The Night Stalker

The Intruder

On a hot August night in 1985, 13-year-old James Romero couldn’t sleep. Earlier that day, his family had driven home from a camping trip near the Mexican-American border to their home in Mission Vallejo, and he’d slept most of the way. Wide awake and unaware that there was a killer on the loose, James headed to the garage to work on his bike.

That day, The Los Angeles Times ran a story with the headline, “Slaying of S.F. Man Linked to Valley Intruder.” But James being only 13, didn’t read the news and had no idea he and his family were in danger. The article revealed that forensics linked Peter and Barbara Pan of San Francisco to the same killer who had viciously murdered ten people in the greater Los Angeles area. The connection was identical shoe prints found at both crime scenes.

The Romero home, located on Via Zargosa, didn’t have a side gate, making it possible for anyone, or anything, to enter the backyard via a gravel path. When James heard rustling, he figured it was another coyote or opossum, frequent nighttime visitors. James went to investigate, suspecting nothing out of the ordinary, crunching his way along the gravel path. He stood in the dark backyard and listened, scanning the yard. The rustling had stopped, and it was too dark to make anything out, so James returned to the garage. However, James didn’t look at the house. He didn’t look at the bushes near his parents’ sliding glass door. If he had, he might have noticed the intruder.

Close Call

James switched on the light in the garage and started working on his bike, which lay at the garage’s far corner. That was when James heard footsteps on the gravel path heading towards him from the backyard. The steps stopped right outside a large ventilation grate in the garage wall, a grate that James couched in front of working on his bike. James held still and not daring to breathe. Realization dawned that there was no animal in the yard. There was a person, and they were searching for him. They had watched him from the shadows in the yard as he investigated the rustling.

James knew it wouldn’t take long for the person to figure out that he was in the lit garage. He'd entered through the side door, which was unlocked and had a glass pane at the top. Anyone peering in through would easily see him, but James would remain blind to whoever might be watching.

The unlocked door to the sideyard stood next to the door into the kitchen. If the person outside decided to enter the garage, James knew he could easily be trapped. Beginning to panic, James made a split-second decision. He moved, placing the car parked in the garage between himself and the side blocking the person’s view of him from the window, and dashed into the kitchen.

Once inside, James sprinted to his bedroom at the front of the house and peeked through the window. He spotted a man striding through the front yard right past his bedroom window, getting a pretty good look at him.

This wasn’t the first time the Romeros had a run-in with intruders. Previously people had either entered the unlocked garage and taken items or broken in. The family had filed reports with local police but never hear back.

James, convinced that this was just another prowler, ran back towards the garage to better look at the guy, waking his father in the process. His father asked what in the hell he was doing, and James replied as he ran past that there was a prowler. His dad was none too happy and told him to get his ass back in the house. James kept running.

Bolting back through the garage and into the side yard, James spotted a tall, stooped man dressed primarily in back. The man strolled to an Orange Toyota hatchback with a chrome roof rack and got in. The Toyota faced downhill, away from the Romero house, but instead of driving straight, the driver made a U-turn. By this time, James stood in the street, and the Toyota drove right past him, and the kid, barely a teenager and the driver of the Toyota, locked eyes before the man drove away.

An Unlikely Break

James managed to record part of the Toyota's license plate and raced back into the house to write it down. By this time, James’s mother had joined his father, wanting to know what was going on. When they informed her that there was another prowler, she casually told them to call 911 and returned to bed.

Not long after, an Orange County police cruiser pulled up to the Romero house. As far as anyone knew, this was just another routine prowler call. James told the officer what had happened and gave him the license plate number, the make and model of the car, and the description of the prowler. They all said their “thank you” and “goodnights,” and the Romeos returned to bed.

At 3:30 that morning, the police called the Romero’s and insisted that they speak with James. Over the phone, the investigator asked James again about the encounter. Could he give precise details of the car? Could James tell if the man wore a Member Only-style jacket?

At 6 a.m., the police had returned to the Romero home. Detectives had James run them through the events again while they took detailed notes and photographs. After that, they placed James in an unmarked police car and drove him to look at several suspected vehicles to see if any matched the Orange Toyota he’d seen the night before. None did.

