WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:11.320 In nineteen eighty five, Los Angeles would be terrorized by 2 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:13.759 a series of brutal rapes and murders. 3 00:00:14.039 --> 00:00:15.759 The panic had swept the county. 4 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:17.280 I was enormous. 5 00:00:17.480 --> 00:00:19.879 People didn't know if they were going to live to 6 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:21.039 see the next morning. 7 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:26.640 Men, women, the elderly, and children were all in the 8 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:28.359 sadistic killers' sites. 9 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.320 Their final hours were at the hands of someone who 10 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:35.759 was laughing as he tortured and raped and killed them. 11 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:38.640 A serial murderer who broke all the rules. 12 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:43.799 The suspect is used guns, knives, tie irons. 13 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:47.520 I knew how vicious and violent he really was. 14 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:52.439 The attacker, christened a knight Storm, would go down as 15 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.399 one of history's most heenous killers. 16 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:58.119 I think he is the worst. I think he would 17 00:00:58.119 --> 00:01:00.719 be number one on a monstrous there. 18 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:02.920 But who was the night Stalker? 19 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.040 He was friendly and he was nice, charming as how 20 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:07.159 I would describe. 21 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:09.239 Him, and was he born to kill? 22 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.840 He just had this evil look in his eye, as 23 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:13.920 if he were possessed. 24 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:53.560 The seventeenth of March nineteen eighty five, and Gil Correo, 25 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:57.599 a young homicide detective with the La County Sheriff's Department, 26 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:00.680 was called to an incident in the Mead. 27 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:06.879 District Sunday evening, ten forty at night. Carl comes in, 28 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.159 very typical. Okay, Gill, you got one dead, one wounded, 29 00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:17.520 and I'm just going to work another routine, mundane Murderkreo. 30 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:18.400 Didn't yet know it, but this murder would be anything 31 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:19.360 but routine. 32 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:35.919 We entered the location on Village Lane. Dale Okazaki was 33 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:40.000 lying on her back in the kitchen. She had sustained 34 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:41.520 a gunshow wounded the head. 35 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:47.639 Thirty four year old Dale Okasaki had been unloading groceries 36 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:51.879 when a man entered her apartment and executed her where 37 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:52.400 she stood. 38 00:02:56.960 --> 00:02:59.840 I can still see her today. 39 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:08.240 Dale's flatmate, twenty two year old Maria Hernandez, had also 40 00:03:08.360 --> 00:03:12.560 been shot at point black range, but had survived. She 41 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:16.199 didn't recognize her attacker, and nothing had been taken from 42 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:16.759 the property. 43 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:18.719 We just had our work cut out for us. We 44 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:20.560 didn't know if there was an angry boyfriend who was 45 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:24.080 a home invasion robbery gone away, what it was. 46 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.159 Detectives then learned that the killer had struck again. 47 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.840 It occurred about a half hour later. It was in 48 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:36.919 the same general area of town and the same gun. 49 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:41.759 Was used in nearby Monterey Park thirty year old law 50 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:46.439 student se Lan Yu had been driving home when another 51 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:50.080 driver forced her to stop, then shot her twice in 52 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:54.639 the chest at close range. 53 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:59.479 Almost immediately, we were aware that we had some sort 54 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:02.599 of a series. He's going not knowing just how big 55 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:05.879 it was going to get or grow. 56 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:11.879 The nature of the crimes was not typical of a 57 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:12.680 serial killer. 58 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.680 The overwhelming majority of serial sexual murderers kill up close 59 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:24.439 and personal, manual strangulation, ligature strangulation, multiple stab wounds, blunt 60 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:25.399 force trauma. 61 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:27.279 Very very rarely. 62 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:30.600 Did they shoot somebody because it's too cold and too impersonal. 63 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:43.800 On the morning of March twenty seventh, the bodies of 64 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:47.240 sixty four year old Vincent Tzara and his forty four 65 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:51.040 year old wife Maxine were discovered in their home in 66 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:56.959 the Pleasant suburb of Whittier. The same gun had been 67 00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:01.519 used the behavior at the crime scene. The significantly different 68 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:09.120 Vincent Zarah had been shot as his snacks, Maxine had 69 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.920 been shot and stacked and pieced, and the killer had 70 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:14.959 taken a gruesome souvenir. 