1
00:00:11,302 --> 00:00:16,141
[reporter] Good morning.
High of 88 today, 95 over in the Valley.

2
00:00:16,224 --> 00:00:19,602
We'll be frying eggs on the sidewalk,
if you haven't had breakfast--

3
00:00:19,686 --> 00:00:23,273
[DJ] DeBarge, at number six
on our official L.A. countdown this week.

4
00:00:23,356 --> 00:00:24,649
♪ L.A.'s music ♪

5
00:00:24,733 --> 00:00:26,735
[radio broadcast cuts off abruptly]

6
00:00:31,948 --> 00:00:34,034
[song in Spanish plays]

7
00:01:47,690 --> 00:01:50,026
[brooding music playing]

8
00:01:53,446 --> 00:01:58,743
[Gil] So, we got two of our officers
and stuck them in the dental office,

9
00:01:58,827 --> 00:02:00,912
waiting for Richard to come back in.

10
00:02:00,995 --> 00:02:04,666
He's got an impacted tooth
and it's gonna be killing him pretty soon.

11
00:02:04,749 --> 00:02:07,919
And we know, if he come back,
they're going to get him.

12
00:02:08,002 --> 00:02:10,588
And one of the executives
from my department

13
00:02:10,672 --> 00:02:13,133
thought that we were wasting money,

14
00:02:13,216 --> 00:02:16,302
that the guy was probably
not going to come back.

15
00:02:16,386 --> 00:02:20,890
And since the dental office
was a jurisdiction of LAPD,

16
00:02:20,974 --> 00:02:24,686
we get Los Angeles Police Department
to put one of their robbery alarms

17
00:02:24,769 --> 00:02:25,812
inside the office.

18
00:02:26,980 --> 00:02:31,067
So, they put that in there
and we pulled our guys off.

19
00:02:32,152 --> 00:02:34,195
[clock ticking]

20
00:02:35,738 --> 00:02:40,535
[Gil] The very first day that we pull
our guys out and put the alarm in,

21
00:02:40,618 --> 00:02:43,329
the doctor called me up
about ten o'clock that night,

22
00:02:43,413 --> 00:02:45,832
says, "Where were you?
Why didn't you come?"

23
00:02:46,416 --> 00:02:48,418
Richard had been in there that day.

24
00:02:51,045 --> 00:02:53,006
The doctor kept hitting the alarm,

25
00:02:53,631 --> 00:02:57,177
and the alarm malfunctioned
or wasn't wired prop-- It didn't go off.

26
00:03:03,099 --> 00:03:04,350
So, we missed him.

27
00:03:07,353 --> 00:03:08,396
I was upset.

28
00:03:09,939 --> 00:03:12,275
How many more people are going to die?

29
00:03:18,907 --> 00:03:22,410
[Robin] I could, in my mind,
every single day, walk through that house.

30
00:03:22,493 --> 00:03:26,080
I know every inch of it.
I know every stain on the carpet.

31
00:03:27,207 --> 00:03:28,374
I can see it all.

32
00:03:30,710 --> 00:03:33,630
My grandmother was a sports fanatic.

33
00:03:33,713 --> 00:03:36,341
[crowds cheering]

34
00:03:36,424 --> 00:03:38,259
You couldn't really even talk to her

35
00:03:38,343 --> 00:03:41,179
if there was a Dodger game
or a Laker game on.

36
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Those were her teams
and she loved them.

37
00:03:44,474 --> 00:03:48,144
And my grandfather was salt of the earth.

38
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He would keep boxes
of full-sized candy bars.

39
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None of these little pieces of candy.

40
00:03:53,316 --> 00:03:57,779
It was always a full-sized candy bar
when Grandpa decided it was okay.

41
00:03:58,613 --> 00:04:04,994
And I remember that there was
a series of crimes that had happened.

42
00:04:07,580 --> 00:04:09,832
Somebody was breaking into houses.

43
00:04:09,916 --> 00:04:12,460
Some of the stories
were about older people.

44
00:04:12,543 --> 00:04:15,630
I think one was um,
two sisters that had lived together.

45
00:04:16,214 --> 00:04:19,842
[reporter] June 1st, Monrovia,
83-year-old Mabel Bell is beaten to death.

46
00:04:21,135 --> 00:04:23,596
Her invalid sister survives.

47
00:04:25,682 --> 00:04:28,309
[Robin]
So, I worried about my grandparents,

48
00:04:28,393 --> 00:04:33,106
and I went to their house and I said,
"Grandma, you've got to lock your doors.

49
00:04:33,189 --> 00:04:36,276
There's this creep
that's breaking into people's houses."

50
00:04:40,822 --> 00:04:44,617
My grandmother's response was,
"Hey, we're from the Midwest.

51
00:04:44,701 --> 00:04:46,619
Sorry, I don't want to live like that.

52
00:04:46,703 --> 00:04:48,955
I don't want to live where I lock my doors

53
00:04:49,038 --> 00:04:52,166
and where I have to be worried about
who's going to come in my house.

54
00:04:52,250 --> 00:04:53,835
That's not how I am."

55
00:04:55,670 --> 00:04:58,298
[clock ticking]

56
00:05:00,591 --> 00:05:02,969
[foreboding music plays]

57
00:05:25,491 --> 00:05:26,492
[gunshot]

58
00:05:27,660 --> 00:05:28,661
[gunshot]

59
00:05:32,498 --> 00:05:33,666
[wet squelch]

60
00:06:04,572 --> 00:06:06,449
[Judith]
My father was a Seventh-day Adventist,

61
00:06:06,532 --> 00:06:08,659
my mother usually went to church with him.

62
00:06:10,119 --> 00:06:12,580
I met them on Saturday mornings
for coffee.

63
00:06:14,874 --> 00:06:19,670
I started calling the house to tell them
I might be a few minutes late

64
00:06:19,754 --> 00:06:21,631
and I was getting no answer…

65
00:06:22,465 --> 00:06:25,301
and I thought that was very unusual.

66
00:06:25,385 --> 00:06:30,848
And my husband-- I asked him if he would
drive me down and take my daughter.

67
00:06:30,932 --> 00:06:33,684
I didn't want to go alone,
since I hadn't got an answer.

68
00:06:33,768 --> 00:06:35,603
There was something inside me that…

69
00:06:36,145 --> 00:06:37,397
I knew something was wrong.

70
00:06:39,065 --> 00:06:41,025
We stopped in front of the house.

71
00:06:41,776 --> 00:06:43,694
I noticed the pool gate was open,

72
00:06:43,778 --> 00:06:46,614
and they never left the gate
to the pool yard open, ever.

73
00:06:48,908 --> 00:06:52,745
And then I went to the back door
and the door was open.

74
00:06:53,454 --> 00:06:57,917
I went through that room and down
the hallway to where their bedroom was,

75
00:06:58,000 --> 00:06:59,961
and I looked in their bedroom…

76
00:07:02,797 --> 00:07:05,133
[tense, chilling music plays]

77
00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,890
My father's head had been
almost totally decapitated.

78
00:07:12,974 --> 00:07:14,767
My mother's face was shot off.

79
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,146
The room was just a bloodbath.

80
00:07:22,817 --> 00:07:25,111
My five-year-old
had heard me screaming,

81
00:07:25,194 --> 00:07:28,322
so she already knew
that something terrible happened.

82
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I sat them down.

83
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We just had to tell them.

84
00:07:33,244 --> 00:07:35,872
We knew it had to be done
before somebody else told them.

