NIGHT STALKER

BY: Jesse Aylen

For many of us, the 1980s were a time of crazed excess, and enough was never enough whether we were piling on more hairspray, gyrating our bodies and wildly dancing, or soaking up outrageous pop, hip hop, and dance tunes. 

But, as the Netflix 4-part documentary series Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer reveals, it was equally a chilling time of unexplainable murder, bloodsoaked brutality, and extreme, roving terror. Such was the legacy and the work of the Night Stalker, also known as Richard Ramirez.

 

In Los Angeles, beginning in the spring of 1984 and continuing until August of 1985, Ramirez committed savage murders, rapes, and assaults against men, women, and children across California. Choosing victims seemingly at random and using a variety of gruesome weapons, from guns to knives to cords to blunt force instruments and his bare hands, the Night Stalker terrorized the greater L.A. area, resulting in communities paralyzed with fear over the fact that anyone could be unlucky enough to be next. 

Stitching together archival footage, original photography from the crime scenes, and interviews with the detectives, Gil Carrillo and the hardboiled expert Frank Salerno tasked with tracking Ramirez down, this documentary series is worthy of a binge and sure to keep you up at night thanks to its eerie footage. 

 

Yet even more moving than the steely words of the detectives are the one-on-one sessions with those people who survived the Night Stalker’s inhuman attacks, putting us squarely in what it felt like to be confronted by such evil, to lose those we loved to it, and to live ourselves to tell the tale. Taking viewers all the way from Ramirez’s earliest evils to the surprising and unexpected way that his vile acts ended, this series is not to be missed. 

By turns addictive, gruesome, and spine-tingling, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is available to stream on Netflix.