Crime in the 80s was said to be mostly caused by the recent flood of narcotics aka cocaine. One case that was thought to be caused by that was called the night stalker. Nobody would’ve thought to have check Richard Ramirez. Born in Texas in 1960, Richard Ramirez was an American serial killer who killed at least 14 people and raped and tortured at least 24 more, mostly during the spring and summer of 1985. After developing epilepsy as a child, he became a heavy drug user and cultivated an interest in Satanism, which became a calling card for investigators at his crime scenes. Apprehended in August 1985, Ramirez was sentenced to death at the conclusion of his trial in 1989. He spent the remainder of his days at California's San Quentin Prison, …show more content…
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 May 1985. Over the next few months, his murder rate escalated, claiming another dozen victims in a frenzy of burglary, assault and brutal violence, complete with Satanic rituals. The Los Angeles Police Department responded by putting together a dedicated task force, with the FBI stepping in to assist.
The relentless media and police pressure, aided with descriptions from his surviving victims, forced Ramirez to leave the L.A. area that August. He journeyed north to San Francisco, where he took two more victims, Peter and Barbara Pan, on August 17. His unmistakable M.O., complete with Satanic symbolism, meant that the "Valley Intruder" moniker was no longer applicable; the press quickly coined a new name, the "Night Stalker," as most of his assaults took place at night in his victims'
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First, he was spotted outside a Mission Viejo home, where he unwittingly left a footprint, before the witness took note of his car and license plate. Later, after Ramirez raped another woman at her home (and shot her fiance), the victim provided a detailed description of her assailant, who had forced her to swear her love for Satan.
Ramirez's abandoned car was found a few days later, complete with enough of a fingerprint to make a match, and his criminal record enabled the police to finally put a name to the "Night Stalker." National TV 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 31, after he was badly beaten by East L.A. residents while attempting two carjackings.
Ramirez waited in jail as his trial was continuously pushed off, the delay marked by a series of motions and bickering between the prosecutors and defense attorney. Because the geographical spread of the crimes also complicated the scope of the trial with jurisdictional issues, some of the charges against Ramirez were dropped in order to expedite what was becoming a long journey to