On this episode of Our American Stories, one thing that cannot be downplayed is the emotion Sergeant Bob Alaniz carries to this day knowing that the morning he fingerprinted Richard Ramirez’s hands, he was holding the hands of a serial killer. Here's Bob to tell the story, along with regular contributor Ashley Hlebinsky.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Sergeant Bob Allenice
was assigned to patrol for the Los Angeles PD in
December of nineteen eighty four when he arrested Richard Ramirez
for stealing a car. Nobody had known at the time
that Ramirez was the night Stalker. Ultimately, the photo and
prince he took of Ramirez led to his id and arrest. Today,
(00:34):
Bob is the chairman of the Los Angeles Police Museum
and is here to tell the story along with Ashley Lebinski.
Ashley is the former co host of Discovery Channel's Master
of Arms, Take It Away Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Between June nineteen eighty four and August nineteen eighty five,
serial killer Richard Ramirez, who's better known infamously as the
night Stalker, prayed on victims in Los Angeles. He was
arrested on August thirty first, nineteen eighty five, after his
identity was initially released by the police and a group
of citizens recognized him. In this case, it's an example
(01:11):
of a large investigation coming down to something as small
as a fingerprint. Dating back to thirty three hundred BCE,
it's believed that fingerprints were used for some level of
identification purposes. In the eighteen eighties, though, a Frenchman named
Alfons Bertolon ventured away from the fingerprint to develop a
(01:35):
system of identifying people based on body measurements as well
as photographing faces, and this is the origin of the mugshot.
In eighteen ninety two, Sir Francis Galton published the first
classification system for fingerprints, and in nineteen oh one Scotland
Yard established its first fingerprint bureau. While the Bertolin system
(01:56):
was helpful for processing inmates, it was not full proof.
In nineteen oh eight, France was the first country to
have formally adopt fingerprinting, and by nineteen eleven fingerprints were
accepted in US courts as a reliable form of identification.
And who would have thought that just over seventy years later,
a fingerprint would be the downfall of one of the
(02:18):
most notorious serial killers in American history. Richard Ramirez was
a murderer, sex offender, and burglar, and began his reign
of terror this summer of nineteen eighty four. In December
of nineteen eighty four, Sergeant Roberto Alidies was on patrol
in West.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
La I was working in West la in the Brentwood area.
It was around two y three in the morning. My
partner and I we were with the other officers that
worked that area, and on our radio frequency. The other
officers contact us says, hey, you're still in the area,
come on back and back a s up. We see
(02:57):
some suspicious vehicle and they had gone down Ashley. These
are very affluent homes and they observed this car was
a seventy four for Pinzo and it was pretty much
a geloty at that time. So Richard Marris was driving
down the street and he looked like he was pulling
into a driveway. He would look at it, back up,
(03:19):
go to another residence. So he was casing the homes
and we pulled him over. We ordered him out of
the car, gets out. He's cooperating with us, and he
looks a mess. So as he comes out, my partner
handcuffs him. I run up to the vehicle to clear
the vehicle and I looked at the ignition and the
(03:40):
ignitions was punched, and so I yelled to the guys, hey,
the car is stone. So we rested him for the stolen vehicle,
put him in our car and the other guys I
pounding the vehicle my partner. I drove him to the
station and I processed him. So I set him down
in the booking chain and then I put his book
(04:01):
in numbers, and I flipped the numbers and put the
data in there and logged him in, took the photo,
and then I went and got him fingerprinted and put
him in jail. The interesting thing about that is that
a few days later, the judge he communicated to the
officers that the reason how you stopped him is because
(04:23):
he's a Hispanic guy in an e flo and white neighborhood.
