Flashback to Richard Ramírez: The Night Stalker

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1:00Let's go! Get ready for a new case. We're the greatest partners of all time. New friends. Do it this night. And your last name? This night. Dream team. Big new habitat. Zootopia has a secret reptile population. You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home. Zootopia 2, now available on Disney Plus rated PG. Here right now you can get Disney Plus and Hulu for just $4.99 a month for three months with a special limit to time offer ends March 24th. After three months playing auto renews at $12.99 a month term supply. Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of casual criminalist. As always, hello there. I am your casual criminalist. By casual criminalist it means like not a criminalist. Absolutely definitely not in no way. I mean I watched a lot of CSI as a kid. I don't know if that counts. It doesn't, it doesn't at all. Welcome back to the show. What we do here is we've got, oh it's a big one today. Got a big one. One of the biggies. I was determined to do more of the biggies. Which feels like a really strange way to refer to horrible serial killers. But to some of the big ones in 2022. Because I kind of avoided them because I always wanted to like touch on, you know,

2:04new ones, lesser herd of stuff. But also I realised people love the classics. Again, so Simon, classics, biggies. These were horrible 20th century serial killers. You know we got Ted Bundy coming up. That's going to be grim. Ed Geen. That's even though he killed less people. He just did it in such a horrible way. That it's like, oh my god, Ed. What the fuck, mate? This one is Richard Ramirez. Also another one. I think, you know, there's no way I'm naming this video anything other than the Night Stalker because that's just the name. I think the press gave him. And definitely the name that we're going to use for this episode. Because I mean, it's a really, it's a solid name. And a big thank you to new writer, Jennifer. I know. That's confusing. I think Simon used to be able to escape. Jen does the editing. She adds the audio and the video and the stuff afterwards. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, guess what? Today's episode, written by, I don't know if Jennifer goes by Jen. But, uh, written by Jen, edited by Jen, read by Simon. That's right. Different people, though.

3:04Especially me. Because, well, I got a different name. No one's confused. Let's just get into the episode. Good Lord. It's a cold read. If you're new here, I've never read it before. We explore it together. Enough introduction off we go. It's February 29th, 1960. The US American News is filled with a Soviet ice hockey player helping their domestic team win. And the same day, the city of Agadir, Morocco will be shaken by an earthquake, measuring almost six on the Richter scale. I think it's like all just sort of news events that you think will be forgotten. But because, you know, in a podcast in 2022, here we are, setting the scene with them. But Mercedes Ramirez could not care. About any of that, the El Paso, Texas resident is about to give birth to a fifth child, another son. She'd been praying for a healthy child since she found out one was on its way. The deeply religious parents often looked to the Bible for guidance, rather than a pediatrician.

4:05Mrs. Ramirez immigrated from the US to Mechs Note. That's the wrong way round to the US from Mexico. And has been working at a boot factory to feed herself and her increasing number of offspring. Is he my guess? Yes, the working conditions and the factory are far from safe, especially for women carrying children. It's the night is the 1960s and immigrants. And again, I feel like I brought up this exact same thing in a recent video. But it's like, yeah, conditions are better now. Like immigrants in the US, they don't have to work in factories and then they're like, wait, you don't know anything about this Simon. You don't know if that's changed or if it's better or I just imagine there are more labor laws, but there's a lot of illegal immigration, right? And I mean, if you're in illegal immigrants, I know that labor laws should apply to you, but they're just not going to. Are they? I don't know how this works. Let's stop talking. Her existing children, Robert Ruth. Oh, obviously, I don't know if she's an illegal immigrant. She just says she's an immigrant. So I'm just going to assume she's not. I don't know why I would assume that she was. I'm definitely getting cancelled. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry. Her existing children, Robert Ruth Arruben and Joseph,

5:07it all ended this world with birth defects caused by the toxic chemical fumes their mother was exposed to while working at the factory. One hour, I just feel even worse. But her prayers were answered and Riccardo, Lever, Munoz, Ramirez was born without any complications or visible deformities. Making a monster. Now, shortly after the subject of today's episode was born, we already are entering familiar casual criminalist territory. Now, I know where we're going. But I'm guessing Riccardo is Richard Ramirez, and I'm guessing that he did not have the most brilliance of childhoods because bad childhoods do make us the serial killer. Remember, one thing you should never inflict on your children if you don't want them to become horrible people or if you want them to be a decent human being is abuse of any kind. I feel like we shouldn't need to say that, but here we are. Riccardo's father, Julian Ramirez, but it's pronounced a Mexican, Mexican Spanish. Is it Julio Julien? Julien Ramirez?

6:07I'm sorry, I don't know, just let's call him Julien. It was a Mexican, I love the name Julien, by the way. I wanted to name my kid Julien, but my wife vetoed it. She was like, I don't like it that much. And I'm like, okay, we found another name that we both like, which was nice. I don't generally mention the names of my kids in the internet because I just don't know. It's their choice if they want to have private lives or not. And yeah, not important. Let's carry on. Is that my kid's not called Julien. Now, you know, having been a policeman in COD Juarez until leaving the country for the United States, like many others of his countrymen. However, his qualifications were not recognized in his new home, so he was doomed to work as a mere laborer on the Atterson Topica and Santa Fe Railway. What did he dishonor? He would often growl when returning home from work, but mere complaints were on the terrible side of the spectrum. Julian Ramirez was incredibly prone to violent outbursts and fits of rage. In addition to that, his perceived failure in finding a job similar to the one he had back in Mexico

7:07drove him to alcoholism. As we all know, alcohol acts as a mood amplify. Yeah, it does. Wait, this is going to go dark, isn't it? Because he's going to be like, my mood gets amplified. And I enjoy conversation and food. And just socialization, all that stuff is slightly more. Whereas I get the feeling, his sort of amplification is going to lead to imbiting his kids or something, which is, you know, I guess, geez. It can cause euphoria and a calming sense of care for enus. This is why so many unhappy people fall victim to it and begin to abuse its effects. But not only the good emotions are reinforced, this is also true for sadness. Many people who commit suicide are under the influence of alcohol during their final moments. And in this case, anger and frustration. One day, Ruben Ramirez, one of his sons, was arrested for stealing a car. That was one of the moments his father, Julian snapped. He became enraged and started to turn to unprecedented violence to punish his son. The only detail that we know of is that Ruben developed a glue-sniffing habit

8:11shortly afterwards. His brother, Robert, was also battling and unspecified drug addiction at the time. When I remember when I was at school, they were like, don't sniff glue. They were like posters up about, you know, don't smoke smoking kills. Don't sniff glue. It's like, I never sniffed glue. I never smoked. Those posters, I don't think, had anything to do with it. I was just like, doesn't seem particularly healthy to sniff glue. Does it? That does sound like a brilliant idea. And I probably also didn't understand that it got you high. So I was probably like, okay, that's not a sniffed glue. It's used for sticking things, isn't it? And I've never sniffed glue. And I don't think I ever will. Revolutionary. When the senior Ramirez was drunk, his anger was particularly bad. He himself had been beaten by his father and grandfather, so it's safe and sad to assume that violence ran in the family. Julian Ramirez had sworn not to treat his five children the same way, but this did not include his wife Mercedes. She was beaten by her husbands and while losing his temper with her, he also abused his children. Understandably, little Ricardo or Richard,

9:12as he was often affectionately called, became extremely scared of his father. When he was just two years old, Richard Ramirez was also hit on the head by a cupboard, which was in the process of falling over, causing a large laceration on his forehead. At the age of five, he was hit on the back of the head by a swing. These two are part of a series of injuries that are more closely described by family members who would later speak to the media. Yes, he had been quite literally hit on the head as a child, which ended up causing him to experience many epileptic seizures. I have to say, like, the ID, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, you were dropped on your head as a kid. It's kind of like, in popular culture, right? And it's like, yo, I've got two kids, like one's a baby, one slightly older, like two years old. It's going to be a result. And I've never dropped them, but I can definitely see a point where it's like, you know, you throw them around in the air, no, I'm in an abusive way, in a way like, wait, airplanes, and they're so happy. And then I, oh my god, I dropped you on the floor and you bash your head. And it's like, did you? Is, now, are you now a serial killer?

