The Golden State Killer - Part 2: I’ll Be Gone In the Dark | #461

**Hannah** (0:09)
Last week on RedHanded, we ran through the first few phases of The Golden State Killer's criminal development. From low-level burglary and rummaging, and then the no-pants dance, which sounds insensitive, but is actually what Richard Shelby is. He sort of describes him in this childlike way and kind of similarly as we were saying last week about the assumption that certainly there was, they had of rapists in the 70s, was this like a bit of an idiot, like someone who's not in control.

**Saruti** (0:40)
Sure, sure. And even like, oh, well, he's doing it because he can't talk to a woman and get her to have sex with him, so that's why he's doing it.

**Hannah** (0:47)
Yes. It's juvenile. It's embarrassing.
It's diminutive. And it's something that Richard Shelby says quite a lot, which is why I've put that in there. And he does in the very early days in Exeter, that's how he starts walking around with no trousers on.

**Saruti** (1:06)
Which again is actually quite common in later sex offenders and serial killers, that kind of voyeuristic behavior, that sort of flashing behavior. It's the shock factor. It's a crossing somebody's boundaries without their consent and reveling in their reaction to it. It's that very early like trigger of, I enjoy this.

**Hannah** (1:26)
And he progressed to rape and then to murder all over the state. We're going to start today back in Sacramento, where in 1977, the people were still powerless, persecuted by the Prowler, who was always just around the corner. The whole area was on edge. Reports constantly came in to the police and the sheriff's department of a man slinking in and out of the darkness. One man heard footsteps outside his house, and he saw the Prowler looking through his neighbor's window as they put their son to bed. He took out his own pistol and cocked it. The sound startled the East Area rapist, and as usual, he hopped away over a fence. This man, who I'm sorry, don't know his name, tried to chase the East Area rapist, but just couldn't keep up with him. He called the police, but they yet again could do absolutely nothing to make anyone feel like they were capable of protecting Sacramento.
That time, the East Area rapist escaped on a bike that he stole from a different house's garage. When that garage was searched, knotted white shoelaces were found lying on the ground. Had he dropped his equipment by accident, or was he relishing in leaving a trail of evidence behind?
Knowing that investigators were continuously failing to solve it. I'm Hannah.

**Saruti** (2:46)
I'm Saruti.

**Hannah** (2:47)
And this is RedHanded Golden State Killer Episode 2

**Saruti** (2:51)
And maybe again, I'm reading too much into this. And please, everybody don't come after me for adding to the myth-making of this man, but is he leaving these shoes behind? It's almost like a metamorphic state. Is that the right word? Metamorphosis?
Is that a word? What happens when they go into a cocoon?

**Hannah** (3:07)
Yeah, metamorphosis.

**Saruti** (3:08)
Yeah, it's like I'm leaving these shoes behind.

**Hannah** (3:11)
Shoelaces.

**Saruti** (3:12)
Shoelaces behind to become the next version of myself. I thought it was his shoes. Maybe he changed his shoes after. I don't know this case as well as it's becoming obvious.

**Hannah** (3:22)
Quite often, more often than not, when he's tying up his victims, he uses shoelaces.

**Saruti** (3:27)
Okay, yeah, yeah.

**Hannah** (3:28)
And quite a lot, because he leaves them tied up, right? These women and these men. So he leaves the shoelaces behind every time.
And he drops them. This one is very specific because we know the bike was stolen, but she lays the shoelace up all over the shop.

**Saruti** (3:45)
I see. Never mind.
Just hours later, the ear struck for the 37th time, just half a block away. Even knowing that he'd been seen hadn't stopped him.
Years later, Michelle McNamara managed to track the man down who made this report. And when she asked him what the Prowler looked like, he immediately replied, school boy without missing a beat. Golden State Killer never stuck around in one place to get caught. He was operational in multiple locations at the same time, hundreds of miles apart. Another one of the reasons no one realized there were multiple counties looking for the same exact man.

**Hannah** (4:24)
When you sort of zoom in on Sacramento, and that's sort of like, it does feel frenzied because it's so frequent, but he's doing, he's hitting all the other ones at the same time. He's driving hundreds of miles through the night. And that is calculated. It doesn't feel like the same thing, but it is, and that's why he's so successful.