Book Review·Book Review｜The unsolved case of "Golden State Killer" is finally solved

[I haven’t been sick for a long time, but this time I was sick for so long. I struggled a lot and read more books.]

After writing so many book reviews, there seems to be a genre that I haven't mentioned yet, but it is one of my favorite literary genres, and that is - true crime literature, or memoir, because it is a true crime. Ever since I was a kid, watching true crime has been my hobby. Whether it’s books, movies, or TV series, I’ve picked up all of them. Of course, I also read suspense novels, psychological dramas, etc., but no matter how suspenseful they are, they can’t compare to the feeling of real crimes, and it’s hard to describe this feeling. I hope no readers will refute that it’s because you like to watch true crime because there are no murder cases around you. I really do😢.

True crime is scary because it really happened and could happen to anyone. Of course, there is another sub-genre of true crime that I can't stop 🫣, and that is the cold case series - it is called "cold case" in English, and it is more "unsolved" in Chinese. It is unsolved, and most of them have not yet found the murderer. With closure, there is a chilling feeling that the murderer is still at large. Readers will not feel safe or at ease. People who can solve unsolved cases are called "super detectives". However, in real life, I don't know if there are so many detectives, but there are always some persistent investigators. The "magic" thing about them is that they solve the case day after day. Exploring clues and searching for new clues, they also include the Internet sleuth "cyber detectives" of the Internet age, who sometimes make great contributions to solving cold cases. For example, a book review I wrote before about the well-known "The Mysterious Case of Lan Keer's Elevator" (a very early review, not very detailed) was written by a person who, like Lan Keer, suffers from bipolar mental illness. I wrote a lot about how Internet detectives investigate cases, including corruption issues in the Los Angeles Police Department, etc., and finally gave an analysis that was at least satisfactory to me. Of course, I cannot replace all readers. Well, there are not only online detectives, but also many private volunteer detectives in reality. They do not investigate cases for work, but purely for the purpose of finding the truth. There are many stories about them, let me tell you a short one today. 👇

The book Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases written by Paul Holes tells the story of his experience in the police station specializing in investigating cold cases. At the same time, he also mixed his personal life into the book, because the investigation of the case is more important than anything else. What's important is that he naturally ruined his first marriage, and for his second marriage, he found a new man with sparks in the police station. However, after getting married, his wife was bullied by other colleagues in the police station because he felt that Paul Holes was different. Treating his wife, in the end she had no choice but to quit her job at the police station and stay at home to raise her husband and children...

There are some major cases listed in the book. Among them, the case that impressed me the most was an unsolved case. It could not be closed because there was no evidence, but everything clearly pointed to one suspect - a wife reported the case and said that her husband had returned home. He and his son were killed and fell in a pool of blood. When the police came to investigate the scene, they found that the wife was not sad at all. When she led the police to inspect the house, she accidentally encountered a crime scene prop standing next to the body of her husband and son and said "Oops". The other police officers accompanying them were shocked. After all, her feet Next to her was her husband and son who had just died, and their blood was still hot. Afterwards, various signs proved that the wife was a major suspect. Unfortunately, there was no irrefutable evidence and the case went cold.

Of course, the biggest case is The Golden State Killer. Paul Holes has been investigating the "Golden State Killer". The "Golden State Killer" committed more than a dozen murders, more than 50 rapes and numerous thefts in California between 1974 and 1986. His presence caused panic among California residents at the time. Paul Holes has been insisting on investigating this case, but he has had no clue for decades and always comes up empty handed. During this period, he talked about his experience working with the above-mentioned volunteer detective Ms. Michelle McNamara, and the title "Golden State Killer" was officially given by Ms. McNamara in her investigative notes book👇

Ms. McNamara is the first wife of famous comedian Patton Oswald , who gave a touching confession of his first wife on his stand-up show "The Void." Because his wife died suddenly in 2016, and shortly after her death, her book recording the "Golden State Killer" came out, and the "Golden State Killer" was caught. Everyone involved in the case remembers this woman who has always pursued the truth.

I really like her book "I'll Be Gone In The Dark". This book is particularly remarkable for its detailed record of the "Golden State Killer" case, its accurate wording, and its rich vocabulary. The phrase "I'll be gone in the dark" in the title of the book is a phrase that the "Golden State Killer" often said to his victims after committing crimes. He often sneaked into the victim's house at night, tied up the lying couple behind their backs, picked up a plate and put it on the victim's back, saying that if he heard the sound of the plate, he would come and kill them. After that, he would go to the kitchen to eat. Wait, and then come back and wait quietly in a dark corner. He will also rape his wife in the presence of her husband, and then leave with the words "I'll be gone in the dark" and walk away. Because he committed the crime in the dark, none of the surviving rape victims could see or describe his appearance clearly, which made it impossible for the police to accurately draw a portrait of the suspect in an era without DNA. However, there is one detail that many of his rape victims have pointed out, which is that the Golden State Killer's penis was extremely small🤏. Sometimes after he was done, he would sit in the corner and cry, calling "Mom" while crying...

Although there were many victims, the suspect could not be found. We have come very close many times, but still failed. Both books describe such things that seem to be close at hand but the suspect cannot be caught. In particular, Ms. McNamara's sudden death derailed her goal of catching the suspect. McNamara is a writer. She said she has been pursuing the truth and being interested in crime since she was a child. When she was a child, a girl was murdered in an alley near her home and it became a cold case. The incident left a deep impression on her mind, and from then on she became more determined to pursue the truth of cold cases.

McNamara's book began to be serialized in 2013 and was later published after McNamara's death. Unexpectedly, just a few months after its publication, the already old "Golden State Killer" was captured through DNA technology, and this man actually died in 1973. He was still a police officer and had jurisdiction over the area that was violated. Soon after, he was kicked out of the police force for disorderly conduct.

Police crimes are always more gruesome in terms of horror😨. After catching the "Golden State Killer", actor Oswald finally expressed on social media that he had finally caught the murderer and could comfort his first wife's soul in heaven.

As we enter October, we gradually enter the countdown to Halloween🎃, the days become shorter, and the long nights add a lot of atmosphere to the opening of the spooky Halloween. So, this is the first crime literature before Halloween🎃, and maybe I can write horror literature after that.