10:13I mean, that's, is banging your head really responsible for that? I know a guy who's had like many concussions. In fact, I know a couple of guys who've had many concussions. They're not violent. They're just, they're just like, yeah, I've had many concussions and sometimes I, I can't think properly. But only sometimes, and it's not that bad, and I really shouldn't get any more concussions. One of them had to give up like this sport he was super into, like almost professional level at this sport. And he was like, yeah, I just got too many concussions and they said, if I play this anymore, and I get another concussion, I'm going to have like brain damage and not be able to work properly, like my brain, for the chance of becoming professional of this. And so we didn't do it anymore. And I'm like, that's so intense. Like, don't, with the head trauma's obviously bad, but one trying to say is that neither of my friends became serial killers. They just seem to have become a tiny bit ADHD or something. His family history of issues, such as head injuries and drug addiction, did not end with Richard's epilepsy. His father, Julian Ramirez, was not only violent towards his family and loved ones, but also toward himself. Ruth Ramirez, Richard's only sister,

11:14remembers one particular incident of this day. Her father was attempting to install a kitchen sink or by himself. Even though it was not a bad craft, bad craftsman, and quite familiar with all the sorts of tools due to his work at the railways, he fell to connect the sink to their home's drainage pipe. Really? I feel that if you're connecting a sink, there are two things that you connect, the taps and the drain. And I know nothing about this. I am like the least handy person. My wife's like, can you put up that picture? And I'm like, I literally tried to put up a picture. And then it turns out like the wall in the apartments just made of concrete or bricks or something. So I couldn't get a drill in there. And I'm like, no, I don't have the tools for this. You could have to call someone. Say someone came around and I got all the pictures in our apartment years ago. I felt like slightly less of a man. But that's okay. I mean, I comforted myself in that I paid for the handyman. Eventually becoming frustrated by his many unsuccessful attempts, Mr. Ramirez lifted a hammer from his toolbox to his head. He hit himself repeatedly on the head until his blood began to pour down his face

12:16and trickle onto the kitchen floor. Good lord, he had a history of self-arm. Ruth Ramirez also recalls. But this time it was so bad that my youngest brother, Ricky Richard, resorted to sleeping on the grounds of the nearby cemetery at night. He was always up during night time anyway. I heard him sneak around the house during all hours. Maybe a little bit of foreshadowing there on the sister's part. Yes, yes, yes, yes. In the year 1972 when Richard Ramirez was 12 years old, his cousin Miguel Micromeres returned from serving in the Vietnam War. He was a decorated green beret and had a close bond with Richard. A green beret is the elite. Is that like... You've got the American, the British ones are the SAS. The Americans Navy seals famously. Delta Force. Is green beret the other one? So that's like an elite soldier. Now you might think the Richard would share some of his bad experiences and trauma with his cousin to receive help and experience some sort of stability. But, well, how wrong we all are.

13:16Micromeres bonded with Richard, but not over advice or shared issues. Richard had been smoking cannabis since the age of 10. Oh my god, so they shared many joints and countless bottles of beer. But it was not only as drug supply that Mike shared with his young, impressionable cousin. You see, unsurprisingly, Miguel Ramirez, as evident by his last name, was the child of notorious abuser Julian Ramirez's brother, making the two men related by blood. Yet it were cousins then. Yes, I'm sorry, it just says right up top, impressionable cousin. Obviously, they're related by blood. Wait, yeah, you are related by blood to all your cut. I've got a lot of step cousins, so I'm not related to by blood. But then all of my regular cousins have only got two. I think, yes, only two. Big brain. I am related to by blood. They are my mum's brother's children. My god, Simon, what is with the useless tangents today? Let's just... come on, crack on. Now, what does this mean for young Richard? His cousin loved the war. He came home with four medals and was considered a hero.

14:18The reason for this, at one point, his platoon of 20 men faced a large group of Viet Cong. They were, without a doubt, outnumbered and surrounded. The Viet Cong did not show any mercy. Miguel Ramirez and another unnamed soldier were the only ones to survive the ambush. This brave action, as he referred to it in the following praise, however, was not the sole reason for his evident enjoyment of the sheer brutality of the Vietnam War. Micromere has had brought Polaroids with him, which he often showed to his cousin, Richard, telling the various stories that were attached to them. Oh, god. I see... I know it. This is... It's not going to be like, here's me and my mate's drinking beer in Vietnam. It's going to be a whole lot darker than that, because of course it is. Because this is a true crime piece, and not a historical thing about people coming home from war. This is not going to be good, is it? What did those Polaroids depict? You may be inclined to ask. No. No. Pictures of his fellow soldiers prove of loyalty, patriotism, and friendship during the harsh times. Yeah. Me and Jen on the same page with this one, but these guys, it's going to be something different.

15:20While the Polaroids did show harsh times indeed, it was not Mike who suffered. Actually, harsh times is probably the understatement of the century. Etched into the many Polaroid films with the dead bodies of women, they were no doubt Vietnamese civilians, and all of them were missing parts of their bodies. Rameras told his cousin in vivid detail about how he raped, tortured, and murdered them. Their child did not even flinch. The Vietnamese are all very superstitious, but I can't form this obviously intrigued cousin. If you lose a limb after death, you cannot go to heaven. According to him, that was the reason he mutilated many of his victims' post-mortem. Dude, that is so f***ing up. You already killed them, and now you're like, I don't want them to go to heaven either, so let's remove a piece of their body. This is, you're just taking super f***ed up and making it super super f***ed up by dude. What the f***? Apologies, my language. Sometimes it's necessary. He considered it his duty as an American soldier. Dude, you don't understand what... Like, I'm beginning... I'm like sounding patriotic off of Americans, like you don't know what it's like to be an American soldier, son. But it's like, that's not what being a soldier is about.

16:22At all. In any way, it's not patriotic. It's the opposite of patriotic. It's you being a massive f***. His duty was to torture to son of humiliate and punish the people that his country was waging a brutal war against both in life and after they passed away through the sheer violence that he enacted on them. He did not even want to grant them the piece of death after countless hours of agony. Having power over life and death was a high, an incredible rush. You controlled who lived and who died. It was like being God. If we believe Mike's words, he kept shrunken heads of eight of his victims and proceeded to sleep on them for the remainder of his stay in Vietnam. Ah, I don't believe those words. Make it a shrunken head. I've made a video about making shrunken heads. It's really weird. And also, it's extremely complicated. There's all sorts of bone removal and treatment processes and like, obviously, you can't, it's shrinking ahead. It's complex. I don't believe this. It should be clear by now that Miguel Ramirez designed to inflict as much harm as possible on his victim's behavior.

