Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Phelton is shown during a late night patrol in Temple City, where attacks by the Night Stalker caused rising fear in the community. Michael Haering/Herald Examiner Collection, 1985.
LA has known its share of notorious murderers. Hickman, Glatman, Bashor, Sirhan, Manson, Turner, Bianchi and Buono, just to name an ugly few. These remain stories told once and again. Tragic cases that commanded varying degrees of attention.
None upset the urban routine like the Night Stalker.
His crimes activated insecurities previously foreign to Angelenos. Brutal and unthinkable killings moved millions to a state of near lockdown. Law enforcement’s simultaneous scramble aimed to calm the masses and catch a killer. The effect on the millions of innocents was patently unfair, but proved abundantly necessary. The exhibit and accompanying book explore the social impact of the serial killings and serial crimes committed by Richard Ramirez and the reaction of residents who bolted doors, locked windows and took up arms in the heat of just a single summer.
It was 1985.
It was Satan’s Summer in the City of Angels.
