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In pop culture, we’re always riding a massive wave of crime. Streaming services have designated tabs for the genre, annual sales of real crime books have jumped nearly $ 600,000 over the past five years, and when Oxygen hosted “12 Dark Days of Serial Killers,” a series of shows on mass murderers, in April 2020, the network reported its highest-rated week in five years.
As with any genre, there is a spectrum of quality when it comes to content – ranging from salacious fetishization of serial killers at the expense of victims, to deeply nuanced and boundary-pushing series like “Murder on Middle Beach” and ” I “ll Be Gone in the Dark. ”
Regardless of the caliber of the various actual criminal projects, most are still largely centered on stories of white, middle class, or upper middle class victims. Think about the most talked about detective and documentary series over the past few years: the new episodes of “The Staircase”, “The Jinx”, “Amanda Knox”, “I Love You, Now Die”, “The Confession Killer”, ” and “American Murder”.
Stories of white women or children killed or kidnapped grab international headlines and spark outrage around the world – as we saw in Netflix’s “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann” – while stories of victims colored are like a failure on the radar. so subtle message about who is worthy of concern from the community underlying the genre.
Filmmakers and documentary makers are slowly working to remedy this, through projects like “Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered Children”, “The Trials of Gabriel Fernández” and, now, “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer” Netflix.
Directed by Tiller Russell – whose past documentary work includes “The Seven Five” and “The Last Narc” – this four-part series examines how two detectives, with the help of community members, tracked down a serial killer dubbed “The Night Stalker” “by the media during the 1980s in Los Angeles.
The series opens with archival footage from 1985 featuring a young Mexican-American detective named Gil Carrillo. He relays an announcement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department: “The Sheriff’s Department is investigating a series of homicides and sexual assaults in Los Angeles County. The suspect used guns, knives, tire irons, handcuffs, thumb cuffs … “
Carillo was one of the main detectives in the Night Stalker case, alongside homicide detective Frank “The Italian Stallion” Salerno. While Carillo, a Vietnam veteran whose parents essentially enlisted him to keep him off the streets, was a newcomer to the homicide department, Salerno was a stoic force veteran; as one reporter interviewed told Russell, “When you heard his name you knew these were high profile crimes.”
Their partnership serves as the lens through which this series revisits the infamous case, and although the two detectives are never together in the same room for interviews (a missed opportunity, but apparently due to pandemic production restrictions), you get a feel for their dynamics and dogged determination to piece together how dozens of murders, attempted murders, home invasions, sexual assaults and molestations were linked.
Their current collective view of the case is complemented by a wealth of archival footage, as well as interviews with journalists who covered the crimes, with survivors of the Night Stalker attacks and with relatives of his victims, including many were people. colored.
There’s also a fair amount of crime scene reenactments and dramatic cut scenes; most of them look a bit schlocky – think slow-motion shots of a bloody weapon falling out of frame, or a finger pulling a trigger – especially when combined with a few cliché scoring choices meant to create suspense. It’s unnecessarily cheesy wrapping for a documentary series that does a really solid job of making sure the killer’s victims aren’t just numbers in a body count.
There was 9-year-old Chinese-American girl Mei Leung, whom the killer raped, beat and stabbed before hanging her body in a San Francisco hotel; Jennie Vincow, 79, who was almost beheaded at home; Maria Hernandez, 22, who survived her attempt to shoot her in the face; Dayle Yoshie Okazaki, 34, who was shot in the forehead; Tsai-Lian “Veronica” Yu, 30, who was shot several times; Anastasia Hronas, 6, who survived an assault, thrown in a gym bag and left on the side of the road.
The list is lengthened increasingly. The Night Stalker ultimately killed at least 14 people and raped and tortured at least two dozen more during the spring and summer of 1985 (it should be noted that this documentary series doesn’t shy away from the gruesome details of the crimes committed and, While it is narratively important to understand the scale of the atrocities that have taken place, it can be difficult for some viewers to watch.)
“The Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer” treats all of the victims as equally important, and it’s clear – at least through Russell’s lens – that the detectives saw them that way as well. They are positioned here as mothers and fathers, daughters and members of the community, defined by their lives and not by how they were killed. It didn’t take a white victim for them to take the case “seriously”. I think it’s honestly probably due to the fact that Carrillo was on the case. He describes in the docu-series how he felt the killings were “close to home” for himself and his neighbors.
Due to the wide variety of crimes committed and the obvious lack of a victim “type”, the Night Stalker terrorized Los Angeles for months. Gun sales have skyrocketed, and people who never considered locking their doors sealed their entrances and windows (even during this summer’s heatwave). A robust selection of archived news clips featuring concerned citizens discussing their fears for themselves and their communities clearly demonstrates how this serial killer has dominated collective consciousness.
When, in the fourth and final episode, Carillo and Salerno finally identify the killer and take him into custody (with the help of a group of community members), it feels like justice has been served – both narratively and, more importantly, for the victims.
“Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer” is currently airing on Netflix.
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