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.