17:23His cousin seems to have copied from him and would also later exhibit. In his eyes, spoiler alert. In his eyes, Miguel could do nothing wrong. He was an authority figure to his younger cousin. Richard Ramirez would later recount these conversations with his cousin while in custody. I was not shocked by the pictures cousin Mike showed me. I was fascinated. Good old cousin Mike also trained the 12-year-old Richard in Jungle Warfare, including how to murder silently blend into your surroundings to become invisible and how to burglarize all sorts of homes. I feel like cousin Mike is a bad guy. Obviously, he's the worst guy in the story so far. But also, the parents. There's a lack of parenting here. It's your responsibility to, you know, if your cousin is hanging out with, if your son or daughter is hanging out with someone like cousin Mike right now, maybe, and I know it's not going to be very popular with them, but maybe they shouldn't be hanging out with cousin Mike. Maybe you should look into what's happening, and maybe you're like, no, no. Sorry, I know it's awkward, and it's going to be family drama,

18:24but it's better than making a murderer. Quote, it's us, the poor and downtrodden against them, the rich and influential. He would tell his young cousin after most of their so-called exercise sessions. Clearly to justify what he was teaching Richard. But Miguel Ramirez's violent tendencies did not stop after he returned home from war. The then 13-year-old Richard Ramirez was staying at the girl's house when the latter finally shot his wife, Jesse, the mother of his two young sons, in the face with a revolver for entirely unknown reasons. I want to say I'm shocked by this, but this is exactly the sort of guy you would shoot someone in the face, isn't it? Again, Richard was not even remotely disgusted. Mike told him he should never say a word about what he saw, and the charge was nodded and said, I swear. The same evening, Richard would silently sit at the dinner table with his family, keeping his promise to his cousin. When Miguel took Richard back to the murder scene to clear up the many large blood stains left behind by the vicious attack, the young teenager was once again not experiencing negative feelings of any kind. No shock caused by the blood gore,

19:26and brain matter, not a single, uncomfortable sensation. The day I went back to that apartment, it was like some kind of mystical experience. You could smell the dried blood. I looked at the place where Jesse had fallen and died, and I got a kind of tingly feeling. This while Richard Ramirez would later stay in court. In the ensuing trial, the jury sympathized with Miguel Ramirez because of his status as a war hero, so it was declared not guilty due to insanity and sent to a mental health facility. Um, I agree, obviously very mentally disturbed. I don't know if I, I mean, obviously look, their jury and there was a court and they deliberated. I think you should ignore the fact that he's got medals. I think that's immaterial. Based on these, like, quick reading of these facts, he doesn't seem insane. He just, he does obviously need mental health care, but he's not insane to get off on murder. I really don't think, just my opinion. While Richard used to follow Miguel everywhere, he did not follow him into treatment, which could have reversed at least some of the damage the environment during his upbringing and youth caused and led him to a better path in life.

20:27Around that time, Richard Ramirez started getting sexually aroused by extreme violence, which was without a doubt a product of the gruesome sites that he was confronted with since birth. Agreed. Um, I wouldn't say necessarily without a doubt. I'd say usually these things, at least from doing a bunch of these shows, is it's often the combination of nature and nurture, right? Of course, there's nurture, like he saw all this violence and stuff, but I feel like someone who just, I mean, he's been abused as a kid, but not, I mean, it's hard to like classify like levels of abuse, but it's not as severe as it possibly could be, right? Unless I miss something. He wasn't hit by his dad. He was kind of just more of negligence and being exposed to violence rather than being the victim of violence. Um, so, and then also going to that scene and seeing that violence and not feeling anything at all, I feel like part of that is probably something that you're born with, as well as something that's nurtured. Nurtured sounds way too positive, that's caused somehow.

21:27While the brain damage he suffered as a toddler, probably also played a part in what Richard Ramirez would later become, also, and of course, that I suppose is part of nurture, but, um, you physically, physical damage to his brain. All sources agree on the fact that not only the abuse he was exposed to since the very beginning of his life, he sensitized him to violence and killing, but also the cruelty of his cousin, Miguel, that he would so often enthuse about. His wild years of teenager was as simple as it was dogmatic. It was the poor against the rich, with him being some sort of messed up Robin Hood. Never talk about your dark and frankly sick ideas with anyone, except maybe like-minded individuals. And most importantly, brutality is completely justified if it's considered a duty by the culprit. That's pretty fucked up. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's justified because I think it's my duty to kill. That's not a justification made. Murder, torture, rape, and the like. Also, turn you into a god, or at least make you equal to one. Richard hadn't quite decided about that yet. That is in life. Okay, that's messed up.

22:29When cousin Miguel got taken away from him and therefore, also his only escape from his father's abuse, he decided to move him with his sister Ruth and her husband Roberto. If you hope this change of environment would be a turning point for the still 13-year-old Richard, I'm sorry to disappoint you. By the time he turned 14 in their household, he had already discovered LSD and was using it frequently. His sexual perversions were only furthered as well. And his brother-in-law was an obsessive peeping Tom who proceeded to take the teenage Richard on late-night walks to indulge in their shared, voyeuristic interests. Then surprisingly, he would soon begin to seek the superior feeling of bloodshed and sexual domination for himself. First blood. We're pretty much picking up where we left off. Richard Miramirez is still a 14-year-old ninth grader and he's about to get his first job. Shortly after receiving employment, the patrons of the El Paso holiday and became his first victims. Not having forgotten what is now incarcerated cousin Miguel that told him about the rich and the poor,

23:29he proceeded to use his master key to enter hotel rooms and clear them all valuables. He not only used his newfound occupation for both the legal and legal monetary gain, though as he would soon molest two children in the hotel's elevator. He was never reported with his incidents and therefore kept his employment for a while longer. Funnily enough, the first blood Richard would taste was his own. One night, he attempted to rape a woman in a hotel room. Through sheer luck, a shocked and infuriated husband returned on time to save his wife and proceeded to beat the teenager senseless. I feel like infuriated, maybe understating the... the anger there. The couple who were not Texan citizens decided to climb to return and testify against him in court, resulting in the criminal charges being dropped. Nevertheless, he was of course fired immediately. Following this incident, he dropped out of Jefferson High School at 50. Wait, it was 14? Oh my god, I totally forgot he was so young that so insane to be doing crimes like that when you're 14. Good lord. And continued to develop a keen interest in Satanism, probably another actor rebellion against his Christian upbringing.

