I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2020) s01e03 Episode Script

PAT: Hey, it's Pat.
Just wanted to call
and congratulate you.
That is such awesome news.
WOMAN:
In '77, the East Area Rapist
began attacking couples.
The sex was not his thing.
The terror was the thing.
I felt shamed.
Did I wear something?
It was a time where somehow
it always came back to being
the woman's fault.
MAN: Michelle would have
very vivid dreams.
WOMAN: "There's a scream"
(READS PROMPT)
MAN: When I would wake her up,
she'd be still half
in the dream.
WOMAN:
We don't know who may be, like,
slinking by us covered in blood.
It was a hard pill to swallow
that he got away
with these things.
MAN 2: The guy's getting more
and more brutal as he goes.
He wants to kill
and he is going to kill.
(RADIO STATIC)
DETECTIVE:
Test, test, test, test, test.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(TAPE CLICKS)
WOMAN: Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
(HEAVY BREATHING)
EAST AREA RAPIST:
Gonna kill you
(WOMAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
EAST AREA RAPIST:
Gonna kill you
Bitch.
(WOMAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
-EAST AREA RAPIST: Bitch--
-(TAPE REWINDS)
-(WOMAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
-EAST AREA RAPIST: Bitch--
-(TAPE REWINDS)
-Bitch--
(WOMAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
MICHELLE MCNAMARA:
He was a lunatic.
EAST AREA RAPIST: Bitch.
MICHELLE: Unseen.
So doubly feared.
WOMAN: Hello?
MICHELLE: The danger of taking
a wrong turn in the catacombs
-always looms in this case.
-(TAPE REWINDS)
EAST AREA RAPIST:
Fucking whore.
MICHELLE: I turned
to the retired detectives.
I lamented that I felt
I was grasping at straws.
"My advice?" one said.
"Grasp a straw,
work it to dust."
("AVALANCHE"
BY AIMEE MANN PLAYING) ♪
Well, I stepped
Into an avalanche ♪
It covered up my soul ♪
When I am not this hunchback
That you see ♪
I sleep beneath
The golden hill ♪
You who wish to conquer pain ♪
You must learn
Learn to serve me well ♪
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
It definitely goes down
as one of the biggest mysteries.
That's for sure.
Just everything about it
is a mystery. Um
And it has such a boogeyman
aspect to it, you know.
He does feel like
a ghost sometimes.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MICHELLE: By 1979,
the East Area Rapist
appeared to have stopped.
It's quite possible
the East Area Rapist
takes a summer vacation
just like you do.
Let's hope he forgets
to come home again.
Our task force was--
was shut down.
And we were told that,
uh, now he's gone.
He's no longer our problem.
MICHELLE: Crompton's bosses
nearly danced with relief.
But in reality,
the East Area Rapist
had only moved 400 miles south,
where he would become known
as the Original Night Stalker.
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MICHELLE:
Goleta is a bedroom community
outside of Santa Barbara.
Despite its safe reputation,
few people would brave
San Jose Creek
alone at night.
PAUL HAYNES: Uh, Michelle and I,
it was in, uh, 2013.
We drove out here
to Santa Barbara.
And, uh, we visited
each of the scenes
associated with the killer's,
uh, activity in this area.
(MICHELLE READS)
We definitely spent time
under this bridge
and probably passed through
this area multiple times.
His footprints were seen
throughout this neighborhood.
He-- he had a unique pattern.
So, there was evidence
of him roaming
in that whole vicinity.
(LEAVES RUSTLING)
MICHELLE: Investigators felt
like they knew the night
that changed him.
October 1st, 1979.
That was the night
a Goleta couple
on Queen Ann Lane awakened
to a blinding flashlight
and a young man's
clenched-teeth whisper.
The woman was ordered
to tie up her boyfriend.
Then the intruder tied her.
He led the woman
into the living room
and made her lie face-down
on the floor,
throwing a pair of tennis shorts
over her head as a blindfold.
They heard him enter
their kitchen
chanting to himself,
(WHISPERING) "I'll kill you.
I'll kill you.
I'll kill you."
A surge of adrenaline
allowed the woman
to escape her bindings
and flee out the front door
screaming.
MICHELLE: (CHUCKLES)
Right. Yeah.
The couple's next-door neighbor
was an FBI agent.
Alerted by the woman's scream,
he came outside just in time
to see a man
furiously pedal past
on a stolen
silver Nishiki 10-speed.
STAN LOS: I saw him come out
of the driveway,
and he went this way.
MICHELLE: So you just said,
what, "Stop,"
or something like that?
-STAN: I yelled at him, yeah.
-MICHELLE: Yeah.
STAN: I got in my car.
He was in front of me.
I could see the reflector
on the bicycle.
-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.
-STAN:
Just gaining on him real quick.
MICHELLE: Yeah.
STAN: And he came
a couple hundred yards
and he dumped the bike
on the sidewalk
and he climbed over a fence.
MICHELLE: Uh-huh.
Stan Los would later catch shit
from local cops
about why
he didn't shoot the guy.
STAN:
"Why didn't you shoot him?"
MICHELLE: Oh, well
STAN: See, but all I had at
that point was a lone scream
MICHELLE: And a kid on a bike.
