After the arrest of 72-year-old ex-cop Joseph James DeAngelo earlier this week, heavily suspected to be the Visalia Ransacker and the further accusation that he is the infamous Golden State Killer (aka. East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker), the book that is said to have brought the cold case back into the spotlight is set to get another chapter, detailing the arrest and evidence aligning DeAngelo with the unknown serial killer who terrorised the greater Sacramento area in the 70’s and 80’s.
Billy Jensen, the journalist who worked with Michelle McNamara, the late researcher and author of the bestselling book I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, has confirmed to The Daily Beast that an extra chapter will be added to the paperback, covering the major arrest of DeAngelo.
The book itself was almost finished when MacNamara passed away of a heart attack in 2016 but has been credited (by seemingly everyone but the police) as bringing the search for the Golden State Killer back into the front of everyone’s minds.
On an emergency episode of My Favourite Murder, Jensen said that he was told about the impending press conference late at night after spending the evening with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, and spent the next day speaking with MacNamara’s ex-husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, feeling like the arrest wasn’t reality.
It was always going to be “is this real or not?”
I was sitting there all alone in this bed [in Chicago] that I’d never been in before and I started thinking and questioning my consciousness of whether I was dreaming or not. I was really wondering whether this was a dream.
Me and Patton…were sitting in the airport waiting for the plane to board and we were both saying the same thing. If we wake up and we’re back in the hotel, this is gunna be really shitty.
Speaking with The Daily Beast, Jensen has said that the added chapter to McNamara’s book will go through DeAngelo’s life, building a timeline of the Vietnam War veteran’s actions to see how it aligns with the movements of the Golden State Killer’s reported crimes.
“We will definitely touch on how they found him [and] as much as we can find out about his life,” said Jensen. “We are also building a timeline of where and when he’s been, to see if there were any other reported crimes that could be attached to him.”
