Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez Pt. 1

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

A troubled relationship with his father, his religion, and the demonic visions he saw during seizures dominated Richard Ramirez’s childhood in the 1960s. When he witnesses a horrific crime at the hands of a sadistic cousin, he comes face to face with his own dark nature.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of child abuse, murder, sexual assault, body mutilation and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Burnt by napalm, clouded by ash, riddled with landmines. The jungles of Vietnam became a breeding ground for the darkest parts of human nature. The chaos and bloodshed was created by evil, and it mustered still more evil in the hearts of many involved. At least one American soldier, a man sent to fight for freedom, saw his psyche wounded and his inner beast unleashed by the depravity beneath the trees. Forced into the turmoil by his country, living on the edge of death, this man allowed his resentment, fear, and hatred to fester.

He took this anger and poured it out onto anyone who looked like an enemy soldier, armed or not. With the women, he would do far worse. He stole them from their homes, bound them to trees, and tortured and raped them for hours on end. This soldier reveled in his cruelty, taking Polaroids of his vile acts. When he finished with his victims, he decapitated them and posed with their bodies. He shrunk some of the severed heads and packed them in with his belongings. When the war ended, this man was brought home. He was decorated with medals and called a hero,

even though many of his superiors knew the atrocities he had committed. His sadistic sprees were kept secret, never spoken of again. To them, his actions were simply a dark coping mechanism, one best left in the past as he returned to polite society. Yet this soldier didn't keep his horrific deeds a secret. No, he brought his stories and his Polaroids with him, seeds of evil that he would plant in a young boy's mind, seeds that took root, transforming the boy into one of the most heinous serial killers of all time.

The Nightstalker. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is serial killers, a Spotify original from part. Pardcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're covering Richard Ramirez, the infamous Nightstalker, who terrorized the city of Los Angeles in the 1980s. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Today, we'll cover the many twists and turns in Richard Ramirez's childhood that's set him on path of darkness. We'll follow his life all the way until he claimed his first victim. Next time, we'll cover the vicious crime spree that earned him the name of Nightstalker. We'll also detail his capture and the lasting legacy of his crimes. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the Lonely Hearts Killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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Richard Ramirez's earliest memories were patchwork visions of terror. His hulking father dominated his mental landscape, like a rising storm hanging heavy on the horizon. At his best, Julian Ramirez was a somewhat controlling but proud father. At his worst, he was known for uncontrollable bouts of rage that threw him into fits of near insanity. When Richard was only a toddler, Julian attempted to fix the fuel filter in his truck, but botched it. Overwhelmed with fury, Julian began bashing his own head against the wall. He moved like a man possessed.

Julian's head shook the whole house, and Richard saw his father's blood spread across the paint. He heard the shouts and the thuds. His authority, his guide, his father could shake the world. It made him want to run and hide. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. According to a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology by AP Field, Jay Lawson, and R. Bannergy,

frightening words can affect a small child in profound ways. Oftentimes, scary information about a creature will cause small children to avoid that creature entirely for up to six months. The study showed that words alone can have a drastic, long-term impact on what a child will avoid. Since words can terrify a child, it only makes sense that erratic and frightening behavior will scare a child even more. With this knowledge in mind, it's almost unsurprising that Julian's fits of uncontrollable rage would terrify his son so deeply. Richard desperately wanted to avoid his father. Luckily, for most of his youth, Richard's father seemed to oblige. Julian worked as a manual laborer for the railroad, and his job took him away from his family in El Paso, Texas.

for days at a time. While his father was gone, Richard and the rest of his large family could breathe a little more easily. Richard's mother, Mercedes, was a tall, lanky woman with a model's good looks. She worked long hours as a dye manufacturer

at a boot factory. She was also highly religious, raised her children to be devout Catholics, and often prayed to fix any problems she couldn't otherwise solve. Richard had four older siblings, Rubin, Joseph, Robert, and Ruth. Unfortunately, they were all school-aged by the time he was born,

so he spent most of his early years alone. His mother hired a full-time babysitter to watch him during school hours, but the babysitter wasn't particularly good at her job. Richard was full of energy, and he never stopped moving. He required constant surveillance, but the babysitter wasn't particularly interested in keeping an eye on him. One day in 1963, when Richard was only three years old, he approached his babysitter and asked her to turn on the radio. She was busy watching TV and refused.

