(intense music)

- Hail Satan.

- [Reporter] Richard Ramirez,

a drifter from El Paso, Texas,

and a self-described Satan worshiper,

began his reign of terror in June 1984.

By the time of his arrest 14 months later

Ramirez had gone on a

killing rampage so grizzly

that Deputy District Attorney Phil Halpin

said Ramirez had probably

rewritten the book

on serial murders.

A map with pins marking

locations of murders, 13 of them,

and assaults, vicious attacks,

showed that Ramirez moved

quickly, killing and leaving,

heading to another area to kill again.

- [Narrator] Night is meant to

be a time of rest and peace,

but on occasion, something

entirely different happens.

Sometimes peaceful sleep

is anything but peaceful.

Some nights you are not as

alone as you may hope to be.

Without making so much

as a peep, something,

or rather someone could

be lurking in the shadows.

As much as this sounds like the beginning

of a typical scary story

made up to spook you,

it is actually the beginning of something

much more horrific and 100% true.

This is the truth behind the serial killer

who infamously haunted the streets

of the greater Los Angeles

area in the early 1980s.

This is the nightmarish

tale of the Night Stalker.

What is up EWU crew?

The story we have for you today

is one you are probably familiar with,

though you may not know the half of it.

The tale of Richard Ramirez

will convince you to double check the lock

on your own doors before going to sleep,

because, as you'll soon realize,

the most terrifying monsters in this world

are the ones who walk among us.

Now, let's get into it.

Ricardo Leyva Munoz Ramirez

was born on February 29th,

1960 in El Paso, Texas.

Ricardo, who was most often referred to

as Richard throughout his life,

was the youngest of his five siblings.

Richard's parents, Julian

and Mercedes Ramirez,

had initially moved from

Juarez, Mexico to El Paso

when Julian had the opportunity

to work on the Santa Fe Railroad.

Julian, who had been a Mexican national

and former policeman from Juarez,

was known to be quick to anger

and often took his frustrations

out on whoever was nearby.

Unfortunately for Richard,

he was all too often

Julian's personal punching bag.

Physical abuse has a wide range

of negative effects on people,

especially children when

they experience abuse

from a young age.

For Richard violence was a

part of his everyday life.

And this was only exacerbated

when Richard's older cousin,

Miguel, Mike, Ramirez,

decided to take him under his wing.

As a decorated United

States Army Green Beret,

Mike was no stranger to violence

and would come to shape Richard

into the monster he inevitably became.

After returning home from

various combat zones,

Mike would provide Richard

with detailed re-tellings

of his gory and gruesome

pursuits during the Vietnam War.

Mike glorified every aspect of

his abuse of Vietnamese women

and would even show Richard

Polaroid photos of his victims,

who were often bound and gagged

while Mike posed with their bodies.

In addition to Mike's willingness

to expose young Richard to stories

of his own violent endeavors,

he also taught him some

of the various skills

he had picked up in the military,

horrifically including

stealthy ways to commit murder.

Mike was one of Richard's closest friends

for the majority of his

childhood and early adolescence.

So, when Mike wasn't around,

Richard was left feeling rather alone.

This sense of lonesomeness,

combined with his father's

constant maltreatment,

led Richard to frequently

sneak out of the house.

In the middle of the night,

Richard would slip out

just to go sleep in his

town's local cemetery.

There he found a little bit of peace

in one of the strangest locations.

Though any sort of peace was

not easily found for Richard.

By the time he was 13 years old

he witnessed death firsthand.

More so than that, he

witnessed his cousin,

his role model, murder his

own wife in cold blood.

On May 4th, 1973, Richard watched intently

as Mike used a 38 caliber revolver

to settle a domestic argument

with his wife, Jessie,

by shooting her in the face.

Instead of interfering or

trying to assist Jessie

after she had been shot,

Richard simply sat back

and took in the scene before him.

After Jessie's murder and

Mike's subsequent arrest,

Richard withdrew from his

family and his peers at school.

Already known to be quiet,

he became even more closed off

than he had been prior to the incident.

As Mike was sent to prison for his crimes,

Richard was once again alone.

His older sister, Ruth,

noticed Richard's strange behavior

and was well aware of the

harm he had constantly faced

within the walls of their parents' home.

So she offered Richard the chance

to come live with her

and her husband, Roberto,

for as long as he needed.

Richard accepted the offer graciously,

hoping that it would serve as an escape

from his father's anger.

Though moving in with Ruth

seemed like a good idea at the time,

it would ultimately shape Richard,

and not in a good way.

