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♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(PHONE RINGING)

(DOG BARKING)

(PHONE BEEPS)

MICHELLE MCNAMARA: Hi, Cliff.
My name is Michelle McNamara.

I'm a crime writer
in Los Angeles.

I am doing a series
on unsolved crimes.

Hi, Kate.
This is Michelle McNamara.

-Hey, it's Michelle.
-PETE KOTZ: Hi, Michelle.

MICHELLE: Hi.

I-- I write a lot about
unsolved cases.

One that I, um,
am very fascinated with is

the East Area Rapist,
Original Night Stalker case.

I think it's very solvable.

There's a good likelihood
that he is still alive

and he's out there.

I think the narcotic
pull for me

is what I think of
as the powerful absence

that haunts an unsolved crime.

Murderers lose their power
the moment we know them.

We see their unkempt shirts,

the uncertain fear
tightening their faces

as they're led
into a courtroom.

When I'm puzzling
over the details

of an unsolved crime,

I'm like a rat in a maze
given a task.

And I mean that
in the best possible way.

The world narrows,
the search propels.

I felt, in the truest sense
of the word, gripped.

I had a murder habit
and it was bad.

I would feed it
for the rest of my life.

♪ ("AVALANCHE"
BY AIMEE MANN PLAYING) ♪

♪ Well, I stepped
Into an avalanche ♪

♪ It covered up my soul ♪

♪ When I am not this hunchback
That you see ♪

♪ I sleep beneath
The golden hill ♪

♪ You who wish
To conquer pain ♪

♪ You must learn ♪

♪ Learn to serve me well ♪

(KEYBOARD CLACKING)

WOMAN: So,
what's in Herndon, Virginia?

PATTON OSWALT: Herndon, Virginia
is where my parents live,

so I was back there for a week,

and while my daughter
was visiting her grandparents,

I was in the basement

struggling to get
this afterword done

'cause it was hard going.

Um... 'Cause I was also
re-reading the book.

And there were
those moments when

I would want to just...

like, run upstairs
and go tell her something

because it felt like
I was listening to her

and then I'm like,
"Oh no. She's not..."

-You know.
-Mm-hmm.

So it was just--
it was a very--

-Yeah. Well, I can only imagine.
-PATTON: For me.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MICHELLE: That summer, I hunted
the serial killer at night

from my daughter's playroom.

I'd retreat
to my makeshift workspace

and boot up my laptop in search
of a man I'd never met

who raped and murdered people
I didn't know.

In 1977,
the Golden State Killer,

as I'd come to call him,
hadn't yet graduated to murder.

Long before he was known
by the acronym EAR/ONS

and even before he was known
as the Original Night Stalker,

they called him
the East Area Rapist,

who was attacking women
and girls in their bedrooms

throughout Northern California.

CAROL DALY:
This man is considered

to have an extremely
violent potential.

There isn't much
that you can do

except comply with his demands.

MICHELLE:
He always wore a mask.

The victims slept untroubled

until the flashlight's blaze
forced open their eyes.

Sleepy minds lumbered,
then raced.

A figure they couldn't see
wielded the light.

But who? And why?

The other thing that's so
interesting about this case

that I think about a lot
is, you know,

serial killers are, um...
Oh dear.

-This is awkward.
-(CAMERON CHUCKLES)

Hi. (LAUGHS)

Why are you wearing a skirt
as a dress?

Oh, my God.

You are so funny.

CAMERON CLOUTIER:
So, how did you...

Let's just start
at the very beginning.

How did you first
become interested in this case?

Like this particular case?

So, this particular one,
you know, what's interesting

is that I remember

the great tragedy of this case
to me

is that it's not better known.

I mean I can't, you know,
like, you know,

I wish Zodiac would get rid
of his 15 minutes of fame

so that EAR/ONS
could get a little heat,

-you know? Um...
-CAMERON: Right.

And so I was very shocked.

I think it was just four
or five years ago

that I happened to be home
one night

and one of the E! shows
or something was on,

and I thought, "You've gotta be
kidding me. I've never-- what?"

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MICHELLE: I looked it up.

And Larry Crompton's book
kind of got me.

That's been the last, like,
year kind of obsession.

-CAMERON: Mm-hmm. Right.
-Started with that book.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

WOMAN #1:
It was a Friday night.

It was probably after 1:00,
closer to 2:00.

WOMAN #2:
We were awakened by a voice

and a bright light in our face.

WOMAN #3: Then there he is...
with his ski mask

and the only thing you can see
is his silhouette.

WOMAN #4: Then he said, uh,

"Don't move or I'll kill you."

♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MICHELLE:
Welcome to Crime Scene,

a podcast that examines
real life crimes.

I'm Michelle McNamara
of truecrimediary dot com.

The terror began
on June 18th, 1976,

when a masked man raped
a young woman home alone

in middle class
Rancho Cordova.

(DOOR OPENS)

Larry Crompton
is a retired lieutenant

from the Contra Costa
Sheriff's Department.

He worked on the Rapist
Task Force in the '70s.

LARRY CROMPTON: Okay.
All of these were suspects

that we-- we worked on
and, uh, eliminated.

And, uh...

and some of them really,
really did look good.

But, uh...

MICHELLE: He recently
published a book on the case.

Sudden Terror
draws on police reports,

victim interviews,
Crompton's notes,

newspaper clippings.

