BROOKE TAYLOR: All of these people
are looking to me to tell them what to do.
I don't know what to tell them!
Are you gonna take care of me?
♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LINDA O'DELL: It was a Friday night after 1:00.
GAY HARDWICK: We were awakened by a bright light.
FIONA WILLIAMS: And the only thing you can see is his silhouette.
KRIS PEDRETTI: Then he said, "Don't move or I'll kill you."
PATTON OSWALT: Patton Oswalt sitting here with Michelle McNamara.
My wife, who's the writer of one of the best written crime blogs.
You know, everyone has their cause,
and this just feels like what I was born to do.
SPEAKER: Michelle came up with the name "Golden State Killer"
'cause he terrorized up and down the state.
SPEAKER 2: He raped over 50 women in California
and killed ten people.
She wanted to get this guy caught.
Frankly, it should be solved. I mean, it just should be.
In the true crime community, her death was unbelievable.
OFFICER: Although she never had a badge and a gun,
Michelle always was and always will be one of us,
and I have every belief that through her work,
this will be solved.
PROSECUTOR: He's been called the Original Night Stalker
and the Golden State Killer.
Today, it's our pleasure to call him defendant.
I wish you were pointing that camera at Michelle right now.
She got him.
(RAIN PATTERING)
MICHELLE MCNAMARA: I handled my first crime scene evidence
the summer I was 14.
Specifically, broken pieces from a yellow Walkman.
A Walkman that 48 hours earlier
had been in the ears of Kathy Lombardo.
She'd been jogging a block and a half
from her family's house, and a man's hands
shot forth suddenly in the darkness.
(KATHY LOMBARDO PANTING)
MICHELLE: There was the shock of his hands
and the brutal force with which he brought her down,
-dragging her into the alley... -(GARBAGE CANS CLATTERING)
...slamming her into the garbage cans,
where he raped Kathy,
stabbed her, slit her throat, then disappeared.
Never again would I tune out when the words "homicide"
or "missing," or "mystery" came on the news.
REPORTER 1: The mystery surrounding
the so-called Golden State Killer
responsible for a slew of murders and rapes...
MICHELLE: He's the worst serial offender in modern history.
And it really seems to me that, frankly, it should be solved.
I mean, it just should be.
I felt, in the truest sense of the word, gripped.
Like an unseen force had locked onto me,
refusing to let go.
REPORTER 2: We found the needle in the haystack.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
MICHELLE: 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 ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER 3: The sentencing hearing has begun
for convicted East Area Rapist and the Golden State Killer,
Joseph DeAngelo.
The man who terrorized California
in a series of rapes and murders lasting a decade.
Because of the sheer number of crimes,
his sentencing will take place over the course of four days.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
All rise.
Department 24 of the Superior Court of California
in and for the County of Sacramento is in session.
The Honorable Michael Bowman, Judge, presiding.
The People's State of California versus Joseph James DeAngelo.
Is that your true and correct name, sir?
(MICROPHONE CLATTERING)
MICHAEL BOWMAN: Is that your true name, sir?
Yes, Your Honor.
BOWMAN: Thank you. Mr. DeAngelo, do you have any questions
before we proceed further?
-JOSEPH DEANGELO: No. -BOWMAN: Thank you.
GAY HARDWICK: For over 40 years,
I would be reminded by my brain
that it had been okay
for someone to come into my home
and to... (CLEARS THROAT)
...wreak havoc on my body and my mind
and my relationship and cause a lifelong pain.
And that there was no justice.
BOB HARDWICK: When I sat in that room
with all the victims,
I just-- I just listen. I was just, "God dang."
Uh, it really got me, and I'm pretty stoic. (CHUCKLES)
-I think he used the term "horrified." -It was just--
-I was-- -He was horrified.
I was horrified that this guy did so much
to so many people. It really hit me home.
GAY: The 50 sexual assaults...
13 murders...
and it was so wrong that he was living
and hiding amongst us somewhere.
But today, I don't need to worry about it anymore.
ANNE MARIE SCHUBERT: Many people have asked
and wondered,
-really, who is Joseph DeAngelo? -(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
Is he a feeble, old, 74-year-old man?
