Children like Richard Ramirez (The Night Stalker) “who are abused or neglected are at an increased risk for experiencing future violence victimization and perpetration, substance abuse, sexually transmitted infections, delayed brain development, lower educational attainment, and limited employment opportunities” (CDC, 2021). When Richard Ramirez was approximately 10 years old, his father abused him and his family. As a result, he developed a sadistic glorification that satisfied him sexually, culminating in his murdering of thirteen people from 1984 to 1985. Researchers suggest that a link can be established between childhood abuse and sexual gratification in serial killers (Carolina, 2018).
Brought into the world on February 29, 1960, in
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The Night Stalker’s aura phase, which is the phase where the serial killer begins to withdraw from reality and enters their own fantasy, began when he was young. He would run away from his dad’s anger to cemeteries where he would stay and spend the night. He soon after started to take harder drugs - such as cocaine and LSD, as well as dealing too. The part of the brain that was affected by his drug consumption was the lower orbital cortex: controlling moral decision-making. Low brain activity prevented him from feeling any emotion toward the people he was murdering. Ramirez would drive around stalking people with his car during the trolling phase, which is the process of figuring out where potential victims might be; looking for houses to break into, where he would later find victims. The killer then focuses on gaining the victims’ trust during the “wooing” phase. Ramirez did not have a wooing phase, as he would target complete strangers and never had a plan. He would either shoot his victims instantly or after raping them, and would specifically shoot his victims in the face; which is where he saw his cousin Miguel shoot his wife, Jessie, at the age of thirteen (Cipriano, …show more content…
In Ramirez’s case, he would use tools such as hammers and thumb traps to trap the victims and not let them escape. This was so he could enjoy the moment more in his own perverted way. Throughout the murder phase, a disorganized killer like Ramirez is more likely to “kill the victim quickly, raping and mutilating after death.” (PSYCHOLOGICAL PHASES of SERIAL KILLERS, n.d.). It sometimes “…can be accompanied by prolonged torture and necrophilia…” (Serial Killers, 7 Psychological Phases and Cyber World – Cyber Struggle, n.d.) which is definitely what Ramirez had. Some of Ramirez’s first cases of necrophilia happened when his older cousin Miguel would show him polaroids of women he had raped and killed in Vietnam. Richard would repeatedly pleasure himself to “A graphic photo of Mike holding a rape victim’s severed head up to his groin” (Cipriano,