Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (2021) s01e04 Episode Script
Manhunt
1
He was always the kid
who would never quite fit in with anybody.
Richard was a thief since he was a kid.
Five-finger Richie.
There are these horrible stories about the way he was treated by members of his family.
His father was trying to reprimand him and he would tie him to a cross in the cemetery overnight.
He had a lot of bad influences.
The cousin that killed the wife in front of him.
He was telling him when he was a boy horror stories about things they'd done while in the Army in Vietnam.
Not to mention the cocaine and heroin and all the habits that he had.
Practically all of the things that could poison a child were part of his life.
All through my days I have been coming up with ways.
To make you mine.
Even my hands They have been coming up with plans.
To take their time.
In the 1980s, the reference desks at Central Library were very busy, and you were dealing with one patron after another.
Rotary phones ringing all the time.
Different faces are popping up, lots of interesting people and lots of people that you never want to see again.
On one of those days, I looked up and there was this gaunt⦠Disheveled-looking man.
Dirty black T-shirt, said "Jack Daniels" on it.
Dirty hair.
Absolutely disgusting, rotted teeth.
He had a very strong body odor.
Almost like⦠almost like a goat.
And he had these dead eyes.
It was kind of like, uh⦠An animal that meant you harm.
He wanted to know where the books on horoscope and torture were.
And, luckily for me, they're both in another department.
I'll find a way.
Under your skin, under your skin.
We go back to the office.
The captain comes up and says⦠"We got a name.
" "What do you mean, 'we got a name'?" He says, "San Francisco came up with the name Richard Ramirez.
" If we had a name, we could match that to that single print off the rear-view mirror of that car used down in Orange County.
They came up with eight Richard Ramirezes.
And that print was manually compared against various Richard Ramirez prints⦠One of which matched the fingerprint.
He had a lightweight criminal record.
Some petty thievery, grand theft auto, but nothing of any violence whatsoever.
They also found a booking photo of him.
On Friday, August 30th, we took that booking photo, took it over to the informant.
The informant looked and said, "That's him.
" And that's when they identified the Richard Ramirez who was in fact the Night Stalker.
We had a name, we had an identification, we had a picture, we knew what area he hung out in, and things are falling into place.
Friday night, August 30th.
Sheriff Block⦠Brad Gates from Orange County, and Daryl Gates from LAPD are meeting in the sheriff's office, and they're going to conference call the chief of police from San Francisco⦠To decide whether they release Richard's name and identification today⦠Or wait until we get him in custody.
By this time we had a warrant for Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, for the murder of Peter Pan⦠For the attempted murder of his wife.
My chief made it perfectly clear that we were proceeding with alerting everybody in the community who Richard Ramirez was.
We said, "Please, give us 24 hours.
We'll have him.
" "We'll have this SOB in custody.
" Sit on this? Sit on a murder warrant? We've identified this vicious killer.
I said, "Can you imagine what the media would do to us if they found out, and they will find out, that we were in possession of a murder warrant and we sat on it⦠And somebody else is killed this weekend?" I said, "We'd have blood on our hands.
" I could understand why they thought it was wrong⦠But we thought if he finds out he's wanted, the chase is on, it'll be more difficult to find him.
Ten o'clock news, eleven o'clock news.
Los Angeles, San Francisco.
We're going with a media blitz.
We were pissed.
There's no two ways about it, we wanted a shot at this guy.
We asked for the media to meet with us this evening.
We are satisfied that we now have⦠â¦the identity of the Night Stalker.
- Man by the name of Richard Ramirez.
- Richard Ramirez.
This photograph was taken about eight months ago right here in Los Angeles.
There he is.
There's the face.
Still didn't know where Richard Ramirez was, but we had a picture and a name.
Saturday mornings, we would go over to the Yorkshire Grill, and the different library departments, we'd sit there and have breakfast.
So, I grabbed a Herald paper⦠And I looked at the cover, and here's a picture of that man who came up to the desk at the library, and it says "Night Stalker.
" And the temperature of my blood changed.
Seeing his face was really one of the hardest moments for me.
And I just remember crying so much, like, just uncontrollably, because I kept thinking that was the last face my grandmother ever saw.
We were looking for him to leave Los Angeles once this information came out.
Our information at that point was that Richard Ramirez used the Greyhound bus depot.
He used it to travel in and out.
He had a locker there.
We requested that LAPD's SIS team handle the surveillance.
To be quite frank with you, they had a history.
They generally followed felons that committed violent crimes, and when confronted, a lot of times there was an officer-involved shooting and the felon was killed.
If he was going to go down, if he wanted to go down the hard way, then he was going to go down.
That's why we picked that team.
I was hoping that if he pulled a gun, he'd be dead, the problem's over.
But the other side of me wanted to know the man, wanted to interview him.
I'd spent an awful lot of time on this case, and I wanted the opportunity to talk to him, to meet my foe.
So we set up the surveillance there around the Greyhound Bus depot.
And what happens is, Ramirez is out of town.
He's actually in Arizona.
He wanted to go to visit a brother.
So, on Friday evening, he left Arizona to come back to LA.
We're looking for Richard to come in from the outside.
Richard came inside through the back door, through where passengers enter.
He recognized the cops right away because cops wear ugly clothing, wore dirty clothing, but their teeth are clean, they don't smell bad, and their hair is clean.
He doesn't know it's specifically for him, but he makes them.
So, he walks out the exit out onto the street, walks down the block, and he goes into a liquor store.
And on the front page of every newspaper⦠Is his picture.
Yeah, he looked at the picture of the newspaper.
He looked and he looks really scared, you know? He sees that and he panics.
Walked out of there real quick, got on a bus, and the bus went down Olympic.
All he had to do was make it eight miles to east Los Angeles.
He had a brother there.
He saw some passenger on the bus had a morning paper, looking at it, then looked over at him and his eyes got big, put the newspaper down, pulled the cord.
There happened to be a phone booth there.
Richard could see him dialing right away.
Ramirez knew he had been made.
People are starting to turn around and look and point and talk.
"It's him, it's him.
" So, he jumps off the bus⦠And what he didn't know was, the gentleman that phoned in had flagged down a truck from the gas company and said, "The killer's on that bus.
Follow that bus.
" The chase was on.
He's being tracked by people calling in.
He runs into the I-5 freeway.
And ran across all lanes of the freeway.
He continued running in the northeast direction, ending up on Indiana.
And he tried to carjack one gentleman.
Faustino Pinon wrestled with Ramirez as the suspect tried to steal his car.
I got him by the neck.
We struggled back and forth for the car.
- He couldn't get the car.
- Then he ran across the street.
He then turned right on Hubbard Street.
