Evil’s Human Embodiment : The story of Richard Ramirez "The Night Stalker"

 Early life: A monster in the making:

Richard was born on February 29, 1960 and was raised in El Paso, Texas where he had a humble upbringing typical to his neighborhood as a low income one. His father was a hard-working man, yet strict with his children. Richard was often subjected to abuse by his father.At the age of two Richard was struck in the head with a falling piece of furniture , it ended up cutting a big gash in his head. And then when he was five years old he was struck again in the head with a swing at school and he was knocked unconscious. From that point on he suffered from seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy.

 

Young Ramirez appeared no different than the rest of his friends. “He was friendly, nice and he was so funny.” Patricia Kassfy-A friend of Ramirez .“If we had to take a short cut to school, we had to cut through this really tough neighborhood and he always used to wait for me, sitting on a little pony wall and then he would walk me to school. It was always safer” Patricia said.
By the time he turned 10 all was not well with Richard, “He would have seizures he would be shaking, we knew he was sick”-A friend of Ramirez .

He grew distant to his violent father, and began to hang out with his older cousin, Miguel, a Vietnam veteran. During his time in Vietnam, Miguel had developed a habit of torturing women. Miguel often showed Ramirez photos of the horrors he had inflicted on the women, including one where he posed with one of the women’s severed heads. Later on May 4th 1973 Miguel would fatally shoot his own wife in front of 13 years old Richard, which he was fascinated by. Miguel had been found not guilty of the shooting by reasons of insanity and spent just four years in an insane asylum before being released.

Obviously ,at the age when his sexuality was being formed, Ramirez was exposed to images of rape, torture and murder. Ramirez developed an obsession with the same kinds of sexual violence Miguel had inflicted on the Vietnamese women in his photos.

For a while after the shooting, Richard decided to move with his sister Ruth, where he was hanging out with his sister’s husband Roberto. Roberto was a peeping tom and took Richard with him at night to peep in windows of young attractive women watching them undressing, going to the bathroom or sleeping .Unfortunately It seemed that Ramirez jumped from a toxic environment to another, which will have the most effect on him later on in life.

While he was in high school, he had a part time job in a Holiday Inn hotel. He would use his pass key to enter into hotel rooms and rob them. One night when he was working, Richard broke into a guest hotel room. It was a couple, but  it was just the wife by herself at that time. He attempted to rape the woman but the husband ended up waking into them and catching Richard attacking his wife. Police was called, However the charges were dropped when the couple refused to testify as they didn’t live in the state and they didn’t want to travel back to testify against Ramirez.

Richard ended up losing his job. He failed his ninth grade twice and dropped out of school , he was even sleeping in local cemetery. He had only three interests -Martial arts, Marijuana and heavy metal.

“He loved Black Sabbath and Judas Priest” remarks a friend from his teen years.

Ramirez was arrested for the first time in 1977, for marijuana possession. At the age of 22 He moved to California, progressing to cocaine addiction and burglary, and cultivating an interest in Satanism. He stole anything that was loose and anything he could steal, his neighbors called him Ricky rub on and Ricky the thief .

Richard’s career of terror:

 

On April 10th 1984, Ramirez was staying in a hotel in San Francisco. He ends up murdering a 9 year old girl names Mei Leung in the basement of the hotel. He raped the girl before stabbing her to death and hanged her body from a pipe. That was first Richard’s known crime , but initially it wasn’t connected to him and was unsolved for many years. It wasn’t until 2009 when they were able to get DNA Match linking him to the crime.

He then goes to Los Angeles , he lived in a rough area called skid row. People were doing everything and homelessness was not an unusual thing. On June 28, 1984; his victim was 79-year-old Jennie Vincow, who was sexually assaulted, stabbed and killed during a burglary in her own home. It was said that her throat was slashed so deeply she was nearly decapitated.