A New Crime Scene

When they returned James to his home, it was a crime scene. Yellow caution tape, police cruisers, and forensic vans lined his unassuming street. The main piece of evidence pulled from the Romero home was a pair of shoe prints near the sliding glass door to the master bedroom. After forensics compared the shoe impressions to impressions collected at a growing number of other crime scenes, they found that they match the same person.

That evening while the Romero family watched the local news, a report of another murder floated through the tepid air. After James’s encounter with the prowler, the man had traveled a mile and a half away to a home on Christina Drive. Slipping in through an unlocked window, the intruder shot Bill Cairns in the head three times and raped Inez Erickson while he forced her to repeat, “I love Satan.” At one point, the attacker paused to enquire if Inez knew who he was. When she said she didn’t, he replied, “I’m the Night Stalker.”

As with any serial crime spree, media outlets attempt to name the perpetrator. In this case, several monikers were tired: The Valley Intruder, The Screen Door Intruder, and The Walk-In Killer, but it was the Los Angeles Herald’s name that the killer liked the best, the Night Stalker.

The terrified Romaro family wondered if the Night Stalker come back to take finish what he started? Was he staking out the house? Were they safe?

A few days later, the police discovered the Orange Toyota abandoned in a Rampart-area strip mall. They picked up James once again to identify the car. James recognized it immediately.

The Identifying Fingerprint

Even though the killer had thoroughly wiped down the stolen car of prints, the Orange County Police Department used a fingerprint detection method developed in Tokyo, and superglue fumed inside the vehicle. They discovered a single fingerprint on the back of the rearview mirror.

The OCPD placed the print into their computerized database and received nearly 100 similar hits. Sadly, law enforcement wouldn’t have confirmation on the fingerprint until after Ramirez was apprehended.

Richard Ramirez's Descent into Crime

Ramirez was born in Texas in 1960 and suffered from childhood epilepsy after several traumatic brain injuries. In his early teens, Ramirez became close with an older cousin Miguel who had served in Vietnam. They smoked weed together, and Miguel would tell Ramirez of torturing and mutilating Vietnamese women. Miguel backed up his stories with photographs. At 13, Ramirez witnessed Miguel murder his wife. It was around this time that Ramirez becomes obsessed with Satanism.

In 9th-grade, Ramirez dropped out of high school. His first arrest occurred in 1977 for marijuana possession. Soon after, he moved to California and started using heavier drugs. In 1981 and ‘84, he was arrested for auto theft, and his hygiene went down the tubes (super snaggle tooth).

LA Murder Spree

Theft and drug use turned violent, and Ramirez murdered his first victim on June 28, 1984. He sexually assaulted and stabbed 79-year-old Jennie Vincow during a home invasion. Ramirez would later be tied to the crime through a fingerprint he left on a windowsill as he removed the screen to enter the home.

Nine months later, on March 17, 1985, Ramirez attempted to shoot 22-year-old Maria Herandez in the face, but the bullet ricocheted off her keys as she brought her hands up for protection. Ramirez then entered the Rosemeade condominium Hernandez shared with her roommate, Dayle Okazaki. Ramirez found Okazaki in the kitchen, fatally shooting her in the head. While Ramirez was in the apartment, Hernandez fled around to the front of the condo, meeting Ramirez outside. He raised the gun, and she asked him not to shoot her again. Ramirez lowered the gun and ran.

After fleeing the condo Hernandez shared with Okazaki, Rameriez made his way to Monterey Park, where he flagged down Tasi-Lian Yu’s as she drove home. He pulled her from the vehicle and shot her twice, killing her.

On March 27, just ten days later, Ramirez murdered 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara by shooting him in the head while he slept. The gunfire woke 44-year-old Maxine Zazzara. Ramirez tied her up and beat her before ransacking the room for valuables. Maxime slipped out of her bindings and grabbed an unloaded gun, and tried to shoot Ramirez. Ramirez retaliated by shooting and stabbing Maxine to death. He then went a step further and gouged out her eyes, placing them in her jewelry box. Ramirez was later tied to the crime through shoe impressions left under the window he used to enter the house and shell casings matching his other crimes.

In May, Ramirez would murder William Doi and rape his wife, Lillie. Ramirez left Lilli alive. She reported Ramirez’s decayed teeth.

On May 29, Ramirez entered the home of Mabel “Ma” Bell and Florence “Nettie” Lang. He attacked Bell with a hammer and bound her. He then tied up Lang, drew pentagrams on her body with lipstick, and then raped her. The women, both elderly, were discovered two days later, alive. However, Bell died from her injuries in the hospital.

