May 28, 2024 • 33 mins
Have you ever wondered how early trauma and untreated medical conditions can shape a criminal mind? Join me, Kevin Bennett, and my guest, Nate Coonfare, on this episode as we promise to unravel the chilling life story of Richard Ramirez, a.k.a., The Night Stalker. Together, we explore his tumultuous upbringing in El Paso, Texas, marked by violence and abuse, and how these early experiences set the stage for his terrifying crimes in Los Angeles during the summer of 1985.
Ramirez's descent into violent behavior, catalyzed by witnessing his cousin Mike commit a murder right before his eyes, began at a young age. By examining his exposure to criminal activities and disturbing influences from family members, we offer a comprehensive view of how Ramirez's promising athletic future was derailed by untreated epilepsy and a toxic environment. Nate shares intimate details about Ramirez's transformation from a troubled teenager into a ruthless killer, providing listeners with a deeper understanding of the experiences that shaped his psyche.
Get ready to hear about the harrowing crimes that defined Ramirez's reign of terror. From his initial attack on Maria Hernandez and her roommate to the vicious murders of Maxon and Lela Kneiding , we explore the brutal methods and significant evidence that led to his capture, including the infamous Avia shoe footprint. Our conversation sheds light on the relentless efforts of law enforcement and the fear that gripped Los Angeles during that summer. Tune in for an eye-opening exploration into the dark mind of Richard Ramirez and the indelible impact of his crimes.
This is part one of two.
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A psych professor's podcast about danger, deception, and desire. From the ugly truth about rage rooms and our unhealthy obsession with serial killers, to the ancestral wisdom of goosebumps and the science behind why we keep playing the lottery, join Dr. Kevin Bennett—Penn State University Beaver Campus Teaching Professor, Psychology Today contributor, and fellow at the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health (UD/MH)—as we unmask the power of danger, deception, and desire through sensational stories and savvy behavioral science.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode contains adult language and explicit
discussion of murder and assaultthat some listeners may find
traumatic.
Due to the graphic nature ofthis killer's crimes, listener
discretion is advised.
We recommend extreme cautionfor children under 14.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You are listening to Kevin Bennett is Snarling.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
doing today?
Good Good.
I just came from a long weekendat University Park.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
My name is Kevin Bennett and I am a psychology
professor at Penn StateUniversity Beaver Campus.
This is a show about danger,deception and desire.
My guest today is Nate Kuhnfair.
Nate is a recent graduate ofPenn State University, majoring
in criminal justice and minoringin psychology here at the Penn
(00:52):
State Beaver Campus.
Every other semester I teach acourse on the psychology of
serial killers at Penn State,and Nate was one of my excellent
students in the class thissemester.
I recently sat down with Nateto talk about serial killer
Richard Ramirez, known to manyas the Night Stalker.
This is part one of ourtwo-part conversation.
(01:12):
We are diving into the twistedmind and heinous crimes of one
of America's most notoriousserial killers, richard Ramirez,
better known as the NightStalker.
(01:35):
Los Angeles, california, summer1985.
A city accustomed to moviesthat scare audiences with
over-the-top Hollywood violence.
Nothing could prepare itsresidents for the terror that
was about to unfold.
Richard Ramirez prowled thestreets in the dead of night, a
sinister figure cloaked indarkness.
(01:56):
He wasn't a phantom or aboogeyman from a campfire tale.
He was all too real and hisactions were the stuff of
nightmares.
Clad in all black, includingblack gloves, sunglasses and his
infamous ACDC baseball cap, heidolized London's Jack the
Ripper and wanted to whip up thesame kind of fear in Angelino's
(02:18):
.
During Ramirez's reign ofterror, which spanned over a
year, he committed a string ofbrutal murders, sexual assaults
and home invasions.
No one was safe, not even intheir own homes.
He struck without warning,leaving behind a trail of death
and destruction.
But who was Richard Ramirez?
(02:39):
What led him down his dark pathof violence and depravity?
Born in El Paso, texas,ramirez's childhood was marked
(03:05):
by violence and dysfunction.
His early exposure to crime andabuse laid the groundwork for
his descent into darkness.
But it wasn't until he moved toLos Angeles that he would fully
embrace his demonic impulses.
The Night Stalker's crimes wereas gruesome as they were random
.
From the wealthy suburbs ofBeverly Hills to the
(03:25):
poverty-stricken neighborhoodsof East LA, no one was safe from
his insatiable bloodlust.
His victims ranged in age,gender and ethnicity, making it
nearly impossible for lawenforcement to predict his next
move.
But despite the fear and chaoshe sowed, ramirez's reign of
(03:58):
terror would eventually come toan end, thanks to the tireless
efforts of law enforcement andthe bravery of those who
survived his attacks.
In 1985, he was captured andbrought to justice, but not
before he had forever scarredthe collective psyche of a city
already haunted by its owndemons.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Kevin Bennett is snarling.
Begins now.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
We're going to talk about Richard Ramirez, the Night
Stalker.
Yes, or is it just NightStalker?
Do you know if there's a thethere?
I believe they call the NightStalker, yes, or is it just
Night Stalker?
Do you know if there's a the?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
there, I believe they call him the Night Stalker.
So he was born in 1960, onFebruary 29th, in El Paso, and
he was the youngest of fivechildren born to Mexican
immigrants, mercedes and JulianRamirez.
His father was an alcoholic andwould often beat the children
and he would go into violentfits of rage, and he also did
(05:09):
this to his wife as well.
They lived in poverty and theystruggled to make ends meet, and
it's said that the childrenwere all born from birth defects
and they're thinking that it'sfrom the nuclear fallout in New
Mexico in the 1950s and when thewind would blow it would bring
the radiation and the falloutfrom New Mexico to El Paso.
(05:31):
And it also says that Mercedes,his mother, when she was
pregnant with him she wasworking at a boot factory and
was exposed to all sorts ofdifferent chemicals that may
have affected his birth.
It said that they suffered frombone deformities and
respiratory complications.
And at a very young age Richardwas subject to many head
(05:52):
injuries.
He had a dresser fall on himwhen he was two years old.
It knocked him unconscious for15 minutes and created a
laceration in his forehead thathe received 30 stitches for,
laceration in his forehead thathe received 30 stitches for.
And then when he was five, hewas hit by a playground swing
(06:12):
and after the incident hestarted to have epileptic
seizures.
He was taken to the hospitalafter a second seizure in fifth
grade and they diagnosed himwith temporal lobe epilepsy and
that he was suffering from grandmal seizures.
But the doctors left himuntreated, said that he would
eventually grow out of them, butthis continued.