Is he psychologically impaired?
Is he physically impaired?
Is he even competent to stand trial
when he rolled in in a wheelchair?
The truth of who Joseph DeAngelo is
lies not just in what happened in the courthouse...
but what has happened in his jail cell.
Think back on the crimes that he committed.
Think back what he did to shadow the light.
You can see that Joseph DeAngelo is no different today
than he was 45 years ago.
And the answer to those questions
that so many people have wondered
lies within the definition of a sociopath.
A sociopath is a person who lies,
deceives, and manipulates others
for no other reason than personal gain.
He's not a feeble old man.
He has, and always will, be...
a sociopath in action.
THIEN HO: While sitting alone in the interview room
on April the 24th, 2018,
Joseph DeAngelo began to talk to himself.
And he feigned feeble incoherence.
And, among other things, said...
"I didn't wanna do those things, but Jerry made me.
I didn't have the strength to push him out.
He went with me. It was like in my head he's a part of me.
I pushed Jerry out and had a happy life.
I've destroyed all their lives,
so now I gotta pay the price."
This investigation uncovered that he just pretended
to act crazy to avoid getting in trouble.
(NOTIFICATIONS PING)
MICHELLE: I've been obsessed with the East Area Rapist
and the Original Night Stalker for years.
INTERVIEWER: So to keep the one guy straight,
you renamed him "the Golden State Killer?"
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, that was something I came up with
just because he kind of snaked his way down the state.
Most people, I guess, who get lost in the forest
die because they won't change direction.
I understand that because I've now committed myself
-so much to this guy... -(INTERVIEWER LAUGHING)
...it can't be that I don't find him. Like--
-INTERVIEWER: Right. -He's taken over my life.
REPORTER 4: Until her death, crime writer Michelle McNamara
was obsessed with the Golden State Killer case.
The Oak Park native wrote the book I'll Be Gone in the Dark.
McNamara's book sparked renewed interest in this case.
MICHELLE: Violent men unknown to me...
have occupied my mind all my adult life.
I'm envious of people obsessed with the Civil War,
which brims with details but is contained.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MICHELLE: In my case, the monsters recede
but never vanish.
They are long dead and being born as I write.
The first one, faceless and never caught...
marked me at 14.
-♪ (MARCHING BAND PLAYING) ♪ -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 5: The village of Oak Park, Illinois,
a town of stately trees and big homes,
where Ernest Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright once lived,
was declared to be an All-America City.
MICHELLE: We lived in Oak Park, just west of Chicago.
And by the 1980s, Oak Park had a reputation
for a kind of privileged liberalism,
progressive at a remove.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(CROWD CHEERING)
MICHELLE: It was August 1984.
Corey Hart's "Sunglasses At Night" was everywhere.
♪ ("SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT" BY COREY HART PLAYING) ♪
Kathy Lombardo probably wasn't into "Sunglasses At Night."
(TAPE REWINDING)
She was more likely a "Stuck On You" kind of person.
♪ ("STUCK ON YOU" BY LIONEL RICHIE PLAYING) ♪
Maybe she'd been listening to it when the moment occurred.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
The moment that led to my furtive handling
of her broken Walkman.
REPORTER 6: Kathy was covered in blood,
stabbed in the neck, chest, and, abdomen,
and she had been sexually assaulted.
MICHELLE: I remember knowing just from the way
my mother and sister stood looking out the second-floor window
that something terrible had happened.
Terrible things never happened.
-(KNOCKING) -(DOOR OPENS)
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
-RALPH: I'm Ralph. -MICHELLE: Hi, I'm Michelle.
-RALPH: Michelle. -MICHELLE: Yes.
-(DOOR CLOSES) -RALPH: Okay. Have a seat.
MICHELLE: Kathleen's murder had a big impact on me.
But it wasn't until I returned home recently
that I really looked into how it was investigated
and what happened.
-(KNOCKING) -(DOOR OPENS)
MICHELLE: I just was trying to get, you know,
to talk to local people and stuff like that...
-NEIGHBOR: Uh-huh. -...and I was just wondering if I could chat with you
-for a second or two? -NEIGHBOR: Nope.