-STAN: and a kid on a bike.
Or a person on a bike.
-MICHELLE: Yeah. Yeah.
MICHELLE: He couldn't have
predicted that the next time
he'd emerge a few blocks over
he'd be a full-blown killer.
MICHELLE: They're lucky.
-When you think about it,
I mean, no one
-STAN: They are.
MICHELLE: After that,
no one, uh, no one survived.
This is a classic
East Area Rapist-style attack.
They don't recognize
that it's the same guy
that's been attacking up in--
up in Northern California,
you know, so they have
this standalone case.
MICHELLE: So much wasn't
considered relevant then.
But rewinding is important.
HAYNES: Among the ways
in which the East Area Rapist
victimized those whom
he targeted was stealing items
that were personal
and irreplaceable,
items like wedding rings,
jewelry that appeared
to be inherited.
Michelle felt that
if she could find,
somewhere in the wild,
one of those items,
that could be the thread
that leads her
to the East Area Rapist.
MICHELLE: I came across
sort of very similar cufflinks
with the same initials
that looked the same.
And I bought them,
and at that point, I knew
I needed to give it
to an actual detective,
you know, to see if we could
find out where these came from.
LARRY POOL: Are you recording
at this point?
MICHELLE: Um, I just wanted
to make sure I was. Yes.
POOL:
Any ideas that you have,
I'm completely open to them.
-MICHELLE: Okay.
-POOL: So
MICHELLE: I had an interview
set up with Larry Pool,
the Orange County investigator
who has led the cold case
task force since the mid '90s.
Every investigator I know
that's been given
the opportunity to examine
this case feels that
it's the case that they want
solved before they die.
MICHELLE: I take a chance
at the end of our conversation
and reach into my bag
for the cufflinks.
Well, I have to tell you,
I-- We're just--
I have insomnia sometimes.
Sometimes at 3:00
in the morning,
I would just start googling
and look for things.
-POOL: Me too.
-MICHELLE: Um (CHUCKLES)
So, you know, 50 times,
nothing happened.
Then, lo and behold,
I found some cufflinks.
So, it's slightly unusual.
'Cause you never know.
POOL: I will, uh
MICHELLE:
No, you can have them.
-POOL: I can.
-MICHELLE: Yeah, yeah. Yes.
-POOL:
-(MICHELLE LAUGHS)
MICHELLE: I didn't know
if I was gonna make you mad
that I did that.
POOL: Not at all.
-(POOL LAUGHS)
-MICHELLE: (LAUGHS)
Oh, good. I'm glad.
He was overjoyed
because he's been s-- You know,
searching for kind
of out-of-the-box ways
to solve this case anyway,
and hadn't thought to do this.
He tracked down the victims
for, on a weekend,
they thought they were
the cufflinks.
And so, we were
incredibly excited.
Turned out that they're not
the actual cufflinks.
Um, so--
so that kind of trail ended.
But it kind of opened up this--
it definitely opened up
a relationship with these
detectives in which I would
The first time
I heard about this woman
named Michelle McNamara.
Larry Pool brought her name up.
And, uh, he said there was this
true-crime writer slash blogger
who's interested
in doing an article
for Los Angeles Magazine
on this case.
At this point in time,
I'd been involved
in the East Area Rapist case
for two decades.
But the public just was
unaware of it.
The hope is-- is that maybe
by having greater
public attention,
the right person
will come forward
and give the right tip.
Michelle called me
shortly after that.
MICHELLE:
Do you have any source material
that you could give me?
PAUL HOLES:
And I'm being very standoffish.
You know, I have had things
that I've said
taken out of context
put in the press.
So, I was giving
very vague answers.
And then she would follow up
and say, "Oh, no, hold on.
Isn't this true?"
And she'd bring up a fact
about the case.
And I was going, "Hmm,
she knows, she knows her stuff."
I started telling her things
about my investigation
off the record.
Three months after
the very first attack
down in Goleta, Santa Barbara,
there's a double homicide
right next
to the San Jose Creek.
MICHELLE:
Right.
HOLES: The Horinek-Himmel
attack is October of '79,
and then Offerman-Manning attack
is at the end of December '79.
And they are within a few blocks
of each other.
MICHELLE: On the morning
of December 30th, 1979,
Santa Barbara County
sheriff's deputies
responded to a call
at the condo
of osteopathic surgeon
Dr. Robert Offerman
and his new girlfriend,
psychologist Debra Manning.
Their good friends had arrived
for a tennis game
and found a sliding
glass door open.
HOLES: Our offender goes in.
He gets both Offerman
and Manning bound face-down
in the bed.
And then he leaves,
like he typically would do,
to get the dishes
or whatever else.
MICHELLE: Something he did
with the rapes was--
was like he tied you up,
and then he would go
and eat in your kitchen.
At the Offerman condo,
it was right near Christmas,
and he had taken out
the turkey and eaten it.
HOLES: He goes back in
to check on the victims,
and Dr. Offerman
has slipped his bindings
and gets up and charges him.
(GUNSHOTS)
HOLES: The offender
shoots Offerman,
then goes and shoots Dr. Manning
in the back of her head,
and then runs off.