71 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:20.879 The woman's eyes were gouged out, not to be found. 72 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:28.000 Many serial murderers take souvenirs from people that they kill. 73 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:31.680 Whether it's a piece of flesh, piece of jewelry, something 74 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:35.319 it is a concrete reminder. It's something they can see, 75 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.519 something they can hold on to, something that says, wow, 76 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:39.800 you did this. 77 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:01.439 On April the fifteenth, two weeks after the murder and 78 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:05.839 mutilation of the Cazarees, the killer appeared to have struck again. 79 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:11.839 Linda Martinez was called to process the crime scene at 80 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:15.680 the home of William and Lillian Doy, a couple in 81 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:16.720 their mid sixties. 82 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:24.480 There were casings on the living room floor. Mister Douy 83 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:27.199 was still in his bed and he had been shot. 84 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:34.680 Missus Douy's room was next to the master bedroom. She 85 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:37.759 was an invalid, so she had her own room. She 86 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:43.639 had been sexually assaulted. It always is distressing to go 87 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:46.199 into a crime scene. 88 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:49.839 William Doy had been quickly dispatched with a gun shot 89 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:53.480 to the head. Sixty three year old Lillian had been 90 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:59.920 restrained with thumbcuffs, beaten, terrorized, and raped, but the killer 91 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:00.759 had let her live. 92 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:08.920 It was unusual for a serial murderer to have two people, 93 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:13.560 shooting one and acting like a serial murderer with the 94 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:15.040 other one. 95 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:19.439 Men he was killing because they were the obstacle to 96 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:21.480 get to his lust the women. 97 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:24.480 It was an issue of control, It was an issue 98 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:28.680 of not being overpowered. What husband or man would lay 99 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:33.079 there and not intervene in trying to keep his partner 100 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:33.959 from being attacked. 101 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:40.680 Despite the many inconsistencies, detective guilt Career suspected that just 102 00:07:40.759 --> 00:07:43.800 one man was responsible for all of the crimes. 103 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:48.399 I felt very strongly was a serial killer going on. 104 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:56.680 Back at the time, there were two renowned psychologists, one 105 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:00.240 from New York and one from locally here in the 106 00:08:00.279 --> 00:08:04.800 West Coast, from UCLA that essentially said that we were 107 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:07.839 full of hot air, that one man was not capable 108 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:10.279 of performing what we were ledging. 109 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:18.079 Six weeks later, in the leafy city of Monrovia, two sisters, 110 00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:21.920 both in their eighties, were discovered in the home they shared. 111 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:29.279 One had been raped, both had been severely beaten with 112 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:34.320 a hammer. Here, again, there was something new. 113 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.960 There was a whole aspect of the occult. 114 00:08:40.360 --> 00:08:43.200 There were some pentagrams, some things written on the wall, 115 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:48.759 there were some markings on the body. 116 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:53.120 The crimes appeared related, but defied the current theories regarding 117 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:54.080 serial murder. 118 00:08:54.519 --> 00:08:59.399 When I was first contacted about the murders, police were baffled. 119 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:02.639 They had no idea who was doing this, how it 120 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.960 was happening. They wondered what type of a person would 121 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:09.399 have done this. I mean, was it a maniac? Was 122 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.960 it a group of people, because don't forget in California 123 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:17.759 they had Charles Manson, who with his cult went out 124 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:21.759 murdering an awful lot of individuals. But my impression was 125 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:24.679 that it was a single individual. It was someone who 126 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:29.879 was not insane, who was not showing outrageous behaviors, and 127 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:34.440 that he was probably young. He was probably either Caucasian Hispanic, 128 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:41.799 but he was certainly not a standout in his community. 129 00:09:44.080 --> 00:09:47.360 The press would dub the mystery Killer the night Stalker, 130 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:51.720 and those who had known him would never have suspected 131 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:52.519 what he was king. 132 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:57.960 He was an ordinary kid, no different than the rest 133 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.120 of us. 134 00:10:00.120 --> 00:10:05.799 Friendly, and he was nice, and and he was so funny. 