What Ruth had not known about her husband,

was that he was a notorious peeping Tom.

In the middle of the night,

Roberto would leave the house

to go on creepy excursions

around the neighborhood.

He would peer through the windows

of women and young girls alike,

for the thrill of it all.

Once Richard moved in with them,

Roberto started taking Richard

on his nocturnal endeavors,

and even taught Richard the

tricks of not getting caught.

Instead of serving as the good influence

Richard so desperately needed,

Roberto ultimately led Richard

down another dark path.

While living with his sister,

Richard began experimenting with drugs

and started to rely on smoking

marijuana and taking LSD.

With his newfound love for hallucinogenics

and all things wicked,

Richard even took up Satanism.

He enjoyed researching satanic practices,

and even declared he wished to live

by whatever means pleased him.

Richard's interest in evil practices,

abusing drugs, and spying on

women increased significantly

when his favorite cousin Mike

was eventually released

from prison in 1977.

Despite the fact that he

murdered his wife in cold blood

just years before,

Mike was eventually found not guilty

of Jessie's murder by reason of insanity.

As a result of his release,

he once again became the

strongest male figure

in Richard's life.

With the combined influence

of Mike and Roberto,

Richard started to realize

what he wanted out of life.

Unlike some people who

have career-driven goals

and big dreams of success,

Richard wanted nothing more than to be

a real life super villain

and to be the one who

always came out on top.

The thing about Richard Ramirez

was that no one could convince him

to do anything he did not want to do.

Moreover, if he wanted something,

he would take it for himself.

So, Richard tested his luck

with small, petty crimes.

He stole from stores and spied on women

in his neighborhood at night,

in the same way, Roberto had taught him.

These petty crimes were

executed without much planning

or preparation on Richard's behalf.

And so he was eventually

caught and arrested.

As Richard was just a teenager

at the time of his first arrest in 1977,

he was sent to a juvenile detention center

and eventually released at

the end of his sentence.

It wasn't long after leaving juvie

that Richard found himself

arrested once more,

this time for marijuana

possession in 1982.

He was initially placed on probation

before eventually becoming

free and independent once more.

Before eventually dropping

out of high school,

Richard took up a part-time job

at his town's local Holiday Inn.

There he was instructed to clean rooms

and keep things tidy around the hotel.

However, the power of a universal pass key

eventually burned a hole

in Richard's pocket.

So Richard began letting

himself into the rooms of guests

staying at the Holiday Inn.

He would snoop around and even take things

that he found interesting

or valuable in the moment.

Soon Richard became even more daring.

He started spying on guests,

especially those who were staying

in the hotel with their spouses.

In one instance, Richard waited

until one guest in particular

left his wife alone in the room

while heading out to grab

something for the evening.

Then, knowing the man's

wife would be all alone

on the other side of the door,

Richard used his past

key to let himself in.

When the man eventually returned

he found Richard over his wife,

attempting to assault her.

The man grabbed Richard and

ended up beating him senseless

before police eventually

arrived on the scene.

Despite the gravity of the situation,

the couple who were attacked

ended up dropping criminal charges

because they did not

want to return to Texas

from their home state

to testify against him.

It appeared that Richard got

away with his attempted crime,

and all the experience

did was give him a taste

of what was possible.

And he wanted far, far more than that.

By the time Richard

entered the ninth grade

he decided to drop out of

Jefferson High School in El Paso

and move away from his family.

He did not want to be around

his father, who tormented him,

nor did he want to continue

living with his sister

despite the bond he

formed with her husband.

At this point, Mike was in and out

of Richard's life as well.

When Richard was around 22 years old

he ended up moving to California.

California would not only become

his new permanent place of residence,

it would also become Richard's

twisted criminal playground

in the early 1980s.

Once in California, Richard was arrested

for cocaine possession and

even a car theft charge.

The combination of these two crimes

led to a short-lived jail sentence.

But Richard's worst

crimes were just starting.

In April of 1984, while in between homes,

Richard often lived out of hotels,

including one in the Tenderloin

District of San Francisco.

Richard had managed to find

access to the hotel's basement,

which was seldom entered

by any of the staff.

It was there in the dark damp basement

that Richard brutally

attacked, beat, and stabbed

nine-year-old Mei Leung to death,

before hanging her

lifeless body from a pipe.

Despite the severity of the murder,

no one initially even suspected Richard,

as he had abandoned the hotel long before

the young girl's body

was located by officials.

In fact, Richard would not be found guilty

of Mei Leung's murder until 2009.

So Richard got away

with yet another crime,

this time an actual murder.