What follows is my conversation
with him.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

-(LARRY MUMBLING)
-MICHELLE:
So, to put together your book,

you mostly went through
your files. Was that...

-LARRY: Yeah, I had everything.
-Wow.

LARRY: And I was there.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

LARRY: Now present,
Sergeant Larry Crompton,

Sheriff's Office.

We're conducting
an interview for...

case file 7917426

that occurred on 6-11-79.

MICHELLE: You talked about it
in the book so well,

sort of coming in,
and that you felt him

and I just wondered, like,
what that feeling was like.

LARRY: It's just--

it's hard to believe this,

but when I walked
into the house

I had a feeling.

The hair on the back of my neck

would just
feel like it was standing up.

It was just the...

the fear that
was in the victims

and, uh, and listening
to what they--

what they said.
It...

It just had a feeling
that this is a madman.

It wasn't anything
that we had dealt with before.

He always wore a mask,

always wore gloves,

talked through clenched teeth,

set the houses up
prior to the victim's arriving,

unlocked doors and windows,

opened gates.

Okay.

This is our backyard.

This was the window right here.

It's on the far side
of the house.

I came out here,
I walked down here,

and went this way
to the front of the street,

and that's how I got out,
right there.

This is the back fence

to get over.

LARRY: If there was a man
in the house,

he would throw shoelaces
on the bed

and tell the woman
to tie him up.

He would rummage and then
he would come back with dishes.

He'd put dishes
on the man's back

and tell him, "If I hear
these dishes rattle,

I'm gonna kill your wife."

WOMAN:
This is our family room...

And that was what he was
putting into their minds,

that they were going to die.

And that's what he did
over and over and over.

Two-two-seventy-eight.

Twenty-three.

The attack happened
on May 14th, uh, 1977.

So this was my first birthday
after the attack.

This is mine.
That's the room it was in.

There's my kitchen.

Boy, I have not looked at
these pictures in a long time.

My job is to catch him,
and I didn't do that.

And, uh, I can't let it go.

MICHELLE: Were normally the
victims so relieved that
they were alive

-that they--
-LARRY: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

-MICHELLE: Yeah.
-LARRY: Definitely.

MICHELLE: Yeah. I wondered.
I tried to put myself

in that situation,
you know, and, uh...

to go into someone's home

is screwing with them
mentally too.

-LARRY: Yeah.
-MICHELLE: Ugh, yeah.

-That's scary.
-LARRY: Yeah.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

You know, I think the story
of the victim-- victims,

it has to be told.

PATTON: I remember Michelle
ultimately wanted to serve

helping to get this guy caught.

She looked at it
from the hopeful, optimistic,

humans putting puzzles together,

trying to get closure,

trying to make sense
of violence and despair.

I mean, what drives me

is the need to put a face
on a unknown killer.

And what-- what I love

is this intersection of sort of
technology and crime solving,

in that people can get sort of
wheeled out of their house

for something they did in 1957
because of the internet,

because of DNA.
I really get off on that.

That is so amazing to me,
and I wanna be a part of that.

Nothing-- it's, you know,
everyone has their cause,

and this just feels like
what I was born to do.

(KEYBOARD CLACKING)

I love digging for clues,
I love putting things together.

I love the puzzling part of it.

I love being wrong
because sometimes it proves

that you didn't know enough,
and you learn new techniques.

I love every single aspect
of it.

MAN: What led you
to starting this blog?

MICHELLE: Well, I always
followed crime stories,

and I was always a writer.

So I really just--
I started it on a lark, really.

KAREN KILGARIFF: I started
reading Michelle's blog,

True Crime Diary, basically
on a recommendation.

And I was obsessed with it.
Like, she couldn't post enough.

Her stories
and the way she told them,

made them so memorable.

You know,
they all stuck with you.

MICHELLE: Whatever light
existed was blotted out.

The sound of hurried footsteps
faded away.

It had that feeling of, like,

under the blanket
with a flashlight at night.

I was kind of amazed
at how quickly it caught on.

KAREN: When people talk to me
about finding that blog,

there's a real excitement
where people are like,

"I've read every single post."

It was like they were
drug addicts or something.

MICHELLE: I would say
about a year in,

I started to realize I wasn't
really in an echo chamber,

that people were kind of
starting to read it
and respond to it.

KAREN: Most of the TV shows
that would cover these stories

were very cold
or really kind of exploitive.

We spent a bunch of time

watching a reenactment
of a beautiful young actress

being attacked over and over
while wearing lingerie.

(WOMAN SCREAMING)

KAREN: But Michelle's blog kind
of changed, I think, the focus.

She personalized those people.

If you can remind people
about the humanity

at the other end of that gun.

"This was a person with hopes
and dreams, with family,

that could've
done this, this, or this."

That's what Michelle did
in her writing.

CHRISTINE BLACKBURN:
All right. Here we go, folks.

We've got Michelle McNamara.

She's a writer
and a web sleuth.

She has taught college writing,
uh, worked as an editor,

sold TV pilots, and also
consulted for Dateline.

She is a truth seeker
is what she is.

-(MICHELLE LAUGHS)
-Let's face it.

You have a career,
you have a life

because people are always
gonna get murdered.

-MICHELLE: Well. Yeah.
The murder biz.
-You deal with the devil.

She was a pioneer,
she was somebody

who was creating, uh,
you know, something new.