He had about two dozen of thema month, but then, once he
started to get older, he dideventually grow out of them.
(06:37):
But I know for some people theyput them on medication, so you
would have thought that theywould have maybe tried to help
curb them a little bit, butthat's not the case.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So he had these, these head, pretty serious head
injuries at an early age withthe dresser.
I mean, that just soundsterrible and I know, you know,
when my daughter was younger, wehad to make sure that the
dresser was attached to the wall, because kids will do that,
they'll climb up and then itgets too heavy and it topples
over and it's terrible.
So that happened to him and itwas really serious.
And then that playgroundaccident with the swing, and
(07:05):
then that really kicked off thegrand mal seizures which plagued
him for the rest of his life.
From what I understand, yes, umso, and it went untreated.
Essentially, the doctorsbasically said well, you know,
he'll grow out of it, just livewith it.
Uh, and that's different.
I think that would be treateddifferently today I believe.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So I have a.
I have a personal friend thathas epilepsy and he has to take
medicine twice a day, every day,and if he stops taking it he'll
have a seizure.
Yeah, so it completely curbs itfor now, but obviously medicine
was a little bit different backthen.
We're a lot more advanced now.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And before you move on, so that's interesting about
the birth, whatever the theradioactivity that's coming over
from new mexico.
So have there been other casesin el paso that have been
documented of, like you know,higher rates of birth defects?
Is you know what they theynotice at?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
some point.
I mean I would imagine, but inthis I just found that it
specifically affected.
That's what they're thinking.
So I'm sure that other peoplearound this same time have
experienced this, but I didn'treally do much research on
anybody else, so I'm not sure ifyou know.
I'm sure somewhere someone hassuffered from some kind of
(08:18):
fallout repercussions.
And then so, as he became older, he was a good student in the
classroom.
All of his teachers said thathe was a bright kid and it just
seemed like he didn't care.
So then this is when he startedto become a loner and he would
sleep in the graveyard near hishouse to escape his father's
(08:40):
beating.
And then in 1972, when Richardwas 12, this is when his older
cousin, mike, comes into thepicture.
Mike was a combat veteran inVietnam.
He served two tours as a GreenBeret and he was a recognized
war hero.
He had a bunch of medals andeveryone in the community, and
even his family, commended himand they looked up to him.
(09:01):
Richard saw him as a real lifesuperhero is how it claims from
Philip Carlos, the Night Stalkerbook.
And he had been to war and hehad confirmed kills and he came
back alive.
So everyone saw him.
Everyone praised him.
But there was a really sinisterside to Mike.
(09:23):
He had a stash of Polaroidpictures up on top of his closet
in a shoebox and the pictureswere obscene.
They had Vietnamese women ontheir knees being forced to
perform oral sex on him.
He was holding guns to theirhead.
He also had pictures of thesame woman with her decapitated
head.
So he's showing all of thesepictures to Richard and
(09:49):
Richard's just fascinated and hewould also tell him all of
these stories about what theydid and how they did stuff, and
they really aroused Richard andit's said that he would
masturbate to the thought ofthese pictures and stories and
would actually prefer them overthe adult magazines.
And so him and Mike startedreally hanging out together.
(10:10):
They would drive around thetown listening to the radio,
they would smoke pot and theywould just talk about these
stories, which just fascinatedRichard beyond belief.
And then, on top of it all,mike basically taught Richard
everything he learned as a GreenBeret.
He taught him how to kill withprecision.
He taught him how to move insilence and how to become
(10:31):
undetected and how to blend inwith the night.
On May 4th 1973, richard wasover at Mike's house and
obviously hanging out as perusual, and Mike's wife Jessie
came home, which she wasn't veryfond of Mike hanging out with
Richard.
She often complained about himnot getting a job.
(10:51):
She came home from the grocerystore and she started yelling at
Mike and he told her to shut upmultiple times and she didn't
listen.
So he reached on top of thefridge and he grabbed his .38
revolver and he shot her pointblank in the face.
And Mike turned to Richardafter this and told him not to
tell anyone that he was thereand to keep completely silent
(11:13):
about it.
And so that's what Richard did.
He left, didn't tell anyone,and then a couple days later him
and his father returned to thescene.
It was dusty in there, so itstill smelled like dried blood.
In the novel the Night Stalkerby Philip Carlo he wrote that
Richard spoke on this andRichard said that the day I went
(11:34):
back to that apartment it waslike some kind of mystical
experience.
It was all quiet and still hotin there.
You could smell the dried blood.
Particles of dust seemed tohover in the air.
I looked at the place whereJesse had fallen and died and I
got this kind of tingly feeling.
It was the strangestthing.
Then my father told me to lookin her pocketbook for this
(11:56):
jewelry my cousin wanted, and Idumped Jesse's pocketbook on the
bed and looked through herthings.
It gave me the weirdest feeling.
I mean, I knew her and thesewere her things and she was dead
, murdered, gone, and I wastouching her things and it made
me feel in contact with her.
And so this really set with me,because this is his cousin's
(12:17):
wife and he's getting thesefeelings of her and he just
watched her be murdered right infront of
him.
So this is the pictures wereone thing, and hearing Mike talk
about them and how happy Mikewas about them and how much he
wanted to tell them, you know,could have influence on a young
kid to be like oh you know,these are really cool.
(12:38):
You know, my cousin, mike thesuperhero, thinks they're cool.
So now I think they're cool,but I think that this is just
completely above that, the factthat his cousin he's going
through her dead things and he'sgetting aroused by it.
So then, after this, after thismurder, this is where his life
(12:59):
really started to plummet.
He stopped going to school andhe just focused his attention on
smoking, weed and stealing frompeople.
So then, the summer, rightafter the murder, he went to
visit his older brother, ruben,in Los Angeles.
So this is the first time everthat Richard had left El Paso,
texas.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Let me ask a question right here, because it sounds
like you're going to transitionto California and that
relationship he had with Mikehis cousin I think is a really
important relationship in hisdevelopment.
And in that traumatic episodewhere he had with Mike his
cousin, I think is a reallyimportant relationship in his
development.
Yes, and that traumatic episodewhere he shoots his wife,
that's a traumatic, you know,pivotal moment in Richard
(13:40):
Ramirez's life.
So he was standing right there,he witnessed the murder and
that's horrific enough.
But then he went back a day ortwo later with his dad to help
clean things up and that's whenhe got aroused and he was
intrigued by the whole thing,and it was around this time too
that he was.
I just read this recently.
(14:01):
He was actually on his middleschool football team yes, the
quarterback.