Escaping the suspicion of

police and investigators

gave Richard a sense of gruesome pride.

In fact, his first successful murder

lit a fire under Richard,

and ultimately made him

insatiably hungry for more.

In perhaps one of the most

infamous murder sprees

in California's history,

Richard Ramirez set out

on a series of half-heartedly

planned attacks

on seemingly random

households over the course

of April 1984 to August of 1985.

Over the span of a little over a year

Richard transformed

himself into a real-life

bloodthirsty monster,

becoming the Night Stalker.

On June 28th, 1984, the Night Stalker

took the life of his second victim.

This time Richard chose to attack

and brutally murder Jennie Vincow.

Vincow was a 79-year-old woman

who lived in a small apartment

in Glassell Park, Los Angeles.

Richard had stabbed the old woman to death

after having forced himself on her.

Before fleeing Richard

even nearly decapitated her

without leaving any evidence behind

to identify him at the scene.

That is, except for a smudged fingerprint

on the mesh screen window

that had been supposedly removed for him

to access the apartment.

Despite the fingerprint,

investigators did not even

know Richard Ramirez's name

at the time of Jennie Vincow's murder.

However, it would not be

long before the Night Stalker

would make his rounds in the

greater Los Angeles area,

and earn his infamous nickname.

Determined to kill again

on March 27th, 1985,

just a little under a year

after his last murder,

Richard shot a 22-year-old

woman in the face,

just inside the entrance of her own home

in Rosemead, California.

The woman, Maria Hernandez,

had just pulled her vehicle

into the garage upon returning home,

when she was met face-to-face

with a wide-eyed Richard Ramirez

pointing a 22-caliber

handgun directly at her.

As he fired, Maria
instinctively moved her hands

up to her face in an

attempt to shield herself

from the bullet barreling toward her.

By some luck the keys in Maria's hands

actually managed to cause the bullet

to ricochet away from her face,

allowing her to avoid

being struck altogether.

Realizing that his shot had missed,

Richard decided to flee the

scene as fast as possible.

In doing so, however, he

essentially ran into Maria's

34-year-old housemate,

Dayle Yoshi Okazaki.

At the sound of the gunshot,

Dayle had rushed toward

the garage entrance,

wherein she found Richard Ramirez

staring her down with a gun.

Dayle tried her best to duck

behind the kitchen counter to hide.

Unfortunately, when

Dayle raised her head up

to get a better look at Richard,

he shot her point blank in the forehead,

killing her instantly.

Not even an hour after escaping

from Dayle and Maria's Rosemead home,

Richard took his next victim.

As he was in need of a

proper getaway vehicle,

Richard successfully

managed to steal a car

from a 30-year-old woman in Monterey Park.

The woman, Tsai-Lian, Veronica, Yu,

was forcefully pulled out of

her own vehicle by Richard,

who fired two rounds into

her face before driving off.

Veronica was found by passers-by

who had heard the

commotion and the gunshots

and called local authorities.

By the time Veronica made

it to the nearest hospital

she was pronounced dead.

Two brutal attacks within

miles of each other

instantly made the news.

That evening it appeared a

monster was making its way

through Southern California.

A monster that the media

dubbed the Walk-In Killer

and the Valley Intruder.

Just 10 days after his two successful

and one attempted murder,

Richard struck again.

This time he made his way back to a home

located in Whittier, California,

that he had broken into in the past.

Around 2 a.m. Richard

let himself into the home

of 64-year-old Vincent Charles Zazzara,

who he killed in his sleep

shortly after entering the house.

Though Vincent's death was quick,

the sound of the gunshot

awoke his wife, Maxine,

who had been sleeping soundly by his side.

When it came to Maxine,

Richard thought it best to keep her alive,

at least for a little while

so that she could help him

locate all of the valuable items

the couple kept in their home.

Richard beat Maxine,

and eventually bound her

hands to keep her in place.

While he searched in the drawers

she had directed him toward,

much to his surprise,

Maxine had actually managed

to escape her bonds and maneuvered

herself over to the bed.

There Maxine reached under the mattress

and retrieved a shotgun

that had been hidden there

since the couple's last break-in.

Unfortunately, Maxine

realized all too late

that the shotgun was not loaded.

When Richard turned his

attention back to her,

he was overwhelmed with anger

to see her with a weapon.

And he shot her three

times with his 22 handgun.

Though the gunshots killed

her almost instantly,

Richard was not finished with Maxine.

Instead, he headed into the

deceased couple's kitchen

and retrieved a large carving

knife before returning

to the bloody bedroom.