85
00:07:35,955 --> 00:07:39,542
-We sat down and told them.
-[reporter] Was that the hardest part?

86
00:07:40,460 --> 00:07:43,254
Yes, it was,
because they love their grandparents.

87
00:07:43,337 --> 00:07:45,631
Unbelievably, how much
they love their grandparents.

88
00:07:48,885 --> 00:07:51,804
She looked at my sister and I and said,
"Your grandparents are dead.

89
00:07:51,888 --> 00:07:52,972
They've been murdered."

90
00:07:56,100 --> 00:07:57,935
It changed my world instantly.

91
00:07:58,019 --> 00:08:00,021
[ominous music plays]

92
00:08:06,235 --> 00:08:08,070
[Frank] We got a hold of Glendale PD

93
00:08:08,154 --> 00:08:11,824
and Gil and I
met with the Glendale officers.

94
00:08:13,618 --> 00:08:15,161
It looked like a struggle had ensued.

95
00:08:15,912 --> 00:08:20,166
There were no shoe prints,
but they were both shot with a .22.

96
00:08:20,249 --> 00:08:26,214
That .22 that he used on them,
we connect to one of the earlier cases.

97
00:08:26,297 --> 00:08:29,342
And it's the same gun that was used

98
00:08:29,926 --> 00:08:31,469
in the Dayle Okazaki case.

99
00:08:31,552 --> 00:08:34,597
[brooding music playing]

100
00:08:42,313 --> 00:08:45,149
[Frank]
We get a hold of LAPD the same morning.

101
00:08:47,151 --> 00:08:48,945
We've got another murder.

102
00:08:49,904 --> 00:08:53,032
[Gil] And we go to
the Khovananth residence in Sun Valley.

103
00:08:53,115 --> 00:08:56,911
[Frank] He's done two crimes
in the same night.

104
00:08:56,994 --> 00:09:01,958
And as we walk up the driveway
to the front entrance,

105
00:09:02,041 --> 00:09:03,626
on the front porch…

106
00:09:04,460 --> 00:09:06,712
I said, "Gil, look at this."

107
00:09:09,549 --> 00:09:13,511
There is a perfect Avia shoe print

108
00:09:14,095 --> 00:09:15,513
on that porch.

109
00:09:18,724 --> 00:09:21,727
We walk around the back
where the point of entry is,

110
00:09:21,811 --> 00:09:24,689
which is a slider that was--
Got left unlocked.

111
00:09:26,607 --> 00:09:32,029
There was another Avia shoe print
on the step up into the living room.

112
00:09:33,364 --> 00:09:36,325
The suspect had entered the rear slider,

113
00:09:36,409 --> 00:09:39,287
went into the bedroom, executed the male,

114
00:09:39,370 --> 00:09:41,914
shot him in the head with a .22.

115
00:09:41,998 --> 00:09:43,207
[gunshot]

116
00:09:48,504 --> 00:09:52,758
[Gil] Then he sexually assaulted the wife,

117
00:09:52,842 --> 00:09:57,346
and he sexually assaulted
the young boy as well.

118
00:09:57,430 --> 00:10:01,309
[Frank] He was there a long time
at this location, two hours, three hours,

119
00:10:01,392 --> 00:10:06,022
and there was quite a bit of jewelry
and other items taken.

120
00:10:06,105 --> 00:10:09,525
[chilling music playing]

121
00:10:14,947 --> 00:10:17,825
This is the case… This showed everything.

122
00:10:18,451 --> 00:10:20,077
We had the Avia shoe print,

123
00:10:20,745 --> 00:10:22,371
we had the .22,

124
00:10:23,122 --> 00:10:25,583
we had the MO
that he was executing the male,

125
00:10:25,666 --> 00:10:27,668
sexually assaulting the female,

126
00:10:27,752 --> 00:10:31,255
and sexually assault
the eight-year-old boy there.

127
00:10:31,339 --> 00:10:34,342
So, we had all of that, all in one case.

128
00:10:35,551 --> 00:10:36,886
The female victim,

129
00:10:37,678 --> 00:10:39,764
she was very traumatized,

130
00:10:39,847 --> 00:10:43,517
but she was very clear
in what she remembered.

131
00:10:43,601 --> 00:10:48,648
Her description, as far as
the composite drawing went,

132
00:10:48,731 --> 00:10:49,857
was very good.

133
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,029
It was very similar to Okazaki/Hernandez.

134
00:10:56,447 --> 00:10:58,658
And that's the one we went public with.

135
00:11:06,749 --> 00:11:10,336
[Gil] Frank had been through
a serial killer before.

136
00:11:11,128 --> 00:11:14,757
I remember leaving the Hall of Justice
one day asking him if it was wrong

137
00:11:15,383 --> 00:11:17,510
for me to want somebody else to die.

138
00:11:18,552 --> 00:11:22,223
I needed more evidence.
I needed him to screw up.

139
00:11:22,890 --> 00:11:26,477
And the only way he'd make a mistake
was if there were more victims.

140
00:11:27,061 --> 00:11:28,604
I didn't want to see anybody die,

141
00:11:28,688 --> 00:11:32,817
but I needed some more
pieces of the puzzle in order to work it.

142
00:11:34,985 --> 00:11:36,445
[clock ticking]

143
00:11:36,529 --> 00:11:39,240
We had called for a meeting
of everybody involved,

144
00:11:39,323 --> 00:11:43,369
to get everybody on the same page
to try and solve this case.

145
00:11:43,452 --> 00:11:44,829
In this meeting…

146
00:11:44,912 --> 00:11:47,039
-[phone ringing]
-…we get interrupted.

147
00:11:47,123 --> 00:11:50,418
We get notified that a case
had happened that night.

148
00:11:51,752 --> 00:11:54,296
[Frank] There's another case in Northridge

149
00:11:55,089 --> 00:11:57,216
where two people had been shot.

150
00:11:58,634 --> 00:12:01,303
[Gil] The home of Chris
and Virginia Petersen.

151
00:12:02,221 --> 00:12:03,639
This man entered the house…

152
00:12:05,099 --> 00:12:06,225
went into the bedroom,

153
00:12:06,308 --> 00:12:07,560
shot Virginia,

154
00:12:07,643 --> 00:12:09,019
the left side of her nostril,

155
00:12:09,103 --> 00:12:11,605
and the bullet lodged
in the back side of her neck

156
00:12:11,689 --> 00:12:14,108
and didn't hit vital organs
as it went through.

157
00:12:14,191 --> 00:12:15,735
She started screaming.

158
00:12:15,818 --> 00:12:19,655
Mr. Petersen started to sit up,
the suspect shot him,

159
00:12:20,322 --> 00:12:23,617
the right side of his head as well,
but it didn't go through.

160
00:12:24,243 --> 00:12:26,120
[Frank] He shoots a husband and wife.

161
00:12:27,079 --> 00:12:28,789
They're both shot in the head.

162
00:12:30,166 --> 00:12:33,377
Chris Petersen gets out of bed
and chases him out of the house.

163
00:12:33,461 --> 00:12:36,046
The killer, he's got the gun,

164
00:12:36,130 --> 00:12:38,215
and Petersen's got his wounded head,

165
00:12:38,299 --> 00:12:40,676
and he chases
this killer out of the house.

166
00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:43,929
If I'd shot somebody in the head
and they kept coming, I'd run, too.

167
00:12:46,515 --> 00:12:50,102
The suspect used the word "bitch,"
which is a common word,

168
00:12:50,186 --> 00:12:53,189
but that was some of his terminology
that he liked.

169
00:12:54,398 --> 00:12:55,608
It was a new gun.

