Richard Ramirez

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Richard Ramírez
1984 police photo of Ramírez
Background information
Birth name:	Ricardo Muñoz Ramírez
Also known as:	The Night Stalker
Born:	February 28, 1960 (1960-02-28) (age 51) El Paso, Texas, United States
Killings
Number of victims:	14+ [1]
Span of killings:	April 10, 1984[2]–August 24, 1985
Country:	United States
State(s):	California
Date apprehended:	August 31, 1985

Richard Ramírez, also known as The Night Stalker (born as Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez; on February 28/29 1960^[3][4]) is an American serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row at San Quentin State Prison. Prior to his arrest, the media dubbed the unknown serial killer active in Los Angeles, California, the "Night Stalker". Following his arrest, sensationalist reporting of his apparent interest in the occult and Satanism was common.

[edit] Early life

Ricardo (Richard) Muñoz Ramírez was born in El Paso, Texas, the youngest of five children to working class Mexican immigrants Julián Ramírez and Mercedes Muñoz. As a child, he was remembered as being quiet and a loner by those who knew him. When Ramírez was two, he developed a contusion on his head after a dresser fell on him, and he had to receive over 30 stitches. He also suffered from grand mal seizures and was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy when he was six. By the age of 10, Ramírez reportedly began to spend nights in cemeteries.

When Ramírez was 13 years old, he began to spend a great deal of time with his cousin Mike, a Special Forces Vietnam War veteran.^[5] Mike fascinated Ramírez with polaroid photographs of Vietnamese women whom he boasted of killing and torturing.^[5] The two spent time driving around and, according to Ramírez, during that time Mike taught him how to shoot and cut people for "maximum effect".^[5]

At a subsequent point, Mike murdered his wife while Ramírez was standing 2–3 feet away.^[6] After that, Ramírez started skipping school, and he continued smoking cannabis and began sniffing glue by the seventh grade. He soon took to stealing, in part to support his drug use. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in El Paso, Texas, dropping out before completing even one year. During this time period, Ramírez was arrested twice for possession of illegal substances.^[7]

He thereafter lived the life of a drifter, smoking cannabis and living on junk food, according to UPI reporters Aurelio Rojas and K. Mack Sisk. Because of his poor hygiene and sugar-rich diet, Ramírez' teeth eventually started to rot. His habitual drug abuse, which had by this time progressed to daily use of cocaine, led to several arrests for possession as well as a charge for misdemeanor theft. Ramírez was arrested twice for auto theft in California, in Pasadena in 1981 and in Los Angeles in 1984. When Ramirez started his killings, he would target yellow houses.

Michael D. Harris, reporting for UPI, wrote that years later Ramírez' father would maintain that Richard was a "good boy" whose drug use "put him out of control". Richard often drew the five-point pentagram, a symbol sometimes associated with Satanism, on his own body. At his trial, he would shout "Hail Satan!" in open court. Ramírez was a big fan of hard rock and heavy metal bands that sang about hell and the devil. He was said to be a fan of AC/DC and, in particular, their song "Night Prowler". Not by coincidence, an AC/DC hat was found at the crime scene of Ramirez's second murder victim.

[edit] Victims

[edit] Jennie Vincow

On June 28, 1984, following a night of shooting cocaine, Ramírez removed a screen and entered the window of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow, of Glassell Park, Los Angeles.^[8] Vincow's son, Jack, discovered her body the next afternoon. She was sprawled out on the bed, stabbed repeatedly, her throat slashed so deeply she was nearly decapitated. Ramírez also ransacked her apartment. Fingerprints were recovered from the window screen. The autopsy later revealed signs of sexual assault.^[9]

[edit] Maria Hernandez and Dayle Okazaki

On March 17, 1985, 22-year-old Maria Hernandez was accosted as she left her car in the garage of the condominium that she shared with a roommate, Dayle Okazaki, age 34, in Rosemead. Hernandez described Ramírez as tall and dressed entirely in black, with a baseball cap pulled low over his brow. He was holding a gun. Ramírez shot at her face as she raised her hands in self-defense. The bullet hit Hernandez in the hand, having been deflected by her keys. She fell to the ground and played dead, Ramírez, thinking he killed her, entered the condominium. Hernandez lay still for some time until she heard the door closing, whereupon she went outside. As she approached the front door of the condominium, Ramírez was leaving. She ducked down behind a car as Ramírez raised the gun at her. Hernandez asked him not to shoot her again and he lowered the gun and ran away.^[9]

