Reintroducing Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker Serial Killer

Just in time to creep us the fuck out before Halloween, the San Fransisco Chronicle has reported that new DNA evidence ties Richard Ramirez, the notorious “Night Stalker”, to the murder of a 9-year old San Fransisco girl. Mei “Linda” Luing was found dead on April 10, 1984 hanging from a pipe in the basement of her apartment building. She was reported to be beaten, raped, and stabbed. This would make her the first victim of a killing spree whose previous body count was at 13. Ramirez was convicted and sentenced to death row in 1989.

For those of you unfamiliar with the events that made Ramirez one of the scariest and creepiest motherfuckers ever to be labeled a serial killer, here’s a little background to make you shit your pants (because we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t try).

Richard Ramirez was born and raised in El Paso, Texas and spent his youth being that kid that always spent recess by himself and no one talked to because they were weirded out by him. Signs of what was to come were pretty evident at age 13, when he began spending a little too much time getting high with an older cousin, a Special Forces Vietnam War veteran. Nothing wrong with that, right? Wrong. The little hellspawn got his jollies by making his veteran cousin show him Polaroid pictures of Vietnamese women he had supposedly murdered while on tour. The shit began to really hit the fan when lil’ Ricky witnessed his cousin shoot and murder his wife. To say that this messed up childhood was probably what caused him to go down the Charles Manson path might be a bit of a stretch, but fuck it, we’ll do it anyway. This is how people become serial kilers!

Ramirez cemented himself a place in hell and serial killer lore when he broke into the home of 79-year-old Jennie Vincow, a resident of Glassell Park in Los Angeles. Vincow’s body was found the next morning by her son. The body had been stabbed and her throat slashed so severely the head was nearly decapitated. Ramirez terrorized the entire state of California (Lou Dobbs’ worst nightmare!) for an entire year after that, and killed victims both in the Los Angeles and San Fransisco area.

The moniker “Night Stalker” was applied because Ramirez was known to break into his victims’ homes and attack them as they slept, and because he was known to be a fan of AC/DC, particularly the song “Night Prowler”, further proving that it only takes a handful of assholes to ruin things for the rest of us. To further pile on the serial killer stereotypes, Ramirez was also fond of drawing upside down pentagrams at the scene of the crime. His weapons of choice included a .22 caliber hand gun and a knife, though towards the tail end of his spree he began to employ a machete.

He was captured on August 31st after an unsuccessful attempt to steal a man’s car. The Night Stalker’s picture was printed all over the newspapers and in an attempt to make a run for it, he began searching for a car he could easily steal. He finally found an unlocked car with the keys in the ignition, but when he tried to start it, Faustino Pinon, the owner of the car who was working on the transmission, got up and began chasing him all badass and shit. Pinon wasn’t about to let anyone steal his prized Ford Mustang, even if they were a wanted serial killer. He don’t play like that. Ramirez crashed the car (ouch!) as he was trying to make his getaway and Pinon opened the door and dragged him to the street. Ramirez then ran towards Angelina de la Torres as she was getting into her Ford Granada and threatened her. Luckily for her, she yelled. Her husband and two sons came out and chased Ramirez down, hitting him with a metal pole until the fucker was knocked the fuck down and the police came.

If you write Ramirez a letter, he'll write back.

The Night Stalker’s trial, like the rest of his story, was full of all kinds of drama. Aside from being creepy as shit and walking into the courtroom with the pentagram carved on his hand, Ramirez threatened to shoot the prosecutor. Though that never happened, one of the jurors did end up getting shot and killed in her apartment. Ramirez, however, was not responsible for this murder. It was revealed that the juror’s boyfriend had killed her. It did not matter. This act was enough to put the fear of Satan into the souls of everyone in that room.

Ramirez is still alive, and though he’s on death row, that hasn’t stopped his insanely demented and adoring groupies from writing and visiting him. One such crazy was freelance newspaper editor Doreen Lioy, who after writing him over 75 letters since he was imprisoned, married the creepy fucker on October 3, 1996 at San Quentin State Prison. So gueys, if you are having trouble finding a lady, just go on a psychotic killing spree and the ladies are sure to flock to you. Sure, you may be encarcerated for the rest of your life, and you’ll only attract the crazies, but hey, poon is poon.

‘Night Stalker’ tied to slaying of S.F. girl [San Fransisco Chronicle]