170
00:12:56,150 --> 00:12:57,443
It was a .25 auto.

171
00:12:57,526 --> 00:13:00,529
At that point,
we hadn't seen that gun being used.

172
00:13:01,739 --> 00:13:08,621
The unusual thing about the shell casings
was that there was a red primer.

173
00:13:09,997 --> 00:13:13,417
Our crime lab, the firearm section,
told us, "That's old ammunition."

174
00:13:13,501 --> 00:13:16,879
They said, "They don't make that anymore,
with that red primer."

175
00:13:16,962 --> 00:13:20,174
So, that became of interest.

176
00:13:25,679 --> 00:13:27,681
[sinister music playing]

177
00:13:28,390 --> 00:13:31,936
[man speaking]

178
00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:15,646
[Gil] Most killers,
they want to know what the cops know.

179
00:14:16,856 --> 00:14:19,066
[Frank] We knew he was reading the paper,

180
00:14:19,149 --> 00:14:20,985
because in the Doi murder…

181
00:14:22,027 --> 00:14:25,531
-Mr. Doi was able to call 911.
-[disconnect tone droning]

182
00:14:25,614 --> 00:14:28,993
[Gil] And that call was released
to the news media.

183
00:14:29,827 --> 00:14:36,417
From that point on, the phones were either
taken or disabled at the crime scenes.

184
00:14:37,376 --> 00:14:39,795
[Gil] Cut the phone lines,
no more communication,

185
00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:43,299
which told me, whoever our suspect is,
he's following the news.

186
00:14:45,342 --> 00:14:48,637
[Frank] The L.A. Times contacts
the Sheriff's Department

187
00:14:48,721 --> 00:14:53,100
and they want to do a story
in regards to my involvement

188
00:14:53,183 --> 00:14:55,561
in the Hillside Strangler case

189
00:14:55,644 --> 00:14:58,939
and now being involved
in the latest series.

190
00:15:01,483 --> 00:15:05,487
I made the flippant remark that--
"This case here, this recent one,

191
00:15:05,571 --> 00:15:09,116
that shows the true colors
of what this killer is all about."

192
00:15:09,700 --> 00:15:11,452
And what I meant was he's a coward.

193
00:15:12,369 --> 00:15:15,164
He shoots two people in bed,
a husband and wife.

194
00:15:15,247 --> 00:15:17,416
Chris Petersen gets up out of bed

195
00:15:17,499 --> 00:15:19,627
and he chases this killer
out of the house.

196
00:15:20,461 --> 00:15:21,462
He is a coward.

197
00:15:23,589 --> 00:15:26,884
That was something
I shouldn't have said, but I was pissed.

198
00:15:27,635 --> 00:15:31,472
I had no idea it was going to be
on the front page of the L.A. Times

199
00:15:31,555 --> 00:15:32,806
with a photograph.

200
00:15:33,307 --> 00:15:36,936
With a whole bunch of personal details
about his life.

201
00:15:37,519 --> 00:15:39,563
He had children at home at the time.

202
00:15:39,647 --> 00:15:42,983
When you're a homicide detective
on the biggest case in the world,

203
00:15:43,067 --> 00:15:46,779
you're maybe working 20 hours a day,
and you can't be everywhere at once.

204
00:15:47,655 --> 00:15:48,822
Very scary thing.

205
00:15:50,950 --> 00:15:53,494
It's the only time in my entire life

206
00:15:54,244 --> 00:15:55,829
that I slept with a gun.

207
00:15:56,330 --> 00:15:57,456
I'll tell you that.

208
00:15:57,998 --> 00:15:59,917
[gunshots]

209
00:16:00,501 --> 00:16:02,962
[reporter] Those who don't have guns
are buying them.

210
00:16:03,045 --> 00:16:05,798
-[reporter] Will you buy a gun?
-Definitely.

211
00:16:05,881 --> 00:16:07,800
-Do you know how to use a firearm?
-No.

212
00:16:08,175 --> 00:16:13,180
The same man is suspected in
six to eight murders and 25 to 30 attacks.

213
00:16:14,056 --> 00:16:17,059
I'm afraid for everybody.
Elderly, young, everybody.

214
00:16:17,142 --> 00:16:19,853
And the security industry
continues to benefit,

215
00:16:19,937 --> 00:16:21,897
whether it's from guard dog training…

216
00:16:21,981 --> 00:16:22,982
Hi-yah!

217
00:16:23,065 --> 00:16:26,276
or from self-defense classes
at this karate school,

218
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:28,570
using, of all things, a key chain.

219
00:16:28,654 --> 00:16:30,614
Locks are selling well, too.

220
00:16:30,698 --> 00:16:33,075
[woman] I don't understand
why somebody can't identify him.

221
00:16:33,158 --> 00:16:34,159
He has to live somewhere.

222
00:16:34,243 --> 00:16:37,037
Somebody must know.
He's a weird-looking character.

223
00:16:37,121 --> 00:16:38,914
Somebody has to know him.

224
00:16:38,998 --> 00:16:42,668
Journalists wanted to give
this unknown monster a name.

225
00:16:42,751 --> 00:16:48,465
KNBC, our boss,
named him "The Walk-In Killer."

226
00:16:48,549 --> 00:16:50,342
-Walk-In Killer.
-Walk-In Killer.

227
00:16:50,426 --> 00:16:51,885
[all] …so-called Walk-In Killer.

228
00:16:51,969 --> 00:16:53,679
Then there was "The Valley Intruder."

229
00:16:53,762 --> 00:16:57,725
[reporter] The so-called Valley Intruder
task force continues its search.

230
00:16:57,808 --> 00:17:00,728
[Paul] Then, one morning in August,
we woke up and…

231
00:17:01,311 --> 00:17:04,606
The Herald Examiner called him
"The Night Stalker."

232
00:17:05,190 --> 00:17:07,568
And that was the branding that stuck.

233
00:17:08,318 --> 00:17:10,612
[reporter 2] There's a new development
in the investigation

234
00:17:10,696 --> 00:17:13,866
of the so-called Night Stalker
murders in California.

235
00:17:13,949 --> 00:17:16,910
Californians have come to know him
as the Night Stalker.

236
00:17:16,994 --> 00:17:19,621
The search for California's
Night Stalker continues.

237
00:17:19,705 --> 00:17:21,874
Neighbors sat quietly
staring at the house,

238
00:17:21,957 --> 00:17:25,836
wondering why the couple
was picked out by the Night Stalker

239
00:17:25,919 --> 00:17:27,546
and thanking God it wasn't them.

240
00:17:30,507 --> 00:17:33,469
-[clock ticking]
-[phone rings]

241
00:17:37,556 --> 00:17:38,724
[Pearl] We were asleep,

242
00:17:39,558 --> 00:17:42,311
and the phone rang
2:00, 3:00 in the morning…

243
00:17:43,228 --> 00:17:45,564
and Gil answered it.

244
00:17:47,316 --> 00:17:51,236
And when he got off the phone
I remember asking, "Where did he hit now?"

245
00:17:52,029 --> 00:17:54,239
And he told me, "Diamond Bar."

246
00:17:57,618 --> 00:18:02,498
[Gil] The drive to Diamond Bar was
just a matter of five, six minutes away.

247
00:18:02,581 --> 00:18:03,457
It was close.

248
00:18:03,999 --> 00:18:05,375
[Pearl] Diamond Bar.

249
00:18:05,459 --> 00:18:07,377
I said, "Oh, dear Lord."

250
00:18:07,461 --> 00:18:09,088
It's too close to home.