Hernandez entered the condominium through the front door, and found Okazaki lying dead on the kitchen floor. She had been shot through the forehead from a short distance. Her blouse had been pulled up. Hernandez then called the police. Later an autopsy retrieved a .22-caliber bullet from Okazaki's skull.^[9]

Outside police found a blue baseball-style cap with the name AC/DC on the front. At trial, a witness later testified that the cap looked like one Ramírez wore. Hernandez also identified Ramírez as her attacker at a police lineup and later at trial.^[9]

[edit] Tsia-Lian Yu

That same night after the assault of Maria Sophia Hernandez and the murder of Dayle Okazaki, a car driven by Tsia-Lian Yu was forced to a stop by a car driven by a man later identified as Ramírez, near Monterey Park. Ramírez approached Yu's car and pulled her out.^[9]

Joseph Duenas stepped out onto the balcony of his second-floor apartment after hearing a woman screaming for help. Duenas went inside and called the police, then stepped back onto the balcony. Duenas observed the scene as the man pushed Yu away, got into her car and drove away. As Ramírez drove, he passed a car containing Jorge Gallegos and his girlfriend. Gallegos saw the driver’s profile and noted the number of the license plate of the car. Both men later testified at trial.^[9]

Yu crawled a short distance away and lay still. Police found Yu breathing but unconscious. Yu stopped breathing and CPR was administered until the ambulance arrived. She was pronounced dead at the Lake House Inn. The autopsy revealed that she had been shot twice in the chest at close range, and the bullet recovered was found to be fired from the same gun used to kill Dayle Okazaki.^[9]

[edit] Vincent and Maxine Zazzara

On the morning of March 27, 1985,^[10] two more victims were discovered. Vincent Zazzara, age 64, was an Italian-born retired investment counselor who operated 2 of his own pizzerias. He was found by his son Peter, who had come to visit. After ringing the bell several times he let himself in. Vincent was on the sofa in the den, shot through the left temple. He appeared to have died instantly. His wife, Maxine Zazzara, age 44, was found stretched out in her bed, face up and naked. Her eyes had been gouged out and she had been stabbed repeatedly around the face, neck, abdomen, and groin areas. There was a large T-shaped knife wound in her left breast. An autopsy later revealed that, like her husband, she had been shot in the head and stabbed multiple times. She fell victim to one of Ramirez's greatest fits of rage, as she had tried to kill him using a shotgun her husband had hidden under the bed. However, the shotgun was unloaded and he then shot her. The stabbing and mutilation occurred after death. He decided that he wanted to cut out her heart and take it with him; however, he could not cut through the rib cage. So he decided to take her eyes instead. The house had been ransacked and burglarized.

[edit] William and Lillian Doi

On April 15, two weeks after the murders of Vincent and Maxine Zazzara, Richard Ramírez returned to Monterey Park and broke into the home of William and Lillian Doi, ages 66 and 63 respectively, waking them from their sleep. Ramírez first shot Mr. Doi right above the upper lip, causing the bullet to go through his tongue and become lodged in his throat. Then Ramírez beat him into unconsciousness. After doing this he went into Mrs. Doi's room, slapped her, and warned her not to scream, saying "Shut up or I'll kill you, bitch". He bound her hands behind her back with thumbcuffs to keep her still as he searched the house. After he found what he wanted, he returned to the bedroom and raped Mrs. Doi.

Mr. Doi, however, was not dead. Despite his severe head wound, he managed to crawl to Mrs. Doi's room where he dialed 911. He was unable to tell the dispatcher what the problem was, but the call was traced and an ambulance and patrol car were dispatched to the Doi's address. William Doi was rushed to the hospital but died in the ambulance. Lillian Doi was treated for her injuries and was able to give the police a description of the couple's attacker.

[edit] Malvia Keller and Blanche Wolfe

The attacks continued, throwing the city of Los Angeles into a state of panic. One police officer referred to the killer-rapist as the "Valley Intruder". Several area newspapers dubbed him the "Midnight Stalker". In the spring of 1985, the frequency of his killing escalated, and by that summer reached its peak.

