1. From April 1984 to August 1985, Ramirez murdered at least fourteen people during various break-ins, with his crimes usually taking place in the afternoon, leading to him being dubbed the Night Stalker, the Walk-In Killer, and the Valley Intruder.
Richard Ramirez was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989 and died while awaiting execution in 2013.
Richard Ramirez began developing macabre interests in his early and mid-teens from his older cousin, a Vietnam War veteran with schizophrenia and PTSD, who extensively bragged about the war crimes he had committed, and who killed his wife in front of Ramirez when Ramirez was 15.
Richard Ramirez learned military skills from him that he would later employ during his killing spree.
Richard Ramirez cultivated a strong interest in Satanism and the occult.
However, his first known murder occurred as early as April 1984; this crime was not connected to Richard Ramirez, nor was it known to be his doing, until 2009.
Richard Ramirez used a wide variety of weapons, including handguns, various types of knives, a machete, a tire iron and a claw hammer.
Richard Ramirez punched, pistol whipped, and strangled many of his victims, both with his hands and in one instance a ligature; stomped at least one victim to death in her sleep; and tortured another by shocking her with a live electrical cord.
Richard Ramirez frequently enjoyed degrading and humiliating his victims, especially those who survived his attacks or whom he explicitly decided not to kill.
Richard Ramirez died on June 7,2013, of complications from B-cell lymphoma while awaiting execution on Californian death row.
Ricardo Leyva Munoz Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas on February 29,1960, to Mexican immigrants Mercedes Munoz and Julian Tapia Richard Ramirez, the youngest of their five children.
Richard Ramirez's father, a railway laborer, was a violent alcoholic who was prone to fits of anger that often resulted in physical abuse towards the household.
Richard Ramirez was brought up a Catholic and began smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol at the age of 10.
Psychiatrist Michael Stone describes Richard Ramirez as a "made" psychopath as opposed to a "born" psychopath.
Richard Ramirez says that Ramirez' schizoid personality disorder contributed to his indifference to the suffering of his victims and his untreatability.
At age 12, Richard Ramirez was taken under the wing of his older cousin, Miguel "Mike" Valles, a soldier in the US Army who himself had already become a serial killer and rapist during his service in the Vietnam War.
Around this time, Richard Ramirez began to seek escape from his father's violent temper by sleeping in a local cemetery.
Shortly after Richard Ramirez had turned 14 in 1974, he began using LSD frequently.
At the age of 15, Richard Ramirez was present on May 4,1975, when Mike fatally shot his second wife, 26-year-old Valles, in the face with a handgun during a domestic argument.
Shortly after the shooting, Richard Ramirez moved in with his older sister, Ruth, and her husband, Roberto, an obsessive peeping tom who took Richard Ramirez along on his nocturnal exploits.
Richard Ramirez lived nomadically between San Francisco and Los Angeles County during this time prior to his incarceration.
Leung was with her eight-year-old brother and looking for a lost one-dollar bill when Richard Ramirez approached the girl and told her to follow him into the basement to find it.
Richard Ramirez had been stabbed repeatedly in the head, neck and chest while asleep in her bed, and her throat slashed so deeply that she was nearly decapitated.
Richard Ramirez's fingerprint was found on a mesh screen he removed to gain access through an open window.
Richard Ramirez survived when the bullet ricocheted off the keys she held in her hands as she lifted them to protect herself.
Inside the house, her roommate, 34-year-old Dayle Yoshie Okazaki, heard the gunshot and ducked behind a counter when she saw Richard Ramirez enter the kitchen.
When she raised her head to get a look at what had happened, Richard Ramirez, who was waiting for Okazaki to peek over the counter, shot her once in the forehead, killing her instantly.
Richard Ramirez was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
One week later, at approximately 2 am on March 27,1985, Richard Ramirez entered a home that he had burglarized a year earlier just outside of Whittier and killed 64-year-old Vincent Charles Zazzara in his sleep with a gunshot to his head.
Richard Ramirez beat her and bound her hands while demanding to know where her valuables were.
Richard Ramirez pulled the trigger just after he turned around and saw her.
The infuriated Richard Ramirez shot her three times with his handgun, killing her, then fetched a large carving knife from the kitchen.
