Richard Ramirez

“Big Deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland.” – Richard Ramirez

Richard Ramirez was a young man who appeared to embrace evil as a life philosophy. By the time he was apprehended in 1985, he was 25 years old and had taken the life of 14 victims. During his sentencing, he seemed to simply shrug the sentence off saying “Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland.”

Ramirez was born on 29th February 1960 in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican immigrants Julian and Mercedes. He had a fairly tough childhood under a very strict father. It is said that he would often sleep in the local cemetery to escape the wrath of his father. Despite this, his criminal psychological development came at a critical moment in 1972, when he started spending more time with his cousin, who has recently returned from combat service in Vietnam. His cousin, Mike, would expose Ramirez to graphic photographs of killing and sexual violence. One specific photograph, which Ramirez was exposed to, was that of his cousin receiving oral sex from a woman at gun point. The next being the woman’s severed head. Rather than revolting the young Ramirez, these images seem to have struck something of a sexual chord. Ramirez later witnessed Mike kill his own wife from a gunshot to the face during May 1973.

Photo by Enrique Macias on Unsplash

Through Ramirez’s teenage years there was a steady deterioration in character and lifestyle, which later led to him dropping out of high school and being arrested on numerous occasions. Ramirez had learned techniques of petty crime, such as breaking into houses, and developed an interest in hunting, going out with his gun to shoot down small mammals and birds. His interest often led to him being in trouble with the law; a problem which increased when he moved to Los Angeles in 1978. During his late teen years and early twenties, Ramirez was arrested numerous times on various charges relating to burglary and theft.

Ramirez later began to practice Satan worship. However, rather than being a teenage act of defiance, his attraction toward self-conscious evil seemed genuine. His killing spree started on 28th June in 1984, when he used his petty crime techniques to break into the home of Jennie Vincow, aged 79. Ramirez murdered and sexually assaulted Vincow, stabbing her to death in her own bed. His next victims were not until 17th March 1985; the first being in Rosemead, California.

On the evening of 17th March 1985, Marie Hernandez, aged 22, was leaving the garage of her home when she was approached by a man, Richard Ramirez, wearing black clothing and a baseball cap pulled down low over his face. As Ramirez approaches her, she realises that he has a gun and lifts her hands to her face as he raises the gun and shoots her. Luckily, the bullet strikes her keys and hand, but she falls to the floor as if dead. Ramirez continues into the condominium, where he finds Hernandez’s roommate Dayle Okazaki, aged 24. He shoots her through the head at close range, killing her, and then pulls up her blouse. On leaving the condo, Ramirez passes Hernandez who asks him not too shoot. Hernandez escaped death but Ramirez went on to kill again that same night. His next victim was Tsai-Lian Yu, aged 30, who he dragged from her car near Monterey Park and shoot twice in the chest. Only 10 days later, Ramirez killed the owner of a pizza shop and his wife. The wife’s body was terribly mutilated, including stud marks to her face and body and her eyes cut out. It appears that the majority of these injuries occurred after they had both been shot dead.

Photo by Lacie Slezak on Unsplash

The next attack came on 14th May 1985, when he shot 66-year-old William Doi in his home, then proceeded to rape his elderly wife. However, the dying Doi had enough strength to call 911 and their timely arrival managed to save his wife but not himself. Lillian Doi was the first person to give the police a clear description of the serial killer, who had escaped. Not long after, Ramirez beat two women, both in their 80s, to death with a hammer and carved a pentagram in the thigh of one of the deceased, and another one was etched into the wall of the room. Only a day later, Ramirez struck again. This time raping and sodomising a woman, aged 41, having locked her 12-year-old son in the closet. He then released the boy and tied the pair together before fleeing the scene.

Ramirez’s crime spree didn’t end there. In June 1985, he raped a 6 year-old girl and, the next day, slit a young woman’s throat. During the July, he killed another five people, three of which were on the same day, and seriously injured several more. In one of his attacks, he raped a 8 year-old boy after killing the young boy’s father and raping his mother. On 6th August, he awoke Christopher Peterson and his wife Virginia, and shot both of them in the head, although the managed to survive the attack. However, Ahmed Zia and his wife Suu Kyi were not so lucky. Ramirez shot Zia dead and put his wife through a grotesque and prolonged sexual assault, two days after the Peterson shooting. It was alleged that Ramirez had broken into the home of Peter and Barbara Pan and shot them both dead, again carving a pentagram on the wall, on 17th August.

Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash

The crime spree of Richard Ramirez finally ended on 25th August 1985. He broke into the home of Bill Carns, aged 29, and Inez Erickson, aged 27. Carns was shot in the head, killing him, before Erickson was raped, forced to swear a love for Satan and tied up. Ramirez then fled the seen but witnesses were able to note his number plate which gave the police further evidence leading to the arrest of Ramirez.

During the trail, he came across as virtually a demonic figure. He had drawn a pentagram on his hand which he showed to press photographers, and on other occasions raised fingers to the side of his head as if he were a demon. His performances did not coincide with his not guilty plea, although the plea was greatly the result of defense team tactics. On 20th September 1989, he was found guilty on 13 counts of murder plus 30 other offences, including attempted murder, sexual assault and burglary. He was sentenced to 19 death sentences and was dispatched to San Quentin prison.

Richard Ramirez died 7th June 2013 at MainHealth Medical Centre, Kentfield, California from B-cell lymphoma.

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