I'll Be Gone in the Dark: Hunt for the Golden State Killer

California, the 1970s and '80s. A masked intruder slips into homes at night. He ties up his victims. He vanishes. For decades, he stays a ghost.

I'll Be Gone in the Dark began as Michelle McNamara's book. She was a true crime writer who spent years chasing the man she dubbed the Golden State Killer. She combed through police files, old reports and online forums. She talked with investigators and survivors. Her obsession became the engine of the story. McNamara died in 2016 before she could finish. Her research was completed by others and published in 2018. HBO later turned it into a docuseries, built around her work and the people she reached.

What makes it stand out is the voice. This isn't a cold case file. It's a portrait of someone who couldn't look away, and of the survivors who never got to. The story also didn't end with her. In April 2018, investigators arrested Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer, using genetic genealogy. In 2020 he pleaded guilty to multiple murders and kidnapping-related charges and was sentenced to life in prison. But the questions McNamara raised about how a predator evaded capture so long still linger.

Read it, watch it, or do both. Check where the docuseries is streaming now with this JustWatch search. Start tonight.