Now all of us were all Hispanic, so it's like,
you know, where do where does this come from? And
so he said, well, because of this, I'm gonna let
him go. So and by the way, when we ran
this record, he did have a previous arrest for grand
theft autos, so this is the second charge, so he
(04:46):
had a reason to keep him.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
But days later, a judge released Ramiraz from jail on
the promise to return to his preliminary trial. Unsurprisingly, he
did not return to court, and this fa decision led
to Ramirez's ability to continue to rape, torture and murder
for another eight.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Months, so his mo is to break into a house,
do his rituals, kill these people, and then he would
take the stone vehicle someplace and eat torture. So he
did about two or three more crimes. In addition to that,
he had raped several children, so he had victimized several
more families.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Fast forward to August nineteen eighty five, Ramirez drove seventy
six miles in a stolen Orange Toyota to Mission Viejo.
In this area, Ramirez was attempting to attack and rob
a man named James Romero Junior, but he was ultimately
exposed at the scene and forced to flee. Romero, however,
was able to get the make, model, and color of
(05:48):
the car, and he also got a partial license plate.
Since Ramirez's plan was thwarted, Ramirez broke into the home
of Bill Carnes and his fiance Inez Ericson, as shot
Carns multiple times, but he did survive those injuries before
turning his sights on Ericson. After brutalizing her, he left
(06:08):
her alive, telling her to let people know that the
Nightstalker was here, and this decision would prove to be
a very bad one for Ramirez. As Ericson then provided
a full description of Ramirez to the police. On August
twenty eighth, Ramirez abandoned the Toyota. Although he attempted to
destroy any evidence of himself, including a fingerprint, police were
(06:31):
able to obtain one single fingerprint from the rear view mirror.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
When we as it for fingerprints on the rear view mirror,
they got his thumbprint and when they matched that thumb
print came back to my arrest and they were able
to pull up the photo that I took, which if
you watch the latest show on Netflix, they have my
booking photo that I tek along with the sketch. And
I was driving down the street. Actually I was on sense.
(06:56):
I look up and I see this photo that I've
had for years.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So is pretty interesting And according to some Ramirez's print
was a quote unquote near miracle, as the system used
to identify him had only recently been installed. The system
only contained fingerprints of criminals born after January first, nineteen sixty,
and Ramirez was born that year. About a month later,
(07:22):
on August twenty ninth, law enforcement released Ramirez's monk shot
from Alani's arrest. The police stated to the press we
know who you are now, and soon everyone else will.
There will be no place you can hide. And that
statement was quite accurate.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Today, the search for California's nightstalker continues.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Ramirez went to Tucson to see a relative, but upon
his return to Tucson on August thirty first, nineteen eighty five,
Ramirez was recognized by citizens. They conducted their own citizens arrest,
restraining and beating Ramirez until the police arrived. On twenty,
nineteen eighty nine, Ramirez was convicted of forty three charges,
(08:04):
thirteen counts of murder, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults,
and fourteen burglaries. He was sentenced to death in California's
gas chamber. To the press, though, Ramirez stated, quote big
deal death always went with the territory. See you in
Disneyland end quote.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
You know, I saw him in court and it's interesting
to see these ladies that were in the back dressed
in black, and they were all his fans and they
want to marry this guy. That's another crazy thing too.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Why are you in the courtroom today? Everyone makes him
look so bad.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
You know that I know that he he's a nice
person because I've met him and I know he's convicted
of thirteen murders.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No, but he's really a nice time.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
How do you respond to people who are gonna thank
you're crazy for this. I'll say that they'd just thrown
on his dad.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
The trial cost one million dollars and was at the
time the most expensive murder trial in the history of California,
only to be surpassed by the oj Simpson trial. It's
hard to believe that someone who committed atrocities and was
able to elude the police for so long was undone
by the carelessness in leaving a single fingerprint at the
(09:21):
scene of a crime.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to Ashley
Lebinski as always, she's the former co host of the
Discovery Channel's Master of Arms and she's the co founder
of the University of Wyoming College of Laws Firearms Research Center.
