I'll Be Gone in the Dark: Who is Michelle McNamara?

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I’ll Be Gone in the Dark airs every Sunday evening on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. The six-part series is mainly told from the perspective of Michelle McNamara’s personal research including excerpts of McNamara’s book, narrated by actor Amy Ryan, alongside archival footage, handwritten notes by McNamara, personal audio notes and photographs. Express.co.uk has everything you need to know.

Who is Michelle McNamara?

Michelle McNamara was an American true crime author from Oak Park, Illinois.

She is best known for her best selling book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.

McNamara and her book is now the focus of the HBO documentary series, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

The Golden State Killer is a notorious serial killer, rapist and burglar, who is believed to have committed approximately 13 murders, more than 50 rapes and over 100 burglaries in California between 1974 and 1986.

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Sadly, McNamara’s work was released posthumously in February 2018, following her death of an accidental overdose in April 2016. She was 46-years-old.

The book was finished by true crime writers Paul Haynes, Billy Jensen and her widow, comedian Patton Oswalt.

Speaking to The Guardian, Oswalt said of his late wife: “She was just a really deep storyteller, and really good storytelling is about solving problems – and all of your problems tend to be people.

“So, with true crime, especially a cold case, it was almost like the writer and humanitarian sensibility of her was offended that we have all this technology, we have all these clues, we have all this insight: why is this person not caught?

“And I think that ended up being something that really intrigued her.”

McNamara studied English at the University of Notre Dame, graduating in 1992 with a Bachelor’s Degree.

She then earned an Master of Fine Arts in creating writing from the University of Minnesota, before moving to Los Angeles to work in the film and television industry.

McNamara married comedian Patton Oswalt in September 2005 and in 2009, they had a daughter named Alice.

McNamara’s interest in the golden state killer began in 2006 when she set up her own website TrueCrimeDiary.com.

She began by focusing on the unsolved murder of Kathleen Lombardo, who lived two blocks away from McNamara when she was younger.

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Using Google Earth, Ancestry.com, online phone records and census results, McNamara tried to get to the bottom of many cold cases.

McNamara then expanded her research into numerous unsolved rape and murders committed by a criminal known under various different nicknames.

His nicknames included the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker and the Visalia Ransacker.

McNamara coined the name the nickname Golden State Killer and due to her work, she has been credited with heightening awareness of the unsolved crimes.

Overall, she published approximately 150 articles on unsolved murder cases with eerie headings such as The Man with the Hammer, Devil in Michigan and The Desert Bunker Murders.

In 2013 and 2014, she wrote numerous articles fro Los Angeles magazines and met with true crime investigative journalist, Billy Jensen, drawing more attention to the unsolved cases.

The hunt to find the Golden State Killer had been a decades-long investigation.

In 2001, DNA testing confirmed the East Area Rapist, who committed the crimes in the Sacramento area and the Original Night Stalker who operated in and around southern California were the same people.

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Then in 2016, the FBI and local law enforcement offered a $40,528 ($50,000) reward for the capture of the Golden State Killer.

On April 24, 2018, NBC News reported 72-year-old United States Navy veteran and former police officer, Joseph James DeAngelo, was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, based on DNA evidence.

In August 2018, he was charged with 13 related kidnapping and abduction attempts.

According to The Guardian, on June 15, 2020, DeAngelo offered to plead guilty to all charges if the death penalty would be removed.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark airs Sundays on HBO and Sky Atlantic

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