World's Most Evil Killers - Season 2, Episode 10 - Richard Ramirez | True Crime | Forensic Files

[ Suspenseful music plays ] -On August 31, 1985, detectives across California [ Camera shutter clicks ] had finally discovered
the identity of a serial killer who the media dubbed the Night Stalker. The mysterious attacker was wanted
for 13 murders across Los Angeles. -He was a psychotic, paranoid, Satan-worshiping psychopath
who derived his pleasure from the combination of lust and violence. -After being chased by a mob of vigilantes,
25-year-old Richard Ramirez had to be rescued by two police officers who had, inadvertently,
made the biggest arrest of the decade. -This one cop looks real close. He says, "Jesus!
It's the Night Stalker! It's Richard Ramirez." -At his trial, the most feared man in the USA
declared his allegiance to the devil. -If you were going to set out to describe how to make a serial killer or a serial rapist,
you could do worse than take Ramirez as your example. He has every possible constituent.
-Richard Ramirez, the man known as the Night Stalker, [ Shutter clicks ] had taken his place in infamy
as one of the world's most evil killers. [ Shutter clicks ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Suspenseful music climbs ]
[ Shutter clicks ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ♪♪ [ Shutter clicks ] It was a series of gruesome murders
that spread fear across California. When Richard Ramirez was finally apprehended
[ Melancholy tune plays ] by an angry mob in Los Angeles on August 31, 1985, it brought to an end
one of the most prolific murderers in U.S. history. Nicknamed the Night Stalker,
the Satan-worshipping serial killer had terrorized the state of California for 14 months,
claiming at least 13 victims. San Francisco Detective Frank Falzon met Ramirez face-to-face
four years after his conviction, in September 1989. -About as evil as anything I can imagine.
He was intent to hurt and that's what people have to realize. -Frank worked hard to help capture Ramirez
after the Night Stalker murders reached [ Shutter clicks ] the San Francisco Bay area
in August 1985. -I served 22 years in the San Francisco Homicide detail. Numerous cases were broke that I felt very good about;
none as high as the Night Stalker. The fact that my partner and I and a few other gentlemen
played a key role in breaking this case, it was probably the highlight of my career.
-This killer's story begins over half a century ago. Richard Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960,
[ Shutter clicks ] to Mexican-born parents in El Paso, Texas. -He was the youngest of five children
and the family had quite a kind of turbulent life, so, they lived in several different areas,
many of which had quite high levels of industrial pollution. Some of his siblings had been born with birth defects,
so, this family had an awful lot of challenges. That's something that would come to shape Richard's life
and those of his siblings, so, he hasn't got the best start in life. -And life did not get much better for Ramirez.
At a young age, he began rebelling against his strict Catholic upbringing. -He's nine. His brain is still developing.
He's sniffing glue. He's smoking marijuana. There's emotional trauma that's happening in the family, too.
[ Suspenseful music plays ] -His father was a brutal, short-tempered man. I'm not suggesting it was classic child abuse,
but there was certainly physical violence, and Richard Ramirez shrank away, if you like, from his father
and he took refuge in the company of a cousin. -Ramirez's cousin Mike returned from the Vietnam War in 1971.
He was scarred by the atrocities he'd seen and had committed as a Special Forces Green Beret.
-So we have a grizzled, damaged, Vietnam vet, mind, and a frail, probably suggestible boy,
and Mike proceeds to explain to him the dreadful things he's done to Vietnamese women while in Vietnam.
He's tied them to trees. He's raped them. He's beheaded them. He's taken photographs of it.
-He came home, telling stories of this to Richard, and he would boast about it, so Richard now has
a real-life killing machine to look up to and to admire. [ Sinister chord strikes ] -12-year-old Ramirez
was fascinated by his older cousin. -So he starts spending an awful lot of time with Mike.
He's quite a significant influence on young Richard's life and he's very impressionable at this age,
so this really is kind of cementing some of those ideas that he's had about harming other people in order to feel powerful.
[ Shutter clicks ] -And that must have distorted Ramirez's value systems and the way in which he responded to women, in general.
