I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer — Michelle McNamara

A stellar piece of writing in nonfiction that may have helped catch the killer McNamara chased

If you haven’t heard of Michelle McNamara or I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, let me catch you up. Michelle McNamara was a screenwriter, journalist, and true crime writer. She was married to actor Patton Oswalt, and she died unexpectedly in her sleep in 2016. In her own words, she was obsessed with true crime stories since her teenage years, and she was especially drawn in to the story of the East Area Rapist / Original Night Stalker, a serial rapist and serial killer for whom McNamara thankfully coined a new nickname, The Golden State Killer.

When McNamara died, she had finished a majority of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. Patton Oswalt and two GSK-enthusiasts that had worked with McNamara performed the remaining transformation of some of her notes and previous writings. This work is the result of that effort. And it is terrific. But what happened next is almost unbelievable.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark was released on February 27, 2018. On April 24, 2018, authorities arrested Joseph James DeAngelo and charged him with the crimes of the Golden State Killer on DNA evidence. If it’s not enough of a coincidence that these two events took place in such a short span of time, the Sheriff’s Department had matched this DNA evidence to DeAngelo by taking the killer’s DNA profile from a rape kit and uploading it to the personal genomics website GEDmatch. They were then able to construct a large family tree for the Golden State Killer and identify DeAngelo as the suspect. This exact method of uploading the killer’s DNA to an ancestry website was put forward by McNamara in the later chapters of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. The authorities say that McNamara’s book was not related to the identification of the suspect, but Oswalt says he doesn’t understand how that is possible. I’m inclined to agree with him. To think that the apprehension of the first real suspect in 40 years is unrelated to the publication of the first major book about the killer just seems silly, especially given the details and theories espoused by McNamara in the book. I think she legitimately helped catch the killer.

Regardless of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark’s effects on later events, it is a tremendous work of nonfiction. Combining stories of crimes from the 1970s and 80s with the memories of those chasing the killer since then and even McNamara’s memoir of her chase, the time-jumping narrative hits the gas pedal quickly and never lets up. It not only investigates the crimes but also the minds of those doing the investigating, giving insight into the world of law enforcement and even the serial-killer-chasers that populate internet message boards (of which McNamara was one).

Maybe what impressed me most about the book was the quality of the writing. McNamara weaves a coherent story in a unique style while sticking resolutely to the facts. It was because of this book that I first heard of the “creative nonfiction” genre. This categorization applies to books that are 100% reliant on facts but employ a styles and literary techniques reminiscent of fiction storytelling. Given this definition, I immediately thought of Erik Larson (author of The Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts) and McNamara approaches the same level of storytelling in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. When, in the extended final chapter, the narrative gives way to two other chasers of the Golden State Killer to wrap up the story, the talent disparity in the writing quality is apparent.

I am very sad that we will not get another book from Michelle McNamara, but at the same time I am grateful that Patton Oswalt and others, even through their grief, could bring McNamara’s life-long dream to fruition. Oswalt’s words, upon hearing that the Golden State Killer suspect was arrested, gave his late wife her due credit:

“I think you got him, Michelle.”