I’ll Be Gone In The Dark is the true crime documentary that everyone is going to be talking about this year.
The six part series is based on the 2018 book of the same name by Michelle McNamara and her investigation into the dark world of a violent predator she dubbed the Golden State Killer.
Terrorising California in the 1970s and ‘80s, the Golden State Killer is responsible for 50 home-invasion rapes and 12 murders.
The series gives voice to the survivors and their families, and is a riveting meditation on obsession and loss, chronicling the unrelenting path of a mysterious killer and the fierce determination of one woman to bring the case to light.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark is a detective story told in McNamara’s own words, through exclusive original recordings and excerpts from her book read by actor Amy Ryan.
Drawing from extensive archival footage and police files as well as exclusive new interviews with detectives, survivors and family members of the killer, it weaves 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 minimised 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.
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.
The series is directed by Academy Award nominee and Emmy® winning director Liz Garbus (HBO’s “Who Killed Garrett Phillips,” “Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper”) and produced by Story Syndicate. Additional directors on the series include Elizabeth Wolff, Myles Kane and Josh Koury.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark lands on HBO in North America on June 28 – and we’re hoping it won’t be too much longer until it debuts in Ireland.
In the meantime, though, you can check out the trailer below.