There Richard repeatedly

stabbed Maxine's lifeless body,

and even gouged out her eyes

and placed them in a jewelry

box, which he left with.

Before fleeing the scene,

Richard made sure to

leave clear footprints

in the couple's flower beds

with a pair of Avia sneakers.

Richard knew that the footprints

would be easily discovered

by police, which they were.

Investigators were sure to photograph

and cast the footprints in hopes to have

a better understanding of

whomever they were looking for.

But the footprints were the

only clues they could find.

Police quickly realized

that the bullets left behind

at the crime scene were

exactly the same as those

from the Rosemead murders

just days beforehand.

It was evident to investigators

that they were not simply

dealing with horrific,

but random murders.

No, they were on the

trail of a serial killer.

For the next few months Richard

continued his murder spree

with the same energy

that he had started with,

only now he relished in his ability

to pull off such brutal

murders and get away with them.

His various killing styles changed

as each victim presented

Richard with a new means

of murdering them.

With most of his female victims,

Richard would assault them

before or during killing them.

Some he beat.

Others he shocked with electrical cords.

Some were strangled.

Some were bludgeoned.

Some he simply shot point blank

before mutilating their bodies.

But a rare few managed to survive

the Night Stalker's attacks.

on August 24th, 1985, Richard headed down

to Orange County, California,

to the town of Mission Viejo.

There he parked his stolen

vehicle down the street

from the home belonging

to James Romero, Jr.,

who had just returned to California

with his then 13-year-old

son, James Romero, III.

The father and son had

been on a family vacation

in Rosarito Beach, Mexico,

and had just gotten back on the same day

that Richard Ramirez

had decided to stop by

and let himself in.

In the dead of night James

Romero, III heard a noise

just outside of his bedroom window,

indicating that there was

definitely someone creeping around.

Immediately young James

woke his sleeping parents,

thinking there was some kind of bad guy

lurking in the shadows.

Realizing that the lights in Romero's home

all turned on at the same time,

Richard thought it best to

abandon his planned attack,

if it could not be a stealth one.

Before he could get

away, however, James III

managed to note the color,

make, and model of the car

Richard had been driving.

More so than that, he had

even managed to memorize

at least part of the license plate number.

A 13-year-old boy had managed to obtain

more information on than

any investigator to date.

James Romero Jr. promptly called police,

thinking they had chased

away a potential thief.

Little did they know that

they had come minutes away

from being the Night

Stalker's next victims.

Shortly after his failed

attempt at the Romero's home,

Richard found himself

breaking into the house

of Bill Carnes and his soon

to be wife Inez Erickson.

As per Richard's infamous fashion,

he let himself into the house

and snuck his way into

the couple's bedroom.

There he woke 30-year-old

Bill Carns from his sleep

by cocking his 25-caliber handgun.

As Bill lifted his head in

search of the sound source,

Richard shot him three times.

Then he turned to Inez.

Richard looked the frightened

woman dead in the eye

and told her that he

was the Night Stalker.

He then forced her into

swearing up and down

that she loved Satan,

all the while Richard

beat her and bound her

with her fiance's neck

ties from the closet.

After assaulting her,

Richard managed to steal

what valuables and cash he could find.

Before leaving Bill to bleed out,

Richard locked eyes

with the Inez once more

and decided to leave her alive.

Instead of executing

her, he told her, quote,

"Tell them the Night Stalker was here."

Once Richard fled the scene,

Inez managed to break away from her bonds

and rush over to her neighbor's

home to ask for help.

Ultimately, Bill managed

to survive his injuries

after having the three

bullets surgically removed.

As she had been left alive,

Inez was able to provide police

with the information they

so desperately needed,

a physical description of the man

who had been slaughtering people

in the Los Angeles area for months.

Police were also once

again able to photograph

and cast the footprints left

in and outside the home.

Just four days later the stolen car

was located back in Los Angeles.

And despite his efforts

to wipe the vehicle clean,

investigators were able to

find a single fingerprint

on the car's rear view mirror.

The fingerprint was run

through the police databases

and found to be a positive

match for Richard Ramirez.

The next day Richard's name and face

were released to the public.

The whole state of California

and beyond knew the Night

Stalker's true identity.

On August 30th, 1985,

Richard had decided to visit his brother

who lived in Tucson, Arizona.

Unbeknownst to him, his face was plastered

on every newspaper and

every television station

in the state of California.

Unfortunately for Richard,

there was an issue

with meeting up with his brother.

And so he backtracked his

travels to return to Los Angeles.