(DOOR CLOSES)
MICHELLE: Sometimes it takes a little heat
from a writer or a reporter, and I'm happy to be that person.
What an amazing thing it would be
to have closure for the family.
I hope to interview her brother Christopher soon.
(PAPERS RUSTLING)
This is one of the last pictures I have of my sister
and how she looked at the time of her death.
She had short hair.
She was a sweet girl.
I remember distinctly that night.
The phone rang, I picked it up,
and my mother screamed into the phone,
"Your sister was murdered tonight."
And then she just started crying.
There's, there's no-- There's, you know--
You don't plan for things like that.
She had a job that she could support herself on.
This is my sister's, uh, Marshall Field's credit card.
Marshall Field's was the department store
that she worked for.
And she had just started to live her life.
And then this happened.
I don't like the idea of anyone
committing a crime like this and then just walking away.
I have tried to advance an answer to this question,
who killed Kathy, many times over the past 30 years.
After I read Michelle's book...
I was really surprised at how much about Kathy's murder
was in the book,
the level of detail about Michelle's contacts
with the teenagers who found her body.
MICHELLE: Walking back into my childhood.
Crunch as our shoes hit the ground.
Tom was a year below me at St. Edmonds
and was one of the boys who found Kathy's body.
I know very little about him, aside from that
the same night in August 1984 changed both of our lives.
MICHELLE:
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Sure, that's fine.
There were five of us all in a row
just kind of walking up the alley, um...
you know, getting ready to get a Slurpee or something
at the-- at the White Hen.
You know, as you get in here, you're kind of surrounded
by these garages around you.
Uh, and then there's gangways in between.
Usually on any given Friday night,
there were 30, 40 kids in the neighborhood playing around,
but that night there was just five of us,
and we came walking up the alley here.
In the summertime, it was a grass patch here
and a grass patch here and the big trees,
you know, making veritable tunnels. (LAUGHS)
As we got up, uh, through here,
there's the light,
and so it cast a dark shadow right across here.
Um... (CLEARS THROAT) Then as we came through,
uh, that's when we came across here,
and my brother kind of losing it and saying,
"Holy shit, holy shit." (INHALES) Um...
(CLEARS THROAT) And that's... that's where we found her.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Then I noticed that...
that something was happening on her neck.
And you could see, I could see her face, and it...
it was someone who was alive, and that's what I can't...
And I remember saying, "Hey, we need to get some help.
We need some adults."
That's when Dan decided to run, uh, to the house over there
and I decided to go up the alleyway to the White Hen.
REPORTER 7: Last night, somebody grabbed
the 24-year-old Oak Park woman
in an alley, probably from behind,
stabbed her in the heart, and slashed her throat.
Police say she was probably sexually attacked as well.
She was found just after ten o'clock by two youths
who called a neighbor to the scene.
-(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY) -KIM KNEBEL: We're in the house, and...
I'm playing with my oldest son...
when two boys came running to the door
and told me somebody was hurt in the alley.
And I went running over there.
By the time I had gotten there...
it was too late.
I got there and went to reach down
to check her carotid pulse,
and her throat was slit open.
TOM: By the time I came back, the neighbor was there
and he was holding his hand on her neck.
And I was just kind of taking it in.
KIM: She was turning pale fast, and, uh...
she was dead.
TOM: I remember that night and seeing her face. Um...
And I could see light in her eyes,
and I think it was just the reflection...
of the streetlight. (CLEARS THROAT)
And then it was just gone.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MICHELLE: But then who else was attacked?
Was it someone our age?
TOM: Yeah, so just a block over, uh,
from where we're at.
A block over and just on the other side of the street
is where Grace Puccetti was attacked.
MICHELLE: Yeah.
I'll-- I'll maybe track her down. Yeah.
Do either of you know an Oak Park woman
named Grace Puccetti?
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I'm asking because she was involved
in a very similar incident
to what happened to Kathy Lombardo,
but about a year or two before,
only about a half a block away.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
GRACE PUCCETTI: When I was a teenager, I liked to dance.
I really liked the technical aspect of it,
you know, the details.
It was December 8th.
