Growing Up in L.A. During the Reign of the Night Stalker
The summer of 1985 was the end of my innocence
Author’s note: this story now serves as the introduction in a book about the Night Stalker case, “Eyes Without a Face: The Night Stalker’s Reign of Terror”, available for purchase here.
By the mid 1980’s, the image of life for the millions of people who called LA’s San Fernando Valley home was idyllic. Affordable housing, good schools, and low crime made it one of the more desirable locales in Los Angeles County for those looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city’s Westside for some good old fashioned suburban peace and quite. Some would say it still is today.
Sure, the region was rife with the usual side effects of rapid growth: sprawl, traffic, and maybe a few too many strip malls. But by the mid-1980s, “the Valley,” or the 260-square-mile swath of land stretching from the Simi Hills on the west to the Verdugo Mountains on the east, had not only carved out a place for itself in the geographical identity of Southern California, but had begun to develop a personality and appeal of its own, too.
This appeal was enough to motivate my parents to put down roots in Canoga Park (or what would become West Hills a few years later). They purchased a four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom stucco home built…
