As reported by The New York Times, Joseph James DeAngelo—the man identified as the Golden State Killer in Michelle McNamara’s true crime book I’ll Be Gone In The Dark—has agreed to plead guilty to 13 counts of first degree murder and admit guilt in “a multitude of crimes for which he was not charged, some of which passed the statute of limitations” from throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. The plea deal, which was offered because of concerns about the advanced age of DeAngelo (he’s 74) and some of the other people involved, will allow him to avoid the death penalty, but he will be receiving 11 consecutive life sentences without parole.
This comes just a day after HBO aired the first episode of its I’ll Be Gone In The Dark series, which is as much about the Golden State Killer as it is about McNamara and the hunt for him. She died suddenly in 2016, before she could finish her book and a few years before DeAngelo was actually arrested, with her husband Patton Oswalt leading the charge to help finish her work and get her manuscript published back in 2018. Today, he tweeted about his reaction to the guilty plea, noting that DeAngelo (who, it should be mentioned, used to be a cop) refused to look at the survivors of his attacks as he admitted to the murders and other uncharged crimes.