I was coming out of ballet.
My mother had given me 20 dollars,
and she was like, "Go buy some Christmas lights."
I was walking home,
and then I turned and went down Pleasant Street.
♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I could kind of sense that someone was nearby.
(FOOTSTEPS CRUNCHING SNOW)
I kept thinking, "Okay, well, it seems like
the person's walking a little faster."
And you can sense when someone's there.
But it just seemed that... "I'm almost home.
I'm half a block from my house.
Nothing's gonna happen."
And then someone appeared next to me
and asked me how I'm doing.
I turned to the right,
and out of the corner of this eye,
I saw a knife pull up.
And he had grabbed me with a knife
and pulled me into the alley.
He smelled like cigarettes...
and malt liquor.
Then he proceeded to tell me to...
um...
pull down my pants.
And I'm like, "I-- I can't, I'm wearing a leotard."
And then he didn't understand what a leotard is,
so then I was trying to explain what a leotard was,
and then he was just getting madder and madder.
Just constantly saying,
"Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up."
Then he finally said, "I'm not going to hurt you."
I could feel, as he's saying that,
the knife... going into my throat.
♪ (QUIET MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Next thing I knew, I was laying on my back,
staring at the sky...
thinking, "That's it."
But then I realized my house is four doors away,
and I thought, "If I'm gonna die,
I'm gonna die at my own house."
So I got up...
and stumbled my way down the alley
and went to the back door.
My dad came to the door and was just in shock.
And I just laid on the floor...
and waited for the paramedics to arrive.
(SIREN WAILING DISTANTLY)
When I got home from the hospital,
my mother had made sure that no one really talked about it.
Because, as she saw it,
with anyone who's attacked,
the victim becomes another victim of the system.
So she didn't want that to happen.
And I don't know, in a way, I thought,
"You know what? She's right." You know, is it worth it?
Is-- is-- is it worth it to relive it
and to pursue something
that you might never win?
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
MICHELLE: Eventually, the case report
is put in a file, in a box,
then in a room.
The door is shut.
Yellowing of paper and fading of memory commence.
What happened to them is buried,
bright and unmoving,
a coin at the bottom of a pool.
KRIS PEDRETTI: When an assault happens...
your whole world kind of crashes down on you.
I think it's very normal to go inward.
For so many years, that's what I did.
But what I've learned is that
you can't heal unless you can talk about it.
Acknowledgement goes a long way.
REPORTER 8: Today, 74-year-old Joseph DeAngelo
will sit and hear from more than two dozen women survivors
he terrorized in Northern California.
REPORTER 9: This is the day they've been waiting for
since this all started decades ago.
All survivors and families of the murder victims
are expected to be here as well.
KRIS: Obviously, he was gonna be charged
with the murders.
But for the majority of the rape survivors...
the statute of limitations was three years.
So when he was captured,
there was nothing that they could charge him with
in our rapes.
And so once we found out that there was the possibility
of a plea agreement,
we wanted to be heard.
We wanted him to acknowledge not just the people
that had charges against him,
but all the many of the women that he, um...
raped and assaulted and terrorized.
So part of the plea agreement
was that he was going to admit to everything.
BAILIFF: Please remain seated and come to order.
Court is back in session.
BOWMAN: Thank you. We're back on the record
in the DeAngelo matter.
Mr. DeAngelo's present with counsel.
This is the time we've scheduled
to hear from the victims and victims' family.
As a reminder for those speaking,
you've waited a long time to be heard.
There's no reason to rush, so you take your time.
I wanna hear every word that you have to say,
and I wanna make sure we have an accurate record, as well.
Is there any victim or victim's family member
that wishes to be heard at this time?
-KRIS: Yes, Your Honor. -BOWMAN: Thank you.
My name is Kris Pedretti.
And thank you for allowing me to share the impact
that Joseph James DeAngelo had on me
the night he raped and threatened constantly to kill me.
I was a normal 15-year-old kid.
My safety was shattered as a masked man,
DeAngelo, yielding a knife,
told me he would kill me if I didn't do what he demanded.
DeAngelo stole my formative years.
He stole my youth, my innocence,
my faith, and my trust.
