WOMAN 1: We were awakened
 by a voice and a bright light.
 There was a real sense of evil
 in the house.
WOMAN 2: He made me tie up
 my husband...
MAN 1: He ordered her
 to put dishes on my back.
WOMAN 2: ...and said,
 "If I hear these dishes
 fall down...
 I'm gonna kill your family."
PATTON OSWALT:
 Patton Oswalt sitting here
 with Michelle McNamara.
 My wife, who's the writer
 of one of the best written
 crime blogs.
 Michelle got it from the hope
 for putting puzzles together,
trying to make sense
of violence.
MICHELLE MCNAMARA:
 I was in search of a man
 who was attacking women
 and girls
throughout northern California.
And the great tragedy
of this case to me
is that it's not better known.
-(SIRENS WAILING)
-REPORTER 1: The Irvine
 police department
 investigating
 an apparent homicide.
REPORTER 2: He's called
 the Golden State Killer.
PATTON: This case is huge.
 Michelle would actually go
 to a crime scene
 and walk a case.
Geographic connections,
DNA profiles,
genealogy websites...
MAN 3: The first time
 she called me,
 I thought, "Hmm, she knows
 her stuff."
So I started telling her things
 about my investigation.
WOMAN 3: When these crimes
 began in the '70s,
 women didn't talk about
 sexual assault,
because they were often blamed.
 Somehow it always came back
 to being the woman's fault.
The story of the victims,
it has to be told.
 He had cased the place,
 he knew to lift the glass
 out of the back window.
I understood what it meant
to have your skin crawl.
And I'm thinking, "Is this
really happening?"
I don't know how Michelle
lived the horror of that
day after day.
 She was writing a book,
 and she was trying
 to solve a case.
MAN 4: After Michelle died,
 we had to finish her book.
WOMAN 4: "'I'll be gone
 in the dark,'
 he threatened a victim once.
 'One day soon, you'll hear
 footsteps,
 coming up your front walk.'
 The doorbell rings.
 'Take one of your hyper,
 gulping breaths,
 this is how it ends
 for you.'"
REPORTER 3: He's been called
 the Original Nightstalker
 and the Golden State Killer.
 Today, it's our pleasure
 to call him defendant.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS, FADES) ♪
