Feb 17, 20237 min read

Richard Ramirez: Satan Serial Killer Whose Daily Activity Was to Kill and Rape Women!

Richard Ramirez was the smiling serial killer. He had killed so many people and did it as a daily activity. He was named "The Night Stalker" by the people during his time. He celebrated that name, he liked the popularity and he took pride in his killings.

From small children to old harmless couples everyone has been a victim of his insanity. This propagated Satanist will not be able to convince Satan down in hell.

Read on to know more about this man's killing spree.

Richard Ramirez as a child

Born in the year 1960 on February 29th, Richard Ramirez was first named Ricardo Leyva Munoz Ramirez. He was born in El Paso, Texas, U.S. to Julian and Mercedes Ramirez. The family had a total of five children and Ramirez was the youngest of them all. Ruben, Joseph, Robert, their only daughter Ruth and then our Richie. Richard was 'Richie' in childhood and a curious young lad.

He fell to the ground after a head injury at 2 years of age, and since then he gets occasional fits.

Richie's father Julian Ramirez was a Mexican policeman who now was working as a laborer at a railway road lining project. The frustration this father had was often relieved by his family. Julian would resort to physical abuse of Richard and his siblings.

His mother Mercedes Munoz was a beautiful American. She was managing four children, pregnant with Richard, and working. During her work at the boot factory, the poisonous fumes in the factory had a serious effect on her. Her body started reacting to those fumes, trying to fight them and also rejecting the pregnancy.

At 5 years of age, Richard Ramirez was diagnosed with Epilepsy. This affected his school games and he became more lonely. With no productive company like his friends from the football team, Richie was now into addictions. He sniffed his first at the age of 7, smoked marijuana when he was 10, and always wanted more. Things took a turn when Richie was 12 years old and befriended his cousin Miguel Ramirez also known as 'Mike'.

Mike was a Green Beret holder in the U.S. Army. He was a grown-married man. He was part of the brutal Vietnamese War and carried pictures of it with him. When Richie and Mike would meet up for talks, Mike would explain and show the gruesome torture pictures. Mike would elaborate on how women and people were tortured to death. Mike also carried pictures of women he assaulted and raped to show them to Richie.

In those gory Polaroids pictures, Mike also posed with body-less heads of women he raped. Slowly, Mike injected the drug of abuse and assault into Richard Ramirez's young mind. Richard was also taught military tricks and tactics of combat like stealth killing.

With abuse and beatings at home from his dad and his own addictions, Richie started to sleep in a graveyard. He found his peace and privacy there amongst the buried.

Their last encounter with his cousin Mike was when he shot his wife several times killing her on the spot. Young 13-year-old Richard was watching all this in horror. This incident affected him throughout his life, also inspiring his murders.

Soon after this incident, Richie increased his thefts and burglaries at people's homes. Later in his life, he confessed that he loved looking through others' personal belongings. When traveling to meet his brother Ruben, Richie met a professional thief. That thief taught many tactics to this young curious boy. After coming back to El Paso, Richie had to join High School and so he got enrolled in Jefferson High School. Within a year of his schooling, Richie dropped out. He was failing all the subjects except for Physical Training and Exercise class.

Richard Ramirez managed to be fit and sturdy during his youth because of the hunts their family went to. When everyone was busy trying to shoot the animal, Richard would hide in the bushes. He would attack the animal suddenly, use his knife to cut its throat, and leave it bleeding to death. He has mastered his sneak attack and military combat skills.

Self-declared Satanism

Young Richard was in love with horror and war movies with blood, killings, and screams. When he was living with his elder sister Ruth and her husband, Richard had ill thoughts of invading their private moments.

Accompanying his family Richard was forced to attend Jehovah's Witnesses. Instead of learning more about divinity, Richard fell more for Satan. His sexual desires that sprung were all harsh, repulsive, cruel, and inspired by Satanic torture.

When he was working at a hotel he used his universal key to steal from the guests and his colleagues. Richard Ramirez wanted to experiment with his desires. One day Richard tried to molest and rape a hotel guest at the age of 15. When the guest's husband arrived, Richie was beaten and thrown out of the place. The couple didn't file a case against him.

Richard was more involved in Satanism when he met a few people and joined the Church of Satan. These people were all drug addicts and Richie had dealt with them.

Richard’s Murder Spree

In Los Angeles, Richie's small thefts, burglaries, and arrests turned violent when he turned 22. April 10th, 1982, was his first murder in San Francisco. When Richie was living in a hotel there, he raped and killed a 9-year-old girl, Mei Leung. He stabbed her with a knife and later hanged the body to a ceiling pipe.