Yeah.
Nothing was like that in 2007.

PATTON: Hi, Los Angeles.

Patton Oswalt
on Jonesy's Jukebox.

That was "Ceremony"
by New Order.

I am sitting here
with the lovely and intelligent

Michelle McNamara, my wife,

who is the writer and creator
of truecrimediary dot com.

I think this is one of
the best written

and creepiest crime blogs
on the web.

MICHELLE: You're such
a good husband. (LAUGHS)

PATTON: It is! No, it's a good--
I'm telling you, man.

If this site was awful, I would
have to be lying all the time.

-(MICHELLE LAUGHS)
-So, um, Michelle.

-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm?
-You were telling me about

something going on
in the Northwest right now.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I mean,
I have a theory that there is

a serial killer
operating in the Northwest

who is killing couples,
like, out camping.

There's been about
four or five cases

where there seems
to be no motive

and they are both shot
in the head.

PATTON: I remember
the Jenner case so clearly.

That was such
a turning point for her

because she became
very fascinated

with how crimes
are investigated.

MICHELLE: It's not easy
to get to this beach.

You have to negotiate
a tricky path

down a rocky cliff.

On Wednesday, August 18th,

a sheriff's helicopter
noticed two sleeping bags

on Fish Head Beach.

Despite the noise and nearness
of the helicopter,

the figures in the sleeping
bags didn't move.

Lindsay and Jason had each been
shot in the head at close range

with a .45 caliber
Marlin rifle.

PATTON: That is a creepy beach.

MICHELLE: I showed you
all that evidence--

or all that footage,
it's a very creepy beach.

PATTON: The act of actually
going to the crime scene

and walking the case
made her go, "Oh...

Yeah, I can't just be clicking
on the internet.

I have to go visit places
and look at places."

It changed the way
she wrote about it.

DICK GORDON: When did you make
the shift, Michelle,

from just reading stuff
and absorbing it

to thinking,
"I can do something here.

I can start trying to connect
dots that I might see

that others have missed"?

MICHELLE: There was this,
um, kind of national news

about a kidnapping
that took place in Missouri.

This boy had been kidnapped
from a bus stop.

And it immediately reminded me
of a lesser known case

that had happened
five years before

that no one else
was talking about,

but there were things
that were interesting to me.

So I posted, um,

that I think whoever took
this boy, Ben Ownby,

probably also took this kid,
Shawn Hornbeck.

And I posted it on a Wednesday.

That Friday,
the police in St. Louis

went to investigate a tip about
where Ben Ownby might be,

and they knocked on the door,

and Shawn Hornbeck
opened the door.

DICK: You mean, a kid who'd been
kidnapped years earlier

-answered the door?
-MICHELLE: Right. Right.

And again, this was three days
after I had posted,

"I think they're probably
taken by the same person."

That was a big moment for me.

I could start to see where my
head full of facts and details

could intersect
with technology.

You know, I had started
to kind of use internet tools

to figure out that
they seemed similar

and that they might be
connected.

JACKIE KASHIAN:
It's got to be amazing

when you find
a new sort of clue.

MICHELLE:
When people describe, like,

porn addiction or something.
And...

-No, this is really weird.
-JACKIE: (CHUCKLES) Right.

MICHELLE: I can't stop myself,
time disappears.

JACKIE: Oh, right.

MICHELLE: You know,
all those things happen.

JACKIE:
So it's a genuine addiction?

-MICHELLE: Yeah. Yeah.
-JACKIE: You are onboard.

Are you doing this now,
currently?

MICHELLE: Oh, every night,
until like 2:00 in the morning.

(JACKIE LAUGHS)

I cannot remember

the specific time we started
talking about EAR/ONS

because every day,
there was so many cases

she was following up.

And then... just organically,

that became the thing
that got narrowed down.

NANCY MILLER:
I looked at Michelle's blog,

truecrimediary dot com,
and I was really intrigued.

So she and I first met in 2011

to talk about
some story ideas.

And she was so smart

and so... (SIGHS) cool
and down to earth.

And her shit was together.

Not only that, I really liked
how she was unpretentious

in a, obviously, pretty
pretentious city and business.

I remember
she wore these, like, clogs.

She had a backpack
like a-- like a--

that she bought at Target.

And she just showed up totally
like in a-- in a flannel shirt

and just as like
low-key as possible.

So we meet up,
we go to this cafe.

I think we met there
like at 11:00

and probably didn't leave

until about 3:00
in the afternoon.

Because she started telling me
this story about this guy.

MICHELLE: The case
that is sort of my--

the biggest case that
I'm most obsessed with is...

The short version is,
basically, he's the worst
serial offender

in modern history
that no one really knows about.

He raped over 50 women
in California

and killed 10 people.

Um, and he's never been caught.

There's no one
like him out there.

There hasn't been before.

He is a such a unique offender.

This guy
was one of the most prolific,

violent, brutal, serial rapists,

and eventually a murderer.

And I had never heard of him.

Like you'd heard
of Zodiac Killer,

you heard Son of Sam,
like you hear all of these big--

especially in the '70s and '80s,
which seemed to be

the most fertile period
for these serial killer stories.

And I had never heard of him.

MICHELLE: He would eat
in the people's kitchens,

he would hide ligatures
under cushions

so that when he was attacking,

you suddenly
would watch this man

take a ligature
under your cushion,

you didn't even know
he had been in your house.

