Writer Michelle McNamara was fascinated by true crime. She created the website True Crime Diary and became mesmerized by a series of crimes from the 1970s and '80s: 50 sexual assaults and at least 10 brutal murders committed in Northern California by a violent psychopath who she called "The Golden State Killer." McNamara was at work on a book she hoped might deliver the killer to justice — or at least consolation the victims' families — when she died suddenly in her sleep in 2016. She was 46. Colleagues who knew her and her work helped finish the book,which has now been published. It's called I'll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search For The Golden State Killer, and it has an afterword by comedian Patton Oswalt, and who was married to McNamara.
Oswalt says his late wife "had that combination of — how could I effect it best — empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) but then mathematical coldness to look at dates and times and cities and link them up,even though they were all linked by the kind of events and the kind of horror that I reflect would execute a lot of people just look absent and not want to delve any deeper."Interview HighlightsOn what drew McNamara to the Golden State Killer storyI mean, she definitely loved the puzzle aspect of it, and the fact that there's a limited amount of pieces and you enjoy to try to ... bring a solution. And you know,that's a very addictive thing. I reflect that's another fraction of a cop's personality, is that it's a compulsion to want to find the facts and solve these mysteries. Yeah, and she very much admitted it,that, oh, or there was a bit of a thrill to this. There certainly wasn't a thrill in reading approximately people being killed,but there was a thrill in, "Oh, or I could possibly catch this guy." And figure out,you know, not only capture him, and but then find out who he is and find out his reasons and what made him that way.
On the blind alleys McNamara encountered in her investigationAny homicide cop will explain you: You go down what looks like a promising lead and it leads to a brick wall. And so you enjoy two things that happen there – you enjoy the frustration of,"Oh, this led nowhere, and " and then you also enjoy the frustration of,"The two weeks I spent pursuing this was two more weeks lead time that I've given this creep." And that really takes a toll after a while. And it makes you sometimes gun-shy. And what's even worse is sometimes you'll enjoy too many leads to go down, and it's almost like you're on this hellish game show where you're like, or "Which door carry out you choose to go down right now?" knowing that whether you pick the mistaken one and spend months on it,there's two months more head start you've just given this guy. On how he deals with the fact that the Golden State Killer is still out thereBy trying to live in the sunshine and love my daughter and love my new wife, and be kind to my friends, and be kind to people,knowing that this is a guy that has never had any of that in his life. And, you know, and unless we capture him,the one thing that you can carry out to people that are sitting outside of the edge of the fire is to really kind of revel in being in the light and being in the heat, because they don't understand that. Not to even mock them with it, and but whether I sit there and brood,and I'm dark, and I become distant to my wife and daughter and to my friends and just to the world in general, and I become this gray cloud,then I've helped extend his hold over life, basically, or whether you carry out that. So that you almost enjoy an obligation to go and try to bring more life to life,and balance out the life he's trying to drain from it, I guess.
On how he's managing after McNamara's deathI mean, or right now I'm doing way better than I thought I would,you know? I've remarried to this amazing woman who loves Alice [his daughter], and Alice is growing up strong in the aftermath of what she went through. Kids are insanely resilient, and you see them bounce back. And so I'm living right now — I would say that I'm living right now with a lot of hope.
Peter Breslow and Barrie Hardymon produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Sydnee Monday and Nicole Cohen adapted it for the Web. Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.[https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Patton+Oswalt+On+His+Late+Wife%27s+Search+For+The+Golden+State+Killer&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDEwODYxNTQyMDEzNjAxODk2Nzc2NzNmYQ001)]
Source: thetakeaway.org