'Night Stalker' Richard Ramirez is dead at 53

The state of California won't have its chance to kill Ramirez, but he's no longer wasting taxpayer funds as he waits out an appeal.

Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker" serial killer who terrorized California with a series of break-in murders in the 1980s, has died, state corrections officials confirmed to the Times.

Ramirez was 53. He died Friday morning of natural causes at Marin General Hospital, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said. Ramirez was serving time on Death Row at San Quentin.

Ramirez went on a months-long rampage of sexual assault and murder that generated widespread fear throughout Southern California. (Source)

I ran across an interview with him from 1996, and he definitely came across as smart, but bent. Fascinated with death, I guess he's seeing it from another side now.

FHF: When did you first start to think about death?

RR: When I was 11, I had an episode in my life. I saw my cousin shoot his wife. It wasn't traumatic... but the shock value. I went back into the apartment to collect some things with my dad, because my cousin was in jail. The bed was all bloody. It was there where she had landed after the bullet. She got a .38 to the face. At the same time it was very... uh. The stillness of the room, the eerieness, you know. We had to open the windows to ventilate the room and it was something. It was... (long pause) ...it was death! I had known the woman. I had known her very well. I went into the living room and saw her purse. I looked through her purse, saw her ID cards and her things. It was a strange feeling. That was the first time I ever ran across death. Ever since, I was intrigued.

FHF: Do you still feel beyond good and evil?

RR: Everybody has got good and evil in them. I'd like to be 100% evil, but I can't. I'm too easy-going sometimes. Then again, while anger and hate are two things some people can cope with, I cannot. My anger and hate grow to a level that I cannot live comfortably with it. it causes me headaches and stuff. When I get angry, it's an extreme form. It is the extreme. There is no inbetween. But there is with good and evil, and I am there. (Source)

Good riddance, I say.

I wish I believed in a hell in the afterlife, but at least this scum is done wasting air in the here and now. Thanks for the article.

Well, to the post above mine, I do tend to believe in the penalty of Hell...if not as a physical place. Oh, I do think there is a mighty price to be paid by the worst of this life and before the next. If there is justice in this Universe, he'll be reincarnated to be a space bug on a comet, grazing the Sun ..over and over and over again. Oh yes. There are truly few people in the world who I feel GOOD about reading the death of. This animal just made my day by not being a part of it, in even breathing the same air.

^^^ My vitriol comes from having lived in Orange, Orange County while this animal was stalking innocent people. I remember, distinctly (given my age then) some of the details of some of his crimes.

My only regret in the whole thing was... #1.. My friends and I weren't the ones to have bagged him like a pest for a bounty and those who DID catch him, didn't beat him to death right there in the street. He deserved that ..and not the luxury of living so many more years. Death would have befit this monster and much sooner than this.

He'd LIKE to be 100% evil? At least he's honest, I guess...? lol.

It fascinates me how some people can treat life as a game, do the most awful things, rack up 'bad point' and want to become notorious for being one of the most evil, and weirdest people to have walked the earth.

I'm going to be careful and not wish he roasts slowly and agonizingly in the deepest pits of hell because that would make me just like him. He wins if he gets us to hate back. Don't you see that?

I guarantee you he's sorry now. He has to face all his victims. Can you imagine? Over there, he can't silence them.

reply to post by intrptr


Absolutely nothing could make you just like him. He didn't simply kill and he wasn't as tidy or merciful as the BTK Killer that terrorized Kansas. This is a man and series of crimes I'd encourage people to look into before coming to conclusions about the feelings some of us have about being happy in his death.

To say he was evil...doesn't cover it well enough. If a few of his victims have karmic justice to deliver it in some 'great beyond', it'll come for an eternity of suffering the likes of which movies such as Hellraiser couldn't properly imagine.

He was, within a field of the worst, one of the very worst. The world is a better place without him in it.

I remember watching a biography about him. His family, how his mind change from his crazy uncle and the process where he became who he was in life. Crazy how serial killers and murders develop in life. Sad world.

reply to post by adjensen
It always amazed me at the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of women who wrote to and visited him in prison- seeking a romantic relationship. If I'm not mistaken he did eventually marry one of them. What kind of sick, twisted bones were gathering cobwebs in their closets to produce such a mindset that would seek romance with an admitted rapist/murderer? There are some seriously messed up people in this world!