[ Sinister chord strikes ] They became objects. They were not real and they became,
how can one put it politely? Not entirely human. -On May 4, 1973, Ramirez witnessed an event that would cement
[ Shutter clicks ] his feelings towards women and his admiration for Cousin Mike.
-He keeps his gun in the fridge because he says he likes to keep it cool and this is another thing I think
that quite impresses Richard, and one day, Mike has a huge argument with his wife
and ends up killing her. He shoots her in the face. [ Sinister chord strikes ] [ Siren wailing ]
And Richard is there in the house when this happens. What you've got here is a combination
of things that have been going on. So, a young lad who looks up to people who are violent,
a young lad who hears stories of violence, and, now, he's actually seeing it happen.
-Mike was a powerful influence in the direction of psychopathy, rage discontrol, and the merger --
and this is the most important thing -- the merger of sexual impulses and violent impulses
into a single, coherent force. -Now, the impact that must've had on a boy who's been taking marijuana
with a man who he clearly hero-worships, it must have scrambled Ramirez's brain.
-And his reaction to it is quite interesting 'cause when he talks about it afterwards,
he doesn't talk about how he feels, seeing this woman murdered in front of him. He talks about it very objectively.
He talks about the body falling to the floor, about blood spurting out of the wound.
It's not about feeling disgusted or feeling traumatized or sad. He's just giving a very cold description
and I think this really does tell us what kind of person Ramirez is turning into.
-Mike was immediately arrested. In court, he was judged to be not guilty on the grounds of insanity.
Instead of prison, he was sent to a mental institution and released in 1977. -Ramirez, in the meantime,
because he's removed from his hero, goes to stay with his sister and husband. -He's lost his idol; he's lost his role model
and he is basically now starting to ruminate and to think about the things that he wants to do,
so, he doesn't look after himself. He's very unkempt. He's dirty. He doesn't wash, and so he becomes even more of an outcast.
So, he very much gets lost in his own head, at this point in time, and he's planning what he's going to do next.
-Age 17, Ramirez was ready to turn his twisted fantasies into reality. -While he was still at school,
he got a job working at a Holiday Inn and he got a passkey for all the rooms and he took it upon himself one day
to decide that, while the husband was away, parking the car, he would go into the room that they just both moved into
and he would attempt to rape the wife. -The husband comes in and he sees what's going on
and basically beats Richard Ramirez to a bloody pulp, But this couple, they're from out of town.
They're on holiday. They don't wanna follow this up. They don't want to pursue this case.
-The couple decided not to press charges. It was a lucky escape for Ramirez. [ Shutter clicks ] Living on the edges of society,
his behavior became more and more unpredictable. -So, he's dirty. He's unkempt. He's sleeping in graveyards.
He's increasingly kind of going over to the Dark Side. [ Eerie music climbs ] And the things that appeal to him
are things that most people would find really odd and really bizarre: devil worship, that sort of thing.
So he's gone on this trajectory, now, and I think that's only gonna go one way. -Aged 18,
Richard Ramirez headed west, to California. The Golden State would become his hunting ground.
[ Shutter clicks ] Five years later, in June 1984, he would claim the first murder victim
of a 14-month killing spree. Anyone was a target, and everyone was petrified. [ Sinister chord strikes ] Where would Ramirez strike next?
[ Shutter clicks ] [ Sinister chord strikes ] By 1984, Richard Ramirez had become a social outcast.
Fueled by a hatred of women and a distinct lack of morals, the 24-year-old had settled into a life
on the fringes of society in downtown Los Angeles. -He's with all the runaways and the throwaways.
He's immersed in a drug subculture. So, he had no brakes on him before, really, but, now, he's completely off the rails,
and he does become Richard Ramirez, the serial killer. -On June 28, 1984, 79-year-old Jennie Vincow
was found brutally stabbed to death in her Los Angeles home. Her dress was pulled up,
suggesting a sexual assault had taken place. The knife wounds were so severe, she had almost been decapitated.