251
00:18:09,797 --> 00:18:14,218
I was too afraid.
How could I protect my kids, myself there?

252
00:18:17,012 --> 00:18:19,640
She says, "You're not going
till me and the kids are gone.

253
00:18:21,141 --> 00:18:23,310
We're not coming home
till this is over."

254
00:18:24,144 --> 00:18:25,687
And I said, "Okay."

255
00:18:29,817 --> 00:18:34,404
And we walked out the door as a family.
He got in his car and we went.

256
00:18:35,447 --> 00:18:36,490
And we left.

257
00:18:39,326 --> 00:18:40,452
She was…

258
00:18:42,496 --> 00:18:43,413
uh…

259
00:18:44,039 --> 00:18:45,124
She was afraid.

260
00:18:48,335 --> 00:18:52,005
She had to get out because I wasn't there.

261
00:18:54,216 --> 00:18:56,593
I'm nothing without my family.

262
00:18:56,677 --> 00:18:58,178
My family is everything.

263
00:18:58,804 --> 00:19:01,390
[darkly atmospheric music playing]

264
00:19:07,729 --> 00:19:09,022
So, we go to Diamond Bar.

265
00:19:29,209 --> 00:19:32,462
Gil gets there first
because he lived very close.

266
00:19:34,715 --> 00:19:37,217
The point of entry
is at the rear of the house.

267
00:19:38,635 --> 00:19:40,262
The telltale sign,

268
00:19:40,345 --> 00:19:45,684
there's a half-eaten honeydew melon
still on the table.

269
00:19:47,186 --> 00:19:49,354
Okay, he's pretty comfortable again.

270
00:19:49,438 --> 00:19:54,526
And we have a dead husband
with a gun to the temple.

271
00:19:54,610 --> 00:19:55,611
[gunshot]

272
00:19:56,987 --> 00:19:59,948
[Frank] The .25 semi-automatic pistol,

273
00:20:00,032 --> 00:20:06,079
and it's the same .25 caliber ammunition
that we had seen previously at Petersen.

274
00:20:07,581 --> 00:20:09,249
That's with the red primer.

275
00:20:16,381 --> 00:20:19,885
The woman had been sexually assaulted,

276
00:20:21,053 --> 00:20:23,805
and she tells us that he says,

277
00:20:23,889 --> 00:20:26,767
"Don't look at me! Don't look at me!"

278
00:20:26,850 --> 00:20:28,810
She says, "I swear to God, I won't!"

279
00:20:28,894 --> 00:20:31,855
And he says,
"Don't swear to God, swear to Satan."

280
00:20:35,943 --> 00:20:39,238
I remember getting there,
walking through the crime scene…

281
00:20:39,988 --> 00:20:42,241
and getting angry.

282
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,661
So many people had walked
through the crime scene.

283
00:20:45,744 --> 00:20:48,705
Captains, lieutenants,
other people that were involved

284
00:20:48,789 --> 00:20:50,540
that happened to be called.

285
00:20:51,124 --> 00:20:52,709
For a lack of term, looky-loos.

286
00:20:52,793 --> 00:20:55,587
They all wanted to see.
This is all big news now.

287
00:20:55,671 --> 00:21:00,509
[reporter] The victim was Elyas Abowath,
a 35-year-old computer engineer.

288
00:21:00,592 --> 00:21:02,469
I'm scared. I think everybody is scared.

289
00:21:03,178 --> 00:21:07,015
Police say the murderer entered the house
through an open window or door,

290
00:21:07,099 --> 00:21:09,268
the same way the so-called Walk-In Killer

291
00:21:09,351 --> 00:21:12,104
has gotten into other residences
in the San Gabriel Valley.

292
00:21:14,439 --> 00:21:16,775
[Gil] I happen to go down
to one of our substations,

293
00:21:17,776 --> 00:21:20,404
and the sergeant was up there

294
00:21:20,487 --> 00:21:23,407
telling these guys everything
he knew about this case.

295
00:21:23,490 --> 00:21:25,993
And telling them how the guy
was really a weakling,

296
00:21:26,702 --> 00:21:28,787
and he's really not that dangerous.

297
00:21:28,870 --> 00:21:30,998
And my buddy stood up and said,

298
00:21:31,081 --> 00:21:34,251
"Gil, can you lend us some insight
as to what's going on,

299
00:21:34,334 --> 00:21:36,169
because it's your case."

300
00:21:37,004 --> 00:21:41,049
I said, "Sure, I'll tell you. First off,
everything he just said is wrong."

301
00:21:41,133 --> 00:21:45,053
I said, "The man's extremely dangerous,
he's done a lot of damage,

302
00:21:45,137 --> 00:21:46,763
don't take chances with him.

303
00:21:46,847 --> 00:21:49,266
This is what we're looking for,
this shoe print…"

304
00:21:49,349 --> 00:21:50,434
I gave them the information.

305
00:21:51,393 --> 00:21:55,230
And when I went back to the office,
I said, "We've gotta do something.

306
00:21:56,106 --> 00:21:59,359
We have media resources.
We have a media section here.

307
00:21:59,443 --> 00:22:02,779
This is what we're looking for.
Make 23 tapes, get them to the stations

308
00:22:02,863 --> 00:22:04,865
so everybody's getting
the same information,

309
00:22:04,948 --> 00:22:06,408
everybody's on the same page,

310
00:22:06,491 --> 00:22:09,703
and you don't have to rely on anybody
making up their own stuff

311
00:22:09,786 --> 00:22:12,539
because they want to blow smoke up
somebody's wazoo."

312
00:22:12,622 --> 00:22:14,082
And so that's what we did.

313
00:22:18,337 --> 00:22:20,130
The suspect, who is described…

314
00:22:21,715 --> 00:22:23,717
as a male Caucasian

315
00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:25,927
or light-skinned Latin…

316
00:22:26,928 --> 00:22:29,181
20 to 35 years of age,

317
00:22:29,264 --> 00:22:31,892
5'10" to 6'2" with a thin build,

318
00:22:31,975 --> 00:22:36,063
having medium-length brown hair
that is wavy or curly.

319
00:22:36,146 --> 00:22:39,483
He also has stained, gapped front teeth

320
00:22:40,150 --> 00:22:43,070
[fading away]
and wears a shoe size of 11 to 12.

321
00:22:44,321 --> 00:22:47,199
Speaking of shoes, the shoes
we are looking for…

322
00:22:59,628 --> 00:23:02,464
[helicopter blades whirring]

323
00:23:11,139 --> 00:23:15,060
[tense string music playing]

324
00:23:25,404 --> 00:23:28,323
[clock ticking]

325
00:23:28,949 --> 00:23:33,954
[Falzon] My partner, Inspector Carl Klotz,
and I were called out to a crime scene

326
00:23:34,037 --> 00:23:35,872
on Eucalyptus Avenue,

327
00:23:35,956 --> 00:23:38,667
which in San Francisco is out by the zoo,

328
00:23:39,418 --> 00:23:42,295
and what we witnessed was horrific.

329
00:23:42,379 --> 00:23:45,632
Mr. Pan had been shot in the head.

330
00:23:48,427 --> 00:23:52,681
He was dead, still lying
in a pool of blood in his bed.

331
00:23:53,807 --> 00:23:58,145
Mrs. Pan had been raped
and she was also shot in the head,

332
00:23:58,228 --> 00:24:00,313
but she still had a pulse

333
00:24:00,397 --> 00:24:04,234
and she was removed
to San Francisco General Hospital.