He said, "Give me the keys.
" I looked up at his face and I saw his eyes, and I recognized that he was the one who killed.
In Spanish, he hollered to give him the keys or he would kill me.
Manuel de la Torre got involved.
Manuel ran out front⦠He got a metal stick from the gate.
Hit him in the head.
I gave him one by the car.
The man fell.
He started running away.
I chased him, gave him another hit.
The neighbors chased him down the street.
You know, I say, "My God, that's the guy.
" Call came up.
22-415, possible fight, possible man with a gun.
I could see maybe three or four people on one side of the street.
The closer I got, I could see they were moving around, they were yelling, waving around, screaming, and I could see one person sitting on the sidewalk.
He said something in Spanish about, "I'm lucky the cops are coming," or something, because he knew everybody was going to finish him.
The neighbors hung together and got him.
There's one guy holding him at bay with this metal bar.
I could tell he had been hit.
The crowd had detained him, had beat him.
He had blood all on his head, on his hands, on his shirt.
He was tired of running.
He was really exhausted.
I just told him, "Stand up.
" He stood up.
I handcuffed him.
I put him in the police car, in the back seat.
And takes him into custody.
The crowd was getting bigger, getting louder.
They were starting to circle, getting closer and closer.
Pointing to a newspaper.
I could even hear people saying, "Ese es el matón, the killer.
Let's get him.
" I'm like, "Oh, no, I gotta control this.
" Police, move back! What have you been arrested for? You ever been arrested before? Danny? Where's your car? Sit up.
How long ago? It's me.
It's me, man? What's your name? - Richard Ramirez.
- What's your name? Back up on the sidewalk, move away.
- Pull back.
- Back up on the sidewalk.
I get notified they've got him in custody.
I am so excited, I can't wait to get there, and we hauled.
I mean, we were flying.
And when I got to Hollenbeck station, a lot of people around the station.
The entire Hollenbeck police station was surrounded with citizens.
I was working at the crime lab.
We received a call needing someone to go over to LAPD to fingerprint and positively identify a suspect that they believed to be the killer.
And I remember when he walked through the door⦠He was tall and slender.
He had these dark eyes.
And he just slowly looked around the room⦠To take it in, and he looked right in your eyes.
You know, he did look at you, and that's when I thought, "Wow, those eyes are terrible.
" There's evil in that man, and you could sense it.
My partner, Hannah Woods, jumped up and she said, "I will print him," because she knew I didn't want to do it.
We went into an interview room, and he was sitting there.
He was just like the witnesses had been talking about.
The hair, the teeth.
The way he talked.
I said, "My name is Sergeant Frank Salerno," and I started to introduce Gil and he said, "I know who you are.
" That⦠that sort of took me back, because I'd never had a⦠a suspect say that on an interview involving a murder.
He knew all about Frank Salerno, to the point where he's calling him "Mr.
Salerno.
" He called him that because he knew Mr.
Salerno worked on the Hillside Strangler.
He was, like, awestruck.
That was a hero to him, and I was just another Mexican in the crowd.
He did admit to reading about various cases.
He read about the Hillside Strangler, read about Bundy.
He was a student.
Salerno advised him of his constitutional rights.
He invoked, which normally Once he invokes, okay, that's it.
We said, "You don't wanna talk, we're outta here.
" He says, "Wait, I have questions.
" So, we sat down and then I started talking to Richard.
I was from the streets.
I'm Hispanic.
I knew he was from the streets, and we talked a little slang talk.
"Ãrale.
What's going on, Rich?" Ãrale is a greeting, of saying, "Hello.
What's up?" Nobody else would be saying that, other than somebody from the streets that's Hispanic.
There was one point in time I got⦠Frightened.
You know? I'm talking to him and getting to part of the interview, and I'm getting to a very sensitive area.
While I'm talking to him about his family, he's got his head down on the table and his hands are right there, like this.
He's listening to me, but he's And all of a sudden, he starts to breathe heavy⦠Almost to the point of hyperventilation.
As he's doing this, his hands start coming off the table for a little bit.
And in my mind, for the millisecond⦠I'm sitting there saying, "If this guy starts to float around this room, I'm out of here.
" Because I've fought people before, I've been stabbed, I've been shot at, but I ain't fought nobody that's floating around a room.
This guy's gonna levitate right here and scare the bejesus out of me.
Clear the street.
People on sidewalks also.
We go outside and Hollenbeck looked like a zoo.
There's a crowd around there.
We got the impression it's a lynch mob.
They've gotten word somebody's gonna kill him when he comes out.
Shoot up the place.
Stay back! Stay back! Back! Back! Everybody back! Salerno was riding in the back seat with Richard, and I was in the front seat.
We only had to go a few miles till we got to men's central jail.
We drove down the street, turned right, and there was a truck, and there was some lady standing on top of there.
As we came by, she opened up her blouse and she's swinging her breasts back and forth.
She wasn't doing it for me.
I said, "There you go, Rich.
She's doing it for you.
" We had helicopters overhead.
We had police vehicles and motorcycles in front, police vehicles and motorcycles behind us all along the streets, like a motorcade.
They were just chanting, jumping up and down, screaming.
They were happy.
And there was hundreds of people, and everybody was just yelling.
It was like we won the World Series.
We were in McDonald's with the kids.
Every single person in that restaurant was clapping and, you know, cheering.
I mean, everybody.
They said, "They caught the Night Stalker!" And we just shouted.
We were so thrilled.
We're happy to announce that the individual we have in custody is Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker.
You could almost feel a collective sigh of relief settling in over all of Southern California.
I worked on that story for how long? Know where I was when he was arrested? I was at the hairdresser getting my hair cut.
I'll never forget it.
Richard Ramirez arrested today after being held by an angry crowd⦠Los Angeles Police today arrested the man they believe is the Night Stalker.
â¦the man who may be the Night Stalker in custody.
California residents may sleep a little easier.
I mean, my dad was so happy.
He just loved how he was caught, that it was citizens and a neighborhood that had seen his picture and just did everything they could to not let him get away.
I am so proud of them.
I can't begin to tell you how proud we, all of us, are of the people in this community.
When he came here, he made a mistake, didn't he? He's the suspect we were looking for, so, now comes all the work of tying him in to all of the other crimes that we're looking at.
Word of the capture spread rapidly among local residents here.
The reaction of many: "Thank God.
" Once we got to the jail, I told him, "We're going to put you in a special cell.
We're going to put you in the same cell as the Hillside Strangler, Kenneth Bianchi.
" You could see that he was taken over that.
And Richard just got all jazzed.
He was excited.
We were playing a card.
We knew he was interested in serial killings.
This is like a celebrity cell.