Because this case went sideways,
he never got a chance
to sexually assault
Debra Manning.
MICHELLE: Do you know
what kind of haunts me is,
do you know what book
was on Offerman's night table?
Offerman was reading something
like, How to Be Assertive.
HOLES: Oh, really?
MICHELLE: Yeah.
It was just kind of like, oy.
LARRY CROMPTON: I had, uh,
heard of the murders
in Southern California.
So, I call Santa Barbara.
I said, "I think
the Original Night Stalker
is the East Area Rapist."
And they said, "Don't know
what you're talking about.
We don't have anything
like that down here."
And then, uh, in February,
I was sent down to San Diego
to take a class.
And there happened to be
a Santa Barbara deputy
in the class.
And I got talking to him.
And he said, "Yeah, yeah,
we had the, uh,
the double homicide."
"A matter of fact," he said,
"they had an attempted rape
before that."
And I said, "What?"
So, I got those reports,
and the tie-ups.
And, uh, the ski mask.
It all was there.
I know that
it's the same person.
MALE REPORTER: According to
sheriff spokesman Bill Miller,
the department sent
an investigator
to Santa Barbara last week
to look into
the December shootings
of a physician
and his psychologist girlfriend.
MALE INTERVIEWEE:
Two people were murdered.
Uh, but what they have there
is just the evidence
at the scene which, uh,
is a strong indication
it could be the same man.
MALE REPORTER:
However, when I talked
to Sergeant William Baker
of the Santa Barbara
Sheriff's department,
I got a very different view.
SERGEANT WILLIAM BAKER:
MICHELLE: Until we put a face
on a killer who remains
a question mark,
he will continue to hold sway
over us.
I wonder at times if I need
to step back.
"He can't hurt me," I say,
not realizing that in every
minute spent hunting him
and not cuddling my daughter,
he already has.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Hey, I'm Nancy.
NANCY MILLER:
Michelle ultimately came up with
the name "Golden State Killer"
'cause it makes sense.
He terrorized up and down
the state.
It was an effort to recognize
that he was a predator of
people's vision of California,
of their dreams.
MICHELLE: He had kind of, like,
floated under the radar.
Whereas the Zodiac or
you know, Son of Sam got
all this attention.
And I thought, this guy had
ten times more victims
than those people.
And he was ten times worse.
And we should know about him
and we should all care,
and we should get justice
for these people.
NANCY: The night
that we put that story up,
it exploded.
In the sharing of it,
it just got bigger and bigger
and bigger.
Roger Ebert tweeted about it.
It was her first major piece
of writing.
NANCY: What Michelle did was
introduce herself
as a really important figure,
a sympathetic figure,
and the person that we needed
to get to know,
almost in a memoir way
that would help bring
these sort
of disparate collection
of tragedies together.
It was so beautifully,
and, like, personally written.
It was like every case was--
Happened to someone
that was a friend of hers.
It wasn't just
the usual reporting.
It was also like
a very subtle call to action.
I hadn't read anything
that well-written in this field
since probably Truman Capote.
It was just, you know,
one of those things
where the hairs on the back
of your neck stood up.
THOMAS MCNAMARA:
You know, that's when
things really started for her.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I called Michelle,
and I said that I would be
the right person
to represent that book
if she wanted
to turn it into one.
I think the best way
to sell this is for you to come
to New York and meet
with the publishers.
JENNIFER BARTH:
Daniel Greenberg said
he was gonna send the proposal
for a true crime book
that would transcend the genre.
The thing that drew me to it
the most was the way Michelle
humanized all of the victims.
And the fact that Michelle
herself is one part of the story
was so interesting.
And that was what I thought
truly set it apart.
I remember being at Shutters
at the Beach.
Me and Michelle and Alice.
And then, Michelle got the call
that she had sold the book.
And we were very, very excited.
I ordered up champagne.
And Alice was jumping up
and down the bed
because Mommy was so excited
about something.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MICHELLE:
Alice, can you come down
and sit on the couch
for a second?
CAMERON CLOUTIER:
Sorry. (LAUGHS)
MICHELLE: Um, Alice,
come down, okay?
You want to go see
Mercedes and--
ALICE MCNAMARA: We go watch--
-(COUGHS)
-(CHUCKLES)
-What?
-Let's go Peppa Pig.
You are watching Peppa Pig.
But Mommy's talking.
I go watch Peppa Pig.
Okay.
Can you, um
(COUGHS)
but
-yeah. I don't know. Um
-(ALICE COUGHS)
CAMERON: So, where would you
start with this, then?
(SIGHS) Gosh.
Op. Gosh.
-(BABBLING)
-I-- hey.
You go watch Peppa Pig, and then
I'll put your clothes on,
and we'll go.
You go. Go put on your clothes,
thank you.
Go put on your clothes.
(ALICE BABBLING)
Um
I mean, I would just recanvass
those neighborhoods.
I would look through
every police record
from year before
and a year after.
I mean, I think there's things
you can do.
Again, it's just time, energy
NANCY: After we finished
that piece, it was like, "Whew,
we're done."
I was, like, kind
of traumatized.
I had weird dreams.
I don't think I realized
how toxic and scary it would be.
But I was done.