24:30His probably still glue-sniffing brother, Robert had moved to Los Angeles, and still committed petty crimes. He became another asset to his youngest brother by teaching him all he knew about burglaries and how to commit them. His knowledge was considered to be quite extensive. Soon, Richard made his way back to El Paso and put his newly acquired knowledge to good use. Thanks to the military-grade stealth training that he had received years prior, he was never caught. When Richard Ramirez reached the age of 17, in 1977, a familiar face returned. Please don't tell me it's Mike. Mike, why would they let you out? Why would they let you out? You're a horrible murderer. And when someone goes to an insane asylum or whatever they call it, for that kind of thing, isn't it? So they have to stay there forever? Oh god, it's going to be you, isn't it? Miguel Ramirez was released from the mental hospital after just four years and the two continued sharing drugs. He even accompanied Richard and Roberto

25:31on their nectonal walks, which was still taking place for years. I don't, they didn't obviously know about any of the stuff in Vietnam with the Polaroids because I don't think that came up. But he shot his wife in the face for years. What's up, Texas? Aren't you the state that's always like, give him the chair! Get him in the chair! Come on! Come on, come on! He shot his wife in the face! Maybe he shouldn't be executed, but he should be in prison for life. 25 years? Whatever that is. A mere year later, just after turning 18 years old, Richard Ramirez moved to Los Angeles, California, resuming his criminal career. After he was briefly arrested for stealing a vehicle, history does repeat itself, doesn't it? That kind of thrill was just not enough for him anymore. After a brief and relatively quiet sentence in Los Angeles, Ramirez moved to San Francisco when he was 22. Ah, two years later, on April 10, 1984, in the tenderloin district of San Francisco, it's a funny name for a district. The nine-year-old Chinese American girl Mei Long and her eight-year-old brother were on their way home.

26:33Suddenly, Mei noticed something missing from her pocket. The money. It's gone. She told her brother anxiously. The family were not very wealthy, so little Mei sent a younger brother home saying she was going to catch him up once she found the $1 bill. While she was scanning the surrounding area, a man approached her. Can I help you? He asked her in a friendly manner. Yes! Little girl replied, I've lost $1 somewhere around here. Have you seen it? Rich Ramirez did not hesitate. I have. He lies. Come with me. Oh my god. Talking to strangers. It's like, I feel like talking to strangers is such a strange thing because it's like, yo, kids, don't talk to strangers. But then it's also like, well, if it's a nice old woman in the park. And then you're just teaching your kids to just ignore her. And it's like, I go and walks with my kids. And all the old people are always like, oh, oh, look at this. Oh, and it's so nice. And it brings a giant smile to their face. And I hate to be the person who's going to be like, at some point, you've got to stop saying, hi to those old ladies. Because at some point, one of them's not going to be an old lady.

27:34It's going to be a pedophile or a murderer. I don't know if that's statistically true. But it's like, it's what you've got to do, right? Which is so sad. Mailing had evidently not been taught how dangerous it is to blindly trust people on the street, especially for young girls who get approached by much older men. I heard, I'm sorry, this is just another tangent. I heard the right way to tell children what to do is not tell them to scream. But tell them, I mean, not tell them to just be like, ah, leave me alone. Leave me alone. I don't, you know, leave me alone. Because that can be like, if we're leaving the play park. My kid will be doing this. She'll be like, leave me alone. I don't want to go. Hi, man. You know, just generic. What you have to teach them to say, apparently, this is not parenting YouTube podcast, but is you're not my mum. You're not my dad. Like, that's what you apparently have to teach your children to scream. Because then people will be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What's going on? Did I tell the story on this show?

28:35This is a tangent with an attention. I know I'm out of control today. But a friend of mine, bizarrely enough, the strange dude that the strange dude, the same dude, with the concussions. He was with his kid in a shopping center. A mall, as Americans would call it. And he was like, all right, kids, we're going home. And the kid was having none of it. Absolutely going mental. And screaming and shouting. And he was like, he lives right next to the mall. And he was carrying his kid home. And takes them into their apartments. And he's like, oh, my god. Okay, boy, here's the kids. Please, can you do something? It's just absolute. She's just going absolutely mental. The police show up. Two is a palm and building. And they're like, we just want to check that everything's all right. We had reports that there was a screaming child being carried by a man into this building. And I'm like, this was, my friend was like, this was intense. The first time I was like, what the hell is my daughter? And then he was like, thank you so much.

29:35Because what if that wasn't, you know, what if it was the, what if this was something else that's going on? And it's like, damn, I was pretty impressed by the police on that one. But it's a good story, right? And let's get back to the horror. Richard led the naive child into the basement of his apartment where he proceeded to beat and rape her. He hung her from a pipe by tying her blouse to it. Ramirez now a full-fledged satanist then ended her terrible suffering by stabbing her to death with a switchblade knife. Which is later found. Is this his first murder? I think so. He raped, didn't end up in prison, which just remembered to prosecute. Those people who went back, who weren't Texas native staying, all the way in, it had been in prison. It had been in prison. I mean, it's not your fault. He's a murderer. It's all on him. But remember, crimes should be prosecuted. Especially serious crimes. I'm not saying like, if you have your handbag stolen in Texas and you live in California, you'd end up the guy who stole your handbag is like going to get free

30:36if you don't go back and be a witness about the handbag city. It's like, okay, look, fine. I wouldn't bother. I don't think you have to bother. But if it's like a major violent crime, yeah, you kind of should, right? She's later found by the police after not returning home. Police investigate, police inspector Ronald Schneider, one of the officers who first came upon the gruesome scene, later stated this. If you can picture Christ on the cross, that's the way she looked. Her head was drooped and her chin was down. It was a sad sight to see. She kind of got to me. Michael Malaine, another San Francisco inspector, is still in the opinion that May could have had at least a slim chance of survival. Her feet were only two inches from the grounds. Had she been a little taller, she could have transferred her weight to her feet on the grounds, therefore, avoiding the suffocation for at least a while, and screamed and somebody could have come and helped her. This was one of the tougher ones. One of the ones you'd like to solve, I had little children at the time. The rape and murder of Malaine were only attributed to Richard Ramirez in 2009 by a DNA sample analysis. The case had been unsolved for the two decades prior,

31:37and according to police, there is the possibility of two culprits being responsible for the terrible act. This speculation is due to the fact that the DNA of more than one person had been recovered at the crime scene. The identity of the second suspect, however, was withheld by investigators because they're themselves in a minor at the time in the murder. Oh, okay. I was instantly jumping it to be Mike, cousin Mike, or the other guy, the peeping tom dude, but I guess not, because they were both adults. Just before we continue with the episode today, big thank you to Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and get this 10% of the entirety of e-commerce in the United States. Giant brands that you've heard of, Mattel, for example, the answer, if it's good enough for them, if it's good enough for you, isn't it? And it's also something like, well, I don't need something that big. I don't need something that complicated. Well, Shopify make it very easy to get started. They've got all sorts of incredible things that just make it easy. They've got these AI tools built in, so you can automatically generate product descriptions.

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37:00Pre-strated by the apparent lack thereof, he sliced the still asleep Jenny Vincar's throat, even though she's dead. He stabs her neck, until she's almost to capitated. Remember I mentioned that Ramirez got sexually aroused by the extreme violence? I know where your thoughts are going on this one. Oh god. I don't want to speculate into such grim areas as this, but Richard Ramirez, how old was the girl? She's a child. And this is an old woman. What is wrong with you? I know where your thoughts are going, and yes, he proceeded to rate, oh my god, afterwards. He proceeded to rate the 79-year-old's dead body. Not long afterwards, the victim's son, Jack Vincar, went to visit his mother, surprised by the fact that her apartment door was unlocked. He stepped inside. I looked around the living room, and I saw everything thrown on the floor. He later testified in court. When he found his dead and mutilated mother, he yelled out for the manager of the apartment block and told him to call the police.