Richard Ramirez mutilated her body by cutting an inverted cross into her chest, then removed her eyes and placed them in a jewelry box.
Richard Ramirez took the jewelry box containing her eyes and kept it at his apartment as a souvenir until his arrest.
Richard Ramirez left footprints from a pair of Avia sneakers in the flower beds, which the police photographed and cast.
On May 14,1985, Richard Ramirez returned to Monterey Park and entered the home of 66-year-old Bill Doi and his disabled wife, 56-year-old Lillian Doi.
The next day, Richard Ramirez drove the same car to Burbank and snuck into the home of 42-year-old Carol Kyle.
Richard Ramirez bludgeoned her into unconsciousness with a lamp and then stabbed her to death using a 10-inch butcher knife from her kitchen.
Richard Ramirez repeatedly stabbed Cannon's body after she was already dead.
Three nights later, Richard Ramirez broke into a home in Sierra Madre and bludgeoned 16-year-old Whitney Bennett with a tire iron as she slept in her bedroom.
Richard Ramirez stated that he was startled to see electrical sparks emanate from the cord, and when his victim began to breathe he fled the house believing that Jesus Christ had intervened to save her.
Richard Ramirez chose the home of 66-year-old Lela Kneiding and her husband, 68-year-old Maxon Kneiding.
Richard Ramirez further mutilated their bodies with the machete before robbing the house of valuables.
Richard Ramirez bound the couple's 8-year-old son before dragging Somkid around the house to reveal the location of any valuable items, which he stole.
Richard Ramirez then shot Chris in the neck and attempted to flee; Chris fought back while avoiding being hit by two more shots during the struggle before Ramirez managed to escape.
Two nights later, Richard Ramirez drove a stolen car to Diamond Bar and chose the home of Sakina Abowath, age 27, and her husband 31-year-old Elyas Abowath.
Richard Ramirez repeatedly demanded that she "swear on Satan" that she would not scream during his assaults.
Richard Ramirez, who had been closely following news coverage of his crimes, left Los Angeles and headed to San Francisco.
At the crime scene, Richard Ramirez used lipstick to scrawl a pentagram and the phrase "Jack the Knife" on the bedroom wall.
Richard Ramirez again left a shoe print at the scene that detectives discovered and matched to a specific pair of Avia shoes that was not common at the time.
Richard Ramirez, who had indeed been watching the press, dropped his sneakers over the side of the Golden Gate Bridge that night.
Richard Ramirez remained in the area for a few more days before heading back to the Los Angeles area.
Richard Ramirez entered the sleeping couple's bedroom and awakened Carns when he cocked his.
Richard Ramirez shot Carns three times in the head before turning his attention to Erickson.
Richard Ramirez identified himself as the "Night Stalker" and forced her to swear she loved Satan as he beat her with his fists and bound her with neckties from the closet.
Richard Ramirez then demanded cash and jewelry and made her "swear on Satan" there was no more.
Richard Ramirez's attacker had sodomized her, strangled her, and slashed her throat.
Richard Ramirez was charged with murder and burglary in relation to Higgins' death.
The print was positively identified as belonging to Richard Ramirez, who was described by police as a 25-year-old drifter from Texas, with a long rap sheet that included many arrests for traffic and illegal drug violations.
The identification of Richard Ramirez's print was described as a "near miracle" as the system used to identify him was recently installed, as well as the fact that the system contained the fingerprints of criminals born after January 1,1960, only two months before Richard Ramirez was born.
Richard Ramirez walked past police officers, who were staking out the bus terminal in hopes of catching the killer should he attempt to flee on an outbound bus, and into a convenience store in East Los Angeles.
Richard Ramirez ran across the street and attempted to take car keys from Angelina De La Torre.
Jury selection for Richard Ramirez's trial began on July 22,1988.
The jury was terrified, wondering if Richard Ramirez had somehow directed this event from inside his prison cell, and whether or not he could reach other jurors.
However, it was ultimately determined that Richard Ramirez was not responsible for Singletary's death, as she was shot and killed by her boyfriend, who later committed suicide with the same weapon in a hotel.
Richard Ramirez had additional appeals pending until the time of his death.
Richard Ramirez died of complications secondary to B-cell lymphoma at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California, on June 7,2013.