truecrimecafe:

“Killing is killing whether done for duty, profit or fun.”

The Tale of The Nightstalker

Richard Ramirez’s reign of terror lasted from July 1984 to August 1985 and left 14 people dead.

Ramirez prowled the small towns of Southern California and San Francisco. He would break into random houses and terrorize the occupants. If a couple lived there, Ramirez would shoot the man dead first, then beat and rape the woman. He would demand to know where they kept their valuables. A Satanist, Ramirez would force her to “swear on Satan” when she said there were no more valuables for him to take. Sometimes he would let his victims live.

Ramirez had no preference as far as victim type was concerned. He preyed on the elderly, women, children and men. He also used various methods to kill – strangulation, shooting and bludgeoning.

Born in El Paso, Texas on February 29, 1960 to Julian and Mercedes Ramirez, he was the youngest of five children.

Julian Ramirez was known to have a violent temper and was abusive. Richard Ramirez suffered two significant head injuries as a child. At age 2, a dresser fell on top of him and was hit with a swing and knocked unconscious at age 5. After the last severe injury, Ramirez began to have epileptic seizures, which lasted until early adolescence.

Ramirez began to fall under the influence of his cousin Miguel (Mike) Ramirez at age 12.

Mike Ramirez was a decorated Army Green Beret. He shared gruesome stories of raping and murdering women during his time serving in Vietnam. Cousin Mike even showed young Richie photos he took of the terrified women tied to trees as he was about to rape them and of him posing with the severed head of one of his victims.

In May of 1973, Ramirez witnessed his cousin shoot and kill his wife, Jesse. After witnessing the murder, Ramirez withdrew from family and friends. He went to live with his sister Ruth, whose husband Roberto was a peeping tom. Roberto brought Ramirez on his nighttime excursions to peep at women. Ramirez also began experimenting with drugs at this time.

Mike Ramirez was committed to a mental institution and was released in 1977.

Ramirez’s criminal behavior began during adolescence when he was working at a Holiday Inn. He began burglarizing customers’ rooms. Ramirez lost his job after he was caught in the act of raping a woman in her room. Her husband returned to the room just in time and beat Ramirez.  The couple refused to press charges because they lived out of state and didn’t want to return to Texas to testify against him.

Ramirez completed the 9^th grade and dropped out of high school. He moved to California at age 22.

The first murder Ramirez committed wasn’t discovered until 2009 through a DNA match. The victim was 9-year-old Mei Leung who was found beaten, raped and stabbed to death in a hotel basement on April 10, 1984 in San Francisco.

Ramirez’s next victim was 79-year-old Jennie Vincow. He broke into her apartment in Glassell Park. Ramirez stabbed her to death, slashing her throat and almost decapitating her.

Ramirez attacked three women, killing two of them on March 17, 1985. Ramirez shot 22-year-old Maria Hernandez in the face. She put her hands up defensively and her keys deflected the bullet, saving her life. Her roommate, 34-year-old Dale Okazaki, wasn’t as lucky. Ramirez shot her in the head, killing her. An hour later, he pulled 30-year-old Veronica Hu from her car and shot her to death.

The three attacks and two murders in one day attracted the attention of the media. Maria Hernandez was also able to provide a description.

Ramirez returned to a home he robbed one year before on March 27, 1985. He killed Vincent Zazzara, 64, shooting him in the head as he slept on the couch. Zazzara’s wife, 44-year-old, Maxine was beaten by Ramirez. He tied her hands and demanded her to tell him where her valuables were. As Ramirez ransacked her home, Maxine managed to get out of her bonds and got a shotgun that was under the bed. When she pulled the trigger, she found it wasn’t loaded.

The fact that Maxine Zazzara had threatened Ramirez with a shotgun enraged him. He shot her to death then decided he wanted part of her. Ramirez got a butcher knife from the kitchen and mutilated her, cutting out her eyes and placing them in a jewelry box.

Ramirez left behind a shoe print in a flowerbed, later identified as a pair of Avia sneakers. The murder of the Zazzaras was linked to the previous crimes by bullets recovered at the scene.

Ramirez would claim his next victim on May 14, 1985. He beat Bill Doi, 66, to death. He bound his disabled wife, Lillian, 56, with thumbcuffs. then robbed the Doi’s home and raped her. Lillian Doi survived the attack to provide a description.

His next victims were Mabel “Ma” Bell, 83, and her sister Florence “Nettie” Lang, 81. Ramirez bludgeoned Lang with a hammer and tied her up. He did the same to Bell, then shocked her with an electrical cord. He raped Lang and drew a pentagram with lipstick on her inner thigh and on the bedroom wall. Bell and Lang were found alive two days later. Bell didn’t survive her injuries.

Ramirez broke into the home of Carol Kyle, 42, the day after his attack on Bell and Lang. He handcuffed Kyle and her 11-year-old son together, then proceeded to ransack the house.

He then unbound Kyle and demanded she show him where the valuables were. Ramirez put her son in the closet, then repeatedly sodomized his mother. He took the child from the closet, then handcuffed him to his mother again before leaving.

Ramirez’s home invasions would continue, leaving a trail of rape and murder that would come to an end in August 1985.

Police had ballistic and shoeprint evidence that matched up with other Night Stalker crime scenes. During a press conference the Mayor of San Francisco leaked an important piece of evidence – the Avia shoe print. Investigators found the particular sneaker was rare. It was a new type of sneaker and only one pair had been delivered to the Los Angeles area. Of course, detectives knew the perpetrator would hear about it and get rid of the sneakers.

Ramirez was definitely following the media coverage of his crimes. On Aug. 24, 1985, he broke into the home of Bill Carns, 30, and his fiancée Inez Erickson, 29. Before Ramirez left, he told Erickson, “Tell them the Night Stalker was here.”

As he left their home, a neighbor, 13-year-old James Romero III recognized Ramirez as the “weird looking guy in black” he had seen earlier that night. Suspicious, he wrote down as much as he could of the license plate of the stolen orange Toyota Ramirez was driving.  When he heard about the attack on the neighbors, Romero told his parents about Ramirez and had the partial license plate number. Erickson also provided a vivid description of her attacker to investigators.

The abandoned Toyota was found on Aug. 28 and a fingerprint was found on the rearview mirror. The print was traced to Ramirez because of earlier arrests for traffic and drug violations. Investigators released a mug shot of Ramirez from a previous arrest for car theft in December 1984.

Ramirez wasn’t aware that his face was now known to the public.  He had been in Arizona visiting his brother. When he returned to Los Angeles and stopped at a convenience store. Ramirez noticed his face staring back at him from a news rack after he overheard an elderly woman call him “El Matador” (the killer). Residents began to recognize him. He ran from the store and tried to carjack a woman. He was chased away by witnesses who ran after him. An angry mob who recognized him from the papers formed and chased Ramirez. He was hit in the head with a metal bar. The group held Ramirez until police arrived.

Ramirez was convicted of 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. He was sentenced to death but the sentence would never be carried out. Richard Ramirez died of cancer on June 7, 2013.