So, we're going to play it and we're gonna put him in that same cell, give him some status, let him think he's important.
Who's to say at some point he wasn't going to tell the jailer, "Hey, tell those homicide cops to come back.
I want to talk to them.
" And that's where we left him.
We left him in Kenneth Bianchi's old cell at Central Jail.
About eight o'clock, 8:30 that night, I'm done.
I get out.
That particular day, a cousin of mine was getting married.
I go to the Hilton.
I'm walking in from the outside into the lobby, and I see one of my younger sisters.
And she's not really that affectionate with me.
She runs up, she puts her arm, interlocks it with mine.
"Come on.
I want to walk in with you.
" I said, "Why with me?" She says, "You're the talk of the town.
" And I could hear people saying, "That's him.
There he is.
Yeah, that's him.
" They're looking, and all I care about is looking for my family.
And I see my mom and I see my sisters, and they run up and everybody's hugging.
They all start crying.
We're embracing and I'm saying, "It's okay.
It's over with.
Everybody's fine.
It's over with.
We have him in custody.
" I said, "Where's my wife? I want my wife.
" I came down and was so happy to see him.
She comes, we embrace, and I said, "It's over.
You can come home now," because she had said she wasn't coming home till this was over.
I said, "Come home.
The kids can come home now.
" Subsequent to the arrest of Ramirez⦠We set up a lineup.
The night of the lineup, they brought a six-year-old surviving victim.
For six years old, she was just unbelievable.
She sat in the audience of potential witnesses.
In a loud, clear voice, repeat this statement.
"Shut up, bitch.
" Shut up, bitch.
- "Where's the money?" - Where's the money? - "Where's the jewelry?" - Where's the jewelry? I think once I knew that he couldn't see me, I didn't have any⦠Fear about it.
I said, "Is there anybody that has any questions?" Her little hand went up.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Says, "Do I write the word 'two' or the number?" Ramirez will be arraigned later this week.
Prosecutors say they intend to ask for the death penalty.
There was a prosecutor assigned, Phil Halpin.
I was second chair.
What I really remember is the drama in court.
Not since the days of Charlie Manson did you have the circus thing going on in court.
First of all, you had Ramirez, who was playing up to the crowd, and then Daniel and Arturo Hernandez came in to handle the case.
That's when the circus started.
We'd only been in practice for, you know, two years.
We had six murder cases under our belt, no death penalty cases.
We get a call from his parents' lawyers in El Paso.
They happened to be people that I knew, because I grew up in El Paso and I went to University of Texas at El Paso and most of my friends became lawyers.
Call comes in and they're on speakerphone.
So, I hear the voice⦠"Mr.
Hernandez.
Mr.
Attorney.
This is Ricardo Ramirez, Richard's father.
Can you help us?" So, we talked and he says, "Let's do it.
" Judge Soper's comments that the defense might not have enough experience⦠We didn't see that as a very kosher thing to do, but, you know, we have to put that behind us and use our energy in the case.
One of the problems that we encountered is that we were looked upon like, "Not capable, they're not qualified.
" These guys had never had a case of this magnitude.
There's a difference in defending somebody for petty theft or burglary than there is for multiple murders, a death penalty case.
Let alone one that involved, you know, 13, 14 victims.
The gentleman in front of Mr.
Ramirez - really has no standing before the court.
- They do to me.
We were concerned about a mistrial, we didn't know if the defense would make it through the case.
We're still in session.
If Mr.
Halpin is going to continue with his childish acting to the court in front of the cameras, I would have to take him outside and teach him a lesson.
Just a minute.
It was incredible.
A lot of the celebrities thought we were celebrities.
You're in the big leagues, and you gotta perform.
You got to make sure that you don't totally blow it.
You know, no strikeouts.
Please, no strikeouts.
October 24th, 1985.
Richard Ramirez stuns a packed courtroom.
The man accused of 14 murders that terrorized California holds up his palm for the world to see.
There is a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, a pentagram.
To some, it is the mark of the devil.
Then, after pleading not guilty to all the charges, court was recessed.
But Ramirez had the last word.
Hail Satan! I am sure that generations and generations from now, the image of his palm with the pentagram and the sound of his voice saying, "Hail Satan," they'll be there.
It was pretty clear, even then, that we were in for a roller coaster ride as this wound its way through the courts.
Ramirez had a lot of groupies, a lot of people that thought he was just great.
Fame generates attraction.
It's like the Hollywood syndrome.
There were women that wanted to fuck Richard Ramirez simply because he was famous.
While many spectators who attended this hearing believed all along that Richard Ramirez is guilty, there were groupies, young women dressed in black, who wrote letters to the defendant, wrote poems about him, and blame society for the trouble Ramirez now faces.
There was a clown car of these women, right? In all of my years of covering trials in Los Angeles, I never saw a defendant with more sex appeal than Ramirez.
I guess that's just the bad boy syndrome gone steroids.
He had this kind of animalistic magnetism, charisma that women found attractive.
Well, I'm sorry, but I think they're the dumbest bitches ever.
I don't get it.
Usually you try to stay away from somebody that hurts you or hurts other people, but they wanted to be right there next to him.
Which is mind-boggling.
It's bewildering because Richard Ramirez wouldn't reciprocate.
He'd look at you as⦠Dinner.
In addition to these horrible, gruesome murders, Ramirez was also accused of some child molest cases.
Before the preliminary, Deputy District Attorney Phil Halpin, Sergeant Salerno, and myself went out to the home of the six-year-old surviving victim.
Mommy's holding her hand, then she whispered something in Mommy's ear.
And Mommy looked at me and said, "She remembers you the best, because you remind her of her teddy bear.
" That was me.
She says, "I'll go testify in court if it means keeping him locked up so he can't hurt other little girls like he hurt me.
" Tears started running down my cheeks and I just said, "Excuse me," and I got up and walked out.
I couldn't take this.
I've got a soft spot.
Obviously, I've got a soft spot for kids.
Mr.
Salerno, it took him about 30 seconds longer, and then he walked out, joined me in the kitchen.
And Phil Halpin, he lasted maybe a minute and then he came into the kitchen and he says, "What do you say, fellas? What do you say we dismiss all the kiddie cases?" Phil elected not to go forward with those counts.
There was the issue of putting the children through this, given the fact that Ramirez is looking at the death penalty in 13 other cases.
Ramirez was brought in shackles to his trial, a trial finally beginning three and a half years after his arrest.
He is accused of 43 crimes, 13 murders, many counts of robbery and rape and more.
Such is his reputation that extra security was set up outside the courtroom and many spectators crowded around for a glimpse of an accused serial killer.
The whole thing was a night It was a painful experience and it never ended.