Even at that age, Richard was a stubborn boy. If the adult wasn't going to turn on the radio, he would do it himself. The radio sat atop a large dresser in another room. Determined, Richard pulled the drawers out and used them to climb up. but just as he reached the top, things went south. His weight threw the dresser off balance, and it fell, right on top of his head. The babysitter rushed to find Richard knocked unconscious, a massive gash stretching across his forehead. He remained unresponsive for 15 minutes.

At the hospital, the wound required 30 stitches to close up, leaving a scar that lasted for the rest of his life. His babysitter was fired, and a new one was fired. and a new one was hired, but the event hung heavy on his father's mind. While Richard saw Julian as a terrifying giant, Julian thought of himself as an honest man just trying his best. He knew that the more he was away for work, the worst things got at home. The worst things got at home, the angrier he became. The angrier he became, the more he wanted to stay away.

Julian was trapped in a negative feedback loop. Even though he wanted to make life better for Richard, it seemed both his absence and his presence would only make things worse. To Julian, there was no easy solution. Either his children wouldn't have enough discipline or too much, and before long, the family's issues paid dividends. In 1964, when Richard was four years old, his eldest brother, Rubin, was caught breaking into a home and promptly arrested. When Julian found out, he took his son from the police station. station, grabbed a hose, and beat the boy bloody. The Ramirez clan had always been honest, law-abiding citizens. But now, Rubin had stained their name by getting a police record. Even Mercedes

believed Julian was right to beat their son. However, it soon became clear that Julian was taking things too far, possessed by that all-too-familiar Ramirez rage. In the end, Mercedes had to throw herself in front of her husband's blows to get him to stop. As Ruben lay on the ground a bruised and bloodied mass, young Richard watched the whole thing in tears. His father had always terrified him, but he'd never hit any of them. Now the lightning Richard often saw flashing across the sky had finally struck a person he loved, and it was more awful than he had ever imagined. Richard later said,

More than him actually hitting me, I was afraid of it in my mind. They say it's worse to see someone you love getting tortured or hurt than being. tortured yourself. I don't know if that's true or not, but I was real frightened of my father. When he lost it, I ran and hid." Yet for all the fear it caused, Julian's beatings did nothing to stop his kids' bad behavior. The Ramirez's children were stubborn and rambunctious, and Rubin kept sniffing glue and breaking into people's houses. Eventually, he started bringing his brother Robert along with him. It seemed like every time Julian was home, he felt the need to beat one of his children,

In response, Richard distanced himself from his father, just as Julian distanced himself from his home. And as such, Richard spent most of his time with his sister Ruth. Ruth adored her little brother and treated him like a living doll. Richard would light up when he saw her. But even this bright spot in his life would cause him trouble. One day in 1965, when Richard was five years old, he and his brother Robert went to the park looking for Ruth. They found her on the swing set. In his excitement, Richard sprinted to his big sister. Before she could stop the swing, he ran too close. The swing struck Richard in the head,

leaving him with another concussion and another open head wound. The doctors closed the wound and told his parents that he would be fine, nothing to worry about. So with a supposedly clean bill of health, Richard was cleared to begin attending school. Richard wasn't accustomed to being around other children his age, so he was shy and reserved in class. However, the kids who took the time to get to know him liked him quite a bit. He was always full of energy, and he had an active imagination. For a while, all seemed well. But in 1966, when Richard was six years old, a hidden problem revealed itself. As Richard sat in his classroom taking a math test, he turned around for just a second. The teacher shouted at him for breaking the rules, and his system went into a state of shock.

Richard dropped to the ground with convulsions. His eyes rolled back in his head and his mouth spewed curse words. Richard Ramirez was having his very first epileptic seizure. Coming up, Richard's illness sends him on a path to darkness. Hi, it's Carter from Parcast, and I'm hosting the new limited series, Hollywood scandals. We all know that Tinseltown is the land of glitz and glamour, but look closer past the allure of bright lights and red carpets. There you'll find a more disturbing tale. One filled with tragedies and transgressions so damaging, they've turned hopes and dreams into high-profile nightmares. Every Monday on this Spotify original, discover the real-life

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Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where taste recognizes taste. Now back to the story. At some point in 1966, six-year-old Richard Ramirez had an epileptic seizure in the middle of his first grade math class. The school nurse told Mercedes-Ramirez to take her son to the hospital, but when Richard awoke from his seizure, he had no intention of seeing a doctor. Just like his siblings, Richard had inherited the Ramirez stubbornness. His father was the only person who could command him, and he wasn't home.

