This serial killer strikes a personal note with me for a couple of reason. Beginning in the summer of 1984 a satanic serial killer terrorized the greater Los Angeles area including the San Fernando Valley. This was where I worked and lived but this is not what made it personal. For that year that he went on his killing spree starting with two young ladies in an apartment wearing an AC/DC cap he went from that apartment to randomly eying people and deciding on their fate right then and there. Veteran homicide detective Frank Salerno teams up with Gil Carrillo a young rising star in the force to stop this sadistic and satanic killer. He ended up with 19 counts of homicide. Over the year 1984 to 1985 he broke into houses and killed 19 people.
Richard Ramirez did not just murder these people, he often raped and sodomized the women before violently beating them to death. This killer would break in to houses and use a .22 to shoot the man. Then he would ask the women where the money was before violently beating them to death. Some women he left alive after the ordeal.
He made his away around by taking buses and stealing cars. Often times he did not bathe which gave him an identifiable body odor. Another feature on this guy was that his teeth were all messed up. After his kills he would pay a prostitute for a foot fetish and then stay in one of the rat infested hotels in Down Town Los Angeles.
WhT made tracking him down so hard was that first the composite sketches looked nothing like him. Second was that police officers in different precincts do not share information because they want to be the ones who get the credit. Richard Ramirez also struck Monrovia, Ventura Country, Riverside Country and even San Francisco.
Breaks in the case happened along the way. The police knew the .22 which connected the crimes and the Avia sho print. The press would ruin these advantages but in the end it was a fence that worked with Richard that gave away his identity.
In the end it was not the police that caught him but rather the citizens in a local neighborhood that caught him and almost tore him to shreds. Richard would snarl at people during the trial and refuse to take part in the sham trial. He would also get a bunch of female groupies that were just crazy about him.
How did Richard Ramirez get so crazy. His father Julioan Ramirez thinks it was the marijuana and the heavy metal music. There are other things which may have messed up little Richard. The area where he was born an coincided in the Texas/ New Mexico area there were nuclear tests. In this area lots of babies were born with birth defects. Two of Richard’s older brothers had learning disabilities and one had bone growth issues. Another thing is that Richard’s mother worked in a leather boot factor and she was breathing in fumes that made her sick. Growing up Richard Ramirez had epilepsy.
The author does a very thorough job of covering the Night Stalkers killing , his upbringing , capture and trial. You will get a full picture. After hearing about is past especially about his cousin Michael you will look at this psycho a bit differently.
Now as to what made this so personal to me was that during that year I was in an actual feud with a devil worshipper . I got into a fight with this guy and won and it was a bit before the Night stalker killings. I also know one of the night stalkers victims. He was a w
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