This is a story about a writer, who wrote about a killer, and so much more.

We're here to tell you about that writer, Michelle McNamara,

and the writing that became the book, All Be Gone in the Dark,

One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.

This is the story of courage and love and dedication

and the story of misery, depravity, and cruelty.

It is the shock of an untimely death,

a twist in the story that no one saw coming.

But mostly, our story in these three episodes

is the story of a birth, the birth of a book. We're happy you've joined us.

Episode 1. Not many people are aware that in California, during the 1970s and 80s, there was a man

who committed 50 sexual assaults and at least 10 murders.

It's now become a decades-old cold case. Witnesses and victims have moved away or passed away.

The case encompasses multiple jurisdictions in both Southern and Northern California,

and for years it lacked the benefits of DNA or lab analysis.

An unknown offender was raping women in the 1970s in Sacramento. He quickly became known as the

East Area Rapist. After about rape, 15, 16, that entire Sacramento, Contra Costa County, they were just gripped by this.

He seemed to mysteriously disappear in July of 1979.

Separate from that, there started to be some offenses in Southern California in which couples

were killed in Santa Barbara County and Ventura

in Irvine. They called him the original night stalker. It wasn't until 2001 when DNA got good

enough that's in a lab, they went, oh my God, this has been the same guy.

...