Post by kong on Apr 17, 2006 19:39:49 GMT -5
Richard Ramirez:
any1 got any background on the guy that ain't pulled from wikipedia lol?
wasn't he subjected to vietnam war photos n stuff from his cousin etc.
Richard Munoz Ramirez (born February 29, 1960 in El Paso, Texas) is a convicted Mexican American serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media as he terrorized California with a series of car and home abductions, rapes, and murders during the first half of 1985.
Criminal career
It is speculated that Ramirez was influenced to go on his killing spree by the stories told by his cousin who claimed to have been a Green Beret in Vietnam. The cousin boasted to the 13-year-old Ramirez of torturing and mutilating Vietnamese women and showed him grisly Polaroid pictures, purportedly of his victims. Ramirez was also present when the cousin murdered his wife (blood from her shooting is said to have splattered on Ramirez's face). His parents were also known to be highly religious and (his father particularly) not shy of physical punishment, to which Ramirez would try and escape by spending nights in the cemetery.
Ramirez' first known victim was an 79-year-old woman whom he sexually assaulted and stabbed to death during a burglary of her home on June 28, 1984.
On March 17 Ramirez committed his second known murder. During the attack, he also attempted to murder the victim's roommate, but she was able to escape, providing the police a description of the attacker. Later that same day Ramirez dragged a 30-year-old woman from her car and shot her. The two attacks occurring on the same day bolstered media attention, and in turn caused panic and fear among the public. The news media dubbed the attacker, who was described as having long curly hair, bulging eyes and wide-spaced rotting teeth, "The Walk-in Killer".
On March 20, only three days after his previous murder, Ramirez abducted an Eagle Rock girl from her home and sexually assaulted her.
On March 27 he killed a 64-year-old man, Vincent Zazarra, and fatally stabbed Zazarra's 44-year-old wife, Maxine. Ramirez allegedly proceeded to carve her eyes out while she was still alive. Vincent and Mazine's bodies were disocovered in their Whittier apartment by their son, Peter.
By this time, a multi-county police investigation was in operation. The law enforcement agencies worked through the month of April with no additional attacks by Ramirez.
Ramirez then invaded the home of a 65-year-old man and his wife in Monterey Park. He shot the man in the head and was about to kill his wife when the dying man was able to scare Ramirez away by dialing 9-1-1. The man was pronounced dead when police arrived. A little more than a week later, Ramirez severely beat two women in their 80s after invading their home (one woman would later die of her injuries). Before leaving the home, he inked Satanic pentagrams on one of the women in her own blood.
In June and July, three more women were killed. Two had their throats slit, one was beaten to death, and all three had their homes invaded in the process. On July 20 he again struck twice. In Sun Valley he killed a 32-year-old man, beat and raped his wife, and proceeded to sodomize their 8-year-old son while making his bleeding mother listen. Later in the same day, Ramirez shot to death a Glendale couple aged in their 60s.
On August 8 Ramirez critically wounded a Northridge couple by shooting them in their home. The description of their attacker fit the previous ones given for "The Walk-in Killer".
Ramirez then left the Los Angeles area, and on August 17, he shot to death a 66-year-old man in San Francisco, also shooting and beating his wife. The wife survived her wounds and was able to identify her attacker as "The The Walk-in Killer" from police sketches. Since "The Walk-in Killer" no longer fit the modus operandi of the attacker, the news media re-dubbed him the "Night Stalker".
The next big break in the case came on August 24 when Ramirez shot a 29-year-old man in the head and raped his fiancée. The man was able to give a description of both Ramirez and his orange Toyota station wagon. A teenager later identified the car from news reports and wrote down its license plate number.
The stolen car was found on August 28, and police were able to obtain a complete set of fingerprints from the vehicle. The prints belonged to one Richard Ramirez, who was described as a 25-year-old drifter from Texas with a long rap sheet that included many arrests for traffic and illegal drug violations. Two days later, his mug shots were broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California.
The next day Ramirez was recognized, and then mobbed and beaten by residents of a Latino neighborhood in East Los Angeles as he was trying to steal a car. Police had to break up the mob to prevent them from killing Ramirez.
Trial and conviction
Jury selection for the case started on July 22, 1988, and on September 20, 1989, he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. During the close of the penalty phase of the trial on November 7, 1989, he was sentenced to die in California's gas chamber.
The trial of Richard Ramirez was one of the most difficult, and longest, criminal trials in American history. Nearly 1,600 prospective jurors were interviewed. Over one hundred witnesses testified, and while a number of witnesses had a difficult time recalling certain facts four years after the crimes, others were quite certain of the identity of Richard Ramirez.
On August 3, 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported that some jail employees overheard Ramirez planning to shoot the prosecutor with a gun, which Ramirez intended to have smuggled into the courtroom. Consequently, a metal detector was installed outside of the courtroom and intensive searches were conducted on people entering.
On August 14, the trial was interrupted because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singletary, did not arrive to the courtroom. Later that day she was found dead in her apartment. The jury was terrified; they could not help but wonder if Ramirez had somehow directed this event from inside his prison cell. If Ramirez was responsible for Singletary's death, it would be easy to imagine he would have little or no difficulty in murdering other members of the jury. However, Ramirez was not responsible for Singletary's death; she had been shot and killed by her boyfriend, who later killed himself with the same weapon in a hotel. The alternate juror who replaced Singletary was too frightened to return to her home.
By the time of the trial, Ramirez had many female fans who were writing him letters and paying him visits. Since 1985, freelance magazine editor Doreen Lioy wrote him nearly 75 letters during his incarceration. In 1988 he proposed to her, and on October 3, 1996, they were married in California's San Quentin State Prison.
any1 got any background on the guy that ain't pulled from wikipedia lol?
wasn't he subjected to vietnam war photos n stuff from his cousin etc.
