Free Republic

Nowadays, when the best TV series on streaming services are better than almost anything in the theatres, it's hard to remember when made-for-TV movies were unmistakably second rate – the second to last destination for over-the-hill actors before their first guest shot on The Love Boat. But in the heyday of the TV movie, there were flashes of brilliance available to watch on prime time, just before the nightly news. In the last hot flush of the Cold War, two films – The Day After (1983) on ABC, and Threads (1984) on the BBC – were both topical and popular....

California authorities are investigating a “second suspect” linked to one of the most infamous serial killers in US history, “Night Stalker’’ Richard Ramirez, according to officials and new probe details revealed to The Post. Ramirez — the devil worshipper whose victims included a former Brooklyn mom — was tied to the 1984 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl before his death in prison in 2013, and cops have now ID’d a second male who they believe also was at the scene at the time, sources said. “This case is classified as ‘open’ due to the second-suspect issue,” said San...

(Richard) Ramirez was a serial killer who terrorized the populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco from June of 1984 to August of 1985, claiming 14 victims. The crimes were huge news at the time. Few Americans had seen anything like it in their lifetimes. Ramirez was so aggressive and cocky, scrawling pentagrams on walls in victims’ homes and even making his final known rape victim swear allegiance to Satan. The public was desperate to see him captured. By July of 1985, Ramirez had already committed some 13 murders, 5 rapes including sodomy, and 3 attempted murders, yet it seemed...

Full title: 'Night Stalker' movie will premiere in Santa Ana, about 20 miles from the Mission Viejo site of his last crime A new film – “The Night Stalker,” starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Richard Ramirez – is set to premiere in Orange County in early June after producers decided the movie should be seen in an area that the serial killer terrorized in 1985. “We wanted to open in a place where he had an impact,” producer Matt Brady said. The film will be screened at The Frida Cinema, the art house theater in downtown Santa Ana, about 20...

This is part two of a three-part series.Richard Ramirez had killed Peter Pan, 69, in his Lake Merced area home on August 18, 1985, over a year after he had raped and killed a 9-year-old girl in a Tenderloin basement (a crime in which he may have had help). The evidence linking Pan's murderer to the suspect in a string of Los Angeles County killings — now called the Night Stalker — made its way through the ranks of the San Francisco Police Department up to then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein. She held a press conference on August 23 to sooth citizens'...

Executive Summary The Iranian nuclear deal is a full capitulation to Iran’s terrorist mastermind Mullahs, and the latest in a series of betrayals of the American people and allies by the Obama administration. At the highest level of the administration, Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, prioritized rapprochement with the terror state. Throughout the process and negotiations, she had the backing of billionaire investor (and Obama-backer) George Soros, and his multi-headed network of tax-exempt foundations. Their efforts were driven by deep-rooted anti-Semitism and personal greed. Meanwhile, since the mid-1990s, a small but very connected Iranian lobby (funded, in...

President Obama will sign up for Health Insurance on the Marketplace by the end of today according to Valerie Jarrett @vj44Just off phone w/Valerie Jarrett @vj44 POTUS will sign up for for Health Insurance on the Market place by the end of today 2 lead by exampleValerie Jarrett @vj44 says people should go in the ACA website early today to beat the rush to sing (sic) up for insurance to have it Jan. 1 2014Valerie Jarrett @vj44 says having health insurance is "peace of mind" for when the unexpected happens.

Normally, I don't traffic much in gossip, but the case of Valerie Jarrett is different. She may well be the most powerful woman in America, and almost certainly is the most powerful member of the Obama administration. The adjective "shadowy" definitely applies to this woman who enjoys her power through her relationship to the President, having never been confirmed by Senate hearings. Her title as "Senior Adviser" to the President barely scratches the surface of her real power. President Obama has time for his 150+ rounds of golf, his extensive television watching, and his expertise on March Madness bracketology because...

"..................Jarrett’s official job description is “somewhat vague,” Becker writes, noting that at least part of her role is to serve as “chief liaison to the business community, state and local governments, and the professional left,” but her influence is undeniable. She commands a staff of nearly three dozen and has a hand in decisions ranging from the invitation list to state dinners and what gifts to give foreign leaders, to who should be nominated to the Supreme Court, appointed to a vacant ambassadorship, or awarded the President Medal of Freedom. When Warren Buffett visits to the White House for lunch,...

Twenty years ago tonight, I sat down on the couch in my little apartment in Ogden, KS, and flipped on the TV to watch the debut of a new show. The promotion blitz for the show had been dark and mysterious, and apart from some vague references to UFOs and the FBI, gave little idea as to what the show was actually going to be about. It had piqued my interest, as it was no doubt intended to do, and I figured with much of my life still ahead of me, I could spare an hour to check it...