And then the coach said whenthe coach learned about his
seizures, he said absolutely not, you can't play, I can't deal
with you know, if somethinghappens right.
And that's really unfortunate,because that was actually a way
for him to connect with his dadas well, because his dad liked
football.
And here's richard playingquarterback, yeah, that's
(14:22):
awesome.
But then he couldn't do itright.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
So it's like those dreams were kind of ripped away
from him because of his medicalissue and I just wanted to throw
that in there it seems like atthis point in his life, with the
murder, the pictures and thengetting removed from the
football team, just made himlose it with reality pretty much
that you know he may have beenon a good path before.
(14:45):
Maybe if he wouldn't have metMike he wouldn't have or maybe
not said met him but not hungout with him and been exposed to
this stuff that he wouldn'thave been quite the person that
he became to be.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, and I really wonder about that with Ramirez,
because it sounded like in someways he was a good kid when he
was really little three, four,five years of age, had those
terrible accidents.
That's not good, no-transcript,it wasn't healthy in any way
(15:17):
and it just seems to continue.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, and it gets worse, yeah.
So then he goes to Los Angelesand this is his first time, you
know, leaving El Paso and hisbrother, ruben, is.
He's in the life of crime downthere, and when Richard moves
there, ruben teaches him how topick locks, to avoid and disarm
(15:38):
security systems and break intohouses from the outside and
return out without being caught.
So now you take someone that'sa skilled burglar and top it
with the skills that Mike hasalready taught him to be a Green
Beret.
Basically this gives Richard aninsane sense of power, and also
(16:03):
it was an easy way for him tomake money, which he loved, and
not have to go to a regular9-to-5 job, which he loved, and
not have to go to a regular9-to-5 job.
So Rubin would often takeRichard on all of these
burglaries where they wouldbreak in, steal the valuables
and get out without being caught.
He found that he was reallyreally, really good at it.
So then, on top of the burglary, he was also introduced to porn
(16:27):
.
In Los Angeles there'sprostitutes everywhere on the
street, there's X-rated movietheaters, and Richard sort of
had an advantage in that way,because he was 13, but he was
5'9" and he was an older-lookingkid, so people really didn't
look at him too different.
He just kind of fit in and wasable to go in and go out as he
(16:51):
wanted.
So this gave him an extremerush and the fantasies that he
was developing were justaccepted.
In LA it was normal.
So I think that this reallymade him draw to LA.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
He has a laser pointer in one hand and a double
shot of espresso in the other.
This can only mean one thing.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Kevin Bennett is snarling.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
After this summer he returns back to El Paso and he
moves in with his sister, ruth,and her husband, roberto.
And Roberto was a peeping Tomand a sex addict, so he would
constantly demand sex from Ruth,and after they would have sex,
this wasn't enough for him, sohe would leave.
He would go creep around inpeople's backyards and watch
(17:40):
them through the window.
So, as easily influenced asRichard was at this age, he
started going with Roberto onthese escapades and Roberto
showed him how to do it.
So Richard would sneak intothese people's houses, steal all
(18:02):
of their stuff, using theskills that he learned from Mike
, ruben and Roberto, and thisjust gave him the sense of power
.
He felt great while he wasdoing it and because he was good
at it.
So also at this same time hewas perfecting his hunting
skills, using his .22 rifle tokill small game with.
He would stalk and kill thecritters, gut them and then feed
(18:23):
the entrails to his dog.
And at the same time he wasusing a bunch of hallucinogenic
drugs, lsd, peyote and mushrooms.
And so during this time hestarted really connecting with
Satan, which was another drivingfactor into the person that he
would later become things withwhat he learned from Mike Ruben
(18:47):
Roberto the burglaries, thedrugs, the psychedelics.
He started to just stray awayfrom society, and this is when
he started to really become aloner and that he just started
to become worshiping Satan andhe would just, you know, kind of
get away from everybody elseand focus on
(19:08):
himself.
So this next part is whereRichard really acts on his
fantasies.
So he's about 15 years old atthis time.
He's working at a Holiday Innand this is where he really uses
everything he's learned andmade it his own.
(19:29):
So he received a master key forthe Holiday Inn rooms from a
friend that used to work there,which the master key obviously
opens every door into the place,which he didn't have access to
before.
So he would watch these peoplein their rooms from outside
through the peep in the curtain,and when he found that they
went to sleep and shut all thelights off outside through the
(19:50):
peep in the curtain.
And when he found that theywent to sleep and shut all the
lights off, he would unlocktheir door, army, crawl through
the room, find and steal all oftheir valuables and leave before
anyone even knew he was inthere.
And so this took the entirehotel by surprise because they
couldn't figure out who wasdoing this and obviously Richard
wasn't a suspect because of howyoung he was and there's more
(20:14):
factors toit.
But now there was a woman inher room by herself Her name was
Angela Barrios, I believe andshe was in her room and she was
wearing lingerie and he waswatching her through the window.
So he decided to act on hisfantasies.
(20:38):
So he waited for her to go tobed and when he snuck into her
room he jumped on top of herfrom behind and he gagged her.
And Angela complied because shewas waiting for her husband to
come back and her husband was alarge man compared to Richard.
So when the husband returned hewalked right in on Richard on
(21:00):
top of hiswife.
So, as any husband would do ifa man was on top of their wife,
he beat Richard to a bloody pulp, he gave him two black eyes, he
busted his mouth open and thenRichard was eventually arrested
and taken to the hospital totreat his wounds.
Well, when he was sent to courtand the family the husband and
(21:22):
wife they didn't return totestify against Richard, so he
was let go because he was ajuvenile, he was still a young
man.
So they thought, oh, he's justa kid, we'll let him go.
But he received no punishment,no treatment, which is crazy to
me that they saw what happenedthere and he received nothing
(21:44):
for it.
He didn't go to juvie, hedidn't receive any kind of
therapy or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So then let me.
Let me talk about a couple ofthings here, because there's
there's so many, you know,interesting factors at play here
, and he's 15 years old at thetime that this is happening.
When he attacked the hotelguest, I don't know if he knew
that the husband was coming back.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I don't believe so he must not have.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, but yeah, he gets beaten badly.
And then I guess they decidedthe guests decided not to either
press charges or not show up atwhatever hearing they had.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, I believe they were.
So basically he just fizzledout.
I believe they were living,they lived somewhere else and I
don't think they returned backto El Paso, I think they just
wanted to be done with theepisode.
Just let it go.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, and then, like you said, he's a juvenile, so
they basically let him go andit's just remarkable that up
until this point, he's got thesethree male, adult males that
are influencing him in thesenegative ways.
