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enterinit · 5 years ago

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New Xbox One Games for February 25 to 28

New Xbox One Games for February 25 to 28.

Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind (February 25)

Re Mind—The other tale that unfolded during the climax of KINGDOM HEARTS III. Determined to rescue Kairi, Sora travels to the Keyblade Graveyard a short time before the final battle was to take place. Lacking a corporeal form, he traces the hearts of the seven guardians of light. Through experiencing their personal battles firsthand, Sora is about to discover truths that he has never before imagined.

Infliction Extended Cut (February 25)

Wander through an interactive nightmare set within the confines of a once-happy household. Uncover the heartbreaking mystery hidden within messages, artwork, household objects, and other vestiges of domestic life all while struggling to survive encounters with an entity that relentlessly stands in the way of finding absolution.

Two Point Hospital (February 25)

BUILD, CURE and IMPROVE! Design stunning hospitals, decorate them as you like, cure very unusual illnesses and manage troublesome staff as you spread your budding healthcare organization across Two Point County. Two Point Hospital includes two DLC - "Bigfoot" and "Pebberley Island." Design and build your own hospital Build up a hospital from nothing to a masterpiece as you design the most beautiful – or functional – healthcare operation in the whole of Two Point County. Cure unusual illnesses Don’t expect Two Point County to be populated with your usual types of patients. In this world, you’ll experience Two Point's trademark quirky illnesses; from Light-headedness to Cubism – each requiring their very own special type of treatment machine. The County's the limit Your first hospital is where it begins, but what next? https://youtu.be/ATxBPTj8fvU

Wasteland Remastered (February 25)

Originally released in 1988, Wasteland brought the post-apocalypse to video games and inspired a genre. Play one of history’s defining RPGs with completely overhauled graphics, sound, and expanded musical score. The year is 2087, nearly a century after an all-out nuclear war turned vast swaths of the Earth into a radioactive hellscape. You are a Desert Ranger, a band of stalwart lawmen who are the only hope left in what was once the American southwest, and good people’s last defense against hunger, sickness, ravaging raiders, and mutants. Now something more secretive and sinister is menacing humanity, and it's your job to investigate. Recruit help and follow leads—the choices you make will shape the world around you. Choose wisely, your life and the lives of those you’re sworn to protect depend on it. Features: Wasteland Remastered retains the spirit of the original game while updating visuals and audio.The original game’s physical storybook is available in-game, fully illustrated and with full voice over.An expanded musical score from the "Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic" release.Old bugs that have been around since Reagan was president have been fixed.Survive the apocalypse from the comfort of your couch with full game controller support.Quality of life improvements that make the post-apocalypse a little friendlier. https://youtu.be/W6KF4xc-cd4

Ark: Survival Evolved – Genesis – Part 1 – (February 25)

Continue your quest for survival and unlock a whole new chapter in the saga of Ark: Survival Evolved with the Ark: Genesis Season Pass! This Season Pass gives you access to two new huge expansion packs and one exclusive in-game cosmetic pet. Further the Ark storyline while adventuring through unique and diverse biomes via an all new mission-based game mechanic. Discover, utilize and master new creatures, new craftable items and structures unlike anything you have seen yet.

Mega Man Zero / ZX Legacy Collection (February 25)

Six classic titles in one compilation: Mega Man Zero 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent. In addition to the original games, this package includes an artwork gallery, music player, special filters, and much more. Casual Scenario Mode and a Save-Assist feature are available for those who would like to enjoy the story at their own pace. Players can also try their hand at the new leaderboard-based Z Chaser Mode, an exclusive new mode created just for this set of games.