California corrections officials say convicted serial killer Richard Ramirez, known as the Night Stalker, has died in prison. San Quentin State Prison spokesman Lt. Sam Robinson says Ramirez died Friday morning. Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders that terrorized Southern California in 1984 and '85, and sentenced to death. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to "swear to Satan" by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors. Ramirez was captured and beaten in 1985 by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood while attempting a carjacking.

The man believed to be Britain's most notorious serial sex attacker was arrested by the Metropolitan Police last night. Known as the ‘Night Stalker’, the man is thought to be responsible for 108 offences in south and south-east London, including four rapes and 24 indecent assaults. He breaks into homes and sexually assaults his elderly victims. Yesterday morning a 52-year-old man was arrested in south London — the area where most of the attacks took place. He is being held at a police station in the capital

Two decades after the devil-worshiping "Night Stalker" killer was sentenced to die for 13 Southern California murders, DNA evidence has tied him to the 1984 rape and slaying of a 9-year-old girl in the Tenderloin, San Francisco authorities said Thursday. The DNA links Richard Ramirez and possibly a second, unknown attacker to the April 10, 1984, killing of Mei "Linda" Leung, whose body was found hanging over a pipe in the basement of her apartment building at 765 O'Farrell St., police said. The girl was with her 8-year-old brother when she lost a dollar bill and went looking for it,...

The Supreme Court refused to review the convictions and death sentence Tuesday for serial killer Richard Ramirez, the so-called Night Stalker who killed 13 people in California in the 1980s. The justices declined without comment to act on Ramirez's appeal. His killing spree terrorized the Los Angeles area in 1984 and 1985. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced by the killer to "swear to Satan." Ramirez, convicted in 1989, is not likely to be executed any time soon. He still has another round of federal appeals to pursue and the state's death penalty has...

Richard Ramirez Accused Of Killing 13 People In Mid-1980sLOS ANGELES -- The state Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who is on death row for 13 murders he committed during a crime spree that terrorized the Southland in the 1980s. In a 104-page ruling, the state's highest court unanimously rejected Ramirez's claim that numerous errors were made in his trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. Ramirez, who is now 46 and on death row at San Quentin State Prison, was sentenced to die for the crimes after a high-profile trial. Along with the murders,...

The California Supreme Court upheld the convictions and death sentence Monday for serial killer Richard Ramirez whose so-called Night Stalker killing spree terrorized the Los Angeles area in the mid 1980s. Ramirez, 46, was sentenced to death in 1989 for 13 Los Angeles-area murders in 1984 and 1985. Satanic symbols were left at murder scenes and some victims were forced to "swear to Satan" by the killer, who entered homes through unlocked windows and doors. The justices unanimously denied claims that Ramirez was incompetent to stand trial, that the case should have been moved outside Los Angeles, and that all...

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Darren McGavin at approximately 7:10 A.M. Pacific time today, Saturday 25, 2006. Darren was just three months short of his 84th birthday. While we suspect none of us can imagine a world without the beloved, feisty little red-head, it is time to reflect, give thanks for his life and hold in reverence his memory. Darren is gone, but in many respects he will always be with us: as Carl Kolchak, fighting authority and battling monsters; the grumpy Old Man sending curses over Lake Michigan; as David Ross, the outsider,...

ABC is turning out the lights on its freshman series "Night Stalker," pulling the plug after six episodes that struggled to find audiences up against TV's top-rated series, "CSI."

NIGHT STALKER. Tonight at 9, ABC. In two immensely popular telemovies and one season of a less popular spinoff series in the 1970s, Darren McGavin played Carl Kolchak, a persistent middle-aged reporter whose nose for news kept sniffing out evidence of the paranormal. "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" was the spiritual father of "The X-Files," so it's only fitting that one of the writer-producers of "The X-Files" has been handed the task of updating Kolchak for a new generation. Viewers coming to the premiere of ABC's "Night Stalker" tonight at 9 would be wise to picture themselves as armchair Kolchaks: Each...

Stuart Townsend, previously seen as Anne Rice's vampire protagonist in Queen of the Damned and as Dorian Gray in the film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has been tapped to play Jeff Rice's intrepid reporter that faces the supernatural, Carl Kolchak. The new pilot for The Night Stalker is being produced by former X-Files Executive producer, Frank Spotnitz, and was commissioned by ABC, who is eager to find the next big supernatural franchise. The evidence of tinkering with the concept is evident just by the casting notices: Kolchak has been given a "partner" to be played in the...