[ Shutter clicks ] Ramirez's reign of terror had began. -In terms of what made Richard Ramirez kill,
I think it was an escalation of behavior. So he's been robbing; he's been burglarizing people's houses.
He has got access to people in their homes and I think, when you have that access
and an opportunity presents itself and you are the type of person who gets off on violence,
who doesn't feel bad about hurting other people, then you are somebody who is likely
to take advantage of that opportunity when it presents itself. So I think it's a gradual escalation of behavior.
-Six months after his first murder, [ Suspenseful music plays ] Ramirez was in custody.
But not for murder. He was arrested on a charge of car theft. He served 36 days in prison.
But it was his mugshot, captured on December 12, 1984, that would eventually lead to his downfall.
[ Sinister music plays ] [ Shutter clicks ] Once released, on March 17, 1985, his killing spree continued.
Ramirez attacked three women on the same night, killing two of them. The attacks seemed completely random,
but appeared to have a sexual motive. -Well, Ramirez had, as a specific part of his modus operandi, to gain access to his victims,
essentially, by surreptitiously entering their home. He was, at his core, a burglar,
whose object felony was sexual murder. -He's not someone who can form relationships
with women, but he still wants women. He still wants to possess them and have his way with them,
so, he's only gonna do that through violent means. -Eleven days later, Ramirez was on the hunt once more.
[ Shutter clicks ] He broke in to the home of 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara and his wife, Maxine, in the city of Whittier.
Ramirez shot Vincent in the head, killing him instantly. [ Shutter clicks ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
-Then tied up his wife, who was 20 years younger, [ Melancholy tune plays ] Maxine, demanding money.
Where does she keep the valuables? -One of the things Ramirez would do would be he would restrain his victims.
That's obviously got a physical impact. It means you can't move. It means you're not able to respond to an assailant
and, obviously, there's the psychological element of helplessness and powerlessness.
-Ramirez shot her three times... [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ...and then he mutilated her grotesquely,
eventually, gouging her eyes out and putting them in a jewelry box to take away with him.
[ Melancholy tune plays ] -Postmortem mutilation is relatively uncommon in homicide cases.
Most homicides that are dealt with day-to-day are cases where people have been angry
or where there's a domestic dispute. They're not really the sort of planned, orchestrated murders that we see in cases like Ramirez.
In those cases, you can see bizarre behavior, both to the body before death and mutilation after death,
and that's very much more about what's in the mind of the killer. -Vince Zazzara
was a well-respected member of the Whittier community. He ran a local pizzeria after serving in the Second World War.
[ Shutter clicks ] His son Peter remembers his father fondly. -Well, my dad was a immigrant from Italy,
came over in the 1930s, mid-'30s, something like that, and he joined the Army. He was in World War II.
He was in Patton's Army. He was one of his team members. He was in the Army for six years.
He was in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a pretty accomplished person, that way,
and everybody respected him. -Peter remembers hearing the news that his father and stepmother had been murdered.
[ Shutter clicks ] -I was at home and I got a call. He told me what had happened and we drove up.
I was living in Pico Rivera. We drove up to Whittier. And I just remember that, "How could it be possible?"
and I was just in a state of shock. ♪♪ [ Eerie music plays ] -As Peter arrived at his father's house,
it was surrounded by emergency-service vehicles. -And we met all the police outside.
[ Melancholy tune plays ] We were outside the front door, with my fiancée, at the time,
and I wanted to go inside, but they wouldn't let us inside. I was already really upset.
One of the detectives said that it would just make me more upset than I already was.
-Vincent and Maxine Zazzara had become Ramirez's fourth and fifth victims. [ Shutter clicks ] Over 30 years later,
Peter is still struggling to come to terms with the murders. -It ruined my life.
It was hard for me to get on with my life. I've already screwed my life up a lot because of it.
I would be a different person, I think. ♪♪ We were like kindred souls 'cause he was also a veteran;
I'm a veteran and, um, uh, we were just really close, in a lot of ways like that.