You just mentioned them allmike and ruben and roberto I
forgot about roberto, yeah, uh,and they all basically showed
him how to be a, you know, apsychopathic burglar and steal
(22:55):
things and use all these tacticsthat, um, you know, like
military might use.
So he was really getting like agraduate level training and how
to be an effective burglar.
And, oh, and you mentioned,yeah, he, he was hurting animals
for a while, killing them,gutting them, and he started
using pretty hardcore drugs ataround that time.
(23:18):
So these things are all comingtogether, all these these really
negative variables, okay and so, oh, and the other thing I want
to mention is the these satanicimpulses that he has, and he
was raised in a in a fairlyreligious family.
From what I understand, theywere devout Catholics.
(23:39):
His mom, especially, would goto church and she would take him
and he was a good, you knowlittle church going Richard, and
and then at some point he justgoes to the other side or feels
like he he's not.
You know, catholicism is notworking for him, so he's got to
start worshiping somebody else.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
I think another reason why he was so drawn to
Satan is because he felt like hewasn't going to be judged by
Satan and that Satan was more ofa friend to him and would
encourage stuff that he would dorather than consider it a sin
and make him repent for it.
From my understanding, that'skind of really what drew him to
(24:17):
start following Satan ratherthan Catholicism anymore.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, I mean you wonder, you know, know, how does
anyone get drawn into that?
I I think the the seizures mayhave played a role also, because
he was.
He was having almosthallucinations at times as a, I
think, a direct or indirectresult of the the seizures.
So he was seeing visions and Ithink he sort of interpreted
(24:41):
those as being satan to him.
And it may have just beenhallucinogenic you know nonsense
going on in his head, but hemade some sense of it and that
was, you know, satan is there.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
And I think what most people misconceive about
Richard Ramirez is, you know,whenever you read this stuff, if
you didn't know his age, youwould think that he's a grown
man doing this kind of stuff.
But the fact that he was soyoung I mean, at 15 years old,
you're still playing on theplayground at the park, starting
to get a little bit more intomore adult stuff, but this is
(25:17):
just crazy.
No, 15-year-old should even beremotely exposed to any of this.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
No, no, I mean, it's at that age where you're you
know you're forming friendships,you're trying to ask people out
on dates and, you know,struggle with all those normal
things, but here he is, you know, breaking into rooms and
attempting to rape people and,yeah, it's no, none of this
should be happening to a 15 yearold, and then I also saw that
(25:43):
when he was working at the hotelthere was suspicion of two
children being molested in anelevator.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
But they assume that it's Richard, but he was never
reported or charged for it.
But I just figured that thatwas something that I would add
in here, because what we'll getinto later doesn't surprise me
from him right.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I was gonna say my initial instinct was well, is
that really part of his mo?
But it probably is, because hismo is essentially anyone,
anything, anyone.
So the fact that he wouldattack, you know, adults or even
elderly people and then attackkids, I mean it's consistent
with his character, right?
Whereas for other serialkillers that might be out of
character when you go, thisperson has never had an interest
(26:28):
in children, so maybe it's notthem, but for him it's quite
possible.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
So then after this, he drops out of high school.
He failed ninth grade multipletimes and when he turned 18, he
moved to California.
He moved back to Los Angeles toget away and to completely
leave El Paso.
He left everything behind, hestopped talking to his family
(26:56):
and he just moved away.
So he just lived this violent,criminal lifestyle down there.
He was homeless and poor, so hewould turn to theft and burglary
to support himself and hisextensive drug habit.
He was 100% addicted to alcoholand cocaine and he would just
go into nice neighborhoods dohis same thing.
(27:17):
He would break in undetected,steal all the valuables and
leave.
And this is how he wouldsupport himself and leave.
And this is how he wouldsupport himself.
And this is where his hygienestarted to come into play.
He let his hygiene go.
It completely withered away.
His teeth were completelyrotted, they were stained brown,
some of them were missing.
(27:38):
They were awful and the smellthat he let off, that people
later on in the people thatsurvived his attacks will later
explain his smell, that it waspungent, that he was just
someone like you couldn'tmistake that for anyone else,
that it was the Night Stalker,that it was such a distinct and
(28:00):
horrific smell, horrific smell.
And so then, at this same time,he was arrested multiple times
for breaking and entering theft,and auto theft was a big one
the the famous mug shot that ifyou look up richard ramirez and
you see him in his shirts onbutton, he was actually arrested
for auto theft in that pictureand in other pictures you could
(28:23):
see his.
His teeth Right, they lookterrible, and his mouth like.
You could just tell the waythat he has his mouth open.
It's just, it's disgusting.
And so he uses Satan as hisguidance and his protector, and
then his murder spree begins.
So on April 10th on 1984,nine-year-old May Lung was raped
(28:49):
and stabbed to death in thebasement of a hotel that Ramirez
was living in, and he hung herbody from a pipe where she was
eventually found, and so thismurder was not directly linked
to his crime spree at first, butthey reopened the case in 2004
and the dna from his past crimescenes and him actually matched
(29:11):
with this.
So this april 10th 1984 murderwas not directly linked to his
initial crime spree until lateron okay, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, that's interesting because linkage is
always an issue with theseserial killers.
They're trying to figure outwhich of these crimes are
connected.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
So he wasn't initially convicted of this,
until they found later on in2004 that this was actually him
that did it.
So the first murder to hisspree actually occurred on June
28, 1984.
Richard entered the home ofJenny Vincow, who was a
79-year-old woman, and hestabbed her to death as she
(29:49):
slept.
He slashed her throat so deepthat he almost decapitated her
head, and then he had sex withher corpse.
And it just continues down here.
On March 27th 1985, ramirezattacks Maria Hernandez, who was
(30:09):
22, and her roommate Dale YoshiOkazaki, who was 34, outside
their apartment.
Hernandez was leaving herapartment and Ramirez shot her
in the face, but she happened toput up a set of car keys which
actually deflected the bulletsomewhat, which saved her life.
(30:31):
But unfortunately, okazaki wasfatally shot in the head, and so
an hour later after thisinitial attack, he pulled a
woman from her car and brutallybeat her on the street and stole
her vehicle.
And so, after this attack, thisis where he adopted the name
(30:53):
the Valley Intruder, so this iswhat they called him initially,
as he was breaking into thesepeople's houses and hurting them
.
So then, on March 27th 1985,richard Ramirez entered the home
of Vincent Charles Zazara andhis wife, maxine Lavinia Zazara,
and he had previouslyburglarized this home, and so he
(31:18):
shot and killed Vincent as hewas asleep, and when Maxine woke
from this gunshot he beat heralmost to death, stole all of
the valuables.
