News

Netflix’s This Is the Zodiac Speaking spills some shocking facts about the case that continues to haunt America. The Zodiac killer was an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the ’60s. The killer mailed taunting messages to regional newspapers, with his last letter claiming that he had killed 37 victims. The new documentary focuses on the only suspect that authorities named publicly, Arthur Leigh Allen.

A still poster of This Is The Zodiac Speaking | Credits: Netflix

According to the documentary, people who knew Allen claimed that he had told them that he was the Zodiac killer. These people also revealed that Allen drugged them as children and may have even brought them along to his crimes. The documentary included interviews with David and Connie Seawater and several other former pupils who knew Allen.

Robert Graysmith, the journalist who wrote the book about the serial killer and was...

This story about “Night Stalker” first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.

Making a documentary about sadistic serial killer Richard Ramirez, also known as the Night Stalker, was no easy feat for filmmaker Tiller Russell. The director/producer knew he would have to respect the victims’ trauma while showcasing Ramirez’s crimes, which were extremely violent in nature. By anchoring the story in the perspective of Gil Carrillo, one of the detectives who helped solve the case, he was able to carefully craft the Netflix docuseries, “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer,” set to the tone of Hollywood noir.

“Had I not met Gil or Frank, I would’ve never done the story,” Russell said. “It was their experience of it that anchored me to it. Frank and Gil were this odd couple of detectives who had this journey which you can tell...

When Gil Carrillo joined the homicide division at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in the early Eighties, his future partner Frank Salerno was already something of a celebrity. He had recently collared the so-called Hillside Strangler, a.k.a. cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr., a serial killer duo who terrorized the L.A. area in the late Seventies, raping, torturing, and killing 10 women.

“When I met Frank; he was going through the trial for the Hillside Strangler,” Carrillo tells Rolling Stone. “I asked him about it and he said,...

Netflix's Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer takes us back to the mid-'80s with the chilling case of the Night Stalker, aka Richard Ramirez. As the show retraces the infamous investigation, it features a politician whose name you may have heard of: Dianne Feinstein. The California senator has had her fair share of controversial moments lately, from her dismissive remarks toward youth environmentalists to her hug with Lindsey Graham at Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearing. So, how did Feinstein play a role in the Night Stalker case? Back then, she was the mayor of San Francisco. While the Night Stalker was known for terrorizing Los Angeles, one case linked him to San Francisco during the height of his murder spree. Episode three of the true-crime miniseries revisits one of Feinstein's biggest blunders: the time she released confidential investigation details in a press conference.

The Night...

Netflix’s chilling true-crime documentary series “Night Stalker” debuted Jan. 13, and tells the story of the law-enforcement officers who caught and apprehended Richard Ramirez, a serial killer and rapist who was active in California during the 1980s.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s detectives Frank Salerno and Gil Carrillo were the two agents responsible for cracking the case and bringing Ramirez to justice. Salerno was a coordinator of the task force created to find and arrest Ramirez. Salerno is now retired, but he served on the Sheriff’s Department force for over three decades.

Ramirez was eventually caught and brought to justice in August 1985, and convicted of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. He was sentenced to death in the gas chamber, after what was one of the most expensive trials in California history (second to the O.J. Simpson murder case which took place later in 1994). Ramirez later...

More than three decades after he was apprehended in Los Angeles, Richard Ramirez continues to haunt our nightmares. Better known as the Night Stalker, Ramirez cut a deadly swath through the “city of angels,” killing 13 people, while sexually assaulting, burglarizing and attempting to murder many more. His cruelty and malevolence were nearly unprecedented in criminal history.

A gripping new Netflix docuseries “The Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer” chronicles the desperate search to find Ramirez by focusing on the police officers tasked with bringing the killer to justice. The unlikely pair who had to sift through the clues were Gil Carrillo, a young and outgoing detective, and his taciturn mentor, the legendary investigator Frank Salerno.

Tiller Russell, the director of the four-part series, says getting them to open up about cracking the case, as well as convincing the survivors and victims’ families that the show would honor the memories of their loved ones,...

Netflix dives into one of the most horrifying cases of multiple murders with its eyes wide open in Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. The documentary is told from the perspective of the investigators at the heart of the case, particularly a veteran homicide detective and his young, enthusiastic partner. They had nothing going into the case, and when they did dig out the clues, they often lost what they had because of its newsworthiness. The series works because it treats the audience the same way as the cops were treated: infuriatingly.

Every clue, setback, and recalculation in Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is satisfyingly frustrating. We all know the story by now, so director Tiller Russell can leisurely fill in the plot. We don’t even get the name of the serial killer until the end of the third episode. It’s not in the title,...

1. “Pretend It’s a City”

Why Should I Watch? “Pretend It’s a City” is a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary series about Fran Lebowitz. Honestly, that’s all you need to know. Enjoy.

Bonus Reason: Ok, fine. The seven-episode limited series is Scorsese’s second documentary on Lebowitz, the famed New York author and public speaker, except this one is nearly four times as long — and arriving in the nick of time. Framed as a guide book to the city through the eyes of two true locals, “Pretend It’s a City” is like a long walk through the Big Apple, pre-covid of course. If it so happens to frame the essayist’s life, as well, all the better. With Scorsese in the driver’s seat, there’s bound to be excitement around every corner.

2. “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer”

Why Should I Watch? This winter, Netflix wants to send...

One of the most notorious crime sprees in American history is getting the Netflix docu-series treatment. A new trailer for the four-part series is out now, and promises a story that will chill even the most seasoned true crime enthusiast to the bone.  Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer chronicles the crimes of Richard Ramirez, who terrorized the city of Los Angeles in the summer of 1985. It shows the race for a young detective named Gil Carrillo of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as well as homicide investigator Frank Salerno to solve the case as the media stoked fear of a boogeyman who had no pattern of victim or methodology in his crimes.  The series...

Netflix has dropped a new trailer for its upcoming documentary on the notorious serial killer, Richard Ramirez, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer, set to premiere on January 13th.

Ramirez earned the nickname the “Night Stalker” when, during the summer of 1985, he terrorized Los Angeles with a string of murders and sexual assaults. As the trailer highlights, Ramirez appeared to pick his victims indiscriminately — a mix of men, women, and children, who ranged in age from six to 82 and came from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds — which made...

The public's fascination with serial killers is well known, and Dancing with Rip, a new movie inspired by the "Grim Sleeper" case in Los Angeles, is on its way to capitalize on it. We have some early details on the film along with a concept trailer shot a few months ago.

From the Press Release:

This dark and compelling thriller focuses on the hunt for the killer, not only from the eyes of the killer but also from those chasing him, especially the lead detective, an ambitious journalist, and a streetwise community organizer as well as a survivor of one of his attacks.

James Cullen Bressack (My Pure Joy) will helm Dancing with Rip. Also on the team are writer/producer Les Mahoney; homicide technical advisor Gil Carrillo, one of the co-lead detectives who captured the “Night Stalker” serial killer; and journalist and serial killer expert Victoria Redstall.

Casting should be under way soon.