Three Terrifying Satanic Crimes

The Murder of Gary Lauwers

Ricky was born to a well-off family back on March 29, 1967. While he went to the highly regarded Cold Springs Harbor High School, he was known to act out, and was even thrown out of his house as a teenager. He would live on the streets of Northport, New York, and sleep either in the woods, or on the couches or backseats of cars of friends. He was also a very heavy drug user. Kasso was known to partake in marijuana use, LSD, and PCP. In order to make a sustainable living, he also sold drugs for some time. His life was far from perfect, and many believe because of this, he looked to the occult for answers.

Kasso and a group of friends pulled together a small group known as the “Knights of the Black Circle,” and all sold drugs together and performed petty crimes. They were also believed to take part in ceremonies with the group, and celebrated Walpurgis Night in the Amityville Horror house in 1984. Along with this, Kasso also talked quite a bit to the others in the group about his interest in the book, The Satanic Bible, by Anton LaVey. Some time during all this was happening Kasso’s parents admitted him to South Oaks Psychiatric Hospital, which at the time as Amityville Asylum, for psychiatric help, and help with his addiction to heavy drugs.

With that said though, he wasn’t kept for long as the psychiatrist said that Ricky was suffering from an antisocial personality disorder, and was not psychotic. He was released after overcoming his pneumonia. Once he was out, his habits picked up once again. The night of the murder Ricky and three of his friends, Gary Lauwers, James Troiano, and Albert Quinones, were having a small gathering in the woods. Gary and Ricky had not been seeing eye to eye lately, and had gotten into a small altercation before this took place over a large number of missing drugs. This night, their argument would turn fatal.

The two began to scream at each other once again until Ricky tackled Gary to the ground, and began beating him to death. Eventually, Ricky pulled a knife and stabbed Gary 32 times while screaming out, “Say you love, Satan!” Gary’s body was left in the woods, and over the next few weeks, Kasso bragged to friends about committing a legitimate human sacrifice. He would even show them the body, which was now nearly completely decomposed. Through an anonymous tip, police were able to locate the body and eventually Ricky. Kasso would go on to write and sign off on two separate confessions but would claim they were lies later on. While he was supposed to stand trial, he committed suicide in his cell the night after being arrested.

Ricky’s crime would spark a ton of outrage given the “Satanic Panic” that was sweeping the nation at the time. Many journalists sited heavy metal as a reason for why Ricky did what he did, seeing as he was a fan of the genre. Of course, this was simply used to spin the story in favor of the argument that music can lead someone to kill someone, which frankly, isn’t true. Despite this, Ricky’s crime has inspired tons of songs many by the band Acid King, and the band Fistula who released a song about him as recently as 2016.

The East Texas Church Burnings

It began on January 1, 2010. Early into the New Year, two churches, Little Hope Baptist in Canton and Faith Church in Athens, were found up in flames. They were both initially ruled as accidental, but after investigation, they were ruled as arson. While police searched for any leads, two more places of worship went up in flames less than two weeks later. This time they were Lake Athens Baptist Church and Grace Community Church in Athens. While the buildings weren’t completely destroyed, they were badly burned and again, they have been ruled as arson. It was around this time that police realized they had a serial arsonist. Six more churches would be set ablaze before police finally made a break.

A sketch of three possible suspects was released, and on February 21, 2010, just shy of two weeks after the last burning, 19-year-old Jason Robert Bourque and 21-year-old Daniel Grove McAllister were arrested in connection to the crimes. While in court the two were initially facing felony charges of arson, which holds a maximum sentence of six years, however, since they attacked places of worship, their bond was set at $10 million, and they were given the maximum sentence; 99 years to life.

Both of the boys had been brought up in religious families. Bourque was raised by his grandparents who were devout Christians, and McAllister was homeschooled for religious reasons. As they grew older, however, they began questioning their beliefs, and faith. This led them to begin following the Church of Satan, and police believe the church burning was their way of professing their love for him. Furthermore, they were multiple instances of Satanic imagery found at a handful of the crime scenes.

The Crimes of Richard Ramirez

I left out Richard on the first list, because it felt like he’d gotten all the coverage he needed. However, while looking through his history, I felt compelled to include him. Richard was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1960, and was the youngest of five children. His father Julian Ramirez was a Mexican national, and was a Juarez policeman for some time until becoming a laborer on the Santa Fe Railroad. According to reports he was also extremely quick to anger, and was said to abuse Richard as well as his siblings.

As Ramirez was growing up he looked up to his older brother Miguel who was a US Army Green Beret combat veteran. A great role model sure, given what the Green Beret has to go through. However, instead of teaching Richard dignity, respect, and perseverance Miguel would often brag about the countless Vietnamese women he raped and murdered while in Vietnam. It's reported that Miguel even posed with women who had been decapitated. Sometime later Ramirez witnessed his cousin fatally shooting his wife. It was around this time that Ramirez would begin acting out.

As with many serial killers, it starts out with petty crimes. Ramirez started with breaking into homes and selling the valuables he found inside. He would go on to drop out of high school and move to Los Angeles where he would continue to break into people’s houses. It wouldn’t be until June of 1984, when Ramirez was 24, that the killings would begin. His first victim was a 79-year-old woman named Jennie Vincow who was found in her apartment in Glassell Park. Jennie had been stabbed multiple times and was also nearly decapitated.

The satanic undertones of his crimes, however, wouldn’t come about until May 29, 1985. He drove a stolen Mercedes-Benz to the home of Mabel Bell, and her sister Florence Lang. The women were 83 and 81. Ramirez found a hammer in the kitchen and struck the two women before bounding them in their bedroom. He repeatedly raped Florence, and shocked her with an electrical cord. After this, he drew a pentagram on her leg, as well as all the walls of their bedrooms, with lipstick. The women were discovered two days later unconscious, but alive. After some time in the hospital, only Florence would survive the attack.

The crimes committed on the night of July 7 also saw some disturbing Satanic undertones. It began with Joyce Lucille Nelson, who was 61. She was sleeping on the couch when he came in. Without her even waking up he began punching and kicking her in the face until she passed away. Allegedly there was a shoeprint on her face from the attack. From there he drove over the home of Sophia Dickman who was 63. He assaulted the woman, handcuffed her, and attempted to rape her. Before leaving he took everything she had of value, and made her swear on Satan before he left.

These are only a handful of the atrocious crimes he committed, but we don’t have time to cover them all. As such, I’ll run their names, and photos if I can find them, across the screen so they’ll be remembered.

It was on August 30, 1985 that Ramirez was finally caught. He had taken a bus down to Tucson, Arizona to visit his brother, but when he arrived, he wasn’t there. The following morning he returned to LA, and made his way into a convenience store. While inside a group of women saw him and ran out screaming. “El Matador!” If you’re unaware they were screaming, “The killer!” Richard looked around the store and finally noticed his face plastered over wanted posters. He ran out of the store and nearby police gave chase, but it wasn’t until he was attempting a third carjacking that a group of civilians attacked Ramirez, and police were able to catch him. Allegedly a man struck him over the head with a pipe, and a large group gathered to beat him until police arrived.

The trial for Ramirez began on July 22, 1988 and would be the most expensive case in California’s history until the OJ Case in 1994. At the first hearing, Ramirez walked into the courtroom with a pentagram drawn on his hand saying, “Hail Satan” multiple times. Over a year later Ramirez was convicted of all the crimes he’d committed; 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. He was meant to be put to death in California’s gas chamber, however, after more than 23 years on death row, he passed away in his cell from B-cell lymphoma.