Then he goes back to Maxine, heshoots her three times, stabs
her multiple times and gougesher eyes out.
He then carved a letter T intoher chest, and when he leaves he
(31:45):
went out of a window and heleft a footprint.
But the footprint is a staplein the case because it was one
of two Avia shoes.
I don't remember what exactmodel of the shoes, but there
was only two sold in the UnitedStates and he was one of the
owners.
So this footprint has matchedother footprints from the
(32:08):
previous attacks.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
This podcast was recorded and edited by Kevin
Bennett in the beautifulfoothills of Western
Pennsylvania.
You can find Kevin on Twitterat KevinBennettPhD.
For email, Facebook and othercontact info, head over to
Kevin-Bennettcom.
That's Kevin Bennett, with adash in between.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
If you are interested in more stories about
psychology, science and popculture with a dash in between.
This episode contains adult language and explicit
discussion of murder and assaultthat some listeners may find
traumatic.
Due to the graphic nature ofthis killer's crimes, listener
discretion is advised.
We recommend extreme cautionfor children under 14.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
You are listening to Kevin Bennett is Snarling.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
doing today?
Good Good.
I just came from a long weekendat University Park.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
My name is Kevin Bennett and I am a psychology
professor at Penn StateUniversity Beaver Campus.
This is a show about danger,deception and desire.
My guest today is Nate Kuhnfair.
Nate is a recent graduate ofPenn State University, majoring
in criminal justice and minoringin psychology here at the Penn
(00:52):
State Beaver Campus.
Every other semester I teach acourse on the psychology of
serial killers at Penn State,and Nate was one of my excellent
students in the class thissemester.
I recently sat down with Nateto talk about serial killer
Richard Ramirez, known to manyas the Night Stalker.
This is part one of ourtwo-part conversation.
(01:12):
We are diving into the twistedmind and heinous crimes of one
of America's most notoriousserial killers, richard Ramirez,
better known as the NightStalker.
(01:35):
Los Angeles, california, summer1985.
A city accustomed to moviesthat scare audiences with
over-the-top Hollywood violence.
Nothing could prepare itsresidents for the terror that
was about to unfold.
Richard Ramirez prowled thestreets in the dead of night, a
sinister figure cloaked indarkness.
(01:56):
He wasn't a phantom or aboogeyman from a campfire tale.
He was all too real and hisactions were the stuff of
nightmares.
Clad in all black, includingblack gloves, sunglasses and his
infamous ACDC baseball cap, heidolized London's Jack the
Ripper and wanted to whip up thesame kind of fear in Angelino's
(02:18):
.
During Ramirez's reign ofterror, which spanned over a
year, he committed a string ofbrutal murders, sexual assaults
and home invasions.
No one was safe, not even intheir own homes.
He struck without warning,leaving behind a trail of death
and destruction.
But who was Richard Ramirez?
(02:39):
What led him down his dark pathof violence and depravity?
Born in El Paso, texas,ramirez's childhood was marked
(03:05):
by violence and dysfunction.
His early exposure to crime andabuse laid the groundwork for
his descent into darkness.
But it wasn't until he moved toLos Angeles that he would fully
embrace his demonic impulses.
The Night Stalker's crimes wereas gruesome as they were random
.
From the wealthy suburbs ofBeverly Hills to the
(03:25):
poverty-stricken neighborhoodsof East LA, no one was safe from
his insatiable bloodlust.
His victims ranged in age,gender and ethnicity, making it
nearly impossible for lawenforcement to predict his next
move.
But despite the fear and chaoshe sowed, ramirez's reign of
(03:58):
terror would eventually come toan end, thanks to the tireless
efforts of law enforcement andthe bravery of those who
survived his attacks.
In 1985, he was captured andbrought to justice, but not
before he had forever scarredthe collective psyche of a city
already haunted by its owndemons.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Kevin Bennett is snarling.
Begins now.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
We're going to talk about Richard Ramirez, the Night
Stalker.
Yes, or is it just NightStalker?
Do you know if there's a thethere?
I believe they call the NightStalker, yes, or is it just
Night Stalker?
Do you know if there's a the?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
there, I believe they call him the Night Stalker.
So he was born in 1960, onFebruary 29th, in El Paso, and
he was the youngest of fivechildren born to Mexican
immigrants, mercedes and JulianRamirez.
His father was an alcoholic andwould often beat the children
and he would go into violentfits of rage, and he also did
(05:09):
this to his wife as well.
They lived in poverty and theystruggled to make ends meet, and
it's said that the childrenwere all born from birth defects
and they're thinking that it'sfrom the nuclear fallout in New
Mexico in the 1950s and when thewind would blow it would bring
the radiation and the falloutfrom New Mexico to El Paso.
(05:31):
And it also says that Mercedes,his mother, when she was
pregnant with him she wasworking at a boot factory and
was exposed to all sorts ofdifferent chemicals that may
have affected his birth.
It said that they suffered frombone deformities and
respiratory complications.
And at a very young age Richardwas subject to many head
(05:52):
injuries.
He had a dresser fall on himwhen he was two years old.
It knocked him unconscious for15 minutes and created a
laceration in his forehead thathe received 30 stitches for,
laceration in his forehead thathe received 30 stitches for.
And then when he was five, hewas hit by a playground swing
(06:12):
and after the incident hestarted to have epileptic
seizures.
He was taken to the hospitalafter a second seizure in fifth
grade and they diagnosed himwith temporal lobe epilepsy and
that he was suffering from grandmal seizures.
But the doctors left himuntreated, said that he would
eventually grow out of them, butthis continued.
He had about two dozen of thema month, but then, once he
started to get older, he dideventually grow out of them.
(06:37):
But I know for some people theyput them on medication, so you
would have thought that theywould have maybe tried to help
curb them a little bit, butthat's not the case.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
So he had these, these head, pretty serious head
injuries at an early age withthe dresser.
I mean, that just soundsterrible and I know, you know,
when my daughter was younger, wehad to make sure that the
dresser was attached to the wall, because kids will do that,
they'll climb up and then itgets too heavy and it topples
over and it's terrible.
So that happened to him and itwas really serious.
And then that playgroundaccident with the swing, and
(07:05):
then that really kicked off thegrand mal seizures which plagued
him for the rest of his life.
From what I understand, yes, umso, and it went untreated.
Essentially, the doctorsbasically said well, you know,
he'll grow out of it, just livewith it.
Uh, and that's different.
I think that would be treateddifferently today I believe.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So I have a.
