VIDEO: Conversation with the Night Stalker

Dubbed the “Night Stalker,” Richard Ramirez was an American serial killer who broke into California homes, raping and torturing more than 25 victims and killing at least 13 over a two-year rampage.

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Ramirez was turned on to Satanic worship at an early age by his cousin, a soldier who had recently returned from the war in Vietnam.

Following a four-year trial, in 1989, he was convicted of 13 killings, received the death penalty and was sent to San Quentin Prison in California.

According to Bio.com, Ramirez’s first known murder took place on June 28, 1984; his victim was 79-year-old Jennie Vincow, who was viciously sexually assaulted, stabbed and murdered during a burglary in her own home. What followed was a spree of brutal murders, rapes and robberies, leaving more than 25 victims in its wake.

Ramirez’s second known killing occurred nearly nine months after his first. On March 17, 1985, he attacked Maria Hernandez, who managed to escape him, and then killed her roommate, Dayle Okazaki. Not satisfied with these assaults, he also shot and killed Tsai Lian Yu the same evening, spurring a media frenzy that saw Ramirez dubbed the “Valley Intruder” by the press.

Just 10 days later, on March 27, Ramirez murdered 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara and Zazzara’s 44-year-old wife, Maxine, using an attack style that would become a pattern for the killer: The husband was shot first, then the wife was brutally assaulted and stabbed to death. In this case, Ramirez also gouged out Maxine Zazzara’s eyes.

A full-scale police operation yielded no concrete results, and Ramirez repeated his attack pattern on pensioners William and Lillie Doi in April 1985. Over the next two months, his murder rate escalated rapidly, claiming another dozen victims in a frenzy of burglary, assault and brutal violence—complete with Satanic rituals—and driving Los Angeles into a panic.

After the press demanded that the police do more to catch the killer, a dedicated task force comprised of hundreds of law-enforcement officers was established, and the FBI stepped in to assist.

This relentless media and police pressure, aided with photo-fit descriptions from his surviving victims, forced Ramirez to leave the L.A. area that August. He moved north to San Francisco, taking his first victims there, Peter and Barbara Pan, on August 17.

His unmistakable MO, complete with Satanic symbolism, meant that his “Valley Intruder” moniker was no longer applicable, so the press quickly coined a new name for the criminal: the “Night Stalker,” as most of his assaults took place at night in his victims’ homes.

Ramirez’s next—and final—attack, on August 24, 1985, led to the identification of his stolen car by the victim four days later. After a televised appeal, the car was found, complete with his fingerprints inside, and his criminal record enabled the police to finally put a name to the “Night Stalker.”

National television and print media coverage featuring his prison photo, along with a series of clues from witnesses and survivors, led to Ramirez’s capture on August 30, after he was badly beaten by East L.A. residents while attempting a carjacking and police were called to the scene.