Who could I have grown up to be?
I guess I'll never know.
BOWMAN: Regarding the uncharged offense of rape,
of making a criminal threat,
and the false imprisonment of Jane Doe number 24,
do you admit or deny that?
I admit.
GAY: While living in the first home
my husband and I purchased together,
where we had so much hope for our future...
(SOBS, SNIFFLES)
...on March 18th, 1978,
Joe DeAngelo attacked us while we were sleeping.
BOWMAN: Regarding the uncharged offense
of kidnapping to commit robbery, false imprisonment,
making a criminal threat,
and the rape of Jane Doe number 39,
do you admit or deny that?
JOSEPH: I admit.
LINDA O'DELL: My date is May 14th, 1977.
Today is for my granddaughter
because I wanna teach her to be brave and strong.
And it's for my family and friends
that have stood by me.
BOWMAN: Regarding count 18
and the charged offense of false imprisonment,
kidnapping with intent to commit robbery,
making a criminal threat, and the rape of Jane Doe 5,
-do you admit or deny that? -JOSEPH: I admit.
Regarding the uncharged offense of rape
-of Jane Doe number 7... -JOSEPH: I admit.
...Jane Doe number 8, Jane Doe number 14,
Jane Doe number 26, Jane Doe number 31,
-Jane Doe number 50... -JOSEPH: I admit.
I want to especially thank a friend
that's accompanying me today, Bonnie.
Even a gun pointed at her face could not make her choose you.
(ALARM CLOCK BEEPING)
BOWMAN: In the charge of murder of Charlene Smith
and the charge of murder of Lyman Smith,
how do you plead?
JOSEPH: Guilty.
DEBBI DOMINGO: After my mother's murder...
I had stumbled into drug use,
and that started a fast downward spiral.
If I had my way, Joseph James DeAngelo
would be shivering, blindfolded,
naked and exposed every moment from now on.
BOB: Four nights a week,
he can be awakened by masked inmates.
His attackers would repeatedly rape him
like these women were raped.
I would want Mr. DeAngelo to suffer
for the rest of his life,
like my wife has suffered with this
going on 42 years now.
GAY: My life was now full of creases and wrinkles,
and no matter how hard I tried to iron them all away
and press them and smooth the lines,
make it function,
my life would never be the same again.
-(ORNAMENTS CLINKING) -There.
GRACE: I used to always tell people
that, you know, it's the past
and I've just been trying to move on.
But you actually don't.
There's always a reminder.
-Here's your ballet shoe. -♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
GRACE: Not talking about it did affect me in the long run.
And it took me years...
to actually, um...
you know, go see someone...
Where should I put this one?
...after being attacked.
Down here?
I felt like the police
didn't want that kind of news in the community.
I remember in one of the papers, it just said,
"Girl, 15, cut...
and robbed."
I wasn't, like, "almost raped." I wasn't, you know, "stabbed."
And I thought that was kind of like
a whitewashing of the story.
♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
And then a year and a half later,
Kathy Lombardo was killed.
Not even a block away.
REPORTER 10: Just 15 minutes before,
she'd been seen going by the alley where she was found,
a tall man following behind.
CHRIS LOMBARDO: One of the theories about the case
was that the guy who did this
came from outside the community,
may have ridden the L to Oak Park.
The Oak Park police are seeking a subject
described as a Black male, 25 to 30 years of age,
six feet tall, medium to muscular build,
wearing a blue bandana around his head,
a yellow tank top,
dark shorts, and knee-length athletic socks.
CHRIS: The other theory was that it was someone she knew.
This grey house, the second from the corner,
is the house that Kathy and I grew up in.
My parents and younger brother lived in this house
when my sister was murdered.
When the police arrived at my parents' house
to start asking questions,
they were increasingly insistent that my parents
or siblings and I should be giving them information,
and they became increasingly unpleasant about that.
They wanted us to give them a name,
and they would knock on a door,
and the person would still be wearing the bloody clothes
and say, "Yes, I did it."
They did a poor investigation.
The crime scene was trampled.
And the materials were poorly handled.
And then, four months after my sister was murdered,
they said,
"We have no leads, no identified suspects,
and we're stopping our investigation."