Hayfever (February 25)

Help Thomas the Allergic Mailman gather all his lost letters in this challenging and unique 2D platformer! In Hayfever, the player takes control of Thomas – a young postman with a strong work ethic. There is just one tiny little issue… Thomas suffers from terrible (and we mean TERRIBLE) allergies. It is up to the player to use Thomas’s allergies to help him traverse a dangerous world, turning his weaknesses into strengths! Different allergens have different effects on Thomas – radically changing how he interacts with the world. Regular pollen allows him to build up a big sneeze to propel himself through the air. Smog, on the other hand, makes him swell up like a balloon. Peanuts… Well, peanuts are a WHOLE other story. Features: Quirky retro-inspired graphicsDemanding, sneeze-driven mechanicsFour worlds, spanning all four seasons140 levels, with 240 letters to collect (legend has it that collecting enough letters unlocks extra, extremely challenging levels…)Allergy-fueled gameplay ranging from pollen and smog to nuts!An A.M.A.Z.I.N.G soundtrack

Sayonara Wild Hearts (February 25)

Sayonara Wild Hearts is a dreamy arcade game about riding motorcycles, skateboarding, dance battling, shooting lasers, wielding swords, and breaking hearts at 200 mph. As the heart of a young woman breaks, the balance of the universe is disturbed. A diamond butterfly appears in her dreams and leads her through a highway in the sky, where she finds her other self: the masked biker called The Fool. Journey through a custom-written pop soundtrack, chase scores, and set out to find the harmony of the universe.

Edgar – Bokbok in Boulzac (February 26)

You are eccentric outcast Edgar, living in the woods with your chicken and beloved squash crops. Unfortunately, a sudden disaster forces you out of your shack and towards the bright lights of the big city, Boulzac, where an 800 year old fire rages beneath the surface, and weird things are afoot. Explore a strange and comic universe, meeting its unhinged (and unforgettable) inhabitants and discovering ancient secrets. Unveil the surreal conspiracy holding Boulzac together. Trek above and below the light city. Enjoy whip-smart dialogue, surreal adventures and satire. Equal parts whimsical and dark: you’ve not met a cosmic horror like this before. It is developed by La Poule Noire, a cooperative that aims, through its productions, to make fun of social trends. In Edgar, conspiracy theory is at the heart of the plot.

Grizzland (February 26)

A seamless open world platformer presented in a retro style and filled with old-school challenges. Explore without pointers to uncover secret areas, equip yourself with unique items and skills, even the ability to shrink and enlarge or explode and recombine. Only through self-discovery will you overcome enemy dinosaurs in epic combat and find the truth of Grizzland.

Ganbare! Super Strikers (February 26)

An innovative mix between tactical RPG and soccer. Win matches to level-up and earn new equipment that will allow you to learn special abilities, boost your players’ stats or protect yourself against altered status effects, such as Sleep, Silence or Poison. Assume the role of a small-town soccer team in Japan on their way to victory. Perform well enough and you will be selected to join the National Team where you will need to play alongside old rivals in order to conquer the world.

One Finger Death Punch 2 (February 26)

You’re surrounded, outnumbered and must use any weapon you can get your hands on to dismantle your opponents in a flurry of kung fu. That’s the essence of OFDP2, the world’s fastest brawler. It features the original’s unique two-button mechanics where speed and precision are key in this whirlwind fighting frenzy, as players maintain control over the 26 different unlockable skills, frenetic gameplay, and classic kung fu-inspired animations.

House Flipper (February 26)

House Flipper is your chance to become a one-man renovation crew. Buy, repair, and remodel devastated houses to give them a second life and sell them at profit. What you’ve got at your disposal is a set of tools and parts to hammer, drill, nail and screw things together, and do whatever is necessary to fit, fix or clean up. Then experiment with interior designs and decorating styles you like with hundreds of items that to choose from. https://youtu.be/nh4zuyi7vVM

Vasilis (February 26)

Vasilis is a hand-drawn adventure game. Vasilis, the main character, has lost her husband Peter in the rebellious city center. The city has plunged into chaos by constant riots, and almost every day something is burned or someone is killed. Having been abandoned by the government, the center is now dominated by local workers and students, who were able to build four towers that bring life back to those that have died. Vasilis is a game which focuses on characters and story. It is divided into five chapters in which the player will deal with riots, cults, and cruel war events.