NANCY: I'm drinking this,
like, Arnold Palmer

that's like 36,000 ounces,

and I'm like sipping on it
and drinking it and drinking it

as she's telling me this story.

I needed to go
to the bathroom really badly

because my bladder
was like about to burst.

But I couldn't.
I couldn't.

And I just kept listening,
and listening and listening.

And that's how I knew
it was a great story.

You know, the challenge
for any magazine editor,

any reporter and writer, is...

sure, you have, like, a person
or you have a topic,

really interesting guy
from a long time ago,

but there was nothing new
to say yet.

MICHELLE: What's fascinating
to me about this case,

is that it's rich
with so many clues

and it really seems to me
that it's just

time, energy, and curiosity.

And that, um--
and frankly it should be solved.

I mean, it just should be.

When I was so, um, gripped
by Crompton's book,

I googled "East Area Rapist
Original Night Stalker."

And this came up, this link,

to the Cold Case Files
message board.

And I was just...

You know,
for someone like me, again,

it's like, "Oh, wow,
look at all these--

Oh, wow."

-(WOMAN LAUGHING)
-Like, "Wait!

Who would spend,
you know, all this time..."

Well, me, I guess,

because it's a week later
and I've read 20,000 posts.

You know,
certainly in this case,

there was this community
of people.

They all had different reasons
for being involved in it.

Some of them, you know,
were from Sacramento

and remembered
and were still fearful

and wanted to see it closed.

Others were more
kind of just, um,

data mining,
sleuth kind of people.

You know, this was unique to me

because I've never actually
been part of

this sort of message board
community before.

They throw around clues,
you know, you just--

you go down the rabbit hole
kind of gleefully,

like, "Oh, there's just this
unending thread of information

that I can find."

EAR/ONS is an acronym

for the East Area Rapist
slash Original Night Stalker.

It's an awkward name befitting
a man who crossed jurisdictions

and flummoxed law enforcement
for decades.

What kind of man was he?

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

PAUL HAYNES: I'd been aware
of Michelle for, um,

probably a few years.

I was a fan
of her True Crime Diary.

I'd read True Crime Diary
in its entirety.

So when she finally wrote
about the East Area Rapist,

it was, you know,
it was exciting.

MICHELLE: I'm obsessed.
It's not healthy.

I know the strangest details
about him.

I know his blood type.

I know his penis size.

He vaulted fences,
he escaped foot chases.

But I believe it's the rare
moments when he was human

that will be his downfall
in the end.

Her writing evoked
the central, um, hook for me,

which was the mystery,

the question of
who is behind this crime?

She wasn't
a ghoulish gore-hound.

There was nothing tasteless
about her writing.

It struck just the right tone.

MICHELLE: An impressive
community of people

has come together
at an A&E sponsored website.

Unlike other
unsolved mystery communities,

the EAR/ONS community's
desire for justice

feels strong and sincere.

She reached out to me privately,
and we started corresponding,

and, um,
it was evident she was, like,

entrenched in this case.
As was I.

MICHELLE: I just kind of...
I saw who seemed to be

some of the, like,
kind of leaders on the board,

and I just began kind of
personal messaging.

PAUL: You know,
we started exchanging notes

and, um, developed a rapport
pretty quickly.

You know,
we just built mutual trust

until we were just, you know,

openly sharing
our work with each other.

And that's when we discovered
that a lot of it

had intersected.

MICHELLE: We kind of started
just exchanging ideas

and theories
and things like that.

And we just kind of
forged a friendship,

you know, a strange friendship

over this strange
30-year-old case.

-(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
-Hi.

My name is Michelle.

I'm a longtime lurker
on the EAR/ONS board.

The case is of interest to me,
and you seem

really measured and thoughtful
in your responses.

I wanted to know if you have
any thoughts on something.

I spent an afternoon
doing some research,

and I feel like I've stumbled
upon a compelling suspect.

MELANIE BARBEAU: Hi, Michelle.
Thanks for trusting me

with this information.

I'm a Sacramento native

and have been investigating
this case for years.

Let's talk.

MICHELLE:
I traveled to Sacramento

to meet a woman
about whom I know very little,

including the spelling
of her last name.

The Social Worker operates
as a kind of gatekeeper

between investigators
and the board community.

This irks some posters

who accuse her of hinting
at confidential information

but then shutting down
when asked to share.

She greeted me
in the parking lot

by waving her arms
wildly overhead.

I liked her right away.

Well, we had been
in communication.

I knew she was flying
into Sacramento,

and she was another civilian
that was interested

in the movement.

And we would drive around
to the crime scenes.

I would take her to the areas.

And so we drove around
for hours.

We're gonna go
about five miles from here.

MICHELLE: Okay.

MELANIE: And I'm gonna take you
to the first crime scenes first.

MICHELLE: Okay.

Our language just immediately
became, uh, you know,

about the case facts
and about what we knew

and what this,
and what do you think of that?

It was a language
that nobody else probably

could've understood
what we were talking about

unless you have that experience

or you were aware of the case.

I just don't think it's gonna be
somebody that everybody thought,

"Oh, that's
the East Area Rapist."

-MICHELLE: Well, I mean,
I think you're right because...
-I think it's gonna be--

MICHELLE: ...he wasn't caught.

-I mean, obviously--
-Yeah, I think it's gonna be

somebody that they go, "Really?"

