The Night Stalker
Show notes
As Los Angeles descends into full-blown panic, the killer finally gets the name that will define him: the Night Stalker. Told through the eyes of a ten-year-old and his cul-de-sac friends, this episode follows a ragtag neighborhood watch — flashlights, a notebook, and a porch stakeout that nearly ends in disaster — set against real archival news coverage of detectives Frank Salerno and Gil Carrillo, gun sales spiking at Los Angeles firing ranges, and a region locking its windows against the summer heat rather than risk an open one. It's a portrait of childhood fear running parallel to an adult city arming itself, as the Night Stalker's body count climbs toward its August 1985 breaking point.