Castle of No Escape (February 26)

Explore a mysterious castle full of monsters and secrets on a quest to collect treasure (that will also protect you from the curses on your way) and crush the main boss. The game won’t let you exit the castle, no matter how you try; technically you can win, but there is no end.

Castle of No Escape 2 (February 26)

Prepare yourself for the dangers of the cursed castle where countless heroes have tried and failed to destroy the ancient spell held in its walls where hundreds of monsters roam, guarding the sword shards — the last known thing to be capable of defeating the demonic castle’s owner. Plan your steps carefully, because save points don’t exist in the Castle of No Escape.

Yakuza 0 (February 26)

The glitz, glamour, and unbridled decadence of the 80s are back in Yakuza 0. Play as Kazuma Kiryu and discover how he finds himself in a world of trouble when a simple debt collection goes wrong and his mark winds up murdered. Then, step into the silver-toed shoes of Goro Majima and explore his “normal” life as the proprietor of a cabaret club. Fight your way through Tokyo and Osaka by switching between three different fighting styles instantaneously and beating up all manner of goons, thugs, hoodlums, and lowlifes. When you’re not fighting, kill time in 1980s Japan. From discos and hostess clubs to classic Sega arcades, there are tons of distractions to pursue in the richly detailed, neon-lit world.

Spartan Fist (February 28)

Fight your way to fame, fortune and glory in this first-person puncher rogueltke as you work to retrieve the fabled Spartan Fist. Playing as Emma Jones, a down-and-out detective working to earn her keep, you’ll tap your inner badass as you punch dudes so hard they explode. Navigate through an arena that’s different each time you play and delve into a whimsically gritty and colorfully punk pixilated world while fighting your way to the top.

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (February 28)

Dive into a dynamic fighting game experience with beloved characters from the first season of “One Punch Man.” Play as your favorite hero… or become one! Create your own hero avatar and choose your own set of powers and abilities with edge of your seat fighting and dynamic 3v3 fighting featuring events as seen in “One Punch Man” such as meteors and other heroes. Pre-order to receive early access to play as Saitama (Dream Version), Saitama (Black Suit) outfit, Saitama (Jersey) outfit, and Saitama Mask avatar part. https://youtu.be/1Qf8K7K6GaY

Stab Stab Stab! (February 28)

A brutal, physics-based, couch multiplayer fighting game where you stab your friends until they pop. Play as explosive fleshbirds with razor sharp beaks through vicious combat as you battle your friends in versus mode or team up in survival mode against the mindless hordes of cronenbirds across 12 unique and deadly arenas.

Bucket Knight (February 28)

Even knights must pay taxes, loans, and alimony. Help an unnamed, brave knight in his sacred mission to find the Holy Grail (and make some money). Explore dungeons, slay enemies, avoid traps, stay alive and get rich in this classic styled run-and-gun platformer. Read the full article

#Games #XboxOne

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joneswilliam72 · 6 years ago

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A look at True Crime 2.0 with journalist and HBO Golden State Killer docuseries producer Billy Jensen

Billy Jensen is undoubtedly one of America's most prolific true crime journalists. For over 15 years he has fearlessly dove into the darkness of unsolved murders all over America and tirelessly defended the rights of victims. You may recognize him from Crime Watch Daily, 48 Hours, D.B. Cooper: Case Closed?, or his podcast The First Degree. Jensen also recently had a fantastic viral Twitter thread on the implications of Netflix's The Ted Bundy Tapes and how we never should forget his victims and what the monster took from them.

But after the sudden death of a friend – crime writer, wife of comedian Patton Oswalt, and writer of "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer" Michelle McNamara – Jensen became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops have given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.

Billy Jensen.

In "Chase Darkness with Me", you'll ride shotgun as Jensen identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle's pursuit of the Golden State Killer which is chronicled in "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" which Jensen helped finish after Michelle's passing (and is being made into a HBO docuseries), and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown 4 family.