I have a personal friend thathas epilepsy and he has to take
medicine twice a day, every day,and if he stops taking it he'll
have a seizure.
Yeah, so it completely curbs itfor now, but obviously medicine
was a little bit different backthen.
We're a lot more advanced now.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And before you move on, so that's interesting about
the birth, whatever the theradioactivity that's coming over
from new mexico.
So have there been other casesin el paso that have been
documented of, like you know,higher rates of birth defects?
Is you know what they theynotice at?
Speaker 3 (07:58):
some point.
I mean I would imagine, but inthis I just found that it
specifically affected.
That's what they're thinking.
So I'm sure that other peoplearound this same time have
experienced this, but I didn'treally do much research on
anybody else, so I'm not sure ifyou know.
I'm sure somewhere someone hassuffered from some kind of
(08:18):
fallout repercussions.
And then so, as he became older, he was a good student in the
classroom.
All of his teachers said thathe was a bright kid and it just
seemed like he didn't care.
So then this is when he startedto become a loner and he would
sleep in the graveyard near hishouse to escape his father's
(08:40):
beating.
And then in 1972, when Richardwas 12, this is when his older
cousin, mike, comes into thepicture.
Mike was a combat veteran inVietnam.
He served two tours as a GreenBeret and he was a recognized
war hero.
He had a bunch of medals andeveryone in the community, and
even his family, commended himand they looked up to him.
(09:01):
Richard saw him as a real lifesuperhero is how it claims from
Philip Carlos, the Night Stalkerbook.
And he had been to war and hehad confirmed kills and he came
back alive.
So everyone saw him.
Everyone praised him.
But there was a really sinisterside to Mike.
(09:23):
He had a stash of Polaroidpictures up on top of his closet
in a shoebox and the pictureswere obscene.
They had Vietnamese women ontheir knees being forced to
perform oral sex on him.
He was holding guns to theirhead.
He also had pictures of thesame woman with her decapitated
head.
So he's showing all of thesepictures to Richard and
(09:49):
Richard's just fascinated and hewould also tell him all of
these stories about what theydid and how they did stuff, and
they really aroused Richard andit's said that he would
masturbate to the thought ofthese pictures and stories and
would actually prefer them overthe adult magazines.
And so him and Mike startedreally hanging out together.
(10:10):
They would drive around thetown listening to the radio,
they would smoke pot and theywould just talk about these
stories, which just fascinatedRichard beyond belief.
And then, on top of it all,mike basically taught Richard
everything he learned as a GreenBeret.
He taught him how to kill withprecision.
He taught him how to move insilence and how to become
(10:31):
undetected and how to blend inwith the night.
On May 4th 1973, richard wasover at Mike's house and
obviously hanging out as perusual, and Mike's wife Jessie
came home, which she wasn't veryfond of Mike hanging out with
Richard.
She often complained about himnot getting a job.
(10:51):
She came home from the grocerystore and she started yelling at
Mike and he told her to shut upmultiple times and she didn't
listen.
So he reached on top of thefridge and he grabbed his .38
revolver and he shot her pointblank in the face.
And Mike turned to Richardafter this and told him not to
tell anyone that he was thereand to keep completely silent
(11:13):
about it.
And so that's what Richard did.
He left, didn't tell anyone,and then a couple days later him
and his father returned to thescene.
It was dusty in there, so itstill smelled like dried blood.
In the novel the Night Stalkerby Philip Carlo he wrote that
Richard spoke on this andRichard said that the day I went
(11:34):
back to that apartment it waslike some kind of mystical
experience.
It was all quiet and still hotin there.
You could smell the dried blood.
Particles of dust seemed tohover in the air.
I looked at the place whereJesse had fallen and died and I
got this kind of tingly feeling.
It was the strangestthing.
Then my father told me to lookin her pocketbook for this
(11:56):
jewelry my cousin wanted, and Idumped Jesse's pocketbook on the
bed and looked through herthings.
It gave me the weirdest feeling.
I mean, I knew her and thesewere her things and she was dead
, murdered, gone, and I wastouching her things and it made
me feel in contact with her.
And so this really set with me,because this is his cousin's
(12:17):
wife and he's getting thesefeelings of her and he just
watched her be murdered right infront of
him.
So this is the pictures wereone thing, and hearing Mike talk
about them and how happy Mikewas about them and how much he
wanted to tell them, you know,could have influence on a young
kid to be like oh you know,these are really cool.
(12:38):
You know, my cousin, mike thesuperhero, thinks they're cool.
So now I think they're cool,but I think that this is just
completely above that, the factthat his cousin he's going
through her dead things and he'sgetting aroused by it.
So then, after this, after thismurder, this is where his life
(12:59):
really started to plummet.
He stopped going to school andhe just focused his attention on
smoking, weed and stealing frompeople.
So then, the summer, rightafter the murder, he went to
visit his older brother, ruben,in Los Angeles.
So this is the first time everthat Richard had left El Paso,
texas.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Let me ask a question right here, because it sounds
like you're going to transitionto California and that
relationship he had with Mikehis cousin I think is a really
important relationship in hisdevelopment.
And in that traumatic episodewhere he had with Mike his
cousin, I think is a reallyimportant relationship in his
development.
Yes, and that traumatic episodewhere he shoots his wife,
that's a traumatic, you know,pivotal moment in Richard
(13:40):
Ramirez's life.
So he was standing right there,he witnessed the murder and
that's horrific enough.
But then he went back a day ortwo later with his dad to help
clean things up and that's whenhe got aroused and he was
intrigued by the whole thing,and it was around this time too
that he was.
I just read this recently.
(14:01):
He was actually on his middleschool football team yes, the
quarterback.
And then the coach said whenthe coach learned about his
seizures, he said absolutely not, you can't play, I can't deal
with you know, if somethinghappens right.
And that's really unfortunate,because that was actually a way
for him to connect with his dadas well, because his dad liked
football.
And here's richard playingquarterback, yeah, that's
(14:22):
awesome.
But then he couldn't do itright.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
So it's like those dreams were kind of ripped away
from him because of his medicalissue and I just wanted to throw
that in there it seems like atthis point in his life, with the
murder, the pictures and thengetting removed from the
football team, just made himlose it with reality pretty much
that you know he may have beenon a good path before.
(14:45):
Maybe if he wouldn't have metMike he wouldn't have or maybe
not said met him but not hungout with him and been exposed to
this stuff that he wouldn'thave been quite the person that
he became to be.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, and I really wonder about that with Ramirez,
because it sounded like in someways he was a good kid when he
was really little three, four,five years of age, had those
terrible accidents.
