The Golden State Killer Case
Published on 11. March 2025
168 pages
978-1-61316-632-1 (ISBN)
Description
California. 13 murders, 50 assaults, 42 years of investigation.
In 2018, police announced that they had finally arrested the "Golden State Killer," a man responsible for over 140 burglaries, 50 rapes and at least 13 murders committed in California throughout the 1970s and '80s. That man turned out to be a former California police officer, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. Just two months earlier, the publication of I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara had rocked the world of true crime. Published two years after her death, the book charts McNamara's obsessive search for the prolific criminal who had been known over the years as the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Visalia Ransacker, among other epithets. McNamara is credited with coining the "Golden State Killer" moniker and heightening public awareness of the?at the time?still unsolved case.
William Thorp dives into the investigation, exploring the dark side of sunny California, the advances in forensic innovation that made solving this case possible, and the story inside the story?one of an amateur sleuth who dedicated the last years of her life to understanding how one of the country's worst criminals could have spent so many decades undetected.
50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.
In 2018, police announced that they had finally arrested the "Golden State Killer," a man responsible for over 140 burglaries, 50 rapes and at least 13 murders committed in California throughout the 1970s and '80s. That man turned out to be a former California police officer, Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. Just two months earlier, the publication of I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara had rocked the world of true crime. Published two years after her death, the book charts McNamara's obsessive search for the prolific criminal who had been known over the years as the East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Visalia Ransacker, among other epithets. McNamara is credited with coining the "Golden State Killer" moniker and heightening public awareness of the?at the time?still unsolved case.
William Thorp dives into the investigation, exploring the dark side of sunny California, the advances in forensic innovation that made solving this case possible, and the story inside the story?one of an amateur sleuth who dedicated the last years of her life to understanding how one of the country's worst criminals could have spent so many decades undetected.
50 States of Crime: France's leading true crime journalists investigate America's most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.
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The Golden State Killer Case
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William Thorp is a reporter for Vakita, a French digital news media publication focusing on social issues and the environment. Previously, he was a journalist at Society, a news magazine, where, for five years, he covered stories in North America, Europe, and Africa. He started out investigating human interest stories in France before writing articles and long read while on international assignment.
Professor Lynn E. Palermo is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Susquehanna University. She earned her Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. Her recent work has focused on literary translation and its pedagogy. She received a 2018 NEA Translation Fellowship for her translation of Humus, by Fabienne Kanor, to appear in the UVA Press CARAF Series. In 2016, she received a French Voices Award for her co-translation of Cyrille Fleischman's Destiny's Repairman. Her translations have appeared in journals including the Kenyon Review Online, Exchanges Literary Journal, and World Literature Today. She has also published research on the cultural politics of interwar France. She is a volunteer translator for the UN and affiliated organizations.
Professor Lynn E. Palermo is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Susquehanna University. She earned her Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. Her recent work has focused on literary translation and its pedagogy. She received a 2018 NEA Translation Fellowship for her translation of Humus, by Fabienne Kanor, to appear in the UVA Press CARAF Series. In 2016, she received a French Voices Award for her co-translation of Cyrille Fleischman's Destiny's Repairman. Her translations have appeared in journals including the Kenyon Review Online, Exchanges Literary Journal, and World Literature Today. She has also published research on the cultural politics of interwar France. She is a volunteer translator for the UN and affiliated organizations.