MICHELLE: Right, right.

Obviously, he didn't stand out
at the time.

There's something about
two women getting together

that have a common cause
and a common goal

and, you know, we're crusaders,

we're warriors,
we're on the path.

You know, that was the beginning
of a relationship.

We'll remain
lifelong friends forever.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

MELANIE: First, we're gonna head
into Rancho Cordova

to, um, his very early attacks,

number one and number three.

MICHELLE: Sacramento. I mean,
when you were growing up,

did it seem to be, like, a
lot of people who worked for--

-MELANIE:
It was a cow town, it was...
-Okay. But there's a--

when you say "cow town,"
you mean that there was

-the outlying farms and stuff?
-MELANIE: Yeah,
it's kind of outlying farms.

-MICHELLE:
There's still a lot of, like--
-It's still outlying. Yeah.

MICHELLE: Well, you see,
it's interesting

'cause coming from LA,
you almost never see sort of

-big, open, empty spaces.
-Mm-hmm.

MICHELLE: And driving around,
it was like, "Wow."

MELANIE: We're entering
the Rancho Cordova realm.

MICHELLE: Okay. Yeah.

MELANIE: And I'm gonna take you
right into the heart of it all.

MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.

MELANIE: This is where
the first crime occurs.

When you first are, like,
learning about the case,

you just wanna get
a feel for, like,

where did these things happen?

Who were the players in this,
and, you know,

can you tell anything more
about this offender

by going into the places
he was in?

A few houses down on the right
is number three.

MICHELLE: Yeah, so these houses
are close together, yeah.

MELANIE: Yeah. And I'll actually
show you number one's house.

For Michelle, it's like,
"I wanna get in this guy's mind.

I wanna go to these places.

I wanna try to understand...

Why this area,
and why so close together?

You know, was he from here?"

-This is his hotspot.
-MICHELLE: Mm-hmm.

MELANIE:
This is the house right here.

He cut the phone lines

and, uh... raped her

and left the scene.

This was in June.
June 18, 1976, was this attack.

And the attack we're going to
was in August,

August 29, '76.

We're pulling up to
attack number three right now.

-That's how close he was.
-MICHELLE: Wow.

He had to be from around here.

MELANIE: "A 12-year-old saw a
masked man outside the window,

ran and woke her mother up.

The mother ran to the kitchen
and dialed the operator.

Moments later,
EAR was standing in the doorway

with a club and a gun,
naked from the waist down.

He told the mother,
'Freeze or I'll kill you.'

The mother grabbed the gun band
as he approached her.

He clubbed her
until she lay on the floor.

A neighbor had seen EAR
walking away with no pants on,

but could not
describe his face."

This is the second house in,

and if we drive
to the corner house,

and if you kind of just
look on the fence line

right here through,

this goes straight
to the attack,

uh, number one attack,

in June of '76.

The neighbor also said
that he was hearing,

for a couple months prior,
people jumping over his fence.

It's my guess
that he was actually, uh,

looking at these houses
long before he attacked.

It's amazing to me
that any one person

could get away
with this many crimes.

And you can just see
how they're just stones--

a stone's throw away
from each other.

And right down the fence line.

MICHELLE: But he wasn't walking
on those kind of fences,
was he?

-MELANIE: Yeah.
-MICHELLE: I mean, that's--

MELANIE: He's said to have been
walking them.

MICHELLE: Oh, wow.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

PATTON:
As Michelle was going up

doing drive-arounds
of Sacramento,

I saw her confidence growing.

It was really exciting
to have someone who was--

you're in love with someone,
and they're doing something,

and you can see how excited
and energized they are about it.

And that makes you excited
and energized.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm amazed I'm still funny.
I'm amazed I'm still funny

because I'm in love.

-I'm in love. I'm in love.
-(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Yes, I am.

And there is nothing--

nothing ends a comedian's career

quicker than regular sex
and being in love.

It's the worst thing
on the planet.

My girlfriend is obsessed
with, like, true crime

and serial killers too.
All she does all day.

Watches FBI Files,
Forensic Files on TV,

the most graphic, disturbing,
depressing shows.

I walk in the house
every single day,

"The amount of semen
found in the chest cavity
lead investigators..."

Oh, my God!

She's like, "Shh!
It's the Semen Cavity Killer,

I wanna see what the..."
(MUTTERS)

-(SIGHS)
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

When I met Michelle,
it was on, um,

it was a show at the Largo.

I think it was May 20th.

I had been doing
The King of Queens

for five years,

and I'd had a couple specials
at that point.

But she wasn't that steeped
in the comedy scene,

so she didn't know who I was.

MICHELLE: This guy was funny.
More than funny.

He was moody and startling
but hilarious.

He could move the crowd with
the tiniest of expressions.

"Irish girls," he said.

He knocked the microphone
against his forehead.

"Irish girls are
my kryptonite."

And then I was just
sitting at the bar afterwards

and she was leaving,
and she literally tapped me

and just went,
"Irish women, nice." And I was--

and she was so fucking, like,
steamroller gorgeous

that I was just stunned.
And I ran-- I literally

-ran around the street.
-(LAUGHTER)

And I went, "Hey!"

And then that was the first word
I ever said to her was, "Hey!"

-Screaming.
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

And then she turned around,
and I'm like,

"I'm not gonna play
any fucking games.

