Special episode of I'll Be Gone In The Dark coming to HBO in June
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, the 2020 docuseries about the Golden State Killer, is returning for a special episode this June. The series tracked late-writer Michelle McNamara’s investigation into the Golden State Killer, the perpetrator of at least 13 murders and dozens of rapes throughout Californian between 1973 and 1986. In this latest installment, director Elizabeth Wolff returns
to focus on the survivors and the families of victims who witnessed the public sentencing of former police officer James DeAngelo, who confessed to being the killer last summer. DeAngelo was sentenced to life in prison for 50 rapes and 13 murders.
According to HBO, the special will also open new revelations into McNamara’s interest in unsolved murders:
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.
Based on the book of the same name, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark directly impacted the criminal investigation that had gone cold in the last 40 years. McNamara’s investigation kept the case in the public eye for the last decade and ultimately led to the killer’s identity.
Tragically, McNamara died in 2016 before seeing the closing of the case that took over a considerable period of her life and career. However, after the
book’s publication in 2018, authorities used research compiled McNamara
to apprehend DeAngelo, who is now 75.
The special airs on HBO and debuts on HBO Max on June 21 at 10 P.M.