For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic—one which fulfilled Michelle’s dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.
True Crime Book Reviews Blog: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
It was a book I’d had my eyes on for some time. Whenever I would stop by my local Barnes & Noble (B&N as the kids call it these days) the book was displayed at a front counter for anyone entering the massive bookstore to see. It caught my attention many times but my daughter’s insistence to go to the kids’ section before they “closed” had me bypassing the book on more than one occasion. By the time we left, I would completely forget about the book. It wasn’t until my wife accompanied us that I was able to pick the book up and read the front cover which explained all there is to know about the book. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer. True crime. I was sold.
But, for whatever reason, I opted not to make the purchase. Could it be because Amazon had it for a more enticing price? Well, yes. But not even the mighty Amazon would garner my business as I had some eBay bucks to spend before they expired and decided to make the purchase there.
I was eager to receive the book as I wanted to dive into it immediately as I had never heard about the Golden State Killer (AKA The East Area Rapist (EAR) and The Original Night Stalker) and I was intrigued. This was a person, nay, monster that eluded authorities since the 1970s has been accountable for at least 50 rapes and 12 murders that we know of, thus far.
And so, I waited… and I waited… and I waited for the book to arrive. I cursed myself for not buying from Amazon where Prime promised to have it in my mailbox in two business days. I waited some more and then on April 25, 2018, the book arrived in the mail. It was also the day when it was announced that after forty years the Golden State Killer was finally apprehended.
This was great news! I still knew nothing of the little-known serial rapist/killer, and I wanted to read about his reign of terror before news outlets like Dateline, 60 Minutes, and the 20/20 specials race to air condensed versions of this killer’s run in order to boost ratings and win the numbers for the night. No, I wanted and needed to read the book before tuning in and hearing how it all finally came to an end.
And so I read. In my car on my lunch break, in bed, before I went to sleep, in the morning before making my short trek to work, you name it. I tried getting in some reading time as much as possible, even if just to read a page or two. Finally, I finished the book, and despite my wanting to know who the perpetrator was and if Michelle McNamara and the detectives on the case came close to identifying the EAR, I was able to avoid “spoiler” territory.
After I was done reading the book, I immediately jumped online to get the scoop. I did not expect the turn of events. It turns out that the person that was committing all these hideous crimes was, in fact, a police officer at one point in his life which makes sense as to how he was able to get away with what he did.
I don’t want to harp too much on the killer. For that, you can just go online, pick up the paper, or watch TV to gather whatever information interests you. Instead, I am more interested in talking about the book’s author, Michelle McNamara, who unfortunately passed away before she was able to see justice be served. Her writing demonstrated her true passion for capturing the Golden State Killer. She wanted nothing more than for the cowardly, yet bold, rapist to be apprehended and arrested. She held her head high amongst real-life detectives conducted her very own research and poised more than just her two cents giving us incredible insights as seen through the eyes of victims, investigators, and true crime sleuths hell-bent on solving the case.
Within the pages of the book, there is an assortment of photographs of victims, investigators, forensic scientists, those who were involved in one or another in the case, and of the author herself as she researched and wrote the book. She also gives us small anecdotes about her own personal life that give us the slightest idea of who she is/was including small nuggets that talk about her husband, Patton Oswalt, and her daughter who were very much active and supportive of all she did and accomplished. McNamara died before the completion of the book, and parts of the narrative were well constructed through her meticulous and unending notes. It is without question that there was more to be said by McNamara and it is truly sad, and unfortunate, that she passed before there was a finality to the story. That being the capture of the Golden State Killer.
I leave you with a passage taken from the book. An open letter to the GSK from Ms. McNamara that I am sure is bringing a smile to her from wherever she is:
One day soon, you’ll hear a car pull up to your curb, an engine cut out. You’ll hear footsteps coming up your front walk… The doorbell rings.
No side gates are left open. You’re long past leaping over a fence. Take one of your hyper, gulping breaths. Clench your teeth. Inch timidly toward the insistent bell.
This is how it ends for you,
“You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark,” you threatened a victim once.
Open the door. Show us your face. Walk into the light.”
Michelle McNamara
That doorbell rang on April 25, 2018.