The Nightstalker

Richard Ramirez was born on February 29th of 1960 in El Paso, Texas. Growing up in a home with four other children with hard-working immigrant parents. Richard Ramirez's mother worked in a factory with respiratory issues making Richard Ramirez's pregnancy very difficult. Richard grew up suffering from seizures. He was a good kid in school leading up to high school. Richard then 11 years old started hanging around a cousin named Miguel who served in the Vietnam war. Miguel would smoke weed with Richard and Miguel would go on to tell him horrible stories that he experienced in Vietnam. For example, he showed pictures of dead and mutilated bodies to Richard and even told him about a woman he raped and murdered. At a young age, Richard was a witness to his cousin Miguel murdering his wife. Showing him how to do a “successful” kill since he was trained. He decided to use his wife as a demonstration to Miguel. It is also said that Richard’s father was very abusive to the children and even had a pedophile who allegedly raped his older brother but, it's stated that Richard was never a victim of the sexual assaults.

Around 13 years old Richard Ramirez started to change. He started going to graveyards to worship Satan, peeping into windows at night and started smoking weed. As he got to high school Richard was not the young innocent boy the other children in the neighborhood once known. It is said that Richard as a teen raped a woman while working in a hotel. However, the charges were dropped against him because the couple did not want to come back to El Paso, Tx to proceed with legal proceedings.

Richard Ramirez growing up around the age of 18 he decided to move to California which is where he lived on skid row, committing petty crimes before moving up to murdering the people of California. Shortly, Richard would gain deeper knowledge in Satanism, hardcore drugs, and robbery. After the thrill of robbing and physically assaulting people didn’t give the pleasure he was looking for anymore he graduated to rape and murder.

On May 30th, 1984 in Burbank, California Richard attacked and raped a 41-year-old murder woman while locking her 12-year-old son in a closet. This was the start of the long list of attacks Richard committed.

On June 28th, 1984 a woman by the name of Jennie Vancow who was in her late 70s at the time of the attack was sexually assaulted, stabbed multiple times, and her home was burglarized.

On July 5th, 1985 in Sierra Madre, CA a young girl by the name of Whitney Bennett was beaten bloody with a tire iron, she was only 16 years old at the time of the attack. Her parents found her in a pool of blood after hearing all the struggling coming from her room. She survived and Richard was able to getaway. The people of California were extremely scared at all the attacks and the police being danced in circles, people of California did not feel secure. Sleeping in really warm weather with their windows closed because they felt unsafe. Even a police officer remembers sleeping with a gun under his pillow and looking all over the house when he thought he heard someone trying to break in. All of California was on the edge because of the Nightstalker.

Just two days later on July 7th, 1985 Richard would commit a sexual assault on a 70-year-old woman. He committed two attacks on this night. Leaving the 70-year-old woman to live however, 69-year-old Joyce was not as lucky, as Richard beat her to death.

It is said by some experts from the documentary about “The Nightstalker” that his killings were never personal as he used several different weapons to commit the terrible crimes. Some believe Richard’s killings were for power or as offerings to Satan to prove his devotion to Satan. Richard then decided to make a move and murder in San Francisco, CA. The detectives were able to lift a print from a previous attack and match it with Richard’s, placing him on the list of “Nightstalker” suspects. Detectives took a bold move and released a picture of Richard Ramirez and vehicle information to the public, stating he could possibly be driving a 1976 Toyota orange wagon.

By August 1985 Richard would have killed around 13 people. It is said from a variety of sources that Richard would make his victims say, “hail, satan” or say they worship satan before killing them. Richard would leave symbols of pentagrams on the skin of the victims or the walls of the scene of the crimes.

August 29th, 1985 Richard returned back to California from Arizona after visiting family. Stopping in a convenience store he noticed his mugshot from a previous arrest front page of the newspaper. While he was processing his face being in the newspaper he was stopped by a local woman who screamed, “IT’S HIM '' in Spanish. He tried to get away after a mob of people chased him through shopping centers and backyards. As he was running trying to get away from the mob other local people were making calls to 911 to report his whereabouts. By the time, Richard attempted to try to hijack a pregnant woman from her car, the mob caught up with him and beat him down before he was able to getaway. He was beaten so badly by the mob he was taken to the hospital before being taken to jail. The police ended up saving who was known as the Nightstalker from getting beat down by the local people who were tired of him reigning terror amongst the city of LA.

In 1989 Richard Ramirez was found guilty of 13 murders and 30 attempted murders, rapes, and sexual assaults. His sentence was one only of death. However, Richard died on July 7th, 2013 due to secondary B-cell lymphoma. He also suffered complications with Hepatitis C allegedly due to substance abuse. He died at the age of 53 years old after serving 23 years on death row.

What are your thoughts on Richard “the Night Stalker'' Ramirez? Do you believe he was possessed by the devil? Do you believe he was a satanist who went so far as believing by committing these crimes that Satan will put him on a higher standard than any other satanist? Or Do you believe that drugs and Richard were just plain evil?

Reference:

Richard Ramirez

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/richard-ramirez

Documentary:

LA Night Stalker | Was Richard Ramirez Born to Kill? | Real Crime

Https://youtu.be/uUeE8wKv8LY

1992 News Interview With Serial Killer The Night Stalker Richard Ramirez

https://youtu.be/Lekis5J00wg

Richard Ramirez ( The Night Stalker ) - Serial killer documentary

https://youtu.be/mtEOzX8V6yI