The Golden State Killer, a name coined by Michelle McNamara on her true crime blog, for a man who lurked in the shadows preying on ordinary human victims. He started his career in about 1974 and went from burglaries to rapings, and eventually turned into cold-blooded murders. His capture at first, was too low to be on the top of any investigators’ priority lists, causing him to continue for years on end. He benefited from not having a name that many people knew of. He was not known to the general public as a popular serial killer. The blog points out that if you search the name “Son of Sam”, over a million hits come up describing this killer, and his signature traits. However, when you search “Golden State Killer” a mere 11,000 hits come up. He meticulously planned each one of his kills in advance so he knew every last thing about each of his victims, making it much harder for authorities to find him.
Forensic science has played a crucial role in decreasing the number of serial killers there are now, as it is much harder for them to get away with it. The Golden State Killer, along with many other of these famous serial killers were living in a time when the internet was not a thing and DNA testing was not developed. The Golden State Killer could never have predicted that one day he could be identified based on a single cell he left on a scene. The advancements in DNA testing today are the main reason why the number of serial killers is far less. In addition, we now have the resource that is social media. With so many social media outlets, along with the widespread access to the internet it is much harder for a serial killer to live in the shadows like the Golden State Killer did for so long. It is much easier now for ordinary citizens such as Michelle McNamara to help solve a case like this with the amount of information you can find about it online.
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