00:00:04
[ Suspenseful music plays ] -On August 31, 1985, detectives across California [ Camera shutter clicks ]
had finally discovered
00:00:13
the identity of a serial killer who the media dubbed
the Night Stalker. The mysterious attacker
was wanted
00:00:22
for 13 murders
across Los Angeles. -He was a psychotic, paranoid,
Satan-worshiping psychopath
00:00:30
who derived his pleasure from the combination
of lust and violence. -After being chased
by a mob of vigilantes,
00:00:39
25-year-old Richard Ramirez had to be rescued
by two police officers who had, inadvertently,
00:00:46
made the biggest arrest
of the decade. -This one cop looks real close. He says, "Jesus!
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It's the Night Stalker! It's Richard Ramirez." -At his trial, the most feared man in the USA
00:00:58
declared his allegiance
to the devil. -If you were going to set out
to describe how to make a serial killer
or a serial rapist,
00:01:08
you could do worse than take
Ramirez as your example. He has every possible
constituent.
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-Richard Ramirez, the man known
as the Night Stalker, [ Shutter clicks ]
had taken his place in infamy
00:01:20
as one of the
world's most evil killers. [ Shutter clicks ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Suspenseful music climbs ]
00:01:38
[ Shutter clicks ]
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ♪♪ [ Shutter clicks ] It was a series
of gruesome murders
00:01:47
that spread fear
across California. When Richard Ramirez
was finally apprehended
00:01:53
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
by an angry mob in Los Angeles on August 31, 1985, it brought to an end
00:02:00
one of the most prolific
murderers in U.S. history. Nicknamed the Night Stalker,
00:02:07
the Satan-worshipping
serial killer had terrorized the state
of California for 14 months,
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claiming at least 13 victims. San Francisco
Detective Frank Falzon met Ramirez face-to-face
00:02:23
four years after his conviction,
in September 1989. -About as evil as anything
I can imagine.
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He was intent to hurt and that's what people
have to realize. -Frank worked hard
to help capture Ramirez
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after the Night Stalker
murders reached [ Shutter clicks ]
the San Francisco Bay area
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in August 1985. -I served 22 years in the
San Francisco Homicide detail. Numerous cases were broke
that I felt very good about;
00:02:55
none as high
as the Night Stalker. The fact that my partner and I
and a few other gentlemen
00:03:02
played a key role
in breaking this case, it was probably
the highlight of my career.
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-This killer's story begins
over half a century ago. Richard Ramirez was born on February 29, 1960,
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[ Shutter clicks ]
to Mexican-born parents in El Paso, Texas. -He was the youngest
of five children
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and the family had quite
a kind of turbulent life, so, they lived in several
different areas,
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many of which had quite high
levels of industrial pollution. Some of his siblings had been
born with birth defects,
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so, this family had
an awful lot of challenges. That's something that would
come to shape Richard's life
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and those of his siblings, so, he hasn't got
the best start in life. -And life did not get
much better for Ramirez.
00:03:53
At a young age,
he began rebelling against his strict
Catholic upbringing. -He's nine.
His brain is still developing.
00:04:00
He's sniffing glue.
He's smoking marijuana. There's emotional trauma that's
happening in the family, too.
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[ Suspenseful music plays ] -His father was a brutal,
short-tempered man. I'm not suggesting it was
classic child abuse,
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but there was certainly
physical violence, and Richard Ramirez shrank away,
if you like, from his father
00:04:25
and he took refuge
in the company of a cousin. -Ramirez's cousin Mike returned from the Vietnam War
in 1971.
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He was scarred
by the atrocities he'd seen and had committed
as a Special Forces Green Beret.
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-So we have a grizzled,
damaged, Vietnam vet, mind, and a frail,
probably suggestible boy,
00:04:53
and Mike proceeds
to explain to him the dreadful things he's done to Vietnamese women
while in Vietnam.
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He's tied them to trees. He's raped them.
He's beheaded them. He's taken photographs of it.
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-He came home, telling stories
of this to Richard, and he would boast about it,
so Richard now has
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a real-life killing machine
to look up to and to admire. [ Sinister chord strikes ]
-12-year-old Ramirez
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was fascinated
by his older cousin. -So he starts spending
an awful lot of time with Mike.
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He's quite
a significant influence on young Richard's life and he's very
impressionable at this age,
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so this really is
kind of cementing some of those ideas
that he's had about harming other people
in order to feel powerful.
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[ Shutter clicks ]
-And that must have distorted
Ramirez's value systems and the way in which he
responded to women, in general.
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[ Sinister chord strikes ]
They became objects. They were not real
and they became,
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how can one put it politely? Not entirely human. -On May 4, 1973, Ramirez witnessed an event
that would cement
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[ Shutter clicks ]
his feelings towards women and his admiration
for Cousin Mike.