On May 29, Malvia Keller (sometimes identified as Mabel Bell), 83, and her disabled sister, Blanche Wolfe (sometimes identified as Florence Lang), 80, were found in Keller's Monrovia home. Both women had been beaten severely with a hammer. When the police found the hammer later, the handle was discovered split. Wolfe had a puncture wound above one ear. An inverted pentagram with the tip pointing down had been drawn in lipstick on Keller's inner thigh. A second pentagram was found on the bedroom wall over Wolfe's body. Ramírez had raped Keller, the older sister. Police experts estimated that the sisters had been there about two days after the attack before being discovered. Doctors were able to revive Wolfe, but Keller died soon afterwards.

[edit] Ruth Wilson

On May 30, 1985, Ruth Wilson (sometimes identified as Carol Kyle), 41, was awoken in the middle of the night by a flashlight shining in her face. Ramírez had silently broken into her Burbank home and was holding a gun to her head. He ordered her to get out of bed and go to her 12-year-old son's room. Ramírez put the gun to the child's head, warning Wilson not to make a sound. He then handcuffed the boy and locked him in a closet.

Assuming that he was only a burglar, she offered to give Ramírez her most valuable possession, a gold and diamond necklace. She led him to the dresser in her bedroom where she kept it, hoping it would placate him. After rummaging through the house, he ordered Wilson to put her hands together behind her back, tying them with pantyhose. He then pushed her onto the bed and raped her. She told Ramírez that he must have had a "very unhappy life" to have done this to her. He reportedly told her that she looked "pretty good" for her age and said he was going to let her live although he had killed many others. When she complained that the pantyhose around her wrists were cutting off her circulation, he loosened them and brought her a robe before releasing her son from the closet and handcuffing them side by side. He then left the scene.

Afterward, the boy was able to get to a phone and call 911. When the police asked Wilson to describe her attacker, she told them that he was a tall Hispanic man with long curly dark hair.

[edit] Patty Elaine Higgins

The body of 28-year-old Patty Higgins was found in her home in Arcadia. She had been sodomized and her throat slit.

[edit] Mary Louise Cannon

On July 2, 1985 the body of 75-year-old Mary Louise Cannon was found in her home in Arcadia. She had been beaten, her throat slit, and her home had been ransacked.

[edit] Whitney Bennett

On July 5, 1985 Ramírez returned to Arcadia and savagely beat 16-year-old Whitney Bennett, a junior at La Cañada High School, with a tire iron. Identified in some later accounts under the pseudonym "Deidre Palmer", she needed 478 stitches but survived her injuries. According to Philip Carlo's 1996 biography of Ramírez, Bennett later married Mike Salerno, the son of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sergeant Frank Salerno, the lead detective in both the Night Stalker case as well as the case of the Hillside Stranglers, after meeting the younger Salerno while waiting to testify at trial.

[edit] Joyce Lucille Nelson

Two days later, on July 7, 1985, the body of Joyce Lucille Nelson, age 61, was found beaten to death by a blunt object in her home in Monterey Park. Nelson was employed at Coast Envelope in Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Sophie Dickman

Later that same night (July 7, 1985) in Monterey Park, Sophie Dickman, a 63-year-old registered nurse, was awoken at around 3:30 a.m. by a "tall, skinny man dressed in black". The man, who fit the description of the "Night Stalker", was pointing a gun at her. He ordered her out of bed and into the bathroom, warning her to be quiet. After ransacking the house, he returned to her, forcing her back onto her bed. He attempted to rape and sodomize her but could not maintain an erection. He was frustrated and humiliated, and she was sure he would kill her. He screamed at her furiously, but then gathered the valuables he wanted and left. She was astounded that he had spared her life.

[edit] Lela and Max Kneiding

Less than two weeks later, on July 20, 1985, Ramírez went to a new location in the Los Angeles area, Glendale, to the home of Lela and Max Kneiding, both 66. He also brought along a new weapon—a machete. Although all the windows and doors were locked, the killer cut a screen on the French doors, reached in and unlocked them. The machete was used on Max's neck and then the killer attempted to slash Lela, but missed. Ramírez pulled out his .22 pistol and attempted to shoot but the gun jammed. As the victims begged for their lives, Ramírez cleared the gun and shot them to death. Then, he mutilated them after death with the machete. The house was ransacked. Ramírez had a police scanner with him and fled the scene when a "shots fired" call came over the radio.