So Mercedes simply let Richard play. However, Richard's seizures struck again the next day. This time, Mercedes took him directly to the hospital. The doctor gave Richard a once over and diagnosed him with epilepsy. He called Richard's Fitz Granmall seizures and said they were nothing to worry about. though medication was available to treat the condition, the doctor said Richard would eventually grow out of it. With that, Mercedes took Richard home, and the family regarded the seizures little more than an occasional inconvenience in the young boy's life. Yet, while everyone

could see the Grand Mall seizures, only Ruth noticed something else happening to her baby brother. Every once in a while, Richard would stop what he was doing and quietly stare in random directions. He would stare for upwards of 15 minutes, completely unresponsive, then suddenly snap back to normal. She had no idea that each of these peculiar episodes was a petty mall seizure, and while those seizures were strange for her to witness, they were even stranger for Richard to experience. Each time you went into a petty mall seizure, Richard had horrific visions.

The fabric of reality broke before him, and monsters of all shapes and sizes seemed to come crashing into the real. world. He would watch them skulking, sneaking, traipsing about before his eyes, then suddenly they would disappear back into the ether as if they had never been there at all. When he told his family about these monsters, they dismissed the stories as a child's overactive imagination. But Richard knew. The monsters were always out there waiting to come back. He would have anywhere from one to two dozen of these visions each month, and he simply accepted them as a part of his new reality. Years later, doctors eventually diagnosed Richard's illness as temporal lobe epilepsy.

According to Dr. Stephen G. Waxman and Norman G. G. G. Wachshund, many patients who live with temporal lobe epilepsy also experience interrithal behavioral changes, meaning the way they act between seizures is affected by the seizures themselves. The most common of these behavioral changes include a hyperactive sex drive and a tendency towards extreme religiosity. These symptoms would clearly demonstrate themselves in Richard's life as he aged, but the most prominent effect his seizures had on his childhood mind was a near religious attachment to fear. The monsters he saw terrified him, but they never actually harmed him. Their threats felt real at first, but over time they seemed less important. No, the main fear in his life was born in his life was born

of something else. After all, the threat of his father was far more real and ever-present. Desperate to avoid his father's wrath, Richard tried to stay on the straight and narrow. For several years, he maintained good grades in school, even as his older brothers dropped out and moved away from home. He went to church with his mother and prayed to Jesus with the ardent faith of a true believer. By the time Richard was nine, he and Ruth were the only two Ramirez's children left in the home. Julian was proud of Richard's grades, but he was too hurt by the continued drug use of his older children to show his youngest any affection.

As a rebellious teenager, Rubin kept having run-ins with the law, and Julian grew ever more resentful of the situation. He was so preoccupied with his eldest, he spent little time acknowledging Richard at all. That said, the father and son had a few positive moments between them. Richard remembers that most of them happened in 1972 when he was 12. By then, Richard had grown into a natural athlete, and he tried out for his middle school football team. He did so well he was given the star position of quarterback.

Proud of his son, Julian always made sure to attend Richard's games whenever he could, to cheer from the stands. But after several games, this single bright spot in their relationship would be taken away. At the end of a late-season football game, Richard dropped to the ground in the middle of a play. He'd been struck by a Grand Mall seizure at the worst possible time. Richard was helped off the field and brought to the coach. After Richard came to, the coach kicked him off the team and said,

If something happens to you while you're playing, it'll be all my fault. No thank you. Richard protested the decision, but it was no good. The coach viewed Richard's condition as a personal liability and wanted nothing more to do with him. Ruth would later say that this moment was the first moment when she saw something change in Richard. In hindsight, it's easy to see why. Richard had finally found something he was good at, and it was something he could use to connect with his remote, volatile father.

But suddenly, through no fault of his own, that connection was taken from him. It was brutally unfair. From that point forward, Richard lost his work ethic. In 1973, at the age of 13, his life. grades began to drop, and his father became even more distant. Just when he was navigating teenage life, Richard was lost in the unfairness of the world, left without a strong connection to his father, and plagued by seizures and visions of monsters. He was a young boy primed for a catastrophe, and that catastrophe was about to fly back home