On March 17, 1985, Ramirez attacked 22-year old Maria Hernandez outside her home. He shot her after she pulled into her garage .Hernandez survived. The bullet had ricocheted off the keys she held in her hands, as she lifted them to protect herself. Inside was Dayle Okazaki, age 34, she was ducked behind a counter when she saw Ramirez entered the kitchen. When she raised her head , Ramirez immediately shot and killed her. Within an hour of killing Okazaki, Ramirez struck again. He jumped 30-year-old Tsai-Lian Yu and pulled her out of her car onto the road. He shot her several times and fled. A policeman found her still breathing, but she died before the ambulance arrived. The two attacks occurring on the same day gained media attention, and in turn caused panic and fear among the public. A black base- ball style cap bearing the symbol of the hard rock group AC/DC found at the scene of Dayle’s murder. The music group was known for having lyrics with cultist over tones. Authorities focused on AC/DC highway to hell album and its “Night Prowler” cut which says” What’s the noise outside your window? What’s the shadow on the blind? As you lay there naked like a body in a tomb, suspended animation as I slip into your room”.

On March 27,1985 Ramirez shot Vincent Zazarra, age 64, and his wife Maxine, age 44. He demanded Maxine to tell him where the valuables in the house are, she told him to take whatever he wanted and in the mean time she had a gun underneath her mattress, when Ramirez came back she attempted to shoot him only to find out that the gun was not loaded which infuriated Ramirez . He started raping her then shot her in the face. Mrs Zazzara's body was mutilated with several stab wounds and a T-carving on her left breast, and her eyes were gouged out. The autopsy determined that the mutilations were after he killed her. Ramirez left footprints in the flower beds outside of the home, which the police photographed and cast. This was virtually the only evidence that the police had at the time. Bullets found at the scene were matched to those found at previous attacks, and the police realized a serial killer was on the loose. By this time, a multi-county police investigation was in operation. Vincent and Maxine's bodies were discovered in their home by their son, Peter.

On May 14, 1985, Ramirez entered the home of Bill Doi, 66, and his disabled wife, Lillian, 56. Surprising Doi in his bedroom, Ramirez shot him in the face as Doi went for his own handgun. After beating the man into unconsciousness, Ramirez entered Lillian's bedroom, raped her after he had ransacked the home for valuables.

On the night of May 29, 1985, Ramirez drove a stolen car and stopped at the house of Mabel 83, and her disabled sister, Florence 81. Finding a hammer in the kitchen, he bludgeoned and bound Florence in her bedroom, then bound and bludgeoned Mabel before using an electrical cord to shock the woman. After raping Florence, he used Mabel's lipstick to draw a pentagram on her thigh as well as on the walls of both bedrooms. The women were found two days later, Mabel later died of her injuries.

The next day, Ramirez drove the same car to sneaked into the home of Carol Kyle, 42. At gunpoint, he bound Kyle and her 11-year-old son with handcuffs. He released Kyle to direct him to where the family's valuables were; he then raped her repeatedly. Ramirez also repeatedly ordered her not to look at him, telling her at one point that he would "cut her eyes out". He fled the scene after retrieving the child from the closet and binding the two together again with the handcuffs.

On the night of July 2, 1985, he drove a stolen car and randomly selected the house of Mary Louise Cannon, 75. After quietly entering the widowed grandmother's home, he found her asleep in her bedroom. He bludgeoned her into unconsciousness with a lamp and then repeatedly stabbed her using a butcher knife from her kitchen. She was found dead at the scene.

On July 5, 1985, Ramirez broke into a home in , and bludgeoned 16-year-old Whitney Bennett with a tire iron as she slept in her bedroom. After searching in vain for a knife in the kitchen, Ramirez attempted to strangle the girl with a telephone cord. He was startled to see electrical sparks coming from the cord, and when his victim began to breathe, he fled the house believing that Jesus Christ had intervened and saved her. Bennett survived.

