‘THE ULTIMATE PENALTY’

Patton Oswalt Pays Tribute to Late Wife Michelle McNamara After Golden State Killer Sentenced

Michelle McNamara helped lead the effort to catch Golden State Killer Joseph D’Angelo before her sudden death in 2016

Comedian Patton Oswalt delivered a simple, moving tribute to his late wife Michelle McNamara on Friday shortly after Joseph D’Angelo was sentenced to life in prison for the rapes and murders he committed over several decades in California. “The insect gets none of my headspace today,” Oswalt said of the man his wife named the Golden State Killer. “I’m thinking of the victims, and the survivors, and the witnesses and crusaders and investigators. And of course Michelle. Go forward in peace, all of you.”

Oswalt, who helped bring McNamara’s book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and a recent docuseries of the same name to the world after her sudden death in 2016, told The Last Laugh podcast in May that he hoped D’Angelo would meet a fate worse than the death penalty.

“Obviously, there’s a part of you that’s like, well, he killed people, he should be killed,” he said at the time. But inspired by McNamara’s own views on “closure,” he added, “You shouldn’t think in terms of death being the ultimate penalty. You should find out for these people, for these killers, for these criminals, what do they value the most? Figure out what that is and then take that away from them.”

For more, listen to Patton Oswalt on ‘The Last Laugh’ podcast.

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Matt WilsteinSenior Editor

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