In this post, I am going to discuss the serial killer Richard Ramirez, also known as the “Night Stalker“. Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas on February 28, 1960 and was the youngest of five children. He was said to be a troubled kid growing up, mostly influenced by one of his older cousins named Mike, and was introduced to drugs early in his adolescent life. Mike faught in the Vietnam War and would often show Ramirez gruesome photos of tortious acts he would perform on Vietnamese women and also tell him horrid stories from the war. Eventually, Ramirez started committing small crimes and became interested in satanism.
The first serious crime involving Ramirez was the murder of Mike’s wife when he was approximately 13 years old. Ramirez did not murder this woman, however, he was at the scene of the crime and witnessed the killing. After this event, Ramirez began breaking into people’s homes, among many other crimes and was eventually imprisoned for a short period of time after stealing a vehicle.
Ramirez committed his first murder in June 28, 1984 in California. He sexually assaulted and stabbed an 79 year old woman to death in her own home. In the year following his first murder, Ramirez killed more than a dozen people and tourtured several others. A majority of his victims, some who survived the encounter, were sexually assaulted and beaten. Ramirez would also leave satanic symbols at the scene of the crimes.
On August 31, 1985 Ramirez was recognized by citizens in the East Los Angeles area which resulted in a police chase. He tried to steal a vehicle, however, was unable to escape due to a crowd of citizens who began beating him until police arrived at the scene. Ramirez was arrested and was “found guilty for thirteen counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder, eleven sexual assaults, and fourteen burglaries”. He was sentenced to die in California’s gas chamber, although he eventually died of B-cell Lymphoma on June 7, 2013 at the age of 53. After receiving the death sentence, sources state that Ramirez never showed any signs of remorse and stated, “Hey, big deal, death always comes with the territory. I’ll see you in Disneyland”.
Personally, I did not have any previous knowledge about Richard Ramirez before writing this post, though, I found this case extremely frightening. I believe the influence of his cousin, Mike, led to the troubled path Ramirez endured throughout his childhood and his ability to kill in his adulthood. I know Netflix released a documentary about Ramirez called “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer”. I have not watched this documentary yet, though, after researching this case I am interested to see what else I can learn about Ramirez. As always, I would love to hear your opinions in the comments!
Maggie Rosa says:
I had not heard of this case previously and so I obviously don’t know much about it but I am curious if his cousin Mike ever went to jail. I would have thought that Mike would have been just as troubled as Ramirez. If he did not I wonder if there was something else that caused Ramirez to go down the path he did. I find it interesting to think about what goes on in serial killers’ minds and it seems as if Ramirez had something that Mike did not.
March 28, 2021 — 3:40 pm
bpd5382 says:
This is the first time I have ever heard about Ramirez. I think that it is interesting as he appears to be one of the casualties of the Vietnam war in terms of long-lasting trauma, drug abuse, and eventually a life of crime. There are a lot of Vietnam veterans who eventually went on to commit crimes, some of which are violent, and it again goes to show how early trauma has a correlation with mental illness and violence.
April 27, 2021 — 12:54 pm