Richard ended up back in LA

early on the morning of August 31st.

And though he didn't know it,

investigators had been

tracking his every move.

Police believed that the Night Stalker

would attempt to flee on an outbound bus,

so they lined up all over the block

in the hopes to stop him.

Richard had noticed the police officers

and managed to keep his head

low and avoid being spotted

as he walked into a

nearby convenience store,

that is until a group of

women caught a glimpse of him.

The group of old Mexican

women, shrieked in fear

and called out frantically

that the man before them

was none other than el matone, the killer.

Richard looked around in a panic

as he realized that dozens of magazines

in the store had one

face staring down at him.

His own.

Richard fled from the

store as fast as he could,

and even darted across

the busy Santa Ana Freeway

in the middle of traffic

in an attempt to get away.

In his mad dash for a hiding place,

Richard attempted to carjack

a variety of vehicles,

but was unsuccessful in each attempt.

All of a sudden, bystanders

watching Richard run

realized they were in the presence

of the Night Stalker in broad daylight.

Together, a group of residents

from the neighborhood

managed to tackle him to the ground.

One resident even

managed to strike Richard

over the head with a metal bar,

forcing the serial killer to

fall to his knees in pain.

The group of good Samaritans

relentlessly beat the subdued Richard

until police arrived and

promptly arrested him

for his brutal crime spree.

Richard was then finally taken to court

for his horrific attacks and murders.

He is famously remembered for shouting

during the court proceedings,

- "Hail Satan."

- [Narrator] And drawing

a pentagram on his hand,

which he showed to the court,

as well as another in his

blood on the wall of his cell.

Interestingly, The

state of Richard's teeth

ended up being a turning

point in his trial.

Richard was known to have decaying teeth,

and by the time he was in jail,

nine of his teeth were rotting,

while some were missing altogether

from both his upper and lower jaw.

His father had provided him

with an alibi during his trial,

stating that Richard had been in Texas

during one of the weeks where

there had been three attacks,

and therefore could not be the killer.

Yet, a dentist from Los

Angeles later testified

that he had actually treated

Richard for his rotting teeth

during that time period,

proving that his father had lied.

On September 20th, 1989,

Richard Ramirez was convicted

of 13 counts of murder,

five attempted murders,

11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries.

On November 7th, 1989,

Richard was sentenced

to 19 respective death sentences

in the state of California

via gas inhalation.

After his sentencing was revealed,

Richard told reporters, "Big deal.

"Death always went with the territory.

"See you in Disneyland."

That quote alone sent shivers

down the news reporters' spines.

But perhaps one of the most chilling parts

of Richard's trial was

the overwhelming obsession

that countless women had with the man

who wreaked havoc throughout

Southern California.

In fact, multiple women who

claimed to be fans of Richard

would write him letters,

and even pay him visits in prison.

One woman in particular, Doreen Lioy,

wrote Richard around 75 letters in total

during his incarceration.

Doreen described Richard as, quote,

"He's kind, he's funny, he's charming.

"I think he's a really great person.

"He's my best friend.

"He's my buddy."
Richard asked Doreen to marry him,

and despite the fact that

he would be in prison

for the rest of his life

until he was executed,

they were married within the walls

of San Quentin State

Prison in October of 1996.

For years after their

official wedding date,

Doreen swore to reporters,

friends, and family members alike

that she would take her life the same day

that Richard was to be executed.

However, their supposed

love did not seem to last.

Doreen eventually left Richard

for one reason or another

that was never expressed publicly.

Though some have speculated

Doreen became disturbed

at Richard's lack of

empathy for his crimes.

Richard did not seem to mind much.

In fact, Richard eventually

ended up engaged, yet again.

This time to a 23-year-old

writer, Christine Lee.

Because of the state of California's

notoriously lengthy appeals process,

Richard Ramirez would

have been in his early 70s

by the time his execution

was properly carried out.

However, the infamous Night

Stalker never made it that far.

On June 7th, 2013, Richard

died of complications

secondary to B-cell lymphoma

at Marin General Hospital

in Greenbrae California at 53 years old.

Though Richard can no

longer torture the residents

of the greater Los Angeles area,

his victims and their families

feel little closure in

the Night Stalker's death.

Rather, Richard Ramirez's

story serves as a reminder

that monsters are real

and they are vicious.

Richard was a cruel killer,

one with no remorse whatsoever.

If you take anything

away from this episode

we hope it is this.

Lock your doors, stay alert, and remember

to always double-check the shadows.

You never know what or

who could be lurking there

just beyond your field of vision.