38:02When I saw she was dead, I shouted out to the manager. My mother's been murdered. I said it several times. My mother's been murdered. Call the police. Ramirez's fingerprints were later discovered on a mesh screen near his window of entry, but did not produce any matches in the police database. Wasn't he arrested for that rape at the holiday in, but then he was a minor, so maybe they were not on record for him as an adult, or maybe they didn't take the fingerprints, or maybe they didn't have a cross state, or a federal database at that time, to compare fingerprints from different states, because that was in Texas, and this is in California. Who knows, but either way, that's a shame. A horrifying spree. Richard Ramirez laid low for almost nine months after the vicious attack on Jenny Vincar. He was briefly in prison during the latter part of 1984, for stealing a vehicle, having his mug shot and fingerprints taken. Currently staying in Rosemede, Los Angeles County, found another target. It's the home of 22 year old Maria Hernandez, and a 12 year old housemate, Dale Yoshi Akazaki.

39:04On March 17, 1985, as Ramirez was sneaking around the property, Maria Hernandez pulled her car into the garage and noticed a bulgey-eyed defeated looking man with curly hair and rotting teeth, inspecting her house's windows. To her horror, he had a gun in his hand. Wait, hold on. Did we just say those fingerprints were taken in 1984 for stealing a vehicle? I guess, and they didn't match them to the screen prints on the earlier crime? I guess this is back in the day. 1980s? I guess today, you'd just have those plugged into a system, and a computer would be like, pfft, bound him. But back in the day, I guess they didn't have that kind of computing power or something, because surely, surely, come on. Sorry, anyway, Richard Ramirez did not hesitate and immediately fired at the woman. Maria held her hands in order to protect her head from the scary man's bullet, but, and luckily, it ricocheted off the car keys that she still clutched tight. Oh my God, are you lucky? I mean, not lucky. You got shot at by a psycho, but I mean, wow.

40:06Still, she acted like she was here to start it to play dead. Maria Hernandez must have been a great actress. Ramirez fell for the simple trick, like a coyote in the wilderness being deceived by a possum determined to stay alive. Now, we finally attempted to commit the crime he came for, even though I doubt he did not see the murder as a pleasant side-effects, and he broke into the house. Maria's housemate Dale uttered the gunshot outside and hid behind the kitchen counter. She wanted to capture a good look at the intruder to help the investigation, but as she raised her head, Ramirez shot her in the head with his 22 caliber handgun. She died instantly. Ramirez stripped the house of all its valuables and left, not returning to check on Maria. He only left to size 12 avia chuprin in a cap of the rock band AC DC. I'll tell you, just some of them like that at the scene. During the same hour of the Rose Mead Home Invasion, the Taiwanese immigrant, Siley Ann Yu, who went by Veronica, as it was easier to pronounce, drove her car around Monterey Park. Suddenly, she saw a strange-looking man approach her vehicle. Initially, she guessed he's a homeless guy

41:07on the hunt for a little cash. When she spotted his gun, it was already too late, which Ramirez pulled Veronica out of the car, shot her twice. And stole the car. She died from blood loss within minutes. Of course, two murders and attempted third one in such close proximity to one another and in such a short train frame of time, alerted the local media by then Maria Hernandez that given an extensive description of her friend's murderer to the local police and the walk-in killer also dubbed the Valleon Trudeau was born. Reading his description on virtually every newspaper's front page made Ramirez lilo for a comparatively long time. Ten days later on the 27th of March 1985 at 2 a.m., Vincent Charles Azara and his wife, Maxine LaVenia Azara, were fast asleep in the home on the outskirts of Wittier, California. Comparatively long time. Ten days, he murdered three people, two people, and he thought he murdered a third. He's all over the press. And he's like, well, I gave it 10 days, didn't I? That should be enough, it'll blow over. I hope it doesn't.

42:07I mean, it definitely doesn't, because we know how this ends. We know who he is, and he gets caught, right? I think, pretty sure. Ten days, okay. Ramirez swiftly entered an immediately shot Vincent in the head with the same 22 caliber handgun from earlier, the 64-year-old was killed instantly. Started by the sound, his two-years-yungo wife woke up and stared the attacker right in the face. As Ramirez started beating and trying at tying her hands together, she soon recognized him as the wanted man from the newspaper. Worry of valuables, he demanded. And he cash, gold, jewelry. Understandably scared, Maxine told Ramirez the locations of anything he might consider worth taking with him. Wait, she's 44, but he was 64. Is it 12 years younger or two years younger? 22 years younger? Just a little fact check on the maths there. Must have been just a type of two to 22. Understandably scared, Maxine told Ramirez the location of anything he might consider worth taking with him. But the 44-year-old one was not done fighting. 44, he was 64. Ah, it should be 20 years younger, it says two, but it's 20 years younger. Ah, must just be a typo.

43:08Wanting to avenge her dead husband, she freed herself from her bonds while Ramirez was busy ransacking the room. She dove underneath the bed with a couple cuts of handgun of their own. To a horror, she discovered it was not loaded. Oh, I know you shouldn't keep a loaded gun, but in the situation where you need a gun, right? I mean, that's when it, oh my. Of course, the assailant noticed her actions, so he shot her three times when to the couples kitchen scanning it for a knife. He found a large carving knife and was evidently satisfied with it as he took it back to the murder scene. You probably know what comes next. Richard Ramirez mutilated Maxine's body by stabbing her in multiple places several times, but this time he went even further. He removed Maxine's eyes and placed them in an empty jewelry box, which he took home as a souvenir. In a front-for-guard and foul bed, he left behind another footprint. Vincent and Maxine's Zaro are found by their son, Peter, some 12 hours later. The footprints in the foul bed became the police's first real evidence, as this one in contrast to the one Ramirez left in Rosemede could be cast. They also extracted five bullets from Vincent and Maxine's bodies

44:08and compared the ballistic markings, which are basically the unique fingerprints of a gun, to the markings of the other bullets that they found at the crime scenes with similar or identical avia footprints. Since Ramirez had always used the same gun in every crime, the LAPD immediately came to the conclusion that a serial killer was at large. Pretty great police work for casual criminal standards, I must say. Yeah, I mean also, it's pretty basic. This time, Richard Ramirez let just over six weeks pass before choosing his next victims. On May the 14th, 1985, Ramirez returned to Monterey Park, where he had already murdered Veronica Ewan's, broken to the home of Bill Doye and has disabled wife Lillian. He surprised Bill and his bedroom and fired the gun at him, a single shot connected. The 66-year-old, however, survived the bullet to his face and attempted to retrieve his own pistol, determined to fight back. Of course, his unwounded assailant, easily overpowered Bill and beat him unconscious, thinking he had killed him. Richard Ramirez then turned his attention to Lillian Doye, who was sleeping in another bedroom. He did not shoot her immediately,

45:09but instead he bound her with thumbcuffs and made her watch as he stripped her home of all its valuables when he was done erupt her. Bill Doye was later taken to the hospital but sadly passed away from his injuries. His wife Lillian survived, although severely traumatized. During the following 15 days, Ramirez stole another car and drove it to Monrovia on May 29, 1985. The same date, he entered the house of Mabel Marbelle and sister Florence Netty Lang. The two women were 83 and 81 years old. He found the two of them and bludgeoned them with a hammer one after the other. Mabel was shocked with the electrical cord and probably aroused from the torture he inflicted on the elderly woman. He raped Netty right next to her and he took one of Mabel's lipsticks and drew a satanic pentagram on her thigh. He took whatever he could find to fund his still ongoing drug addiction and left the house. This guy is like an agent of the f**k devil. Mike, I don't believe in any of that stuff but this guy is like as close to a demon as is possible. He's just like motivated by evil.