After a series of legal delays, the trial has finally begun, and it should last a long time, too.
Prosecutors are expected to call 140 witnesses.
Maria Hernandez walked to the courtroom.
She survived one of the Night Stalker attacks.
There was chilling testimony from survivors.
A young Pakistani mother told a hushed courtroom⦠- He said, "You bitch.
- You mother, you don't scream.
Otherwise, I'm going to kill you.
I'm gonna kill your kids in the crib and I'm going to kill your son, too.
" I said, "I swear I won't, sir.
I won't scream.
I swear upon God.
" And he slapped me one more time.
He said, "Swear upon Satan.
Swear upon Satan.
" I said, "Yes, I swear upon Satan, I won't scream.
" The emotional pain, you can feel it and it affects you.
A part of any trial is⦠Way more detail about the barbarity and the horrendous nature of the crimes⦠And she sat through all of it.
And I know, to this day, that weighs on her.
I have a cat.
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, the cat's walking over my head and I open my eyes and the cat is staring at me and I realize what it would be like to be a mouse or a bird.
I pictured what it would be like to be attacked by him, to have him on top, to have him with a gun at your throat, knife.
Breaking down in tears, the woman said Richard Ramirez is the gunman who sodomized her eight-year-old son after shooting her husband in the head.
It was a scary feeling to be in the same room with him, and you just knew you were in the presence of evil.
You could feel it.
And I think I was there for about 30 minutes, and then it just was too much and I couldn't take it anymore.
And so, I had to walk outside of the courtroom just into a hallway⦠And there was a bench there.
I sat on the bench and there were other people that, you know, maybe didn't make it Get a seat in the courtroom, so they were sitting outside as well.
And I just was trying to take some deep breaths and sort of collect myself, and I was sitting next to this boy, who couldn't have been much older than me, maybe 19, 20, and I remember thinking, like, "I wonder why he's here.
Did he have a family member that was hurt?" I remember at some point he kind of lifted up the sleeves of his jacket and when he turned his hand over, I could see he had a tattoo of a pentagram.
And then I realized that I was sitting next to somebody who looked up to the person that killed my grandmother.
And so, even though I was outside of that courtroom, it was sort of this sense of just not being able to really escape it or get away from the darkness.
Just sort of this feeling of⦠Evil being all around you.
I can still hear her screams during the shooting, then her crying, "Mommy, please don't die, please don't die," while I was bleeding uncontrollably in front of her.
"Your Honor, the defense counsel spoke of the quality of mercy demonstrated by my mother's murderer, spoke of Richard Ramirez allowing several of his victims to live.
I'd like to talk about the other side of Richard Ramirez's mercy.
He beat my mother in the head with a heavy object.
The same beating caused my mother to lose blood, blood that my brother and I cleaned up.
He then strangled my mother.
This is the true nature of the mercy of Richard Ramirez.
Thank you, sir.
" The court says "thank you" at that point.
We, the jury in the above action, find the defendant, Richard Ramirez, guilty of murder.
Everything for me is a blur after that.
They started reading the verdicts and it was guilty after guilty after guilty.
Forty-three counts.
I was very relieved to hear.
It's just a string of guilty, guilty, guilty, over and over and over.
Going from a time where⦠People thought I was a young punk trying to make a name for myself, to what I believed in, and what I had fought for⦠To ultimately get to the point of conviction.
When they read "guilty" on the first count, then I knew the rest of them were in.
I became very emotional.
I went home that night and I crawled in bed and I started crying like a baby.
And without him telling me why he was crying, I just knew it in my heart.
I just knew it in my heart.
I wished my dad would have been there.
I wanted him to be proud⦠And I wanted to share it with him, and unfortunately⦠He had already passed away.
And my wife just leaned over and said, "It's okay.
He was with you.
" I said, "Gil, your dad is with you.
" A judge in Los Angeles today sentenced Richard Ramirez, the so-called Night Stalker killer and rapist, to death in the gas chamber.
There was never doubt that Ramirez would be sentenced to death, so there were no surprises until Ramirez himself chose to speak.
I don't need to hear all of society's rationalizations.
I've heard them all before and the fact remains that what is, is.
You don't understand me.
You are not expected to.
You are not capable of it.
I am beyond your experience.
I am beyond good and evil.
Under California law, this death sentence will be automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Big deal.
Death always went with the territory.
I'll see you in Disneyland.
That afternoon, Gil and I go over to county jail and we go up to his cell⦠And he flat asked, he just come right out and he said, "Gil," he said, "are you gonna go to my execution?" And Gil said, "I don't know.
" He says, "Frank, what about you?" I said, "Yes, I am.
" I wanted to put an end to this case in my mind, and that would have put an end to it.
Killer's in custody, killer's dead.
No more.
Back in 1989, when we had Richard Ramirez en route to San Quentin, he looked back at me, big smile on his face, and it was very, very eerie.
Very⦠Surreal.
He said, "Hey, Falzon.
You'd like to know about the two old ladies on Telegraph Hill, wouldn't you?" Carl Klotz and I had a previous murder of two elderly ladies in Telegraph Hill.
That crime scene was very horrific.
And he laughed this very fiendish laugh.
He said, "It was me.
" So, there's no doubt in my mind he committed other crimes in San Francisco.
Fingerprints have linked Ramirez to the murder of a 79-year-old woman in June of 1984.
It's a long time from June⦠To March.
It's hard to believe that he could contain himself for that long and then go off on a tangent for the next four to five months where he goes on a killing spree.
So I think there's a good chance there may be some other cases out there.
Some things that I learned from him It wasn't his first rodeo that one year.
I truly believe that there might be a lot more crimes out there that these people never caught.
Richard Ramirez, the serial killer known as the Night Stalker, is dead.
The California Department of Corrections said Ramirez died of natural causes today in a hospital after spending more than two decades on death row.
Cancer.
Such an odd death.
Instead of staying in a box for decades and decades, he only stayed in the box for a relatively short time.
Kind of a blessing.
More than he gave his victims.
I'll never forgive him⦠Because I can't forget.
I live with it every day.
Our ministry has taught us to look at all the happy memories.
We talk about Grandma to the kids and to the great-grandkids now who never knew her, but they know about her.
Yeah, you know, I was kidnapped and horrible things were done to me as a six-year-old when I'm most impressionable, and⦠I'm okay, you know? I grew up, I went to school, I got married, I have a family.
You know, I'm not letting that turn me into what he was.
What causes a person to do what he does? I don't think we really know, I really don't.
I believe there's a devil.
I believe there's an evil.
And⦠I say prayers at night.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
Father, I offer these prayers up⦠And then I go on with names, people⦠And⦠End up with⦠Ramirez.