135 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:09.080 He was so funny. He would always have me laughing. 136 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.080 And the night Stalker's reign of terror had only just begun. 137 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:25.840 Man eighty five, and the night Stalker had only just 138 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:29.000 begun a series of crimes that would both sicken and 139 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:35.879 terrify the residents of California. Preying on the unsuspecting citizens 140 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:40.480 of their homes. He took glee in rape, murder and mutilation. 141 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:47.159 As the crimes escalated, detectives raced to try to identify 142 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:54.799 who was responsible for the shockingly vicious accounts. Who was 143 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:09.960 the night stalker. Richard Ramirez was born in nineteen sixty, 144 00:11:11.159 --> 00:11:14.919 the last of five children to Mexican immigrants living in 145 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:17.200 the Texan border town of El Paso. 146 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:22.480 El Paso was a town of about half a million people, 147 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:25.919 and across the Rio Grande was Siola Vuarez, which had 148 00:11:25.960 --> 00:11:28.840 one point five million people, about triple the size of 149 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:34.360 El Paso. It's a heavily Hispanic population. 150 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:38.919 It was basically a very quiet town allah, a very 151 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:40.039 quiet place to live. 152 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:48.200 Ramirez had a humble upbringing, typical to his neighborhood as 153 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:49.279 a low income neighborhood. 154 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:50.080 But it was nice. 155 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:53.879 It had green grass in front and the house was painted. 156 00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:56.440 It wasn't shabby, but it was quite small. 157 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:03.559 We were like lower class people, and everybody used to 158 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:07.360 just hang around together at night. We would all play 159 00:12:08.519 --> 00:12:12.120 games all that. Neighborhood kids would get together up until 160 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:15.000 everybody parents started calling them in for dinner. 161 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:21.799 Richard's father was hard working and strict with his children. 162 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:24.960 He was very much what I would classify as as 163 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.519 someone from Mexico who had come up, come to El 164 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:32.559 Paso and had scratched out a living here. He worked 165 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:35.840 for the railroad. It's a hard scrabble when you're a 166 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:39.840 first generation immigrant to learn a new language and try 167 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.320 to scrape told in a new country. 168 00:12:46.039 --> 00:12:49.799 The young Richard Ramirez appeared no different from his friends 169 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:52.320 and neighbors. 170 00:12:53.399 --> 00:13:00.159 They were all very nice, normal neighborhood family, just like mine. 171 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.919 He was an ordinary kid, just like the rest of us. 172 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:10.000 We went to school, minded our manners, did what we 173 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:13.080 had to do, but no different than the rest of us. 174 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:18.559 He was friendly, and he was nice, and and he 175 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:22.080 was so funny. He was so funny. He would always 176 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.320 have me laughing. We used to play this game called 177 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:29.440 kick the can, and he was the fastest runner, so 178 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:32.720 we always wanted to be on his team. 179 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:36.120 Richard's friend Patricia found him kind and caring. 180 00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:41.480 If we wanted to take a short cut to school, 181 00:13:41.480 --> 00:13:45.000 we had to cut through this really tough neighborhood, and 182 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:47.720 he always used to wait for me sitting on a 183 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.240 little pony wall, and then he would walk me to school. 184 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:56.399 It was always safer to be in twos, I guess. 185 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:00.360 But by the time he turned ten, it appears all 186 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:02.639 was not well with Richard Ramirez. 187 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:06.480 He used to. 188 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:10.559 Sit in back of me in fifth grade, and I 189 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:14.440 remember that he would poke me in the back, and 190 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:16.840 every time he would poke me, I would jump up. 191 00:14:17.720 --> 00:14:20.120 And so that time that he kept poking me and 192 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.799 poking me, I turned around very upset, and I said, hey, 193 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:28.240 you know, slop stop, stop, And I remember him like 194 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.919 slumping over and then I'm just hitting the floor on 195 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:34.399 the side. 196 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:37.360 He would have seizures. You know, he would be shaking. 197 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:41.159 You know, we knew he was sick. 198 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:48.080 Ramirez was diagnosed with epilepsy, a condition that would affect 199 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:53.120 him for much of his school life. As Ramirez approached 200 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:57.360 his teens, he grew distant to his father and began 201 00:14:57.440 --> 00:15:01.799 to look up to his cousin, Mike, a Vietnam veteran 202 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:05.000 who boasted of many atrocities while in service. 