In December 2011, Marc O’Leary, who was 33 years old at the time, was sentenced by a Colorado judge to 327-and-a-half years in prison
The remarkable story about the three-year manhunt for a cunning serial rapist who attacked women as old as 65 years of age and left few clues is the subject of an upcoming Netflix series, it was learned on Tuesday.
The streaming service has ordered eight episodes of Unbelievable, a series that will be produced by Erin Brockovich writer Susannah Grant as well as journalist Katie Couric, according to Deadline.
Unbelievable is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning article written in December 2015 by The Marshall Project and ProPublica.
The article tells the story of the efforts of two female detectives, Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot, who conducted a painstaking investigation to crack the case and apprehend the rapist.
In December 2011, Marc O’Leary, who was 33 years old at the time, was sentenced by a Colorado judge to 327-and-a-half years in prison for what was described in court as ‘commando-style rapes,’ the Denver Post reported.
He is serving his sentence at Sterling Correctional Facility in northeastern Colorado.
O’Leary was given the maximum possible sentence allowed under the law for at least three rapes in Colorado and two others in Washington state.
He is serving his sentence at Sterling Correctional Facility in northeastern Colorado
The Colorado judge who sentenced him described his attacks as ‘commando-style rapes’
The Netflix series tells the story of the efforts of two female detectives, Stacy Galbraith (left) and Edna Hendershot (right), who conducted a painstaking investigation to crack the case and apprehend the rapist
These attacks were committed by O’Leary between 2008 and 2011.
What made O’Leary’s crimes all the more shocking was the meticulous preparations he made to plan the attacks, research his victims, and then hide any incriminating evidence.
O’Leary was so efficient in covering his tracks that his first victim was charged with filing a false report after police in Washington state failed to find any evidence of a rape.
In March 2009, an 18-year-old Lynnwood, Washington woman known to the public by her middle name, Marie, was charged with a misdemeanor for lying about a rape.
In August 2008, she told police that a man blindfolded, bound and gagged her after breaking into her apartment.
When police found little evidence of a rape, Marie said that it might have been a dream.
Finally, she told police she had concocted the story.
But it later became apparent that the detectives assigned to the case, Jerry Rittgarn and Sergeant Jeff Mason, didn’t believe her story, and ignored evidence including stained sheets, doctors reports detailing injuries to her wrists and abrasions on her genitals and DNA samples.
It was almost three years after the rape that police found photos of Marie on a camera belonging to O’Leary, a man wanted for a string of sex attacks in Washington state and Colorado.
One of O’Leary’s rape victims in Golden, Colorado described to police an egg-shaped birthmark on his left calf
That description led police to positively identify O’Leary as the serial rapist
O’Leary, who had served in the US military, was known for carefully planning and executing his rapes while doing the utmost to leave no trace at the crime scene.
He would stalk his victims for weeks and months.
He also broke into his victims’ houses before the rapes so that he could adequately prepare the attacks.
Once O’Leary had the landscape laid out, he would choose a moment to strike.
When he did, he would hold the women at gunpoint.
During the rape, he would photograph the women and afterward threaten to post pictures online if they called the police.
Because he was in the military, he knew that the US Army had samples of his DNA.
So he made sure not to leave any genetic traces at the crime scenes.
O’Leary would also use a digital camera to photograph his assaults. He would threaten his victims by saying he would post the photos online if they complained to police
O’Leary, a former US Army enlistee, meticulously planned his assaults weeks – sometimes months – in advance
He also knew from experience that police departments often did not communicate with one another, so he made sure that each sexual assault would be committed in a different jurisdiction.
In January 2011, a Golden, Colorado women filed a rape complaint.
The victim, 26, told police that she was an engineering student on winter break from college.
One night, she fell asleep in front of the television – only to be woken up at around 8am by a man in a black mask.
The man jumped on her back, pinned her to the bed, and held a gun to her head.
‘Don’t scream. Don’t call or I’ll shoot you,’ he told her.
The rapist continued his carefully planned attack.
After he was convicted, O’Leary was asked by police how he felt after raping an elderly woman. ‘It was like I’d just eaten Thanksgiving dinner,’ he said
He tied the woman’s hands behind her and used lubrication, most towelettes, and bottled water.
He then proceeded to rape her repeatedly.
Throughout the assault, he used a digital camera.
He told the woman that if she called the police he would post the photos of her online.
After the rape, he ordered the woman to brush her teeth and take a shower.
By the time she left the bathroom and was finished washing herself, he had disappeared.
He took her sheets and the bedding.
In interviews with police, she said she could only remember one distinct physical characteristic about him – a dark birthmark on the left calf about the size of an egg.
That was an important detail – along with surveillance footage of his white pickup truck near the scene of one of the rapes – which enabled police to identify O’Leary.
‘I’ve been a judge a long time. I have never seen a case this aggravated,’ Judge Philip McNulty said during O’Leary’s sentencing in Jefferson County courtroom in December 2011.
O’Leary told police that he had deviant fantasies of raping women since he was 5 years old. He said his elaborate assault schemes were to him a form of ‘rape theater’ inspired by the Stars Wars movie, particularly the scene where Jabba the Hutt chains a scantily clad Princess Leia
‘You hunted the victims in this case like they were your prey.’
After he was convicted, O’Leary was asked by police how he felt after raping an elderly woman.
‘It was like I’d just eaten Thanksgiving dinner,’ he said.
O’Leary told police that he had deviant fantasies of raping women since he was 5 years old.
He said his elaborate assault schemes were to him a form of ‘rape theater’ that was inspired by the old Stars Wars movie, particularly the scene where Jabba the Hutt chains a scantily clad Princess Leia.