No one was waiting for an Armenian heavy metal band. It had to be so good that it transcended all of that."


title: System of a Down

text: In June 1998, System of a Down released their debut album, "System of a Down". They enjoyed moderate success as their first singles "Sugar" and "Spiders" became radio favorites and the music videos for both songs were frequently aired on MTV. After the release of the album, the band toured extensively, opening for Slayer and Metallica before making their way to the second stage of Ozzfest. Following Ozzfest, they toured with Fear Factory and Incubus before headlining the Sno-Core Tour with Puya, Mr. Bungle, The Cat and Incubus providing support.


title: System of a Down

text: In November 1998, System of a Down appeared on "South Park"'s "" album, providing the music for the song "Will They Die 4 You?" Near the end of the song, Tankian can be heard saying, "Why must we kill our own kind?" a line that would later be used in the song "Boom!" Although System of a Down is credited on the album, "South Park" character Chef does not introduce them as he does most of the other artists featured on the record.


title: System of a Down

text: On September 3, 2001, System of a Down planned to launch their second album at a free concert in Hollywood as a "thank you" to fans. The concert, which was to be held in a parking lot, was set up to accommodate 3,500 people; however, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 fans showed up. Due to the large excess number of fans, the performance was canceled by fire marshals just before the group took the stage without announcement of the cancellation. Fans waited for more than an hour for the group to appear, but when a banner hanging at the back of the stage that read "System of a Down" was removed by security, the audience rushed the stage, destroying all the band's touring gear (approximately $30,000 worth of equipment) and began to riot, throwing rocks at police, breaking windows, and knocking over portable toilets. The riot lasted six hours, during which six arrests were made. The band's manager, David "Beno" Benveniste, later said that the riot could have been avoided if the group had been permitted to perform or had they been allowed to make a statement at the concert regarding the cancellation. System of a Down's scheduled in-store performance the next day was cancelled to prevent a similar riot.


title: System of a Down

text: The group's big break arrived when their second album, "Toxicity", debuted at No. 1 on the American and Canadian charts. The album has eventually achieved 3x multi-platinum certification in the United States. It was still on top in America during the week of the 9/11 attacks and the political environment caused by the attacks added to the controversy surrounding the album's hit single "Chop Suey!"; the song was taken off the radio as it contained politically sensitive lyrics according to the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum at the time such as "I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide". Regardless, the video gained constant play on MTV as did the album's second single, "Toxicity." Even with the controversy surrounding "Chop Suey!" (which earned a Grammy nomination), System of a Down still received constant airplay in the United States throughout late 2001 and 2002 with "Toxicity" and "Aerials." In May 2006, VH1 listed "Toxicity" in the number 14 slot in the "40 Greatest Metal Songs".


title: System of a Down

text: In 2001, the band went on tour with Slipknot throughout the United States. Following a performance in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Odadjian was allegedly harassed, ethnically intimidated, and was physically assaulted by security guards backstage, who then dragged him out of the venue. Odadjian received medical attention from police and later filed a suit against the security company. Despite the incident, the tour was a success and System of a Down and Slipknot went on the Pledge of Allegiance Tour together with Rammstein in 2001.