And we also want to thank Sergeant Bob Allenize. And
what a story about that judge accusing Hispanic officers of
(09:45):
practicing discrimination and what that cost many families. In Blood
and Treasure, the story of the night Stalker and the
man who arrested him here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Sergeant Bob Allenice
was assigned to patrol for the Los Angeles PD in
December of nineteen eighty four when he arrested Richard Ramirez
for stealing a car. Nobody had known at the time
that Ramirez was the night Stalker. Ultimately, the photo and
prince he took of Ramirez led to his id and arrest. Today,
(00:34):
Bob is the chairman of the Los Angeles Police Museum
and is here to tell the story along with Ashley Lebinski.
Ashley is the former co host of Discovery Channel's Master
of Arms, Take It Away Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Between June nineteen eighty four and August nineteen eighty five,
serial killer Richard Ramirez, who's better known infamously as the
night Stalker, prayed on victims in Los Angeles. He was
arrested on August thirty first, nineteen eighty five, after his
identity was initially released by the police and a group
of citizens recognized him. In this case, it's an example
(01:11):
of a large investigation coming down to something as small
as a fingerprint. Dating back to thirty three hundred BCE,
it's believed that fingerprints were used for some level of
identification purposes. In the eighteen eighties, though, a Frenchman named
Alfons Bertolon ventured away from the fingerprint to develop a
(01:35):
system of identifying people based on body measurements as well
as photographing faces, and this is the origin of the mugshot.
In eighteen ninety two, Sir Francis Galton published the first
classification system for fingerprints, and in nineteen oh one Scotland
Yard established its first fingerprint bureau. While the Bertolin system
(01:56):
was helpful for processing inmates, it was not full proof.
In nineteen oh eight, France was the first country to
have formally adopt fingerprinting, and by nineteen eleven fingerprints were
accepted in US courts as a reliable form of identification.
And who would have thought that just over seventy years later,
a fingerprint would be the downfall of one of the
(02:18):
most notorious serial killers in American history. Richard Ramirez was
a murderer, sex offender, and burglar, and began his reign
of terror this summer of nineteen eighty four. In December
of nineteen eighty four, Sergeant Roberto Alidies was on patrol
in West.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
La I was working in West la in the Brentwood area.
It was around two y three in the morning. My
partner and I we were with the other officers that
worked that area, and on our radio frequency. The other
officers contact us says, hey, you're still in the area,
come on back and back a s up. We see
(02:57):
some suspicious vehicle and they had gone down Ashley. These
are very affluent homes and they observed this car was
a seventy four for Pinzo and it was pretty much
a geloty at that time. So Richard Marris was driving
down the street and he looked like he was pulling
into a driveway. He would look at it, back up,
(03:19):
go to another residence. So he was casing the homes
and we pulled him over. We ordered him out of
the car, gets out. He's cooperating with us, and he
looks a mess. So as he comes out, my partner
handcuffs him. I run up to the vehicle to clear
the vehicle and I looked at the ignition and the
(03:40):
ignitions was punched, and so I yelled to the guys, hey,
the car is stone. So we rested him for the stolen vehicle,
put him in our car and the other guys I
pounding the vehicle my partner. I drove him to the
station and I processed him. So I set him down
in the booking chain and then I put his book
(04:01):
in numbers, and I flipped the numbers and put the
data in there and logged him in, took the photo,
and then I went and got him fingerprinted and put
him in jail. The interesting thing about that is that
a few days later, the judge he communicated to the
officers that the reason how you stopped him is because
(04:23):
he's a Hispanic guy in an e flo and white neighborhood.
Now all of us were all Hispanic, so it's like,
you know, where do where does this come from? And
so he said, well, because of this, I'm gonna let
him go. So and by the way, when we ran
this record, he did have a previous arrest for grand
theft autos, so this is the second charge, so he
(04:46):
had a reason to keep him.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
But days later, a judge released Ramiraz from jail on
the promise to return to his preliminary trial. Unsurprisingly, he
did not return to court, and this fa decision led
to Ramirez's ability to continue to rape, torture and murder
for another eight.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Months, so his mo is to break into a house,
do his rituals, kill these people, and then he would
take the stone vehicle someplace and eat torture. So he
did about two or three more crimes. In addition to that,
he had raped several children, so he had victimized several
more families.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Fast forward to August nineteen eighty five, Ramirez drove seventy
six miles in a stolen Orange Toyota to Mission Viejo.
