Richard Muñoz Ramirez (born February 29th, 1960 in El Paso, Texas) is a convicted serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media as he terrorized California with a series of car and home abductions, rapes, and murders during the first half of 1985.
Early life
It is speculated that Ramirez was influenced to go on his killing spree by the stories told by his cousin who claimed to have been a Green Beret in Vietnam. His cousin boasted to 10-year-old Ramirez of torturing and mutilating Vietnamese women and showed him grisly polaroid pictures, purportedly of his victims. Ramirez was also present when the cousin murdered his wife (blood from her shooting is said to have splattered on Ramirez's face). His parents were also known to be highly religious and, particularly his father, not shy of physical punishment, from which Ramirez would try to escape by spending nights in the cemetery. he also love to hang out in San Francisco back in the early 80's and the castrow district where he met up with a Young White male who was 15 at the time. who had also ran away from home because he was abused by his Father and beat all the time like Richard was beaten by his father. they soon became close friends. and started using cocaine heavly all the time. his name was Bravewolf he soon became a cocaine user like Richard. they also where members of the church of Satan. they where seen a lot in the Park in San francisco snorting cocaine together and drinking. and hanging out in Castrow street trying to make money.
Criminal career
Ramirez' first known victim was a 79-year-old woman whom he sexually assaulted and stabbed to death during a burglary of her home on June 28th, 1984. On March 17, 1985 Ramirez committed his second known murder. During the attack, he also attempted to murder the victim's roommate, but she was able to escape, providing the police with a description of the attacker. Later that same day Ramirez dragged a 30-year-old woman from her car and shot her. The two attacks occurring on the same day bolstered media attention, and in turn caused panic and fear among the public. The news media dubbed the attacker, who was described as having long curly hair, bulging eyes and wide-spaced rotting teeth, "The Walk-in Killer" and "The Valley Intruder". On March 20, only three days after his previous murder, Ramirez abducted an Eagle Rock girl from her home and sexually assaulted her. On March 27 he killed a 64-year-old man, Vincent Zazarra, and fatally stabbed Zazarra's 44-year-old wife, Maxine. Ramirez allegedly proceeded to carve out her eyes. Autopsy results showed that the inflictions occurred post-mortem. Vincent and Maxine's bodies were discovered in their Whittier home by their son, Peter. By this time, a multi-county police investigation was in operation. The law enforcement agencies worked through the month of April with no additional attacks by Ramirez. Ramirez then invaded the home of a 65-year-old man and his wife in Monterey Park. He shot the man in the head and was about to kill his wife when the dying man was able to scare Ramirez away by dialing 9-1-1. The man was pronounced dead when police arrived.
A little more than a week later, Ramirez severely beat two women in their 80s after invading their home (one woman would later die of her injuries). Before leaving the home, he inked pentagrams on the wall and on one of the women in red lipstick.
In June and July, three more women were killed. Two had their throats slit, one was beaten to death, and all three had their homes invaded in the process. On July 20th he again struck twice. In Sun Valley he killed a 32-year-old man, beat and raped his wife, while the 8-year old son listened from the closet. Later in the same day, Ramirez shot to death a Glendale couple aged in their 60s. On August 8th he shot a Northridge couple in their home, critically wounding them. The description of their attacker fit the previous ones given for "The Walk-in Killer".
Ramirez then left the Los Angeles area, and on August 17th, he shot to death a 66-year-old man in San Francisco, also shooting and beating his wife. The wife survived her wounds and was able to identify her attacker as "The Walk-in Killer" from police sketches. Since "The Walk-in Killer" no longer fit the modus operandi of the attacker, the news media re-dubbed him the "Night Stalker".
The next big break in the case came on August 24th when Ramirez shot a 29-year-old man in the head and raped his fiancée. The man survived and was able to give a description of both Ramirez and his orange Toyota station wagon. A teenager later identified the car from news reports and wrote down half its license plate number. The stolen car was found on August 28th, and police were able to obtain one fingerprint that was on the mirror, from the vehicle. The prints belonged to one Richard Muñoz Ramirez, who was described as a 25-year-old drifter from Texas with a long rap sheet that included many arrests for traffic and illegal drug violations. Two days later, his mugshots were broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California. The next day Ramirez was identified, and then mobbed and beaten by residents of a Latino neighborhood in East Los Angeles as he was trying to steal a car. Police had to break up the mob to prevent them from killing Ramirez. Many people in the mob were said to have shouted "tear his limbs off!" and other such punishments.
Trial and conviction
Jury selection for the case started on July 22nd, 1988, and on September 20th, 1989, he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. During the penalty phase of the trial on November 7th, 1989, he was sentenced to die in California's gas chamber. The trial of Richard Ramirez was one of the most difficult, and longest, criminal trials in American history. Nearly 1,600 prospective jurors were interviewed. Over 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 Richard Ramirez.
On August 3rd, 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported that some jail employees overheard Ramirez planning to shoot the prosecutor with a gun, which Ramirez intended to have smuggled into the courtroom. Consequently, a metal detector was installed outside of the courtroom and intensive searches were conducted on people entering. On August 14th, the trial was interrupted because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singletary, did not arrive to the courtroom. Later that day she was found dead in her apartment. The jury was terrified; they could not help but wonder if Ramirez had somehow directed this event from inside his prison cell, and if he could reach other jury members. However, Ramirez 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 alternate juror who replaced Singletary was too frightened to return to her home.
By the time of the trial, Ramirez had many female (and male) fans who were writing him letters and paying him visits. Since 1985, freelance magazine editor Doreen Lioy wrote him nearly 75 letters during his incarceration. In 1988 he proposed to her, and on October 3rd, 1996, they were married in California's San Quentin State Prison.
Music
- On their 1993 album "sinister slaughter", the band Macabre wrote a song about Ramirez called "nightstalker". Describing his killing methods when inside peoples homes.