In the book, Jensen gives you the tools—and the rules—to help solve murders yourself.

Gripping, complex, unforgettable, "Chase Darkness with Me" is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true crime narrative unlike any you've listened to before. I know fans of true crime in film will really be transfixed by it and learn a lot – much as I did. Jensen's mind is incredibly agile, his zeal for justice unmatched, and his processes through it all brilliant and unparalleled.

Order "Chase Darkness with Me" here and enjoy our extensive interview with Jensen below.

I.Reasons People Flock to True Crime / Billy's Process.

As a fellow journalist, true crime isn't something that I specialize in, but I try to bring as much of the real content as I can with film, because that's my area with The 405, in deep background and the like. To start it off with the questions I had, you talked a bit in the book about how people are subconsciously motivated to seek order in looking at these things. I was curious, why do you think that is? Why do you think people do that when they could just look at true crime and say, it's irredeemably evil, let's just distance ourselves from it?

I think we try to seek order in everything, except for the people that are the bad guys, or people that are just willing to let everything just go to hell. We like order. We like the entire reason for building a society, building a house, putting everything in its right. That's just all what that is. That's all order, everything. Our street grid. The internet. It's all creating order out of chaos. So, I think that's a natural ... Society is sort of based on that premise that you have all of this chaos around you, and all right, we've got to figure out how we're going to feed ourselves, and then there's a bit of order there, for what's the plan going to be for that. Then, we've got to figure out how to shelter ourselves, what's the plan for that, and creating everything, putting everything in buckets and creating order as opposed to just everything just being chaos, which is what it was like in the very beginning, I imagine, like in the very beginning, when we were just a couple cells floating around, not knowing what we were doing.

Agreed.

So, I think that's sort of inherent, and what we have ... Then once we started getting order as a society, we were told monster stories, like we heard about in mythology: "Don't go in that area of the woods because there's a monster in there."

Those stories have all gone away now, and they've only gone away fairly recently, within 200 ... Not even so much, because there's still stories about don't go in those woods, Bigfoot's in there. But for the most part, a lot of those stories have gone away because you can go on Snopes and figure out, "Hey! there's no such thing as this or that," you know what I mean?

Yeah.

This is a hoax, or this. But the idea of that monster, we still crave those stories, and I think that's one of the reasons why people like to hear about true crime on top of the order from chaos, is the idea that these are real life monsters that are around. They're also scarier than the monsters that we heard about in mythology because we don't know exactly what they look like.

Oh, exactly, and they blend in so well with society. You can look at any of them for that, really. Kind of jumping around here a bit. I'm just wondering if we can get an overview of your mental processes when you first encounter a case that strikes your interest.

The first thing I do is ... It depends. If it comes from a victim's family, they'll send it to me, and I'll ask them what ... I'm so sorry for your loss. Where are the police at? Usually the police aren't calling them back, or they've got nothing, and I ask them, what are any identifiable characteristics of the person who did this to your son or daughter or whatever it may be, and is there any video, is there photographs, is there a sketch, is there anything? Typically, I've taken on both. I've taken on ones where we've had nothing, and I've taken on ones where we have something that I can grab onto and use the social media factor. When you have nothing, when you have no visuals, it doesn't usually work on social, but yet if they do have a video, it's so blurry, I'm like okay, let me see what it looks like, and I'll go and I'll try to clean it up and see if I can grab a good screen cap of a face or even of something that's identifiable, a pair of sneakers or something, and then ask as many questions as possible, like where they think this person might be from, and do you think the guy was local. Just trying to get any idea, because I'm going into it completely cold.

Then I will reach out to the police department, and I will... They'll give me the name of the detective, and I'll say, listen, I have this system, if they don't know me. I'll be like, "I have this system, here's what I do, it's not going to cost you anything, I'm not going to ask for a reward or anything. It's all out of my pocket. But I'd like to try it with this case." If they say "no, we're close on this, we know who the guy is, we don't want to spook him." Then I back off.