203 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:11.559 The cousin kept multiple mementos of his time in Vietnam, 204 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:14.360 and he pulled out this box and showed all of 205 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:17.559 these photographs of the women he was raping or the 206 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:22.600 heads he was cutting off. It was a fascination. It 207 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:27.559 wasn't recoiling in horror. It was like, Wow, look what 208 00:15:27.679 --> 00:15:28.159 you've done. 209 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:36.840 At the age when his sexuality was being formed, Ramirez 210 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:41.200 was exposed to images of rape, torture, and murder. 211 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:48.120 These individuals are in their fantasy lives from early adolescents, 212 00:15:48.519 --> 00:15:52.279 and in some regards some respects, their fantasy life is 213 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:56.039 more real to them than reality. Their fantasy lives are 214 00:15:56.120 --> 00:16:00.559 filled with sadistic aggression where there's a fusion of sex aggression. 215 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:08.200 Ramirez later claimed that his cousin Mike, gave him a 216 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:10.200 front row view of his brutality. 217 00:16:12.279 --> 00:16:15.200 He watched this cousin shoot his. 218 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:21.279 Wife after a petty argument at their apartment. Mike shot 219 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:24.480 his wife in the face, killing her instantly. 220 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:31.279 And it stuck with him. Not in the sense of 221 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:33.720 it was a bad thing, not in the sense that 222 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:38.320 how could you do something so horrendous? I mean being 223 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:41.320 sick to your stomach. He was fascinated. 224 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:46.679 The fantasies of those that had committed serial crimes have 225 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:50.159 been very carefully studied by the staff of the FBI 226 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:54.000 Behavioral Science here over the years. The fantasies start very 227 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:58.240 learned life and oftentimes our result of some incident that 228 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:04.640 triggers these thoughts, and once the fantasies become sexualized, it 229 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:11.920 becomes extremely dangerous because they start fantasizing but events of rape, torture, mutilation. 230 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:18.920 I did not notice anything strange of him until we 231 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:22.640 were in high school and he was no longer part 232 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:25.960 of my clique kind of thing. That's when I noticed 233 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:29.200 that he was different and he had changed, didn't no 234 00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:33.000 longer say hello that kind of thing. I noticed that 235 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:38.079 he would hang out with boys that did drugs. 236 00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:43.359 A lot of second generation immigrants sometimes get involved in gangs, 237 00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:47.000 and some of the thinking is that they see that 238 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:49.240 their parents have come to America and have worked really, 239 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:51.880 really hard and have very little to show for it. 240 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:55.640 And there's some people think that there's a disillusioning on 241 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:59.079 their part, like why play by the rules if this 242 00:17:59.200 --> 00:18:00.880 is what you end up with, which is what my 243 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:05.240 parents had, And I suppose you could say that that 244 00:18:05.319 --> 00:18:09.599 might have been a factor in the rebelliousness of Ricky Ramirez. 245 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:16.000 Ramirez became interested in hard rock and Satanism. 246 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.319 A lot of kids, high school kids, for instance, were 247 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:23.559 dabbling in this and they would give it their own 248 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:27.039 little touches, and being high school kids, the brain's still 249 00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:31.200 developing they're developing. A lot of them got in trouble 250 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:33.039 and what the wrong way. We did have some kids 251 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:34.880 that kill their parents and things like that. 252 00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:40.359 Ramirez dropped out of school and began living on the 253 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:44.599 fringes of society, sometimes sleeping in the local cemetery. 254 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:51.920 Right from the get go, Richard stole anything that was loose, 255 00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:55.200 in anything that he could pry loose. I mean, his 256 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:59.480 neighbors started calling him didros fingers and they call him 257 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.440 Ricky Rabon, Ricky the thief. 258 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:07.960 After the attempted rape of a guest in an El 259 00:19:08.039 --> 00:19:15.480 Paso hotel, Ramirez moved to California. 260 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:19.839 He became a cocaine and alcohol addict. He lived in 261 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:22.279 what's called skid row in Los Angeles, which is a 262 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:25.880 pretty scruffy area. I mean, there are people doing everything 263 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:30.920 and taking everything, and homelessness is not an unusual thing. 