334
00:24:06,445 --> 00:24:10,031
The crime scene, it was pretty grotesque.

335
00:24:10,782 --> 00:24:13,577
After the murder, the killer…

336
00:24:13,660 --> 00:24:15,412
opened the refrigerator…

337
00:24:16,580 --> 00:24:19,291
ate the food
that was inside the refrigerator…

338
00:24:20,083 --> 00:24:22,919
and then regurgitated
on the kitchen floor…

339
00:24:24,087 --> 00:24:27,883
and then masturbated
on the living room carpet,

340
00:24:27,966 --> 00:24:32,762
and then carved
a satanic symbol on the wall.

341
00:24:38,268 --> 00:24:42,439
We had somebody
that was cold and calculated

342
00:24:42,522 --> 00:24:45,650
and was trying to be as evil
as he possibly could.

343
00:24:58,038 --> 00:25:00,207
We put out an all-points bulletin

344
00:25:00,290 --> 00:25:03,460
and we listed
all the particulars of our crime.

345
00:25:03,543 --> 00:25:08,089
This drew the attention of Glendale PD,
down in Los Angeles.

346
00:25:08,882 --> 00:25:14,763
They suggested that we do
a ballistics check on our slugs

347
00:25:14,846 --> 00:25:16,515
from the victims' bodies

348
00:25:16,598 --> 00:25:19,184
to see if, ballistically, we had a link.

349
00:25:19,267 --> 00:25:23,438
[Frank] They had a .25 semi-automatic
pistol used, and the kicker was…

350
00:25:24,564 --> 00:25:29,361
"Tell me about the .25 ammunition,
the expended round."

351
00:25:29,444 --> 00:25:31,363
There's a red ring around the primer.

352
00:25:31,446 --> 00:25:32,906
-I go, "Bingo."
-"Bingo."

353
00:25:32,989 --> 00:25:34,199
We had a link.

354
00:25:34,282 --> 00:25:36,701
"We'll be up there today."

355
00:25:39,079 --> 00:25:41,581
[tense music quickens]

356
00:25:44,918 --> 00:25:47,003
Somebody on the assignment desk says,

357
00:25:47,087 --> 00:25:51,758
"Hey, there's been another murder
in San Francisco that's linked to this."

358
00:25:51,841 --> 00:25:55,512
And both she and I look at each other
and say, "Let's go."

359
00:25:57,556 --> 00:25:59,933
We went straight from the newsroom

360
00:26:00,016 --> 00:26:03,353
to Burbank Airport
with the clothes we had on.

361
00:26:03,436 --> 00:26:04,771
Nothing else.

362
00:26:04,854 --> 00:26:09,776
As we're getting on the airplane,
I nudged Gil and I said, "Look at that."

363
00:26:10,443 --> 00:26:13,863
I don't think they were
real happy to see us.

364
00:26:13,947 --> 00:26:15,448
No coincidence here.

365
00:26:15,532 --> 00:26:20,495
Laurel Erickson sees Frank and myself
and-- "Hey, guys."

366
00:26:20,579 --> 00:26:24,207
I believe there was a-- "Oh, hi, Laurel."

367
00:26:24,291 --> 00:26:27,377
We said hello. They wanted to talk.
We said no.

368
00:26:27,460 --> 00:26:31,965
Well, obviously we're in the right place.
Our instincts were right.

369
00:26:32,048 --> 00:26:35,760
You suddenly realize that this…
If it is the same person,

370
00:26:35,844 --> 00:26:41,057
that he's spread like a disease,
an epidemic, you know? He's…

371
00:26:41,141 --> 00:26:45,103
Right. He's 500 miles away
and doing the same thing.

372
00:26:45,186 --> 00:26:48,815
This is a statewide wave of terror.

373
00:26:52,694 --> 00:26:55,697
[Paul] We go by the house.
I think we took a few shots.

374
00:26:56,531 --> 00:26:59,367
Three, four houses up,
there's this guy washing his car

375
00:26:59,451 --> 00:27:01,411
and I started talking to him.

376
00:27:02,245 --> 00:27:06,082
"Big doings here, huh?"
"Oh, yeah. This is bad stuff."

377
00:27:06,666 --> 00:27:09,711
I said, "What do you do?"
He said, "I'm a police officer."

378
00:27:09,794 --> 00:27:10,629
"Hm."

379
00:27:11,379 --> 00:27:13,632
I said, "Your buddies were here, right?"

380
00:27:13,715 --> 00:27:16,384
He said, "Yeah, they were."

381
00:27:16,468 --> 00:27:17,886
"What'd they tell you?"

382
00:27:17,969 --> 00:27:22,140
"Just like those cases in L.A.
All that shit written all over the walls."

383
00:27:24,476 --> 00:27:27,270
And I did not let my jaw drop,

384
00:27:28,647 --> 00:27:31,358
because nobody had mentioned
anything to us

385
00:27:31,941 --> 00:27:34,277
in the L.A. cases
about writing on the wall.

386
00:27:36,863 --> 00:27:40,241
This is Manson-like,
with writing on the wall.

387
00:27:41,034 --> 00:27:46,206
Suddenly, this becomes a series of crimes
of a whole different dimension.

388
00:27:49,626 --> 00:27:53,963
Once we learned that
there was pentagrams painted on walls,

389
00:27:54,047 --> 00:27:57,300
there may be a demonic,
you know, element to this,

390
00:27:57,384 --> 00:27:58,885
that really got people scared.

391
00:27:58,968 --> 00:28:03,973
All of a sudden, as soon as the notion
of devil worship comes along,

392
00:28:04,057 --> 00:28:07,769
then we're being flooded
in the newsroom of stories from people

393
00:28:07,852 --> 00:28:11,564
who tell us that they found pentagrams
painted on different parks

394
00:28:11,648 --> 00:28:13,400
or bus benches around the city,

395
00:28:13,483 --> 00:28:17,112
or that they had found
evidence of animal sacrifice.

396
00:28:17,195 --> 00:28:19,197
It just keeps getting creepier.

397
00:28:24,577 --> 00:28:26,871
[Gil] We're inside the house,
they're showing us everything.

398
00:28:26,955 --> 00:28:28,081
It's the second story.

399
00:28:28,164 --> 00:28:30,291
we had to walk up some stairs,
get up there

400
00:28:30,375 --> 00:28:31,459
and…

401
00:28:33,044 --> 00:28:34,713
there's a knock on the door.

402
00:28:35,338 --> 00:28:36,798
And it was Laurel Erickson.

403
00:28:37,549 --> 00:28:40,468
She wants to know if Frank
can come outside to talk to her.

404
00:28:40,552 --> 00:28:42,971
When we got that tip,

405
00:28:43,054 --> 00:28:44,222
we were in the game.

406
00:28:44,723 --> 00:28:47,225
We had a piece of information
nobody else had.

407
00:28:48,226 --> 00:28:52,063
And I said, "Frankie, she wants
to talk to you, buddy, go on out."

408
00:28:52,647 --> 00:28:54,399
[Laurel] There was grim news today

409
00:28:54,482 --> 00:28:57,360
for L.A. task force investigators
Sergeant Frank Salerno

410
00:28:57,444 --> 00:28:59,112
and his partner Gil Carrillo.

411
00:28:59,195 --> 00:29:01,740
We understand there is
writing on the wall in there

412
00:29:01,823 --> 00:29:05,493
that says "Jack the Ripper," and that is
one of the links between here and L.A.

413
00:29:05,577 --> 00:29:07,871
I dunno where
you're getting your information.

