The story of Joseph James DeAngelo — or “The Golden State Killer” as he came to be known, was equal parts gripping and terrifying.
DeAngelo, a former police officer, committed at least thirteen murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California in the 1970s and ‘80s, and yet was able to evade capture until 2018. In 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his crimes.
The serial killer went by several different nicknames during his reign of terror — including the Original Night Stalker, seeing as fellow serial killer Richard Ramirez shared a similar moniker — but it was crime writer Michelle McNamara who dubbed him the Golden State Killer, and the name has since stuck.
McNamara’s true-crime book I’ll Be Gone In The Dark detailed her investigation into DeAngelo and she has been credited with keeping the case alive and in the public eye for years. Sadly, McNamara passed away in 2016 so she never saw DeAngelo brought to justice.
The series of the same name premiered in 2020, bringing McNamara’s tireless efforts to life over six episodes — all of which can be streamed on BINGE.
If you couldn’t get enough of the series the first time around, there is one more episode coming to satiate your curiosity.
A special episode premiering June 22 on BINGE closes one chapter in McNamara’s investigative work on cold cases, and brings to light another – the rape and murder of Kathy Lombardo in 1984 in McNamara’s hometown of Oak Park, Illinois.
Lombardo was 24-years-old when she was jogging in Oak Park, west of Chicago. Just over a block away from her house, she was pulled into an alleyway, sexually assaulted and killed. Although McNamara was only 14-years-old at the time, she credited visiting the crime scene — which was not far from her home — as being the event that sparked her passion for true crime.
Featuring the late McNamara’s own archival research and voice recordings, and interviews with residents of present-day Oak Park, the one-hour special highlights the trauma that persists when a crime goes unsolved, with McNamara’s work standing as a stark reminder of the importance of citizen sleuths who remain dogged in their search for the truth.
The special episode of I’ll Be Gone In The Dark premieres on June 22, 2021, only on BINGE.
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