I want your name and number
so I can take you on a date

-this weekend, are you free?"
-WOMAN: Yeah!

And she went, "Yeah."
I went, "Good!

-Give me your number."
-(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

It was just the most awkward,
non-James Bond moment

I could've had.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

CAROLINE MEREDITH:
Take off my mask.

PATTON: Our first date in LA,
they show movies

at the Hollywood
Forever Cemetery.

So we went and watched
an Italian film

called The 10th Victim.

(GUNSHOT)

-(GUNSHOT)
-(MAN GRUNTS)

Really goofy Italian
science fiction film.

I was too nervous to really
do a lot of talking that night.

She did way more of the talking
because she just was--

and the more we talk, I'm like,
"Oh, my God,

she's so smart and so cool,
I'm gonna screw this up."

I remember I called her
late at night 'cause I was up,

and I'm like, "The Creature
from the Black Lagoon is on,"

and she goes, "I'm watching it!
It's one of my favorite movies."

And that was one of the things
we bonded over really early.

We loved that.

MICHELLE: We loved many
of the same things,

like Creature
from the Black Lagoon,

tales of the grim and offbeat,
and good food.

I didn't like the way his
comedian friends,

including him, seemed to tell
jokes but never listen.

He thought I was thin-skinned.

For a while, it seemed
it might not work.

But one night,
he was saying goodbye to me,

and he won me over

with an adorable
Edward G. Robinson impression.

And I was doing that "Yeah, see.

Look at the getaway sticks
on that tomato."

Like, you--
like, chatting her up,

but in that old kinda slang,

and she thought
that was so hilarious.

MICHELLE: I laughed
and grabbed him.

"More," I said.

PATTON: "Ooh, look at the
keister on that hot number."

You know, couples have in-jokes
with each other,

and that became
one of my, you know...

It was just all that '30s
gangster slang.

I'd, you know,
however you wanna say it.

I can't-- Oh, God.

MICHELLE: I wouldn't let him go.

After a while, we gave up
and moved in together.

PATTON: I made
this custom desk for her

that was in this kind of
half-moon shape.

Like, I wanted her to have,
like, this command center.

MICHELLE: I've never tired
of the Robinson impression.

I've never tired of Patton.

ADAM DRUCKER: Michelle knew
that she was a marrying

a famous person,
and as much as she lived a life

that, you know, a lot of people
might fantasize about,

none of that mattered to her.

And I mean really.

She was a regular
salt-of-the-earth

Midwestern gal.

And she didn't wanna be
anything else.

PATTON:
The whole being photographed

and going to premieres
and stuff,

that meant nothing to her.

MAN: Patton,
can we get a quick single?

Especially if you're someone
who's thinking,

"I wanna go home
and write later,

I wanna get up tomorrow
and write."

ADAM: One of her favorite things
in the world

was to be in her room
under the covers,

like, with a fan, reading.

-(PAPARAZZI CLAMORING)
-You want Patton alone?

MAN: Do you want to leave?

(LAUGHS) Yes, I do.

SARAH STANARD:
She went to the Oscars,
she went to the Grammys.

We just always giggled about
it. I mean, it was just, like,

so different
from how we grew up.

She usually would wear black,
and she would joke

that they would think
she was like a PR person.

She was just an introvert.
That's all.

ADAM: She was really good
at making herself

sort of a fly on the wall
and inconspicuous.

I think it's one of the reasons

she had an incredible insight
into people,

she listened, she watched,

she didn't need to be
the center of attention.

She didn't want to be.

I think she'd always been
sort of

singled out as,
"You're a terrific writer."

And then she got to LA
where, you know,

there's a gazillion people
trying to do the same thing,

and that was hard for her.

She hadn't experienced,
you know,

that degree
of consistent rejection

and failure
and disappointment.

Her ultimate dream
was always to write books

or for The New Yorker.

She also really,
really wanted a child.

Four years after we got married,
our daughter was born.

-MICHELLE: Alice, hi.
-(ALICE COOS)

MICHELLE: Hi.

It was so amazing.

-MICHELLE: Look at... (LAUGHS)
-(PATTON HUMMING)

MICHELLE: Oh, Alice. (LAUGHS)

PATTON: And I think Alice
was about two or three

when Michelle was meticulously
due diligence researching

about, you know, EAR/ONS.

MICHELLE: In Sacramento,
the air is immediately better.

Struck by the big, open spaces.

A little over half a million,
or about half a million people,

but feels--

coming from Los Angeles,
feels so much smaller.

WAITRESS:
How are you doing in here?

MICHELLE: I'm good.
Um, I might have--

Okay, this is crazy.
Can I have one more latte?

-WAITRESS: Of course.
-(MICHELLE LAUGHS)

-WAITRESS: Got it.
-MICHELLE: All right.

-But this was really yummy.
-WAITRESS: Good.

When Michelle interviewed me,
we met for breakfast

down at the Citizen Hotel
in Downtown Sacramento.

Talking about the attack
is difficult, but Michelle,

she was so serious
about the case.

She was just the easiest person
to talk to.

MICHELLE:
So, I'm from suburban Chicago.

So all of this
is so foreign to me.

But what I wanted--

I'm trying to get back
into sort of the mindset.

A lot of people will say

that the EAR crimes--

crime period--

was kind of the end of innocence
for Sacramento.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

FIONA WILLIAMS:
We have the confluence

of the American
and Sacramento Rivers.