Awww, he seemed like such a nice guy!

But seriously, good riddance. If there is a hell, I hope he is burning.

reply to post by adjensen


Ramirez married a woman whom he had met after he was convicted and imprisoned. As far as I know, they were still married.

That↑ little detail led me to this thought. I'm sure the answer is probably a 'No', but I'm gonna share the thought anyways......


I wonder if she had a life insurance policy on him.
I really don't even know if she would have been legally allowed to get one, and I'm sure that execution would be a deal breaker, but this was supposedly 'Natural Causes'. I don't know. Probably not. Like I said, it was just a thought.






I probably read this before somewhere, but if so, I apparently had forgotten about it. Just thought it was interesting.

Ramirez was finally [color=7DD1C3]chased down and beaten in 1985 by residents of a blue-collar East Los Angeles neighborhood as he attempted a carjacking. They recognized him after his picture appeared that day in the news media.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Originally posted by BrokenCircles
I wonder if she had a life insurance policy on him.

I'm pretty sure that someone on death row would be classified as "uninsurable" by the actuaries.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I too remember it well Wrabbit and was living in Reseda, Thats pretty much in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, CA for those who are not from the area, at the time. The area was in the grip of an epic heat wave and I can recall the family staying up through the night in turns just to be able to crack a window and get some relief. He not only terrorized his victims but his boldness and the apparent lack of a specific victim type had everyone on the edge.

reply to post by pennylemon


It was quite a thing, wasn't it? My home at the time happened to be about 100 yards from the 55 freeway there in Orange. So, strike two for doom on us in how people thought he was favoring targets in relation to their proximity to the freeways, as I recall.

I'd forgotten that little detail about the heat though. The little things.... Now that you mention it, that was the kicker to really push people over the top. Too hot to close the windows and too dangerous not to.

My clearest memory was one of the worst confrontations I ever had with my Grandmother. Being the kid I was, I just had to get into the gory details of one of his killings and ..well, you know what he did to some of them. She almost got sick..then almost beat me for it. A lesson learned hard about proper audience for some topics. err....

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Indeed, Wrabbit we had the 405. I remember my mom had made up ice packs for us all to take to bed and the one good thing about it for us kids was that she was liberal with the popcicles.

As to your Grandmother, knowing your audience is a great lesson to learn earlier than later.

Natural Causes at 53? eeeeesh!

I kind of wonder if he was refused treatment while in prison. I mean, who knows. That just seems pretty young for natural causes.

Did this guy choose to be evil? Or was he just mentally ill?

How can we wish punishment on someone who couldn't help themselves?

Originally posted by Snsoc
Did this guy choose to be evil? Or was he just mentally ill?

How can we wish punishment on someone who couldn't help themselves?

By that rationale, we may as well stop jailing all criminals, I mean, what if they are insane? It's not their fault, right?

In my opinion, anyone that can commit and rationalize crimes such as his, is insane, but I still think that they require and deserve harsh punishment.

how does someone like him compare to a bush sr., cheney, rumsfeld, in the tradition of hitler, stalin, the popes et al., i.e. people with the blood of millions on their hands, with most never brought to task for their crimes (and obama's racking up his share as well). i guess what i'm trying to say is that as horrible as the actions of someone like that are, he's a small-timer compared to the big league murderers.

Originally posted by ouvertaverite
how does someone like him compare to a bush sr., cheney, rumsfeld, in the tradition of hitler, stalin, the popes et al., i.e. people with the blood of millions on their hands, with most never brought to task for their crimes (and obama's racking up his share as well). i guess what i'm trying to say is that as horrible as the actions of someone like that are, he's a small-timer compared to the big league murderers.

I'd say it's a matter of means -- both Ramirez and Stalin, for example, clearly had no regard for human life, but Stalin had control of a whole country, its army and its police, while Ramirez only had himself to perpetrate his evil.

reply to post by adjensen

Originally posted by adjensen

Originally posted by BrokenCircles

I wonder if she had a life insurance policy on him.

I'm pretty sure that someone on death row would be classified as "uninsurable" by the actuaries.

Stranger things have happened.


Most people would probably be pretty sure that no woman could possibly meet him, get to know him, and marry him, all after knowing what he had done, but it did happen......