46:12Two days later, the two women were found comatose and critically injured. They were rushed to hospital immediately where Mabel passed away while Netty survived. The next day, Richard Ramirez drove the same stolen car to Burbank. His victim ended up being Carol Karl, a 42 year old single mother of an 11 year old son. After entering her house, he bound the surprised Carol and her son by the hands and proceeded to ransack their home. After a while, he released Carol so that she could show him where the rest of their valuables were and raped her multiple times. Her shock son could hear his mother screams the entire time. He also heard Ramirez order Carol not to look at him repeatedly. Turn your eyes away or I will cut them out. He threatens. Eventually, he finally left the house and disappeared off the radar until the 2nd of July. Then night, Ramirez chose the Arcadia. The Arcadia house of 75 year old Mary Louie's canon whom he bludgeoned with a lamp while she slept. Mary lived alone since her husband had already passed away so there was nobody who could hear the commotion. She had already gone unconscious from the beating when Ramirez stabbed her with a 10 inch on butcher knife

47:13that he found in her kitchen. He continued even after she had passed away and she was found in a burglarized home not long after I'm leaving behind several children and grandchildren. On July the 5th, Ramirez broke into a Sierra Marjory home where he encountered the 16 year old Whitney Bennett sleeping in a bedroom. He had brought a tie around with him in order to incapacitate the house's inhabitants so he promptly used it to bludgeon with me. The people, this was all happening in one part of California. At this point, I'll be like, I don't own a gun, but at this point, I'll be like, I've gotta go buy a gun and get an alarm system for my house with those window break sensors. I don't know if those existed in the 80s, but whatever technology exists, I'm buying and I'm getting a gun and I'm keeping it loaded under my pillow like some James Bond sh** because I know statistically, even though all of this is going on, it's still unlikely, but I'm like, oh boy, oh boy. And taking this mofo out if he breaks in. He's, it's happening, it's happening. When she stopped breathing Ramirez search for a knife that he could use to mutilate her body as it'd done so many times before.

48:13However, he did not manage to found one so he chosen nearby telephone cord instead. While he was strangling the unconscious woman with it, the cord suddenly began to emit electrical sparks and Ramirez's victim began to breathe again. He immediately fled the house without taking any items whatsoever. Jesus Christ came and saved the girl. He would lay to state whether through divine intervention or not Whitney survived the attack and though 478 stitches were necessary to close the huge lacerations that Ramirez had left behind on his scalp. Good Lord. I've had stitches a few times, a few times, twice, three times. Um, and I'd like, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 in my shoulder. And that is a f***ing scar. 478. My God. Two days later, the Monterey Park resident Joyce to see on Nelson was asleep on her living room couch. The 60 year old will never wake up again. The reason for this sad circumstances of course were to Ramirez who was already prowling through our home during a slumber after stealing cash and a few pieces of jewelry

49:15and a Joyce's life by repeatedly stomping on her face. He once again, left behind his footprint. After driving his stolen car through two other Los Angeles neighborhoods, he returned to Monterey Park, Sophie Dickman ended up becoming his next victim. At some point you've got to be like police. Uh, where are you in this story? Because that is a lot of people getting murdered in one city. And I know it's a big city. I have no idea what the geography of this is like where's Monterey Park related to all the other stuff we were talking about. But Los Angeles is a big place, but still. Where is the police in this story? So far they cast a boot print. Aren't they like warning people about this? What's going on? Once Ramirez had successfully entered a home, he surprised and assaulted the 63 in Rod Woman. After he handcuffed Terry, attempted to rape her. He proceeded to rob the shocked ladies' jewelry and to make sure she was not hiding anything from him. He told her to swear on Satan. On July the 2nd, Ramirez brought a large machete before arriving in Glendale, California. Leela and Maxine Kneedling were next. He did not even make use of the element of surprise,

50:16which had been so crucial for him in prior crimes. Ramirez just barged into the elderly couple's bedroom and attacked them with his machete. I mean, that does sound like a bit of a surprise. Uh, but they were not die fast enough in. So he shot them and mutilated their dead bodies before ransacking their home. He quickly fenced the stolen goods and made his way to Sun Valley. Following the following night at approximately 4.15am, Richard Ramirez paid a visit to the COVID-19 family house. Uh, the father, chain, or wrong, COVID-19 was killed instantly by a shot at the head. His wife, Son Gid, however, was beaten and raped multiple times before he was dragged around the house, making her point out valuable items. Her eight-year-old son witnessed all of it while tied up. Son Gid had to swear on Satan as well. August 6th was the day of Richard Ramirez's next attack. The night he struck into the house of Chris of Virginia Peterson in Northridge Los Angeles area. The 27-year-old Virginia was woken up by the noises he made. So he went into the bedroom and shot her right in the face. The husband took a bullet in the neck but managed to fight back against the assailant.

51:18He dodged two more bullets, which evidently scared Ramirez and made him flee their residence. Luckily, Chris and Veronica both survived their injuries. Whoa! She was shot in the face and survived? I mean, I'm glad. No one's glad that this ever happens to anyone, but that is, I'm glad they survived. Two days later, just off to 2.30 a.m., Richard Ramirez broke into the home inhabited by Elias and Sikina Abbawaz, as well as their son. As usual, the husband was killed on the spot by a shot to the head. Sikina was handcuffed and subjected to beatings as well as sexual abuse. Her three-year-old son was tied up and forced to watch his mother swear on Satan that she would not scream during the assault. When Ramirez was done, he left the house and shortly after Sikina sent her son to the neighbors in order to get help. Richard Ramirez had followed the news attentively for the last weeks and ultimately decided to leave Los Angeles. I have to say, I mean, it's kind of him. His, like, not getting caught is just insane. He's just committing these brazen crimes

52:18and just staying in the same place super regularly. It just seems like he must be thinking, how have I not been caught? This is crazy. On August 18th, 1985, he arrived in San Francisco and entered the house of Barbara and Peter Pan. Of course, Peter was killed instantly by a shot at the temple. He died at the age of 66. Barbara was sexually assaulted, shot as well, and left the dead. Before Ramirez exited the homey-drip pentagram and the phrase, Jack the Knife, sounds like the title of a cheap horror movie to me on the bedroom wall using one of Barbara's lipsticks. Yeah, I mean, other than all the brutal murder that he's committing, like his, did the Satanic drawings, the kind of appearing like a crazy dude, all of this stuff is like, I don't know, just feel a little bit, like, I don't know, bad movie, doesn't it? The killer did not notice that he left another footprint behind. Lead detectives Frank Salano and Gil Carrillo finally contacted the manufacturer of Ramirez's shoes and Avilla confirmed that only six of the specific models shipped in size 11 and a half, five of them had been shipped to several locations

53:20in Arizona while a single pair went to Los Angeles to a shoe store. Of course, that made it evident that that pair belonged to Ramirez and every crime scene with that specific footprint was his doing. The police also analyzed all the bullets that were recovered and came to the conclusion that the pan murders had also been committed by Richard Ramirez, therefore showing that he did not restrict himself to the Los Angeles area. Following these findings, San Francisco's then mayor, Diane Feinstein, divulged the information in a full-pull-on televised press conference. The police were understandably infuriated by the careless leak and their anger was justified. Richard Ramirez threw his size 11 and a half out via sea sneakers over the side of the Golden Gate Bridge, that same evening, and left the city again. Why, why are you up to mayor? Why would you release this information? This is super important information not to release. You should be, is there a crime there, like obstructing an investigation or something, but she's not doing it intentionally. You see, I assume she's just a needy. But wow, how stupid are you?