from Vietnam. Richard's cousin Miguel, who everyone called Mike, was 11 years older than him, and known for being a thug around town. However, when the army needed men for the Vietnam War, Mike had signed up to become a green beret. According to Philip Carlos' book, The Nightstalker, Mike took to the life of a guerrilla fighter like a fish to water. He was once one of two soldiers who escaped an enemy ambush while the rest of their platoon was slaughtered, and his undeniable skills in combat earned him high commendations and four medals. He performed great feats of heroism for his fellow soldiers, but that heroism was primarily driven by bloodlust. Mike was filled with

rage, and during the war, he was allowed to indulge every sadistic impulse he had. He had 29 confirmed kills, but the real number was much higher. The exact details of Mike's horrific extracurricular activities in Vietnam are murky, but we know that he abducted and raped many Vietnamese women. He photographed the process and held them at gunpoint as he forced himself upon them. When he was done, he decapitated them and posed with their severed heads. He shrank at least eight of these women's heads and used them as pillows during the war. His second tour ended in 1972, and he returned to El Paso in 1973, a decorated war veteran, a hero, and a man to be admired. Even Julian, who had once hated Mike's bad influence

on a son Rubin, grudgingly respected Mike's accomplishments. and rugged masculinity. But Mike found it difficult to reaclimate to peaceful living in America. His wartime exploits had earned him the respect of the men in his life, but all his skills were geared to murder and mayhem. There was little use for those skills in El Paso. His wife, Jesse, often bugged him to get a job, but he didn't want to work. He just wanted to stare at the photos of his victims that he kept hidden in a shoebox in his

closet, or at the shrunken heads that he kept secreted away in a suitcase beneath his bed. Eventually, staring at the pictures wasn't enough. He had to share the stories with someone, and after seeing the distance between 13-year-old Richard and his father, Mike knew he'd found the perfect protege to train in the arts of war. Mike invited Richard to hang out, and the two of them spent most of the day driving around and smoking weed.

He regaled his young cousin with war stories and taught him how to move silently in the dark. He showed Richard some of the best ways to kill a person with a blade, by sticking the knife in the side of a person's neck and pulling it forward, cutting through the aorta and the trachea. Two mortal blows in one bell swoop. Richard was enamored by Mike's ruthless stories, and eventually Mike showed Richard his self-made torture porn

and his horrific shrunken heads. He told Richard all about how he had murdered the women in the pictures. According to Carlo, he said, having power over life and death was a high, an incredible rush. It was godlike. You controlled who'd live and who died. You were God. Richard absorbed all of this with the budding sexuality of a boy who had just started going through puberty.

He memorized the faces of the women in Mike's Polaroids, and when he was alone, he masturbated to the stories of their torture. He felt an intense sexual pull to those sadistic acts, one that he simply couldn't explain. He knew these urges were wrong, even downright evil. He knew it wasn't normal, and that if God knew about his thoughts, God would surely condemn him as sinful. Yet he thought that if God condemned him, perhaps Satan would welcome him.

Surely Satan would approve of Richard's evil urges and the way he behaved when nobody was around. With that thought in mind, Richard began to toy with the idea of worshipping Satan instead of Jesus Christ, but he wasn't quite ready to turn his back on Catholicism just yet. He still lived with his parents and both were staunch Catholics. He cared about his mother's beliefs and he didn't dare bring up Satan with his father, so his secret musings about religion and Satan served as just one more wedge creating distance between the two. The further Richard pushed from his father, the closer he pulled to Mike. The more time Mike spent with Richard,

the more his wife yelled at him about spending all his time hanging out with a kid. Jesse wanted Mike to be a man who provided, who had a job, but Mike refused, which only led to more poisonous friction. On May 4, 1973, 13-year-old Richard saw firsthand when this couple's spat reached its breaking point. Richard shot the cue ball on a game of miniature pool. He was playing on the table in Mike's apartment that afternoon with Mike and Jesse's two young sons. Taking a break from the game, Richard went to the kitchen to grab a Coke. When he opened the fridge, he was surprised to find a 38-caliber revolver sitting inside.

Richard asked Mike why the gun was there, and Mike responded by saying, I may be using it, and I want it to be cool. Richard was perplexed by Mike's answer, but he thought little of it. He returned to his game of pool and went to line up his next shot. At that moment, Jesse returned home carrying several bags of groceries. Upon seeing Mike with Richard, she lost it, repeating the same complaint she had had had for months. It was time for Mike to grow up and get a job. The family was struggling to afford groceries as it was.