Richard was a thief since he was a kid.
Five-finger Richie.
There are these horrible stories about the way he was treated by members of his family.
His father was trying to reprimand him and he would tie him to a cross in the cemetery overnight.
He had a lot of bad influences.
The cousin that killed the wife in front of him.
He was telling him when he was a boy horror stories about things they'd done while in the Army in Vietnam.
Not to mention the cocaine and heroin and all the habits that he had.
Practically all of the things that could poison a child were part of his life.
All through my days I have been coming up with ways.
To make you mine.
Even my hands They have been coming up with plans.
To take their time.
In the 1980s, the reference desks at Central Library were very busy, and you were dealing with one patron after another.
Rotary phones ringing all the time.
Different faces are popping up, lots of interesting people and lots of people that you never want to see again.
On one of those days, I looked up and there was this gaunt⦠Disheveled-looking man.
Dirty black T-shirt, said "Jack Daniels" on it.
Dirty hair.
Absolutely disgusting, rotted teeth.
He had a very strong body odor.
Almost like⦠almost like a goat.
And he had these dead eyes.
It was kind of like, uh⦠An animal that meant you harm.
He wanted to know where the books on horoscope and torture were.
And, luckily for me, they're both in another department.
I'll find a way.
Under your skin, under your skin.
We go back to the office.
The captain comes up and says⦠"We got a name.
" "What do you mean, 'we got a name'?" He says, "San Francisco came up with the name Richard Ramirez.
" If we had a name, we could match that to that single print off the rear-view mirror of that car used down in Orange County.
They came up with eight Richard Ramirezes.
And that print was manually compared against various Richard Ramirez prints⦠One of which matched the fingerprint.
He had a lightweight criminal record.
Some petty thievery, grand theft auto, but nothing of any violence whatsoever.
They also found a booking photo of him.
On Friday, August 30th, we took that booking photo, took it over to the informant.
The informant looked and said, "That's him.
" And that's when they identified the Richard Ramirez who was in fact the Night Stalker.
We had a name, we had an identification, we had a picture, we knew what area he hung out in, and things are falling into place.
Friday night, August 30th.
Sheriff Block⦠Brad Gates from Orange County, and Daryl Gates from LAPD are meeting in the sheriff's office, and they're going to conference call the chief of police from San Francisco⦠To decide whether they release Richard's name and identification today⦠Or wait until we get him in custody.
By this time we had a warrant for Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, for the murder of Peter Pan⦠For the attempted murder of his wife.
My chief made it perfectly clear that we were proceeding with alerting everybody in the community who Richard Ramirez was.
We said, "Please, give us 24 hours.
We'll have him.
" "We'll have this SOB in custody.
" Sit on this? Sit on a murder warrant? We've identified this vicious killer.
I said, "Can you imagine what the media would do to us if they found out, and they will find out, that we were in possession of a murder warrant and we sat on it⦠And somebody else is killed this weekend?" I said, "We'd have blood on our hands.
" I could understand why they thought it was wrong⦠But we thought if he finds out he's wanted, the chase is on, it'll be more difficult to find him.
Ten o'clock news, eleven o'clock news.
Los Angeles, San Francisco.
We're going with a media blitz.
We were pissed.
There's no two ways about it, we wanted a shot at this guy.
We asked for the media to meet with us this evening.
We are satisfied that we now have⦠â¦the identity of the Night Stalker.
- Man by the name of Richard Ramirez.
- Richard Ramirez.
This photograph was taken about eight months ago right here in Los Angeles.
There he is.
There's the face.
Still didn't know where Richard Ramirez was, but we had a picture and a name.
Saturday mornings, we would go over to the Yorkshire Grill, and the different library departments, we'd sit there and have breakfast.
So, I grabbed a Herald paper⦠And I looked at the cover, and here's a picture of that man who came up to the desk at the library, and it says "Night Stalker.
" And the temperature of my blood changed.
Seeing his face was really one of the hardest moments for me.
And I just remember crying so much, like, just uncontrollably, because I kept thinking that was the last face my grandmother ever saw.
We were looking for him to leave Los Angeles once this information came out.
Our information at that point was that Richard Ramirez used the Greyhound bus depot.
He used it to travel in and out.
He had a locker there.
We requested that LAPD's SIS team handle the surveillance.
To be quite frank with you, they had a history.
They generally followed felons that committed violent crimes, and when confronted, a lot of times there was an officer-involved shooting and the felon was killed.
If he was going to go down, if he wanted to go down the hard way, then he was going to go down.
That's why we picked that team.
I was hoping that if he pulled a gun, he'd be dead, the problem's over.
But the other side of me wanted to know the man, wanted to interview him.
I'd spent an awful lot of time on this case, and I wanted the opportunity to talk to him, to meet my foe.
So we set up the surveillance there around the Greyhound Bus depot.
And what happens is, Ramirez is out of town.
He's actually in Arizona.
He wanted to go to visit a brother.
So, on Friday evening, he left Arizona to come back to LA.
We're looking for Richard to come in from the outside.
Richard came inside through the back door, through where passengers enter.
He recognized the cops right away because cops wear ugly clothing, wore dirty clothing, but their teeth are clean, they don't smell bad, and their hair is clean.
He doesn't know it's specifically for him, but he makes them.
So, he walks out the exit out onto the street, walks down the block, and he goes into a liquor store.
And on the front page of every newspaper⦠Is his picture.
Yeah, he looked at the picture of the newspaper.
He looked and he looks really scared, you know? He sees that and he panics.
Walked out of there real quick, got on a bus, and the bus went down Olympic.
All he had to do was make it eight miles to east Los Angeles.
He had a brother there.
He saw some passenger on the bus had a morning paper, looking at it, then looked over at him and his eyes got big, put the newspaper down, pulled the cord.
There happened to be a phone booth there.
Richard could see him dialing right away.
Ramirez knew he had been made.
People are starting to turn around and look and point and talk.
"It's him, it's him.
" So, he jumps off the bus⦠And what he didn't know was, the gentleman that phoned in had flagged down a truck from the gas company and said, "The killer's on that bus.
Follow that bus.
" The chase was on.
He's being tracked by people calling in.
He runs into the I-5 freeway.
And ran across all lanes of the freeway.
He continued running in the northeast direction, ending up on Indiana.
And he tried to carjack one gentleman.
Faustino Pinon wrestled with Ramirez as the suspect tried to steal his car.
I got him by the neck.
We struggled back and forth for the car.
- He couldn't get the car.
- Then he ran across the street.
He then turned right on Hubbard Street.
He said, "Give me the keys.
" I looked up at his face and I saw his eyes, and I recognized that he was the one who killed.