In this area, Ramirez was attempting to attack and rob
a man named James Romero Junior, but he was ultimately
exposed at the scene and forced to flee. Romero, however,
was able to get the make, model, and color of
(05:48):
the car, and he also got a partial license plate.
Since Ramirez's plan was thwarted, Ramirez broke into the home
of Bill Carnes and his fiance Inez Ericson, as shot
Carns multiple times, but he did survive those injuries before
turning his sights on Ericson. After brutalizing her, he left
(06:08):
her alive, telling her to let people know that the
Nightstalker was here, and this decision would prove to be
a very bad one for Ramirez. As Ericson then provided
a full description of Ramirez to the police. On August
twenty eighth, Ramirez abandoned the Toyota. Although he attempted to
destroy any evidence of himself, including a fingerprint, police were
(06:31):
able to obtain one single fingerprint from the rear view mirror.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
When we as it for fingerprints on the rear view mirror,
they got his thumbprint and when they matched that thumb
print came back to my arrest and they were able
to pull up the photo that I took, which if
you watch the latest show on Netflix, they have my
booking photo that I tek along with the sketch. And
I was driving down the street. Actually I was on sense.
(06:56):
I look up and I see this photo that I've
had for years.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So is pretty interesting And according to some Ramirez's print
was a quote unquote near miracle, as the system used
to identify him had only recently been installed. The system
only contained fingerprints of criminals born after January first, nineteen sixty,
and Ramirez was born that year. About a month later,
(07:22):
on August twenty ninth, law enforcement released Ramirez's monk shot
from Alani's arrest. The police stated to the press we
know who you are now, and soon everyone else will.
There will be no place you can hide. And that
statement was quite accurate.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Today, the search for California's nightstalker continues.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Ramirez went to Tucson to see a relative, but upon
his return to Tucson on August thirty first, nineteen eighty five,
Ramirez was recognized by citizens. They conducted their own citizens arrest,
restraining and beating Ramirez until the police arrived. On twenty,
nineteen eighty nine, Ramirez was convicted of forty three charges,
(08:04):
thirteen counts of murder, five attempted murders, eleven sexual assaults,
and fourteen burglaries. He was sentenced to death in California's
gas chamber. To the press, though, Ramirez stated, quote big
deal death always went with the territory. See you in
Disneyland end quote.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
You know, I saw him in court and it's interesting
to see these ladies that were in the back dressed
in black, and they were all his fans and they
want to marry this guy. That's another crazy thing too.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Why are you in the courtroom today? Everyone makes him
look so bad.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
You know that I know that he he's a nice
person because I've met him and I know he's convicted
of thirteen murders.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No, but he's really a nice time.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
How do you respond to people who are gonna thank
you're crazy for this. I'll say that they'd just thrown
on his dad.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
The trial cost one million dollars and was at the
time the most expensive murder trial in the history of California,
only to be surpassed by the oj Simpson trial. It's
hard to believe that someone who committed atrocities and was
able to elude the police for so long was undone
by the carelessness in leaving a single fingerprint at the
(09:21):
scene of a crime.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to Ashley
Lebinski as always, she's the former co host of the
Discovery Channel's Master of Arms and she's the co founder
of the University of Wyoming College of Laws Firearms Research Center.
And we also want to thank Sergeant Bob Allenize. And
what a story about that judge accusing Hispanic officers of
(09:45):
practicing discrimination and what that cost many families. In Blood
and Treasure, the story of the night Stalker and the
man who arrested him here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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