The Golden State Killer Book Report

Michele McNamara, a late true-crime journalist from Los Angeles, spent years bringing awareness to the “Golden State Killer” (GSK) case. She had interviewed victims, researched and visited crime scenes, worked alongside investigators, and brought together pieces of research and investigation from different cities and precincts. She even coined the nickname “The Golden State Killer”. Throughout her book, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, McNamara includes distinct victim scenarios, personal experiences, and police evidence to bring awareness and overall solve the case. By doing this, it helps to show the benefit of allowing the public to help with crime cases. The beginning of the book includes an introduction from Gillian Flynn, another true-crime

His under-the-radar quality—he moved through a series of mid-sized California towns over the span of ten years—makes him more terrifying to me."(McNamara). Throughout the second part of the book, she refers to the GSK as “EAR/ONS” or “EAR”; An acronym for “East Area Rapist/ Original Night Stalker”. Using these acronyms in her blog “True Crime Diary”, McNamara single handedly sparked public interest in her writing. Jordan Zakarin, writing for Biography, highlights that McNamara’s research and rebranding of the previously unknown serial rapist and murderer had “helped put the killer back in the spotlight, and McNamara made sure to fill her blog and articles for Los Angeles Magazine with identifying details.” (Zakarin). Without her in-depth research and overall fascination with the case, it more than likely would have stayed another case that went cold. Due to McNamara’s research and blog spotlighting the case to the media, it proceeded to reignite the police investigation. Evaluating McNamara’s blog—which is still up and available on the internet—it is surprising to see that alongside her research on The GSK, she has written on multiple other cold