Plot Synopsis

Based on Michelle McNamara's book, "I'll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for The Golden State Killer," I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK is a six-part, true-crime documentary series that explores writer McNamara's investigation into the dark world of a violent predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer. Directed by Liz Garbus, Elizabeth Wolff, Myles Kane and Josh Koury, the series is a detective story told in McNamara's own words, through exclusive original recordings and excerpts from her book read by actor Amy Ryan.

Terrorizing California in the 1970s and '80s, the Golden State Killer is responsible for 50 home-invasion rapes and 12 murders. This series gives voice to the survivors and their families, documenting an era when sex crimes were often dismissed or hidden in shame. McNamara lived a quiet life as a writer, mother and wife, preferring to stay on the periphery of the Hollywood world of her comedian husband Patton Oswalt. But every night, as her family slept, she indulged her obsession with unsolved cases. Delving into the world of online chat rooms and crime blogs, she became immersed in the graphic details of the Golden State Killer case, along the way connecting with like-minded sleuths, trading facts, photos and leads. McNamara's blog about unsolved crimes, True Crime Diaries, chronicled her obsession and led to a lengthy article about the case for Los Angeles Magazine, which resulted in her landing a major book deal. Committed to solving the case, the investigative research consumed her, and she became more and more plagued by dark thoughts and a growing sense of angst. The demands of balancing her self-described addiction to her work with her family life pulled McNamara in competing directions and she became increasingly reliant upon prescription drugs to manage her mounting anxieties. After a string of sleepless nights and harrowing nightmares, McNamara tragically died of an accidental overdose in her sleep with her manuscript unfinished. After her death, Oswalt enlisted his wife's fellow sleuths, Paul Haynes and Billy Jensen to help finish and publish her book, which received rave reviews and went on to become a 2018 New York Times bestseller.

The series draws from extensive archival footage and police files as well as exclusive new interviews with detectives, survivors and family members of the killer to weave together a picture of a complex and flawed investigation. It is a frightening document of an era when victims were often too ashamed to speak out and sexual crime was minimized in the press and the courtroom. Echoing McNamara's writing, the series gives voice to the victims, and their experiences speak to the far-reaching, human cost of the decades-old case. The series is also a journey into the soul of McNamara, a tenacious journalist and citizen detective whose unrelenting commitment to investigating crimes earned her the respect of law enforcement and whose articles and book earned high praise from critics. Her evocative writing reflects deep themes of loss, anxiety, the lure of addiction, the love that binds us and the dangerous secrets of our daily lives. McNamara's years of relentless determination for justice for the victims helped keep the case alive and in the public eye. Ten years after she began working on the case, and just two months after her book was published posthumously in 2018, Oswalt and several of McNamara's fellow sleuths were gathered for a reading from McNamara's book in her hometown of Chicago. Just hours later, the Sacramento Sheriff's Office arrested 72-year-old former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, identifying him through DNA evidence as the notorious Golden State Killer. McNamara's unwavering resolve, the survivors' fortitude to tell their stories and the decades-long dedication of local investigators result in a shattering portrait of a fear-gripped community and the eventual path to justice. I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK is a thoughtful and haunting meditation on survival, the reverberations that violent crimes have on our society and those who pursue their resolution.
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On Monday, June 21, 2021, HBO premiered "Show Us Your Face," a special episode of I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK.

In the summer of 2020, former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, also known as the Golden State Killer, was sentenced to life in prison for the 50 home-invasion rapes and 13 murders he committed during his reign of terror in the 1970s and '80s in California. Many of the survivors and victim's family members featured in the series reconvened for an emotional public sentencing hearing in August 2020, where they were given the opportunity to speak about their long-held pain and anger through victim impact statements, facing their attacker directly for the first time and bringing a sense of justice and resolution to the case.

Writer Michelle McNamara was key to keeping the Golden State Killer case alive and in the public eye for so many years, but passed away in 2016, before she could witness the impact of her relentless determination in seeking justice for the victims. This powerful special closes one chapter in McNamara's investigative work on cold cases, and brings to light another, highlighting the start of McNamara's life-long fascination with unsolved murders. The rape and murder of Kathy Lombardo in 1984 in McNamara's hometown of Oak Park, Illinois and the inability of authorities to solve the case sparked McNamara's interest in investigating cold cases, ultimately leading her to an obsessive search for the Golden State Killer. McNamara was just 14 years old when Kathy Lombardo was killed not far from where she lived, and this tragic, as yet unsolved crime would change the course of McNamara's life.

This episode brings shocking new revelations to light in the Lombardo case and features the late McNamara's own research into the rape and murder, which led to her return to Oak Park in 2013 to investigate it on the ground, quickly finding inconsistencies in the police work. Featuring the late McNamara's own archival research and voice recordings, and interviews with residents of present-day Oak Park, this episode 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.