Serial Killer Richard Ramirez: Night Stalker

Richard Ramirez, also known as “Night Stalker”, was a serial killer in the 1980’s convicted of 14 murders over a 2 year span. Born on February 29, 1960, he was about 24 years of age when he started his killing spree but was 17 when he dropped out of high school and committed his life to crime. At the age of 18, he became a Satanist. Ramirez was deeply influenced by his older cousin at a young age when he told personal stories of rape and torture during his time as a U.S Army Green Beret combatant in the Vietnam War. Richard was son to an abusive father and belonged to a family of seven. He was not officially diagnosed with any type of mental disorder but it was very possible that he had Antisocial Personality Disorder. He died on June 7, 2013

at the age of 53.
Ramirez’s childhood was infested with crime and evil. He witnessed his father beating his older brother at the age of 6, started smoking marijuana at the age of 10 and eventually started to smoke with his older cousin, Mike, who introduced him to many gruesome things. One of which were pictures of himself with a severed prostitute’s head. Many things that would seem like a horror film would be a reality to Richard. Ramirez was around 12 at the time. He strangely become sexually aroused by these inhumane acts and later in the year threw a rock through his neighbor’s window. At the age of 13, Mike had killed his wife with Richard as a witness. He went to Los Angeles to visit his brother and learned to pick locks and bypass alarm systems. As a teen, his obsession with crime life became worse and hung out with a group that smoked heavily. He began stealing from houses and getting intimate with prostitutes. Ramirez was sent to a youth camp in Texas for juvenile delinquents and when he returned, he did even worse in school until he finally dropped out of school. Around the same time, his cousin Mike had been released from the mental hospital and began to hang out with him again.
At 18, he converted to Satanism and was arrested multiple times in a span of 6 years.

Examples of his arrests are: possession, breaking and entering, theft, and grand theft auto. On June 28, 1984 the killings started. The first murder surprised the police by its brutal nature. He entered the house of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow and stabbed her as she slept as well as defile her corpse. Nine months pass and he decides to strike again. March 17, 1985 he shoots Maria Rodriguez but she escapes. Her roommate Dayle Okazaki did not survive however and neither did Tsai-Lian Yu who was killed an hour after when Ramirez took her car and left her in the road. Three days later, he raped an eight-year-old girl. March 27, 1985, shot Vincent Zazzarra and tortured and killed his wife Maxine. Maxine’s body was mutilated with a T on her left breast and eyes gouged out. May 29, 1985, killed Malvial Keller and Blanche Wolfe with a hammer. Ramirez failed to rape Keller but put a pentagram on her thigh and the wall. The next day he sodomized Ruth Wilson and locked her 12-year-old son in the closet. June 27, 1985, raped a 6-year-old girl. The following day killed Patty Higgins by throat cut. July 2, 1985, killed Mary Cannon in the same fashion. There are many other murders ending on August 24, 1985. On August 31, 1985, he was caught by Manuel De La Torre trying to steal a car. At the trial, which was delayed for 4 years, he was sentenced to 19 death sentences on 43 charges: 13 murders, five

attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. Upon receiving his sentence, he says, “No big deal. Death always comes with the territory. I'll see you in Disneyland”. While behind bars, he married Doreen Lioy who was a fan of Richard Ramirez.
Ramirez was a savage and was undoubtedly one of the more dangerous serial killers of all time.

His killings never targeted a specific person, it was who felt like killing. The only concrete pattern was the satanic resemblance and shooting the men and raping the women routine. Ages varied from six to seventy-nine years of age. Usually carried a .22 or .25 caliber pistol and a knife. Ramirez had instilled an unsettling fear within a state for a year straight. Ramirez was a nightmare that became reality for those murdered by

him.