264 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.680 You live in what's called a flop house, where you 265 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:39.839 go and flop to get off your high or to recover. Now, 266 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:43.200 did the drugs affect his brain functioning? Did it affect 267 00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:47.319 to the way he saw the world. Probably, But it 268 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:50.680 wasn't causitive. It didn't need to make him kill. He 269 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:52.039 was already primed. 270 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:04.079 Rimirez lived day to day making guns, using prostitutes, stealing combs, 271 00:20:05.079 --> 00:20:06.000 breaking an injury. 272 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:11.400 So he would go out in the suburbs where often 273 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:13.759 they did not lock their doors at night, even they 274 00:20:13.759 --> 00:20:15.039 didn't lock their windows. 275 00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:16.440 This was like heaven for him. 276 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.839 This is exactly what he was looking for, and he 277 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:22.960 would go through the unlocked doors and unlocked windows. Sometimes 278 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:25.079 he would go on and burglarize when nobody was home 279 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:28.559 at night, and then he got bolder and bolder and bolder. 280 00:20:28.920 --> 00:20:32.680 The vast majority of burglaries are for material gain. These 281 00:20:32.680 --> 00:20:35.599 are usually drug people who want to get some money 282 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:37.839 to buy drugs, and they might do it with a 283 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:39.960 friend or a partner and so on. 284 00:20:40.759 --> 00:20:42.279 But there are a small. 285 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:47.279 Group of burglars that are sexually motivated, where the burglary 286 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:52.160 itself is motivated by an urge to look sexual stimulation 287 00:20:52.359 --> 00:20:56.599 through looking. And since about fifty percent of burglaries occur 288 00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:59.480 in the evening, when the victim is likely to be home, 289 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:04.119 it's very easy to see the progression from voyeurism to 290 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:08.599 break an entry to sexual assault or the sexual murder. 291 00:21:10.359 --> 00:21:14.000 By May nineteen eighty five, Richard Ramirez had killed at 292 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:18.680 least eight times and his violent home invasions were about 293 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:23.680 to escalate, plunging the people of Los Angeles into panic. 294 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:38.039 In nineteen eighty five, Los Angeles County was in the 295 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:43.119 grip of a vicious serial killer. Ordinary citizens were no 296 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:47.640 longer safe in their homes as the mysterious killer, christened 297 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:52.799 the night Stalker, raped, murdered, and mutilated in the name 298 00:21:52.839 --> 00:22:08.200 of Satan. The dreadful and indiscriminate crimes caused a wave 299 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:08.680 of fear. 300 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:16.400 Everybody was scared. Everybody in the County of Los Angeles 301 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:20.160 and southern California were scared to death. 302 00:22:20.920 --> 00:22:25.480 Gun seals seriously went up, vast increase in gun seals. 303 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:28.359 During the summer of eighty five. People were keeping their 304 00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:29.480 windows closed. 305 00:22:30.279 --> 00:22:33.480 It was a very, very hot summer. I would not 306 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:37.279 open the windows at night. We sweltered in our house 307 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:40.720 every night because I was afraid somebody would come in 308 00:22:40.759 --> 00:22:41.160 and kill me. 309 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:54.279 And still the violent attacks continued. In Burbank. On May thirtieth, 310 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:57.680 a forty one year old woman was raped while her 311 00:22:57.680 --> 00:23:01.039 twelve year old son was locked cuffed in a closet. 312 00:23:02.359 --> 00:23:07.680 She was allowed to live. On the twenty seventh of June, 313 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.200 the body of a twenty eight year old teacher was 314 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:15.240 found in Arcadia. She'd been sodomized and her throat slipped. 315 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:21.559 On July the second, again in Arcadia, a seventy five 316 00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:25.599 year old woman was found dead. She'd been beaten, her 317 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:31.480 throat cut, and her home ransacked. Detective Gil Carrier was 318 00:23:31.559 --> 00:23:35.319 convinced just one man was at work, but the facts 319 00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:37.960 flew in the face of received wisdom. 320 00:23:38.359 --> 00:23:40.200 Here he was crossing all the gamuts and the only 321 00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:43.119 consistency was his inconsistency in the way he was committing 322 00:23:43.160 --> 00:23:43.720 his crimes. 323 00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:47.160 What the FBI was telling us is that serial killers 324 00:23:47.400 --> 00:23:50.559 tend to operate in the same way. That will use 325 00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:54.240 the same weapon and over the same method of operation. 326 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:57.799 But there were different weapons used. There were two separate 327 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:01.680 guns that were used throughout these events. There were knives 328 00:24:01.799 --> 00:24:04.240 used and a couple of on a couple of the occasions. 329 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:07.599 There were bludgeons used on a couple of occasions. These 330 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:09.880 are all differences in the method of operation. 331 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:15.039 On July the fifth, the night stalker targeted a quiet 332 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:22.400 suburban street in Sierra Madred. He entered the bedroom of 333 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:24.880 sixteen year old schoolgirl Withney Bennett. 