Book #1: I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
About the book:
A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.
"You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."
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.
At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.
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. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
Discussion Questions:
1. The book’s epigraph is the poem "Crime Club" by Weldon Kees. How does this poem set the tone for the story that follows?
2. Early in the book, Michelle McNamara writes, "I need to see his face. He loses his power when we know his face." What is the Golden State Killer’s power, and how would he lose this if he was identified?
3. Michelle writes about an incident in her own neighborhood in Los Angeles, when her neighbor’s house was robbed. "We make well-intentioned promises of protection we can’t always keep. I’ll look out for you." Do you think we, as a society, have lost a sense of neighborliness? What factors do you attribute to this loss? How have changes in technology, economics, architecture—house and planned community designs—impacted you, your neighborhood, and society? Is there a remedy to bring us closer together?
4. While I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a true crime story—a chronicle of the Golden State Killer—it is also a memoir. Why do you think she included the story of her childhood and relationship with her mother in this story? In the book Michelle confesses, "Writing this now, I’m struck by two incompatible truths that pain me. No one would have taken more joy from this book than my mother. And I probably wouldn’t have felt the freedom to write it until she was gone." Why couldn’t she write this book if her mother had still been alive? Why is it difficult for many people to reconcile parental expectations and disappointments with their own pursuits?
5. In following Michelle’s search to unmask the GSK, what did you learn about her and the kind of person she is? How does getting to know her shape the story and your understanding of the case as it unfolds? Meeting Michelle in these pages, does she fit with your "profile"of a true crime obsessive? How would you characterize Michelle if you were introducing her to a friend?
6. Novelist Gillian Flynn wrote the introduction to the book. How are crime novelists and true crime writers alike, and how do they differ? Do you read crime novels? If so, what draws you to them? How does the experience of reading a crime novel compare to reading a true crime account? What emotions do each elicit?
7. Michelle writes, "Sacramento’s was not an isolated problem. US crime rates show a steady rise in violent crime throughout the 1960s and ’70s, peaking in 1980." The term "serial killer" was coined in the 1970s. Why do you think so many of these serial offenders surfaced at this time?
8. What does Michelle tell us about the way crimes are investigated? What did you learn about the professionals who investigate them? What, if anything,might have helped them in their search for the GSK? How has technology improved their ability to share information? Has it in any way made solving crime more difficult?
9. In the book, Michelle reflects on the similarity between criminals like GSK and the people hunting them. "What I don’t mention is the uneasy realization I’ve had about how much our frenetic searching mirrors the compulsive behavior—the trampled flowerbeds, scratch marks on window screens, crank calls—of the one we seek." Are there other shared characteristics between these two different kinds of hunters?
10. Many of GSK’s victims were men. How did the crimes impact the surviving men and the women? Why do you think men might have a more difficult time coping with the aftermath of the kind of crime GSK perpetrated?
11. With so many attacks taking place in such a small area in Sacramento, do you think the East Area Rapist lived in one of those neighborhoods? Why do you think he chose the houses he targeted? How do you think the geography of those subdivisions contributed to the effectiveness of his attacks?
12. With the proliferation of genetic testing services, people can find out about their heritage and links to others who share their DNA. Currently, genetic testing services like 23andMe cannot upload the DNA of criminals for possible familial matches. The colleagues who finished the book after Michelle’s death use a quote from Jurassic Park to highlight the issue: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." Why can’t law enforcement use these services as a tool? Should an exception be made in cases like GSK?
13. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a living testament not only to Michelle McNamara and her unwavering commitment to this story, but to the law enforcement professionals who have pursued him. What are your impressions of the detectives? Did you find yourself judging them for failing to capture GSK?
14. Many people have investigated this case, from police detectives to amateurs. What made the GSK case so difficult to solve? His crime spree seems to have stopped in 1986. Do you have a theory that explains why he suddenly disappeared?
15. Have you seen the HBO Special, I'll be Gone in the Dark? What did you think of it in comparison to the book?
(Questions issued by the publisher).
In 2018, 40 years after some of the crimes had been committed, the police believed that they had found their man. They arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, a former Auburn, California police officer. And they way they tracked him down was truly impressive. Because investigators had DNA samples taken from the Golden State Killer's crimes, they used that to their advantage. According to the New York Times investigators set up a fake profile on the genealogy website GEDmatch and submitted the Golden State Killer's DNA. Their search turned up several distant relatives as well as some character traits for which to be on the lookout. A second New York Times article reported that the GEDmatch site had an eye color and hair predictor tool that led investigators to believe that their suspect had blue eyes and was balding. Using that and the distant relatives from the genealogy site, investigators were able to narrow down the Golden State Killer's family tree to the man they suspected: Joseph James DeAngelo. From there, officials gathered his DNA from DeAngelo's car door handle and a used tissue that he'd thrown away. His arrest followed shortly after in April 2018.
- Although the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that the Golden State Killer's DNA links him to over 175 crimes spanning between 1976 and 1986, DeAngelo faced trial for 13 murders and 13 rape-related charges. The first aforementioned NYT article reported that DeAngelo could not be charged for a series of rapes that the Golden State Killer is believed to have carried out in the '70s, due to the statute of limitations expiring.
- The Sacramento Bee reported that DeAngelo's was expected to take a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors reportedly agreed to the plea deal to avoid a lengthy and expensive trial that likely wouldn't see 74-year-old DeAngelo making it to an execution anyway. It was also a way for his living victims to see him confess.
- Per CNN, on June 29, DeAngelo followed through with the expectations and pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of kidnapping. He was also asked to say "I admit" in order to acknowledge the rapes and crimes he could not be charged for. He did admit to them.
- Since his arrest in 2018, DeAngelo has been jailed at the Sacramento County Jail. CNN reported that his sentencing is in August, after which he'll be transferred to a state prison to serve his sentence. According to CNN, he's expected to be sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. At the same time, he'll be serving 15 life terms for various weapons charges. He will also waive his right to appeal his charges and sentence. In short, he will never leave prison. And his dozens of victims and their families will finally have a little closure.
True Crime Diary Blog
Michelle McNamara’s true crime blog if you’ve not checked it out, it’s pretty fascinating if you’re into things like this...dig deeper into all she's explored.
Want something to watch? There is an I’ll Be Gone in the Dark HBO Special, 6 episodes. Also worth watching… as I watched it before I read the book and wanted to know more, which is why we read the book as our January addition to the club.
The six-part documentary series based on the book of the same name, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark explores writer Michelle McNamara’s investigation into the dark world of the violent predator she dubbed "The Golden State Killer," the man who terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s and is responsible for 50 home-invasion rapes and 12 murders.
Directed by Academy Award nominee and Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus (HBO’s Who Killed Garrett Phillips, Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper) and produced by Elizabeth Wolff, Kate Barry, Myles Kane and Josh Koury, the series is a detective story told in McNamara’s own words, through exclusive original recordings and excerpts from her book read by actor Amy Ryan. Drawing on extensive archival footage and police files as well as exclusive new interviews with detectives, survivors and family members of the killer, the series weaves together a picture of a complex and flawed investigation that challenged police for decades. The series is also a journey into the soul of McNamara, whose True Crime Diaries blog and years of relentless determination for justice for the victims helped keep the case alive and in the public eye, and who tragically died of an accidental overdose while writing her book. A meditation on obsession and loss, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark chronicles the unrelenting path of a mysterious killer and the fierce determination of one woman to bring the case to light.
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