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-He keeps his gun in the fridge because he says he likes
to keep it cool and this is another
thing I think
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that quite impresses Richard, and one day, Mike has
a huge argument with his wife
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and ends up killing her. He shoots her in the face. [ Sinister chord strikes ]
[ Siren wailing ]
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And Richard is there
in the house when this happens. What you've got here
is a combination
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of things
that have been going on. So, a young lad who looks up
to people who are violent,
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a young lad who hears
stories of violence, and, now, he's actually
seeing it happen.
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-Mike was a powerful influence
in the direction of psychopathy, rage discontrol,
and the merger --
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and this is the most
important thing -- the merger of sexual impulses
and violent impulses
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into a single, coherent force. -Now, the impact
that must've had on a boy who's been
taking marijuana
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with a man who he clearly
hero-worships, it must have scrambled
Ramirez's brain.
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-And his reaction to it
is quite interesting 'cause when he talks
about it afterwards,
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he doesn't talk about
how he feels, seeing this woman murdered
in front of him. He talks about it
very objectively.
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He talks about the body
falling to the floor, about blood spurting
out of the wound.
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It's not about feeling disgusted
or feeling traumatized or sad. He's just giving
a very cold description
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and I think this
really does tell us what kind of person
Ramirez is turning into.
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-Mike was immediately arrested. In court, he was judged
to be not guilty on the grounds of insanity.
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Instead of prison, he was sent
to a mental institution and released in 1977. -Ramirez, in the meantime,
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because he's removed
from his hero, goes to stay
with his sister and husband. -He's lost his idol;
he's lost his role model
00:08:06
and he is basically now
starting to ruminate and to think about the things
that he wants to do,
00:08:12
so, he doesn't look
after himself. He's very unkempt.
He's dirty. He doesn't wash, and so he
becomes even more of an outcast.
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So, he very much gets lost
in his own head, at this point in time, and he's planning
what he's going to do next.
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-Age 17, Ramirez was ready to turn
his twisted fantasies into reality. -While he was still at school,
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he got a job working
at a Holiday Inn and he got a passkey
for all the rooms and he took it
upon himself one day
00:08:44
to decide that,
while the husband was away, parking the car, he would go into the room
that they just both moved into
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and he would attempt
to rape the wife. -The husband comes in
and he sees what's going on
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and basically beats
Richard Ramirez to a bloody pulp, But this couple,
they're from out of town.
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They're on holiday. They don't wanna
follow this up. They don't want
to pursue this case.
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-The couple decided not
to press charges. It was a lucky escape
for Ramirez. [ Shutter clicks ]
Living on the edges of society,
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his behavior became more
and more unpredictable. -So, he's dirty.
He's unkempt. He's sleeping in graveyards.
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He's increasingly kind of going
over to the Dark Side. [ Eerie music climbs ] And the things
that appeal to him
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are things that most people
would find really odd and really bizarre: devil worship,
that sort of thing.
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So he's gone on this
trajectory, now, and I think that's only
gonna go one way. -Aged 18,
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Richard Ramirez headed west,
to California. The Golden State would become
his hunting ground.
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[ Shutter clicks ]
Five years later, in June 1984, he would claim
the first murder victim
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of a 14-month killing spree. Anyone was a target, and everyone was petrified. [ Sinister chord strikes ]
Where would Ramirez strike next?
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[ Shutter clicks ]
[ Sinister chord strikes ] By 1984, Richard Ramirez
had become a social outcast.
00:10:17
Fueled by a hatred of women
and a distinct lack of morals, the 24-year-old
had settled into a life
00:10:24
on the fringes of society
in downtown Los Angeles. -He's with all the runaways
and the throwaways.
00:10:31
He's immersed
in a drug subculture. So, he had no brakes on him
before, really, but, now, he's completely
off the rails,
00:10:40
and he does become Richard Ramirez,
the serial killer. -On June 28, 1984, 79-year-old Jennie Vincow
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was found brutally
stabbed to death in her Los Angeles home. Her dress was pulled up,
00:10:56
suggesting a sexual assault
had taken place. The knife wounds were so severe,
she had almost been decapitated.
00:11:05
[ Shutter clicks ]
Ramirez's reign of terror had began. -In terms of what made
Richard Ramirez kill,
00:11:13
I think it was
an escalation of behavior. So he's been robbing; he's been burglarizing
people's houses.
00:11:20
He has got access to people
in their homes and I think,
when you have that access
00:11:26
and an opportunity
presents itself and you are the type of person
who gets off on violence,
00:11:31
who doesn't feel bad
about hurting other people, then you are somebody
who is likely
00:11:35
to take advantage
of that opportunity when it presents itself. So I think it's a gradual
escalation of behavior.