Like, I'm gonna go now
work on a piece
about tacos for the next issue
of Los Angeles Magazine.
Michelle had to continue.
She was like,
"I got to keep going.
I've got to keep--
I've got to keep go--
I've got to keep working
on this."
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MESSAGES PING)
(COFFEE BEANS CLANG)
(PHONE BUZZING)
HOLES: Michelle and I,
we were developing this--
this friendly relationship.
So, when her article
was released,
I was holding my breath.
And I get to the end
of the article,
I was like,
"Oh, thank God."
She kept her word.
I could trust her.
We had more phone calls
and agreed to establish some--
some email communications.
And it was really
at that moment
in which it clicked
between Michelle and I.
She proved herself to me.
And I basically
opened wide open,
in terms of this is where I'm
going with my investigation.
(HOLES SIGHS)
what I've got is I've got just
your general list of the cases
and the attack times.
When you take a look
at the homicides down south
MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.
HOLES:
um, all the victims appear
to have been bound,
though he sometimes
left the bindings
and later on,
he took all the bindings.
MICHELLE: And do you think
he took the bindings
because he was evolving
and kind of learning
and didn't want
to leave evidence?
HOLES: Well, that--
that's a possibility.
MICHELLE:
Mm-hmm.
Well, and also you said,
interestingly, I mean,
before you were talking about
how he killed defensively.
It seems by the time
the Smith case in Ventura
came around,
he wasn't doing that anymore.
It was more pure rage,
"I wanna murder these people."
HOLES: Yeah.
MICHELLE:
HOLES: You can kind of see
the comings and goings
of the people
without anybody
really being suspicious
about what you're up to.
MICHELLE: So do we know
where the back of the house is?
HOLES: Yeah, that's it.
MAN:
This is the victim's backyard.
MICHELLE: Lyman Smith
was a well-known attorney
on the verge of a superior
court judgeship.
His wife Charlene
was an interior designer
with a jewelry business.
JENNIFER CAROLE:
It was a regular Sunday,
and my younger brother Gary
had gone up to mow
the lawn at my dad's house.
But then he went
into the house,
and he could hear the alarm
going off.
(ALARM BEEPING)
And Gary thought, "Oh, crap.
They're just getting up
right now,"
which is weird
'cause it was noon or one.
It just kept buzzing.
So, he walked
back to the bedroom.
He saw they were still in bed,
and he still did the, like,
"Ooh,
I need to give them privacy."
But at the same time thought,
"This is weird.
They're not moving,
and the alarm's
still going off."
So, he walked around
to my dad's side of the bed.
(ALARM BEEPING)
He turned off the alarm
and lifted back the cover
and saw that color of what
I imagine was dried blood.
He also knew they weren't moving
and there was big trouble.
He put the cover back
and picked up the phone
that was there by the bed
and called 911.
We started to learn a lot more
about what had happened
in the house and how they died,
how they'd been murdered.
And it was a lot worse
than anybody thought.
HOLES:
The offender is able to get
Lyman face down and bound.
Probably had Charlene
bind Lyman.
He's even using the--
the blanket
tucked up underneath his arms
to make it even that much
more difficult
for Lyman to be able
to escape out of the bed.
Instead of leaving the room
and moving
the woman
out to the family room,
like he typically would do,
I think he is
sexually assaulting Charlene
with Lyman still in that bed.
At some point,
he goes and retrieves a log
and bludgeons them to death.
The homicides up to this point
in time were shooting deaths
because he was reacting
defensively.
This is the first time that
it goes the way he wants,
and he probably realized
a huge psychological release
from accomplishing this task.
Five months
after the Smith homicides,
we see the next attack
in August of 1980
down in Laguna Niguel
with Keith
and Patrice Harrington.
This case identically mirrors
the Smith case in Ventura.
MICHELLE:
Going into a gated community
to pick that
HOLES:
Yes.
MICHELLE: Keith was
a fourth-year medical student.
His wife of four months, Patty,
was a registered nurse.
HOLES:
Keith and Patrice Harrington.
They're found face-down
in their bed.
They'd been bludgeoned to death
with an unknown type weapon.
MICHELLE: A metal fragment
consistent with brass
was found
in Patty's head wound.
That suggested that someone
picked up
one of the newly installed
brass sprinkler heads
from the yard
and slipped inside the house.
In a subdivision
with a manned gate,
it was high-risk.
It suggested
the killer's pleasure
was in part derived
from raising the stakes.
HOLES:
And then six months later,
in February of 1981,
the Original Night Stalker
shows up in Irvine
and attacks Manuela Witthuhn.
RON VEACH:
Investigator Veach
with the Irvine
Police Department.
The time
is approximately 14:05.
Investigating
an apparent homicide,
which occurred sometime, uh,
during the last evening hours.
MICHELLE: Manuela was wearing
a brown velour robe
and was partially wrapped
in a sleeping bag
which she sometimes slept in
when she was cold.
RON: Uh, the sleeping bag
was placed
over the top of her head.
And, uh, she was struck
over the head, uh,
with an object,
causing a hole
in the, uh, bag itself.
MICHELLE: The lamp's absence
gave police a good idea
of the heavy object
that was used
to bludgeon Manuela to death.