It was built up
being a commerce center,

and it became
the state capital.

We have both Mather Field
and McClellan Air Base.

So military was a big aspect
of the economy

and the people who lived here.

Back in those days, you did
know more of your neighbors,

people didn't lock
all their doors

or their cars, necessarily,
all the time.

And terrible crime

was just not that common.

RICHARD SHELBY:
Seventies Sacramento,

being a cop was
like a cop anywhere else.

It was pretty slow.

And then June comes along,
and you got this pervert

later known as
the East Area Rapist.

I responded to a home invasion,
a rape, 1976, October 5th.

Jane Carson
over at Wood Parkway.

At the time the East Area
rape cases started,

I was working homicide.

And I think
it was the fifth case

I was called to the scene on,
which was Jane Carson.

What's the feelings
that you're going through,

and wondering
whether you did the right thing

or whether you did
the wrong thing

and could you have done
anything any differently.

And I think you handled
the situation very well.

JANE CARSON: Well,
I had thought of kicking him,

but it would've been useless,

as my hands were tied
and I was blindfolded

-and my child was with me.
-CAROL: Okay.

RICHARD:
When the husband left for work,

the rapist was in their house
and on her.

He knew down to the minute
what was going on

in Jane's house
and the neighborhood.

When I left there that day,
I was convinced

that this probably wasn't
just a routine rape.

In fact, I know it wasn't.

And then I started
digging in deeper.

In the meantime, we have
a couple more rapes.

At that point,
there's no question

we had a serial rapist.
He had a definite pattern.

CAROL: When we realized that
we first had a series going,

the sheriff did not want
the media to be aware of it.

Because we didn't
have anything.

Because of what was
happening within the rapes,

he didn't want the word
to get out

to make fear in the community.

We just-- we just weren't ready
to handle anything coming in.

You know, we didn't have
that many people working it.

MELANIE:
"This is attack number eight.

And this victim was accosted
outside of her house

as she drove her car
into the driveway.

She was taken into the backyard
of her neighbor's house,

and there were strips of cloth
already laid out for ligatures.

Her ankles were tied with cord.

She was blindfolded, gagged.

Jingling her car keys,

the EAR said
he'd be back in five minutes.

Car was reportedly
found in the area

with the dog
locked in the trunk."

CAROL:
The media became aware of it.

The sheriff said,
"Please don't print anything,

we're gonna catch this guy."

And then as time went on
and we didn't catch the guy,

the media, uh, said, "Okay,
we're gonna start printing."

That was when the whole
community was brought in.

MELANIE: What happened
right after number eight

on 11-3-76,

the rape series came to light

during this meeting
on crime prevention.

There were 500 people
in attendance.

You can use
a simple alarm system.

Mount a bell device
on the outside of your home.

String some wires
to a power source

and then string
the other set of wires

right to a nightstand
and have a toggle switch there.

If you ever hear
the glass breaking,

reach over on your nightstand
and flip the switch,

the bell goes off
on the outside.

MELANIE:
Other than by word of mouth,

where people might be talking

about a neighbor
that had been raped,

there wasn't a lot
of information until this time.

On 11-4-76, the first
newspaper article on the EAR

appears in the Sacramento Bee.

RICHARD: Warren Holloway
was a reporter.

And I'd put a little
one-paragraph note
out to the detectives.

"Got a rape series going
in the East Area."

And he walked out, he saw that.

The next day on the newspaper,
"East Area Rapist."

It just got picked up
and there it was,

"East Area Rapist."

MELANIE: Three weeks
after attack number eight,

where it was announced,

there was a town hall meeting
in Rancho Cordova.

Of the 35 that attended,
only one of those was a male.

Following two weeks later,

"Publicity May Have
Curtailed Rapist"

is written
in the Sacramento Bee.

Then he has his tenth attack.

LARRY: A lot of people
don't realize this,

but six rapes in Sacramento,

out of the first ten,

six of them were teenagers.

And two of them
were 15 years old.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PAYING) ♪

(CAR DOOR OPENING)

KRIS PEDRETTI: This one here
is probably, um, Christmas Day,

which, so it'd be a week
after it happened.

It was December 18th.

There was a high school dance,
and I had a cold.

So at the last minute,
I decided to stay at home.

Uh, my parents were going
to a Christmas party

and my sister was at work.

My parents left
probably around 6:30-ish.

And I think
I put a pizza in the oven,

I remember
having my slippers on,

and I decided
to go play the piano.

I heard a noise,
but at 15 years old,

you always hear noises
in your house

when your parents aren't home.

So I didn't think much of it.

I stopped.

I do remember stopping
and listening and...

uh, didn't hear anything else,
so I continued to play.

It wasn't very much longer,
maybe a couple minutes,

that I felt...

um, a presence next to me.

And I looked up and, um,

then I felt a knife
at my throat.

And then he told me in my ear,
you know,

"If you scream or move,

I will put this knife
through your throat

and I'll be gone in the dark."

He moved me down the hallway,
through the garage,

and into the backyard,
um...

where I was left out
in the, uh...

on a picnic bench

while he went back
into the house.

And he told me he'd be
watching me every 10 seconds.

He, uh, came back outside

and that is where
he cut my clothes off.

He would bring me inside
and he would rape me,

take me back outside,

inside, rape me again,
back outside.

