[Music]
richard ramirez aka the night stalker
sits in court after being sentenced to
death he growls you maggots make me sick
he composes himself and goes on you
don't understand me you're not expected
to i will be avenged lucifer dwells in
all of us that's one reason this man was
called evil he was a serial killer that
seemed to accept he was evil perhaps
doing the devil's bidding he also seemed
to relish his celebrity status much like
other maniacal serial killers such as
ted bundy one of the categories that
serial killers sometimes fall into is
the missionary type murderers who for
some messed up reason think they're
doing the work of a higher power they
would usually say they're working for
god cleaning up the streets getting rid
of human garbage etc but ramirez seemed
to think satan had hired him hired for
one you might wonder more of his ranting
in court might explain that if not
entirely given the magnitude of his
madness he said i don't believe in the
hypocritical moralistic dogmas of this
so-called society i need to look beyond
this room to see the liars haters the
killers the crooks the paranoid cowards
truly trematodes of the earth each one
in his own legal profession if you're
wondering what a trematode is it's a
kind of parasite ramirez blasted society
for what he saw as hypocrisy saying
there are those that kill for policy
clandestinely or openly as do
governments of the world which kill in
the name of god or country okay richard
some people might have thought back then
maybe you're right in the governments of
the world in the name of imperialism and
economic power have done some rotten
things but how does that excuse what you
have done namely some of the worst
crimes in the history of the usa now
let's go back a few years on june 28
1984 a 79 year old woman named jenny
vincal was found dead in her apartment
in northeast los angeles police believe
she'd been sleeping when an intruder
entered the property and attacked her
with a knife the assault had been so
brutal that cops didn't immediately
think it was a break-in gone wrong the
killer had made a point to be excessive
ramirez didn't strike again until almost
a year later that was when he shot 22
year old maria hernandez she survived
but her roommate didn't less than one
hour later he shot and killed a 30 year
old woman two murders and one attempted
murder in the space of an hour even in
violent l.a was a big deal the press
reported that some kind of ghoul was
lurking in the night hours describing
him as having rotten teeth and bulging
eyes some called him the valley intruder
in the media a boogeyman if there ever
was one he was just getting started ten
days later he killed a married couple
vincent and maxine zazara when police
arrived at the scene they found maxine's
body mutilated with the eyes removed the
same kind of gun in the previous murders
had been used but now they had another
clue that was a footprint in a flower
bed made by a pair of sneakers brand
avia about a month and a half later he
killed another couple two weeks later he
attacked two sisters both in their 80s
he beat them viciously with a hammer and
even used an electrical cord to torture
one of them amazingly they both survived
although one of the women died soon
after from injuries this time the
intruder had left another clue he'd used
some lipstick he found in the house to
scrawl a satanic pentagram on the
bedroom walls he'd also drawn a
pentagram on one of his victim's thighs
just one day later he entered the home
of a woman and her 11 year old son this
time he left no dead bodies although
while attacking the woman he shouted at
her don't look at me or i'll cut out
your eyes one time he was trying to
strangle the victim using a telephone
cord when he thought he saw electrical
sparks appear he later said he left that
woman alone after that believing that
jesus had made his presence known and
acted on her behalf did he really
believe that we think he probably did
with another victim he had tied up he
demanded to know where all the valuables
in the house were he screamed at her to
tell the truth saying swear on satan he
did that the same night he killed
another elderly woman footprints were
found on her battered face they could be
traced back to a pair of avian sneakers
two weeks later he used a machete and a
gun to kill another elderly married
couple again he took many valuables from
the house okay so what were the police
looking at in terms of criminal profiles
this case was a little bit unusual in
the sense that the serial killer stole
from the victims many serial killers
have no interest whatsoever in monetary
gain the act of killing is psychosexual
the impetus is gratification not having
cash to spend on new things then there
were the satanic symbols and the talk
about satan ramirez had also signed one
of his murder scenes with a jack the
knife perhaps in relation to the
infamous jack the ripper like the never
caught jack in london this killer wanted
recognition for his crimes but in the
terminology of the fbi profilers the la
killer didn't seem to be organized or at
least not very organized organized
killers like ted bundy usually have
studied police tactics and go to great
pains to avoid arrest they're often
quite bright and can be the guy next
door with a good job rather than street
hustling heavy drug users like ramirez
if ramirez was what criminologists call
forensically aware he sometimes didn't
show it he left footprints behind when a
more astute killer would have known not
to do that he also was seen by some of
his victims and he let them live
according to the fbi's serial killer
catching folks named the behavioral
sciences unit think silence of the lambs
this killer didn't really fit into any
kind of category he was a bit of
everything he obviously got off and
having power over victims he was no
doubt a sadist given how he tortured
some of them but he was also a two-bit
thief on top of that serial killers at
least the organized type usually planned
their murders sometimes meticulously
with this killer it was as if he was
going on some kind of mad rampage his
crimes came one after the other another
of them involved ramirez entering a
family home he killed the man
immediately and after viciously
attacking the woman again he made her
swear on satan as he asked her where all
the valuables were kept in this case he
didn't just not attack the child but he
sent him to a neighbor where he said
he'd be safe police then got a break yet
again after another attack they found a
footprint and it was almost certainly
from a pair of avia shoes detectives
discovered that this particular style
wasn't all that common in the u.s which
was great for the case they found out
that very few pairs of that style
shipped in the u.s were size 11 and a
half in fact to get that size in la was
almost impossible given that only one
store in the city had received a pair
they could also link the crimes with