00:11:42
-Six months
after his first murder, [ Suspenseful music plays ]
Ramirez was in custody.
00:11:47
But not for murder. He was arrested
on a charge of car theft. He served 36 days in prison.
00:11:55
But it was his mugshot, captured
on December 12, 1984, that would eventually lead
to his downfall.
00:12:02
[ Sinister music plays ] [ Shutter clicks ]
Once released, on March 17, 1985, his killing spree continued.
00:12:12
Ramirez attacked three women
on the same night, killing two of them. The attacks seemed
completely random,
00:12:19
but appeared to have
a sexual motive. -Well, Ramirez had,
as a specific part of his modus operandi,
to gain access to his victims,
00:12:28
essentially, by surreptitiously
entering their home. He was, at his core, a burglar,
00:12:34
whose object felony was
sexual murder. -He's not someone
who can form relationships
00:12:42
with women,
but he still wants women. He still wants to possess them
and have his way with them,
00:12:47
so, he's only gonna do that
through violent means. -Eleven days later, Ramirez was
on the hunt once more.
00:12:56
[ Shutter clicks ]
He broke in to the home of 64-year-old Vincent Zazzara and his wife, Maxine,
in the city of Whittier.
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Ramirez shot Vincent
in the head, killing him instantly. [ Shutter clicks ]
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
00:13:09
-Then tied up his wife, who was 20 years younger, [ Melancholy tune plays ]
Maxine, demanding money.
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Where does she keep
the valuables? -One of the things Ramirez
would do would be he would restrain his victims.
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That's obviously got
a physical impact. It means you can't move. It means you're not able
to respond to an assailant
00:13:28
and, obviously, there's
the psychological element of helplessness
and powerlessness.
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-Ramirez shot her three times... [ Suspenseful chord strikes ] ...and then he mutilated her
grotesquely,
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eventually, gouging her eyes out and putting them
in a jewelry box to take away with him.
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[ Melancholy tune plays ] -Postmortem mutilation is relatively uncommon
in homicide cases.
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Most homicides that are dealt
with day-to-day are cases where people
have been angry
00:14:02
or where there's
a domestic dispute. They're not really
the sort of planned, orchestrated murders that we see
in cases like Ramirez.
00:14:11
In those cases,
you can see bizarre behavior, both to the body before death
and mutilation after death,
00:14:19
and that's very much more about what's in the mind
of the killer. -Vince Zazzara
00:14:25
was a well-respected member
of the Whittier community. He ran a local pizzeria after serving
in the Second World War.
00:14:33
[ Shutter clicks ]
His son Peter remembers his father fondly. -Well, my dad was
a immigrant from Italy,
00:14:41
came over in the 1930s,
mid-'30s, something like that,
and he joined the Army. He was in World War II.
00:14:49
He was in Patton's Army. He was one of his team members. He was in the Army
for six years.
00:14:53
He was in the
Battle of the Bulge. He was a pretty accomplished
person, that way,
00:14:58
and everybody respected him. -Peter remembers
hearing the news that his father and stepmother
had been murdered.
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[ Shutter clicks ]
-I was at home and I got a call. He told me what had happened
and we drove up.
00:15:13
I was living in Pico Rivera. We drove up to Whittier. And I just remember that,
"How could it be possible?"
00:15:21
and I was just
in a state of shock. ♪♪ [ Eerie music plays ]
-As Peter arrived at his father's house,
00:15:29
it was surrounded
by emergency-service vehicles. -And we met
all the police outside.
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[ Melancholy tune plays ]
We were outside the front door, with my fiancée, at the time,
00:15:39
and I wanted to go inside,
but they wouldn't let us inside. I was already really upset.
00:15:46
One of the detectives
said that it would just make me
more upset than I already was.
00:15:51
-Vincent and Maxine Zazzara had become Ramirez's fourth
and fifth victims. [ Shutter clicks ]
Over 30 years later,
00:16:01
Peter is still struggling
to come to terms with the murders. -It ruined my life.
00:16:06
It was hard for me
to get on with my life. I've already screwed my life up
a lot because of it.
00:16:12
I would be a different
person, I think. ♪♪ We were like kindred souls
'cause he was also a veteran;
00:16:20
I'm a veteran and, um, uh, we were just really close,
in a lot of ways like that.
00:16:27
Although my dad was very,
very tough on the outside, he was pretty gentle
on the inside,
00:16:33
a lot like me that way. ♪♪ [ Eerie music plays ] [ Shutter clicks ]
-Over the next 4.5 months,
00:16:43
25-year-old Ramirez
became even more prolific. [ Suspenseful music plays ]
Between May and August of 1985,
00:16:51
he continued
to break in to houses across Los Angeles County, killing a further eight people
00:16:58
and attempting to kill
another four. The whole of Southern California
was gripped with fear.
