Global InformationRichard Ramirez information
Richard Ramirez | |
|---|---|
 Mugshot of Ramirez, taken on December 12, 1984, after an arrest for auto theft. | |
| Born | Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez February 29, 1960[2] El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | June 7, 2013 (aged 53) Greenbrae, California, U.S. |
| Other names |
|
| Spouse |
Doreen Lioy (m. 1996) |
| Motive | Satanism, robbery |
| Conviction(s) |
|
| Criminal penalty | 19 death sentences |
| Details | |
| Victims | 15+ |
Span of crimes | April 10, 1984 – August 24, 1985 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | California |
Date apprehended | August 31, 1985 |
Ricardo Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (/rəˈmɪərɛz/; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), known as Richard Ramirez, dubbed the Night Stalker, the Walk-In Killer and the Valley Intruder, was an American serial killer and sex offender whose crime spree took place in California from June 1984 until his capture in August 1985. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1989, and died while awaiting execution in 2013.
Ramirez' crimes were heavily influenced by a troubled childhood. Frequently abused by his father, he began developing horrid and macabre interests in his early and mid-teens from an older cousin who taught him military skills that he would later employ during his killing spree. He also cultivated a strong interest in Satanism and the occult. By the time he had left his home in Texas and moved to California at the age of 22, Ramirez began to frequently use cocaine. Ramirez would often commit burglaries to support his drug addiction, many of which were later frequently accompanied by murders, attempted murders, rapes, attempted rapes and battery.
The murder spree terrorized the residents of Greater Los Angeles, and later the San Francisco Bay Area, over the course of fourteen months. However, his first known murder occurred as early as April 1984; this crime was not connected to Ramirez, nor was it known to be his doing, until 2009. Ramirez used a wide variety of weapons, including handguns, various types of knives, a machete, a tire iron and a claw hammer. He 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. Ramirez also frequently enjoyed degrading and humiliating his victims, especially those who survived his attacks or whom he explicitly decided not to kill.
In 1989, Ramirez was convicted of thirteen counts of murder, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults and fourteen burglaries. The judge who upheld his nineteen death sentences remarked that his deeds exhibited "cruelty, callousness, and viciousness beyond any human understanding."[3] Ramirez never expressed any remorse for his crimes. He died on June 7, 2013, of complications from B-cell lymphoma while awaiting execution on California's death row.[4]
- ^ "PEOPLE v. RAMIREZ (2006)".
- ^ "Richard Ramirez". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved May 27, 2023.
- ^ Botelho, Greg (June 7, 2013). "'Night Stalker', mass murderer, dies". CNN. p. 3. Archived from the original on June 7, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
- ^ Stone, Michael H.; Brucato, Gary (2019). The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. pp. 142–149.