54:20That's crazy. Ramirez traveled around 76 miles south of Los Angeles to bit mission the, the, the A home, the A home, where he plans to burglarize the home of James Romero, Jr., who had just returned from a family vacation to Mexico. His son, 13-year-old James Romero, the third, happened to be awake. In turn, Ramirez's footsteps outside the house, thinking there was a prowler, James went to wake his parents, and the more careful Ramirez fled the scene. James ran outside and noted the color makin' style of the car, he even managed to catch a glimpse at the license plate number. Yeah, but it's definitely gonna be stolen. That's like part of his thing, isn't it? He just steals cars to get around. Again, just raised and crime-committing with seemingly very little thought to be like, oh, this could get me caught. Okay. The boy's father contacted the police with this information, believing James had chased away a thief. At that point in time, he was not aware that his son had managed to scare off the state's most wanted man, who would probably have murdered the both if the 13-year-old had not been awake. Not satisfied, and still with a need for cash and probably violence, Ramirez broke into the house of Bill Khan's age 30, and a slightly younger fiance

55:22in his Ericsson utilizing their house's back door. Ramirez entered the sleeping couple's bedroom and awakened Bill when he cocked his new 25-calibre handgun. He shot cards three times in the head, lucky to the other men, before turning his attention to Inez. Ramirez told her that he was the night's stalker, and forced her to profess her love for Satan as he beat her with his fists and bound her neck with dectized from the closet. After stealing every item he could find, Ramirez dragged Inez to another room before raping her. He then demanded cash more jewelry, and made her swear on Satan there was no more. Before leaving the home Ramirez told her, the night's stalker was here. Inez untied herself and went to her neighbor's house to get help for a grave liege of fiancee. Luckily, the surgeons were capable of removing two of the three bullets from his head and he survived his injuries, legend. You got shot three times in the head, and so far, I'm just always like, yeah, if you get shot in the head, like it's in movies, it's game over. Damn, man, that is, that is something. Arrest and trial. Inez Ericsson gave a very detailed description

56:26of the assailant to police, and they immediately knew who would attack her and her fiance. Another car that Ramirez had stolen was found abandoned on the 28th in career town Los Angeles, and the police obtained a single fingerprint from one of the rearview mirrors. Ramirez had tried to clean the car of all prints, but missed that one. The fingerprint was positively identified as belonging to Ramirez. He was described as a drifter in his mid-20s from Texas with a long rap sheet that included tons of arrests of traffic and illegal drug violations. The following day, law enforcement officials decided to release a mug shot of Ramirez from the arrest of his 1984 auto theft to the media, and the night stalker finally had a face that the public could recognize at the latest press conference, the following was announced. We know who you are now, and soon everyone else will. There will be no place to hide. So really, just going to San Francisco, I can't believe it took this long for this to be done. I mean, I feel like he was leaving evidence all over the place, and eventually they just found that one fingerprint and that guy embusted along with a sketch. It's like no one did a sketch before.

57:27It just seems like there should have been more effort here. The police's first opportunity of catching Richard Ramirez went painfully wrong, though, despite the rather massive breakthrough in the investigation. In the early morning of August 31st, Ramirez returned to Los Angeles from Tucson, Arizona, or where he had been visiting one of his brothers. He arrived by bus while police officers were monitoring the terminal to prevent any escape by an outbound bus. Now it's time for Simon to have a longer way to go to the police, because guess what? I don't know. I mean, what I do know is that this is not my first time having to go to the police. It seems like there should have been more done about this dude who's been murdering people on a spree in your city. I don't know if we just glossed over that. If the police were like, stay inside, get a gun. Lock your doors, lock your windows. If you have the ability to provide additional security devices, then by all means do so. But I don't know. It just seems like there was not police action or not in action when there should have been like just come on a bit more done, no? Richard Ramirez just steps off the bus, walked directly past the policeman

58:28into a nearby convenience store. Oh, because the police are there looking at people who are getting onto buses to leave town. Richard Ramirez is just casually cruising back into town. I imagine unaware that now everyone knows what he looks like. Instead, store a small group of elderly Hispanic women began to whisper avidly as he came near them. Being bilingual due to his Mexican parents, he was able to pick up the world's El Matador, which literally mean the killer in Spanish, a second later he noticed his own face on the front page of Latvinyan, a Hispanic newspaper. It's come, but it was accompanied by a headline calling in Invisio nocturno or Night Invader. Scared that people who are capable of detaining him might pick up on his similarity to the Night Invader, similarity. Sameness. They are the same person. He left the store on a panic. Sure, that's a great way not to draw attention to yourself, although to be honest, if the people appointed you would say you're the killer, the killer. Maybe it is time to flee. He sprinted across the center and a freeway into state five and attempted to carjack an unlocked Ford Mustang

59:29to make a quick getaway. An angry resident named Faustino Binyan was able to stop him though. But Ramirez was still unwilling to give up. He ran further down the street and tried to violently take the keys of a woman named Angelina de la Torre. A husband, manwell, bore witness to the event and immediately struck his wife's attacker over the head with a fence post in the ensuing pursuit. A group of 10 residents who either witnessed the attempts of car theft or recognized the man from the newspaper formed and formed and chased Ramirez down Hubbard Street in Boyle Heights. The group of citizens forced and held Ramirez down and relentlessly beat him. Oh my god, so mob justice. Bill's good. Around 8 p.m. police were called over to a commotion in the area with few details, but with indications of a fight, police quickly arrived at the 3,700 block of Hubbard and found that Ramirez was severely beaten and armed, taking him into custody. Wait, what time did he get into town? They waited till 8 p.m. I don't know, for some reason in my mind this was happening in the afternoon, like he's cruising into town in the afternoon and they're just beating him for hours

1:00:30and then they finally call the police. The crowd grew to several hundred people and was becoming unruly towards Ramirez and respond hundred people, several hundred people and responding officer Andy Ramirez not related to the culprit stayed behind while officer Jim Kaiser drove Ramirez to the Hollenbeck police station. His arrest must have been quite a relief for Richard Ramirez as everyone knew about the extent of his brutal crimes and he barely made it out of mob justice alive. This is especially true for rapists and the f*** heads who murder elderly people. Nearly three years later, on July 22nd, the jury for the eyebrow trial started to be selected. Richard Ramirez's actual trial began half a year later in early 1989. During his first court appearance, the first thing Ramirez did was hold up a pentagram that he had drawn on his hand and yell, hail Satan, okay? Well, we know he's a Satanist, right? Is he gonna play like for some sort of insanity thing? I mean, he does seem pretty insane but he also needs to go to prison forever. His trial was not a short one even though the evidence was beyond damning.