MICHELLE: The case has a lot of tragic twists and turns
in terms of some dropped leads, in my opinion.
Frankly, it just reeked of bad police work
and possibly mishandling of evidence.
So I connected with this former detective
in Chicago named George Seibel.
GEORGE SEIBEL: I don't know if being a cold case investigator
is what I do or what I am anymore.
After I left the police department,
I saw a large amount of violence upon women
in the area of Oak Park.
It was not long after, uh, Kathleen's death
that we started looking at this stuff.
I have gone through hundreds of articles.
And what I found was a pattern of similar crimes.
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
On Memorial Day weekend of 1978,
Rita Hopkinson was killed,
stabbed in an attempt at sexual assault.
REPORTER 11: She was stabbed six times in the chest
and slashed twice on the arm.
Her struggle started at the top of these steps
and ended hundreds of feet down the ramp
on this platform, where she died.
GEORGE: A witness described the attacker
as a clean-cut looking, young Black guy.
And then there was the jogger rapist crime pattern,
where there were at least six rapes
in a forest reserve.
Immediately after that slowed down and stopped,
another rape pattern began along Washington Boulevard,
where there were a number of rapes
with precisely the same method of operation.
My theory is,
I believe that we're looking for one lone offender.
CHRIS: When I learned that there were so many, uh, rapes
and occasionally murders
that were of a kind similar to my sister's,
I went to go talk to the detective
who was assigned to run the investigation.
He said to me, "Oh, if we had the manpower,
we'd be working on this every day.
There's lot of things I could think of to do,
and I'd like to work on this, but we don't have the staff."
-(PHONE LINE CLICKS) -TIM UNZICKER: Hiya, Michelle.
It's the Oak Park Police Department.
And unfortunately, not to add red tape to your woes,
but I can't talk to you directly about the case,
at least without you going through, um, official channels.
(WIND WHISTLING)
MICHELLE: You get a feeling like--
because I exclusively write about cold cases--
there's really no reason, because you're talking about an old case,
that someone shouldn't be able to, like,
share with you certain details of the case,
because they want exposure.
And very rarely do I ever encounter anyone who's like,
"I can't tell you about that case."
GEORGE: At the time, there was an immense effort
to sell Oak Park
as a progressive, enlightened community
where all people hold hands and dance in circles.
Unfortunately,
people were getting raped all over hell and gone.
And maybe their comfort level was that they couldn't stand
paying attention to what was going on.
(CROWD CHEERING)
I'd like to live in Oak Park. I think there's a lot to offer.
I'd like my kids to grow up here.
INTERVIEWER 2:
I hope so.
I don't know, if I find somewhere else,
I'm gonna always come back to Oak Park.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -♪ (MARCHING BAND PLAYING) ♪
GRACE: I don't necessarily blame the town.
But I was angry.
Because I felt like the police or someone was just trying
to keep people from being fearful.
And the more public involvement in making sure...
uh, crimes are solved, the better.
-(KNOCKING) -(DOOR OPENS)
MICHELLE: I just was trying to get, you know,
to talk to local people and stuff like that...
GRACE: At some point, I had received an email
-from Michelle. -(COMPUTER BEEPS)
GRACE: She was trying to get more information about my story.
But I didn't know if I really wanted to talk about it,
and so I didn't respond to it.
And then, she died.
Without someone like that pursuing this...
this is never going to get solved.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
CHRIS: At this point, I don't have any real hope
that the Oak Park police will devote resources
or energy to my sister's murder.
But I'm still somewhat hopeful that this is a solvable case.
This crime affected not just my life
and my parents' lives and shortened my mother's life
and is something that my brothers and I think about
every single day,
but it's something that touched
a lot of other people's lives as well.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
CHRIS: And we're not the only ones
who want to find that person.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -Come on, Michelle.
Good job, guys!
MICHELLE: Two days after the murder,
I walked over to the crime scene.
I don't know if this next part is true.
I remember picking up a chip from a shattered Walkman
in the very spot I heard her body was found.
Did I really?
Or is it a memory I willed into existence,
giving color and movement
to a moment that lived only in my head?