414
00:29:07,954 --> 00:29:11,040
Anything from this case
has to come from San Francisco police.

415
00:29:11,124 --> 00:29:12,500
Okay? Thank you.

416
00:29:15,754 --> 00:29:20,008
[Paul] Frank must be a great poker player.
His face did not show a thing.

417
00:29:20,091 --> 00:29:22,385
[chuckling] He's totally denying it.

418
00:29:23,553 --> 00:29:25,513
[Laurel] As for San Francisco police,

419
00:29:25,597 --> 00:29:28,892
they are trying to do
what L.A officers could not do.

420
00:29:28,975 --> 00:29:32,771
-[reporter] What's the next step, now?
-Try and catch him, I guess.

421
00:29:36,441 --> 00:29:42,363
We briefed San Francisco Police Department
totally on what we had been doing.

422
00:29:43,156 --> 00:29:48,077
We talked about the Avia shoe print,
the description, just about every case.

423
00:29:50,872 --> 00:29:54,584
We are asking that upon your arrival
you be extra careful while responding…

424
00:29:55,752 --> 00:29:58,087
to and around the residence,

425
00:29:58,171 --> 00:30:00,215
keeping an eye out for footprints

426
00:30:00,298 --> 00:30:02,217
that may have been left behind
by the suspect.

427
00:30:02,842 --> 00:30:05,053
This shoe,
which has a US patent on the sole,

428
00:30:05,136 --> 00:30:08,431
has a very distinct pattern
of which there is no other alike.

429
00:30:08,515 --> 00:30:10,892
It is absolutely essential
that this information

430
00:30:10,975 --> 00:30:13,353
concerning his footwear
remain confidential,

431
00:30:13,436 --> 00:30:17,065
especially with any contacts
with any other subjects and/or the public.

432
00:30:17,148 --> 00:30:20,026
[atmospheric music playing]

433
00:30:23,154 --> 00:30:26,950
[Laurel] San Francisco now has
more than 60 police officers

434
00:30:27,033 --> 00:30:29,369
assigned to its own special task force.

435
00:30:30,537 --> 00:30:32,705
Night patrols increase tonight,

436
00:30:32,789 --> 00:30:34,541
especially in this neighborhood

437
00:30:34,624 --> 00:30:37,085
where a man was murdered
over the weekend.

438
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,550
[Falzon] I asked if the mayor's office
would issue a reward

439
00:30:43,633 --> 00:30:46,553
for information leading
to the arrest and conviction

440
00:30:46,636 --> 00:30:48,805
of the killer of Mr. Pan.

441
00:30:50,181 --> 00:30:53,434
The mayor's office
contacted the chief's office,

442
00:30:54,143 --> 00:30:56,312
wanted to know what this was about.

443
00:30:56,396 --> 00:31:01,109
The chief explained to the mayor
of San Francisco, Dianne Feinstein,

444
00:31:01,192 --> 00:31:04,320
that we had a link to the Night Stalker.

445
00:31:06,823 --> 00:31:10,118
[Feinstein] Your attention please
for a brief statement.

446
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,748
Everybody,
please closely study this composite.

447
00:31:16,583 --> 00:31:21,629
He's someone that will
go into a home at night and will kill.

448
00:31:23,381 --> 00:31:25,508
And it's a very serious situation.

449
00:31:25,592 --> 00:31:28,720
There's a $10,000 reward
for any information

450
00:31:28,803 --> 00:31:31,931
which can lead to his arrest
and conviction.

451
00:31:32,765 --> 00:31:36,436
Ballistics on the weapons that--
On the weapon

452
00:31:36,519 --> 00:31:42,025
that killed both Mr. and Mrs. Pan
out on Eucalyptus over the weekend,

453
00:31:42,108 --> 00:31:44,986
are the same ballistics on, I understand,

454
00:31:45,069 --> 00:31:49,073
more than a dozen murders
committed in Southern California.

455
00:31:50,617 --> 00:31:53,328
[Frank] When we got back to L.A.,

456
00:31:53,411 --> 00:31:58,458
we learned that Mayor Feinstein
had held a press conference,

457
00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:05,131
where she just vomited all really
important information out to the public.

458
00:32:05,965 --> 00:32:10,637
She gave up the fact that we had
connected these cases with a shoe print,

459
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,473
with firearms evidence.

460
00:32:13,556 --> 00:32:15,600
She's talking about the Avia shoe…

461
00:32:16,601 --> 00:32:19,520
about a car and the caliber of gun.

462
00:32:19,604 --> 00:32:23,691
You don't want to release information
only the killer would know.

463
00:32:23,775 --> 00:32:25,318
Now we're burned.

464
00:32:25,401 --> 00:32:27,695
The killer knows we know about

465
00:32:27,779 --> 00:32:30,865
his shoe print being left
at the various crime scenes.

466
00:32:31,491 --> 00:32:34,369
And I went through the roof.

467
00:32:37,538 --> 00:32:42,543
Without a doubt,
Mayor Feinstein made a big mistake.

468
00:32:43,419 --> 00:32:44,921
I guess the chief…

469
00:32:45,672 --> 00:32:47,423
never told the mayor…

470
00:32:48,091 --> 00:32:50,426
not to release this information.

471
00:32:50,510 --> 00:32:53,888
After Feinstein did her thing…

472
00:32:55,056 --> 00:32:56,933
we never did recover those shoes.

473
00:32:57,600 --> 00:32:58,685
[Gil] It was devastating.

474
00:32:58,768 --> 00:33:00,353
I thought it was over with.

475
00:33:01,145 --> 00:33:04,107
To say we were upset…
I mean, we were pissed.

476
00:33:04,190 --> 00:33:06,526
Absolutely livid.

477
00:33:06,609 --> 00:33:08,820
Went up to the 8th floor,
where our office was,

478
00:33:08,903 --> 00:33:12,490
and I said, "Fuck it, Frank.
Let's get out of here. This is bullshit."

479
00:33:12,573 --> 00:33:15,994
[dramatic music swells]

480
00:33:21,290 --> 00:33:23,960
[Gil] So, we go down
to a local bar in Chinatown.

481
00:33:24,043 --> 00:33:26,087
We had a drink with the captain,
begging him,

482
00:33:26,170 --> 00:33:28,673
"Please, you got to get
Sheriff Sherman Block.

483
00:33:28,756 --> 00:33:29,966
He's gotta do something.

484
00:33:30,049 --> 00:33:32,844
Stop politicians
from getting involved in our case."

485
00:33:32,927 --> 00:33:36,514
He says, "Okay, I'll see you later.
I'm gonna get out of here."

486
00:33:36,597 --> 00:33:39,142
He calls us back
about a half hour later and says,

487
00:33:39,225 --> 00:33:44,564
"Stop drinking, get something to eat,
get back up in the office in 45 minutes."

488
00:33:54,407 --> 00:33:55,533
Are we ready?

489
00:33:56,451 --> 00:33:57,285
Okay.

490
00:33:58,244 --> 00:34:02,373
Good evening.
I want to thank all of you, first of all,

491
00:34:02,457 --> 00:34:07,211
for coming out at this late hour
on such short notice.

492
00:34:07,295 --> 00:34:11,924
Because of the linkage
between the events in our community,

493
00:34:12,008 --> 00:34:15,636
the murders and assaults,
and the one in San Francisco,

494
00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:18,890
we felt it necessary to disseminate

495
00:34:18,973 --> 00:34:22,060
to all law enforcement
in the state of California

496
00:34:22,143 --> 00:34:25,146
some very critical, sensitive information.