In Spanish, he hollered to give him the keys or he would kill me.
Manuel de la Torre got involved.
Manuel ran out front⦠He got a metal stick from the gate.
Hit him in the head.
I gave him one by the car.
The man fell.
He started running away.
I chased him, gave him another hit.
The neighbors chased him down the street.
You know, I say, "My God, that's the guy.
" Call came up.
22-415, possible fight, possible man with a gun.
I could see maybe three or four people on one side of the street.
The closer I got, I could see they were moving around, they were yelling, waving around, screaming, and I could see one person sitting on the sidewalk.
He said something in Spanish about, "I'm lucky the cops are coming," or something, because he knew everybody was going to finish him.
The neighbors hung together and got him.
There's one guy holding him at bay with this metal bar.
I could tell he had been hit.
The crowd had detained him, had beat him.
He had blood all on his head, on his hands, on his shirt.
He was tired of running.
He was really exhausted.
I just told him, "Stand up.
" He stood up.
I handcuffed him.
I put him in the police car, in the back seat.
And takes him into custody.
The crowd was getting bigger, getting louder.
They were starting to circle, getting closer and closer.
Pointing to a newspaper.
I could even hear people saying, "Ese es el matón, the killer.
Let's get him.
" I'm like, "Oh, no, I gotta control this.
" Police, move back! What have you been arrested for? You ever been arrested before? Danny? Where's your car? Sit up.
How long ago? It's me.
It's me, man? What's your name? - Richard Ramirez.
- What's your name? Back up on the sidewalk, move away.
- Pull back.
- Back up on the sidewalk.
I get notified they've got him in custody.
I am so excited, I can't wait to get there, and we hauled.
I mean, we were flying.
And when I got to Hollenbeck station, a lot of people around the station.
The entire Hollenbeck police station was surrounded with citizens.
I was working at the crime lab.
We received a call needing someone to go over to LAPD to fingerprint and positively identify a suspect that they believed to be the killer.
And I remember when he walked through the door⦠He was tall and slender.
He had these dark eyes.
And he just slowly looked around the room⦠To take it in, and he looked right in your eyes.
You know, he did look at you, and that's when I thought, "Wow, those eyes are terrible.
" There's evil in that man, and you could sense it.
My partner, Hannah Woods, jumped up and she said, "I will print him," because she knew I didn't want to do it.
We went into an interview room, and he was sitting there.
He was just like the witnesses had been talking about.
The hair, the teeth.
The way he talked.
I said, "My name is Sergeant Frank Salerno," and I started to introduce Gil and he said, "I know who you are.
" That⦠that sort of took me back, because I'd never had a⦠a suspect say that on an interview involving a murder.
He knew all about Frank Salerno, to the point where he's calling him "Mr.
Salerno.
" He called him that because he knew Mr.
Salerno worked on the Hillside Strangler.
He was, like, awestruck.
That was a hero to him, and I was just another Mexican in the crowd.
He did admit to reading about various cases.
He read about the Hillside Strangler, read about Bundy.
He was a student.
Salerno advised him of his constitutional rights.
He invoked, which normally Once he invokes, okay, that's it.
We said, "You don't wanna talk, we're outta here.
" He says, "Wait, I have questions.
" So, we sat down and then I started talking to Richard.
I was from the streets.
I'm Hispanic.
I knew he was from the streets, and we talked a little slang talk.
"Ãrale.
What's going on, Rich?" Ãrale is a greeting, of saying, "Hello.
What's up?" Nobody else would be saying that, other than somebody from the streets that's Hispanic.
There was one point in time I got⦠Frightened.
You know? I'm talking to him and getting to part of the interview, and I'm getting to a very sensitive area.
While I'm talking to him about his family, he's got his head down on the table and his hands are right there, like this.
He's listening to me, but he's And all of a sudden, he starts to breathe heavy⦠Almost to the point of hyperventilation.
As he's doing this, his hands start coming off the table for a little bit.
And in my mind, for the millisecond⦠I'm sitting there saying, "If this guy starts to float around this room, I'm out of here.
" Because I've fought people before, I've been stabbed, I've been shot at, but I ain't fought nobody that's floating around a room.
This guy's gonna levitate right here and scare the bejesus out of me.
Clear the street.
People on sidewalks also.
We go outside and Hollenbeck looked like a zoo.
There's a crowd around there.
We got the impression it's a lynch mob.
They've gotten word somebody's gonna kill him when he comes out.
Shoot up the place.
Stay back! Stay back! Back! Back! Everybody back! Salerno was riding in the back seat with Richard, and I was in the front seat.
We only had to go a few miles till we got to men's central jail.
We drove down the street, turned right, and there was a truck, and there was some lady standing on top of there.
As we came by, she opened up her blouse and she's swinging her breasts back and forth.
She wasn't doing it for me.
I said, "There you go, Rich.
She's doing it for you.
" We had helicopters overhead.
We had police vehicles and motorcycles in front, police vehicles and motorcycles behind us all along the streets, like a motorcade.
They were just chanting, jumping up and down, screaming.
They were happy.
And there was hundreds of people, and everybody was just yelling.
It was like we won the World Series.
We were in McDonald's with the kids.
Every single person in that restaurant was clapping and, you know, cheering.
I mean, everybody.
They said, "They caught the Night Stalker!" And we just shouted.
We were so thrilled.
We're happy to announce that the individual we have in custody is Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker.
You could almost feel a collective sigh of relief settling in over all of Southern California.
I worked on that story for how long? Know where I was when he was arrested? I was at the hairdresser getting my hair cut.
I'll never forget it.
Richard Ramirez arrested today after being held by an angry crowd⦠Los Angeles Police today arrested the man they believe is the Night Stalker.
â¦the man who may be the Night Stalker in custody.
California residents may sleep a little easier.
I mean, my dad was so happy.
He just loved how he was caught, that it was citizens and a neighborhood that had seen his picture and just did everything they could to not let him get away.
I am so proud of them.
I can't begin to tell you how proud we, all of us, are of the people in this community.
When he came here, he made a mistake, didn't he? He's the suspect we were looking for, so, now comes all the work of tying him in to all of the other crimes that we're looking at.
Word of the capture spread rapidly among local residents here.
The reaction of many: "Thank God.
" Once we got to the jail, I told him, "We're going to put you in a special cell.
We're going to put you in the same cell as the Hillside Strangler, Kenneth Bianchi.
" You could see that he was taken over that.
And Richard just got all jazzed.
He was excited.
We were playing a card.
We knew he was interested in serial killings.
This is like a celebrity cell.
So, we're going to play it and we're gonna put him in that same cell, give him some status, let him think he's important.
