He looked like any other child—“dark eyes, a shy smile, a face filled with innocence.” Born in El Paso, Texas, in 1960, Richard Ramirez grew up in a violent home ruled by his father’s rage. “By age six, the boy had already suffered several severe head injuries,” leading to epilepsy. His father sometimes “tied him to a cemetery cross overnight,” leaving him alone among graves.

By ten, he was drinking and using drugs. As a teen, he wandered the desert at night, “disemboweling animals and feeding their entrails to his dog.” At fifteen, he saw his cousin “shoot his wife in the face,” an event that shattered him completely.

He drifted to California in his twenties, “addicted to cocaine and surviving through thefts and burglaries.” In 1984, he killed nine-year-old Mei Leung, followed by more victims in Los Angeles. Police later called him a “made psychopath—a product of trauma and environment.”

Between 1984 and 1985, he became the “Night Stalker,” terrorizing California with brutal murders and Satanic symbols. His capture came when locals recognized him and “beat him until police arrived.”

At trial, he mocked the court, saying, “See you in Disneyland.” Ramirez died in 2013 of lymphoma, “unrepentant until the end.”