Streaming on Netflix. A four-part documentary series.
Detectives Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno worked tirelessly over the course of months to capture the prolific serial killer who became known as The Night Stalker. Richard Ramirez went on an indefatigable spree of crimes in Los Angeles beginning in March 1985 and ending with his capture on August 31, 1985. Ramirez didn't just kill; he molested underage boys and girls (and shockingly let them live), while raping others and leaving Southern California terrified when nightfall came. His pattern was that he didn't seem to have one. Ramirez would break into a random home at night and commit whatever crime tickled his fancy at that moment. One night he would strike in the heart of Los Angeles and the next he would kill or rape in a nearby town. Detective Salerno was famous for capturing the men who committed the Hillside Strangler murders in the late 1970's. Now, teaming up with the relatively green, but smart and tough Carrillo, Salerno is after a more elusive target.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer grips the viewer right away. We get the feel for the booming, upbeat Los Angeles of the mid-1980's. Los Angeles just held the 1984 Summer Olympics and the city was trendy and happening...until Richard Ramirez besmirched it with his evil. Composite sketches of the killer betrayed hollow eyes of a man without a soul. When Ramirez was finally caught, the eyes stand out from his gaunt frame. Who was inside? We learn briefly about his horrible childhood, which no doubt contributed to his murderous rage. Or was he always evil and just biding his time to carry out his true nature? Not that any of this matters to his victims or those left behind to make sense of the senseless.
When Los Angeles became too hot for Ramirez in terms of publicity, he went north to San Francisco and began killing there. He began leaving behind drawings of a pentagram on the wall suggesting his worship of Satan. One rape victim pleaded to be let go, saying she swears to God she wouldn't look at him. Ramirez would reply: "Swear to Satan." Carrillo and Salerno's home lives suffered as they worked nearly round the clock on The Night Stalker cases. Carrillo determined this was the work of one person. Ramirez may have been caught earlier had it not been for bureaucratic red tape involving the impounding of a stolen car and the failure of a robbery alarm to work when it was suspected Ramirez would seek dental care for his rotting teeth. As the tension of the Los Angeles nights increased, so did the pressure on Carrillo and Salerno to catch The Night Stalker. The local media, including then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, did the case no favors by revealing crucial pieces of information the detectives wanted to keep secret so their case won't be undermined.
Carrillo and Salerno come across as intelligent, ultra-competent, driven, determined, and most of all sympathetic to the victims. They refused to be worn down by the same cynicism one would see in full force on a Law and Order episode. Thousands of leads poured in to police tip lines, and some actually led to Ramirez being apprehended quicker. An anonymous woman being interviewed about the killer on television wondered aloud in frustration how the perpetrator hasn't been caught yet. "He lives somewhere and someone knows him," which is true even for monsters like Ramirez.
The series wisely does not grow into a biography of Ramirez other than a brief overview of his childhood. This story is about the detectives and the victims, whose families and loved ones still grieve to this day. Following Ramirez' highly-publicized arrest, his criminal trial which took nearly four years to conclude and resulted in a death sentence, became a Ramirez side show. He somehow became the subject of unhealthy interest for a lot of female admirers, who one can only conclude are either mentally unbalanced or simply lack ordinary decency. Why would they choose a murderer, rapist, and child molester as the object of their desire? As one subject puts it: "He looks at them as if they are ringing the dinner bell." Ramirez would be convicted on thirteen counts of murder and other counts of rape and robbery. There is suggestion this is only a partial listing of his actual crimes.
Ramirez died in 2013 from cancer after nearly twenty-five years on death row. Why was he on death row for so long? What does it say about the criminal appeals process when someone like Ramirez can survive for twenty-plus years and denies the victims their chance for closure and justice? It's something not even Carrillo and Salerno have the answers for. Ramirez' end provides an unsettling coda to a series which is among the very best in displaying how a serial killer can claim the lives of victims in more than one way.
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