497
00:34:25,229 --> 00:34:27,273
It is unfortunate

498
00:34:27,356 --> 00:34:29,817
that some of these agencies
around the state…

499
00:34:30,943 --> 00:34:34,781
have released some
of that information to the media,

500
00:34:35,364 --> 00:34:37,492
and I'm telling you that that information

501
00:34:37,575 --> 00:34:42,622
has significantly jeopardized
the investigation that is underway.

502
00:34:42,705 --> 00:34:46,375
A week ago,
we did not have a great deal to work on,

503
00:34:46,459 --> 00:34:49,670
but as of this moment,
we have one heck of a lot less.

504
00:34:51,255 --> 00:34:52,507
[Gil] And Sheriff Block,

505
00:34:52,590 --> 00:34:56,135
he wanted us back down in his office,
and he said, "Well, fellas.

506
00:34:57,595 --> 00:34:59,305
What do you think? How did it go?"

507
00:34:59,972 --> 00:35:03,101
And I just told the Sheriff,
I said, "Sheriff Block,

508
00:35:03,184 --> 00:35:06,687
you took two men
that are down-and-out tired…

509
00:35:07,772 --> 00:35:09,690
you put a smile back on their face…

510
00:35:11,025 --> 00:35:13,486
and they're ready
to go to work tomorrow morning."

511
00:35:49,188 --> 00:35:52,775
[intense music plays]

512
00:36:13,379 --> 00:36:14,380
[gunshot]

513
00:36:19,594 --> 00:36:22,847
[clock ticking]

514
00:36:22,930 --> 00:36:24,932
[sirens wailing]

515
00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:33,774
[reporter]
It was almost 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

516
00:36:33,858 --> 00:36:35,610
A 29-year-old woman told deputies

517
00:36:35,693 --> 00:36:38,821
an intruder shot her boyfriend
in the head, then turned on her.

518
00:36:40,156 --> 00:36:42,283
[Laurel]
Inside Mission Community Hospital,

519
00:36:42,366 --> 00:36:45,494
29-year-old Bill Carns
fights for his life.

520
00:36:45,578 --> 00:36:49,165
His fiancée, who was also attacked,
is at his bedside.

521
00:36:49,248 --> 00:36:51,125
[reporter 2]
The intruder grabbed her,

522
00:36:51,209 --> 00:36:54,837
he sexually assaulted her,
and tied her up.

523
00:36:56,172 --> 00:36:59,926
[reporter] Salerno, the 46-year-old
sheriff sergeant leading the investigation

524
00:37:00,009 --> 00:37:03,304
predicted the killer
would murder again, and he did.

525
00:37:03,930 --> 00:37:08,935
During the conversation, while the suspect
was at the location with the female,

526
00:37:09,018 --> 00:37:12,021
he made certain comments,
one of which was,

527
00:37:12,104 --> 00:37:13,564
"I am the Night Stalker."

528
00:37:16,150 --> 00:37:18,277
So, he was watching the news like we were.

529
00:37:18,361 --> 00:37:19,904
He liked that name.

530
00:37:22,156 --> 00:37:26,744
There was no doubt at that point
that our suspect had now

531
00:37:26,827 --> 00:37:30,414
gone to San Francisco,
left San Francisco,

532
00:37:30,498 --> 00:37:33,251
and come now back down into Orange County.

533
00:37:39,298 --> 00:37:40,549
Fortunately for us,

534
00:37:41,050 --> 00:37:43,678
there was a young man
that lived in the neighborhood…

535
00:37:44,762 --> 00:37:48,849
that was working on a bike,
and he saw the car drive up,

536
00:37:48,933 --> 00:37:50,393
driving slow, looking around,

537
00:37:50,476 --> 00:37:52,979
and he thought it was funny,
then he saw it leave.

538
00:37:54,647 --> 00:38:00,111
The young man, he recalls
a partial plate of that vehicle

539
00:38:00,778 --> 00:38:02,488
and the description of the car.

540
00:38:02,571 --> 00:38:04,532
That gets released to the news media.

541
00:38:05,157 --> 00:38:09,662
And we receive a call
from an individual who says

542
00:38:10,246 --> 00:38:13,582
he had a friend who had a very similar car

543
00:38:13,666 --> 00:38:16,752
stolen recently in Chinatown.

544
00:38:16,836 --> 00:38:21,424
I realized, "Bill's Toyota's orange.
I wonder if there could be a connection."

545
00:38:21,507 --> 00:38:27,346
[Frank] And the plate on that stolen car
matched the partial plate

546
00:38:27,430 --> 00:38:31,058
that the young man down in Orange County
had remembered.

547
00:38:32,184 --> 00:38:34,061
[reporter]
The car the killer may have

548
00:38:34,145 --> 00:38:36,564
was stolen in L.A.'s Chinatown
this weekend.

549
00:38:36,647 --> 00:38:39,817
It is a 1976 Toyota station wagon,

550
00:38:39,900 --> 00:38:44,447
orange in color,
license number 482 RTS.

551
00:38:45,031 --> 00:38:50,202
The car was located 6th and Alexandria
in downtown L.A. in a parking lot.

552
00:38:50,286 --> 00:38:52,955
This is Laurel Erickson
in the Rampart area,

553
00:38:53,039 --> 00:38:54,707
where the stolen car was spotted.

554
00:38:54,790 --> 00:38:58,461
[reporter] Detectives stake out the area,
hoping the killer will come back.

555
00:38:59,545 --> 00:39:01,255
[Frank] We sat on it for a little bit,

556
00:39:01,339 --> 00:39:04,592
then decided
he's not coming back to this car.

557
00:39:06,594 --> 00:39:10,222
Orange County crime lab
processed the car

558
00:39:10,848 --> 00:39:15,561
and they were able to pull a latent
fingerprint off the rear-view mirror,

559
00:39:15,644 --> 00:39:18,397
where apparently the suspect
reached up and adjusted it.

560
00:39:23,611 --> 00:39:25,571
[Gil] We now have a live fingerprint,

561
00:39:25,654 --> 00:39:28,699
but we didn't know who the print
belonged to at that time,

562
00:39:28,783 --> 00:39:30,785
because fingerprints were not automated.

563
00:39:32,578 --> 00:39:36,374
We had to have
a suspect's fingerprint card

564
00:39:36,457 --> 00:39:39,001
and examine the fingerprint card

565
00:39:39,085 --> 00:39:40,920
against the latent print,

566
00:39:41,003 --> 00:39:44,173
but we had to wait until we got a suspect.

567
00:39:45,174 --> 00:39:49,470
[clock ticking]

568
00:39:51,055 --> 00:39:54,517
[indistinct police radio chatter]

569
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,895
Anything suspicious, we want them to call.

570
00:39:59,105 --> 00:40:02,942
What may seem very unimportant
to someone else

571
00:40:03,025 --> 00:40:05,611
could be extremely important to us.

572
00:40:05,694 --> 00:40:08,114
[phone rings]

573
00:40:08,823 --> 00:40:11,784
We get a call from a female,

574
00:40:11,867 --> 00:40:14,662
and she said her father

575
00:40:14,745 --> 00:40:16,414
was sort of a street person.

576
00:40:17,873 --> 00:40:20,876
He hung out
down by the Greyhound bus depot,

577
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:22,253
Skid Row,

578
00:40:22,336 --> 00:40:25,172
and he had befriended
an individual named Rick.

579
00:40:26,298 --> 00:40:29,468
And he thinks Rick
might be the Night Stalker.