But usually they say, "Yeah, we don't know, go ahead." Sometimes they'll just say, "go ahead" and then that's it. Sometimes they'll say go ahead and then a good partnership develops. Those are really the best cases, because we're kind of trading information back and forth with each other. You saw that in the case with Owl Head Park, Brooklyn. I still trade information with him, and particularly with the Mexico case, the fugitive case. That was a real partnership between me and [San Jose, CA Sgt. and Homicide Detective] John Barg.

So, from there, once I have the go ahead from the police department and from the family, then I put the and up or the campaign up, and then I take it from there…

What have been the most important mental habits to cultivate in what you do?

Persistence, that's the biggest one. You have to be able to not take no for an answer. You have to be able to keep on going… You're going to get knocked down a hundred times. You got to get up a hundred times, and that's the thing that has been drilled into me.

The other thing is patience. Now, patience is something that I've had to work on my entire life. I'm not a very patient person. You really need those two things in order to do this. You need the persistence, and you need patience, because justice is going to be incredibly slow. It's not made for 21st century America, with our internet culture and seeing a show wrapped up within an hour. It's not like that. Ironically, my very first unsolved crime story, which is the woman in the barrel that I wrote for the New York Times, that got wrapped up very, very quickly and it was almost as if I was cursed with that for the rest of my life because it was wrapped up so quickly.

Billy Jensen doing an interview on the Allenstown 4 Case for CRIME WATCH DAILY. Source: YouTube.

II. What Can You Do? Social Media Habits.

Absolutely. Talking a bit about the social media there, I was curious, what habits can people who want to help solve these things, what habits should they avoid on social media?

Meaning habits they should avoid for if they want to solve them themselves, like when I get into the rules and what the rules should be?

Yeah. Sorry, I had a little bit of trouble crafting that question, but I think it can be a real dual edged sword too, social media.

Sure.

People, they may want to help, but then they do things wrong, things that are maybe counterproductive...

Right. I go over in the last part of the audio book, I go over the rules, before I even tell people step by step on how to do this. The main rule, the biggest rule, is you don't name names to the public. You don't link to a Facebook page and say, what about this guy? That kind of thing, which you see a lot. You take that information. If somebody posted on your feed, you delete it. You reach out to the person who put it on their via DM, and you try to get the information that way, but you don't have it out there. Then you give it to the police. Just don't have it out there.

The second thing is, you don't put yourself, or you don't reach out to the family without information as well… things could go awry that way. You want to funnel all of the information to the police. And the third thing is, be safe, and don't put yourself in harm's way, don't try to be a vigilante, don't try to go undercover or anything. Don't be like that. That is not what you do.

Absolutely.

Then also, one of the things that you might notice if it's two people, three people working on the same case, which are usually more high profile cases, is that you start seeing people be territorial with information, and people then start doxxing each other. So, you don't want ... Everybody's after the same thing, which is justice. You have to always remember that that's what we're all after, and just don't be... Don't yell at each other over the internet. Be nice to people.

Definitely. It's sad how hard that can be for some people, but yeah, great advice.

Yeah. Yep.

III. "Chase Darkness With Me": The Challenges / Billy's Background.

What were the challenges like in writing the book? There's some incredibly personal and existential content throughout.

Thank you. Yeah. I always consider myself somewhat of an existential guy. I went to school for religious studies, and about focusing on mythology and focusing on trying to figure out how all religions boil down to one basic tenet. You start writing about these stories, and these cases, and you start learning things about yourself that you didn't realize, especially as you start getting more personal. I think one of the things that I learned was when I started thinking about my relationship with my father in the very beginning, and how every day I would be in between him and the television while he was reading the newspaper, and he was often reading about crime stories.