Who's to say at some point he wasn't going to tell the jailer, "Hey, tell those homicide cops to come back.
I want to talk to them.
" And that's where we left him.
We left him in Kenneth Bianchi's old cell at Central Jail.
About eight o'clock, 8:30 that night, I'm done.
I get out.
That particular day, a cousin of mine was getting married.
I go to the Hilton.
I'm walking in from the outside into the lobby, and I see one of my younger sisters.
And she's not really that affectionate with me.
She runs up, she puts her arm, interlocks it with mine.
"Come on.
I want to walk in with you.
" I said, "Why with me?" She says, "You're the talk of the town.
" And I could hear people saying, "That's him.
There he is.
Yeah, that's him.
" They're looking, and all I care about is looking for my family.
And I see my mom and I see my sisters, and they run up and everybody's hugging.
They all start crying.
We're embracing and I'm saying, "It's okay.
It's over with.
Everybody's fine.
It's over with.
We have him in custody.
" I said, "Where's my wife? I want my wife.
" I came down and was so happy to see him.
She comes, we embrace, and I said, "It's over.
You can come home now," because she had said she wasn't coming home till this was over.
I said, "Come home.
The kids can come home now.
" Subsequent to the arrest of Ramirez⦠We set up a lineup.
The night of the lineup, they brought a six-year-old surviving victim.
For six years old, she was just unbelievable.
She sat in the audience of potential witnesses.
In a loud, clear voice, repeat this statement.
"Shut up, bitch.
" Shut up, bitch.
- "Where's the money?" - Where's the money? - "Where's the jewelry?" - Where's the jewelry? I think once I knew that he couldn't see me, I didn't have any⦠Fear about it.
I said, "Is there anybody that has any questions?" Her little hand went up.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Says, "Do I write the word 'two' or the number?" Ramirez will be arraigned later this week.
Prosecutors say they intend to ask for the death penalty.
There was a prosecutor assigned, Phil Halpin.
I was second chair.
What I really remember is the drama in court.
Not since the days of Charlie Manson did you have the circus thing going on in court.
First of all, you had Ramirez, who was playing up to the crowd, and then Daniel and Arturo Hernandez came in to handle the case.
That's when the circus started.
We'd only been in practice for, you know, two years.
We had six murder cases under our belt, no death penalty cases.
We get a call from his parents' lawyers in El Paso.
They happened to be people that I knew, because I grew up in El Paso and I went to University of Texas at El Paso and most of my friends became lawyers.
Call comes in and they're on speakerphone.
So, I hear the voice⦠"Mr.
Hernandez.
Mr.
Attorney.
This is Ricardo Ramirez, Richard's father.
Can you help us?" So, we talked and he says, "Let's do it.
" Judge Soper's comments that the defense might not have enough experience⦠We didn't see that as a very kosher thing to do, but, you know, we have to put that behind us and use our energy in the case.
One of the problems that we encountered is that we were looked upon like, "Not capable, they're not qualified.
" These guys had never had a case of this magnitude.
There's a difference in defending somebody for petty theft or burglary than there is for multiple murders, a death penalty case.
Let alone one that involved, you know, 13, 14 victims.
The gentleman in front of Mr.
Ramirez - really has no standing before the court.
- They do to me.
We were concerned about a mistrial, we didn't know if the defense would make it through the case.
We're still in session.
If Mr.
Halpin is going to continue with his childish acting to the court in front of the cameras, I would have to take him outside and teach him a lesson.
Just a minute.
It was incredible.
A lot of the celebrities thought we were celebrities.
You're in the big leagues, and you gotta perform.
You got to make sure that you don't totally blow it.
You know, no strikeouts.
Please, no strikeouts.
October 24th, 1985.
Richard Ramirez stuns a packed courtroom.
The man accused of 14 murders that terrorized California holds up his palm for the world to see.
There is a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, a pentagram.
To some, it is the mark of the devil.
Then, after pleading not guilty to all the charges, court was recessed.
But Ramirez had the last word.
Hail Satan! I am sure that generations and generations from now, the image of his palm with the pentagram and the sound of his voice saying, "Hail Satan," they'll be there.
It was pretty clear, even then, that we were in for a roller coaster ride as this wound its way through the courts.
Ramirez had a lot of groupies, a lot of people that thought he was just great.
Fame generates attraction.
It's like the Hollywood syndrome.
There were women that wanted to fuck Richard Ramirez simply because he was famous.
While many spectators who attended this hearing believed all along that Richard Ramirez is guilty, there were groupies, young women dressed in black, who wrote letters to the defendant, wrote poems about him, and blame society for the trouble Ramirez now faces.
There was a clown car of these women, right? In all of my years of covering trials in Los Angeles, I never saw a defendant with more sex appeal than Ramirez.
I guess that's just the bad boy syndrome gone steroids.
He had this kind of animalistic magnetism, charisma that women found attractive.
Well, I'm sorry, but I think they're the dumbest bitches ever.
I don't get it.
Usually you try to stay away from somebody that hurts you or hurts other people, but they wanted to be right there next to him.
Which is mind-boggling.
It's bewildering because Richard Ramirez wouldn't reciprocate.
He'd look at you as⦠Dinner.
In addition to these horrible, gruesome murders, Ramirez was also accused of some child molest cases.
Before the preliminary, Deputy District Attorney Phil Halpin, Sergeant Salerno, and myself went out to the home of the six-year-old surviving victim.
Mommy's holding her hand, then she whispered something in Mommy's ear.
And Mommy looked at me and said, "She remembers you the best, because you remind her of her teddy bear.
" That was me.
She says, "I'll go testify in court if it means keeping him locked up so he can't hurt other little girls like he hurt me.
" Tears started running down my cheeks and I just said, "Excuse me," and I got up and walked out.
I couldn't take this.
I've got a soft spot.
Obviously, I've got a soft spot for kids.
Mr.
Salerno, it took him about 30 seconds longer, and then he walked out, joined me in the kitchen.
And Phil Halpin, he lasted maybe a minute and then he came into the kitchen and he says, "What do you say, fellas? What do you say we dismiss all the kiddie cases?" Phil elected not to go forward with those counts.
There was the issue of putting the children through this, given the fact that Ramirez is looking at the death penalty in 13 other cases.
Ramirez was brought in shackles to his trial, a trial finally beginning three and a half years after his arrest.
He is accused of 43 crimes, 13 murders, many counts of robbery and rape and more.
Such is his reputation that extra security was set up outside the courtroom and many spectators crowded around for a glimpse of an accused serial killer.
The whole thing was a night It was a painful experience and it never ended.
After a series of legal delays, the trial has finally begun, and it should last a long time, too.
