NIGHTSTALKER: THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER. (2021) A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
NIGHT STALKER: THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER. (2021)
DIRECTED
BY TILLER RUSSELL.
STARRING
GIL CARRILLO AND FRANK SALERNO AS THEMSELVES.
REVIEW BY
SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This Netflix true crime documentary is a really sinister and
disturbing watch. In the 1980s, a series of horrific crimes- aggravated burglary,
child molestation, child abduction and murders- in the Los Angeles and San
Francisco areas of the United States had the residents of those two cities on
high alert.
The thing is, though, that almost all of the crimes were
different to the ones that preceded them, and it took a while for detectives on
the case to link them together. Normally, a criminal keeps to the same MO or
modus operandi and doesn’t deviate from it too much.
For example, a man who shoots people from a safe distance, e.g.,
David Berkowitz in the ‘Son of Sam’ murders, doesn’t normally decide to suddenly
stop doing this and start strangling his victims instead, which would entail up-close
and personal contact.
Ted Bundy selected his female victims, who all looked
similar, and drove them somewhere where he could rape, beat and kill them in
safety and then dump their bodies. He often committed breaking-and-entering
crimes in tandem with his rape-murders and he started his dubious ‘career’ as a
Peeping Tom, but these are all inter-related crimes. Bundy never decided, for example,
to start a new career as, say, an arsonist or a long-range gunman.
The Hillside Stranglers, Kenneth Bianchi and Angela Buono,
murdered women and left them on the sides of hills for people to find them. Another
serial killer, like the Yorkshire Ripper or the Green River Killer, might
specifically target prostitutes and get them safely into his car- and his
power- before driving them to their deaths on a patch of isolated waste ground somewhere. Most killers have their own MOs,
developed and refined over time.
But the criminal dubbed ‘the Valley Intruder,’ ‘the
Walk-In Killer’ and ‘the Night Stalker,’ the killer’s own personal
favourite moniker, committed a wide variety of crimes. He was a practised
burglar. He kidnapped a six-year-old child from her bedroom, sexually molested
her and then returned her to a place of safety, telling her to get an adult to
call 911.
He didn’t always kill his victims. He raped one woman and
left her handcuffed to her bed, hurt but alive. He used handcuffs and thumbcuffs
on his victims. Detectives were surprised at the use of thumbcuffs, apparently
a highly unusual form of restraint. He sodomised an eight-year-old boy during a
home invasion.
He raped and murdered elderly women. He murdered men and
raped and murdered their wives. He ate the food he found in his victim’s
kitchens. He regurgitated this food on their floors and masturbated in their
homes, maybe even over their bodies. He was diabolically disrespectful of his victims’
homes as well as their physical persons.
He used guns, knives, ligatures, hammers and his bare hands
to kill. He accidentally left a distinguishing footprint at many of his crime
scenes. There were so many variables in his murders that he should probably
have been dubbed ‘the Lucky Dip Killer’ or ‘the Pick ’n’ Mix Killer.’
He comes across in this documentary as an extremely violent
and dangerous man with mental problems and possibly drug problems as well, a
man you would be advised to stay well clear of. The details of how he was
eventually apprehended, and by whom, is the only part of the documentary that
would give you any hope or slight alleviation of the horror he caused.
The story of the crime spree and of the perpetrator's eventual apprehension is told by Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno, the two
detectives who worked on and eventually solved the ‘Night Stalker’ case. Victims
who survived the killer and the relatives of victims who died talk movingly and
honestly about their experiences.
I definitely shed a few tears when Colleen Nelson described
her wonderful relationship with her ‘spunky’ grandmother Joyce Nelson, by all
accounts a woman full of life and love and fun whose time on earth was cut
short by one of the worst, and sickest, serial killers the human race has ever
known.
The crime scene photos are extremely graphic and, to be
honest, I’m kind of surprised the film-makers were able to show such shocking
images of corpses and wounds, a battered old lady’s face, the spread-eagled
legs of dead women. It’s the most graphic depiction of a real-life crime spree
I think I’ve ever seen, so be aware of that if you’re planning to watch this
documentary yourself, and under no circumstances allow any impressionable kids
within a mile of it...!
The killer, Texas-born Richard Ramirez, was only twenty-nine
when he received multiple death sentences for his crimes. His childhood is not
gone in to in detail in this film, and most of what I know about him was
gleaned from Wikipedia.
In his childhood, he was exposed to some things that clearly
had a dreadful effect on his young mind. I’m certainly not excusing his
year-long crime spree that adversely affected the lives of so many people, but his
childhood was rough, I mean, really rough. He was not a cherished child.
Ramirez was something of a heart-throb to the young female groupies
he attracted, with his long dark wavy hair, handsome face, dark flashing eyes,
his height and lean body. Pictures of him holding up his left palm to reveal a
pentogram somehow oozed their way into popular culture, as did the voice clip of
him saying ‘Hail Satan’ when he was exiting the court at one point.
Ramirez died in prison in 2013 of cancer at the young age of
fifty-three. The appeals process in California probably would not have seen him
executed until his ‘seventies, according to some. I daresay the victims and the
relatives of victims who outlived him were relieved beyond measure to know that
he was gone for good in 2013, but forgetting him and his truly evil deeds is
another matter entirely and will take much longer…
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
Her debut romantic fiction novel, 'THIRTEEN
STOPS,' is out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Stops-Sandra-Harris-ebook/dp/B089DJMH64
The sequel, ‘THIRTEEN STOPS LATER,’ is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
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