Although my dad was very, very tough on the outside, he was pretty gentle on the inside,
a lot like me that way. ♪♪ [ Eerie music plays ] [ Shutter clicks ] -Over the next 4.5 months,
25-year-old Ramirez became even more prolific. [ Suspenseful music plays ] Between May and August of 1985,
he continued to break in to houses across Los Angeles County, killing a further eight people
and attempting to kill another four. The whole of Southern California was gripped with fear.
[ Sinister chord strikes ] Although each crime scene was distinct, investigators began to link them,
based on the ferocity of the murders. -There was no question that this is a crime
really unique in its level of terror. It was unique in its level of terror for several important reasons:
one, the lack of predictability about victim. You could not, as a citizen, say to yourself,
"I'm safe because I'm not a prostitute," or you couldn't say, "I'm safe because I live in Beverly Hills,"
because there was no place you were safe in. And then, what made it especially terrifying
is the circumstances of the murders as they took place: one, that they took place often, at night, in the darkness;
and two, they took place in a place that you ordinarily regard as the safest place in the universe,
your personal home. That made this terror beyond belief. [ Shutter clicks ] -Ramirez's series of attacks
were random and indiscriminate. Anyone could be targeted: men or women. -As far as we can tell, nothing attracted him
to his victims, in particular. He would often break in to residences, not knowing who was in the residence,
and end up, depending if it was men or women, killing them and having -- perpetrating sexual crimes against them.
[ Eerie music plays ] [ Heartbeat ] Ramirez didn't have a particular age in mind.
He didn't have a particular race in mind. He didn't have a particular socioeconomic status in mind.
He was a man who had rampant, chaotic impulses and basically attacked and killed
whoever was in the room when his rage inflamed itself. [ Suspenseful music plays ]
-Ramirez did not appear to favor any particular method of killing. He would murder his victims by any means necessary
and that made it even harder for investigators to decide who had committed the crimes.
-He would stab. He would shoot. He would stamp. He would rape. He would force himself on people orally.
Really, he just seemed to revel in acts of violence and violation. [ Eerie music plays ] -And it was quite a while
before the police actually realized that they had a serial killer on their hands.
So here's somebody who terrorized Los Angeles and they didn't realize that it was the same person
who was doing this, 'til quite late on in the day. [ Suspenseful music climbs ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -By August 8, 1985,
Richard Ramirez had killed 13 people in the Los Angeles area. His lust for blood was relentless.
-We are a species that craves to be in a feeling state. ♪♪ The serial killer, their brain is numb most of the time,
so, for them to feel, they have to do something that's the equivalent of smacking their hand.
They have to create a level of arousal and intensity around them that boosts their affect range.
[ Eerie music plays ] -Despite the number of attacks in the short space of time,
the police were unable to capture the man [ Shutter clicks ] the newspapers were calling
the Valley Intruder. -Well, Ramirez would've thought, at this point in time, that he is an accomplished predator
because he's not getting caught. The police don't even know who he is. Not because he's brilliant at what he does,
but it's because the police aren't putting the pieces of the puzzle together because his MO is all over the place.
He's killing people using different methods. He's targeting a whole host of victim groups.
♪♪ [ Suspenseful music plays ] -380 miles north of Los Angeles, [ Shutter clicks ] in San Francisco,
Detective Frank Falzon was hoping the murders wouldn't spread any further afield.
-We were hearing in San Francisco, at that time, about a Valley Intruder. The Valley Intruder was an individual
that was breaking in to homes in Southern California, predominantly the Los Angeles area,
killing the husband, attacking the wife, ransacking the house, and burglarizing a lot of valuable property.
-Frank had heard about the fear felt amongst the locals in LA. -Every law enforcement officer was aware,
[ Eerie music climbs ] but this seemed to be a problem for the Los Angeles area, so the need for high attention
in San Francisco wasn't happening. -But all that was about to change. In mid-August of 1985,
Ramirez left his familiar killing ground of Los Angeles behind. The man known as the Valley Intruder
was spreading his wings. Very soon, he'd have a new nickname. [ Shutter clicks ] Every cop in California wanted
to get their hands on Richard Ramirez, [ Sinister chord strikes ] the Night Stalker.