On July 7, 1985, Ramirez entered the home of Joyce Lucille Nelson, 61.He beat her to death using his fists and kicking her in the head. A shoe print from an Avia sneaker was left imprinted on her face. After cruising for a bit he chose the home of Sophie Dickman, 63. Ramirez assaulted Dickman and attempted to rape her, and stole her jewelry; when she swore to him that he had taken everything of value, he told her to "swear on Satan".

On July 20, 1985, Ramirez purchased a machete before driving a stolen Toyota to the home of Lela Kneiding, 66, and her husband Maxon, 68. He killed them with shots to the head. He further mutilated their bodies with the machete before robbing the house .

At approximately 4:15 am, he broke into the home of the Khovananth family. He shot Chainarong Khovananth in the head killing him instantly, then repeatedly raped and beat Somkid Khovananth. He bound the couple's terrified 8-year-old son before dragging Somkid around the house to reveal the location of valuable items. During his assault he demanded that she "swear to Satan" that she was not hiding any money from him.

On August 6, 1985, Ramirez broke into the home of Chris and Virginia Peterson. He startled Virginia, 27, and shot her in the face .He then shot Chris in the neck and attempted to flee. The couple survived their injuries.

On August 8, 1985, Ramirez drove a stolen car and chose the home of Sakina Abowath, 27, and her husband Elyas Abowath, 31. He entered the house and went into the master bedroom. He instantly killed Elyas with a shot to the head. He handcuffed and beat Sakina while forcing her to reveal the locations of the family's jewelry, and then brutally raped her. He repeatedly demanded that she "swear on Satan" that she would not scream during his assaults. When the couple's 3-year-old son entered the bedroom, Ramirez tied the child up and then continued to rape Sakina. After Ramirez left the home, Sakina untied her son and sent him to the neighbors for help.

On August 18, 1985, he entered the home of Peter and Barbara Pan. He shot Peter, 66, He then beat and sexually assaulted Barbara, 62, before shooting her in the head and leaving her for dead. At the crime scene, Ramirez used lipstick to scrawl a pentagram and the phrase "Jack the Knife" on the bedroom wall. When it was discovered that the shoe print evidence from the Los Angeles crime scenes matched the Pan crime scene, San Francisco's then-mayor Dianne Feinstein released the information in a televised press conference. This infuriated the detectives in the case, as they knew the killer would be following media coverage.

Ramirez, who had indeed been watching the press, dropped his Avia sneakers over the side of the Golden gate bridge that night.

On August 24, 1985, Ramirez traveled in a stolen orange Toyota, he arrived at the home of James Romero, Jr. Romero's son, 13-year-old James Romero III, happened to be awake and heard Ramirez's footsteps outside the house. James went to wake his parents, and Ramirez fled the scene. James raced outside and noted the color, make, and style of the car, as well as a partial license plate number. Romero contacted the police with this information.

After this encounter, Ramirez broke into the house of Bill Carns, 30 and his fiancée, Inez Erickson, 29. He shot Carns three times in the head before turning his attention to Erickson. Ramirez told the terrified woman that he was the "Night Stalker" and forced her to swear she loved Satan as he beat her with his fists .After stealing what he could find, Ramirez dragged Erickson to another room to rape her. Before leaving the home, Ramirez told Erickson, "Tell them the Night Stalker was here." Erickson went to a neighbor's house to get help for her fiancé.

“What he did to me was a total destruction of my life and girlfriend’s life. He stole my memory, he took my girlfriend he took my career. This was just an unprovoked attack” Bill Carnes said.
Bill was shot 3 times and ended up in a group home with a bullet still lodged in his brain.
Erickson gave a detailed description of him and police obtained a cast of Ramirez's footprint from the Romero house. The stolen car was found on August 28 and police obtained a single fingerprintfrom the rear-view mirror. The print was positively identified as belonging to Ramirez. Law enforcement officials decided to release to the media a mug shot of Ramirez from a December 12, 1984 arrest for a theft, and he was finally identified.

