I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

While the 1970s can be remembered as a time Jimmy Carter was president, or the years following the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or when Elvis Presley died, after reading this book, I will probably always remember it as the beginning of the Golden State Killers series of rape and murder crimes.  How one man was able to commit 50 rapes and murdered over 10 people, terrorizing the state of California for over a decade.  This is I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, a book which tells McNamara’s own journey in trying to hunt down this serial killer who managed to elude the police for 44 years. 

--SPOILER ALERT--

Perhaps the stats of this crime, and the magnitude of the crime is more interesting than the book itself.  In fact, it wasn’t until merely four months ago that the Golden State Killer was caught this year (April 2018).  It wasn’t until then that this historical time period came into light with the increased popularity of McNamara’s book and as details of the crimes clarified with the help of the media.  

It began in the mid 70s when a series of rapes began to occur in Sacramento, California.  37 rapes occured in just Sacramento over the course of two years, all during the night.  There were many similarities and notable patterns about all the cases.  The rapist seemed to be attacking similar types of homes, ones that were single story, second from the corner, and he was reported to have stalked these homes months in advance before he made a move.  Neighbors reported seeing a man, and described him as average in build, 5’9’’-5’10’’ with blond hair.  He always wore a sky mask when he attacked, tied his victims with ligatures, and always stole a personal item from the house like rings, wedding bands, custom made cufflinks etc.  He scarred Sacramento and there he was known as the EAR, or East Area Rapist.  

Later, he was found to have traveled all the way down to Southern California where he committed more rapes.  However, due to the poor communication between the counties in California, he took on different nicknames wherever he attacked and only later, when DNA technology was introduced, did investigators realize this was the same man committing the same crimes.  In Southern California, he had the audacity to attack couples and it was during his time in Southern California that he began to murder his victims.  Yet, at the time, the police had not linked the cases in Sacramento with the cases in Southern California, and this was not made possible until DNA technology emerged.  

What I found most intriguing about this whole case, was that one man was able to outsmart 44 years worth of investigation and nearly two generations of police officers.  No DNA database found any similarities in the genetic code, and the crimes just kept rising.  As McNamara illustrates, investigators tried many ways to locate where the GSK lived and where he was from by mapping out the locations of his crime, which could show familiarity in a particular area or not.  However, after 1986, the crimes stopped.  They’d been ongoing for 12 years straight and even then, neither a face nor a name could be pinpointed.  I still wonder what made the GSK stop, and I believe it’s due to the evolution of technology.  I would guess he was getting scared of tech’s power, or maybe investigators were beginning to close the gap after DNA technology was introduced.  

--END OF SPOILER--

McNamara writes in a detailed, fluent voice about her own journey through interviewing victims, and her own research.  McNamara was not an investigator herself, but rather, used a power search tool, Google, as her means for investigation.  She writes a fast-paced, riveting novel and to this day, the whole idea of the case scares me.  While I was reading about the rape scenes and the details as McNamara puts the pieces of the puzzle together, I remember I kept looking out the window of my house, and against regular intuition, pulling the drapes of the windows closed.  McNamara’s writing makes the reader feel as if they are there.  She also collaborated heavily with top investigators in the case, including Paul Holes.  Sadly, while McNamara died before having finished the book, the documents and the almost complete book she’s left behind has publicized and educated the public on one shady and underreported upon serial killer in our past.