And then another time.

Yeah. (CHUCKLES)

So that was my first,
um, memory of that.

Um...

(KETTLE WHISTLING)

I think during
that time though, I was--

there wasn't a lot of feeling
going on.

I was pretty numb.

And, uh--
but what I do remember

is he had moved the couch
very close to our fireplace.

But because I was blindfolded
and couldn't see,

I thought he had caught
our couch on fire.

And I think
that was probably, uh...

that was--
that was really scary.

Because I thought
I was gonna die.

Um... and then he was gone.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

KRIS:
I stopped playing the piano

shortly after the attack.

It was difficult for me to play

because I always
felt like there was...

somebody behind me.

It was just a few hours,
but it changed everything.

REPORTER: It had been a month
since he last struck,

but he has struck again.

This time,
it was a 15-year-old girl.

Again, it was in a northeast
Sacramento neighborhood.

Again, he knew she was alone,

forced his way in using a knife
to threaten her,

and raped her repeatedly
for several hours,

and forced her to perform
perverted sex acts.

The latest victim
was younger than the others

and the attack took place
early in the evening,

where the others took place
between 11:00 at night and dawn.

But it definitely
was the same rapist

who has eluded authorities
for over a year.

NANCY: When Michelle and I
talked about this story,

it was one of those things
that you just kind of

keep thinking about
and keep thinking about.

Michelle had already done an
incredible amount of research.

And I remember thinking, "Okay.
We've got a few hurdles.

Um, I have to pitch this
to my editor-in-chief."

Everyone loves a story
about a killer. (CHUCKLES)

But in order
to get her interested,

I had to convince her
that this story was relevant now

and that it was, like,

a Los Angeles
and a California story.

Michelle was an incredible
intrepid reporter.

As we were sort of trying
to put the pitch together,

she would go on her own
and just research things.

You could be
completely confident

that she was going
to come back with something,

something good.

And not just get
the facts right,

but also be able to have
that relationship

with that person
that she would need.

That no one else could get to.

MICHELLE: I pitched
LA Magazine the EAR story.

And they're interested
in doing it, possibly,

which would be amazing.
I mean, that would be like

the kind of publicity
that just-- you can't buy.

You know?
I mean, I just think this story

-is so important to be told.
-MELANIE: It is.

MICHELLE: I mean, it's--
it gets me that this person--

-I just feel like he's smirking
somewhere, going like...
-MELANIE: Yeah.

-MICHELLE: ..."I don't have to
pay for this ever."
-Fuck him.

If there's any way I could
look at whatever you have,

and I won't copy anything, I
just look at it and take notes

and then give it
back to you tomorrow?

At least then I can say
I saw case files.

MELANIE: Can I...

let you, while you're here,
look at some stuff?

MICHELLE: Um...

MELANIE: Because
I've sworn confidentiality,

that I would never, uh,

release it
out of my possession.

MICHELLE:
Right. Yeah. I mean,

so what you're thinking
is that I could sit there...

-MELANIE: You could sit there
and go through them.
-Okay.

-MELANIE: I just can't
let them leave my home.

MICHELLE: Right. How many pages
are there all together, like?

MELANIE:
Probably four or five thousand.

-MICHELLE: Oh, my God.
-MELANIE: Yeah, it's big.

-MICHELLE: Yeah.
-MELANIE: It's all the rapes.

-MICHELLE: Right.
-It's every-- all 50 rapes.

MICHELLE: Wow.

MICHELLE: Wow.

MELANIE:

MICHELLE:
These underground trades,

the result of furtive alliances

forged from a shared obsession
with a faceless serial killer,

were common.

Online sleuths,
retired detectives,

and active detectives,
everyone participated.

(CAR BEEPS)

(CELL PHONE PINGS)

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PAYING) ♪

MICHELLE:
The grandiose seeker in me

couldn't wait to insert
the flash drive into my laptop

back at my hotel.

At every stoplight,

I touched the top pocket
in my backpack

to make sure the tiny rectangle
was still there.

Once in my room,
I immediately changed

into the crisp
white hotel bathrobe.

I lowered the shades
and turned off my phone.

I dumped a bag of minibar
gummy bears into a glass

and set it
next to me on the bed,

where I sat cross-legged
in front of my laptop.

Ahead of me
was a rare 24-hour stretch

without interference
or distraction.

No tiny hands slicked with
paint asking to be washed.

No preoccupied hungry husband
to inquire about dinner.

I inserted the flash drive,
my mind in mail sorter mode,

my index finger
on the down arrow key.

I began to not so much read
as devour.

Drainage ditches
and cement-lined canals

come up frequently
in the police reports.

It's clear from the start,

from footprints, evidence,
suspicious sightings,

and even bringing
one victim down there,

that the East Area Rapist
traveled this way,

like a subterranean creature.

He was doing reconnaissance.
He was studying people.

Learning when they were home.

That means that women exist

who, because of change
of schedule or luck,

were never victims.

But they felt
something terrifying

brush against them.

Hours vanished.
The gummy bears were gone.

I was jittery from sugar,
hunger,

and spending too much time
alone in the dark

absorbing a 50-chapter
horror story.

Part of the thrill of the game
for him, I believe,

was a kind of
connect-the-dots puzzle

he played with people.

You may not think
you have something in common

with your neighbor,

but you do.

Me.

♪ (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