Mike wasn't pleased. He told his wife to keep her mouth shut. He would get a job when he wanted and only when he wanted. Nothing she could say would change that. This only made Jesse more angry. When she kept trying to talk to him about money, Mike stood up and walked to the refrigerator. He reached in and pulled out the gun. Jesse laughed and asked him what his plan was, seemingly fearless.

He told her that he would kill her if she didn't stop talking. Jesse scoffed at her husband, said he was full of it. She walked up to him, looked him in the eyes, and dared him to do it. Without a word, Mike raised the gun to Jesse's forehead. and pulled the trigger. 13-year-old Richard saw her drop to the ground dead. Up next, Richard heeds the call of Satan and takes his first life. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task,

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On May 4, 1973, 13-year-old Richard Ramirez watched his 24-year-old cousin Mike kill his wife with the pull of a trigger. Richard saw Jesse's body drop to the floor, blood pouring out of her wound. Mike and Jesse's two young boys began to cry, but the sound of their whales were barely audible past the ringing in Richard's ears. Mike told his young cousin to get home as fast as he could and to never tell anyone what he saw that day. Richard agreed to keep quiet and went back to his house, in utter shock from the horrific scene

he had just witnessed. He said nothing to his family. about what he'd seen, but the murder didn't stay secret for long. That evening, a family member called to deliver the awful news. Richard remained tight-lipped and morose, and his family assumed it was because his closest cousin had done something horrible. They had no idea he'd seen the act itself. A few days later, this secret affected Richard in a way nobody could have seen or anticipated. While Mike was in prison, his mother asked Richard's father, Julian, to be able to, and he was in prison. He said, pick up some things from Mike's apartment. In a macabre example of father-son bonding,

Julian brought Richard with him to help in the search. As they entered the apartment, they discovered the living room was only partially cleaned up. Jesse's body had been removed, but her blood was still congealed and pulled on the ground. Returning to the scene of Jesse's murder, with the evidence still so horrifically there, had a profound effect on Richard's psyche. He later said, that day was like some kind of mystical experience. I looked at the place where Jesse had fallen and died, and I got this kind of tingly feeling. Then my father told me to look in her pocketbook for this jewelry my cousin wanted, and I dumped Jesse's pocketbook on the bed and looked through her things. It gave me the weirdest feeling. I mean, I knew her, and these were her things, and she was

dead, murdered, gone, and I was touching her things. It made me feel in contact with her. At 13, Richard had a difficult time understanding exactly what that moment meant to him and how it would shape his life. According to a study examining the effects that witnessing violence as children had on South African men, published in the American Journal of Public Health, there's a strong connection between boys who witness violence and men who commit it. Many men who commit violent acts as adults were either victims of, violence or firsthand witnesses to traumatic violence as children. Not every child who experiences

violence grows up to perpetuate the cycle, but by Richard's own account, this was a pivotal moment for him. He'd already developed a sexually driven fascination with his cousin's stories of raping and killing women in Vietnam. Then, after witnessing Jesse's murder, the rush of gratification he experienced when he returned to the scene, created yet another positive link between violence and pleasure in his mind. His behavior soon changed for the worse. He began skipping school and spent most of his nights in the cemetery where he slept to avoid his father.

He smoked weed at all hours of the day and openly defied his parents. His father tried to beat him, but Richard could run so quickly that Julian could no longer catch up to him. When Julian realized his efforts were futile, he began pleading and begging with Richard. He wanted his son. to go to school, to stay at home, and to stay out of trouble. But his father's pleas couldn't change his mind. Neither could Mercedes's frequent prayers to God

and admonishing of Richard in Jesus' name. In an effort to save their son, Julian and Mercedes sent Richard to visit his eldest brother Rubin in Los Angeles during the summer of 1973. They hoped that getting him away from the bad influences of El Paso would give him a new perspective, but they didn't realize it would be. only end in disaster.

Unbeknownst to his parents, Rubin was a professional burglar and a heroin addict. His wife was a similarly bad influence, and they lived in one of the worst areas of Los Angeles. Instead of setting his youngest brother on the straight and narrow, Rubin coached Richard in the arts of burglary. He applied practical experience to the lessons Mike had taught Richard about moving stealthily through the night. Richard's desire to steal only grew when he saw. the city. Los Angeles of the 1970s was downright opulent, and the wealth on display was nothing like Richard had seen before. At 13, he realized for the first time that the only way he could