By mid-August 1985, 25-year-old Richard Ramirez had killed 13 people and attempted to murder a further five
in the Los Angeles region of California. His random break-ins meant that anyone could be a potential victim,
and his cruelty knew no bounds. He would often brutally rape and torture women. Locals were terrified.
-It was a summer of extreme heat and people were afraid to leave their doors unlocked,
afraid to leave their windows open. Purchasing of guns went way up in the state of California.
I would say every active police officer within the state of California was looking for Richard Ramirez.
[ Eerie music plays ] He would've been a big feather in any police officer's cap, for his capture.
-Ramirez, aware of the growing media spotlight on his crimes, had moved north, to San Francisco,
[ Shutter clicks ] and, on August 18, 1985, Ramirez killed outside of LA, for the first time.
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -It was a Saturday morning. My partner, Carl Klotz, and I were the on-call homicide team
and we received a call to respond to Eucalyptus Street. Out by the San Francisco Zoo, there was a murder.
So we responded out there and the crime scene that we witnessed was atrocious. ♪♪
The husband had been shot and killed while he was asleep in bed. The wife had been removed
to the San Francisco Emergency Hospital. She had been raped, shot, and left for dead.
The intruder had gone into the refrigerator, eaten their food, drew Satanic symbols,
the pentagram, on the walls in the house. He vomited after he ate their food and then he masturbated on their carpet.
A very sick crime scene, indicating a very disturbed mind. [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -25-year-old Ramirez
had began worshiping Satan in his late teens and would often leave pentagrams at the scene of his crimes.
-Now, that is not absolutely unique to Ramirez. There are lots of serial killers who engage in Satan worship,
as did Ramirez. -The shocking graffiti was not enough to immediately point investigators towards Ramirez.
[ Melancholy tune plays ] The unfortunate couple murdered in their San Francisco home
were 66-year-old Peter and 62-year-old Barbara Pan. -Everything we had found out about Barbara and Peter Pan:
These were just a lovely, older couple, living a peaceful life, never expecting to be attacked while they were asleep in bed.
Both my partner, we had seen an awful lot in our time on the police force, but we were both moved beyond normal for a homicide scene.
-Frank began investigating the couple's murder, [ Shutter clicks ] unaware that their death
may be linked to California's most notorious serial killer. [ Sinister music plays ] -That afternoon, after this
initial crime-scene visit, my partner and I went back to the office and we put out an all-points bulletin.
This is an alert up and down the state of California, regarding all the information that we had,
and one of the key things that we had was that our victims were shot with a .22 revolver
and we had the slug for comparison. A very alert, active sergeant in the Glendale Police Department
that was working the Valley Intruder case, a man by the name of Jon Perkins, Jon calls us and says,
"You might wanna check the Valley Intruder. He always uses a .22-caliber revolver."
That connection there put us into the Los Angeles cases, that particular day, August 18, 1985.
-After committing a murder outside the LA Valley region for the first time, the newspapers had renamed the killer
the Night Stalker. -All of a sudden, the media blew this case up to be something very, very big, which it was,
and, now, we had a link with Barbara and Peter Pan in San Francisco, so, the murder count was going up every weekend
and people all over the state of California [ Shutter clicks ] were very, very frightened.
-Frank began looking into other, recent crimes in the San Francisco Bay area, and found a burglary report, filed by a fellow detective,
which had all the hallmarks of a Night Stalker break-in. -In that report, we found out
that the intruder climbed through a bathroom window. They were not at home. Their young niece, I think she was 16 years old,
she was home by herself. Hearing somebody come through the bathroom window, she panicked.
She went downstairs and hid into a closet. Fortunately, for this young lady, the intruder never found her.
Ransacked the house, stole a bunch of valuable jewelry. [ Suspenseful music plays ]
-Luckily, the homeowner had added his Social Security number to his wife's jewelry, just in case it was stolen...
[ Shutter clicks ] ♪♪ ...and, before too long, 290 miles away, the police got a match.