HOLES: In Manuela's case,
she had been
sexually assaulted,
bound, and then
bludgeoned to death
just like the previous victims.
It's just now we don't have
a male present.
-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.
-POOL: In that offense.
MICHELLE: Right, right.
DREW WITTHUHN: My brother Dave,
he had a respiratory infection.
So, the recommendation
was that he get checked in
the hospital
for a couple days.
He had an incredible dose
of survivor's remorse.
He said over and over,
"If I would've been home,
this never would've happened."
Couple days after the funeral,
I went over
and stayed with my brother.
He, you know,
was having a few beers,
and I noticed he was getting
a little, uh, you know,
he was, uh,
drinking a little bit.
And he just all of a sudden,
He just said, you know,
"Drew,
they think I killed her."
DREW: He said-- Well
And I didn't know
what to say to that.
So, I just said,
"Did you?" (LAUGHS)
I mean,
it just kinda came out.
MICHELLE: Right.
DREW:
MICHELLE: Right.
"I would never hurt my wife.
I would never have anything
done to her.
No, not in a million years.
I loved her very much."
And I believed him.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
MICHELLE: The murders
of Manuela Witthuhn
and Patty and Keith Harington
shared similarities,
-both big and small.
-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
A forensic match
between the cases didn't exist,
but a feeling did.
A sense that a single mind
was at work.
(READS)
BARTH:
It was a dark place,
you know,
that she was taking you.
And I remember one time
she sent me some pages,
and in the header,
she wrote,
"Don't read this alone
at night."
She just kept finding more
and more sources
who wanted to speak to her
and more avenues
to sort of chase down,
and I could see how beguiling
and, um, seductive it was,
and how, um
(CLICKS TONGUE) addictive.
-VICTIM'S FRIEND:
You're a good interviewer.
-MICHELLE: Oh, I am?
-VICTIM'S FRIEND: You are.
-MICHELLE: Oh, good.
VICTIM'S FRIEND:
MICHELLE:
Um No, I mean
And, um
In some ways, I'm, you know,
Michelle's voice was a part
of the proposal
and was a really strong part
all along, and so, you know,
that way was a given
that that would be in the book
in some form.
But I know
there was part of her
that that-- that was something
she was navigating.
She wasn't
a big "me, me, me" person.
She was much more interested
in other people
than in talking about herself.
MICHELLE:
Oak Park. (SIGHS).
Oak Park. Shit.
Oak Park borders the west side
of Chicago.
Ernest Hemmingway,
who grew up there,
famously referred to it
as a town of wide lawns
and narrow minds.
But that wasn't my experience
with the place.
We lived in a drafty
three-story Victorian
on a cul-de-sac
in the center of town.
MAUREEN STRATTON:
Michelle was our baby sister
and she was born
when I was 12 years old.
So, there was a big gap
between Michelle
and the rest of us.
I just moved
from playing with dolls
to having a real
(LAUGHS) doll myself."
And my mom was more
than willing to pass her off.
MAUREEN: In some ways,
Michelle was an only child
because we were just up
and out.
(MICHELLE READS)
MARY RITA SKRINE:
Because she was so much younger
than everyone else,
I really think
she found her voice early.
And I think she just became
an independent thinker
and spirit.
I mean, she came out strong.
She came out strong-willed.
(GIRLS CHATTER)
BOB MCNAMARA: Once Michelle
got to high school,
which is kind of a typical time
to get rebellious,
Michelle and my mother
had developed into a very
complicated relationship.
Michelle, I think,
viewed our mother
as more an enemy
than, you know,
someone who was supporting her.
MARY RITA: Well, I think
Michelle, being the youngest,
wanted more physical affection
and more attention
where my mom was pretty--
pretty reserved.
MAUREEN: I mean,
there was never any question
that she loved all of us deeply
and was, uh,
really did anything
she could to support us.
But, you know, she did have,
I think, sometimes a--
a difficult time giving
a direct compliment.
Their communication
was just very different,
and they would not back down.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
MICHELLE: We button-pushed
our whole lives.
We had a summer cabin
on Lake Michigan,
and I remember one afternoon
as a kid playing in the waves
as she read a book
in a chair on the beach.
I realized the waves
were just high enough
so that I could remain
underwater
and then rise
for a quick breath
when the wave
was at its highest,
shielding me from view.
I let my mother straighten up
and scan the water.
I let her put down her book.
I let her stand.
I let her run toward the water
preparing to scream.
Only then did I pop up
nonchalantly.
Her lifelong nickname for me,
only half-jokingly,
was "the little witch."
(READS)
But I felt her expectations,
the transference of hope,
and I bristled.
I both yearned
for her approval
and found her investment in me
suffocating.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HOLES: I believe
that Golden State Killer
has a comfort
using these waterways.
We saw that up
in the Sacramento area,
and when he gets
to Santa Barbara,
he's going back to a region
in which he's previously
attacked twice
along this geographic feature,
this creek.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MICHELLE: On the morning
of July 27, 1981,
a realtor found their bodies.
Cheri Domingo,
a Natalie Wood lookalike,
was an old fashioned romantic
who loved to dance.
Her boyfriend Gregory Sanchez
was a computer programmer
who coached little league
and rode a motorcycle.
