If you like documentaries and crime dramas, here is your fix. Watch and I’ll give you some background.
When I was I high school and college, I took a forensic chemistry class and a part of that class was learning about serial killers. While in college, I actually did a presentation on Dorothea Puente but back to the “Night Stalker.”
First, I never understood why the media decided to give serial killer catchy names. The point is to find the killer and not make them famous and I can make this criticism because I’m in news. Anyway, although I learned a lot about serial killers and how to get away with murder, I am not familiar with the “Night Stalker.” So, here’s what I found out about him and this situation.
Richard Leyva Munoz Ramírez, who we will refer to as just Richard Ramírez from now on, was a made psychopath who murdered 13 California residents and attempted to murder dozens of others. The “Night Stalker” murders remind me of the “Sniper” shootings we had here in the DMV area in the early 2000’s, random killing that held the cities and the minds of the residents they occurred in hostage for years to come. From what I could find, it seems as though Ramírez was always surrounded by chaos and, for lack of a better term, disturbed people, much like himself. This is why doctors categorized him as a “made” psychopath and not one who was born a psychopath.
The new documentary on Netflix will, of course, have reenactments, first hand accounts from people who were almost victims and a narrative driven by the main detectives on the case, Gil Carrillo and Frank Salerno.
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer is on Netflix right now and I will be watching as soon as I can because I love a good crime story. I like the real archival footage and accounts from people who were there versus actors and an exaggerated two hour long reenactment that we call a movie or TV series…although, the OJ series was bomb!
BLACK WATCH 