In 1984, on June 28th, Richard Ramirez entered the apartment of Jennie Vincow, a 79-year-old lady. He broke in through the mesh to steal her belongings. The old lady was killed with multiple stabbings and a very deep cut neck.

The next year in 1985, Richard bought a .22 caliber gun from a black-market source. As soon as he purchased this gun he wanted to put it to use. He assaulted Maria Hernandez at her house in the garage. He tried to rape her, but when she started shouting, he shot at her. Luckily, the bullet didn't hit her deeply and she survived. But, her roommate, Dayle Okazaki died when he came into the scene from hiding behind a counter.

Hours after this incident Richard killed Tsai-Lian Yu and went home happily. But these events have raised alerts all over the place. People gave him names like "The Night Stalker" and "The Valley Intruder" after these continuous events.

March 27th, ten days after his previous killings, Richard stepped into his own style of killing. First, he enters the home of the Zazzara's couple, shoots the husband Vincent in the head, and attends to the lady. He sexually assaults the lady Maxine, threatens her to show them their precious items at home, and then stabs her to death. Apart from this, Richard also plucked the eyes out of her head.

Police now are on the lookout for the serial killer who attacks without long gaps. Media and the people started talking about this killer at the large. People were now more alert. And Richard started choosing various cars for thefts to run away from after his murders.

In the same year of 1985, on May 14th, Richard entered into William and Lillian Doi's home in the city. William has taken his gun out for defense but Richard shot him dead. He then sexually assaulted Lillian, stole their valuables, and left the place without killing her.

Mabel Bell and Florence were his next victims. He raped Florence and drew satanic symbols like the pentagon on her thighs. He electrocuted Mabel with current wires. Florence survived but Mabel died of her burns.

Carol Kyle was tied up along with her son in their own house. When Richard collected all the valuables and precious items he then raped her brutally. But, he didn't kill the son or his mother. Carol also became a witness giving out his description to the Police.

Mary Cannon was also taken by shock by a heavy blow on her head. He then stabbed her to death. Soon after this, he went to Whitney Bennett. In a scuffle when he was trying to choke her with an electric cord, sparks came out. Suddenly, Richard was scared that these sparks were from god and ran away from that place. Poor Whitney, her throat and neck were severely damaged. She had to have around 500 stitches on her neck.

Joyce Nelson, Sophie Dickman, Maxon and Lela Kneiding, Chainarong, and Somkid Khovananth, Chris and Virginia Peterson, Sakina and Elyas Abowath, Peter and Barbara Pan, and so on were all his victims.

Richard’s Iconic arrest

With so many victims, and many witnesses identifying him, Richard Ramirez's murdering days were soon to end. Police, people, and the media were always on the lookout for this man who filled terror in the neighborhood. The living witnesses have been contributing to the facial sketches of Richard. This sketch was being circulated in the media, TV, Broadcasts, etc. Richard was not aware of this at all.

One day when Richard was walking in the city, a lady who was in a grocery shop saw him. She recognized him and shouted to the crowd that he is the killer. When Richard saw the crowd coming towards him, he started running away with all his energy. But the crowd overpowered him from the other side and the citizens arrested him.

Police were called, and he was severely beaten up till then and was handed over to them. Police identified this man as the culprit with all the fingerprints, boot impressions, and sketches they had. A jury convicted him for all the murders, thefts, rapes, assaults, and burglaries. Combining all these convictions the Jury sentenced him to 19 death punishments.

Richard scored 31/40 on the Hare’s Psychopathy Test and was declared a Psychopath and a sociopath based on his murders.

Life After Prison

Richard Ramirez was awarded the 'Death by Gas Chamber' by a jury in the year 1989.

Richie's story didn't end in prison. He got married when he was in prison to Doreen Lioy. Richard seemed handsome to many people even after his murders. There were thousands of fan letters with erotic pictures and letters for him. Amongst these Doreen was one he chose to get married to.

Richard and Doreen got married at San Quentin prison in the year 1988. Richard also started sketching and drawing when he was serving time and awaiting death in prison. He has sold his prison artwork for a lot of money.

Richard appealed to the courts to reconsider his sentence. But, the jury was adamant in punishing him as per the first order. He died of cancer in the year 2013 at the age of 77. With the drug addiction and usage of several unclean needles in his past, Richard also had Hepatitis C’. With deteriorating health, he couldn't live long enough for his death sentence. When his family members were told about his death, no one came to collect his body. And so this serial killer's body was cremated by the government of the state.

Adaptations

Several movies were based on the story of Richard Ramirez. Films like Nightstalker were made three times in 2002, 2009, and 2016. The American Horror Story series had a special season based on this.