The Capture of the Night stalker :

 

His mug shots were broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California. On August 30, 1985, Ramirez took a bus to Arizona, to visit his brother, unaware that his face was on newspaper and TV , he returned to Los Angeles early on the morning of August 31. After noticing a group of elderly Mexican women fearfully identifying him as The Killer, Ramirez saw his face on the front pages on the newspaper rack and fled the store in a panic .It was Ramirez turn to live a nightmare. Under his Jack Daniel’s logo he wore on his chest , his heart hammered his bones. He paused at one woman’s door.”Por favor, help me!” She said “Your Him!” and slammed the door shut in his face. Eventually he was surrounded, and severely beaten by an angry mob 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. He was cuffed and shoved into the back seat of the police car. His head had bandage from the beating he had received. Ramirez was moved by 50 armed officers on the ride to his holding zone. He said “I want the electric chair”..” They should have shot me in the street”.

The Rock Star killer finally arrives at court:
Trial began on July 22, 1988. At his first court appearance Ramirez raised a hand with a pentagram drawn on it and yelled “Hail Satan”. He also used to flash a two-fingered “Devil” sign to photographers and mutter “Evil”. 

The trial was one of the longest criminal cases in history. In his trial alone, 1600 jurors were called.

It was also reported that some employees over heard Ramirez planning to shoot the prosecutor with a gun. Consequently a metal detector was installed and intensive searches were conducted on people entering.

Trial was interrupted when one of the female juror was murdered. She was found beaten and shot to death at the home she shared with her boyfriend. The next day the man committed suicide and left a note saying he killed her in an argument.

Ramirez laughed a lot, and joked with his attorneys, even doing it loudly during crucial testimony. Once he laughed loudly during a young widow’s testimony had caused several spectators to cry as she tearfully described how her assailant had raped and beaten her while her slain husband lay nearby.
Ramirez sneered openly at the prosecution (studying photographs of crime scenes) he smirked when he came across a death scene that he especially liked.
Ramirez seemed to enjoy staring down witnesses. At one point the judge warned him to stop. And once again he set his eyes on the next witness, the judge nodded to the bailiff and the bailiff physically yanked Ramirez head in the other direction.. Ramirez grunted and attacked the bailiff. He was overcome by the court room guards who dragged him back to his cell.

On September 10,1989 Ramirez was convicted of all charges, 13 counts of murder and other charges.

During the penalty phase, on November 7, 1989 he was sentenced to death by asphyxiation in gas chamber. After the jury recommended the death penalty for his crimes Ramirez said:

“You do not understand me. You are not expected to. You are not capable of it. I am beyond your experiences ,I am beyond good and evil, legions of the night –night breed-repeat not the errors of the night stalker and show no mercy. I will be avenged. Lucifer dwells within us all. That’s it ”.

On his way to the jail bus, he said in reaction to the verdict “ Big deal. Death always went with the territory. I’ll See you in Disneyland”

The trial cost was 1.8 million which made it the most expensive trial in California’s history.

Richard Ramirez and his groupies:

By the time of the trial, Ramirez had fans who were writing him letters and paying him visits. Women were begging for his attention and affection. At least two of his female followers were locked in an ongoing and at times violent battle with one another at the jail house. Both females had provocative photos of themselves floating around the jail house.one of them was a porno model Kelly Marquez ,the other female was Christine Lee. Marquez went so far as to try to get a local judge to issue a restraining order against Christine Lee, The judge however said she found both women less than credible and threw them out of court.

“Somebody was calling and she was giving me death threats and saying you are going to die. You better stay away from Richard and bla bla bla..”-Kelly Marquez

“I like him , I mean you know when I went to visit him I decided that I was not going to look at all the things he had done”-Said Marquez.