acquire that level of wealth was to steal it. Richard also became ensnared by the openness of sex in L.A. Women on the beaches wore bikinis, and the porn shops that allowed him carried hardcore bondage magazines, which he found far more appealing than anything he'd seen before. In the fall of 1973, Richard returned to El Paso, a changed boy, just not on the way his parents wanted. He knew what he wanted, sex and money, and he began to believe it was his destiny to take both by force. He started ignoring school completely and spent the next few years dedicating himself to training for his new dark path. He took karate classes and went out at night to peep on women in his neighborhood, watching them undress through their way. windows. He went hunting in the desert, killing any sort of animal he could find. Over time,

he grew extremely skilled at sneaking up on his prey and took great pleasure in the process of gutting and mutilating his kills. He watched horror movies and imagined himself as the monster. He also experimented with hallucinogens like LSD, and his trips brought his all-too-familiar visions of monsters back into his reality. Except now, the monsters he saw captured and captured. sexually assaulted any person who walked by. Even through his trips, he knew these thoughts and visions were horrifically unchristian. He still believed in the power of God and Jesus, and he knew they would condemn him for his urges and his sadistic desires.

So still wanting to serve a higher power, he turned to Satan. When he hunted while high on drugs, he felt like he was communicating directly with Lucifer himself. As the years ticked by, Richard moved ever closer towards Satan and further away from society. His desires darkened, and his need to act on his impulses grew to uncontrollable levels. He just needed the perfect opportunity. In 1975, 15-year-old Richard got a job as a maintenance man at the local Holiday Inn. While there, he acquired the master key from a disgruntled employee and used it to rob the patrons while they slept. He also watched guests through their windows,

catching sight of any women who happened to be changing clothes or getting out of the shower. As he stared at these women, he fantasized about breaking in, overpowering them, and forcing himself on them. After months of these fantasies, he finally decided to act. Around one in the morning on one particular night,

Richard saw through a window a young woman wearing only her underwear. He noted that she was alone, and he knew he had to have her. He waited for her to become occupied in the bathroom. Then he snuck in through her door, quiet as can be. He crept to her closet and hid inside, waiting patiently for the perfect moment to strike.

When she walked back into the room, Richard pounced, threw his hand over her mouth, and knocked her to the ground. He gagged her with her own. underwear, told her not to make a sound, then he tied her up. Richard thought he was about to bring all his pent-up fantasies to life, all he'd ever wanted. But just then, the room door opened. The woman's husband had returned with food, and when he saw Richard, he went berserk. The man beat Richard into unconsciousness, leaving the teen's face swelled to twice its

normal size. The couple immediately called the police, and Richard was taken to the hospital for treatment, then immediately arrested. As Richard was still a minor, the police called his mother to tell her what had happened. Mercedes and Ruth rushed to the hospital to check on their favorite boy. They couldn't believe their ears when they heard what Richard had done. Richard saw this disbelief as an opportunity to save his image. He told his family that the woman had made an advance on him. He thought she was single until her jealous husband returned to find himself being cuckolded.

Then the couple had lied about the whole thing to avoid embarrassment. Richard wasn't a villain. He was the victim. And his family believed every word. The teenager's claims of innocence were bolstered several months later when the charges against him were dropped. The couple involved had no wish to relive that awful night, so they refused to testify against Richard, leaving him a free teen.

He'd committed a terrible crime without, consequence, and this further convinced Richard that Satan's path was the right one to follow. With that renewed confidence, the 18-year-old moved to Los Angeles in 1978 and moved in with his brother, Rubin. He and Rubin regularly burglarized homes together, making an average of $1,200 to $1,500 per week. But despite their shared interests, the brother's relationship grew tense after a few months, and Rubin suspected Richard was making sexual advances on his wife. Richard denied the allegations, but he left the apartment all the same and began living on the street. He stole cars and slept in them for days at a time. He also began injecting cocaine,

his new favorite drug, as it made him feel powerful and possessed by Satan. At the same time, Richard's violent sexual urges grew to unprecedented levels in the summer of 1978, he committed his first known sexual assault. A woman turned him down for sex early one evening. Incensed, he broke into her apartment around 3 a.m., gagged her, and tortured her until the sun came up. Traumatized she didn't go to the police, and Richard walked away emboldened by his evil deed. His mindset only grew more vicious when he read a book titled The Satanic Bible. The book was written by Anton LeVay, founder of the Church of Satan. It's widely considered to be one of the most influential texts in the world of modern Satanism,