334 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:32.319 You talk about a nightmare her parents awakened her crying 335 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:36.000 and coming down the hall, they find her in her 336 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:44.000 bedroom on the floor covered in blood. The suspect had 337 00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:50.039 entered the house, confronted her in bed while she was asleep, 338 00:24:50.759 --> 00:24:57.000 and beat her with a tire iron and tried to 339 00:24:57.039 --> 00:25:02.559 strangle her and left her for dead. Four feet of 340 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:08.440 sutures ended up in her head. Took to close the wound. 341 00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:16.920 As you work, these cases are your law enforcement. For 342 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:20.240 a long period of time. You see a lot and 343 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:22.799 it has to have an effect on you. I know 344 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:26.079 it takes its toll somewhere down the line, I've seen it. 345 00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:34.920 The seventh of July was another in a long run 346 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:37.240 of swelteringly hot nights. 347 00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:44.839 I'm home alone. It's first time that I've ever slept 348 00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.079 with my gun on the nightstand. 349 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:52.079 Everybody was afraid and pretty much kept their doors locked, 350 00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:55.440 windows locked. But the night was so hot, and our 351 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:58.640 summer was so hot, so here I had the doors open. 352 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:07.480 In the middle of the night, Detective Career awoke, convinced 353 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:09.960 the night stalker was in his own house. 354 00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:18.079 I woke up, I was sweating, I was nauseated, and 355 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:21.200 I got my gun and I cleared my house as 356 00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:26.200 if I was looking for Burtlar. All of a sudden, 357 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:28.759 the phone rang. I scared the Bejesus out of me, 358 00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:32.440 and it was my desk telling me to call my 359 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:33.079 friend Linda. 360 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:37.960 In the early hours, crime scene investigator Linda Martinez had 361 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:39.119 to work with a start. 362 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:42.200 About three o'clock in the morning. My friend said, someone's 363 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:44.240 calling your name. Somebody's yelling for you. 364 00:26:46.839 --> 00:26:49.079 Linda's neighbor was crying out for help. 365 00:26:51.079 --> 00:26:52.960 Well, I went to the back fence and then called 366 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:55.640 across the street to the lady calling me and asked 367 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:58.119 her what was wrong, and she told me that she 368 00:26:58.519 --> 00:27:01.839 had been bobbed and raped and she was handcuffed to 369 00:27:01.880 --> 00:27:07.319 her bed. Once I heard her voice, I knew it 370 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:08.400 was him. 371 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:15.240 Sophie Dickman, a lady in her sixties, had been sexually assaulted. 372 00:27:15.319 --> 00:27:16.160 She was raped, and. 373 00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:22.759 Detective Career recognized all the hallmarks of a night stalker attack. 374 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:32.440 I learned that he had verbalized words, words that were 375 00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:34.880 common that we had heard in the past. Words he 376 00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:38.559 had spoke there, where's the money, where's a jewelry? Shut 377 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:40.799 up bits. There was no doubt in my mind we 378 00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:47.519 were dealing with the same guy. 379 00:27:48.359 --> 00:27:51.640 His suspicions were confirmed by the discovery in a nearby 380 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:55.440 home of the sixty one year old Joyce Nelson, beaten 381 00:27:55.480 --> 00:27:59.480 to death with a blunt object. The night stalker had 382 00:27:59.480 --> 00:28:09.799 struck in one night, and he would repeat the trick 383 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:13.680 just two weeks later, on the twentieth of July, first 384 00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:17.680 shooting Max and Layla Nading at their home in Glendale 385 00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:20.319 before moving on to Sun Valley. 386 00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:24.920 We had a couple that lived in a home. 387 00:28:25.680 --> 00:28:26.799 The male had been. 388 00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:30.359 Executed in a sleep where the woman had been sexually assaulted, 389 00:28:31.480 --> 00:28:33.839 and there was a young boy there that also had 390 00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:35.319 been assaulted. 391 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:44.440 Ramirez had again dispatched the husband as he slept. He 392 00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:50.480 had repeatedly beaten, sexually assaulted and humiliated the mother, demanding 393 00:28:50.519 --> 00:28:54.319 that she prayed to Satan for her life, and then 394 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:55.920 raped her eight year old son. 395 00:28:58.640 --> 00:29:02.160 It was not enough just to murder or to rape. 396 00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:04.720 He had the torture, and he loved to terrorize him. 397 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:07.599 He would make him say Hail Satan. 398 00:29:09.519 --> 00:29:15.119 Humiliation of victims is very, very typical in serial sexual homicide. 399 00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:19.279 This is arousing to them. This reassures the offender that 400 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:23.440 they are in such complete control that they can degrade 401 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:28.000