-The big break in the case came is when this bracelet with a serial number ends up in Lompoc, California,
turned in by a confidential informant of a police sergeant on the Lompoc Police Department.
-While Frank headed to Lompoc to interrogate the informant, Richard Ramirez had already left San Francisco
and traveled 430 miles south, to Mission Viejo. There, he stole a car, before carrying out another brutal attack,
on August 24, 1985. This time, the victims were a young couple that were engaged to be married.
-He attacked him and shot him in the head. He was 30. He was living with his fiancée.
-Ramirez raped the young woman, but she survived, and that would lead to the serial killer's undoing.
-She gave the first really good description, to the police, of the man, [ Suspenseful music plays ] but, even more,
and I think the telling fact is that, as he left, he said, "Tell them that you've met the Night Stalker."
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -Thanks to the Social Security number found [ Shutter clicks ] on the bracelet,
detectives in both Mission Viejo and San Francisco were now hot on the trail of the Night Stalker.
Frank Falzon had tracked down a potential informant in Lompoc. ♪♪ Frank questioned him in the back of an unmarked car.
-I said, "Your friend Rick is the Night Stalker, the man that's been killing in Los Angeles
and killing in San Francisco. I don't want anybody to die this weekend. We...need your help."
-But, the informant wasn't planning on giving up the name of the man who sold him the security-tagged bracelet.
-He said, "I'm not giving you nothin' about my friend Rick. Do you understand me, you effin' punk?
I'm not giving you anything," and I could feel my blood beginning to boil and I guess I rolled up my fist
and I looked at him and he goes, "Ohh, tough guy, tough guy. You wanna fight me?"
And he put his hands up and I started over the top and, at that point, I don't know if I would've finished that punch or not,
but I was gonna hit 'im with everything I had. And he fell back in the seat and he threw up his arms in a cross manner
and he screamed, "Richard Ramirez!" [ Suspenseful music plays ] When we heard that name,
I literally collapsed in the front seat of the police car. -At the same time as Frank got a positive ID,
detectives investigating the attack in Mission Viejo had found a fingerprint. It was in the car the Night Stalker had stolen,
after it was found abandoned in Los Angeles. [ Shutter clicks ] The print belonged
to Richard Ramirez. Now linked to a carjacking, and his likeness matched to the photo-fit description given by a surviving victim,
the net was closing in on Ramirez. On Friday, August 30, 1985, a mugshot on file from December 1984
was released to all media across California. -When a serial killer is moving around geographically,
it's really important to enlist the aid of the media, which can get the word out, sketches, and things like that,
out to the public because the public becomes an asset to you and, oftentimes, these cases are resolved
by somebody recognizing the person. [ Sinister chord strikes ] -The following morning,
Saturday, August 31, 1985, Ramirez boarded a Greyhound bus in Tucson, Arizona, where he'd gone to visit his brother.
He headed back to LA, unaware that he was a wanted man. -Saturday morning, Richard Ramirez's picture was front-page
in every newspaper in the state of California. -When he arrives back in Los Angeles,
he gets off the Greyhound bus and somebody recognizes him from the picture that's been circulating in the press
and, essentially, the predator now becomes the prey. Lots of people start chasing after him
and, eventually, they catch up with him and Richard Ramirez, the serial killer, is no more.
-Not surprisingly, given the atmosphere in Los Angeles at the time, they attack him,
ferociously, kicking him, hitting him. [ Shutter clicks ] [ Sinister chord strikes ]
But he's pinned down by the locals, not caught by two of LA's finest, or even the police department.
[chuckling] He's caught by a group of local onlookers. A true citizen's arrest, you might say.
-As the local police arrive to break up the melee, it took a bit of time to realize who they had
sitting in the back of their squad car. -This one cop looks real close. He says, "Jesus!
It's the Night Stalker! It's Richard Ramirez." He goes out over the air and announces they have the Night Stalker in custody.
-After 14 months of fear, the residents of California could rest a little easier.
[ Shutter clicks ] Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was off the streets and in police custody.
