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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

@Lilysmom,

 

Since you already finished the book -- the peculiar smell the victims who mentioned it identified as not body odor but "nervous sweat," which doesn't exist -- 

 

-- it was dog repellent.  So that's why he only killed one dog...And he lost one of his jobs as a police officer for shoplifting dog repellent and a hammer.  I'm in shock.  

 

The end of the book is so beautiful.  I cut to it because Patton tweeted about it, "Letter to An Old Man."  Wowwwwww.

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

@LoriLori@CANDLEQUEEN, thinking about this, I am wondering if HBO had an inside track that they were on to this guy.  The series will be that much better since they ‘got him’ finally.  LM

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara


@Lilysmom wrote:

@LoriLori@CANDLEQUEEN, thinking about this, I am wondering if HBO had an inside track that they were on to this guy.  The series will be that much better since they ‘got him’ finally.  LM


 

I think it's an incredible coincidence.  But you could be right.  It all depends what "got him" and I'm not sure we'll be told the truth about that.

 

Some LE have told the press her book helped a lot and the elected sheriffs and DAs in the press conference never mentioned her name until they were asked did her book helped and the person responded with a curt "No."

 

I know they're saying new advances in DNA but I'm skeptical of the timing.  @Lilysmom, I re-read her essay at the end, "Letter to an Old Man" and it is so prescient.

 

And Michelle's printing that essay in the book -- having it appear in a bestselling book -- I wonder if that played a role.  His handwriting.  His syntax.  A piece of his mind, exposed.  A classmate?  The teacher?

 

@CANDLEQUEEN, fleeing a crime scene he dropped some papers, one being a sixth-grade essay entitled "Mad" all about how much he hated sixth grade and it's bitter and angry and, for a sixth grade, very twisted.

 

He also dropped an essay on General Custer but she did not reproduce that one in the book.

 

 

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

Sorry, I run on, just want to add to you, @Lilysmom and also @CANDLEQUEEN --

 

Seems like if HBO knew this was coming, I mean there's already two other documentaries on him and the book, to me their documentary seems superfluous now.  It's not like they were filming his capture.  It makes me less likely to watch it.  So there's that.

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

@LoriLori@Lilysmom I think I will still watch it, just to get some background.........

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara


@CANDLEQUEEN wrote:

@LoriLori@Lilysmom I think I will still watch it, just to get some background.........


 

Candlequeen, I imagine since they just started filming and can stop -- I imagine the documentary will take a different form now.  The arrest happened in time for them to reshape the narrative.  I don't know what they can wring from it but there's a long way to go til he's on trial so there's that.

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

@LoriLori@CANDLEQUEEN I definitely will tune in for it.  So glad he is finally caught.  LM

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

@LoriLori@CANDLEQUEEN, in case you haven’t seen, this was in a local paper today.

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than three decades after his trail went cold, one of California's most prolific and elusive serial killers was caught when investigators matched crime-scene DNA with genetic material stored by a relative on an online genealogical site, prosecutors said Thursday.

Authorities have said the DNA tied former police officer Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, to most of the 12 killings he is accused of committing between 1976 and 1986 as part of the Golden State Killer case.

Investigators also allege DeAngelo raped more than 50 women during that period.

Authorities declined to name the DNA site used to track the DNA.

Companies such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe charge customers to use their DNA to produce genetic profiles that determine ethnicity and can identify long-lost relatives, among other services. Both companies said Thursday they weren't involved in the case against DeAngelo.

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said investigators surreptitiously obtained his DNA last week from discarded material that ended up matching DNA at crime scenes.

Police received thousands of tips over the years, but DeAngelo's name had not been on the radar of law enforcement before last week, Schubert said.

In other developments Thursday, police in Visalia said DeAngelo is a suspect in the 1975 killing of community college teacher Claude Snelling in the farming community about 40 miles (64 kilometres) south of Fresno.

If the link is confirmed, it would boost the number of victims to 13 in the serial killing case.

DeAngelo worked as a police officer in nearby Exeter from 1973 to 1976, and police in the region believe he also is the Visalia Ransacker, responsible for the death of Snelling, who was fatally shot while stopping someone from kidnapping his 16-year-old daughter, and about 100 burglaries.

Visalia police Chief Jason Salazar said Snelling's death and the region's burglaries weren't part of the tally of crimes authorities released Wednesday in the serial killing case because investigators lacked DNA evidence on those crimes.

Salazar said fingerprints and shoe tracks will be eyed for matches to DeAngelo. Detectives are also looking to see if any items taken during the Visalia burglaries are uncovered during the investigation.

In addition, DeAngelo matches the description of Snelling's killer, Salazar said, and the attacker used sophisticated pry tools to gain entrance to locked homes, just as authorities say DeAngelo did in other crimes.

The culprit also wore a ski mask and eluded capture because of an apparent deep-knowledge of police work.

"He always had a good escape route," Salazar said.

Farrel Ward, 75, served on the Exeter Police Department with DeAngelo. Ward called him a "black sheep," saying he was quiet and didn't fit in with other officers.

Ward said it's possible that DeAngelo helped with a search in a killing he's now suspected of committing. Ward doesn't recall DeAngelo directly working on the case but said it's possible he joined the hunt for the killer.

Ward said he thought DeAngelo was overqualified for the small-town job because he graduated from Sacramento State with a degree in criminal justice.

"He knew everything about everything, but he didn't have common sense about him," Ward said

Investigators searched DeAngelo's home on Thursday, looking for class rings, earrings, dishes and other items that were taken from crime scenes.

Authorities were also seeking weapons and other items that could link the suspect to the crimes, Sacramento County sheriff's Lt. Paul Belli said. He declined to say what, if anything, investigators had found.

Retired FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt said he and others have speculated that the serial killer had police or military training because of the sophistication of the crimes and the suspect's ability to elude capture.

DeAngelo had both. He served six years as a police officer after serving for nearly two years in the Navy during the Vietnam War. After leaving the Exeter police department, he joined the Auburn Police Department outside Sacramento. Auburn fired him in 1979 after he was caught shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent.

Investigators have linked DeAngelo to 11 killings that occurred after he was fired.

"There may have been a revenge aspect to it," Van Zandt said of the crimes. "He was going to show police that he was smarter than any of them and that it was a mistake to fire him."

Investigators said DeAngelo appeared to stop killing and raping after 1986 and settled down to steady employment and a middle-class life.

Profilers have said most serial killers usually don't stop until they die or get arrested, but a few have voluntarily quit.

Scientists developed a way to identify rapists and others through DNA fingerprinting in 1986, the same year as the last attack by the Golden State Killer.

Experts noted that DeAngelo likely knew about the highly publicized DNA breakthrough.

"He knew police techniques," said John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Louis Schlesinger. "He was smart."

James Huddle said he always hoped police would catch the killer whose attacks prompted him to buy a pistol.

But he was stunned to find out the man arrested was DeAngelo, his former brother-in-law.

Huddle said it was "still just going crazy in my mind."

__

Balsamo reported from Los Angeles. AP Writer Paul Elias contributed to this story from San Francisco.

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

@Lilysmom, and yet in the book many LE scoffed at the idea that he was a cop and many pushed back that he lived in a community where he offended.  And still the article doesn't mention Michelle.  My cousin saw an interview with Patton Oswalt, she says he's all right with it -- because he knows, top investigators like Paul Holes know, and he believes Michelle knows how much her blog and article and book contributed.

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Re: HBO bought the rights to "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara

[ Edited ]

@LoriLori, I saw the comments by Oswalt.  That is the right attitude to have, otherwise it would drive you crazy.  Amazing story about DNA!  LM