40 pages • 1 hour read
Michelle McNamaraI'll Be Gone in the Dark
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
What literary techniques does McNamara employ in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark? How do these techniques help to draw the audience into the narrative?
What literary techniques does McNamara employ in I’ll Be Gone in the Dark? How do these techniques help to draw the audience into the narrative?
McNamara speculates that a misogynistic desire to punish women motivated the Golden State Killer. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not? Use examples from the crimes to support your argument.
McNamara notes that she and the Golden State Killer seem to share an obsessive personality. In what ways are McNamara and the GSK similar? What makes their respective obsessions different?
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark describes a number of detectives investigating the Golden State Killer, such as criminalist Paul Holes and detective Larry Pool. Choose three of these investigators and describe how they each approach their investigation into the GSK. What aspects of their personality drive them to hunt for the GSK? How does it inform their investigations?
In Part 3, Billy Jensen and Paul Haynes describe how giving law enforcement access to private DNA databases, such as that of 23AndMe, might expedite the capture of criminals like the Golden State Killer. Yet, some individuals feel that granting law enforcement access to these databases violates privacy. Should law enforcement agencies be able to use private DNA databases to search for criminals? Why or why not?
In the section “East Sacramento, 2012,” Detective Richard Shelby describes how the investigation into the Golden State Killer was “plagued” by failures (179). What mistakes did police make while investigating the Golden State Killer? How could law enforcement agencies change their protocols to better search for serial killers?
McNamara suggests that the Golden State Killer may also have been responsible for a series of crimes committed in the early 1970s in Visalia, by an individual nicknamed the Ransacker. However, law enforcement agencies deny a connection. What evidence is there to support that the GSK may also have been the Ransacker? Do you believe the GSK and the Ransacker were the same individual?
Trace the Golden State Killer’s development as a criminal. How did the GSK develop from a burglar to a rapist to a serial killer? What episodes lead the GSK to commit increasingly violent crimes?
Throughout I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, McNamara proposes that the Golden State Killer’s crimes might have been an attempt to regain power and control in his life. Do you agree with McNamara’s assessment? How do the GSK’s crimes allow him to gain a sense of control?
