Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer

The slo-mo blood soaked hammer is a sign of things to come. A lot of the graphics, footage and photos were manufactured, staged or unnecessary. Seems like they were really trying to be auteurs with the presentation when the subjects, the detectives, are better when just left to tell their story. The bar scenes reused for all policemen seemed like they were forcing some aesthetic that didn't need to be done.

It's interesting to hear the stories of the guys who found this psycho. We take for granted that someone in authority is going to protect us while we sleep in the comfort of our beds. But these guys put themselves and their families at risk for us, so it is totally inappropriate to make unfair comments here about these men.

Hard to watch. Be warned, the series contains very graphic photographs of the victims.

Brought me right back to that miserably hot summer with all the doors and windows locked tight in my parents' house in Rowland Heights. Lt. Richard Walls of the Sheriff's Information Bureau, seen about half way through the last episode, was my late brother-in-law. He did a large number of news appearances and interviews, both local and national, during that investigation.

There seems to be low rated reviews on here as it didn't contain enough information about Ramirez himself. What needs to be realised is that that is not what this documentary is. It is not a biography of Ramirez himself but a narration of how the detectives caught him. If you want a documentary on Ramirez there are plenty out there. There are books and movies as well. As someone who has seen a lot of them I wasn't interested in another retelling of his life. I personally found it refreshing to see how the detectives went about piecing it all together and eventually catching him. Well worth a watch.

With a little taste for true crime following the Cecil Hotel documentary, we moved onto "Night Stalker", a four-part miniseries about the series of murders, rapes and assaults that terrorised Southern California and the various law enforcers, reporters and victims who the case affected.

Frank Salerno already has a reputation within the LA County Sheriff's department for his work catching the Hillside Strangler. With a new partner Gil Carrillo, Frank didn't believe that he'd ever have to suffer through another case like that, so is concerned when evidence links a number of murders and home invasions together. Soon they are on the trail of a prolific attacker, with a variety of different tactics for his crimes, who is dubbed "The Night Stalker" by the press.

The show is focused more on Salerno and Garrillo and their investigation - than on Richard Ramirez himself. He doesn't make any form of appearance until the final episode, which focuses on his capture, trial and incarceration. There are interviews with the pair of detectives, who breakdown their personal and professional experiences across the timeline of Ramirez's crimes. There are interviews with survivors, or the families of survivors, in that sense, it was very thorough. It pointed out a couple of occasions when opportunities to save lives were thwarted by infighting between the different departments, or cities, and though Frank and Gil are the stars of the documentary, it's a San Francisco cop who all but admits to beating Ramirez's name out of someone who knew him. He's then identified and captured by members of the public, rather than the Sheriffs.

There were some technical aspects of the documentary that I didn't like. They use a CGI Map of Los Angeles to show the locations of the crimes which is all but useless to anyone who doesn't already have a working knowledge of the layout of the county. I never understood the distances involved. I felt, though I am not squeamish, that occasionally the crime scene photography was a bit much and that the reconstruction moments were hit a bit too often (that bouncing bloody hammer is shown at least twice in every episode).

I too think I would have preferred a bit more about Ramirez and the arrest and trial, perhaps another episode on that and one less about the crime spree and the detectives would have been a better balance - but, on the whole, I thought the series was decent if a little confused as to it's overall point.