So, you don't have to have a psychology degree to realize that maybe it's me, the reason why I do this on top of the other reasons that I often give, the reason that I do this is to get his attention. I never, ever thought of that before until I actually sat down and started writing. It kind of really made sense, because that's what he did when he got home from work. You're waiting for your best friend to come home from work, or however long, and then he gets home, he takes a shower, he comes downstairs, he pops open a Budweiser, and he is reading the newspaper while watching the news, and very often, it's crime stuff. That was what... I'm in between him and that news.

That's something that was a bit of an eye opener that I had never, ever thought about before that came out of the book.

It was very interesting. That whole history. The whole book really.

Thank you.

Your background is fascinating. I actually had a question on it. What can we take from those fields, religion, cults, and myths, in looking at the rise of something like white supremacy today in America?

When I started studying Christian apocalyptic cults for my master's degree, there was a big crossover between white supremacy and... I studied the Christian Identity Movement, which was the belief that one of the lost tribes of Israel migrated to Europe and North America.

So, they followed the Old Testament, but they felt that they were the race that they were talking about in the Old Testament. So, there was a big intersection between that and the white supremacist movement, and when you look at groups like The Order, who murdered the DJ [Alan] Berg in Denver and robbed all these Brink's trucks and things in order to fund their revolution. So, yeah, they very much were related.

When you have an extreme ideology, often they're going to use religion as the thing that pushes you toward it… and to get people on your side. I remember being in a class, and my teacher just said, "Listen, the Bible can really say anything you want it to say. You can pick and choose things in the bible that can fit any ideology you want. There's enough in there. It was written by a bunch of different authors, and you can pull quotes that will follow any ideology." The one ideology that I believe we should all follow is The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That's the one that I think works best for everybody.

Amen to that, Billy.

Alan Berg. Source: Colorado Public Radio.

IV. True Crime on Film: Doing It Responsibly.

Jumping around again a bit, to a question a little more specifically related to film. Can a based on a true story crime film ever be done responsibly?

Yeah. Oh, definitely. It can definitely be responsible. As long as they... There's always going to be liberties taken, because you have to split something into two hours, and especially when it comes to justice, justice is an incredibly long and arduous process that if you did it in real time or even close to real time people would walk out of the theater pretty quickly.

Indeed.

So, with that being said, there's a way to do it respectfully, especially respectfully towards the victim. I know that this conversation is being had right now because we have two movies that are coming up that deal with two killings, the Ted Bundy movie, and Quentin Tarantino's movie, even though that is more like sort of a backdrop, I think, the Charlie story, or it's going to be one of three stories, and he's doing it in a Pulp Fiction type way, which he's alluded to that he's going to do.

Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in this first look photo from ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Tarantino has alluded to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as having a Pulp Fiction vibe.

Debra Tate, who is Sharon Tate's sister, has said she doesn't like all of that stuff, but I think that as long as there's a reverential nature towards the victims, and we don't glamorize the killers, which I worry that that will happen with Zac Efron, a teen heartthrob playing Ted Bundy: are they going to show everything he did? Are they going to show him actually cutting off a woman's head and taking it home to rape it? Is that going to be in the movie? If you're going to do that, you're going to tell a story about this monster, you better tell the whole thing. I don't know if that would've tested well.

Man, I hope it wouldn't Billy. But honestly I sometimes lose hope in humanity with things like that. I had read somewhere about Debra Tate actually getting early access to Tarantino's script and saying that she thought he did it well, anyway.

Oh, that's good.

In view of her sister.

I think the thing with ... Sharon Tate's being played by Margot Robbie. She's a character, not just a victim, because it's showing her life. They're showing her dancing. They're showing her full of life. I think Debra hopefully will see that, and then it's not just about her being a victim, which is what so many have done before.

Before she was pretty, she was beautiful, she was a movie actress, she's a victim. That's it. Now they're going to... Tarantino's going to show her actually living her life, which hopefully will be... what will be different. So, that's good that Debra has said that, because Debra would always be pissed off that Manson, the little shit that he was, once said, "I made Sharon Tate."

