Angel Maturino Resendiz, now there was a scary person.

Resendiz was a drifter who hitched rides on trains and who killed at least 15 people over the course of 13 years.  Because he traveled by stowing away on trains, his first few crimes went undetected.  Even when people realized that there was a serial killer haunting the nation’s railroads, no one knew exactly where Resendiz would next turn up.  He committed the majority of his murders in Texas, killing random people and using whatever method happened to be most convenient at the time.  However, he also killed people in Florida, Georgia, California, Kentucky, and Illinois.  He would steal his victim’s jewelry but leave behind their money.  (He would return to his home in Mexico to give the jewelry to his sister and mother, both of whom apparently had no idea where he was getting his gifts from.)  After he was placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, Resendiz eventually surrendered himself in 1999.  Resendiz was apparently under the impression that he would not be given the death penalty if voluntarily turned himself in.  Resendiz was wrong about that and he was executed in 2006.

Until Resendiz surrendered himself, everyone living near a railroad track was nervous.  I know this from personal experience because, in 1999, my family lived close enough to the tracks that I could lay in bed in the middle of the night and listen to the sound of the trains rumbling in the distance.  Resendiz was a killer who targeted those who were smaller and weaker than him, which basically would have included me, my mom, and my sisters.  Apparently, whenever he did a home invasion, he would also eat whatever food he could find in the refrigerator.  Whereas most killers would probably want to get away from the scene as quickly as possible, Resendiz would sit down and eat leftovers.  For whatever reason, that little detail is the one that creeps me out the most.

2020’s The Texas Railroad Killer is loosely based on the crimes of Angel Resendiz.  The film features Resendiz (Lino Aquino) as he wanders around South Texas, randomly killing.  As played by Aquino, Resendiz comes across as being a somewhat dazed, paranoid shell of a human being, a shadow of death who doesn’t seem to be aware of the difference between reality and what’s only happening in his mind.  Does he really witness a group of strippers being gunned down by law enforcement or is it something that he only imagined?  It’s hard to tell.  After Resendiz commits a murder, he looks over his victim’s identification as if he’s trying to absorb the life that he just ended.  And yes, he does eat in a victim’s house.  Agck!

The Texas Railroad Killer is an extremely low-budget film.  Lino Aquino is convincingly out-of-it as Resendiz but some of the other performers are noticeably less convincing in their roles.  The film is largely plotless and the slow pace will be a turn-off for many viewers.  And yet, there’s a disturbing power to the film’s sun-drenched visuals.  The images of the sweaty Resendiz walking down broken streets or stumbling dazed out of someone’s home stick with you.  Flaws and all, the film captures the soulless existence of a man who lives for no other reason than to kill.

Personally, it makes me glad that he’s dead.