“If I wanted to have attacked her or beat her up I would and I could. But I didn’t and I won’t so she is just exaggerating”.-Christine Lee

“I am doing a research to produce a documentary on the death penalty. I just wish the woman would leave me alone.” said Kelly Marquez.

One of the female juror Cynthia Haden befriended him. She said she was attracted to him and she even met him after conviction and apologized for finding him guilty.

Since 1985, freelance magazine editor Doreen Lioy wrote him nearly 75 letters during his incarceration. In 1988 he proposed to her, and on October 3, 1996, they were married in California's San Quentin State Prison. Lioy has stated that she will commit suicide when Ramirez is executed.
“He’s kind, he’s funny, he’s charming,” Ramirez’s new wife, Doreen Ramirez, told CNN the following year. “I think he’s a really great person. He’s my best friend; he’s my buddy.”

However Lioy eventually left Ramirez when she found out he killed a 9 year old girl. By the time of his death Ramirez was engaged to a 23 year old female writer.

“I think the girls are attracted to me because they can relate to me. The girls are nice when you’re in my situation, but since I’m in here (in jail) I spend more time writing to them about the relationship, rather than living it, but there are good friendships formed never –the-less”-Richard Ramirez

A conversation with Richard Ramirez:

 

Reported by Mike Watkiss.

Mike: What do you want the world to know about you?

Richard: The world has been fed many lies about me , I have read very few truths.

Mike: Who are you ?

Richard: After a long pause “Just a guy..Just a guy”

Mike: Did you kill 13 people?

Richard: It would be improper for me to comment on my LA convictions and my pending case here in San Francisco.

Mike: Why?

Richard: Because of my appeals.

Mike: Are you appealing these because you say you are innocent? You didn’t kill 13 people?

Richard: -Frustrated- “That is correct”

Mike: You didn’t kill 13 people?

Richard: Again it would be improper for me to comment in any regard to that question.

Mike: you have entered a very rare group of people in this country. You’re in the ranks of Charlie Manson, Ted Bundy. You claimed you didn’t commit these murders but you’re right in there now as far as everybody else’s.

Richard: -Smiling- “Serial killers do on a small scale what government’s doing on a large one. They are a product of the times and these are blood thirsty times .Even psychopaths have emotions but then again maybe they don’t.

Mike: Do you have emotions Richard?

Richard: -Smiling- “No comment”

Mike: Tell me what kind of emotions you have going through you right now

Richard: I’ll tell you what , I gave up on love and happiness a long time ago.

Mike: Why?

Richard: I don’t care to explain that, let the quote stand for itself…People in this day and age are brainwashed and programmed like a computer at being nothing more than puppets. This nation, this country is founded in violence. Violent delights tend to have violent ends. The killing is killing whether done for duty profit or fun, men murdered themselves into this democracy.

Mike: A lot of was made that you are a devil worshiper. Do you worship the devil? Have you ever studied Satanism?

Richard: There are different sects of Satanism.

Mike: Have you studied ..yes or no?

Richard: Yes! ..Yes I have.

Mike: Are you a worshiper of the devil?

Richard : No comment.

Mike: Common Richard..

Richard: I can tell you a little bit about Satanism.

Mike: Well I am interested in hearing what you have to say.

Richard: It is undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit . It is power without charity, the Satanist admits to being evil.

Mike: You admit to being evil Richard?

Richard: We are all evil in some form or another, are we not?

Mike: I am asking you the question my friend, okay?

Richard: -Laughing- Yes I am evil, not a 100% but I am evil. Evil has always existed. Perfect world most people seek, they’ll never come to pass and it’s gonna get worse. The great air box of our life is when we gain the courage to re-baptize our evil qualities as being our best qualities.

The End of the Night Stalker:
Richard Ramirez died June 7,2013 at age 53 at a hospital where he had been taken for treatment of liver failure. He died of complications from B-cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, he had been on death row  for more than 23 years.

                         “In the end we all die and nothing really matters”- Richard Ramirez