ballistic evidence but there's a good
reason the police didn't tell the press
or anyone about their leads the reason
of course is if matters of their
investigation get out the killer will be
tipped off goes without saying that most
killers follow their crimes on the news
sure police release sketches of
criminals because the public can come
forward if they think they know the
person but cops also hold a lot back one
reason is not to tip the criminal off
and another is so during interrogation
the accused might say something only the
perpetrator could possibly know in this
case the then mayor of san francisco
dianne feinstein held a press conference
and talked about the shoes and the
caliber of the gun without a doubt mayor
feinstein made a big mistake a detective
later said the mistake was about as
foolish as the nazis publicly releasing
the details of their up-and-coming
blitzkrieg so what did ramirez do after
watching that on the tv of course he got
rid of the shoes taking them to the
golden gate bridge and throwing them
down into the water this was a massive
setback for the cops imagine they'd have
arrested ramirez with a matching gun and
a pair of shoes that were pretty much
the four-leaf clover of footwear
feinstein by the way had been told about
the details of the la crimes because of
a similar crime in san francisco but she
wasn't meant to talk about the details
in public she did at least do some
things right one was stating the obvious
she said this is a very serious
situation the killer goes into a home at
night and kills at random somewhere in
the bay area someone is renting a room
an apartment or a home to this vicious
serial killer still ramirez was a bit
stupid because he didn't throw away the
gun like just about every detective
thought he would about a week later he
was skulking outside another family home
this time in orange county he was chased
away but the man of the house could
describe to the cops the car and part of
the license number he had no idea it was
the car of the night stalker that same
night ramirez entered another house and
shot a man in the head three times he
tied up the man's wife beating her and
telling her to repeat to him that she
loved satan he left her alive and told
her to inform police tell them the night
stalker was here the man actually
survived after surgery police not only
found another footprint but despite
ramirez's best efforts to clean his
dumped stolen car a fingerprint was
taken from the rearview mirror what
ramirez didn't know is that california
had recently acquired a new machine that
was a 25 million dollar computer system
with the name cal id police could run a
fingerprint through that and it would be
matched with fingerprints from other
crimes this was pretty high tech back in
those days while it said that this
solved the case it isn't strictly true
police already had a bunch of leads from
all the stuff that ramirez had stolen
from his many victims he'd fenced them
on the streets and some of the items
police had a trail on the person that
had sold them they were told was named
ricardo or perhaps just rick copps then
released the mug shot of ramirez that
had been taken after he was arrested for
stealing a car in 1984 they also issued
a statement saying we know who you are
now and soon everyone else will there
will be no place you can hide they knew
they were looking for a 25 year old
drifter from texas with a history of
drug use what they didn't know is that
this kid had witnessed a murder when
young and on top of other traumas he was
a pretty messed up youngster not that
many people knew ramirez because he was
mostly a loner who moved around taking
drugs where he could find them alone at
home he watched just about every variety
of slasher movie when he wasn't
listening to black sabbath ac dc and
post sabbath ozzy osbourne we won't
criticize his music choices but for
ramirez listening to dark tunes was a
way to rebel against his violent father
and a very religious mother mix in a bit
of lsd amphetamine and pcp and sprinkle
on that the murder he saw and maybe some
more violence and as one serial killer
author put it by the time ramirez was 17
his brain was seriously fried ramirez
moved on to cocaine through the main
line and at times when high he would
read the satanic bible and attend
satanic rituals after that he started
killing he was now in hiding although he
hadn't checked the news and had no idea
countless people had seen his photograph
his face was plastered over just about
every front page newspaper in california
but he didn't know that when he got on a
bus heading to see his brother in
arizona if he'd only gone to a newspaper
stand he would have seen his face
staring back at him this guy was walking
around when the vast majority of people
wouldn't have minded lynching him he
managed at one point to walk past some
cops who were looking for him and then
he walked into a convenience store the
thing was a group of elderly women had
seen him they were almost shaking saying
to each other a matador the killer in
spanish inside this door things had
changed for ramirez that's because he
now saw in front of him newspapers
showing his face he walked back outside
where there were more people pointing at
him he made a run for it sprinting
across the freeway and then
unsuccessfully trying to steal a car he
ran some more jumping over guarded
fences and tried again to steal a car
now helicopters were buzzing overhead
ramirez managed to get inside one car
whose occupant was angie de la torre he
punched her in the stomach and got hold
of the keys but her 57 year old neighbor
jose burgoyne was soon on the scene this
is what burgoyne later told the media i
ran to defend her and he told me don't
get closer or i'll shoot you i didn't
see a gun so i opened the door and
pulled him out of the car more people
arrived on the scene and it was mayhem
the night stalker was now a daytime
brawler and he wasn't so good at it de
la torre's husband turned up and he
furiously whacked ramirez over the head
with what he described as a barbecue
utensil ramirez fled again only to be
chased down the street that was starting
to look like the gauntlet in a version
of mexican-american gladiators where the
weapons of choice were not made out of
soft rubber someone hit ramirez over the
head with a fence post and that was it
he was down the jostling crowd now laid
into him and beat him badly he might
have received a public execution there
and then had some folks not held back
and the police intervened ramirez was
later given a date with the gas chamber
as often happens with serial killers
women sent him fan mail while he was in
prison he even married a woman during
his incarceration the night stalker
never was killed by the state dying
instead from complications due to b-cell
lymphoma in 2013 he was 53. now you need
to watch how they actually caught
jeffrey dahmer or see another psycho in
how they caught the serial killer ted
bundy