00:17:05
[ Sinister chord strikes ] Although each crime scene
was distinct, investigators began
to link them,
00:17:11
based on the ferocity
of the murders. -There was no question
that this is a crime
00:17:17
really unique
in its level of terror. It was unique in its level
of terror for several important reasons:
00:17:26
one, the lack of predictability
about victim. You could not, as a citizen,
say to yourself,
00:17:33
"I'm safe because I'm not
a prostitute," or you couldn't say,
"I'm safe because I live in Beverly Hills,"
00:17:39
because there was no place
you were safe in. And then, what made it
especially terrifying
00:17:45
is the circumstances of the
murders as they took place: one, that they took place often,
at night, in the darkness;
00:17:53
and two, they took place in a place that you
ordinarily regard as the safest place
in the universe,
00:17:58
your personal home. That made this terror
beyond belief. [ Shutter clicks ]
-Ramirez's series of attacks
00:18:08
were random and indiscriminate. Anyone could be targeted: men or women. -As far as we can tell,
nothing attracted him
00:18:16
to his victims, in particular. He would often break in
to residences, not knowing
who was in the residence,
00:18:22
and end up, depending if it
was men or women, killing them and having -- perpetrating sexual crimes
against them.
00:18:30
[ Eerie music plays ]
[ Heartbeat ] Ramirez didn't have
a particular age in mind.
00:18:35
He didn't have
a particular race in mind. He didn't have a particular
socioeconomic status in mind.
00:18:40
He was a man who had rampant,
chaotic impulses and basically attacked
and killed
00:18:45
whoever was in the room
when his rage inflamed itself. [ Suspenseful music plays ]
00:18:50
-Ramirez did not appear to favor any particular method
of killing. He would murder his victims
by any means necessary
00:18:59
and that made it even harder
for investigators to decide who had committed the crimes.
00:19:07
-He would stab.
He would shoot. He would stamp. He would rape. He would force himself
on people orally.
00:19:14
Really, he just seemed to revel in acts of violence
and violation. [ Eerie music plays ]
-And it was quite a while
00:19:22
before the police
actually realized that they had a serial killer
on their hands.
00:19:27
So here's somebody
who terrorized Los Angeles and they didn't realize
that it was the same person
00:19:32
who was doing this,
'til quite late on in the day. [ Suspenseful music climbs ] [ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
-By August 8, 1985,
00:19:39
Richard Ramirez had killed 13 people
in the Los Angeles area. His lust for blood
was relentless.
00:19:48
-We are a species that craves
to be in a feeling state. ♪♪ The serial killer, their brain
is numb most of the time,
00:19:58
so, for them to feel,
they have to do something that's the equivalent
of smacking their hand.
00:20:03
They have to create a level of arousal and intensity
around them that boosts their affect range.
00:20:11
[ Eerie music plays ]
-Despite the number of attacks in the short space of time,
00:20:15
the police were unable
to capture the man [ Shutter clicks ]
the newspapers were calling
00:20:19
the Valley Intruder. -Well, Ramirez would've thought,
at this point in time, that he is
an accomplished predator
00:20:27
because he's not getting caught. The police don't even know
who he is. Not because he's brilliant
at what he does,
00:20:33
but it's because
the police aren't putting the pieces
of the puzzle together because his MO is all
over the place.
00:20:39
He's killing people
using different methods. He's targeting a whole host
of victim groups.
00:20:44
♪♪ [ Suspenseful music plays ] -380 miles north of Los Angeles, [ Shutter clicks ]
in San Francisco,
00:20:52
Detective Frank Falzon
was hoping the murders wouldn't spread
any further afield.
00:20:58
-We were hearing
in San Francisco, at that time, about a Valley Intruder. The Valley Intruder
was an individual
00:21:06
that was breaking in to homes
in Southern California, predominantly
the Los Angeles area,
00:21:12
killing the husband, attacking the wife,
ransacking the house, and burglarizing
a lot of valuable property.
00:21:23
-Frank had heard about the fear
felt amongst the locals in LA. -Every law enforcement
officer was aware,
00:21:30
[ Eerie music climbs ]
but this seemed to be a problem for the Los Angeles area,
so the need for high attention
00:21:37
in San Francisco
wasn't happening. -But all that was
about to change. In mid-August of 1985,
00:21:45
Ramirez left his familiar killing ground
of Los Angeles behind. The man known
as the Valley Intruder
00:21:52
was spreading his wings. Very soon,
he'd have a new nickname. [ Shutter clicks ]
Every cop in California wanted
00:22:00
to get their hands
on Richard Ramirez, [ Sinister chord strikes ]
the Night Stalker.
