I'll Be Gone in the Dark

I'm so glad this man was finally brought to justice.

Joseph James DeAngelo was sentenced to 12 life sentences + eight years.

He had 40+ years to walk around without a single person knowing who he is or what he'd done. He got married, had three children, and even stayed in the area!

No one expected a former police officer to be the man behind the mask.

The man who raped 50 women.

The man who killed 13 people.

The man who burglarized 120 homes.

Michelle McNamara dedicated the final years of her life to learning everything that was to know about the man she dubbed "Golden State Killer." She passed away before his name and face was brought to light.

Michelle was a true crime sleuth at heart. With the internet at her fingertips, she was determined to bring this case into the public eye. For years, no one had ever even heard of the East Area Rapist (EAR) or the Original Night Stalker (ONS), commonly combined as EAR/ONS. At the height of his 10 year crime spree, DNA testing began to make its way into crime labs all over the country. Which, in my opinion, is why he slowed down and eventually halted his voyeuristic rapes and murders. Being a cop himself, he knew that this new technology could break the case wide open.

 

I knew very little about this case before reading I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

But Michelle immediately began laying out the facts of the case. It's amazing to me the levels of planning needed to walk away without leaving a trace of evidence. Not only was he stalking his victims, he was casing the entire neighborhood. He knew their schedules, he knew their routines, he knew the layouts of all their freaking houses. Victims could hear him walking on their damn roofs. Yet he evaded capture for nearly FOUR DECADES.

 

It bothers me that not all cold cases will get their day in the sun, knowing that generations of families will go on without ever knowing the truth.