KIM STEWART:
Uh, Domingo-Sanchez,
again, they're in bed.
It's in the middle
of the night.
That is a horrific fight.
Very violent.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HOLES: The offender
enters the backyard
through a side gate.
And it appears
Gregory has got a sense
that there's a prowler outside.
Because when he enters
the master bedroom,
Gregory Sanchez is already up
facing him.
Offender pulls a gun
and shoots Gregory.
However, Greg gets up.
Now the offender
gets into hand-to-hand combat
with six-foot-three
Greg Sanchez.
KIM: It's a terrible fight.
The suspect ended up
bludgeoning Greg,
and he ends up in the closet
where he's later found
deceased.
And Domingo
is severely bludgeoned.
When I, years later,
spoke to the criminalist,
she was just still
greatly disturbed
by the amount of, uh,
damage done to her.
HOLES:
The offender's semen was found,
but a very small amount,
and it was found
on the comforter.
So it's unknown what type
of sexual interaction he had,
but he definitely
got to the point
where he left
some semen behind.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
MICHELLE: Five years later,
he murdered 18-year-old
Janelle Cruz.
Manuela and Janelle
lived in the same subdivision,
just two miles apart.
His female victims
was just the latest
unlucky stand-in
for the lustful sneering women.
Mother, wife,
who formed a disapproving
circle around the killer
in his daydreams.
The act of bludgeoning
was arousal.
Alchemized to hate.
(MUSIC STOPS) ♪
DEBBI DOMINGO: (ON PHONE)
My mom and I,
people all the time
referred to us as sisters.
-MICHELLE: Oh!
-DEBBI: And she loved
the beach, she loved--
she loved the outdoors.
She was a California girl.
MICHELLE: Yeah, yeah.
DEBBI:
She was-- she was amazing.
When my mom was killed,
I was a kid.
-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.
-DEBBI: I'm thinking right close
to the end
of my 10th grade year.
You know, she--
she would set a curfew,
and I would break it.
And she would set a rule,
and I would just
throw it out the window.
Bless her heart,
I don't know how
she kept from wringing my neck.
-(MICHELLE CHUCKLES)
-DEBBI: Um, and, um, so about,
I want to say right about two
weeks before she was killed,
we got in a humungous fight.
And we ended up having
this crazy screaming match.
And the last thing I said
to her was,
"Why don't you just get the hell
out of my life?"
And I slammed down
that receiver.
And those are the last words
I spoke to her.
-MICHELLE: Hmm. Yeah.
-DEBBI:
She didn't know, you know?
-MICHELLE: Yeah.
-DEBBI: She didn't know
how to handle me
-and, bless her heart
-MICHELLE: My-- my-- Your--
It's-- it's interesting
'cause my-- my mom and I
had a very complicated
relationship,
and-- but we could never
yell at each other.
She would always slip
envelopes,
um, under my bedroom door
(LAUGHS)
that had, you know,
I just remember so clearly,
"You're vain,
thoughtless, rude."
Like, all these terrible things,
but she could only write it out.
She wouldn't be able
to say it to me.
DEBBI: Well, yeah. Yeah, 'cause
we were totally different
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MICHELLE: At my wedding,
my mother and I
had our biggest blowout.
I put a lot of time,
too much probably,
into the planning.
At the dinner, I seated
small groups of people
who didn't know each other
together.
The only thing I told them
was that they had
one thing in common
and had to figure it out.
My mother came up to me
as I was making my way
to the bathroom.
She gestured at the tables.
"You have too much time
on your hands," she said.
I'd been avoiding her
because a friend of mine
made the mistake of telling me
that earlier in the evening,
she'd remarked to my mother
that she thought
I was the best writer she knew.
"Oh, I know. I think so too,"
my mother said.
"But don't you think
it's too late for her?"
I went to the ladies' room,
locked myself in a stall
and allowed myself to cry
for five minutes
then went back out
(READS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
PATTON OSWALT:
Hey, sweetie. It's Patton.
The new pages you sent me
are amazing.
I just have a couple
little tweaks, but, man,
that was a really cool read,
especially that last paragraph.
Oh my god.
Hey. It's Patton. I'm in Miami.
I'm in Toronto.
I'm on my way to Iceland.
My wife is ten times smarter
than me.
She is thinking and operating
on this way elevated level.
And I'm just noticing
when things fart
and pointing at it
until she tells me,
"Don't-- don't point at that,
all right?" "Okay."
MICHELLE:
Who's that, Alice?
Who is that on the TV?
Daddy.
MICHELLE: Is that Daddy?
Daddy.
(BABBLING)
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(PHONE PINGS)
MICHELLE: Reading galley
of Patton's book
(READS)
SARAH STANARD:
Michelle was, um
she was so hard on herself.
Her writing and, "Am I doing
a good job as a mom?"
And Patton was working a lot.
PATTON:
So, yeah. I-- I'm gonna--
I'll just meet you at Barnes.
Uh, I-- I got to do a signing.
About to do a video shoot here
for Spin Magazine.
I'm so close to finishing
this goddamn movie.
(COOING)
PATTON: Got your email.
I am doing the errands now.
You want her to go
to a two o'clock class?