Richard Munoz Ramirez (born February 29, 1960 in El Paso, Texas) is a convicted Mexican American serial killer awaiting execution on California's death row. Prior to his capture, Ramirez was dubbed the "Night Stalker" by the news media as he terrorized California with a series of car and home abductions, rapes, and murders during the first half of 1985.
Criminal career
It is speculated that Ramirez was influenced to go on his killing spree by the stories told by his cousin who claimed to have been a Green Beret in Vietnam. The cousin boasted to the 13-year-old Ramirez of torturing and mutilating Vietnamese women and showed him grisly Polaroid pictures, purportedly of his victims. Ramirez was also present when the cousin murdered his wife (blood from her shooting is said to have splattered on Ramirez's face). His parents were also known to be highly religious and (his father particularly) not shy of physical punishment, to which Ramirez would try and escape by spending nights in the cemetery.
Ramirez' first known victim was an 79-year-old woman whom he sexually assaulted and stabbed to death during a burglary of her home on June 28, 1984.
On March 17 Ramirez committed his second known murder. During the attack, he also attempted to murder the victim's roommate, but she was able to escape, providing the police a description of the attacker. Later that same day Ramirez dragged a 30-year-old woman from her car and shot her. The two attacks occurring on the same day bolstered media attention, and in turn caused panic and fear among the public. The news media dubbed the attacker, who was described as having long curly hair, bulging eyes and wide-spaced rotting teeth, "The Walk-in Killer".
On March 20, only three days after his previous murder, Ramirez abducted an Eagle Rock girl from her home and sexually assaulted her.
On March 27 he killed a 64-year-old man, Vincent Zazarra, and fatally stabbed Zazarra's 44-year-old wife, Maxine. Ramirez allegedly proceeded to carve her eyes out while she was still alive. Vincent and Mazine's bodies were disocovered in their Whittier apartment by their son, Peter.
By this time, a multi-county police investigation was in operation. The law enforcement agencies worked through the month of April with no additional attacks by Ramirez.
Ramirez then invaded the home of a 65-year-old man and his wife in Monterey Park. He shot the man in the head and was about to kill his wife when the dying man was able to scare Ramirez away by dialing 9-1-1. The man was pronounced dead when police arrived. A little more than a week later, Ramirez severely beat two women in their 80s after invading their home (one woman would later die of her injuries). Before leaving the home, he inked Satanic pentagrams on one of the women in her own blood.
In June and July, three more women were killed. Two had their throats slit, one was beaten to death, and all three had their homes invaded in the process. On July 20 he again struck twice. In Sun Valley he killed a 32-year-old man, beat and raped his wife, and proceeded to sodomize their 8-year-old son while making his bleeding mother listen. Later in the same day, Ramirez shot to death a Glendale couple aged in their 60s.
On August 8 Ramirez critically wounded a Northridge couple by shooting them in their home. The description of their attacker fit the previous ones given for "The Walk-in Killer".
Ramirez then left the Los Angeles area, and on August 17, he shot to death a 66-year-old man in San Francisco, also shooting and beating his wife. The wife survived her wounds and was able to identify her attacker as "The The Walk-in Killer" from police sketches. Since "The Walk-in Killer" no longer fit the modus operandi of the attacker, the news media re-dubbed him the "Night Stalker".
The next big break in the case came on August 24 when Ramirez shot a 29-year-old man in the head and raped his fiancée. The man was able to give a description of both Ramirez and his orange Toyota station wagon. A teenager later identified the car from news reports and wrote down its license plate number.
The stolen car was found on August 28, and police were able to obtain a complete set of fingerprints from the vehicle. The prints belonged to one Richard Ramirez, who was described as a 25-year-old drifter from Texas with a long rap sheet that included many arrests for traffic and illegal drug violations. Two days later, his mug shots were broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California.
The next day Ramirez was recognized, and then mobbed and beaten by residents of a Latino neighborhood in East Los Angeles as he was trying to steal a car. Police had to break up the mob to prevent them from killing Ramirez.
Trial and conviction
Jury selection for the case started on July 22, 1988, and on September 20, 1989, he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder, 5 attempted murders, 11 sexual assaults and 14 burglaries. During the close of the penalty phase of the trial on November 7, 1989, he was sentenced to die in California's gas chamber.
The trial of Richard Ramirez was one of the most difficult, and longest, criminal trials in American history. Nearly 1,600 prospective jurors were interviewed. Over one hundred witnesses testified, and while a number of witnesses had a difficult time recalling certain facts four years after the crimes, others were quite certain of the identity of Richard Ramirez.
On August 3, 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported that some jail employees overheard Ramirez planning to shoot the prosecutor with a gun, which Ramirez intended to have smuggled into the courtroom. Consequently, a metal detector was installed outside of the courtroom and intensive searches were conducted on people entering.
On August 14, the trial was interrupted because one of the jurors, Phyllis Singletary, did not arrive to the courtroom. Later that day she was found dead in her apartment. The jury was terrified; they could not help but wonder if Ramirez had somehow directed this event from inside his prison cell. If Ramirez was responsible for Singletary's death, it would be easy to imagine he would have little or no difficulty in murdering other members of the jury. However, Ramirez was not responsible for Singletary's death; she had been shot and killed by her boyfriend, who later killed himself with the same weapon in a hotel. The alternate juror who replaced Singletary was too frightened to return to her home.
By the time of the trial, Ramirez had many female fans who were writing him letters and paying him visits. Since 1985, freelance magazine editor Doreen Lioy wrote him nearly 75 letters during his incarceration. In 1988 he proposed to her, and on October 3, 1996, they were married in California's San Quentin State Prison.
