Richard Ramirez

"We've all got the power in our hands to kill, but most people are afraid to use it. The ones who aren't afraid, control life itself."

Richard Ramirez (born Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez), aka "The Night Stalker", is an American serial killer and rapist. He is not to be confused with a serial killer who holds a similar nickname, The Original Night Stalker.

Background
Richard Ramirez was born Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez in El Paso, Texas on February 29, 1960. His father, Julian Tapia Ramirez, was born in Camargo, Mexico. He met Richard's mother, Colorado-born Mercedes Muñoz, there when they were both 14 years old. When her family went to Juarez, Julian followed and married her in 1948, when they were 19. As he wasn't an American citizen, he lived in Juarez while Mercedes lived in El Paso, Texas and had their children there. They had a total of five: Ruben, Joseph, Robert, Ruth and finally Richard. In 1952, Julian was deported by border security and the entire family moved to the U.S., where Julian attained legal citizenship and found work at the Santa Fe railroad. Mercedes' pregnancy with Richard was very difficult because the chemical fumes she inhaled at her job at a boot factory caused her body to try and reject the fetus. At the age of two, he almost died when a dresser fell on him and he suffered a concussion.

Growing up, he was a quiet loner. When he was in fifth grade, it was discovered that he had epilepsy, though doctors said he would grow out of it. It resulted in him being removed from his position as quarterback on the school's football team. When he was in seventh grade, his grades began slipping and he started sniffing glue. At the age of 10, he started spending nights at cemeteries and also began smoking marijuana. When he was 12, his cousin Miguel returned from his second tour in Vietnam and they began spending time together. He would show Richard photos of Vietnamese women he had raped, tortured and killed and teach him how to keep hidden and kill with stealth. When Richard was 13, he saw Miguel shoot and kill his wife and was affected by it for the rest of his life. Shortly before that, he had begun burglarizing people's homes, committing petty theft, skipping school and becoming addicted to cannabis. During burglaries, he enjoyed walking around in the homes and going through the residents' personal belongings.

During a trip to Los Angeles to see his brother Ruben, a petty criminal, Ramirez was taught more about burglaries from him. After returning to El Paso, he enrolled in the Jefferson High School, but dropped out after less than a year. The only subject in which he did well was physical education. He would hunt animals with his family when they were available. If they were not, he would go alone; he particularly enjoyed sneaking up on them and then stabbing and gutting them. He liked watching horror movies and began to attend Jehovah's Witness meetings, where became interested in Satan. At the age of 15, while he was still in high school, he briefly held down a job at a Holiday Inn, but was fired after a few months for entering a woman's room and attempting to rape her, but was stopped by her husband. Because the couple were from out of state and wanted to move on as soon as possible, they wouldn't testify against him and the charges were dropped. At the age of 16, he was already a skilled burglar. Shortly after turning 18, he moved to Los Angeles permanently.

Killings, Capture and Incarceration
During his first weeks in LA, Ramirez essentially lived as a transient. He made a substantial amount of money by selling marijuana which he had bought cheaply in El Paso and brought with him and spent the money on food and stays in hotels. He made a habit of stealing cars, spending a few days in them, stealing anything valuable inside and then ditching them. He became addicted to cocaine, which was a very popular drug at the time, and could afford the habit by selling things he stole during burglaries. One night in the summer of 1978, he bound a lesbian woman with whom he smoked PCP and raped her repeatedly.

His interest in satanism evolved and he became involved with the Church of Satan. He spent some months in prison for auto theft, but was released. In 1983, his sister Ruth went to L.A. and tried to convince Ramirez to come back to El Paso, but he turned her down. On June 28, 1984, after snorting cocaine, Ramirez burglarized the home of 79 year old Jennie Wilcow, raped her and stabbed her to death. On March 17 the next year, he bought a .22 revolver from a dealer and used it in several later killings. Over the course of a little more than a year, Ramirez proceeded to kill 12 additional people, rape and/or attempt to kill multiple others in several different Californian cities. The media nicknamed him "the Night Stalker". On August 24, 1985, Ramirez committed his last known murder, killing a man named William Carns and raping his fiancée, leaving her alive. She got a good look of both him and the orange Toyota he was driving, including its license plates.

On the morning of August 28, the car was found outside a shopping center in LA County. Though Ramirez was always careful not to leave behind fingerprints, he forgot to wipe off one on the rear-view mirror. When the print was matched to those of his prints that were on file, the Night Stalker task force released his name and picture to the media. On August 31, 1985, Ramirez tried to steal a Mustang, not noticing that the owner was under the car. When he heard the car start, the man got up and forcibly pulled Ramirez out of the car. Ramirez then ran across the street and tired to steal another car, but the driver called for help. A neighbor heard the noise and called the police. When Ramirez was recognized from the published mugshot, a bunch of residents banded together, caught him and managed to hold him down until police arrived and arrested him.