00:22:05
By mid-August 1985, 25-year-old Richard Ramirez
had killed 13 people and attempted to murder
a further five
00:22:14
in the Los Angeles region
of California. His random break-ins meant that anyone could be
a potential victim,
00:22:23
and his cruelty knew no bounds. He would often brutally rape
and torture women. Locals were terrified.
00:22:32
-It was a summer of extreme heat and people were afraid
to leave their doors unlocked,
00:22:38
afraid to leave
their windows open. Purchasing of guns went way up
in the state of California.
00:22:45
I would say every active
police officer within the state of California was looking
for Richard Ramirez.
00:22:53
[ Eerie music plays ]
He would've been a big feather in any police officer's cap,
for his capture.
00:22:59
-Ramirez, aware of the growing
media spotlight on his crimes, had moved north,
to San Francisco,
00:23:06
[ Shutter clicks ]
and, on August 18, 1985, Ramirez killed outside of LA,
for the first time.
00:23:14
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
-It was a Saturday morning. My partner, Carl Klotz, and I
were the on-call homicide team
00:23:20
and we received a call
to respond to Eucalyptus Street. Out by the San Francisco Zoo,
there was a murder.
00:23:29
So we responded out there and the crime scene that we
witnessed was atrocious. ♪♪
00:23:36
The husband had been
shot and killed while he was asleep in bed. The wife had been removed
00:23:43
to the San Francisco
Emergency Hospital. She had been raped, shot,
and left for dead.
00:23:49
The intruder had gone
into the refrigerator, eaten their food,
drew Satanic symbols,
00:23:58
the pentagram,
on the walls in the house. He vomited
after he ate their food and then he masturbated
on their carpet.
00:24:08
A very sick crime scene, indicating
a very disturbed mind. [ Suspenseful chord strikes ]
-25-year-old Ramirez
00:24:17
had began worshiping Satan
in his late teens and would often leave pentagrams
at the scene of his crimes.
00:24:24
-Now, that is not absolutely
unique to Ramirez. There are lots of serial killers
who engage in Satan worship,
00:24:31
as did Ramirez. -The shocking graffiti
was not enough to immediately point
investigators towards Ramirez.
00:24:40
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
The unfortunate couple murdered in their
San Francisco home
00:24:45
were 66-year-old Peter
and 62-year-old Barbara Pan. -Everything we had found out
about Barbara and Peter Pan:
00:24:53
These were just a lovely,
older couple, living a peaceful life, never expecting to be attacked
while they were asleep in bed.
00:25:03
Both my partner,
we had seen an awful lot in our time on the police force, but we were both moved beyond
normal for a homicide scene.
00:25:13
-Frank began investigating
the couple's murder, [ Shutter clicks ]
unaware that their death
00:25:18
may be linked to California's
most notorious serial killer. [ Sinister music plays ]
-That afternoon, after this
00:25:25
initial crime-scene visit, my partner and I went back
to the office and we put out
an all-points bulletin.
00:25:32
This is an alert up and down
the state of California, regarding all
the information that we had,
00:25:38
and one of the key things
that we had was that our victims were shot
with a .22 revolver
00:25:45
and we had the slug
for comparison. A very alert, active sergeant in
the Glendale Police Department
00:25:54
that was working
the Valley Intruder case, a man by the name
of Jon Perkins, Jon calls us and says,
00:26:01
"You might wanna check
the Valley Intruder. He always uses
a .22-caliber revolver."
00:26:09
That connection there put us
into the Los Angeles cases, that particular day, August 18, 1985.
00:26:19
-After committing a murder outside the LA Valley region
for the first time, the newspapers
had renamed the killer
00:26:27
the Night Stalker. -All of a sudden, the media
blew this case up to be something very, very big,
which it was,
00:26:36
and, now, we had a link with Barbara and Peter Pan
in San Francisco, so, the murder count
was going up every weekend
00:26:46
and people all
over the state of California [ Shutter clicks ]
were very, very frightened.
00:26:52
-Frank began looking
into other, recent crimes in the San Francisco Bay area, and found a burglary report,
filed by a fellow detective,
00:27:01
which had all the hallmarks
of a Night Stalker break-in. -In that report, we found out
00:27:08
that the intruder climbed
through a bathroom window. They were not at home. Their young niece,
I think she was 16 years old,
00:27:17
she was home by herself. Hearing somebody come
through the bathroom window, she panicked.
00:27:25
She went downstairs
and hid into a closet. Fortunately,
for this young lady, the intruder never found her.
00:27:34
Ransacked the house, stole a bunch
of valuable jewelry. [ Suspenseful music plays ]
00:27:40
-Luckily, the homeowner had
added his Social Security number to his wife's jewelry,
just in case it was stolen...
