Ed Solomon is best known for writing a trilogy of comedy movies about a couple of slackers who travel through time, but it turns out that once, 25 years ago, the man known for writing comedy like the Bill and Ted movies was actually wrapped up in an incredibly serious series of events. He was briefly considered a suspect in the Night Stalker case. Solomon took to Twitter to explain the random series of events that transpired that made him a suspect, and it sounds like something out of a movie, though one that's significantly less funny.
Netflix recently dropped a new documentary series on the Night Stalker case which has resulted in a resurgence in popularity in the serial murder spree from the 1980s. It was likely this which resulted in screenwriter Ed Solomon recounting the story of how he found himself part of the case. His Twitter thread opens in about the most ominous way possible, with Solomon receiving a series of phone calls in the middle of the night asking him if he was the Night Stalker. He kept hanging up, but as they continued, he finally spoke to one of the callers, who turned out to be a reporter...
The reporter explained that my car was found at the crime scene, which made no sense because I looked out my window & saw it was still in the parking space of my Westwood apartment. I had to hang up because the police were walking up my driveway - but weirdly slowly.
Solomon says that the cops had a strange attitude when they questioned him, but they also wouldn't explain why it was that they were talking to him in the first place. As one can imagine, the entire experience was a little nuts, especially for somebody who had just woken up to find the police at his door. Even by the time the cops spoke with Solomon it seems they had realized he wasn't the person they wanted, but it didn't make the experience any less surreal.
Eventually Ed Solomon is able to piece together that it all comes back to a car, but not his own. Solomon's former roommate had bought a car three years earlier, but because Solomon had a job, he had written three episodes of the sitcom Laverne and Shirley, the loan for the car had been put in his name. The ex-roommate had very recently sold the vehicle to somebody else, but that's where random happenstance comes in. Solomon continued...
The guy who 'd bought it was eating dinner in a Chinese restaurant downtown, where the car (a crappy red Toyota station wagon) was stolen - by Ramirez - and driven to the murder site, where it was abandoned. The irony is my 2 roommates (new ones) were in jail for the night.
The roommates had apparently been busted for marijuana possession after somebody had noticed a plant in the house. Solomon says he likely would have been arrested as well if he'd been home when the cops had arrived. The roommates thought they had one hell of a story after spending the night in jail. Solomon had one of his own. I think he won.