preaching that there is no such thing as sin or guilt. Though it's important to note that many have questioned the seriousness with which LeVay wrote the book, still the effect his message had on Richard was profound. After reading the book, Richard stole a car and drove to San Francisco to meet LeVay in person. Upon seeing LeVay, Richard felt a deep connection to him and viewed him like a devout Catholic views a priest, a man of utmost holiness and spiritual power. According to Carlo, LeVay asked Richard to attend a satanic ceremony, and Richard agreed, Everyone present was naked, and LeVay conducted the ceremony with various chants and ritualistic

movements over the body of a nude woman. However, in Blanche Barton's biography of LeVay, he remembers only the same. meeting Ramirez briefly on a sidewalk. The young man asked for a few moments to talk, but LeVay reportedly brushed him off. Richard crafted a fantasy origin story out of this short meeting, later saying that the ceremony touched him deeper than he ever had been touched before. Philip Carlo wrote that it shook him to his core. Richard believed he could feel Satan claiming his soul, yet even as he wanted to rush full bore into Satan's grasp, he felt one small thing pulling him back.

That night, Richard said he called his mother and begged for her to pray for him. He told her, I was touched by Satan tonight, Mama. He came to me. Mercedes received this news with frightful tears. She rushed to the church and began to pray that Jesus would save her son, but her prayers would go unheard. After the phone call, Richard began drawing pentagrams on his arms and on his belongings. He began to believe that Satan was his personal guide and protector, that if he walked the devil's path, causing pain, taking what he wanted, and showing no mercy, Satan would

shield him from the authorities. If he could be Satan's perfect soldier, he could live a perfect life of crime. Then when he died, he would be welcomed into hell and given a place of honor at the head of Satan's demonic armies. By now, these ideas no longer felt strange or wrong to him. They felt like his destiny, and he set out to fulfill it. Over the next few years, he lived like a drifter, taking whatever he wanted whenever he pleased.

He stopped caring about hygiene and allowed his teeth to rot in his mouth. His mother, sister, and father tried multiple times to get him to clean up and move back to El Paso, but their efforts were futile. As ever, he was stubborn, and he was Satan's soldier now. By 1984, when Richard was 24 years old, his sadistic urges were no longer satisfied by rape and burglary. His bloodlust had grown to the point where he needed to kill. He could wait no longer. On April 10, 1984, Richard wandered the street outside his hotel in San Francisco's tenderloin district.

The evil inside him was just looking for a reason to lash out, and when he saw a nine-year-old girl named May Lung, walking the streets by herself, he knew he'd found his first victim. The specifics of the crime are murky. The case was closed in 2009, after DNA evidence indicated Ramirez, but he was never charged or tried. It's believed that Richard somehow got the girl into the basement of her apartment building. There, he bound, beat, and sexually assaulted her, before finally suffocating her to death.

When police arrived at the scene of the crime, they discovered a scene strong. straight out of a horror film. May was partially nude, with her own blouse wrapped around her neck and tied to a water spigot. Her feet dangled in the air just a few inches off the ground. The police speculated that she could have survived if she'd only been just a little bit taller. Her body looked like it was deliberately posed, with her arms tied up and her chin tilted down. An officer present said, If you can picture Christ on the cross, that's the way she looked.

This was one of the tougher ones, one of the ones you'd like to solve. Unfortunately, solving the crime proved impossible, and the case went cold for 25 years. Richard never spoke about the murder, but the message was clear. While he had once believed in Jesus Christ, now he sought to mock Christianity and all it stood for. He had chosen to victimize a nine-year-old girl, one of the most innocent and vulnerable people he could find. He did the worst things a man can do to another human being, and then he used her body to make an obscene display, and he did it all in the name of his new lord and master, Satan.

He knew the world would tremble. This was just the beginning. The Nightstocker was born. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with Part 2 of Richard Ramirez and his hero. horrific crime spree as the Nightstalker. For more information on Richard Ramirez, amongst the many sources we used, we found The Nightstalker,

the true story of America's most feared serial killer by Philip Carlo, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast, Thank you.

Musician producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Carrie Murphy, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Giles Hofseth, with writing assistance by Joel Callan, fact-checking by Haley Milliken, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Hey there, Carter again. Before you go, remember to check out my new Parkast Limited Series Hollywood Scandals. In anticipation of the Oscars, we're unearthing some of the

most sordid controversies in showbiz history. Tune in every Monday. Follow Hollywood scandals free only on Spotify. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th. The powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May May 17th and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamava Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed.

Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.