His trial for 14 counts of murder and 31 other felony counts didn't take long and included hundreds of pieces of evidence against him. As it progressed, Ramirez garnered several female "fans" who became utterly devoted to him. On October 3, 1989, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to death. On October 3, 1996 (seven years to the day after he was found guilty), he married one of his female fans, a freelance magazine editor named Doreen Lioy, and remains married to her to this day. She has stated that she will commit suicide if he is executed. In 2009, his DNA was linked to the 1984 murder of Mei Leung, 9. How she was killed has not yet been revealed to the public. He is currently (June 2012) still on death row pending execution.

Modus Operandi
Ramirez typically struck at night and entered his victims' homes through home invasions. According to several witness reports, he would dress in black, presumably as camouflage. His victims varied in age and race and were often shot with a .22 revolver but were also killed or attacked in a variety of ways, including stabbing, slashing with a machete, and bludgeoning with a hammer or a tire iron. Ramirez sometimes raped his female victims and left Satanic pentagrams as a signature. His generally preferred style of killing was to burglarize the home, kill the husbands, and then rape the wives.

Victims
''Note: The names of some victims vary depending on the source. This list was based on Wikipedia's. The asterisks mark names that vary.''
 * ?, 1975: Unnamed woman
 * Summer of 1978: Unnamed woman
 * 1984:
 * April 10: Mei Leung, 9
 * June 24: Jennie Vincow, 79
 * The 1985 murders:
 * March 17:
 * Maria Hernandez* and Dayle Okazaki:
 * Maria Hernandez, 22
 * Dayle Okazaki, 34
 * Tsia-Lian Yu
 * March 20: An unnamed eight-year-old girl
 * March 27: Vincent and Maxine Zazzara:
 * Vincent Zazzara, 64
 * Maxine Zazzara, 44
 * April 15: William and Lillian Doi:
 * William Doi*, 66
 * Lillian Doi*, 63
 * May 29:
 * Malvia Keller, 83
 * Blanche Wolfe, 80
 * May 30: Ruth Wilson*, 41
 * June 27: An unnamed six-year-old girl
 * June 27-28: Patty Elaine Higgins, 32
 * July 2: Mary Louise Cannon, 75
 * July 5: Whitney Bennett*, 16
 * July 7:
 * Joyce Lucille Nelson, 61
 * Sophie Dickman, 63
 * July 20: The Kneidings
 * Lela Kneiding, 66
 * Max Kneiding, 66
 * August 6: Christopher and Virginia Petersen
 * Christopher Petersen, 38
 * Virginia Petersen, 27
 * August 8: The Abowaths*
 * Elyas Abowath, 35
 * Sakina Abowath, 29
 * August 18:
 * Peter Pan, 66
 * Barbara Pan, 64
 * August 24:
 * William Carns
 * Renata Gunther*, 29

The Original Night Stalker
The Original Night Stalker was an unsolved serial murder/rape case that preceded Ramirez's rampage. The offender was also known as the "East Area Rapist". He targeted women (though he later attacked couples), would strike at night when the victims were asleep, wake them up at gunpoint, tie them up with shoelaces using a so-called diamond knot (his signature) and rape them. When the offender killed, he targeted couples, broke into their houses at night, robbed the place and then killed the couple by bludgeoning them with some object from the house (except for the first couple, who were shot). Most of those victims were also tied up with a diamond knot. In total, 12 murders, including five couples, and over 50 rapes have been attributed to the killer. The two cases were connected by DNA evidence in 2001. In spite of the brutality of the attacks and the high victim count, the case is not as well-known as that of Ramirez. To date (May 2011), the killer has not been identified. For a full article, see here.

Criminal Minds Comparison
Serial killer/rapist Billy Flynn, a.k.a. The Prince of Darkness, was compared by the BAU and media to Richard Ramirez. They were both active in California in 1984, except Ramirez stayed in the state while Flynn travelled afterwards. They share several similarities as they both struck at night through home invasions and raped at least some of their female victims. Like Ramirez, Flynn also had severely discolored teeth, though Ramirez had this due to drug use and junk food consumption while Flynn had this due to his avid smoking as well as drug use. When Ramirez raped Ruth Wilson, he locked her 10-year old son in a closet. Billy did almost the exact same thing during at least two of his attacks. The scene in "The Longest Night" where a group of suburbanites rally together to try and capture or kill Billy themselves may have also been inspired by Ramirez's violent apprehension by a group of civilians. Also, the scene from the same episode where Billy kills a motorist who is trying to call the police may have been loosely based on Ramirez's murder of Tsia-Lian Yu, who was pulled over by him and shot twice in the chest next to the car.

Also, the way Greg Phinney dresses completely in black and with a cap during his murders is similar to the way Ramirez dressed almost exactly the same way during his murders. Ramirez was also referenced in "Profiling 101" when his mugshot was among several mugshots of real-life criminals showcased by the BAU in an online montage to a Criminology class.