The Night Stalker

I've always had a fascination with Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker". He was by far the most memorable serial killer from the 1980's - at least to me. Growing up in Southern California, his exploits were plastered all over the nightly news until they finally caught him in 1986. He went to trial in 1989 and recieved a life imprisonment sentence. He aptly got his name from the AC/DC song entitled "Night Prowler", when the LAPD discovered his AC/DC baseball cap accidentally left behind at one of the crime scenes, only the media puppets got it wrong and the name "Night Stalker" stuck instead.

He would do bold, fucked-up things to his victims. Rip their eyes right out of their sockets was his trademark. If there was a man in the room, he would first mortally wound him and then make him watch while he forced himself on the female victim. They would both die, of course, but not before he had his fun. His trademark catch-phrase was "Say you love Satan" as he would pin his prey down, holding a knife to their face. He primarily stuck to the hispanic community, with the police doing little to stop his efforts until a white woman was killed. Then the dragnet hit.

But that's not what fascinates me about him. Not the fact he held the city of L.A. in his grip for the summer of 1985, but what he did in court. He would get the media's attention by doing things like drawing a Satanic pentagram on the palm of his hand and flash a cheesey smile to the camera as he revealed it to the world to see. He would mouth the words "Evil, evil, evil" to the camera crew filming the proceedings. I think what really made the icing on the cake was his reaction to the death-sentence that was pronounced by the judge, on behalf of the jury - "Big deal. Death comes with the territory. See you at Disneyland". Now THAT'S priceless. Mastercard can't touch that.

Unlike some other serial killers, Richard Ramirez has never once shown any remorse for the victims he killed nor for their families. Unlike Sam Berkowicz, he hasn't "found" Jesus while being imprisoned in San Quentin, nor has he been bludgeoned to death with a mop handle like Jeffrey Dahmer was. Instead, Richard has gone the course and has stuck to his guns through all the criticism and hardships of prison life. He corresponded with a woman and is now legally married to her although they haven't consumated their marriage. I don't think maximum security prisons allow conjugal visits. I'm thinking it's for tax purposes or something.

Richard Ramirez pales in comparison to history's greats like Vlad Tepes, Elizabeth Bathory, and Josef Stalin. Unlike those historical figures, he probably won't become immortalized in the "bad guy club of all time", when compared with Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, and Idi Amin. Still, he has left his mark in contemporary society as well as everyone that grew up in that time period.