First of all, screw you. You made yourself because you couldn't do anything else. You were a failed musician. We were talking about this yesterday. If everybody who didn't get a call back from a producer went and killed somebody, there'd be a lot of dead people in Hollywood right now.

Damn. Didn't think my opinion of him could sink lower but it just did. I didn't know he said that.

Yeah. You handle adversity by keep going ... I've had so many meetings with producers where I pitched shows about unsolved crimes and they'd say, "no, we don't want shows about unsolved crimes, we want shows that are resolved", or they took the idea and ran with it, if it's something else, or whatever. That's partly one of the reasons why I wrote the book, is that I went back to what I knew how to do without all of the Hollywood bullshit in front of me and all the roadblocks, which was writing. So, I didn't have to deal with, oh, this victim isn't white enough, or this victim is a sex worker so we don't want to cover that story. All of that stuff that you encounter with television in Hollywood.

Exactly.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

V. The White Whale Case.

Which case would you consider your most bewildering white whale? Which one has left you with the most questions and the least answers?

The most questions and the least answers... Well, definitely it was, before we got answers, it was the Allenstown Four case, it was the bodies in the barrel. That definitely was the case, because there were so many questions, who this woman and three children were, why nobody was looking for them, why were they found in 1985 and then in 2000, two of them in 1985, two of them in 2000, who took them there. There was just so many questions, and now we're getting almost all of the answers, and there will be a close. So, that was probably the first one, and the one that drove me ... and was a major part of the audio book.

As far as right now, the cases that I'm working on are less about... When my friend Michelle [McNamara] was writing her book about the Golden State Killer, there were so many questions and so many rabbit holes to jump down, which I inherited when we – when me and Paul Haynes – finished her book when she passed. The cases that I work on are not ones that have that many bewildering questions. They're the majority of the murders out there, where it's usually somebody that is in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the questions become more, what made this person do this, but I have this person on video, what was going on in there? But there's not any weird clues in the sense of there was a glove left there, and where did the glove come from, and then go down a rabbit hole, try to figure out what the... I remember Michelle asking me about if I know anything about motocross, because a motocross glove was once left at one of the scenes.

There's less like that or less like things like the Black Dahlia, where you're dealing with a victim who has been cut in half and butchered and disemboweled in a way that gets you to think of what was going on in the killer's mind. I'm thinking about what was going on in the killer's mind, but for me, where I've had the success is who is the killer, but more importantly, who might know the killer and how can I find those people and get a name out of them, or get any information out of them, and that's where the system has worked. There are definitely going to be cases that I'm working on right now that are more serial in nature, but as far as... if you look at cases like the Zodiac or JonBenét Ramsey, there's a ton of questions with those, but there's also a ton of people looking into them, and they don't need me, per se. There's enough people looking into them. I want to look at the ones that people aren't looking into.

Michelle McNamara with husband Patton Oswalt, Source: Rolling Stone.

Very true. I just find the way your mind works fascinating after talking to you here, listening to the book. Whenever I think of a white whale case like that, for me, it's always the Villisca Axe Murders, which I'm from that area of the country anyway, but it's just so strange, that one.

No, that one definitely there's a lot of questions with that, and even the... Axeman of New Orleans. That's another one, is a strange one that could be somebody's white whale. But again, as people get older and different people die, a lot of those cases are just always going to be there, even if you have Jack the Ripper, which is probably the biggest white whale of them all, you still have people trying to say that they solved it with DNA from the shawls, I heard a couple months ago. You're always going to have these cases that are going to pop up, and it's the allure of it that keeps going.

VI. The Golden State Killer, Michelle McNamara & "I'll Be Gone in the Dark".

Yeah, I found myself kind of rolling my eyes when they tried to say it was H.H. Holmes who was Jack the Ripper.

Getting into Michelle's book and the associated HBO docuseries, what do you hope will come of that whole story in terms of the book's effect on popular culture and the popular mind?