00:27:48
[ Shutter clicks ]
♪♪ ...and, before too long, 290 miles away, the police got a match.
00:27:56
-The big break in the case came
is when this bracelet with a serial number ends up
in Lompoc, California,
00:28:04
turned in
by a confidential informant of a police sergeant
on the Lompoc Police Department.
00:28:12
-While Frank headed to Lompoc
to interrogate the informant, Richard Ramirez had
already left San Francisco
00:28:20
and traveled 430 miles south, to Mission Viejo. There, he stole a car, before carrying out
another brutal attack,
00:28:29
on August 24, 1985. This time, the victims
were a young couple that were engaged to be married.
00:28:37
-He attacked him
and shot him in the head. He was 30.
He was living with his fiancée.
00:28:43
-Ramirez raped the young woman, but she survived, and that would lead
to the serial killer's undoing.
00:28:50
-She gave the first
really good description, to the police, of the man, [ Suspenseful music plays ]
but, even more,
00:28:57
and I think the telling fact is that, as he left, he said, "Tell them that you've met
the Night Stalker."
00:29:05
[ Suspenseful chord strikes ] -Thanks to the
Social Security number found [ Shutter clicks ]
on the bracelet,
00:29:12
detectives in both Mission Viejo
and San Francisco were now hot on the trail
of the Night Stalker.
00:29:19
Frank Falzon had tracked down
a potential informant in Lompoc. ♪♪ Frank questioned him in the back
of an unmarked car.
00:29:29
-I said, "Your friend Rick
is the Night Stalker, the man that's been killing
in Los Angeles
00:29:35
and killing in San Francisco. I don't want anybody
to die this weekend. We...need your help."
00:29:44
-But, the informant wasn't
planning on giving up the name of the man who sold him
the security-tagged bracelet.
00:29:52
-He said, "I'm not giving you
nothin' about my friend Rick. Do you understand me,
you effin' punk?
00:29:57
I'm not giving you anything," and I could feel my blood
beginning to boil and I guess I rolled up my fist
00:30:06
and I looked at him and he goes, "Ohh, tough guy, tough guy. You wanna fight me?"
00:30:13
And he put his hands up and I started over the top
and, at that point, I don't know if I would've
finished that punch or not,
00:30:23
but I was gonna hit 'im
with everything I had. And he fell back in the seat and he threw up his arms
in a cross manner
00:30:31
and he screamed,
"Richard Ramirez!" [ Suspenseful music plays ] When we heard that name,
00:30:38
I literally collapsed in the
front seat of the police car. -At the same time as Frank
got a positive ID,
00:30:46
detectives investigating
the attack in Mission Viejo had found a fingerprint. It was in the car
the Night Stalker had stolen,
00:30:54
after it was found abandoned
in Los Angeles. [ Shutter clicks ]
The print belonged
00:30:59
to Richard Ramirez. Now linked to a carjacking,
and his likeness matched to the photo-fit description
given by a surviving victim,
00:31:09
the net was closing in
on Ramirez. On Friday, August 30, 1985, a mugshot on file
from December 1984
00:31:19
was released to all media
across California. -When a serial killer is moving
around geographically,
00:31:25
it's really important to enlist
the aid of the media, which can get the word out,
sketches, and things like that,
00:31:32
out to the public because the
public becomes an asset to you and, oftentimes,
these cases are resolved
00:31:39
by somebody recognizing
the person. [ Sinister chord strikes ]
-The following morning,
00:31:43
Saturday, August 31, 1985, Ramirez boarded a Greyhound bus
in Tucson, Arizona, where he'd gone
to visit his brother.
00:31:54
He headed back to LA, unaware that he was
a wanted man. -Saturday morning, Richard Ramirez's picture
was front-page
00:32:04
in every newspaper
in the state of California. -When he arrives back
in Los Angeles,
00:32:08
he gets off the Greyhound bus and somebody recognizes him
from the picture that's been circulating
in the press
00:32:16
and, essentially, the predator
now becomes the prey. Lots of people start
chasing after him
00:32:23
and, eventually,
they catch up with him and Richard Ramirez,
the serial killer, is no more.
00:32:28
-Not surprisingly, given the atmosphere
in Los Angeles at the time, they attack him,
00:32:34
ferociously, kicking him, hitting him. [ Shutter clicks ]
[ Sinister chord strikes ]
00:32:38
But he's pinned down
by the locals, not caught
by two of LA's finest, or even the police department.
00:32:44
[chuckling] He's caught
by a group of local onlookers. A true citizen's arrest,
you might say.
