Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Night Stalker: Richard Ramirez

Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramírez, known as Richard Ramirez; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), was an American serial killer, rapist, and burglar. His highly publicized home invasion crime spree terrorized the residents of the greater Los Angeles area and later the residents of the San Francisco area from June 1984 until August 1985. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media. He used a wide variety of weapons, including handguns, knives, a machete, a tire iron, and a hammer. Ramirez, who was an avowed Satanist, never expressed any remorse for his crimes. The judge who upheld Ramirez's thirteen death sentences remarked that his deeds exhibited "cruelty, callousness, and viciousness beyond any human understanding". Ramirez died of complications from B-cell lymphoma while awaiting execution on California's death row.

Early life and education

Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas on February 29, 1960, the youngest of Julian and Mercedes Ramirez's five children. His father, a Mexico national and former Juarez policeman who later became a laborer on the Santa Fe railroad was prone to fits of anger that often resulted in physical abuse.

As a 12-year-old, Richard – or "Richie", as he was known to his family – was strongly influenced by his older cousin, Miguel ("Mike") Ramirez, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret combat veteran who often boasted of his gruesome exploits during the Vietnam War. He shared Polaroid photos of his victims, including Vietnamese women he had raped. In some of the photos, Mike posed with the severed head of a woman he had abused. Ramirez, who had begun smoking marijuana at the age of 10, bonded with Mike over joints and gory war stories. Mike taught his young cousin some of his military skills, such as killing with stealth and surety. Around this time, Ramirez began to seek escape from his father's violent temper by sleeping in a local cemetery.

Ramirez was present on May 4, 1973 when his cousin Mike fatally shot his wife, Jessie, in the face with a .38 caliber revolver during a domestic argument. After the shooting, Ramirez became sullen and withdrawn from his family and peers. Later that year, he moved in with his older sister, Ruth, and her husband, Roberto, an obsessive "peeping Tom" who took Richie along on his nocturnal exploits. Ramirez also began using LSD and cultivated an interest in Satanism. Mike was found not guilty of Jessie's murder by reason of insanity (with his combat record as a mitigating factor) and was released in 1977, after four years of incarceration at the Texas State Mental Hospital. His influence over Ramirez continued.

The adolescent Ramirez began to meld his burgeoning sexual fantasies with violence, including forced bondage and rape. While still in school, he took a job at a local Holiday Inn, where he used his passkey to rob sleeping patrons. His employment ended abruptly after a hotel guest returned to his room to find Ramirez attempting to rape his wife. Though the husband beat Ramirez senseless at the scene, criminal charges were dropped when the couple, who lived out of state, declined to return to testify against him. Ramirez dropped out of Jefferson High School in the ninth grade. At the age of 22, he moved to California, where he settled permanently.

Murders

On April 10, 1984, Ramirez murdered 9-year-old Mei Leung in a hotel basement, where he was living, in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. He raped and beat the girl before stabbing her to death, and hanged her body from a pipe. This, Ramirez's first known killing, was not initially identified as being connected to the subsequent crime spree. In 2009, Ramirez's DNA was matched to a sample obtained at this crime scene. In 2016, officials disclosed evidence of a second suspect, identified through a DNA sample retrieved from the scene, who is believed to have been present at Leung's murder. Authorities have not publicly identified the suspect, described as being a juvenile at the time, and have not brought charges due to the lack of evidence.