Ramirez then broke into Carol Kyle's home in Brubake. He bound Kyle and her 11-year-old son with handcuffs and demanded the location of their valuables. He then placed Kyle's son in a closet before sodomizing her repeatedly.

In early July, Ramirez arrived in Arcadia and stabbed Mary Louise Cannon to death in her home. A few days later, he drove to Seria Madra and attacked 16-year-old Whitney Bennett with a tire iron while she slept. He then attempted to strangle her with a phone cord, but the cord sparked, and Bennett began breathing again. Ramirez, believing God had intervened and fled the scene.

Two days later, on July 7, Ramirez broke into Joyce Lucille Nelson’s Monterey Park home. He trashed the interior, taking anything of value before beating Nelson to death. Ramirez left a shoe print on Nelson's face.

At this point in his spree, Ramirez takes a break before buying a machete and driving to the home of Lela and Maxon Kneiding on July 20. He killed the couple with the machete before burglarizing their home. He then headed over to the Khovananth home, where he fatally shot Chainarong Khovananth and then raped his wife, Somkid. Ramirez tied up Somkid and her eight-year-old son before stealing their valuables and making Somkid swear to Satan she wasn't hiding any money. Somkid reported the Night Stalker's rotting teeth.

By this time, police had amended their description of Ramirez to include his horrible oral situation: bad teeth, approximately 6-feet-tall, Hispanic, shaggy black hair, and size 11.5 shoes.

Rameriz took another small break, and then on August 6, he broke into the home of Chris and Virginia Peterson, where he shot Virginia in the face and Chris in the neck as he fled the scene. The couple survived.

Two days later, on August 8, Ramirez broke into Sakina and Elyas Abowath’s home. He shot Elyas, killing him, then bound and raped Sakina, demanding jewelry. He also tied up their three-year-old son.

San Francisco Murders

Los Angeles had become too hot for Ramariz, and he headed to San Francisco. Here he broke into Peter and Barbara Pan's home, shot Peter before raping and shooting Barbara. Neither survived. Using Barbara's lipstick, Ramariz drew a pentagram and wrote "Jack the Knife" on their bedroom wall.

Ramirez's Other Crimes

It stands to reasons that Ramirez's time in San Francisco would have produced more than one murder. In 2009, forensics linked Ramirez's DNA to the body of nine-year-old Mei Leung, a Chinese-American girl who was sexually assaulted and beaten to death in the basement of the San Francisco hotel where Ramirez lived in 1984. Leung's body was found hanging from pipes in the basement of the apartment building where Ramirez rented a room.

During Ramirez's murder spree, he also abducted and sexually assaulted numerous children. Ramirez would sneak into the child's home while everyone slept and kidnap the child, some of who were as young as four. He'd then released the children hours later, sometimes miles from their homes, instructing them to find a phone or an adult to get back home.

These charges never made it to trial to spare the kids from having to testify in court and face their torturer.

The Matching Shoe Impressions

The shoes were a big piece of evidence to the investigation. Ramirez had left numerous shoe impressions at his murders and robberies belonging to an Avia Aerobic brand shoes, size 11.5. In the greater Los Angeles area, only six pairs of Avia Aerobic had been sold and only one size 11.5. When Ramirez migrated to San Francisco and murdered Peter and Barbara Pan, Mayor Dianne Feinstein gave a speech where she divulged knowledge of the shoes during the press conference. Ramirez heard the address and threw his Avias off the Golden Gate Bridge. The loss of this piece of evidence devastated investigators.

Getting the Name Rick

With hundreds of fingerprints to go through by hand, investigators still didn't have a positive ID of the Night Stalker. Then, they finally got a lead.

A woman called the police informing them that her father, who lived on the street, had befriended a man who went by the name Rick. Rick told her father about killing an Asian couple with a .22 automatic pistol and that he was from El Passo, Texas. At the time, law enforcement had not publically released information on the weapon used in the Night Stalker attacks and knew they had a hot lead.

Rick had given the .22 to the man who took it to Tijuana. Investigators tracked down the gun along with a boom box that the suspect had stolen from one of the crime scenes.

