On M List of Movie Reviews
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Manhunt:
Search for the Night Stalker (1989)
Rate:
2
Viewed:
4/22
4/22:
Manhunt: The Search for the Night Stalker is a boring, banal true crime picture about Richard Ramirez's
crimes and eventual capture.
The worst part is most of what's presented is simply untrue. A lot of stuff is made up, too. The Night
Stalker left messages to taunt the police? Yeah, right. Crime scenes are barely shown. What's with the
news reporter? There's so much soap opera about the detectives' families. Who cares about them? Gil Carrillo
and his wife sure looked great when they were in fact plain-looking Mexicans with the former being fat. I'm
not going to mention the strong discrepancy in looks between Richard Ramirez and Greg Cruz.
Richard Ramirez used a flashlight outside in the dark? Ha! Why was he then called the Night Stalker? The
filmmakers should've used logic and worked their way down. Even the music is silly; it was "Night Prowler" by
AC/DC! Not even his black hat with the band's label was mentioned. Nobody was ever arrested outside the dentist's
office. In fact, the police installed two Asian undercover cops in the waiting room, but they were shortly
removed after the operation was declared to be a waste of money.
The end-of-film explanation says Richard Ramirez was convicted of "11 counts of sexual assault." Okay,
then...it'll be instrumental to point out the nature of them. The rape and sodomy of female victims was part of
his motive in the name of Satan. The other was stealing valuables to support his cocaine habit. An informant
named Jesse is used to break the case, but that's not exactly how it happened as Felipe Solano, the main fencer
of stolen properties, got implicated as well. Another woman helped out by providing more detailed description.
How it went down from the bus terminal to his capture is 95% wrong which consisted of a twenty-minute madcap
chase. Actually, there were four detectives and fifteen SIS men at the Greyhound station, looking for Richard
Ramirez who did walk in and out undetected. He never carried the black bag with him as it was checked into a
locker. Detectives Frank Salerno and Gil Carrillo didn't meet the guy himself until they pulled up at Hollenbeck
Police Station about two hours later.
San Francisco had an idiot mayor by the name of Dianne Feinstein who held a press conference, single-handedly
undermining the case because the police never knew who was doing the crimes. There were two crucial pieces of
information they had that the public including Ramirez wasn't aware of: size 11.5 Avia shoe print (the only one
ever sold in the area) and specific ballistics (the movie did mention the latter). Once Richard
Ramirez found out, he threw his sneakers over the Golden Gate Bridge, ending any chance of being linked with
future crimes.
After the trial was over, Manhunt: The Search for the Night Stalker aired on NBC, but Richard Ramirez
missed it because he committed an infraction while in county jail. Upon finding out about what happened,
Detectives Salerno and Carrillo decided to watch a taped copy with him and wanted to get his feedback. Ramirez
thought that Greg Cruz looked nothing like him and appeared silly by putting black wax on his teeth and that
A Martinez was too small to play Gil.
All in all, if you want the actual story of how it went down, I recommend reading
The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez by Philip Carlo although it won't be a bad idea
to check out the documentary on Netflix:
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer.