He looked like any other child, but the boy born in El Paso, Texas, in 1960 would grow up to become one of America’s most feared serial killers: Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker.”
Raised in a violent home, Ramirez endured severe abuse from his father, suffering head injuries that led to temporal lobe epilepsy. He was traumatized further at 15 when he witnessed his cousin shoot his wife during a domestic dispute. By his teens, Ramirez was using drugs, committing petty crimes, and descending into isolation.
By his early 20s, he was a cocaine-addicted drifter in California, surviving through burglaries. In 1984, he committed his first known murder, killing nine-year-old Mei Leung. Soon after, he murdered elderly victims, launching a brutal crime spree.
Between 1984 and 1985, Ramirez terrorized California, breaking into homes at random and killing men, women, and children. His crimes involved extreme violence, sexual assault, and Satanic rituals, earning him the nickname “The Night Stalker.”
A break in the case came when a teenager noted the license plate of a suspicious car. Fingerprints led police to Ramirez, whose photo sparked a public manhunt. In August 1985, residents recognized and captured him before police arrived.
In 1989, Ramirez was convicted of 13 murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries and sentenced to death. He spent 24 years on death row and died in prison in 2013, unrepentant to the end.