Now began the task of gathering evidence against the 25-year-old, who was going to plead
not guilty to all the charges against him. Investigators would need to work tirelessly to get a conviction.
The entire state of California wanted justice served [ Sinister chord strikes ] upon Richard Ramirez.
On August 31, 1985, the man known as the Night Stalker had been charged with 13 murders
and five attempted murders in Los Angeles County between June 1984 and August 1985.
His victims ranged in age between 16 and 83. [ Shutter clicks ] Three were men and 15 were women.
Investigators were keen to interrogate the 25-year-old devil-worshiper. -Normally, when I would interview somebody,
I would try to empathize with them or get them to break down emotionally about their crimes
and to confess or to, you know, admit to some wrongdoing. With a psychopath, you're not gonna get that.
They don't have the ability to break down emotionally, and so you have to approach
interviewing a psychopath like Ramirez much differently. You have to play this game, stroke his ego, you know,
almost compliment him on his individuality and what he was able to get away with.
-But, despite all their efforts, detectives were getting nowhere. -Ramirez was a narcissist who believed he was omnipotent.
He believed that he could fool detectives that had been, you know, specially trained,
and he believed that his ability to fool them was not simply a product of his own genius
[ Shutter clicks ] but a product of the fact that he was aligned with acting in conspiracy with Satan himself.
[ Sinister chord strikes ] -Ramirez went to trial for the murders he was known to have committed in the Los Angeles area.
He was not charged for the murders he was suspected of in and around San Francisco.
At a preliminary hearing on October 24, 1985, Ramirez pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him
and it caused an uproar in the courtroom. -On the first day, he entered and held up his hand.
He had a pentagram written on his hand and he shouted out at the top of his voice, "Hail, Satan."
His position as Lucifer's assistant was now to be glorified in front of the world's media
and, particularly, the American media. He was a celebrity, on the same level as Manson.
He was good-looking, and was very aware of it, very aware of his female admirers,
in the court and outside, very aware that he cut a rather dramatic figure. -You can see that the courtroom is essentially a stage for him,
so he wears dark sunglasses; he dresses all in black. He is this kind of pseudo-celebrity
and he really is enjoying it. He's lapping up the attention. So, this is somebody who has attained
a kind of celebrity status because of the awful things that he's done. [ Eerie music climbs ]
-Due to the amount of work for both the prosecution and the defense, the trial did not begin
until three years after the arrest of Ramirez. [ Shutter clicks ] It took place in July 1988,
in the LA Superior Court. [ Suspenseful music plays ] The prosecution had uncovered
stolen goods, from many of the crime scenes, that were in the possession of Ramirez
at the time of his arrest. Ballistic reports had also linked the murders to the same gun belonging to Ramirez.
The defense argued [ Shutter clicks ] that all the evidence was circumstantial. There was a solid case against the killer,
[ Melancholy tune plays ] but nonetheless, for some of the families, the prospect
of attending the trial was just too much to bear. -I was offered to go to the trial,
but I didn't wanna go because I didn't give a -- a rat's ass about him. All I cared about was my dad and Maxine.
Besides, I would've done something crazy 'cause I was pretty upset. I'd have been in there for one minute, I would've --
I'd have been arrested myself 'cause I would've gone off. There's no way I could've done it.
There's no possible way. Fact, I don't even know how people do it, to tell you the truth.
Why would you wanna do it? Why would you wanna look at some scumbag who did something like that?
[ Shutter clicks ] -After the death of one of the jurors, the trial was halted and delayed even further.
It wasn't until September 1989 that the jury had reached a verdict, but Ramirez seemed completely unflustered,
right up to the end. -A lot of his time at the trial was spent engaging in what I call bravado behavior.
The message that he sent out throughout the course of the trial is that, "There's really nothing you can do to me.
I'll let you have your trial. It'll have its outcome. Nothing will be changed because I will soon merge with Satan."
[ Shutter clicks ] -On September 20, 1989, 29-year-old Richard Ramirez was found guilty
of all 43 charges against him, including 13 murders and 5 attempted murders. At a hearing on November the 7th,
he was sentenced to death and sent to San Quentin Prison, California. ♪♪ Showing complete contempt for his victims' families,
he responded by saying, "Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland."