I'm gonna do these
as quickly as I can.
Call me if you--
if you think of anything else
for me to get, goodbye.
Hey, it's Patton.
-MICHELLE: Hi!
-PATTON: Driving home
-as fast as I can.
-MICHELLE: You're on a horsey.
PATTON: Hey, it's Patton.
Just got a call
from my guys at CAA.
-They can get me-- Get us
-MICHELLE: You're on a horsey.
PATTON: uh,
this-- for this Thursday, uh,
two tickets to go see
Prince at the Forum.
PRINCE: Had to end
Purple rain ♪
CROWD:
Purple rain ♪
MICHELLE'S FRIEND:
Happy birthday, Michelle.
AUTOMATED VOICE: Hello.
This is a refill reminder
from CVS Pharmacy
for Michelle McNamara.
We show that the following
prescription numbers
are due for refill.
THOMAS: Hi, Michelle.
This is your father
calling to wish you
happy birthday.
Ah, to be 41 again.
How sweet it is.
Talk to you soon.
ALL: (SINGING)
Happy birthday to you ♪
Happy birthday to you ♪
BOY: It's two plates.
ALL:
Happy birthday, dear Alice ♪
Happy birthday to you ♪
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
KIM:
You know, Michelle
Michelle
was a brilliant investigator.
Aside from
being a good writer,
she had a real
investigative mind.
She didn't just tick the boxes.
She was a creative thinker
about crime.
MICHELLE: I mean,
I was shocked, frankly,
when Larry Crompton told me
that he called Santa Barbara
and he was told over the phone
the murders never happened.
-I-- I was shocked.
-KIM: Yeah.
MICHELLE: He said, "Listen,
it was a different time."
A lot of things went wrong
because people--
You didn't even share
information
among your coworkers,
which is crazy.
KIM: They could've
solved these cases.
There is no question.
And I think people
would be very surprised
how these investigations
can simply go off the rail
and never go anywhere.
MICHELLE: So everyone
that I talk to seemed to grumble
a bit about Santa Barbara.
(LAUGHS)
Do you feel like
that's kind of a past thing?
KIM: When I was working
in Santa Barbara,
there were a tremendous amount
of burglary,
prowling, and rapes.
To me, the numbers of rapes
we had was just astonishing.
And a lot of it
was written off as,
"Well, it's a university town.
What do you expect?
What do you expect?" Well.
MICHELLE:
But I never understood
Santa Barbara as--
Was different
than other jurisdictions.
Did it have to do with,
"We don't want bad publicity?"
What do you think it was?
Well, Reagan's ranch
was about 15 miles up the coast.
HOLES:
At that time, Ronald Reagan
was in the process
of declaring his candidacy
-for president
-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.
HOLES: and they did not want
any of this negative stigma.
MICHELLE:
They didn't want the publicity.
HOLES:
They didn't want the publicity.
And then we had Montecito,
where, you know,
every famous person on earth
has at least one house.
So, it shows you the money
and political influences there.
I remembered asking
the sergeant,
"Why-- why do you not
publicize these, uh,
sexual assaults that we have?"
"Oh, well, the sheriff, uh,
made an agreement
with the board of realtors
that we would not publicize
certain crimes."
MICHELLE: Oh, God.
KIM: "Because property values
will go down"
MICHELLE: Wow.
KIM: "and they don't want
people afraid
to come here and buy."
'Cause Goleta was growing.
So, when we get into
the period of the homicides,
we were, psst, quiet.
(PHONE BUZZING)
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
MARY RITA:
Hey, Mich. It's Mary Rita.
We just went to see dad.
Yeah, he was totally sedated
and out of it.
But, um, obviously
the next 48 hours are critical.
We will keep you posted.
All right, thanks.
Bye.
(PHONE CLACKING)
(PHONE PINGS)
(PHONE PINGS)
(PHONE PINGS)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SECURITY EMPLOYEE:
-This is North Star Security
at 323-730-4935.
-(PHONE CLACKING)
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(MESSAGE PINGS)
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
MICHELLE: We've just installed
a massive security system
(OVERLAPPING)
in our house to keep us sane
This is probably little paranoid
but better safe than sorry.
I noticed the screen on one
of the front windows was off.
(OVERLAPPING)
My assumption is that
I meant to mention this earlier,
but I'd prefer if none of us
I wanted to be sure,
in case some crazy man
out of a horror movie
is trying to get in.
Something I think
about surprisingly often.
I know I'm being paranoid,
but it
(READS)
DRIVER: You guys own a gun?
-MICHELLE: No.
-DRIVER: You should get one.
MICHELLE: I know-- Well, no.
Patton's, like, blind as a bat.
I'm jittery.
We're the worst people
in the world to have a gun.
He likes to shoot guns.
I just-- We can't have one
in the house.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
(GUNSHOTS ECHOING)
(PHONE PINGS)
(PHONE PINGS)
(PHONE PINGS)
THOMAS:
KATHLEEN CONROY:
At the time that he died,
she literally got in
just after he had kind of
lost,
you know, consciousness
or whatever.
And so she didn't really get
that-- that last moment
with him.
So, there was a lot
of shock for her.
BOB:
Michelle and my dad
had a very special relationship.
