Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network

Show Name: Real Cases, Fictional Minds

Episode Title: Richard Ramirez, the Prince of Darkness

You are listening to Real Cases, Fictional Minds, the podcast with your host Jaylli Kushi.

In this episode of Real Cases, Fictional Minds, we discuss Season 5, Episode 23, titled “Our darkest hour,” and Season 6, Episode 1, titled “The Longest Night,” and how they mirror the life of Richard Ramirez.

This episode ends on a cliffhanger and continues into the next season. The BAU is called to Los Angeles to investigate a string of home invasions escalating into homicides. The city is in the middle of a heatwave and rolling blackouts. The killer uses darkness to get his advantage, and security systems go down, making it easy for him to get inside homes. It starts with him murdering a couple during a blackout, leaving their son alive to witness it. That's part of his MO, meaning method of operating. The BAU works with LAPD Detectives Matt Spicer and Adam Kurzbard and realizes that the killings are a part of a decades-long killing spree. The UnSub always strikes during blackouts and leaves a child witness behind. Garcia digs through crime data and finds similar murders years ago across multiple states, proving he was active long ago, stopped, and now returned. They focus on the first recorded blackout murders 25 years earlier. To stop him, local authorities cancel the remaining rolling blackouts, but it backfires, overriding the grid and causing a massive citywide outage. While digging into old cases, Garcia discovers that the UnSubs' first La victims were Joe and Sylvia Spicer, the parents of Detective Matt Spicer. Matt was the child left behind during that invasion. He has a sister, Kristin, and a daughter, Ellie. The BAU realizes the UnSub is tainting Spicer; he sees himself as the “creator” who made Spicer who he is. Now he's targeting Spicer's daughter and sister. When he learns this, Spicer returns to his childhood home with Agent Morgan, but things go horribly wrong. They find Kristin and Ellie tied up and the homeowners dead. The UnSub ambushes Morgon, knocks him out, and when he wakes up, he's tied with duct tape, forced to watch, just like the kids the UnSub leaves behind. Spicer enters and sees the UnSub pointing a gun at Ellie. Morgan pleads for him not to drop his weapon, but Spicer surrenders to protect his daughter. On his knees, he begs for their lives. The UnSub says, “Your sister grew up very pretty.” Spicer asks Morgan to promise Ellie will be okay. Morgan promises. The UnSub confirms it, then shoots Spicer point-blank. Kristin screams as the UnSub drags Ellie away, saying, “I don't usually take kids. This one's just special.” The episode ends with Morgan tied up, Spicer dead, Ellie abducted, and the rest of the BAU cut off by the blackout. The next episode, “The Longest Night,” picks up immediately. The BAE is still chasing the UnSub, who escaped from Spicer's childhood home with his daughter, Ellie. When the team arrives at the house, Morgan refuses medical help and focuses on finding the UNSUB. During her interview with the team, Kristin tells Prentiss the UnSub’s name, Billy Flynn, and that he drives an old, filthy RV. Garcia digs into his past and learns he's been killing for over 25 years. His mother, Nora Flynn, was a sex worker. As a kid, Billy hid in her closet and watched her with clients. When he was 13 years old, he murdered one of the men that his mother was working with. He was sent to juvenile detention and released at 18. His crimes ever since have mirrored his childhood trauma- leaving children alive to relive what he once saw. Flynn forces Ellie to help him with break-ins. When she tries to get help from a homeowner, warning him that she is being kidnapped, Flynn realizes she is trying to tip them off, and he kills the man for not letting her in. Ellie proves smart and...