[edit] Chainarong Khovananth

On July 20, 1985, Ramirez murdered Chainarong Khovananth while he was sleeping, with a gunshot to the head.^[9] Khovananth, a 32-year-old parking attendant who immigrated from Thailand 10 years earlier, lived with his wife and two children in a small frame house that abuts a freeway in Sun Valley. Following the murder of Khovananth, Ramirez then raped (sodomized) Khovananth's 8 year old son.^[9][11]

[edit] Christopher and Virginia Petersen

On August 6, 1985, Ramírez targeted another couple, Christopher and Virginia Petersen, ages 38 and 27. Ramírez broke into the couple's Northridge home through a sliding glass door, which led to the living room. Before he entered their bedroom, he cocked his .22 automatic pistol. Virginia was a light sleeper and awoke to a metallic "click". Ramírez advanced towards her with both hands on the gun. She yelled at him and he told her to shut up as he shot Virginia under the left eye. The bullet went through the roof of her mouth and down her throat; exiting out the back of her neck. Chris awoke and in the initial confusion thought it was some kind of game. He looked at his wife's face and was shot by Ramírez in the right temple but the bullet did not pierce Chris's skull. He jumped up and attacked Ramírez only to be shot at two more times. Both shots missed. As they wrestled, Chris was flung over the killer's back and onto the floor. Ramírez fled out of the house the same way he gained entry. Chris and Virginia both survived the brutal attack.

[edit] Peter and Barbara Pan

Los Angeles County was in a state of disarray; the Night Stalker's crimes were becoming more frequent. The intervals between his crimes were shortening, and his severity was escalating. There was little doubt that he would strike again. But as it turned out, Ramírez decided to abandon his familiar territory. After the attack on the Abowaths, he headed north.

On August 18, 1985, Peter and Barbara Pan were found in their blood-soaked bed in Lake Merced, a housing development in San Francisco. Both had been shot in the head. Peter Pan, a 66-year-old accountant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs. Pan, 64, survived but would be permanently and severely disabled. Scrawled on the wall in lipstick were an inverted pentagram and the words "Jack the Knife". Local police determined that the killer had come in through an open window. Fearing that Los Angeles's Night Stalker had moved to their precinct, homicide investigators sent a bullet removed from Mr. Pan to a forensic team in Los Angeles. The bullet matched others recovered from two of the Los Angeles County crime scenes.

Panic spread through the city of San Francisco. To quell fears, Mayor Dianne Feinstein talked publicly about the hunt for the Night Stalker, but in so doing angered detectives by giving away too many details of his crimes which, they felt, impeded their investigation. Specifically, Ms. Feinstein announced that the authorities now knew what type of firearm the Night Stalker used, and had copies of his footprints. The next morning, after reading the newspaper, Ramírez tossed his gun and shoes off the Golden Gate Bridge.

But the San Francisco police caught a break when the manager of the Bristol Hotel in the Tenderloin district came forward and claimed that a young man who fit the Night Stalker's description had stayed at his establishment from time to time over the past year and a half. The manager remembered that the man had rotten teeth and smelled bad. The police checked the room in which he had last stayed. On the bathroom door they found a drawn pentagram. The man had checked out during the day on August 17. Mr. and Mrs. Pan had been attacked that night.

Investigators then located a man from El Sobrante (east of San Francisco) who said he had purchased some jewelry—a diamond ring and a pair of cufflinks—from a young man who fit the Night Stalker's description. Further investigation revealed that these items had belonged to Mr. Pan.

[edit] Bill Carns and his fiancée

On August 24, while the police in San Francisco were scrambling to find the mysterious young man with rotten teeth, the Night Stalker had found another couple whom he planned to make his victims. However, this couple was not in the Bay Area but in Mission Viejo, 50 miles south of Los Angeles.