Prosecutors are expected to call 140 witnesses.
Maria Hernandez walked to the courtroom.
She survived one of the Night Stalker attacks.
There was chilling testimony from survivors.
A young Pakistani mother told a hushed courtroom⦠- He said, "You bitch.
- You mother, you don't scream.
Otherwise, I'm going to kill you.
I'm gonna kill your kids in the crib and I'm going to kill your son, too.
" I said, "I swear I won't, sir.
I won't scream.
I swear upon God.
" And he slapped me one more time.
He said, "Swear upon Satan.
Swear upon Satan.
" I said, "Yes, I swear upon Satan, I won't scream.
" The emotional pain, you can feel it and it affects you.
A part of any trial is⦠Way more detail about the barbarity and the horrendous nature of the crimes⦠And she sat through all of it.
And I know, to this day, that weighs on her.
I have a cat.
Sometimes, in the middle of the night, the cat's walking over my head and I open my eyes and the cat is staring at me and I realize what it would be like to be a mouse or a bird.
I pictured what it would be like to be attacked by him, to have him on top, to have him with a gun at your throat, knife.
Breaking down in tears, the woman said Richard Ramirez is the gunman who sodomized her eight-year-old son after shooting her husband in the head.
It was a scary feeling to be in the same room with him, and you just knew you were in the presence of evil.
You could feel it.
And I think I was there for about 30 minutes, and then it just was too much and I couldn't take it anymore.
And so, I had to walk outside of the courtroom just into a hallway⦠And there was a bench there.
I sat on the bench and there were other people that, you know, maybe didn't make it Get a seat in the courtroom, so they were sitting outside as well.
And I just was trying to take some deep breaths and sort of collect myself, and I was sitting next to this boy, who couldn't have been much older than me, maybe 19, 20, and I remember thinking, like, "I wonder why he's here.
Did he have a family member that was hurt?" I remember at some point he kind of lifted up the sleeves of his jacket and when he turned his hand over, I could see he had a tattoo of a pentagram.
And then I realized that I was sitting next to somebody who looked up to the person that killed my grandmother.
And so, even though I was outside of that courtroom, it was sort of this sense of just not being able to really escape it or get away from the darkness.
Just sort of this feeling of⦠Evil being all around you.
I can still hear her screams during the shooting, then her crying, "Mommy, please don't die, please don't die," while I was bleeding uncontrollably in front of her.
"Your Honor, the defense counsel spoke of the quality of mercy demonstrated by my mother's murderer, spoke of Richard Ramirez allowing several of his victims to live.
I'd like to talk about the other side of Richard Ramirez's mercy.
He beat my mother in the head with a heavy object.
The same beating caused my mother to lose blood, blood that my brother and I cleaned up.
He then strangled my mother.
This is the true nature of the mercy of Richard Ramirez.
Thank you, sir.
" The court says "thank you" at that point.
We, the jury in the above action, find the defendant, Richard Ramirez, guilty of murder.
Everything for me is a blur after that.
They started reading the verdicts and it was guilty after guilty after guilty.
Forty-three counts.
I was very relieved to hear.
It's just a string of guilty, guilty, guilty, over and over and over.
Going from a time where⦠People thought I was a young punk trying to make a name for myself, to what I believed in, and what I had fought for⦠To ultimately get to the point of conviction.
When they read "guilty" on the first count, then I knew the rest of them were in.
I became very emotional.
I went home that night and I crawled in bed and I started crying like a baby.
And without him telling me why he was crying, I just knew it in my heart.
I just knew it in my heart.
I wished my dad would have been there.
I wanted him to be proud⦠And I wanted to share it with him, and unfortunately⦠He had already passed away.
And my wife just leaned over and said, "It's okay.
He was with you.
" I said, "Gil, your dad is with you.
" A judge in Los Angeles today sentenced Richard Ramirez, the so-called Night Stalker killer and rapist, to death in the gas chamber.
There was never doubt that Ramirez would be sentenced to death, so there were no surprises until Ramirez himself chose to speak.
I don't need to hear all of society's rationalizations.
I've heard them all before and the fact remains that what is, is.
You don't understand me.
You are not expected to.
You are not capable of it.
I am beyond your experience.
I am beyond good and evil.
Under California law, this death sentence will be automatically appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Big deal.
Death always went with the territory.
I'll see you in Disneyland.
That afternoon, Gil and I go over to county jail and we go up to his cell⦠And he flat asked, he just come right out and he said, "Gil," he said, "are you gonna go to my execution?" And Gil said, "I don't know.
" He says, "Frank, what about you?" I said, "Yes, I am.
" I wanted to put an end to this case in my mind, and that would have put an end to it.
Killer's in custody, killer's dead.
No more.
Back in 1989, when we had Richard Ramirez en route to San Quentin, he looked back at me, big smile on his face, and it was very, very eerie.
Very⦠Surreal.
He said, "Hey, Falzon.
You'd like to know about the two old ladies on Telegraph Hill, wouldn't you?" Carl Klotz and I had a previous murder of two elderly ladies in Telegraph Hill.
That crime scene was very horrific.
And he laughed this very fiendish laugh.
He said, "It was me.
" So, there's no doubt in my mind he committed other crimes in San Francisco.
Fingerprints have linked Ramirez to the murder of a 79-year-old woman in June of 1984.
It's a long time from June⦠To March.
It's hard to believe that he could contain himself for that long and then go off on a tangent for the next four to five months where he goes on a killing spree.
So I think there's a good chance there may be some other cases out there.
Some things that I learned from him It wasn't his first rodeo that one year.
I truly believe that there might be a lot more crimes out there that these people never caught.
Richard Ramirez, the serial killer known as the Night Stalker, is dead.
The California Department of Corrections said Ramirez died of natural causes today in a hospital after spending more than two decades on death row.
Cancer.
Such an odd death.
Instead of staying in a box for decades and decades, he only stayed in the box for a relatively short time.
Kind of a blessing.
More than he gave his victims.
I'll never forgive him⦠Because I can't forget.
I live with it every day.
Our ministry has taught us to look at all the happy memories.
We talk about Grandma to the kids and to the great-grandkids now who never knew her, but they know about her.
Yeah, you know, I was kidnapped and horrible things were done to me as a six-year-old when I'm most impressionable, and⦠I'm okay, you know? I grew up, I went to school, I got married, I have a family.
You know, I'm not letting that turn me into what he was.
What causes a person to do what he does? I don't think we really know, I really don't.
I believe there's a devil.
I believe there's an evil.
And⦠I say prayers at night.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
Father, I offer these prayers up⦠And then I go on with names, people⦠And⦠End up with⦠Ramirez.