00:32:50
-As the local police arrive
to break up the melee, it took a bit of time
to realize who they had
00:32:57
sitting in the back
of their squad car. -This one cop looks real close. He says, "Jesus!
00:33:03
It's the Night Stalker! It's Richard Ramirez." He goes out over the air and announces they have
the Night Stalker in custody.
00:33:14
-After 14 months of fear, the residents of California
could rest a little easier.
00:33:19
[ Shutter clicks ]
Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, was off the streets
and in police custody.
00:33:26
Now began the task
of gathering evidence against the 25-year-old,
who was going to plead
00:33:32
not guilty to all
the charges against him. Investigators would need to work
tirelessly to get a conviction.
00:33:41
The entire state of California
wanted justice served [ Sinister chord strikes ]
upon Richard Ramirez.
00:33:48
On August 31, 1985, the man known
as the Night Stalker had been charged with 13 murders
00:33:56
and five attempted murders
in Los Angeles County between June 1984
and August 1985.
00:34:06
His victims ranged in age
between 16 and 83. [ Shutter clicks ]
Three were men and 15 were women.
00:34:14
Investigators were keen
to interrogate the 25-year-old devil-worshiper. -Normally, when I would
interview somebody,
00:34:22
I would try
to empathize with them or get them to break down
emotionally about their crimes
00:34:27
and to confess or to, you know,
admit to some wrongdoing. With a psychopath,
you're not gonna get that.
00:34:33
They don't have the ability
to break down emotionally, and so you have to approach
00:34:37
interviewing a psychopath
like Ramirez much differently. You have to play this game,
stroke his ego, you know,
00:34:43
almost compliment him
on his individuality and what he was able
to get away with.
00:34:50
-But, despite all their efforts,
detectives were getting nowhere. -Ramirez was a narcissist
who believed he was omnipotent.
00:35:00
He believed that he
could fool detectives that had been, you know,
specially trained,
00:35:06
and he believed that
his ability to fool them was not simply a product
of his own genius
00:35:11
[ Shutter clicks ]
but a product of the fact that he was aligned with acting in
conspiracy with Satan himself.
00:35:17
[ Sinister chord strikes ] -Ramirez went to trial
for the murders he was known to have committed
in the Los Angeles area.
00:35:25
He was not charged
for the murders he was suspected of
in and around San Francisco.
00:35:31
At a preliminary hearing on October 24, 1985, Ramirez pleaded not guilty
to all the charges against him
00:35:40
and it caused an uproar
in the courtroom. -On the first day, he entered
and held up his hand.
00:35:46
He had a pentagram
written on his hand and he shouted out at the top
of his voice, "Hail, Satan."
00:35:53
His position
as Lucifer's assistant was now to be glorified
in front of the world's media
00:35:58
and, particularly,
the American media. He was a celebrity,
on the same level as Manson.
00:36:06
He was good-looking,
and was very aware of it, very aware
of his female admirers,
00:36:12
in the court and outside, very aware that he cut
a rather dramatic figure. -You can see that the courtroom
is essentially a stage for him,
00:36:21
so he wears dark sunglasses;
he dresses all in black. He is this kind of
pseudo-celebrity
00:36:27
and he really is enjoying it. He's lapping up the attention. So, this is somebody
who has attained
00:36:34
a kind of celebrity status because of the awful things
that he's done. [ Eerie music climbs ]
00:36:39
-Due to the amount of work for both the prosecution
and the defense, the trial did not begin
00:36:45
until three years
after the arrest of Ramirez. [ Shutter clicks ]
It took place in July 1988,
00:36:51
in the LA Superior Court. [ Suspenseful music plays ]
The prosecution had uncovered
00:36:56
stolen goods,
from many of the crime scenes, that were in the possession
of Ramirez
00:37:01
at the time of his arrest. Ballistic reports had also
linked the murders to the same gun
belonging to Ramirez.
00:37:09
The defense argued
[ Shutter clicks ] that all the evidence
was circumstantial. There was a solid case
against the killer,
00:37:16
[ Melancholy tune plays ]
but nonetheless, for some of the families,
the prospect
00:37:19
of attending the trial
was just too much to bear. -I was offered
to go to the trial,
00:37:26
but I didn't wanna go
because I didn't give a -- a rat's ass about him. All I cared about
was my dad and Maxine.
00:37:33
Besides, I would've
done something crazy 'cause I was pretty upset. I'd have been in there
for one minute, I would've --
00:37:40
I'd have been arrested myself
'cause I would've gone off. There's no way
I could've done it.
00:37:45
There's no possible way. Fact, I don't even know
how people do it, to tell you the truth.
00:37:50
Why would you wanna do it?
Why would you wanna look at some scumbag
who did something like that?