580
00:40:30,177 --> 00:40:34,056
So, we sent a team out there right away,
I mean, immediately.

581
00:40:34,140 --> 00:40:35,182
Found the father.

582
00:40:35,266 --> 00:40:38,227
He eventually told them,
"Yeah, Rick, he's from El Paso."

583
00:40:38,310 --> 00:40:41,105
And one of the key things he told us

584
00:40:41,188 --> 00:40:44,900
was Rick had told him about a murder
he committed in Monterey Park,

585
00:40:44,984 --> 00:40:45,985
Asian couple,

586
00:40:46,068 --> 00:40:48,612
and that he used
a .22 semi-automatic pistol.

587
00:40:49,697 --> 00:40:51,532
-[gunshot]
-[casings clatter]

588
00:40:51,615 --> 00:40:54,577
[Frank] That information
definitely wasn't out there,

589
00:40:54,660 --> 00:40:58,205
and he also told us that, uh,

590
00:40:58,289 --> 00:41:01,667
he had gotten that pistol from Rick

591
00:41:01,750 --> 00:41:06,630
and that he had taken it to Tijuana
and given it to somebody.

592
00:41:08,215 --> 00:41:12,261
So, two of our detectives
took him to Tijuana.

593
00:41:14,847 --> 00:41:17,433
And they recovered that gun

594
00:41:17,933 --> 00:41:24,190
and they recovered a boom box,
or a big radio, also.

595
00:41:24,273 --> 00:41:25,733
As it turns out,

596
00:41:25,816 --> 00:41:28,986
that radio had been stolen

597
00:41:30,404 --> 00:41:32,781
during the Bell and Lang murder.

598
00:41:34,825 --> 00:41:37,703
[Gil] Bell and Lang's grandson
bought the radio for them,

599
00:41:37,786 --> 00:41:40,664
and he still had the receipt
with the serial number

600
00:41:40,748 --> 00:41:43,000
and we were able to match it up that way.

601
00:41:47,087 --> 00:41:50,257
[Frank] He said, "I don't know
his last name. He never told me."

602
00:41:50,341 --> 00:41:51,217
But…

603
00:41:52,426 --> 00:41:56,472
it was obvious
that Rick probably was the killer.

604
00:41:59,433 --> 00:42:01,435
[distant ship horn]

605
00:42:04,313 --> 00:42:06,565
[ominous music plays]

606
00:42:07,399 --> 00:42:09,193
[phone ringing]

607
00:42:09,276 --> 00:42:12,863
[Frank] A police informant
by the name of Earl Gregg

608
00:42:12,947 --> 00:42:15,115
surrenders a bracelet

609
00:42:15,783 --> 00:42:19,036
he thinks might be linked
to the Night Stalker case,

610
00:42:19,870 --> 00:42:24,083
and he tells me he got the bracelet
from his wife's mother.

611
00:42:25,876 --> 00:42:28,837
She lived in San Pablo, California.

612
00:42:30,548 --> 00:42:34,134
So, we headed out
that morning to find her.

613
00:42:35,344 --> 00:42:39,014
She told us that she got the bracelet
from her boyfriend,

614
00:42:39,098 --> 00:42:41,642
named Armando Rodriguez.

615
00:42:43,018 --> 00:42:46,689
He got that bracelet
from his friend from El Paso,

616
00:42:46,772 --> 00:42:48,649
who she only knew as Rick.

617
00:42:49,316 --> 00:42:51,277
We couldn't believe what we were hearing.

618
00:42:52,194 --> 00:42:56,615
She told us that Rick
wore a black AC/DC hat,

619
00:42:56,699 --> 00:43:00,160
wore a black Members Only jacket,
had bad teeth.

620
00:43:01,328 --> 00:43:02,746
The more she spoke,

621
00:43:02,830 --> 00:43:04,498
the more we knew…

622
00:43:05,541 --> 00:43:08,043
we were on the track of the Night Stalker.

623
00:43:12,756 --> 00:43:16,885
Armando Rodriguez
lives in El Sobrante, California,

624
00:43:17,469 --> 00:43:19,388
and we're only minutes away.

625
00:43:21,348 --> 00:43:23,475
And as we pull up to the address,

626
00:43:24,184 --> 00:43:25,853
we stood outside the gate.

627
00:43:26,353 --> 00:43:28,480
Next thing I see is Armando

628
00:43:28,564 --> 00:43:30,316
coming out of the house

629
00:43:30,399 --> 00:43:32,109
walking toward me.

630
00:43:34,445 --> 00:43:37,406
And I said,
"Listen, Armando, we need your help.

631
00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:39,700
We need you to help solve

632
00:43:39,783 --> 00:43:42,953
probably one of the biggest
and most important cases

633
00:43:43,537 --> 00:43:45,789
in the history of the state of California.

634
00:43:45,873 --> 00:43:49,501
Your friend, Rick,
is a very brutal killer.

635
00:43:51,211 --> 00:43:53,881
You're going to help us
break the Night Stalker case."

636
00:43:56,759 --> 00:43:58,636
Now his tone changes.

637
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:03,098
"He's not the Night Stalker.
I'm not helping you at all."

638
00:44:03,182 --> 00:44:05,851
[tense music playing]

639
00:44:05,934 --> 00:44:10,981
So, I grab him by the shirt
and I physically place him in the car.

640
00:44:11,065 --> 00:44:16,153
I turned and I said, "Look, Armando.
You could do yourself a big favor.

641
00:44:16,236 --> 00:44:17,571
Cooperate with us.

642
00:44:17,655 --> 00:44:20,532
We need the last name of your friend Rick.

643
00:44:20,616 --> 00:44:21,992
Do you understand me?"

644
00:44:22,576 --> 00:44:23,702
"Fuck you!"

645
00:44:24,703 --> 00:44:27,956
I'm looking at him,
and when I talk, I close my fist.

646
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:32,503
He says, "Oh, you want to fight,
you motherfucker tough guy?"

647
00:44:32,586 --> 00:44:34,254
And his hands come up.

648
00:44:35,047 --> 00:44:37,633
And I struck a short jab.

649
00:44:37,716 --> 00:44:41,053
It wasn't my best punch,
but it definitely wasn't my worst.

650
00:44:41,136 --> 00:44:42,971
He touches his cheek.

651
00:44:43,055 --> 00:44:45,891
"Is that as hard as you can hit?"

652
00:44:47,101 --> 00:44:48,143
I looked at him

653
00:44:48,227 --> 00:44:51,730
and I flashed back on crime scenes.

654
00:44:51,814 --> 00:44:53,315
The Pans,

655
00:44:53,899 --> 00:44:55,067
the vomit,

656
00:44:55,150 --> 00:44:56,235
the masturbation.

657
00:45:00,072 --> 00:45:02,032
And I said, "Pretty boy,

658
00:45:02,116 --> 00:45:06,662
I'm going to split you from the top
of your head to your ass."

659
00:45:06,745 --> 00:45:10,541
And I put my fist
up against the windshield

660
00:45:10,624 --> 00:45:12,710
and I started over the backseat,

661
00:45:13,585 --> 00:45:15,003
hellbent on…

662
00:45:15,587 --> 00:45:16,964
demolishing this guy.

663
00:45:17,715 --> 00:45:19,717
He threw his hands up in a cross

664
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:21,510
and he fell back in his seat

665
00:45:22,428 --> 00:45:23,345
and he said,

666
00:45:23,429 --> 00:45:26,974
"Richard Ramirez.
Richard Ramirez."

667
00:45:28,267 --> 00:45:31,937
[dramatic closing theme music plays]