Bill Carns and his 29-year-old fiancée had just drifted off to sleep when they were suddenly awoken by loud gunshots in the room. Instinctively, she reached out to her fiancé, but he had already been seriously wounded. Before she realized what was happening, the intruder grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into another bedroom where he tied her ankles and wrists with neckties. The man then asked her if she knew who he was, admitting that he was the killer who was getting all the coverage in the press and on television. He rummaged through the house, looking for valuables, but there was nothing small enough to steal easily. Angry that the couple had so little, he returned to her and raped her twice.

Afraid of what he might do next, she told him to look in a drawer where she knew her fiancé kept some money. "Swear to Satan", he told her. She did what he wanted and swore to Satan that she was telling the truth. Ramírez found the money, and as he counted it, he allegedly mocked her, telling her that this was what she was worth. She hoped that this was the end of it, that he would leave now that he had the money. But he was not through with her. "Swear your love for Satan", he demanded. Afraid of what he might do next, she did as he asked. "I love Satan", she mumbled. He ordered her to say it again and again. He yanked her by the hair and made her kneel, then forced her to perform oral sex on him. When he was finished, he stepped back and stared at her. Still bound by the neckties, she was certain that he was going to shoot her just as he had shot her fiancé. However, Ramírez suddenly laughed at her and fled. She quickly worked herself free of the neckties and called 911.

[edit] Additional victims

On October 22, 2009, San Francisco Police announced that Ramirez had been linked to the April 1984 death of 9-year-old Mei Leung.^[12] Homicide detective Holly Pera submitted DNA evidence from the crime to CODIS, which yielded a cold hit to Ramirez's DNA profile.^[13]

The Los Angeles Times reported that some jail employees overheard Ramírez planning to shoot the prosecutor with a gun, which Ramírez intended to have smuggled into the courtroom.^[14] Consequently, a metal detector was installed outside of the courtroom and intensive searches were conducted on people entering. On August 14, the trial was interrupted because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singletary, did not arrive to the courtroom. Later that day she was found shot dead in her apartment. The jury was terrified, wondering if Ramírez had directed this event inside his prison cell, and if he could reach other jury members. However, Ramírez was not responsible for Singletary's death; she had been shot and killed by her boyfriend, who later killed himself with the same weapon in a hotel. The alternative juror who replaced Singletary was too frightened to return to her home.

On September 20, 1989, Ramírez was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries.^[15]

During the penalty phase of the trial on November 7, 1989, he was sentenced to death in California's gas chamber. The trial of Richard Ramírez was one of the most difficult and longest criminal trials in American history. Nearly 1,600 prospective jurors were interviewed. More than one hundred witnesses testified, and while a number of witnesses had a difficult time recalling certain facts four years after the crimes, others were quite certain of the identity of Ramírez.

By the time of the trial, Ramírez had fans who were writing him letters and paying him visits. Freelance magazine editor Doreen Lioy wrote him nearly 75 letters after his capture. He proposed to her, and on October 3, 1996, they were married in California's San Quentin State Prison. ^[16]

[edit] Appeals

On August 7, 2006, his first round of state appeals ended unsuccessfully when the California Supreme Court upheld his convictions and death sentence.^[9][17] On September 7, 2006, the California Supreme Court denied his request for a rehearing.^[18]

[edit] AC/DC

Ramírez was a fan of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC and, according to police, wore an AC/DC shirt and left an AC/DC hat at a crime scene. The song "Night Prowler", from the Highway to Hell album, describes sneaking into a girl's room at night.

Years later, the incident was described on the AC/DC edition of VH1's Behind the Music. The band explained that while the song "Night Prowler" had been taken into a dark, murderous connotation by Ramírez, it was actually about a boy sneaking into his girlfriend's bedroom at night for a romantic encounter.^[19]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Crime Library: The Night Stalker
• History Channel: Richard Ramírez, the Night Stalker
• Richard Ramírez' Pen Pal Ad on LostVault
• Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker at the Internet Movie Database, a 1989 TV movie
• About.com Entry on Richard Ramírez, the Night Stalker
• Murders Database: Richard Ramírez' List of Victims
• [www.associatedcontent.com/article/274976/interview_with_stela_supporter_and.html?cat=38] Interview with Stela Vasques, Supporter and Friend of Serial Killer Richard Ramirez, "The Night Stalker"