Richard Ramirez in June 2007

Who was Richard Ramirez?

Richard Ramirez was an American serial killer who was dubbed as the Night Stalker by the local media when killed at least 14 people, attempted to murder five more, and raped and tortured at least two dozen women in the span of 14 months, mostly during the spring and summer of 1985. In addition to all these crimes, Richard was also guilty of burglary and petty theft, crimes which began when he was merely 13 years old.

Richard was apprehended in August 1985, after a dramatic chase, was sentenced to death at the conclusion of his trial in 1989. The convicted murderer was formally sentenced to* death in the gas chamber on November 7, 1989* and was sent to San Quentin Prison in California to spend the remainder of his days, however, he would end up dying before the scheduled date at the age of 53 due to cancer.

How A Traumatic Childhood Nurtured Richard's Sick Mind

Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez, more commonly known as Richard Ramirez, was born on February 29, 1960 in El Paso Texas. He didn't really have a great life growing up because he was bouncing from one messed up household to another, granted these said households we all related to him.

Richard was one of five children and his father was a former police officer who would go through fits of rage and physically abuse his wife and his children.

At the age two, he was hit in the head by a falling piece of furniture. Then when he was five, he was struck again in the head with a swing at school and was knocked unconscious. From that point, he suffered from multiple seizures.

Due to his toxic home life, by the time he was twelve years old, Richard -- or "Richie", as he was known to his family --would spend a lot of his time with his cousin, Miguel, who was a U.S. Army Green Beret combat veteran who served in the Vietnam War.

Miguel was an extremely disturbed individual who had kept Polaroid photos of severed heads belonging to Vietnamese women he had raped and killed during the Vietnam War. So, Miguel would end up teaching Richard tips and skills on how to kill people.

On May 4, 1973, Richard was at Miguel's home when Miguel ended up shooting his wife in the face after they got into an argument. Miguel would then end up in prison but he was then found not guilty by reason of insanity and would just end up serving four years in a state mental facility.

Richard would then end up moving in with his sister, Ruth, and her husband, Roberto, who was a Peeping Tom. Roberto would take Richard with him every night on his nocturnal pursuits. Not long after, Richard would then start associating his sexual fantasies with violence.

A crime scene photo from one of the Richard Ramirez’s murders.

During all this, Richard also became a heavy drug user, usually with weed and LSD, and all the while cultivating his interest in Satanism. Marks of Satanism would then be left behind in a lot of the crime scenes and which would then become a calling card for investigators at his crime scenes.

While he was still at school, Richard worked part time at a Holiday Inn. One night he used his passkey to get into a guest's hotel room, which ended up to be a couple's room. However, the husband was away and Richard attempted to rape this woman. The charges against were dropped since the couple refused to testify, but he did end up getting fired from his job.

Richard then ends up dropping out of high school in the ninth grade.

When Richard Became the Night Stalker

At the age of 22, Richard decided that he was going to move from Texas to California, permanently. He went to San Francisco first and he was staying in the Tenderloin district.

On April 10, 1984, Richard stayed at this hotel where he ends up murdering a nine-year-old girl in the hotel basement. This case ended being unsolved for many years and it wasn't until 2009 when they were able to find a DNA match linking him to this horrible murder. He would then end up going down South to Los Angeles.

On June 28, 1984, a 79-year-old woman, Jenny, was found brutally murdered in her apartment with her throat slashed so deeply that her head was nearly decapitated. Law enforcements deduced that whoever had done this had gone through the window, and although they had fingerprints, they had no suspects.

On March 17, 1985, Richard had attacked a 22-year-old woman, Maria, ambushing her and shoots her in the face with his hand gun. She ends up surviving, however, her roommate wasn't so lucky. Within the same hour, Richard had come across another lady named Veronica and had wanted to steal her car and us it for his getaway, but he then proceeded to pull her out of the vehicle, shooting her twice in the head, before he ran on foot.

On March 27, 1985, Richard broke into a home in 2AM in the morning where he sees 64-year-old Vincent sleeping his room next to his 44-year-old wife, Maxine. Richard shoots Vincent and this wakes up Maxine. Richard hops on top of her and beat her, but she points him out to some jewellery in the house before she gets her hands out of the bonds and takes out a shotgun from underneath the bed. She points the gun at Richard when he comes back into the room and she pulls the trigger, only to find out that it wasn't loaded. This infuriates Richard, prompting to shoot her three times. He then takes a knife from the kitchen, gouges her eyes out and puts them in a jewellery box and taking it with him, but accidentally left his footprints in the flowerbeds outside the home. Police also found bullets in the scene which had matched to the ones they found at previous attacks.

This is the moment that the police realized that a serial killer was at large.

On May 14, 1985, Richard enters the home of a 66-year-old Bill and his 56-year-old disabled wife, Lillian. Bill was in his bedroom where both men had a confrontation where Richard would end up shooting Bill when he was about to draw his gun. Richard then proceeds to Lillian's room where he ends up raping her before he ransacked the couple's home.

On May 29, 1985, Richard steals a Mercedes and drives out to break into the home of 83-year-old Mabel and her 81-year-old sister, Florence. He found a hammer in the residence which he used to beat the sisters. He then procured electrical cords and gave both women electric shocks. Richard used a lipstick that he found from the women's belongings and used to draw a pentagram on Mabel's thigh, as well as the bedroom wall.

On July 7, 1985, Richard broke into the home of 61-year-old Joyce. She was asleep on her couch where Richard beat her to death, and ended up leaving a clear shoe print.

After this attack, Richard decided that he needed a better tool to commit he crimes so he buys himself a machete and drives to the home of 66-year-old Leila and her 68-year-old husband, Max. He bursts into the couple's bedroom and kills both of them with the machete; he then shoots them in the head.

Over the next few months, his attacks and murders escalated, following the same MO, complete with the same Satanic symbol. This earned him the moniker the Night Stalker, as most of his assaults took place at night in his victims' homes.

The Nights of Terror Come to an End

As word of the Night Stalker started to spread, it seemed that no one was safe. Constant media attention and the extreme pressure put on the police force finally resulted into tips being pooled together, and police were finally able to get an ID of Richard in the database.

It all went downhill for Richard from there. His face was on newspapers and the police on the street grew tenfold. When he saw the newspapers and noticed that people were staring at him suspiciously, he flew into a panic and fled. He would eventually be caught by a bunch of civilians and was severely beat up before the police arrived to pick him up.

His trial then became the most expensive trial to have been conducted, until the case of OJ Simpson of course.

After the verdict was read in court, he yelled at the jury that had just convicted him:

“I am beyond good and evil. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells in us all. That’s it.”

Richard Ramirez during his trial.