Richard Ramirez: A Brief Biography

Richard Ramirez was a serial killer in the United States, terrorizing the greater Los Angeles area. His victims were found dead, raped, and/or had all of their valuables taken from their home. He was dubbed “The Night Stalker” during his spree of killings in June of 1984 to August of 1985. He was an avowed “Satanist.”

Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas on February 29, 1960. Ramirez’s dad was a Mexican nationalist and a former police officer in Juarez, Mexico. He often had “fits” where he would become very mad and beat Ramirez. Ramirez would leave the house, hiding from his father, and sleep in the local cemetery. Since he was 10 Ramirez had smoked weed.

When he 12 he got very close with his cousin Miguel. Miguel was a decorated Green Beret combat veteran. He would often talk about his gruesome killings, and would show Ramirez pictures of him raping Vietnamese women and posing with the dead bodies of the woman with their severed heads. Ramirez witnessed Miguel shoot his wife in the face after a fight

After that he became more withdrawn from the family. Later he moved in with his older sister, Ruth, and her husband who was an obsessive “peeping Tom” and would take Ramirez on his nighttime trips.

Ramirez began to experiment with LSD and also became engrossed with Satanism. He went Jefferson High School but dropped out in 9th grade. He began to experiment with his sexual fantasies, and mixed them with violence, often times with forced bondage and rape. Miguel was found not guilty for the murder of his wife after 4 years of incarceration at a mental hospital, due to reasons of insanity and once again began to be a role model for Ramirez. Ramirez settled permanently in California when he was twenty-two.

Two years after settling in ...

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...an elderly couple called him “the Killer” in Spanish. When he went to pay for his things he saw the picture of himself on a magazine cover and fled the store. A group of residents chased his down and held him until the police arrived.

He was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. He was sentenced to death by gas chamber. After he was convicted some ladies began to form a fan club for him. One of the members of that fan club, Doreen Lioy, wrote him 75 letters, so Ramirez proposed to her and they were wed October 3rd, 1988. Lioy stated that she would kill herself when Ramirez was killed. Soon they got a divorce and Ramirez was engaged to another person. Ramirez soon died of complications secondary to B-cell Lymphoma on June 7th, 2013. He was 53 years old at time of death and was waiting execution for 23 years.