I don't know.
But I know that visit to the crime scene
was the beginning,
the origin of my obsession story,
for it was there that I first experienced
the narcotic pull of an unsolved murder.
I felt like I knew a secret,
and that secret had changed me forever.
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
SCHUBERT: It has been 16,417 days
since Joseph DeAngelo began his reign of terror.
REPORTER 12: Over the past three days, we heard from the women he raped
and from the family of those he killed.
REPORTER 13: Now, this morning,
the finale of a historic criminal case,
the sentencing will begin in just a few hours.
DIANA BECTON: Finally, we have arrived at that day.
The day when those who have waited so very long
will hear that Joseph DeAngelo
will now serve the rest of his life behind bars.
SCHUBERT: The greatest revenge is to live your lives.
Know that the monster of your childhood
or your younger years
is gone forever and will die alone in the dark.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT WHISPERING)
I've listened to all your...
statements.
Each one of them.
And I'm...
really sorry...
to everyone I've hurt.
-Thank you, Your Honor. -BOWMAN: Thank you, sir.
Mr. DeAngelo is sentenced
to a total of 11 consecutive life sentences
without the possibility of parole,
plus an additional life sentence,
plus an additional eight years.
This is the absolute maximum sentence
the court is able to impose under the law.
And while the court has no power to make a determination
of where the defendant is imprisoned,
the survivors have spoken clearly.
The defendant deserves no mercy.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
GAY: It's like the book slammed shut
and it was done
and I knew he wouldn't ever walk.
There's no right to appeal or anything.
There's no right to appeal.
That was a big plus of the, uh...
of the plea agreement.
(DOG BARKING)
-GAY: Hello! -KRIS: Hi!
-GAY: How are you? -KRIS: (LAUGHS) Good.
KRIS: Good job, Gay.
-(KRIS LAUGHS) -(BOB CHUCKLES)
KRIS: Go get your ball.
GAY: Had he gotten the death penalty,
there would've been ten years of additional, uh,
appeals and hearings,
and the case would still be in the forefront of my mind.
BOB: And the sense of closure from him being--
pleading to the charges, et cetera,
you can probably move on better. But I don't--
It's something we're stuck with the rest of our life.
It's better, but it's still there, you know?
-Hello, Cello. Hi. Hello, kiddo. -Hi!
-Hi, buddy! -How you been?
KRIS: For years and years and years,
I had the same dream over and over and over again.
And it was a dream that
something bad was going to happen.
And I would scream.
And nobody could ever hear me, so I would try to scream louder,
and I would scream louder, and nobody ever heard me.
That has stopped for me.
Because I now feel that my screams for help
were finally heard.
-♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(WINDCHIMES CHIMING)
So, I had this shed that was not pretty,
so I decided to paint it. And then one day I said,
"You know, I'm gonna put a tree on there.
And I'm just gonna figure out how this could be
part of the journey that I've gone through."
I've included some really triumphant parts.
But also, some really hard parts.
This burning mess right here is my life at 15 years old.
The leaves represent new growth.
And as each year goes by,
I will come out and add leaves to this tree.
And they are creeping into
where once was chaos and sadness.
And as they grow and they become more numerous,
I'm able to see my growth as well.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
Your personal growth and support
and working hard to get yourself back,
that's where the true closure comes.
Because this turned out to be
a really good ending to a very rotten story.
-(BIRDS CHIRPING) -(LAUGHS)
KRIS: We may have different experiences,
but the result is the same,
and our healing is beautiful as we all work, um, together.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪
GAY: I'm still always just taken aback at how many...
survivors like us are out there
who feel their case isn't ever going to be resolved,
and they think they won't ever get to do
the sentencing hearing.
I feel like every victim deserves justice
if it can be had.
And I hope that they can find peace and resolution,
because eventually that translates
into a societal change.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
MICHELLE: A violent crime never ends with a victim.
The singular act reverberates,
its wounds appearing in other people,
sometimes months and years later.
The pain ricochets.
But inside everyone lurks a Sherlock Holmes
that believes that given the right clues...
they could solve a mystery.
-♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪ -(BIRDS TWITTERING)
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