That's not good, no-transcript,it wasn't healthy in any way
(15:17):
and it just seems to continue.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Yeah, and it gets worse, yeah.
So then he goes to Los Angelesand this is his first time, you
know, leaving El Paso and hisbrother, ruben, is.
He's in the life of crime downthere, and when Richard moves
there, ruben teaches him how topick locks, to avoid and disarm
(15:38):
security systems and break intohouses from the outside and
return out without being caught.
So now you take someone that'sa skilled burglar and top it
with the skills that Mike hasalready taught him to be a Green
Beret.
Basically this gives Richard aninsane sense of power, and also
(16:03):
it was an easy way for him tomake money, which he loved, and
not have to go to a regular9-to-5 job, which he loved, and
not have to go to a regular9-to-5 job.
So Rubin would often takeRichard on all of these
burglaries where they wouldbreak in, steal the valuables
and get out without being caught.
He found that he was reallyreally, really good at it.
So then, on top of the burglary, he was also introduced to porn
(16:27):
.
In Los Angeles there'sprostitutes everywhere on the
street, there's X-rated movietheaters, and Richard sort of
had an advantage in that way,because he was 13, but he was
5'9" and he was an older-lookingkid, so people really didn't
look at him too different.
He just kind of fit in and wasable to go in and go out as he
(16:51):
wanted.
So this gave him an extremerush and the fantasies that he
was developing were justaccepted.
In LA it was normal.
So I think that this reallymade him draw to LA.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
He has a laser pointer in one hand and a double
shot of espresso in the other.
This can only mean one thing.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Kevin Bennett is snarling.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
After this summer he returns back to El Paso and he
moves in with his sister, ruth,and her husband, roberto.
And Roberto was a peeping Tomand a sex addict, so he would
constantly demand sex from Ruth,and after they would have sex,
this wasn't enough for him, sohe would leave.
He would go creep around inpeople's backyards and watch
(17:40):
them through the window.
So, as easily influenced asRichard was at this age, he
started going with Roberto onthese escapades and Roberto
showed him how to do it.
So Richard would sneak intothese people's houses, steal all
(18:02):
of their stuff, using theskills that he learned from Mike
, ruben and Roberto, and thisjust gave him the sense of power
.
He felt great while he wasdoing it and because he was good
at it.
So also at this same time hewas perfecting his hunting
skills, using his .22 rifle tokill small game with.
He would stalk and kill thecritters, gut them and then feed
(18:23):
the entrails to his dog.
And at the same time he wasusing a bunch of hallucinogenic
drugs, lsd, peyote and mushrooms.
And so during this time hestarted really connecting with
Satan, which was another drivingfactor into the person that he
would later become things withwhat he learned from Mike Ruben
(18:47):
Roberto the burglaries, thedrugs, the psychedelics.
He started to just stray awayfrom society, and this is when
he started to really become aloner and that he just started
to become worshiping Satan andhe would just, you know, kind of
get away from everybody elseand focus on
(19:08):
himself.
So this next part is whereRichard really acts on his
fantasies.
So he's about 15 years old atthis time.
He's working at a Holiday Innand this is where he really uses
everything he's learned andmade it his own.
(19:29):
So he received a master key forthe Holiday Inn rooms from a
friend that used to work there,which the master key obviously
opens every door into the place,which he didn't have access to
before.
So he would watch these peoplein their rooms from outside
through the peep in the curtain,and when he found that they
went to sleep and shut all thelights off outside through the
(19:50):
peep in the curtain.
And when he found that theywent to sleep and shut all the
lights off, he would unlocktheir door, army, crawl through
the room, find and steal all oftheir valuables and leave before
anyone even knew he was inthere.
And so this took the entirehotel by surprise because they
couldn't figure out who wasdoing this and obviously Richard
wasn't a suspect because of howyoung he was and there's more
(20:14):
factors toit.
But now there was a woman inher room by herself Her name was
Angela Barrios, I believe andshe was in her room and she was
wearing lingerie and he waswatching her through the window.
So he decided to act on hisfantasies.
(20:38):
So he waited for her to go tobed and when he snuck into her
room he jumped on top of herfrom behind and he gagged her.
And Angela complied because shewas waiting for her husband to
come back and her husband was alarge man compared to Richard.
So when the husband returned hewalked right in on Richard on
(21:00):
top of hiswife.
So, as any husband would do ifa man was on top of their wife,
he beat Richard to a bloody pulp, he gave him two black eyes, he
busted his mouth open and thenRichard was eventually arrested
and taken to the hospital totreat his wounds.
Well, when he was sent to courtand the family the husband and
(21:22):
wife they didn't return totestify against Richard, so he
was let go because he was ajuvenile, he was still a young
man.
So they thought, oh, he's justa kid, we'll let him go.
But he received no punishment,no treatment, which is crazy to
me that they saw what happenedthere and he received nothing
(21:44):
for it.
He didn't go to juvie, hedidn't receive any kind of
therapy or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So then let me.
Let me talk about a couple ofthings here, because there's
there's so many, you know,interesting factors at play here
, and he's 15 years old at thetime that this is happening.
When he attacked the hotelguest, I don't know if he knew
that the husband was coming back.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
I don't believe so he must not have.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, but yeah, he gets beaten badly.
And then I guess they decidedthe guests decided not to either
press charges or not show up atwhatever hearing they had.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, I believe they were.
So basically he just fizzledout.
I believe they were living,they lived somewhere else and I
don't think they returned backto El Paso, I think they just
wanted to be done with theepisode.
Just let it go.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, and then, like you said, he's a juvenile, so
they basically let him go andit's just remarkable that up
until this point, he's got thesethree male, adult males that
are influencing him in thesenegative ways.
You just mentioned them allmike and ruben and roberto I
forgot about roberto, yeah, uh,and they all basically showed
him how to be a, you know, apsychopathic burglar and steal
(22:55):
things and use all these tacticsthat, um, you know, like
military might use.
So he was really getting like agraduate level training and how
to be an effective burglar.
And, oh, and you mentioned,yeah, he, he was hurting animals
for a while, killing them,gutting them, and he started
using pretty hardcore drugs ataround that time.
(23:18):
So these things are all comingtogether, all these these really
negative variables, okay and so, oh, and the other thing I want
to mention is the these satanicimpulses that he has, and he
was raised in a in a fairlyreligious family.
From what I understand, theywere devout Catholics.
(23:39):
His mom, especially, would goto church and she would take him
and he was a good, you knowlittle church going Richard, and
and then at some point he justgoes to the other side or feels
like he he's not.