00:37:54
[ Shutter clicks ]
-After the death of one of the jurors, the trial was halted
and delayed even further.
00:38:02
It wasn't until September 1989 that the jury
had reached a verdict, but Ramirez seemed
completely unflustered,
00:38:10
right up to the end. -A lot of his time at the trial
was spent engaging in what I call bravado behavior.
00:38:19
The message that he sent out throughout the course
of the trial is that, "There's really nothing
you can do to me.
00:38:26
I'll let you have your trial. It'll have its outcome. Nothing will be changed because
I will soon merge with Satan."
00:38:35
[ Shutter clicks ]
-On September 20, 1989, 29-year-old Richard Ramirez
was found guilty
00:38:42
of all 43 charges against him, including 13 murders
and 5 attempted murders. At a hearing
on November the 7th,
00:38:51
he was sentenced to death and sent to San Quentin Prison,
California. ♪♪ Showing complete contempt
for his victims' families,
00:39:02
he responded by saying, "Big deal. Death always went
with the territory. See you in Disneyland."
00:39:09
[ Shutter clicks ]
[ Sinister chord strikes ] Ramirez would never face trial
for the attack in Mission Viejo
00:39:15
or the San Francisco murders, although Frank Falzon
did at least get to officially charge him.
00:39:23
[ Hollow drumbeat plays ]
-He was brought to San Quentin and the district attorney's
office in San Francisco
00:39:29
asked if we could bring him
over, charge him formally, on the murders of
Peter and Barbara Pan.
00:39:37
He was transported
to San Francisco, our county jail. I went upstairs.
I met Richard Ramirez.
00:39:42
We booked him
on two murder counts. After he was booked, he was being led away
to a holding cell
00:39:52
and I'll never forget
that sick look in his face. He turned around,
he looked at me,
00:39:59
and he had that smile
on his face that he always gave before he lifted up his hand
and showed the pentagram symbol.
00:40:08
-Ramirez will never face trial
for the murders he was thought to have committed
in the San Francisco Bay area.
00:40:15
It was a tactical decision. Prosecutors decided they did
not want to do anything
00:40:21
that might jeopardize
the death-penalty case they had already successfully
made against him.
00:40:27
Despite his heinous acts, Ramirez had acquired
a cult-like status. He had many adoring female fans
write to him
00:40:36
throughout his trial
and during his incarceration. -Ramirez became a celebrity
in his own right
00:40:42
and he had groupies;
he had marriage proposals. He had women that wanted to come
and visit him at the prison.
00:40:49
-One woman in particular,
Doreen Lioy, wrote Ramirez 75 letters, from 1985 through his trial,
00:41:00
and, in 1988,
he proposed to her. They married, in San Quentin, where he was incarcerated,
in 1996.
00:41:09
[ Suspenseful music plays ] [ Shutter clicks ] -On June 7, 2013, Richard Ramirez died,
before he could face
00:41:21
the death penalty
for his crimes. Instead, he died
of complications relating to B-cell lymphoma.
00:41:29
[ Eerie music plays ]
He was 53 years old. Ramirez had spent
23 years on death row
00:41:37
after taking the lives
of 13 people. [ Melancholy tune plays ] -He was a truly
depraved individual
00:41:45
who had no interest or concern
for anyone in his path and they were simply fodder
00:41:52
for his great
and aggravated ego. I have and can never
have anything but the greatest sympathy
for them.
00:42:04
-Just took away,
really, everything, everything that was important
to us and our family
00:42:09
and all that, really. Every like holiday,
Thanksgiving, Christmas, it's just pain; it's just
a stab in the heart for me.
00:42:20
There's no way that --
Ever since that happened, haven't had a Thanksgiving
or a Christmas since,
00:42:26
so that's what kinda impact
we're talking about. -What do I think
of Richard Ramirez?
00:42:32
Not much.
This man was a loser. Society, it was our loss
that he was ever born. His death probably gave relief
to so many, so many,
00:42:43
of his surviving family members and victims
that he had murdered. His death, I don't believe,
was mourned by anybody,
00:42:52
except other Satanic worshipers. This was a very sick,
sick person. [ Suspenseful outro plays ]
00:42:59
-In a terrifying murder spree, Richard Ramirez broke in to the
sanctuary of people's homes
00:43:05
and savagely took their lives
for his own selfish needs. [ Shutter clicks ]
Although officially responsible
00:43:12
for 13 murders in Los Angeles, he is likely to have claimed many more victims
across California.
00:43:20
He was a psychopathic,
Satanic, sexual predator who will always be remembered as one of the
world's most evil killers.
00:43:29
[ Suspenseful music plays ] ♪♪ [ Suspenseful music climbs ] [ Suspenseful
chord strikes ]
00:43:50
♪♪ ♪♪