1:01:31On the 14th of August, the trial had to be put on hold because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singotary had not shown up the court and was later found dead in her apartment. She had been shot. I mean, it's just coincidence, he's in prison. He's definitely not on bail or any of that shit. And he definitely doesn't know where the jury lives. Of course, Richard Ramirez was immediately suspected as he had made similar threats of gun violence to the prosecutor beforehand. The rest of the jury were, of course, terrified that he could somehow reach them as well. But luckily, it seemed became clear that the culprit was Phyllis Singotary's then boyfriend who had committed a murder suicide. Yeah, Ramirez isn't gonna be able to, he's just a single lone wolf psycho killer. He doesn't have some, it's not like he's probably a mafia and he's got someone on the outside who's gonna pop off the jury. Although if I was on that jury, I'd be like, I'm gonna need some police officers at my house. Forever, please, until he's in prison and you find out whoever's doing his dirty work. Otherwise, I want out. I'm done. I'm done. Or I'm saying he's innocent. Get the fuck out. He had been found dead in a hotel room not long after his girlfriend killed with the same gun

1:02:33that took Phyllis's life too. Still, the alternate jury who was set to replace her was too scared to return to her own home when she saw Ramirez for the first time. On the 20th of September 1989, Ramirez was naturally convicted of all charges brought against him. 13 counts of murder, five attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults, and 14 burglaries. Please note that this does not include the rape and murder of Mei Long as this crime could only be attributed to him 20 years later. Yeah, now he's got enough though. California, they're not gonna kill him though, are they? And as we had this, I was thinking about this the other day in another episode. Do they have federal death penalty? Is that thing or is it just up to the States? Because I get the feeling that Ramirez doesn't get the death penalty, but I might just be misremembering that. And I think that's probably in line with California not having a death penalty at the time, because Manson was let off. We recently were talking about Manson. And I feel that he should have got the federal, he did get the death penalty, but at the state level, but then they canceled it in California or there was some sort of like, kibosh on it or whatever. Could only have just given him federal, come on.

1:03:34Come on, it's Manson, it's Charles Manson. During the penalty phase of the trial on November 7th, 1989, he received 19 death penalties. Okay, never mind, I was wrong. And was subsequently sentenced to die in California's gas chamber, allegedly Richard Ramirez, that said stated this to the flock of reporters after the death sentences, big deal, death always went with the territory, so you in Disneyland. Despite his rather apathetic demeanor, he launched several appeals to his sentence on August 7th, 2006, Ramirez's first ground of state appeals ended unsuccessfully when the California Supreme Court upheld his convictions and therefore also his death sentence. On the 7th of September 2006, the California Supreme Court denied his request for a re-hearing of the initial appeal. Ramirez died on June 7th, 2013 from complications associated with blood cancer, hepatitis C, and of course substance abuse. He had been on death row for over 23 years and had several appeals pending at the time of his death. It's crazy, 23 years on death row, I'm not saying this is something that's happened speedily

1:04:35and obviously there should be like a long, drawn-out appeals process, but 23 years? Wow. Experts estimate that the death penalty would have been carried out during his 70s due to California's lengthily and complicated appeals process. Conclusion. Finally, the horrible crimes be, Richard Ramirez had come to an end and we can all hope that he's rotting in hell with his good buddy and role model, Satan. He's probably got down in his lap. This isn't what it's cracked up to be. I thought it would be great. Turns out getting tortured is rubbish. From the time of his birth onward, he began checking all the boxes for a future serial killer and abusive parental figure, head injuries, early exposure to the worst kinds of violence, animal cruelty, and drug abuse. The psychiatrist Michael H. Stone describes him as a made psychopath as opposed to a born psychopath. Well, there's one of those discussions. Like we were having this earlier in the episode, weren't we? He also states that his skit-soid personality disorder rended him indifferent to the terrible suffering he inflicted on his victims. Ramirez's hypersexuality,

1:05:35which no doubt attributed to many of the cases of rape, was a side effect of many head injuries that he endured as a child. So does this make him any less despicable though? According to several studies, the death of a person leaves at least six close friends or family members absorbed in grief and mentally affected. If we use this data on Richard Ramirez's victims, we have 13 deaths. So 78 grieving loved ones, surviving wives, roommates, children, and an additional 11 rapes and five cases of violent assault. That's a total of 107 lives ruined by a single person in a single year. That's almost one life per three days. Yeah, his violent tendencies were a product of accidents and in environments that he was not at fault for, but even during the 70s and 80s, help would have been available. When his cousin Miguel was sent to a mental institution, the teenage Richard was already aware of his strong arousal from violence. I know it's easy to say, but help is always available. Yeah, but someone like Richard Ramirez is not gonna seek out help because he doesn't see himself as broken.

1:06:37He in a way, like early on, we saw like how Miguel was teaching him, he felt righteous in a way, which is crazy, obviously, but that sort of person is not gonna seek out voluntarily. I don't think, right? If you recognize any of the symptoms that have been described in this episode of casual criminalist and you are a loved one, please contact us likeologist or cooler crisis hotline. If you're not comfortable with speaking on the phone, there are many international services available that offer texting-based advice, and you can find many of them listed here and we're just gonna read a URL quickly. It's a bit, it's okay, siteguides.com, slash guides, slash mental, hyphen, health, hyphen, hotline. So yeah, I guess because depending on where you're listening to this show will depend on where you go. If you believe you are someone close to you as in danger or planning to hurt others, please contact your emergency services locally. Dismember dependencies. Number one, if you're wondering what is non-abuse of mother, Mercedes did during his troublesome teenage years, she simply didn't care about what her widow ever some was up to.

1:07:37It's reported that when 11-year-old Richard smashed a neighbor's window and all she did was shrug when she was told. Number two, speaking of Ramirez's mother, while Charbirth weren't well, the pregnancy did not. Allegedly, her body tried to reject the fetus multiple times, which would have caused a miscarriage. Make of that, whatever you will. Number three, while Richard Ramirez did not have any children of his own, he sure had a lot of romance going on in his life. No, not during his days of freedom, as he was too busy snorting that sweet Colombian nose candy and ripping apart other families, but during his time on death row, oh, it's just so weird. This is always so dark, the people who like marry death row inmates and stuff, and like begin relationships with them, it's just weird. How, why is that allowed? Emissile did not look too bad for someone with crippling drug addictions since the age of 10, so he had many fans in admirers who frequently wrote to him and visited him in prison. Really? I've seen pictures of Richard Ramirez, he's a scary-looking dude with weird teeth, right? Right? Starting in 1985, a woman named Dorine Leoy

1:08:39wrote him nearly 75 letters during his incarceration. In 1988, Ramirez proposed Leoy and October 3, 1996, who were married in California's San Quentin State Prison. For many years before Ramirez's death, Leoy frequently stated that she would commit suicide when Ramirez was due to be executed. However, Leoy eventually left Ramirez in 2009 after DNA evidence confirmed that he had raped and murdered nine-year-old Malung. Well, that's what pushed you over the edge. The all the previous murders were, uh, eh, okay. Well, after all the murders and rapes that had already been proven, this one apparently seemed like a bit too much to her. By the time of his death in 2013, Ramirez was engaged to Christine Lee, a 23-year-old writer. There's even a name for that type of behavior, a mental condition by the name of, high, hebristophilia, which causes those affected by it to be inexplicably attracted to criminals. Apparently, the more heinous the crime, the better. Yeah, I mean, there must be some strange psychological reason for this because it's not rational, is it? Ah, this has been an episode of the casual criminalist. Thank you to Jen for writing it.

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