Gil Carrio - The Hunt for a Serial Killer.
Nov 30, 2023

Unlike many other entries in the true crime genre, Netflix's docuseries places its central focus not on the criminal, his crimes, or his victims, but on the police's efforts to collect clues, piece them together, and track him down. Obviously, Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer includes plenty of (very graphic, often disturbing) details about so-called Night Stalker Richard Ramirez's horrific crime spree across California throughout 1985. But, as the show's full title hints, Ramirez's string of murders, burglaries, carjackings, and sexual assaults is retraced specifically through the lens of the detectives who spent months trying to figure out who he was and bring him to justice.

The detectives in question were Frank Salerno and Gil Carrillo. While Salerno was already a well-renowned detective with decades of experience under his belt, including as the lead detective in the "Hillside Strangler" case that plagued Los Angeles in the late 1970s, Carrillo was a relative newcomer to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department homicide team, which caused many of his theories about the Night Stalker case to be initially dismissed due to his "rookie" status. Once Salerno started taking Carrillo's hunches seriously, though, the case began to come together, leading to Ramirez's arrest in August 1985 and Carrillo's rise to the ranks of the country's best homicide detectives.