[ Shutter clicks ] [ Sinister chord strikes ] Ramirez would never face trial for the attack in Mission Viejo
or the San Francisco murders, although Frank Falzon did at least get to officially charge him.
[ Hollow drumbeat plays ] -He was brought to San Quentin and the district attorney's office in San Francisco
asked if we could bring him over, charge him formally, on the murders of Peter and Barbara Pan.
He was transported to San Francisco, our county jail. I went upstairs. I met Richard Ramirez.
We booked him on two murder counts. After he was booked, he was being led away to a holding cell
and I'll never forget that sick look in his face. He turned around, he looked at me,
and he had that smile on his face that he always gave before he lifted up his hand and showed the pentagram symbol.
-Ramirez will never face trial for the murders he was thought to have committed in the San Francisco Bay area.
It was a tactical decision. Prosecutors decided they did not want to do anything
that might jeopardize the death-penalty case they had already successfully made against him.
Despite his heinous acts, Ramirez had acquired a cult-like status. He had many adoring female fans write to him
throughout his trial and during his incarceration. -Ramirez became a celebrity in his own right
and he had groupies; he had marriage proposals. He had women that wanted to come and visit him at the prison.
-One woman in particular, Doreen Lioy, wrote Ramirez 75 letters, from 1985 through his trial,
and, in 1988, he proposed to her. They married, in San Quentin, where he was incarcerated, in 1996.
[ Suspenseful music plays ] [ Shutter clicks ] -On June 7, 2013, Richard Ramirez died, before he could face
the death penalty for his crimes. Instead, he died of complications relating to B-cell lymphoma.
[ Eerie music plays ] He was 53 years old. Ramirez had spent 23 years on death row
after taking the lives of 13 people. [ Melancholy tune plays ] -He was a truly depraved individual
who had no interest or concern for anyone in his path and they were simply fodder
for his great and aggravated ego. I have and can never have anything but the greatest sympathy for them.
-Just took away, really, everything, everything that was important to us and our family
and all that, really. Every like holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, it's just pain; it's just a stab in the heart for me.
There's no way that -- Ever since that happened, haven't had a Thanksgiving or a Christmas since,
so that's what kinda impact we're talking about. -What do I think of Richard Ramirez?
Not much. This man was a loser. Society, it was our loss that he was ever born. His death probably gave relief to so many, so many,
of his surviving family members and victims that he had murdered. His death, I don't believe, was mourned by anybody,
except other Satanic worshipers. This was a very sick, sick person. [ Suspenseful outro plays ]
-In a terrifying murder spree, Richard Ramirez broke in to the sanctuary of people's homes
and savagely took their lives for his own selfish needs. [ Shutter clicks ] Although officially responsible
for 13 murders in Los Angeles, he is likely to have claimed many more victims across California.
He was a psychopathic, Satanic, sexual predator who will always be remembered as one of the world's most evil killers.
[ Suspenseful music plays ] ♪♪ [ Suspenseful music climbs ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
♪♪ ♪♪

In August 1985, the fourteen-month killing spree of Richard Ramirez, known as the 'Night Stalker,' was ended after he claimed at least thirteen lives.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, terrorized California with 13 murders, leading to his capture and trial for his heinous crimes.

Key points

The Night Stalker Unmasked. Detectives finally uncover the identity of the serial killer known as the Night Stalker.
A Summer of Terror. Richard Ramirez's killing spree leaves Southern California gripped with fear.
The Night Stalker Unmasked. Richard Ramirez, the infamous Night Stalker, is finally identified and captured after a series of brutal murders.
Trial of the Century. Ramirez's trial becomes a media spectacle, showcasing his disturbing behavior and celebrity status.
A Life Cut Short. Richard Ramirez dies of cancer before facing the death penalty for his heinous crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's the Night Stalker!

A police officer recognizes Richard Ramirez during his arrest.

0:52WatchJul 20, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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