For a decade, the Golden State Killer stalked and murdered Californians in the dead of night, leaving entire communities afraid to turn out the lights. The sadistic predator disappeared in 1986, hiding in plain sight for the next thirty ears in middle-class surburbia. In 1994, when cold case investigator Paul Holes came across the old file, he swore he would unmask the Golden State Killer came across the old file, he swore he would unmask the Golden State Kuller and finally give these families some closure. Twenty-four years later, Holes fulfilled that promise, identifying a seventy-three-year-old former cop named Joseph J. DeAngelo. In this memoir, Holes takes us through his memories of a storied career and provides an insider account of some of the most notorious cases in contemporary American account of soe of the most notorious cases in contemporary American history, including the hunt for the Golden State Killer, Laci Peterson's murder, and Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping. This is also a revelatory profile of a complex man and what makes him tick: the drive to find closure for victims and their loved ones, and the inability to walk away from a challege--even at the expense of his own happiness.