Yeah. I think what I'm hoping for is that to tell Michelle's story, and be able to show Michelle's process and also Michelle's dedication to this story, while showing her as a person.

On top of that ... So, that's the one part of it, because that's the framework of it. Also, is to be the definitive story about this case, and also show how it wasn't even necessarily the book, it was her working on the book. By the time the book came out, they had DeAngelo in their sights. They had already narrowed it down to him, and they were just crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s.

So, this is a matter of what I want to see is her article that she wrote, and how that named the Golden State Killer and that raised that profile. Then it was people would ask me, and I talk about this in the audio book, about her ... Did the book have anything to do with it, and I realized during that week when I was doing a bunch of interviews that it wasn't the book, it was her death, because when she died, everybody was introduced internationally to the Golden State Killer, who had never heard of this guy before.

So, you had a story that was an international story about a woman who was... a civilian who was trying to find the Golden State Killer, and I really think that pushed the powers that be into action. Then two months later, they put out a press release saying there was going to be a reward, they were going to work with the FBI more, they're going to devote a lot more resources to it. So, it definitely was a catalyst, absolutely, and that's what I hope the HBO show shows you.

I hope so. Yeah, it just made me think of what you quoted her as saying in the audio book about it being a branding issue, with the Golden State Killer.

Yeah. It's sort of like the East Area Rapist, if you're not from Sacramento, east area of what? Then, the Original Night Stalker, which is there's an Original Night Stalker? No, wait a minute, there's another Night Stalker, and it's not Richard Ramirez who is the other Night Stalker. It was very, very poor branding, as thick as that sounds, but she was able to give him a name. When she was telling me about it, I was like, really, you don't even know the name? You know? But it worked, and it works. [Criminologist] Paul Holes said the same thing, you really want to give him another name? But it worked.

Accused Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo. Source: Noozhawk.

VII. "Chase Darkness With Me": The Takeaway.

Yeah, it definitely did. What do you hope the main takeaway will be for people from "Chase Darkness With Me"?

I hope it gets people ... When you think about hopefully hundreds of thousands of people listening to it, you know that, A- it brings a level of – on the surface – it brings a level of empathy towards this genre. What I really hope, because I'm trying to always put the victim first, but on the sort of technical side of it, on the strategic side of it, it shows... be able to show people that we're entering true crime 2.0 now, where you cannot only know about this stuff, but you can actually get involved, and make a difference, and you can utilize your skills, whatever they may be, if the police are willing to work with you, to help solve these 220,000 unsolved murders since 1980 in America. That's what I'm hoping for, and I'm hoping that people read or listen to the book, and then they eventually come up with their own ideas. I hope law enforcement listens to it as well, and embraces the idea, and starts doing it on their own. That would be the takeaway on top of obviously trying to write a story that is going to entertain people and be a narrative that they're going to want to go through from the beginning to the end.

Definitely the exception and not the rule, as you said, with these things. The last question I had for you, Billy, was what's next for you?

So, I've got the ... That's the first thing, even before the book comes out, they ask, all right, book's doing well, and what do you want to do next? So, I've got a couple of ideas on stories that I've done in the past that... Everybody always wants you to write a book about one case. I think I finally found... not necessarily a case, but a systematic issue concerning serial killers in modern day America that I'm going to tackle, and that is something that I'm going to start working on in between... Obviously we're still doing the podcast, which is sort of an extension of the book, and then obviously promoting the book, and then wrapping up the HBO documentary and trying to stick the landing on all those things.

Absolutely. We wish you the best of luck, and we'll definitely keep our eyes open for everything else there.

Well, thank you so much, and thank you so much for listening to it. I appreciate it. It's strange, you start to realize that people start knowing a lot about your life, and it's interesting. Particularly knowing about my dad's life too, which is fun. I think he would get a real kick out of it if he was around, that people knew that much about him.

Follow Billy on Twitter and on Facebook, connect with him on LinkedIn, and check out his website.

from The 405 http://bit.ly/2UhVI7d

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