They were just, you know,
simpatico, I would say.
After he had passed,
she had told us
the inscription on the book
she planned to use was
"To my father who believed."
But, uh, you know,
she just kind of kept--
kept at it and kept working.
And, um, in hindsight,
she probably should have, um,
slowed down a little bit
and taken a little--
taken a little more time.
NANCY: You've been now
studying this for so long
and looking at it as a puzzle
that horror doesn't really
affect you anymore.
MICHELLE: Well, I'm not sure.
(CHUCKLES)
-NANCY: Really?
-MICHELLE:
I-- yeah. I mean, I'm,
yeah. I mean, I-- I still don't
probably have
a good night's sleep,
you know, every night.
And, um, thank God for Ambien.
But it doesn't make for, like,
a peaceful existence.
That doesn't mean
I'm stopping it,
but I certainly think
it's kind of wormed its way
in-- into my brain a bit.
DREW:
Well, and you could tell.
-MICHELLE: Yeah.
-DREW:
MICHELLE: Yeah.
For my brother,
this cloud of suspicion
just seemed to never go away.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Some very professional,
well-meaning people
were investigating this crime.
But they had no suspect.
So, he always had to remain
a person of interest.
I don't know how he emotionally
dealt with that day after day,
year after year.
Manuela was killed in 1981,
and it wasn't until 2000
that my brother no longer
was a person of interest.
I just picked up the paper
on a Sunday morning.
Opened it up, and
there's my brother's picture.
They made a-- a DNA connection
between Manuela's killing
and others.
-DREW:
-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.
DREW: But to have that cloud
of suspicion
-MICHELLE: Right.
-DREW: over you for so long.
MICHELLE:
DREW: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
-MICHELLE:
-DREW: Yeah.
DREW:
MICHELLE: When the crime labs
began incorporating DNA testing
in the early '90s,
Orange County decided
to prioritize homicides
involving sexual assaults.
Every inch of fabric
and millimeter of cotton tip,
held promise.
In 1996, Mary Hong
was one of the criminalists
tasked with concentrating
on cold cases.
An older criminalist
took her aside.
Fifteen years on,
he still hadn't forgotten
his old suspicion.
(READS)
This case was the very first
cold case
that I started to work,
and that was in 1997.
I was working
for Contra Costa County
as a young criminalist.
I had just started DNA training.
One day,
I found this file cabinet
that I never saw anybody go to.
What really stood out
was this red E-A-R
written on each tab.
That's when I learned
about the East Area Rapist.
I was fascinated.
We won't be able to do anything
because it's long past
statute of limitations.
But I just want
to kind of figure out,
you know,
maybe I can identify the guy
and solve this series.
I end up calling Larry Crompton.
CROMPTON:
I got a phone call.
And, uh, fella said,
"Uh, I'm Paul Holes.
I'm with the crime lab
in Contra Costa."
And I said, "Paul,
I know of five homicides
in Southern California.
I know it's our rapist
that did it,
but nobody will talk to me,
and nobody will help me."
HOLES: I was told that
the Orange County
Sheriff's office
has been
doing some DNA work.
So I did call up, uh,
Mary Hong,
but our DNA profiles
were different technologies.
We couldn't compare 'em.
It took four years before we got
that technology online
and could revisit
the East Area Rapist case.
MICHELLE: The tubes
that advanced the mystery
closer to an answer
were opened and tested.
When the results came in,
Paul Holes called Mary Hong.
"Same guy," Mary said.
HOLES: With the Ventura case,
Lyman, Charlene Smith,
we have semen evidence.
In Patrice and Keith Harrington,
we have semen evidence.
With Manuela Witthuhn,
we have semen evidence.
Domingo-Sanchez,
Janelle Cruz,
five of cases all have
semen evidence
in which DNA testing showed
it was the same offender,
the same DNA profile.
And of course,
in my jurisdiction
in Contra Costa County,
I had three cases
in which I still had evidence
from the sexual assaults
that matched the five
DNA-related cases
to the Original Night Stalker
series.
And that connection
was made back in March of 2001.
We believe he is responsible
for no fewer than 12 murders,
50 rapes, um, between 1976
and 1986.
We don't have a name,
and-- and that's the goal.
We need to match name
to the DNA profile.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DANIEL GREENBERG:
Uh, hey Michelle.
(CHIMES RING DISTANTLY) ♪
(PHONE PINGS)
(PHONE PINGS)
(PHONE PINGS)
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(WATER BUBBLES)
RADIO HOST 1: 7:07 on an early
Thanksgiving morning,
the 26th day of November.
-Happy Thanksgiving.
-RADIO HOST 2:
Happy Thanksgiving.
RADIO HOST 1: Yes,
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
Real nice to have you with us
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
WOMAN: Hello?
(RADIO STATIC)
Hello?
(DOOR CREAKS OPEN)
-(RADIO STATIC)
-WOMAN: Hello?
(RADIO STATIC)
(HEAVY BREATHING)
EAST AREA RAPIST:
Gonna kill you.
Gonna kill you.
(WOMAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
EAST AREA RAPIST:
Gonna kill you.
(RECORDING DISCONNECTS)
(PHONE CLACKING)
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