The Bracelet

The mother-in-law of a police informant had been given a bracelet belonging to one of the Night Stalker's murder victims. The mother-in-law's boyfriend obtained the bracelet from Rick in El Passo. The boyfriend described Rick wearing a Members Only jacket, a black AC/DC hat, and had horrible teeth.

When Detective Frank Falzon of San Francisco interviewed the boyfriend, the investigation finally got Rick's full name: Richard Ramirez.

Missed Opportunities in the Investigation

There were two opportunities where investigators may have had a chance to end the search for the Night Stalker months earlier. The first was the discovery of a vehicle used by the murderer. Because Ramirez struck across Southern California, his crimes often occurred in different jurisdictions that weren’t friendly working together. While the Orange County Police Department had the lead on the case, the car in question sat in an impound yard under the umbrella of the Los Angeles Police Department, where it remained in the hot sun for weeks, destroying any fingerprint evidence that may have remained. However, the police did catch a break. They discovered a business card for a local dentist under one of the seats.

Orange County investigators headed over to the dentist's office and described the suspect. The dentist remembered him immediately and said that the person in question had an infected tooth. Two officers were placed in the waiting room to apprehend the suspect when he returned to have the tooth treated. Yet, the police administration felt it was a waste of money and pulled the officers. To help apprehend the suspect, law enforcement installed a silent alarm so the dentist could alert police when the suspect returned.

On May 30, the same day officers were pulled from surveillance, the suspect walked through the door. The dentist furiously pushed the button on the silent alarm, but no one ever arrived to arrest the man. The alarm either malfunction or hadn’t been installed correctly. Rameriz got away to continue his murder spree, killing five and attacking nine more people before being apprehended by a mob of angry citizens.

Catching the Night Stalker: August 30 - 31, 1985

The police made the call to release Ramirez’s name and photo to the public in the hopes of flushing him out and alerting people to this immense public safety issue.

Earlier that day, Ramirez had decided to visit his brother in Tuscon, Arizona, and hadn’t seen his mugshot plastered across the front pages of newspapers, and his name emblazoned in bold type.

When Ramirez couldn’t reach his brother via payphone, he hopped a bus back to East Los Angeles, where the population searched for him. As soon as he realized his identity was out, Ramirez tried to steal a car, but the owner fought him off. Desperate, Ramirez took off on foot and entered a tight-knit neighborhood, and tried to steal another. When neighbors noticed the scuffle in the driveway, they recognized Ramirez, chased and caught him, beating him until police arrived.

Soon after Ramirez was in custody, James Romero received a call. The police picked him and then flew him via helicopter to a lineup where he and Inez Erickson positively identified Ramirez (along with one of the children Ramirez had abducted and sexually assaulted). Later, in a ceremony, law enforcement presented Romero with medals, checks, and a brand new Yamaha ATC for his part in catching the Night Stalker.

The Trial

Over two days, James gave eight hours of testimony in Ramirez’s preliminary hearing. Ramirez tried to stare down James during his time on the stand, but James never looked away. Finally, Ramirez broke their stare with a wink before looking away.

Ramirez was found guilty of 13 murders, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. After being sentenced to death, Ramirez told reporters, “Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland.”

Ramirez spent more than 23 years on death row and died at age 53 of B-cell lymphoma on June 23, 2013.

References

Associated Press. "‘Night Stalker’ Survivor Picks Out Ramirez in Courtroom." Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1986.

Biography, (n.d.). Richard Ramirez: Murdered (1960-2013).

Buchanan, Paul, (2017). How a 13-Year-Old Boy Brought Down L.A.’s Most Notorious Serial Killer. Los Angeles Magazine, May 15, 2017.

Chervinski , Ashley. "A Detailed Timeline Of Night Stalker Richard Ramirez’ Crimes." Refinery 29, January 15, 2021, https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/01/10260137/night-stalker-richard-ramirez-childhood-murders-death

Crime Museum, (n.d.). Richard Ramirez: The Night Stalker.

Janos, Adam, (2019). How Richard Ramirez’s Decaying, Gross Teeth Helped Catch and Convict the Serial Killer. Real Crime, February 7, 2019.

Woodham, Lucy. "How did the police catch the Night Stalker? The evidence that finally led to his arrest." The Tab, January 2021, https://thetab.com/uk/2021/01/15/how-did-the-police-catch-the-night-stalker-evidence-arrest-190023

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