You know, catholicism is notworking for him, so he's got to
start worshiping somebody else.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
I think another reason why he was so drawn to
Satan is because he felt like hewasn't going to be judged by
Satan and that Satan was more ofa friend to him and would
encourage stuff that he would dorather than consider it a sin
and make him repent for it.
From my understanding, that'skind of really what drew him to
(24:17):
start following Satan ratherthan Catholicism anymore.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, I mean you wonder, you know, know, how does
anyone get drawn into that?
I I think the the seizures mayhave played a role also, because
he was.
He was having almosthallucinations at times as a, I
think, a direct or indirectresult of the the seizures.
So he was seeing visions and Ithink he sort of interpreted
(24:41):
those as being satan to him.
And it may have just beenhallucinogenic you know nonsense
going on in his head, but hemade some sense of it and that
was, you know, satan is there.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
And I think what most people misconceive about
Richard Ramirez is, you know,whenever you read this stuff, if
you didn't know his age, youwould think that he's a grown
man doing this kind of stuff.
But the fact that he was soyoung I mean, at 15 years old,
you're still playing on theplayground at the park, starting
to get a little bit more intomore adult stuff, but this is
(25:17):
just crazy.
No, 15-year-old should even beremotely exposed to any of this.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
No, no, I mean, it's at that age where you're you
know you're forming friendships,you're trying to ask people out
on dates and, you know,struggle with all those normal
things, but here he is, you know, breaking into rooms and
attempting to rape people and,yeah, it's no, none of this
should be happening to a 15 yearold, and then I also saw that
(25:43):
when he was working at the hotelthere was suspicion of two
children being molested in anelevator.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
But they assume that it's Richard, but he was never
reported or charged for it.
But I just figured that thatwas something that I would add
in here, because what we'll getinto later doesn't surprise me
from him right.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I was gonna say my initial instinct was well, is
that really part of his mo?
But it probably is, because hismo is essentially anyone,
anything, anyone.
So the fact that he wouldattack, you know, adults or even
elderly people and then attackkids, I mean it's consistent
with his character, right?
Whereas for other serialkillers that might be out of
character when you go, thisperson has never had an interest
(26:28):
in children, so maybe it's notthem, but for him it's quite
possible.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
So then after this, he drops out of high school.
He failed ninth grade multipletimes and when he turned 18, he
moved to California.
He moved back to Los Angeles toget away and to completely
leave El Paso.
He left everything behind, hestopped talking to his family
(26:56):
and he just moved away.
So he just lived this violent,criminal lifestyle down there.
He was homeless and poor, so hewould turn to theft and burglary
to support himself and hisextensive drug habit.
He was 100% addicted to alcoholand cocaine and he would just
go into nice neighborhoods dohis same thing.
(27:17):
He would break in undetected,steal all the valuables and
leave.
And this is how he wouldsupport himself and leave.
And this is how he wouldsupport himself.
And this is where his hygienestarted to come into play.
He let his hygiene go.
It completely withered away.
His teeth were completelyrotted, they were stained brown,
some of them were missing.
(27:38):
They were awful and the smellthat he let off, that people
later on in the people thatsurvived his attacks will later
explain his smell, that it waspungent, that he was just
someone like you couldn'tmistake that for anyone else,
that it was the Night Stalker,that it was such a distinct and
(28:00):
horrific smell, horrific smell.
And so then, at this same time,he was arrested multiple times
for breaking and entering theft,and auto theft was a big one
the the famous mug shot that ifyou look up richard ramirez and
you see him in his shirts onbutton, he was actually arrested
for auto theft in that pictureand in other pictures you could
(28:23):
see his.
His teeth Right, they lookterrible, and his mouth like.
You could just tell the waythat he has his mouth open.
It's just, it's disgusting.
And so he uses Satan as hisguidance and his protector, and
then his murder spree begins.
So on April 10th on 1984,nine-year-old May Lung was raped
(28:49):
and stabbed to death in thebasement of a hotel that Ramirez
was living in, and he hung herbody from a pipe where she was
eventually found, and so thismurder was not directly linked
to his crime spree at first, butthey reopened the case in 2004
and the dna from his past crimescenes and him actually matched
(29:11):
with this.
So this april 10th 1984 murderwas not directly linked to his
initial crime spree until lateron okay, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, that's interesting because linkage is
always an issue with theseserial killers.
They're trying to figure outwhich of these crimes are
connected.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
So he wasn't initially convicted of this,
until they found later on in2004 that this was actually him
that did it.
So the first murder to hisspree actually occurred on June
28, 1984.
Richard entered the home ofJenny Vincow, who was a
79-year-old woman, and hestabbed her to death as she
(29:49):
slept.
He slashed her throat so deepthat he almost decapitated her
head, and then he had sex withher corpse.
And it just continues down here.
On March 27th 1985, ramirezattacks Maria Hernandez, who was
(30:09):
22, and her roommate Dale YoshiOkazaki, who was 34, outside
their apartment.
Hernandez was leaving herapartment and Ramirez shot her
in the face, but she happened toput up a set of car keys which
actually deflected the bulletsomewhat, which saved her life.
(30:31):
But unfortunately, okazaki wasfatally shot in the head, and so
an hour later after thisinitial attack, he pulled a
woman from her car and brutallybeat her on the street and stole
her vehicle.
And so, after this attack, thisis where he adopted the name
(30:53):
the Valley Intruder, so this iswhat they called him initially,
as he was breaking into thesepeople's houses and hurting them
.
So then, on March 27th 1985,richard Ramirez entered the home
of Vincent Charles Zazara andhis wife, maxine Lavinia Zazara,
and he had previouslyburglarized this home, and so he
(31:18):
shot and killed Vincent as hewas asleep, and when Maxine woke
from this gunshot he beat heralmost to death, stole all of
the valuables.
Then he goes back to Maxine, heshoots her three times, stabs
her multiple times and gougesher eyes out.
He then carved a letter T intoher chest, and when he leaves he
(31:45):
went out of a window and heleft a footprint.
But the footprint is a staplein the case because it was one
of two Avia shoes.
I don't remember what exactmodel of the shoes, but there
was only two sold in the UnitedStates and he was one of the
owners.
So this footprint has matchedother footprints from the
(32:08):
previous attacks.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
This podcast was recorded and edited by Kevin
Bennett in the beautifulfoothills of Western
Pennsylvania.
You can find Kevin on Twitterat KevinBennettPhD.
For email, Facebook and othercontact info, head over to
Kevin-Bennettcom.
That's Kevin Bennett, with adash in between.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
If you are interested in more stories about
psychology, science and popculture with a dash in between.
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